Alright, looking at Jeremiah
chapter 23, the last words of this chapter, the title of the
message is that phrase that is repeated so often in these last
verses, the burden of the Lord. The burden of the Lord. Why is
that so significant? And we'll talk about that This
chapter of scripture, this portion of God's word, it's one of those
portions that in some ways, in many ways, you're glad to leave. Because it shows in some of the
most vivid language, we might even say in technicolor, the
darkness, the blackness, the ugliness of false religion. and the sin and idolatry of men,
these false pastors leading sinners on the way, the broad road that
leads to destruction. It's such a sad, sad thing to
see. And knowing that if God had left
any of us, any of these believers here, that remnant, or any of
us today to ourselves that we would be right with that idolatry
and unbelief and darkness. Jeremiah, he expressed his great,
great sorrow over the state of his nation. There wasn't anything
to be happy about when you looked at his nation. That's why he
said in verse 9 over here, my heart within me is broken. A broken heart. because of the
prophets. And all my bones shake. I'm like
a drunken man. And I believe you know how it
is when emotions well up within you over these things that you
see. It can affect you physically,
mentally. He said, like a man whom wine
hath overcome because of the Lord. And what does he mean,
because of the Lord? Did the Lord bring this on him?
Well, he explains it, and because of the words of His holiness.
And that's just a testimony to me that, you know, most people,
you know, they can think what they want to think, but if the
Word of God has taken hold of your heart, and your conscience,
and your mind, you can't get away from it. We could fool ourselves,
but you can't fool God. So Jeremiah expressed his great
sorrow over the state of his nation, and we can identify with
that. Look at the state of our nation.
It's so pitiful, isn't it? And we all agree it's getting
worse. I know people have been saying that for years. I know
it almost becomes apropos to say it, but it's nothing that
we should take lightly. It really isn't. As I've told
you since we began studying the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah was
a prophet of God, preaching the word of God, preaching Christ,
preaching the gospel, preaching the truth, not holding back while
he's watching his nation go down the tubes. And I feel the same
way. You feel the same way. I know other of our brethren
who preach the gospel feel the same way. We know that in this
life nothing can last forever. This world is not our home. As
much as I love our nation, I have to tell you, our nation is not
our salvation. Christ is our salvation, and
we need to be reminded of that, don't we? We do not preach the
gospel of the flag here. I wish and pray that the Lord
would save our whole nation, but he's not been pleased to
do so. I thank God that he's used our nation in a way to pave
the way, because of the freedoms and liberties that we have, to
preach the gospel, to meet as we meet here tonight, unhindered
by the government. That may not last. That may not
last. Don't take it for granted. I
thank God for those patriots who gave their lives, shed their
blood on foreign fields, and even on this field. to preserve
that freedom as God has preserved it in his way. But I still must
tell you that salvation is of the Lord. It will not come out
of Washington, D.C., and it certainly will not come out of Capitol
Hill. So don't expect it. It still grieves us, though,
when we see the highest court of our land rising, exalting
itself above God and putting its stamp of approval upon the
worst immoral practices, abominations. But as we said, as we see from
the scriptures, from our own lives, we must trust in the Lord
our God. And then, Jeremiah, he's watching
all this happen, he's preaching the gospel. There were a few
others in Jeremiah's day preaching, but not many. But the false preachers
outnumbered him. One of the instruments used by
Satan to blind the minds of people from seeing the glory and truth
of God in Christ is false preachers. And their message is always a
pleasant message to the natural man. It's always some form or
another of peace, peace when there is no peace. Jeremiah mentioned
that twice, he mentions it here. And they're crying peace and
standing against God's prophet God's preacher, and we see that
today. We're constantly reminded that
as we go about preaching the gospel of God's grace and seeing,
thank God, sinners brought to Christ, isn't that amazing? That's a miracle, isn't it? More
rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that comes to repentance.
He's been brought so by the Spirit of God. But we're also reminded
that while we preach this gospel, Satan is busy sowing his tears. He's raising up false preachers,
false churches all over this world, abundantly, in abundance,
in abundance. And it just breaks our hearts.
And that's what this chapter is mainly about. Look at verse
30. Jeremiah says, therefore, behold,
I'm against the prophets, saith the Lord. This is God's word
through Jeremiah that steal my words, every one from his neighbor.
How do you steal God's words? I'll tell you exactly how you
steal it. You don't preach it. Hold it back. I've heard preachers
say, well, now you can't preach on Romans chapter nine because
that would split your church. That's stealing the word of God
from the people. That's right. My friend, it may
well split the church. I've seen it wipe out churches.
But not God's church. Not Christ's church. Let me tell
you something. He said the gates of hell will
not prevail against His church. What do you think the Word of
God is going to do for it? It's going to strengthen it.
It's going to feed it. The fact of God's sovereignty
doesn't run the sheep off. That draws them nearer to Christ.
And brings them into a closer fellowship with God. gives them
the security that they need by the grace of God in Christ. So
we don't steal the words of God from the people. Whatever this
word says, that's what we preach. But look over at verse 33. Let
me just read through this, and then I'm gonna make some comments.
He says, and when this people, or the prophet, or a priest,
now that covers everybody. That's the nation and its religious
leaders, the prophets, and the priest, they shall ask thee,
saying, what is the burden of the Lord? Thou shalt then say
unto them, what burden? I will even forsake you, saith
the Lord. Now that word burden's an interesting
word. Some translations translate it
oracle. You've heard that word oracle.
I think you'll find that word in the book of Romans chapter
three, the oracles of God. I think it's in the book of Hebrews
also. And that word oracle or the word burden, which is an
appropriate translation to call it burden, it shows that it's
a serious, prophetic, weighty message. This is serious business
now. This is not entertainment. This is not coming to church
to be entertained, to tell jokes, and to take lightly these things,
this is the burden of the Lord. Malachi used the same language. Isaiah used the same language. Zechariah used the same language.
The burden of the Lord in different forms. This is a message that
has eternal implications and consequences. This is life and
death. And what he's saying here in
this is the people and the priests and the false prophets, the false
priests and the false prophets, they'd come to Jeremiah and they'd
mock him. And that's the sense of this
word here. They would mock the prophet of
God and ask him this question, what is the burden of the Lord?
Now they saw the word of the Lord as a burden to them, but
a negative burden. And it's kind of like a person
who would say, well, I don't want to go hear that preacher.
He never has anything good to say about me. It's just a burden. He always
has a negative message. And so they would come to Jeremiah
and ask him mockingly what the burden of the Lord was. So they
saw it that way. They didn't want to hear any
more. They tried to stop him. The old priest who was like the
sergeant at arms of the temple, you know, had him whipped, then
had him put, twisted up in the stocks. They didn't want to hear
this heavy message, this serious message that put the responsibility
upon them and expose their sin and their depravity and their
need of Christ. They didn't want to hear that.
They wanted to hear soft things. They had itching ears, you know
Paul spoke of that. They had itching ears and they
wanted a preacher who would scratch that itch and make them feel
good about themselves. They wanted to hear peace when
there was no peace. They wanted to hear things that
would applaud them and honor them and lift them up, exalt
them. They wanted to be vindicated
in their false religion. Their dreams, their visions,
their feelings, their emotions, their experiences. And here's
what God's answered to them. Look at verse 33 again. He says,
when they say that, thou shalt then say unto them, what burden?
I will even forsake you, saith the Lord. Now what a burden is
that? I'll forsake you, God said. Some translations kind of turn
that around and they say it like this. What Jeremiah is telling
them, you're the burden. You're the burden. And you consider
this, and he mentions that several times here. Look at verse 34,
and as for the prophet and the priest and the people that shall
say the burden of the Lord, I will even punish that man and his
house. His house there means all who
follow him, all who listen to him. It could be his earthly
family, it could be his friends, whoever it is. That's why we
never put our trust in any man. We must put our trust in the
Word of God, in Christ. Somebody said, well, my father
wouldn't lie to me. Maybe not intentionally, but
he may be deceived. You don't put any man, no preacher,
no politician, no so-called respected wise man above God's Word. The
moment you stop testing the preacher, by the word of God. That's exactly
what you're doing. You're putting their word above
God's word. I don't care who they are. I
don't care if they preached to you 50 years or 10 years, whatever. You always
test by the word of God. And that's what he's saying here.
It may be a priest. It may be a prophet. And this
is another thing about this chapter. Because even though it's sort
of the kind of chapter you kind of want to leave, In another
way, it's a chapter you don't want to leave because within
this black background of negativity, God pronouncing the woes upon
these false prophets, much in the same way that our Lord pronounced
the woes on the Pharisees and the scribes over in the book
of Matthew, we have one of the most beautiful prophecies of
Christ that you'll ever find in Scripture. That's shining
forth like a diamond. Look over there, verse 5. There's a day coming. Jeremiah
23, 5. Behold the days come. Now we're
met here tonight and we're going to take the Lord's Supper. Let
me tell you why we're taking the Lord's Supper. Because these
words right here, that's where God wants our minds and our hearts. Right there. You focus in on
Christ and he's given us means to do so one of those means is
the memorial supper That's a means that God gives us to set our
minds on Christ And if you know him it sort of forces you to
do that But you don't come unwillingly do because he's made you willing
in the day of his power Look here. He says verse 5 behold
the days come saith the Lord that I will raise unto David
a righteous branch We need to preach the righteous branch of
That's the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what these
false preachers aren't preaching. They're preaching how much you
should do, how much you owe, how busy you need to get. They preach you're the only eyes
God has, you're the only ears He has, you're the only arms
and legs He has. He can't do anything without
you. No, no, no. Don't preach that God. God our
Savior, the righteous branch. Now can you imagine that message
being a burden to anybody? I can remember when it was a
burden to me. A negative burden is what I'm
saying. He says a king shall reign and prosper. There's success.
Christ Jesus will finish the work. He will make an end of
sin. He will finish the transgression.
He will bring in everlasting righteousness. He'll seal up
the vision and the prophecy and He'll make a way into the holiest
of all. And let me tell you something now. He did it for His people. But He didn't need His people
to do it. He did it by Himself as our substitute
in charity. He's a King. He's not a beggar. He's not a poor, defeated reformer. He's not a martyr. He died for
a cause, but the cause was not anything that man wanted. It
was for the cause of the glory of God and the salvation of His
people. And then it says, He shall execute judgment and justice
in the earth. That's His cross. God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What a message. Oh, the finished work of Christ,
the redemptive work of Christ, the blood of Christ. Christ receiveth
sinful men. You know how? Right here it is.
Here's your answer. This is how he does it. And this
is the only way he could do it. There's no other way that he
could receive sinful men. If he executed judgment on sinful
men in and of themselves, what would that be? That would be
damnation. That would be forsaken. But he says in verse six, in
his days, Judas shall be saved, Israel shall dwell safely. As
I've told you, I believe that he's talking about spiritual
Israel there, the United Kingdom under the headship of Christ,
made up of many Jews, Gentiles, children of Abraham, the seed
of Abraham. The Holy Spirit will tell you.
You know, that's another thing, too. I believe that people, if
we keep reminding ourselves that when we read passages like the
book of Galatians, even though we say Paul's letter, and that's
okay, that's okay, we've got to understand that Paul is not
the ultimate author of that. That's the Holy Spirit, that's
God. Now, if you want to know who the seed of Abraham is, let
God tell you. See, well, there it is in Galatians
3. It's all who come to Christ by faith. And that's under the
headship of Christ. He says, this is his name whereby
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. That's what we
must preach, the Lord our righteousness. The Lord our righteousness is
the only hope for sinners. That's it. That one who's the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. That
one who set forth the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel.
That one by whose blood we're forgiven and justified eternally
and unchangeably before a holy God. That one who enables God
to be just and justified. That's what we need to preach.
And that was a burden. Go back over here to verse 35.
He says, thus shall you say everyone to his neighbor. Jeremiah 23,
35. Everyone to his neighbor and
everyone to his brother. What hath the Lord answered and
what hath the Lord spoken? And the burden of the Lord shall
you mention no more. God's gonna put a stop to it.
For every man's word shall be his burden. For you have perverted
the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts, of our
God. Peter mentioned that in his day. He said they rest or
twist the Scriptures to their own destruction. We see men and
women doing that today. And that's why we have to stay
so close to the Word of God. That's why we have to read it
and study it. Study to show thyself approved
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the Word of truth. Don't get what Brother Mahan
used to call versitis. Just picking a little here and
a little here. But read the Word of God. Go through the Word of
God. Preach and teach and hear and
listen the Word of God. And this is what he is talking
about. And the sense of this is here. Listen to this. He says,
Thus shall you say every one to his neighbor and every one
to his brother, What hath the Lord answered? And then he says,
The burden of the Lord shall you mention no more. For every
man's word shall be his burden. You know what the sense of that
is? Well, listen to it. What he's talking about here
is everyone puts their own spin on it. Everyone has their own
thought and their own opinion, and they come to a point where
they just believe, well, every man's opinion is worth something. That's the sense of that. What
do you think, brother so-and-so? Well, what do you think, sister
so-and-so? You see what I'm saying? And everybody, everybody, you
know, it's kind of like the idea that they had in the ancient
world, in the Roman world, the Greek world. What is truth? I
mean, you know, truth is however you see it. Salvation is however
you see it. Your opinion is just as good
as mine. Well, I'll be honest with you. That's exactly right.
Your opinion is just as good as my opinion, but neither opinion
is any good. The only thing that's worth anything
is the Word of God. The Gospel of His of his salvation
that he freely provides his people in Christ. And then he says they perverted
him. Verse 37, thus shalt thou say to the prophet, what hath
the Lord answered thee? And what hath the Lord spoken?
But since you say the burden of the Lord, therefore thus saith
the Lord, because you say this word, the burden of the Lord
and I have sinned unto you saying you shall not say the burden
of the Lord mocking Jeremiah you shall not do that this is
that's wrong therefore behold I now this is the consequence
I I will utter even I will utterly forget you forget you now that's
just a way of speaking of alienation from God he says it here I will
forsake you God doesn't forget anything. And I know He says,
I will remember your sins no more, but that's just a way of
accommodating our limited minds. What it simply means is that
God will not charge us with our sins. He will not hold them against
us. And why? Because of the death
of our Savior. He was made sin. Christ, too,
knew no sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. He says, in the city that I gave you and your fathers
and cast you out of my prayer, I'm going to forget and forsake
the city that I gave. Jerusalem will be no help to
you. There'll be no city on earth that will protect you or shield
you from the punishment that's due unto sin. I don't care if
it's Jerusalem. I don't care if they build 20
temples on top of each other on that mountain. It will not
protect you. The only thing that's going to
shield you and me from the wrath of God is Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. That's it. The cross of our Savior. If Christ did not take the full
measure of God's wrath against my sins, then I have no hope.
Isn't that right? I have no hope. And then He says,
and I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you. You remember
in Hebrews chapter 13, it speaks of the reproach of Christ. That's
His substitutionary cursedness for us, as He was alienated from
God for our sins. Well, if He didn't take our reproach,
then we still bear it. And He says, I'll bring an everlasting
reproach upon you, a perpetual shame. It'll continue. There's
no relief from it, which shall not be forgotten. That's the
punishment for rejecting Christ. Now let me just say just a few
words about this thing about the burden of the Lord. Consider
how the message of truth, passages like Jeremiah 23, 5-6, and other
passages we could mention, that bring forth in such vivid beauty
the glory of God in Christ. And that is how such a message
of truth is a burden. And the first thing I would want
you to understand is, number one, the authority of it. This
is a message of authority. Turn over to Matthew chapter
7 with me. This is a message that carries
the weight of the authority, the sovereignty of Almighty God. This is no lie. There is no mixture
here. There is no opinion here. There's
no thoughts of men, philosophies of men. But you remember when
Christ stood here on the Sermon on the Mount and He began to
conclude that sermon, in verse 24 He talks about, therefore,
in Matthew 7, 24, He says, Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings
of Mine, and doeth them, He said, I'll liken or I'll compare him
to a wise man which buildeth his house upon a rock. And you
know that rock is Christ. Rain descended, the floods came,
the winds blew. Beat upon that house, it fell
not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth
these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto
a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. And the
rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat
upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.
Now let me ask you this question. In that conclusion, where do
you find any middle ground or gray area? It's not there, is
it? There's no wiggle room here,
as that's what they'd say down south. There's no wiggle room.
It's either Christ or nothing. That's right. It's either His
blood or nothing. It's either His righteousness
or nothing. Isn't that right? There's no
gray area. There's no leeway here. No in-between. That's it. That's it. Now, when God lays that message
on your heart, it's a burden. Isn't it? It's a burden. Now, don't get me wrong. I mean,
there's joy, and there's peace, and there's comfort, and there's
security in Christ. But when you consider the world,
What men and women are hearing and listening to and believing
today, what a burden that is. I believe that's why Paul said
in 1 Corinthians 15, he said, if Christ be not risen, we are
of all people most miserable. But now Christ is risen. But
look at verse 28 of Matthew 7. It said, it came to pass when
Jesus had ended these things, the people were astonished at
the tone of His voice. That's not what it says, does
it? or his personality. And I'll guarantee you something
about our Lord. He had a good personality. He had a pleasant
one. That doesn't mean he couldn't
be angry righteously at times. He overturned the money changers
of the temple. We know he did that. But if you
want to talk about personalities, you know, I've heard people say,
well, they're not offended at what you preach. They're offended
at your personality. Well, they may be offended by
both. But not him. They were astonished
at what? His doctrine. Why? Look at verse
29. For he taught them as one having
authority, not as the scribes. This wasn't some kind of religious
think tank. This wasn't put it to a vote.
Here is a man, the God-man who came speaking with authority
Here is what he said. There is the rock. There is the
sand. You are either on the rock or
the sand. There is no in between. To be
on the rock is salvation. That is Christ and Him crucified
and risen. To be on the sand, that is everything
else or anything else is death. That is the authority of God.
Every man's opinion does not count here. No man's opinion
counts here. But God's Word will be the only
thing that counts. And that's why we must be adamant. We must be set in our hearts
to stay with the Word of God no matter who says it, does it,
or points to it. We've got to stay right there.
Lord, Lord, write it on my heart and don't take me away from it.
And then secondly, this is a burden because of the power of it. This
is a powerful message. Jeremiah said it over here in
chapter 23 and verse 29, Is not my word like as a fire, saith
the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
Paul wrote of it, as he was inspired by the Spirit, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power, the dynamite
of God, unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first,
and the Greek also, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed,
from faith to faith, for as it is written, the just shall live
by faith. How in the world could it not be powerful? It sets forth
in the doctrine of it, the power of the God-man. He has the ability
to save us to the uttermost that come unto the Father by Him.
He's able to keep that which we've committed unto Him against
that day. What day? Any day that stands
against us, He's able. He has the ability. This great
salvation, the righteousness of God, that's an eternal righteousness. It's an everlasting righteousness.
It's an unchangeable righteousness. It's even better than what Adam
had before he fell. That's still the righteousness
of man even though he was a perfect man. But it was still the righteousness
of man. We have the righteousness of
God. How powerful is that? Somebody comes up and tells me
that's not real. I'm not going to listen to that.
That's the opinion of men. I'm going to go right here. The
Lord our righteousness. That's what we're testifying
of in the Lord's Supper. God is, listen, it's, and think
of that, here's God's word of wrath, that's power. Any man
who doesn't have Christ, he says, any man who lives a life without
Christ and who dies a death without Christ, what is it? He's under
the wrath of God. That doesn't have to do with
feeling. or even circumstance. Some of the richest men on earth,
some of the healthiest people on earth have lived and died
without Christ and they did so under the wrath of God. What
a powerful message that is. That's nothing we delight in.
But it's so. God's word of salvation. God's
word of conviction. This message empowered by the
Holy Spirit Changes the mind the affections the will the heart
and cleanses the conscience And it brings a sinner to a point
That you can't get away from and then God's Word of comfort
This is why Paul the Apostle wrote, for though I preach the
gospel, I have nothing to glory of, that is in the fact that
I preach it. For necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto
me if I preach not the gospel. This is a powerful message. And
then thirdly, it's a burden because of the exclusiveness of it. I've already spoke of that. There's
no middle ground here. Look back at verse 30 again.
of Jeremiah 23. He says, Therefore, behold, I'm
against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words, every
one from his neighbor. The word of God is the words
of eternal life, Peter said. To whom shall we go? We've got
no place else to go. So if they steal that from you,
what are they doing? He says, verse 31, behold, I'm
against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues
and say, he saith. In other words, they say we're
preaching the word of God, when in reality, what are they doing?
They're preaching their dreams, their visions, their opinions.
Behold, I'm against them that prophesy false dreams. And I
believe the reason he says false dreams there is there are true
dreams. Zechariah's night visions, remember? Those were dreams given
him by God. That's the word of God. Now how
do you know the difference? Isaiah said in Isaiah 8 20, to
the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to
this word, there's no light in them. Any dream you have, any
vision you have, any feeling you have that doesn't line up
with this word is a false dream, false vision, false feeling.
Sayeth the Lord, and do tell them and cause my people to err
by their lies and by their lightness, their corruption. Yet I sent
them not, nor commanded them, therefore they shall not profit
this people at all, saith the Lord." Unprofitable. This is
an exclusive message. Christ is the way, the truth,
the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Him. Peter preached it. There's none
other name given among men whereby we must be saved. And so all of this, this is a
burden. But it's a burden that God lays
upon us. And it's a burden of joy to the
people of God. It's a burden that causes sadness
and tears and sorrow in a lot of ways, but it's also a burden
that brings joy and peace and happiness for the people of God.
For our goal is to glorify Christ and not ourselves. So let's pray
that the Lord will keep us under the umbrella of his providence
as we stand upon the rock Christ Jesus and minister the word of
God with the authority. All right. The men are going
to prepare the Lord's table. And if you want to go check and
see if any one of them in the nursery want to come out and
take the table with us. So Joe, you go ahead and start
preparing.