Turn with me to Jeremiah, we want to continue our study in the book of Jeremiah, so if you’ll turn with me to chapter 45. Jeremiah chapter 45 is the shortest chapter in the book of Jeremiah. And as I mentioned, when we begin to study Jeremiah, the book of Jeremiah, the chapters don’t necessarily go sequentially.
There will be chapter that will skip forward and others that will go back. This is one that looks back, and it looks back to a time, and it’s dealing with Baruch, the secretary or the recorder for Jeremiah. And it’s actually going back as we see in the beginning of this little paragraph in Jeremiah’s letter.
It goes back to the time where Jeremiah was speaking and Jehoiachin was the king of Israel. So it’s about 30 some years prior or thereabouts to what we’ve been studying, where they’ve gone back and been taken away into Egypt. And this is really when Jeremiah was beginning to deal a lot with the people and bringing them warnings about repentance or God was going to bring judgment.
And at that particular time, they hadn’t seen the strength of Nebuchadnezzar coming in its fullness, but Jeremiah was warning about it. And this goes back to the time, if you want to keep your finger in chapter 45, go back to chapter 36 because this is about the time that this particular event occurred that we’re going to study in chapter 45 this evening. And I’d just like to read the first few verses out of chapter 36 so we get a context of where it’s talking about Jehoiachin.
And remember, this is the time that the Lord told Jeremiah to record his words. And Baruch, whose name means blessing, and it’s a Hebrew word that means blessing. And as I was listening to another man talk about it, he said that a lot of Hebrew sayings and prayers will start with Baruch, blessing or bless.
So his name means blessing. Baruch was the one that was recording the words that Jeremiah was speaking. So if you can imagine and seeing, the Lord would be giving these words to Jeremiah and Jeremiah would be speaking them and then Baruch, he’s told him, write them down, write them down.
And so he’s busy writing them down. And as he’s writing them down, you can imagine what he’s thinking as he’s hearing Jeremiah talk about all these things that are going to happen to Judah and Jerusalem and the temple. And what is going to happen to the people, the king of Judah and the leaders of Judah and the people of Judah.
And so in chapter 36, beginning of verse 1, it says,
And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day. 3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. 4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book.
Jeremiah 36:1-4
And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiachin, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel and against Judah and against all the nations from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah even unto this day. And so the Lord is telling him, go back all the way back to when I first called you during the time of Josiah and write this all down. And that’s what we’ve been looking at and studying are these words that have been written down.
And if you remember in chapter 36, he wrote all these words down and then they took it and gave it to the king Jehoiakim and Jehoiakim burned the book. He said, this isn’t true. I’m not listening to these words.
And it’s kind of like a lot of times when people, you begin to witness to them or talk to them about the Bible. Well, if I don’t listen to you, none of this is really going to happen to me. And that’s what Jehoiakim was thinking.
If I just get rid of these words, it really won’t happen. But the Lord said, even though he burned the book, rewrite it. And so Beruk not only wrote this once, but wrote it twice. And what we’re going to see is the impact tonight that it had upon Beruk. And I don’t know if you’ve ever had a time in your life where you’ve been very discouraged and you’re wondering why is all of this happening? I think during the time of COVID probably a lot of us had that as you’re sitting here going and seeing freedoms that we took for granted, that were being stolen from us. We were told you can’t go places. You can’t do things. You must wear a mask. You must do this. You must do that. They even tried to close down the churches in Minnesota. They were much more horrible than they were in North Dakota.
But even in North Dakota, our governor said, oh, you shouldn’t all go to church. You should really try to do it remotely. And if you do go to church, try not to go in big groups of people and try to keep social distancing. I mean, it was just crazy what they were saying that we had to do. And it was very discouraging to a lot of people. And I remember at that time we had a couple from Minnesota that they ended up moving to Fargo just so they could go to church really and didn’t have to wear a mask and could sing hymns and have fellowship. That’s how bad it got in Minnesota in a lot of churches. And this is the same thing that was happening to Baruch. He’s seeing all these things that are happening and it’s having an impact on him.
Jeremiah 45
The word of Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch the son of Neriah when he had written these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel unto thee, O Baruch, thou didst say, Woe is me now, for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow, and I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest. Thus shalt thou say unto him, The Lord saith, Thus behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted will I pluck up, even this whole land. And seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not. For behold, I will bring evil upon all the flesh, saith the Lord, but thy life will I give unto thee, for I pray in all the places whither thou goest.
Let’s just bow in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, as we come before you this evening, help us to be encouraged by your word. And help us to realize that even as the hymns that we sang earlier, you are there, and we can rest in you, and we can walk with you, and we can talk with you. And Lord, you are there to comfort us even in the midst of trial and discouragement. And Lord, I pray that you just speak to us through your word this evening. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
In England, about, it would be approaching 150 years ago, I guess, when he preached, he was called the Prince of Preachers, and his name was Charles Haddon Spurgeon. But many people don’t know one of the things that Charles Haddon Spurgeon struggled with, and that was depression. He struggled with depression much of his life, even when he was a pastor, even when he was giving these tremendous sermons, calling people to walk with God, trust in the Lord, sharing the promises of God. Yet he still struggled with depression.
And simply because we are doing God’s will and walking in the ways of the Lord doesn’t mean that Satan doesn’t try to attack us and cause us to become discouraged. Now, Baruch is looking, and you can imagine he’s thinking, I’m doing everything that God told me to do. I’m writing down the words of Jeremiah.
But as Jeremiah’s saying these words, can you imagine what Baruch’s thinking? He hadn’t heard all of this until Jeremiah said it. And all of a sudden, Jeremiah says that the Lord’s going to come, and he’s going to judge Jerusalem. The walls of the city are going to be destroyed.
The temple’s going to be torn down. The people are going to be taken captive. And those that will refuse to repent and turn and aren’t taken captive, they shall die, remember, as we said earlier, by the sword, by pestilence, by famine.
There’s going to be a horrible famine as Babylon is going to besiege the city unless you repent, and the people wouldn’t repent. And Baruch is listening to all this, and you can imagine he’s going, can this really be Jeremiah? Can this really be? And as he’s saying this, the Lord is saying, I understand, I hear your concern, Baruch, but listen. What I planted, I have the right to pluck up.
What I sowed, I have the right to tear apart. What I built, I have the right to tear down. And what he’s saying there is, if the people refuse to repent, I’m the one that gave them all this, and I will take it away.
And he’s saying, but listen to me. I hear your concerns, but what you’re saying is, why should this happen to me? I should be above this. You know, there’s a lot of, in Christianity today, there’s a lot of people that think that simply because if you walk faithfully with the Lord, nothing bad can ever happen to you.
But that’s not true. We live in a world that is filled with wickedness, and filled with spiritual adversaries who desire to silence the voice of God in this world, and desire to silence the church. We have, as the Apostle Paul says, behind it all is the real adversary. And he says in the book of Ephesians, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of wickedness from high places. And that’s exactly what we do. We wrestle against Satan and against all the demons of hell that manifest themselves in people who desire to align themselves with this world philosophy, this world system, which is Satan’s.
And there’s a great spiritual battle. The Apostle Paul was not exempt from suffering and difficulties. And yet, if you look at the life of the Apostle Paul, he would put us all to shame.
He spent his whole life sharing the gospel. Paul could have had it very easy if he would have remained a Pharisee in Jerusalem until the day that the Romans came and tore the walls down and scattered all the Jews throughout the nations. But Paul was being trained by one of the best rabbis in Jerusalem.
He was being trained to be part of the Sanhedrin, the leading body of the people of Israel. And he even says by his own word, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees, born of the tribe of Benjamin. And all of these things, but he says, I count it all as done, as worth nothing.
That was worth nothing compared to what God gave to me to bring the gospel to the people and to share the truth of God’s word with those who had never heard it. Now, when Paul did that, it cost him great personal peace. It cost him great personal comfort in that oftentimes he was beaten more than once, beaten and left for dead.
He was imprisoned. He was falsely accused. He was brought up on charges and brought before the magistrate and judged, thrown into prison.
We know he was thrown into prison when he went to preach the gos
pel in Philippi. And later on when he appealed to Caesar, because when he went back to Jerusalem and the Jews in Jerusalem in leadership wanted to silence him. And so they brought charges and they really wanted, they had plotted to kill him as he was being taken from one place to another.
And they thought about the plot. But in the midst of all of that, then he appealed to Caesar and was taken to Rome. And in Rome, he was imprisoned twice.
The second time leading to his ultimate death under Nero, where he was martyred for his faith. And his only crime was proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s the only thing.
If he just would have said, Ah, I made a mistake, Jesus didn’t exist. He could have gone free. But he wouldn’t do it because it would be a lie.
And Jesus is the one that had set him free. So I want us to know that simply because we do God’s will and simply because everything in our life is walking in obedience to the Lord, does not mean that things will automatically go well. But there’s also great reward in the midst of standing for truth in the midst of the battle.
And Jesus himself said that there would be those who would receive well done, now good and faithful servant. Because you have stood and done what God has called you to do. And you have stood for the truth of his word in the midst of the turmoil that is raging around you.
The Bible talks about the fact that we have all been called to bear witness of the gospel. That was the command that Jesus gave to his disciples right before he left. And you find that in the last chapter of the book of Matthew where he tells them what is referred to as the great commission.
Going into all the world and preach the gospel. And that we’re to teach all men and baptizing them in the truth. And he tells us that we’re all to do that who are his followers.
And that there’s none that are not to see the significance and the importance of sharing the truth with others and not worry about the response they give but rather proclaim the truth so that the opportunity for them to hear is there. Paul himself says, how shall they be saved unless they hear and how shall they hear unless a preacher is sent. And you and I can be preachers of the gospel.
But as we look at Baruch, he is writing the words of the prophecy that is given by Jeremiah. And in that prophecy, God always gave Judah. He always gave the king.
He always gave the leaders. He always gave the people a choice. Repent and I remove the circumstances from you.
It’s referred to, and remember I said that there are two words for evil. God does not bring evil upon people. God isn’t the cause of evil.
But what the word evil there is, it’s circumstances that force a choice upon the people and it shows the consequences to their decisions and it shows the direction they’re going. And the Lord will allow the consequences of those decisions to result in his judgment coming upon them. But if they repent, the consequences here would have been removed.
But they didn’t repent. They didn’t turn. And Jeremiah was left, not only as we saw, to minister to them in Judah, but even to be taken captive by the remnant who he told, remain in Judah.
Remember we studied that on Sunday afternoon. He told them, remain in Judah and you’ll be fine. But if you go to Egypt, you’re going to die.
There’s only going to be just a very small remnant that will ever return to the land. You’ll die by the very things that you fear. But they didn’t listen.
And they called Jeremiah a liar. And they said he was telling them a lie. And Baruch is there with him the whole time.
He was taken down into Egypt with Jeremiah. And we see that prior to that, he was there and witnessed when Jehoiakim burned the words of Jeremiah that had been given to him by the Lord and mocked God. And Baruch is going, Lord, woe is me.
You know, I just want to serve you. That’s why I’m walking in obedience to you. And God says, I understand.
But simply because you’re being obedient doesn’t mean you’re not going to suffer consequences that are the result of other people’s choice, but I’ll be with you. And he tells him, and he promises him, he says, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord, but thy life will I give thee. For I pray in all places whither thou goest.
In other words, wherever he was going to go, the Lord would be with him. He would preserve his life. And no matter how much Judah sinned and no matter how great the heartache, he wasn’t to seek great things for himself, but he was to seek to be used there.
And his reward would be that his life would be spared and he’d still be an opportunity to be a witness of the power of God to preserve those who he said he would preserve. I was listening to a man today and one of the things he was saying is, you look at our nation today and how many people really want to speak the truth about why our country is in the shape it’s in. And I was concerned because the man was talking about that there was revival in our nation, but I don’t really see a biblical revival in our country because I don’t really see a repentance in people’s hearts to turn from wickedness and sin and to seek to follow God.
Remember earlier as we were studying, there came a time when Nebuchadnezzar was coming and Jeremiah was prophesying and the people were afraid because they saw that the words of Jeremiah were going to come true. And so that was where God was going to judge him. And Jeremiah told him one of the reasons he was judging him was because of the lack of having every seventh year setting it apart to the Lord and you were going to have to, God was judging you because you hadn’t followed God, didn’t believe his word, didn’t trust in the Lord, didn’t think it was important.
And part of that was that every seventh year they were to let the people that were the indentured servants go. And remember what did they do? All of a sudden they were letting all the indentured servants go saying, we forgive you, we forgive you. And then all of a sudden they heard that the king of Egypt was coming with his army to fight with Nebuchadnezzar.
And then what did they do? They hadn’t really repented. They hadn’t really turned from their wicked ways. They hadn’t really sought the Lord.
But instead they were just crying from foxhole religion, save me God. And then they’re going, oh, Egypt’s going to save us. We don’t need God.
I think there’s a lot of people like that, that now they see some things turning around in our country. And they go, oh, we’ve got the right political system in place now. They’re going to save us.
Oh, we’ve got a president that wants to do things that appear to be righteous. So that must be, he’ll save us. But I’m not going to really turn and follow God.
I don’t really want to give my heart to the Lord that much. I still want to hang on to my idols and coddle them and hold them close to me and not make God the center of my heart and life. And it bothered me because at the same time that this guy was talking about, with a gentleman about religion and reformation and revival, this same individual is promoting Catholicism as true Christianity, promoting a convoluted view of combining Judaism with Christianity, is promoting other things that aren’t really biblical.
And the last man that I saw do things like that was Dr. James Dobson 30 years ago, 20, 30 years ago, where he brought together humanistic psychology and married it to biblical Christianity. And what it did is it destroyed the Bible and it made it something that it wasn’t. And he promoted a gospel of self-esteem.
And if the problem of Christians was they had too low self-esteem, and if you could just get people to have a higher self-esteem, that would solve everybody’s problem. And that was his main message. And if you look today, we’ve got all these people, and they’ve got extremely high self-esteems, because you’ve got a whole bunch of people that say, well, I deserve a better job.
Why? Because I have to have a better job. And high self-esteem leads to pride and arrogance. The Bible tells us to be humble and to have a meek spirit.
Well, I’m seeing another type of thing happen today, where this marriage of forms of worldliness and saying that it’s godly when it’s not godly. And it causes confusion, and the truth is covered and replaced with a lie, and people get confused. And I think today you have a lot of Christians that are really confused.
If you didn’t, there’d be a difference in Christian music, in Christian worship, in attitudes of Christians when it comes to lifestyles and what’s important to them. And the Bible is saying what the message that Baruch was being taught. Look to me.
Don’t look at the circumstances around you, but look to me. Trust in me. I’m the one who can preserve your life.
I’m the one that can give you life. I’m the one that will give you opportunities. I’m the one that will be there with you, and if you’re obedient to me, we’ll bless you in a much greater way than you ever thought you could be blessed.
In closing, one of the things that oftentimes people can become discouraged, and I’ve known people that are believers that become very discouraged, like Baruch. And the thing that we need to do when we become discouraged is look to God’s word. Pray and look to the Lord.
You know, it’s amazing what the world does. The solution to problems, I remember a number of years ago we were attending a church and there was a wonderful Christian lady there. And she and her husband had basically taken in a family whose parents had been killed, and they took in these kids and raised them as their own.
And the kids did not treat them well at all. And what they’d do is they’d mock them, and they mocked the woman and said, Oh yeah, whenever there’s something wrong, she just goes and prays. Well, I’d love to have a mother who would go and pray for me.
Because I remember another man that I knew, and his mother would wake up in the middle of the night when he was in trouble and God would place an impress on her heart, you need to pray for your son. And she would. And God preserved her son’s life because she prayed.
I knew of another man that I met, and he was in the service and he’d gotten so involved in the world, but his mom was a strong Bible-believing Christian, and she never stopped praying for her son. We met him, and he came to when we were meeting down in the street, and he walked in one day and he shared his testimony with us. He said, I was in the Navy, and I loved to drink.
And I drank alcohol until the point I had fried my brain. The doctor told me, I drank so much alcohol, they said there was no hope for me. I couldn’t concentrate, I couldn’t look, they would talk to me and I wouldn’t grasp what they were saying.
But my mom was praying. And one day, I got a Bible. And he says the amazing thing is I’d open the Bible, and my mind would be clear, I could read the Bible, and I could concentrate on it, but the minute I closed the book, I went back to being what they called a wet brain.
Somebody whose brain was fried. And one day I just cried out to God and said, I want to give my life to you, forgive me for my sin. And you know who’d been praying for me the whole time? My mom. And he said, the transformation was unbelievable. He was an amazing guy, you sit and talk to him, and his mind was clear. God had healed it.
And he said, God has given me a ministry. And he said, people look at me and they think I’m very odd. He says, I was one of the wanderers on the street.
And so he says, I go and I live in the camps. I witness to the guys. I talk to them about the Lord. And he said, God has called me. He doesn’t call many people.