God Honors Faith
We are to trust God
no matter what our circumstances.
Imagine that you're Jeremiah.
Judgment has come.
Your prophecies regarding Jerusalem
have come true.
King Zedekiah, the last king has been captured.
He's blinded.
He's put in chains.
And he's taken to Babylon.
And you too are chained.
You're waiting to be deported.
And then it happened.
And I wish I could have been there
to see the expression on Jeremiah's face.
Notice, Jeremiah's freed by Nebuchadnezzar.
Jeremiah chapter 39, verse 11:
Speaking through Nebuzaradan,
captain of the guard,
King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon
gave orders concerning Jeremiah, saying:
"Take him, look after him,
and don't let any harm come to him;
do for him whatever he says."
This is the commander of the
King [of] Nebuchadnezzar--the King Nebuchadnezzar.
And suddenly, you're standing there in chains
and this commander says :
Take off the chains and free him.
Free him.
Now we could talk about
why did this happen.
Was this just a supernatural intervention?
Well, possibly, it certainly was supernatural.
But it also probably had human elements
because word would have
certainly gotten back to
Nebuchadnezzar what Jeremiah was prophesying.
And what he was saying,
and that is to submit to the king.
Don't fight the Babylonians.
That would be music really
to Nebuchadnezzar's ears
because it would protect his army.
They wouldn't have to go in there
and lose a lot of lives.
And so probably, the word got back
to Nebuchadnezzar that Jeremiah
was really trying to be a peacemaker
and resolve this thing.
But not to stand in the way and rebel,
But to say: We need to submit in order
that we're not destroyed.
That perhaps was one of the reasons,
the human factors.
But certainly, there is a
supernatural element here.
In fact, when you read on,
it's quite amazing.
Look at verse 4, chapter 40:
Now pay attention: ...
He's talking to Jeremiah who's just been freed.
...Today I'm setting you free
from the chains that were on your hands.
If it pleases you to come with me to Babylon,
come, and I will take care of you. ...
I'm not going to take you
in chains like Zedekiah over here
who's already been blinded
and his sons have been murdered.
I'm going to protect you.
...But if it seems wrong to you
to come with me to Babylon,
go no further. ...
That's not a problem.
...Look--the whole land is in front of you.
Wherever it seems good and right
for you to go, go there.
Jeremiah, you're free.
Well as I said, I wish I could have seen
the expression on Jeremiah's face
because I don't think he anticipated this.
After all, he'd been in a dungeon.
He'd been in a pit.
He'd been in prison.
And all of a sudden, he's free.
God honors faith.
And that's what we see here.
Jeremiah was trusting God
through the whole process.
And as I thought about that, I couldn't help
but think of the heroes of faith
that are outlined in Hebrews chapter 11.
Where the author of this book,
we don't know who wrote it,
but here's what we read:
And what more can I say?
Time is too short for me to tell about
Gideon, [and] Barak, [and] Samson,
[and] Jephthah, [and] David, [and] Samuel
and the prophets...
And certainly, Jeremiah is included there.
Ezekiel, Daniel, Jeremiah:
...who by faith [who by faith]
...conquered kingdoms,
administered justice, obtained promises,
shut the mouths of lions...
What about Daniel there in the pit--
the lion's den.
Probably 83 years old.
And God shut the mouths of those lions.
...obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,
quenched the raging of fire,
escaped the edge of the sword,
gained strength after being weak,
became mighty in battle,
and put foreign armies to flight.
Powerful statement about heroes of faith.
Jeremiah certainly is included
in one of those categories.
In Hebrews chapter 12, the author
goes on to say:
Therefore...
In view of these examples.
In view of these witnesses--
Old Testament, New Testament:
...Therefore, since we also have such a
large cloud of witnesses surrounding us,
let us lay aside every weight and the sin...
And by the way, isn't it interesting
how he moves from a metaphor to a reality?
The metaphor is the weight that
a runner removes in order to
run the race successfully.
Stripping down.
But then he immediately goes to the reality
of what that weight can be in our lives: Sin.
...let us lay aside every weight and the sin
that so easily ensnares us.
Let us run with endurance the race
that lies before us,
keeping our eyes on Jesus...
That's the most important statement.
You see, these witnesses,
men like Jeremiah are great examples.
Great heroes.
But who's the greatest hero?
Who's the one that ought to be
the focus of everything?
Keeping our eyes on Jesus.
See the whole metaphor here is of a race.
Running a race.
And Jesus Christ is, in a sense, our goal.
...keeping our eyes on Jesus,
the source and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy that lay before Him
endured the cross and despised the shame
and has sat down at the
right hand of [the throne] God's throne.
You know, it's interesting.
There's a city, an ancient city in Turkey.
It's close to some of the cities
that are mentioned in the book of Revelation
where we have the churches.
And that one city is called Aphrodisias.
Elaine and I have been there.
We've been there with a group of people.
And there's an interesting--there's an interesting place
that I think might have been like
what the author of Hebrews
was talking about as a metaphor.
And here's what it looks like.
We've been there.
In fact, on the lower left part
of that picture, I've sat there.
And it's circular, as it were, oblong.
But it's all the way around.
And runners would run within that stadium.
But in the stands, and I remember as we sat there,
we talked about this passage.
The witnesses that are in that stand, as it were.
All of the people that are watching
those runners run. They're the ones
that have won that race--
cheering the other people on.
That's the illustration.
Perhaps he was thinking of
this particular stadium with this
metaphor of running the race
and keeping our eyes on Jesus.
Here's a Reflection and Response question:
How do we explain faith in God for deliverance
when some believers are delivered
from pain and death
but other true believers suffer and even die?
We talked about that Principle earlier.
Principle 27.
And the fact is that some people live
and some people die.
In fact, in Jeremiah's life, he lived.
And remember, Uriah died.
He was a prophet.
Same message as Jeremiah.
In the New Testament, two brothers,
James and John:
James died, John lived.
We think of John and Betty Stam
in China when the communists took over.
They died.
Other missionaries lived.
How do we answer that question?
We only can rely on faith in God
who is a sovereign creator.
And that illustrates Paul.
He was in prison.
He was in prison the first time
when he wrote to the Philippians.
And notice what he said:
I know this will lead
to my deliverance through your prayers
and help from the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
In this case, he was actually
delivered from prison.
But he went on to say:
Even if I die, I'm delivered.
I win, whatever.
Whether I live or whether I die.
If I live, that's good for me
to continue in ministry to others.
But if I die, that is far better.
What an incredible perspective.
I wish I could have that faith.
Faith to trust God in all circumstances.
How easy it is to doubt, isn't it?
God is our sovereign God.
So here is the Principle to Live By.
We are to trust God no matter
what our circumstances.