"While he was still confined in the guard’s courtyard, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time: 2 “The Lord who made the earth, the Lord who forms it to establish it, Yahweh is His name, says this: 3 Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know. 4 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the houses of this city and the palaces of Judah’s kings, the ones torn down for defense against the siege ramps and the sword: 5 The people coming to fight the Chaldeans will fill the houses with the corpses of their own men that I strike down in My wrath and rage. I have hidden My face from this city because of all their evil. 6 Yet I will certainly bring health and healing to it and will indeed heal them. I will let them experience the abundance of peace and truth. 7 I will restore the fortunes of Judah and of Israel and will rebuild them as in former times. 8 I will purify them from all the wrongs they have committed against Me, and I will forgive all the wrongs they have committed against Me, rebelling against Me. 9 This city will bear on My behalf a name of joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the good I will do for them. They will tremble with awe because of all the good and all the peace I will bring about for them.
10 “This is what the Lord says: In this place, which you say is a ruin, without man or beast—that is, in Judah’s cities and Jerusalem’s streets that are a desolation without man, without inhabitant, and without beast—there will be heard again 11 a sound of joy and gladness, the voice of the groom and the bride, and the voice of those saying,
Praise the Lord of Hosts,
for the Lord is good;
His faithful love endures forever
for the Lord is good;
His faithful love endures forever
as they bring thank offerings to the temple of the Lord. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as in former times, says the Lord."
Jeremiah 33:1-11I've always been especially grateful for the simplicity of God's profound ways. Though His ways, often seem beyond discovery for the proud heart, they are in reality simple and inviting to those who love Him and wish to seek Him.
Our text today teaches us that God reveals Himself and what He is about in or due to prayer. Life tried and perplex Jeremiah, both his life and by all that was going on around him. Things seemed to be going from bad to worse, for him and for the nation. Was there any hope? Where could he find a solution for the problems and answers for the future?
Good Morning Beloved,
I am so thankful you're all here today.
Thank You for joining us.
Heavenly Father,
I just thank You Father, for the invitation, for the prompting of the hearts of those gathered with us today. Lord, I give thanks to You for their honoring Your call. We come today rejoicing, bringing all our sheaves with us, that have been bound and prepared, awaiting Your further processing.
Lord, we ask You to help each of us, that we would first of all, that we would individually to come to a place of self-examination, to honesty within our own hearts, that might each begin to see what kind of soil we really are. Not as we have come to believe that we are, but as You see us.
Father, we know that all men are able to receive, but for some, the conditions aren’t right. Gracious and Loving Lord, if there would be some among us today, whose hard-hearted, stiff-necked soil is in need of breaking up, that You would just plow that under. Those whose faith is shallow, reach deep into their lives and get to those hidden places, those hardened places, that Your Hand would today, touch those resistant places and break them up.
And Father, we pray for those whose lives are yet filled with the roots, the fibers of the weeds of destruction, who are still filled with the selfish cares of this present day and age, the deceitfulness of riches, the worldly system, the immoral sins of this life, the things that they want from out of their own selfish, self centered desires, cleanse them, Lord, that they would be made pure in Your sight. That You might cause there to be true repentance, then faith, a faith and belief toward Your Son, Jesus Christ.
We ask and pray In Jesus' name
The name above all names, Jesus
Amen and Amen
Beloved, I pray that as we begin to examine our text today more closely, that we will receive this glorious Word that God has for us and therefore, apply it, to our own lives. That not only might we be changed, but we will impact the lives of those around us, those who are, precious and so dear to us. That we would not just talk about our faith casually, as we so often do, but that with bold faith, we would begin, with a renew faith, and start afresh, proclaiming these truths to the unregenerate world, and in obedience, living out the Word of God in our lives. That we might be the example of Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord and Living Savior.
And now I invite each of you, to open your Bibles with me, to the book of Jeremiah.
Today, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, we will be specifically studying chapter 33, verses 1 through 11. Jeremiah 33:1-11
In Matthew chapter 7:7-8, we are told, "Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."
And so, here in our text today, God assured Jeremiah that he had only to call upon Him, and He would answer. His answers would be marvelous, for God, does not only know the future, but He holds the future, within His hands, and even more meaningfully, He holds our future, in His hands.
We see that Jeremiah, has learned that divine revelation becomes a reality when it is sought. One must seek it. And by calling out to God, he finds God's enabling to live out his God given hope of future restoration in a time of personal crisis and national emergency. His hope and the focus of His ministry was for divine restoration. God now invites him to ask Him for what seems humanly impossible.
Allow me to just set the background for our passage today. Jeremiah records these verses while he was imprisoned in the court of the guard, where the elders and the king's officials could consult him, verse 1, Jerusalem was under siege. Jeremiah's country men were depraved and rebellious against God. They plotted against his life, to silence him instead of heeding his message. Jeremiah is distressed, perplexed and confounded. God has just answered Jeremiah's prayer for understanding in Jeremiah 32:16-25 by assuring him that nothing is to difficult for the God of all mankind in 32:27 .
Though His people were defiant and rebellious, God would unify them in singleness of heart through an everlasting covenant and by putting the fear of God in their hearts. Jeremiah's restored confidence in God, His plan, His provision, and His power make him ready to be challenged by God to ask for the restoration of His people to the will and way of God.
Beloved, those who expect to receive comforts from God, must first call upon Him. Promises are given, not to do away with, but to quicken and encourage our prayers. These promises are therefore intended, to lead us to the gospel of Christ; and in that, God reveals truth to us, to guide and direct us, and His peace to make us easy. And all who by His sanctifying grace, are cleansed from the filth of sin, that has plagued their lives, by His pardoning mercies, are then freed from its guilt.
Beloved, for when sinners are therefore justified, cleansed, washed, purified and sanctified in the name of Jesus Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, they are then enabled to walk before God in righteousness, peace and purity. Many are led to perceive the real difference between the people of God and those of this fallen world around them, and to fear His Divine wrath.
For it is promised that the people who were long in sorrow, shall again be filled with joy. Christ's joy and brought with Him, to the place where the Lord gives righteousness and peace. A place where He will give all needful supplies for temporal wants; and all that we have will be then comforts, as sanctified by the Word and by prayer.
I would like to take this opportunity, to point out, God's invitation, which is to us, at the beginning of verse 3: "Call to Me..."
God invites Jeremiah and He invites each and every one of us today, to call upon Him. How difficult, how complicated is that? In any situation that we're facing, from any place in which we find ourselves, in any situation, in any language, in any health, just call to Him. I would also like to point out here, that this cry out to God, doesn't need to be eloquent, profound or rehearsed. There is no requirement for structure, or of wording or posture, but to simply call on Him.
And, in doing so, God is telling us, that if we will only call to Him, He "will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know."
He invites us all to call upon Him when you're happy and to rejoice in His blessings. He invites us, to call when your sad and find yourselves in need of His comfort. Call when your guilty and you will encounter His cleansing. To call when you're depressed , to hear His Words of encouragement.
Beloved, God invites us all to call upon Him, when our world is upside down and watch Him reveal a new world.. We can call when our burden is heavy and the Holy Spirit will come and pray for you. To call when your strength is too little and your faith is to weak. He will then mount you on eagles' wings, you will run and not be weary, you will walk and talk together and not faint, as written in Isaiah 40:31
And, this is also a call for Jeremiah to test the Lord. God stood ready to answer. The thought though is that we must ask if we would receive. God not only wants us to ask He has placed Himself in dependency upon our asking, as written in James 4:2 and Matthew 6:10.
And in creating man with a free will, that is the ability to make his own choices, and making man a partner in subduing the earth, God voluntarily limited Himself. He made His work on earth dependent upon man, upon what man would do or not do. God commissioned man with the responsibility to subdue and rule over the earth in Genesis 1:28. Therefore, in God giving man responsibility for life on the earth He also limited His own involvement. God involves Himself as man, His care taker, makes request of Him. Man by his prayer holds the lifeline to the blessings and specific involvement of God in human affairs.
That is the reason Jesus taught us to ask that God’s will be done in the affairs of earth as it is in the affairs of Heaven in Matthew 6:10. The sovereign God has given man the responsibility to realize his need for God’s activity in human affairs and the obligation ask for it. How is God's will enacted on earth? God brings His will to earth by man's calling out to Him for it.
Obviously we must ask if we are indeed going to receive, as Jesus teaches in Matthew 7:7, and we have not because we do not ask, as told to us in James 4:2. Beloved, that is why we are encouraged to ask by the fact that God will answer with the next part of verse 3. Then, Divine promise and the superior expectation, then come together.
Our part is to ask; God's part is to answer. Again, i point to the second half of verse 3: "...and I will answer you."
In His invitation to call upon Him, God includes the assurance that He would answer. Call and He will answer. God stands ready and able to answer our prayers. We should have an expectation and confidence that He will respond. The promise is then the imagery, that when you open the door on your side, you will not find it to be bolted on God's side. God here guarantees that we will receive the sought for aid and assistance, that we call upon Him for. Call and He will answer! I just cannot stress this enough.
And in I John 5:14-15, "Now this is the confidence we have before Him: Whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for."
Psalm 55:17, teaches us, again this same concept, where it says, "But I call to God, and the Lord will save me. I complain and groan morning, noon, and night, and He hears my voice. Though many are against me, He will redeem me from my battle unharmed."
Can God answer all the great and formidable needs of life? The answer is found in the first two verses of Jeremiah chapter 33, "While he was still confined in the guard’s courtyard, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time: "The Lord who made the earth, the Lord who forms it to establish it, Yahweh is His name, says this.."
Beloved, if God can create the world, the sun and the stars and hold them in their place, He can most certainly create an answer to your prayer and properly enact it. These words of praise serve as a reminder that He who created this world has power to answer all prayer and restore any one or any nation. Though Jeremiah might be imprisoned but God is not bound. Let Jeremiah pray to Him at a time when He may be found.
Beloved, God is saying to all of us today, that time is right now!
The fact that God desires to answer, combined wit the marvelous truth, that He is able to answer. We then see. that so few answers to our prayers is an outright call to confess before Almighty God, our prayerlessness and repent of it. Our lack of consecration to uphold our responsibility to ask has held back God's blessings from each of us and this great nation, and furthermore, the world.
The truth is God, has been ready to save, but we have not been willing to sacrifice our adulterous love affair with the fallen world, long enough to ask. Yet, ask we must. Take up your sacred privileged and call upon God. Beseech Him today for His protection, for His help, and deliverance in time of need.
God stands ready and able to answer, but we must ask for His assistance. Think of how God is hindered and disappointed when His children seldom pray, and if they do, most seek only for their selfish desires. The weakness of the church, the lack of the Holy Spirit' power, is all due to the lack of prayer. How different the state of the church and the world would be if God’s people were to call on Him unceasingly. I Thessalonians 5:17-18, says "Pray constantly. Give thanks in everything,
for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."
And I'm sure you remember what a man of prayer Daniel was, right? One of the three best intercessors along with Noah & Job in the Old Testament according to Ezekiel 14:14, 14:20. And in Daniel 9:2-20, he cried out to God for his people. He told God to look at his repentance and asked God to remember the prophetic promise to Jeremiah, recorded in Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10, that He would restore His people from Babylonian captivity after 70 years. God heard, forgave, and took action to bring about the restoration of His people.
"Lord, hear! Lord, forgive! Lord, listen and act! My God, for Your own sake, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name. While I was speaking, praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my petition before Yahweh my God concerning the holy mountain of my God."
Daniel 9:19-20.
Oh yes, beloved, God could certainly take care of all our needs and our problems in this fallen world without our asking, but He has bound Himself to us and we must acknowledge our need for Him and ask His involvement. Does God need our help? No, of course not. He is all powerful and in control of everything in His creation. Why do we need to pray? Because prayer is the means God has ordained for some things to happen. And prayer can remove the human obstacles that stand in the way, in order for God to work. It is not that God can’t work without our prayers, but that He has established prayer as part of His plan for accomplishing His will in this world.
We must call upon Him who can accomplish what our feeble strength could never do, whether we be all together or alone. We must ask! We must humble ourselves II Chronicles 7:14-15, says, "and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. My eyes will now be open and My ears attentive to prayer from this place.
In other words, we must lay aside our willfulness and preoccupations, seek His face in prayer.
It is our fault that God does not cheer our minds with a joyful and encouraging word, because we have closed the door to God, so as to prevent Him from offering us the encouragement for which we long. Yet, we expect God to be favorable toward us, we do not give entrance to His grace, because we bolt the doors to our hearts closed, so to speak, by shutting off communication with Him. Therefore, God says to us, "Cry to Me, and I will answer you."
Allow me to just add here, prayer is not just about our asking for God’s blessings, as so many today have come to believe, though we are encouraged to do so, but it is about communication with the living God. And as with any relationship, without communication, the relationship falls apart. So, too, will our relationship with God. And believe it or not, God suffers when we do not communicate with Him.
God however, does not simply answer as the third part of verse 3 states. "...and I will tell you great and mighty things which you do not know."
God wants to reveal great and unsearchable or besurot: inaccessible or impenetrable, things to us. The principle adjective impenetrable is used of strongly fortified cities as in Deuteronomy 1:28; Jeremiah 34:7, protected by high walls. The idea is that the greatest things of God are not learned, attained, or conquered by human strength or wisdom but first received by seeking the Lord through believing prayer. The things of God are inaccessible to the searching and attaining of natural man I Corinthians 2:14. They must be revealed by the Sovereign Creator. Because Jeremiah asked the Lord to teach him, God showed him hidden things and granted promises that gave Jeremiah assurance and encouragement for the future in the midst of man's rebellion.
Inaccessible here refers to matters and answers so far beyond human insight that they require divine revelation and grace. Things beyond the grasp of what we already know, or can be learn by empirical study alone. He will make known to those who ask, things that are unattainable by means of human discernment and human strength. God can and does reveal what He desires, to whom He desires, when He desires. The only prerequisite given here was that one like Jeremiah, one with devotion and desire should call out for God's answer.
The people of Israel though had made void the promises of God, by a life of sin, by a life of self-sufficiency, by a life of not calling on the Lord so that He would have opportunity to answer them. Those who expect to receive blessings from God, must call upon Him. Promises are given, not to do away with, but to invigorate and encourage prayer. Prayer is in so many ways, essential to our relationship with God. Prayer reminds us that we are not in control, but God is, therefore keeping us humble, which is a virtue God desires for us, And furthermore, it keeps us from pride. Prayers also strengthens the relationship between believers, when we pray with other believers, prayer also strengthens the bonds between our fellow Christians.
The power of prayer, this word came to Jeremiah when he was in prison. No confinement can deprive God's people of His presence; no locks nor bars can shut out His gracious visits. Oftentimes, as our afflictions abound, our consolations much more abound, and we have the most reviving communications of His favor when the world frowns upon us.
God stood ready to burst upon the prophet with great and mighty things that had been previously inaccessible. Right within the prison walls, Jeremiah was handed this comprehensive good news.
Many of us, often find ourselves to be prisoners of sorts, imprisoned by certain circumstances, which we're unable to control. Rather than feeling isolated by them, we can be like Jeremiah and allow that prison to be the very place where God whispers His holy wisdom into our hearts. God means for us to share what it is we learn from inside our emotional "prison walls" of difficulty and despair.
However, likely the greatest blessing of prayer, is the answer, as well as the presence and companionship with God, in prayer and due to our prayer.
There are heights in experiential knowledge of the things of God that the greatest scientific knowledge and philosophic thought has never even conceived of. God alone can bear us there, but the chariot in which He takes us up, and the fiery steeds which carry that chariot are prevailing prayers.
Prevailing prayers are victorious with the God of Mercy.
Beloved, God is the only One who knows what the future holds for you. He wants to prepare you for that future right now. God will help you to understand why you are going through what you are going through. He will help you understand what He is wanting to prepare you for not only here on earth, but preparing you for in heaven also. God is doing a work of eternity in us here and now. Be encouraged. Be strengthen. Call upon the Lord God! And believe me, He will answer!
Are you facing a situation that is too difficult for you to handle?
Are you struggling with finding the answers to questions, that would mystify even the wisest men the world has to offer?
Allow me to encourage you today, to give your problem to Jesus, and He will solve your problems in incredible ways that you never thought possible! Now, that does not mean He will remove your problem, but He will be present in the middle of it with you, take your hand, and walk with you through it!
So, whatever your problem, whatever your situation, no matter how heavy your burden, whatever your need, I invite you to pray, ask God to guide you. God has just the right answer for you!
So, be encouraged. Be strengthen. Just call upon the Lord God!
He will answer!
And for those of you who do not yet know God if you still haven't accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, there's a heavy burden on my heart, I'd like to invite you to pray, to encourage you to receive the gift of salvation, today, before it's too late.
Just pray this prayer and watch Jesus Christ transform your life, from the inside out!
Dear Lord Jesus,
I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust you and follow You as my Lord and Savior.
In Your name, Amen
Beloved, this message is a call to prayer, and You're All Invited !
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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