Man of God is Work of God

Transcript

GR 442
5/02/1982
The Man of God Is the Work of God
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Gil Rugh

Jeremiah begins a very personal section in verse 4 as he relates how God called him and appointed him to carry on the ministry of a prophet. It wasn’t without fear and trepidation that Jeremiah heard this message. We sometimes get the idea that we would be really excited and charged up if God said to us, “I am going to set you apart for this prophetic ministry.” But Jeremiah is overwhelmed by the thought of such a task. He’s a young man, probably somewhere around the age of 20. So a great responsibility is being committed to a man who is just embarking on adulthood.

After the introductory comments of verses 1-3, verse 4 begins, “Now the word of the Lord came to me.” This becomes a key element for the prophet. God spoke to him. We’re not told how. Jeremiah may have had a dream or a vision. All we know is that this was God’s message to Jeremiah. Right away we see where the initiative is coming from. God is speaking to Jeremiah. It does not begin with Jeremiah pouring out a burdened heart for the spiritual condition of the people of Israel. He’s not praying for the Lord to raise up a man. Surely Jeremiah is aware of their spiritual condition, and he is obviously a godly man at this point. But God takes the initiative to send His Word to Jeremiah.

A key element through this section is that the preparation of Jeremiah is the work of God. God alone has totally prepared Jeremiah to be a prophet. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations” (v. 5). Note the stress here on God’s statements. “I formed you . . . I knew you . . . I consecrated you . . . I have appointed you” (v. 5). God is saying, “I have done all this.” This emphasis continues in verse 7-10. “But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, “I am a youth,” because everywhere I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you . . . . Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have appointed you . . . .’” God repeatedly stresses, “I have done this. Jeremiah, you are My work. I will do this.”

This puts things in their proper perspective. God isn’t asking Jeremiah to make a contribution to meet the spiritual needs of the people. God says, “Jeremiah, here’s what I’ve done with you,” as though it were already accomplished.

Go back to verse 5 and note a similar emphasis: “And before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” God takes the position of authority and action. He was the One who formed Jeremiah in the womb. Before conception ever occurred, God knew Jeremiah. Before conception, God had planned Jeremiah’s life. Before Jeremiah’s parents ever conceived him, before the process began of his being formed in the womb by God, he was known by God. Incidentally, verses like this have something to say on the matter of abortion. God is forming that one in the womb and has plans for that one from before the time of conception.

This is a common pattern reiterated in the Scriptures. God lays out His plans for individuals before they are ever conceived, thus showing how He is totally in control. In Judges 13:5 God is speaking to the one who will be the mother of Samson. “For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son.” Note that conception hasn’t even taken place yet. God has determined that when she conceives, she will conceive a son. “No razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” There is nothing left to chance or happenstance here. Before Samson is ever conceived, God says that he will be a son and also says what his task will be--the deliverance of Israel.

In our last study, we saw in 1 Kings 13 that 300 years before Josiah was born, his life and ministry were prophesied by God. God is in total control.

This knowledge and planning by God is not limited to believers. Some 400 years before Cyrus, king of the Persians, God said of him, “It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My Shepherd! and He will perform all My desire.’ And he declares of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’ Thus says the Lord to Cyrus His anointed, whom I have taken by the right hand, to subdue nations before him, and to loose the loins of kings; to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut” (Isaiah 44:28-45:1). As far as we can tell from history, King Cyrus never became a believer in Jehovah. He was a pagan from the day of his birth to the day of his death. Yet God says He had anointed him to a certain task. Centuries before Cyrus was ever born, God identified him by name and the task he would carry out. The evidence of Scripture leads us to conclude that this is true of every person, believer and unbeliever alike. God is totally in control of the activities and affairs of mankind. He uses people to accomplish His purposes.

It’s not unusual that God would say to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5). The Old Testament forms the background for the New Testament usage of the statement, “I knew you.” The word “foreknowledge” as used of God in the New Testament has its background in the Old Testament. It means more than just to know something about someone. It has a more determinative flavor and means to regard with favor or to choose. It has the idea of an intimacy associated with commitment.

This word is used in the Old Testament of sexual relations between a husband and wife. The husband is said to know his wife, to be sexually intimate with her. It relates to the commitment and the intimacy in marriage.

When related to God, it has the connotation of being regarded with favor and indicates to choose. If all it means is to know about Jeremiah before he is born, it says nothing special because God is omnipotent and omniscient. He is all-powerful and all-knowing. So He knows in the general sense about everyone and everything. If God had said, “Jeremiah, before I formed you in the womb I knew you,” meaning to know only in the general usage of that word, Jeremiah could say, “Yes, but You know about everyone.” But there is something special about what God is saying here. If you insert the word chose, you have the idea. So it could read, “Before I formed you in the womb I chose you, I knew you with favor, I selected you for Myself.”

Two other Old Testament passages help us understand this concept more clearly. Exodus 2:25 says, “And God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them.” This phrase, “took notice of them,” could be literally translated, “knew them.” It’s not a matter of God looking down from heaven and saying, “Hey, there’s Israel. I know them.” Obviously that would not fit with an omniscient God. God is saying that He saw the sons of Israel and placed His favor upon them. Because He had made a commitment to them, He had chosen them to be the people for Himself.

In Amos 3:2 (KJV) God says, “You only have I known of all the families (nations) of the earth.” Obviously, God knows everything about every nation. Yet He says of Israel, “You’re the only nation I have known.” This means that of all the nations of the earth, Israel was the only nation that God chose for Himself. Keep that in mind as you study the New Testament passages that speak about the foreknowledge of God, the knowledge that God had beforehand of individuals. We were elected according to the foreknowledge of God. It does not mean that God just looked ahead and had knowledge of events. It has a determinative flavor about it. For God to foreknow something means He determines it and causes it.

The same idea is seen in Romans 9:10-13. When twin sons were to be born to Rebekah, before either was born God said, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated” (Romans 9:13). God had chosen or made a selection before they were born. In the same way God chose Jeremiah.

God continues to explain how He has prepared Jeremiah for his task. “I consecrated you” (Jeremiah 1:5). The King James Version has “I sanctified you.” Sanctified has the idea of being set apart. In Ezekiel 38:23 God says He will sanctify Himself. The idea is that He will set Himself apart. He is holy, set apart from all sin and defilement. So God tells Jeremiah that He chose him and consecrated him, set him apart.

God told Jeremiah, “I have appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5). This revealed the task for which Jeremiah was set apart. He was chosen by God, set apart by God, and then appointed by God to a special task--to be a prophet. To appoint carries the idea of installing. God appointed or installed Jeremiah as a prophet.

This all took place before Jeremiah ever breathed his first breath. When Jeremiah was 20 years of age, God didn’t get a new idea and say, “Jeremiah has lived a good life to this point. He has been a godly man, so I think I’ll choose him and set him apart and appoint him to be a prophet.” No, that was all done before Jeremiah was ever born. It was totally the work of God. That concept should give us great confidence to know that God is the One who is in control.

I believe I minister the Word at Indian Hills because before I was ever conceived, I was chosen by God, set apart by Him and appointed by Him to minister the Word in this place to these people. God didn’t say, “Since he is such a good little boy, I am going to use him to preach to those good people in Lincoln!” No, that’s not the way it was. In fact, when I was born, my parents were not even believers. But God had determined, selected and appointed me.

God not only appointed Jeremiah to a specific ministry--that of being a prophet--but he also appointed the people to whom he would minister. “I have appointed you a prophet to the nations” (v. 5). Jeremiah is to have a prophetic ministry that goes not just to the Jewish people, but to other nations as well. In Jeremiah 46-51, Jeremiah prophesies regarding Egypt, Philistia, Tyre, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Babylon and others in addition to his ministry to Judah and Benjamin. So he is to have a ministry to the nations. There seems to be little left for Jeremiah to decide.

Think back to your late teens or early twenties and imagine God coming to you and informing you that He had chosen you, set you apart and appointed you to a ministry. What would be your response? Wow! I’m really special. I can’t wait to get started!

Notice how Jeremiah responds in verse 6: “Then I said, ‘Alas, Lord God!’” There is consternation in this expression. Alas, Lord God! You don’t understand, there’s some mistake! “Behold, I do not know how to speak because I am a youth.” Here is a real problem. How can you be a spokesman for God if you don’t know how to speak. God apparently made a mistake! Before He ever formed Jeremiah in the womb, He had made the decision, but He forgot to make him eloquent!

Isn’t it amazing how irrational we become! Just imagine that God would plan what Jeremiah is going to be before Jeremiah is every conceived, but would bungle the job along the way. It’s almost blasphemous to think it. But isn’t that what Jeremiah is saying? Jeremiah does have a reason. He says, “I do not know how to speak because I am a youth.” The word for youth can be used of someone up to 45 years old. It is used of Joshua when he was 45 years old, so it doesn’t necessarily mean a little kid. He’s not saying he’s a baby. Jeremiah is saying that he is a young man who lacks experience.

This sounds like Moses in Exodus 4:10: “Then Moses said to the Lord, ‘Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past.’” In other words, it’s not that Moses was just out of practice since he’d been out in the desert. He wasn’t even eloquent when he lived in Egypt, and he’s not eloquent now either. His whole life was a testimony to what he was saying. “’Nor since Thou hast spoken to Thy servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?’” (Exodus 4:10,11). In verse 13 Moses wanted the Lord to send the message by somebody else. But in verse 14, “The anger of the Lord burned against Moses.” It’s all right for Moses to raise the question of eloquence. But when God gives the answer, that’s it.

With Jeremiah and Moses, we have two different situations. Jeremiah claimed a lack of experience. Moses claimed a lack of ability. The answer to both is the same--God is the One who does it.

It’s important for us to relate this to our own personal situations. How often we hear believers say, “Well, I can’t do it. I don’t have this ability.” God enables us in special areas, but we’d better be careful about falling back on our own inadequacy, because Paul declared to the Corinthians that our adequacy is from the Lord. We get so taken up with what we can’t do that we don’t do anything. We sometimes fail to realize that God enables us for every task that He calls us to do. Do you think God would call Jeremiah to be a prophet and not enable him to speak His message? When we begin to question the ability of God, it ceases to be humility and becomes arrogance.

We should understand that God was angry with Moses when Moses persisted in that argument. We need to be careful about the excuses we give to the Lord. The problem with Jeremiah’s excuses, and ours too, is that in verse 5 God says, “I formed you, I knew you, I consecrated you, I have appointed you.” Then in verse 6 Jeremiah says, “I do not know how to speak because I am a youth.” Wait a minute, let’s get this turned back around where it belongs. God says, “Jeremiah, let’s not talk about you, let’s talk about Me.”

In verse 7 we come to God’s program for Jeremiah as revealed by God: “The Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, “I am a youth.’” In other words, “I don’t want to hear your excuses, Jeremiah.” Do you think God needs to be told how old Jeremiah is?

Isn’t it amazing? We do the same thing today. We say, “Lord, you don’t understand my needs. Lord, You don’t understand how afraid I am!” Whom am I telling that He doesn’t know or doesn’t understand? The ideas we get of humility are revolting. Jeremiah is telling God he is but a youth. Who formed Jeremiah in the womb? Doesn’t God keep track of age, or would God say, “Oh, I forgot, Jeremiah, I’m too early with My instructions. I’m sorry, I’ll be back in twenty years.” It’s ridiculous and makes no sense.

God says, “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ because everywhere I send you, you shall go” (v. 7). The key here is that this ministry is not going to depend on Jeremiah’s experience or ability, but entirely upon God. There’s nothing else to be said. God said, “Everywhere I send you, you shall go.” That takes the pressure off because Jeremiah doesn’t need experience to know where to go. All he’s got to do is go where God sends him. So it doesn’t matter whether he’s had a lot of experience or little experience. Even a young man can go where God tells him to go.

Note the next statement in verse 7: “And all that I command you, you shall speak.” He is to go where God sends him and say what God tells him to say. We tell our young children, “Go to the neighbor and tell him this.” He can do that. It’s simple if we tell him where to go and what to say. The same thing is true if God tells us what to do. Do you see how God is totally in control? He selects the place of service, and He prescribes the message to be proclaimed.

In verse 8 God gives insight into what’s going on inside of Jeremiah. He is scared stiff, and you would be too. What if God said to you, “I am going to make you a prophet to the nations. Just think, you can preach in Russia, China, Vietnam and Cuba.” Would you say, “Oh boy, I can’t wait to get on the plane”? No, I don’t think so. Jeremiah knew how the prophets were received, and he was afraid. The Lord said, “Do not be afraid of them” (v. 8). That’s easy to say, but God gave a reason for Jeremiah not to be afraid. “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you.”

As we move through the chapter, we will see that Jeremiah is not to be afraid, because God guarantees to be his protector. That does not mean that Jeremiah is going to be immune to difficulty and opposition. God would not need to tell Jeremiah not to be afraid, and He would not need to guarantee Jeremiah’s protection if there were not going to be problems. We ought to note that for our own lives. An open door for ministry does not mean a lack of opposition, difficulties or problems. Jeremiah’s call to the ministry is exactly the opposite. Since there is going to be opposition and resistance, he needs God’s protection. But with God’s protection, Jeremiah doesn’t have to be afraid.

But notice something else. The protection of God does not keep Jeremiah from being beaten. It does not keep him from being cast into the slime pit. It does not keep him from being starved. You may ask what good the protection is. Well, forty years later he’s still breathing. God’s protection doesn’t keep him from being carried away as a captive into Egypt. Why is he protected? He is protected to enable him to carry on the ministry that God gives him. How much more protection does he need? He can still minister just as effectively as God wants him to even though he’s cast into the slime pit. Jeremiah may think, Wait a minute, God, You said You’d protect me, and I’d just as soon carry on my ministry in a better place. That’s not the issue. God hasn’t promised immunity from difficulty. He’s promised protection that will enable him to carry on his ministry.

As you serve the Lord, you ought to take great encouragement from the difficulties and pressure you face. If there’s no difficulty or opposition, it may indicate you’re not really doing what God wants you to be doing. But be encouraged. God promises to protect us. He protects us so we can carry on the ministry that He wants us to have. Therefore, we can carry on that ministry without fear because there’s nothing that can be done to stop the ministry that God wants us to have. Again, that doesn’t mean there won’t be difficulties, trials or problems. It does mean that God promises to protect us through them. God selects the person, He appoints the ministry, and He guarantees the protection. So it’s God’s work from beginning to end.

The ministry given to Jeremiah is going to accomplish the purposes of God. “Then the Lord stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have put My words in your mouth’” (Jeremiah 1:9). God is the enabler. In saying the Lord “stretched out His hand and touched my mouth,” we have a theophany. In all probability this is the preincarnate Jesus Christ manifesting Himself to Jeremiah, touching his mouth, indicating that He has given Jeremiah His message. Jeremiah will speak His words. He will be a spokesman for God and from God. That means we need to sit up and take notice of what Jeremiah has to say. It’s not Jeremiah’s message. It’s God speaking through Jeremiah. And what God has to say is of overwhelming importance and significance.

“Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, ‘Because you have spoken this word, behold, I am making My words in your mouth fire and this people wood, and it will consume them’” (Jeremiah 5:14). God says in effect, “Jeremiah, My words are like fire and these people are like wood. You speak My words and they’re going to be consumed by them.” The message that Jeremiah preaches will result in destruction of the people. Jeremiah is prophesying the destruction of Judah. That destruction will come about just as he says. The same kind of analogy is seen in Jeremiah 15:16 where Jeremiah says, “Thy words were found and I ate them.” Jeremiah takes in God’s words so he can speak forth the Word of God.

God’s words in Jeremiah’s mouth are God’s empowerment and God’s enablement. That’s also true for every believer today. Every believer has been chosen, set apart and appointed by God to a special ministry. That’s what is exciting about studying the call of Jeremiah. Every believer has been set apart and appointed to a ministry just as Jeremiah has.

This is related to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. That’s why it is a great tragedy and a sin for believers to sit idle when God has called them and appointed them to carry out a certain task. We have a significant number of believers sitting idle. Did Jeremiah have the option to sit in idleness? No. If he is idle, he is in rebellion against God because God has appointed him and given him His message to carry out.

The New Testament indicates that every believer has been gifted by the Spirit of God to enable him to function as a vital part of the Body of Christ. When you have idling believers, you have sinning believers in rebellion against God. This has resulted in all kinds of problems in the Church of Jesus Christ. God has appointed you to serve in a certain capacity. If you’re not doing it, you’re in rebellion against Him. Jeremiah’s life becomes a pattern for us. Serving is not optional. Jeremiah is not going to vote at the end of this section on whether he’ll follow through with God’s program. Jeremiah has no say in it. But really, would you want it any other way? How would you decide? Would I have ever chosen to minister the Word in Lincoln, Nebraska? I wasn’t even sure it existed! But God had it all planned. There are no insignificant things. If God calls and appoints, that makes it of overwhelming significance. It doesn’t matter how mundane or insignificant the world may view it. If the Almighty, Eternal God has called and appointed me, that makes my ministry important. I shouldn’t really care what you think about it. And that’s true for every believer. God doesn’t have any kind of tasks but important ones. So every believer is important. It doesn’t matter whether there are 2, 200, 2000 or 2 million in the body. Everyone is significant.

Now let’s look at what God is going to accomplish through Jeremiah. “See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms” (v. 10). That’s remarkable. Little Jeremiah from Anathoth, appointed OVER the nations and OVER the kingdoms. Jeremiah will never be the king. He’s going to spend part of his life in the slime pit, part of his life in prison, and part of his life chained. But God says, “Jeremiah, you’re OVER the nations, OVER the kingdoms.” (emphasis added) In applying this to our lives, we just don’t know who we are in Jesus Christ. So often we live on the downside. But we need to remember that God has appointed us. It was God who gave Jeremiah a message. And Jeremiah with a message from God supersedes the nations and kingdoms. That is remarkable. We get so caught up with the world’s ideas. Do you think the kings of the earth ever looked at Jeremiah in awe? Nebuchadnezzar showed him respect. But God said, “You’re OVER them.” Why? Because God is over everything, and Jeremiah is a chosen vessel of God. That’s what gives him importance and significance.

Jeremiah’s message and ministry can be divided into two parts--to tear down and to build up. God has appointed him “to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (v. 10). But note, the negative comes first with four verbs to describe it--to pluck up, to break down, to destroy and to overthrow. Then the positive is described in two verbs--to build and to plant. There are two reasons for this. First, the message of judgment is going to be the dominant theme. So perhaps that’s why it gets more attention at the beginning. Second, you must begin on the negative. Today everybody wants to say something good or positive, but Jeremiah told the people, “You’re wretched. Something bad is on the way! You are the object of the hatred and wrath of Almighty God.” Do you think Jeremiah would get on television today? Probably not.

We must start to preach where God starts, and He says something is wrong! Something good is not going to happen to you, but something terrible--unless you respond to the grace of God and believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. Jeremiah’s message is one of judgment. The people in Jeremiah’s day didn’t want to hear it any more than people today want to hear it.

Many preachers today sound like the false prophets of Jeremiah’s day. Do you know what they preached? Good things! One of the characteristics of false prophets and teachers is that they are always saying good things. That doesn’t mean there aren’t good things in the Scriptures. We want to preach those good things. But we must keep it in balance. Note what Jeremiah said about the false prophets in chapter 8. “Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord, and what kind of wisdom do they have?” (Jeremiah 1:9). That’s a beautiful verse. If you reject the word of the Lord, what kind of wisdom can you have? In verse 11, “And they heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, Peace,’ but there is no peace.” They were liars. But the people wanted to hear that everything was okay, that they were all right before God, that good things were going to happen to them. The false prophets told them what they wanted to hear. They said there was peace. But there wasn’t any peace.

God warned about these prophets in chapter 12. “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility; they speak a vision of their own imagination, not from the mouth of the Lord. They keep saying to those who despise Me, “The Lord has said, ‘You will have peace’”; and as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, they say, “Calamity will not come upon you”’” (Jeremiah 23:16,17).

The message of the false prophets and false teachers has not changed over the centuries and millenniums of time. They tell people, “You’re okay, I’m okay. Everything’s fine.” But what about sin! What about the fact that a holy, righteous God says we are sinners under condemnation, destined for hell? Truthfulness necessitates that we proclaim that message. Sin must be dealt with. There must be the tearing down and the uprooting before there can be the building and the planting. Until sin is dealt with, the new life cannot be constructed.

“Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Sin must be taken care of under the blood. Yes, the gospel is a positive message, but it’s a message that has to be put in the context. The positive side is that God has provided for the forgiveness of sin, for cleansing from iniquity, but you still must know the negative side--that you are a sinner under the condemnation of God. I’d just as soon not preach that, but God says it’s true. There must be the tearing down of the pride. The sinfulness must be dealt with. And in grace, God has provided the remedy for that.

Chapter 8 ends, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?” (Jeremiah 8:22). Yes, there is a balm in Gilead. There is a physician. There is a cure for sin. The cure is not to ignore it. The cure is not to gloss over it. The cure is to submit ourselves to the One who is the physician, the One who has provided the cleansing. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was provided by God as the Savior to die on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins that we might believe in Him and have life.

So Jeremiah is going to proclaim a message, and the bulk of it is going to be judgment. But in that judgment we see the gracious offer of salvation from God, the call to turn to Him and experience His healing and cleansing. The call of Jeremiah demonstrates that this is all of God. God prepared Jeremiah even before he was conceived, He appointed him to a ministry that God had determined, and God provided the enablement, the ability and the protection to guarantee that the ministry would be carried out according to His plan.

Praise God that we’re privileged to serve such a God. We can have the confidence today because of what He has done in our lives. We’re no different from Jeremiah. Praise God for His grace