"Live Up To Your Calling"

JEREMIAH, THE MESSAGE

Jeremiah 1:4-5
4 Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
God is about to reveal to Jeremiah what his calling involves. In doing so, God wants Jeremiah to know that He chose him long before he was ever conceived.
We will look at five points of enlightenment and encouragement and education that God gives to Jeremiah, for the task before him will not be an easy one.
Jeremiah is not going to preach to a people and tell them how to divert the judgment to come.
He is going to preach to a people so they might know what to except and how to live under their authorities, that, will soon control their land.

I – GOD’S CALLING
In verse five we see God's special calling to Jeremiah.
God calls men to salvation and service. Don't get them mixed up and don’t get confused over man-made doctrine.
1 – SERVICE: Let's talk about God's calling to service first.
Understand, God cannot be put in a box. He doesn’t call everyone the same way.
He can call people from their mother's womb and even before they are conceived as he did with Jeremiah and John the Baptist.
Or He may call a man when he is eight years old as he did with Moses by appearing to him in a burning bush.
God called Paul to salvation and service when he appeared to Paul with a brightness that darkened the sun.
Has God called us to salvation and service? Yes! When?
Paul wrote in Ephesians believers and said, According as He (God) hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love (Ephesians 1:4).
God called you to Him before the foundation of the world. He called you to be part of His family. He called you to salvation.
But, He also called you to be, among other things, holy, separate from the world and completely and fully in love with Him.
That was God's calling for Jeremiah and that is God's calling for you and me.
God calls people different ways but for the same purpose. He wants us holy, separate and crazy in love with Him.
Just for your records, God called two great entities to be a light of His love. He called Israel. Through this nation God gave the prophets whom would write and preach God’s holy inspired word.
He gave to them the promises of salvation, truth and eternal life.
He gave the prophecies of what would happen in the future. Israel was to God's witness and God's light. They failed.
For the past 2,000 years God as called and ordained His Church, yea His bride to so love him and to so live for him that the world might stand amazed at the great love we have for God. I'm afraid most churches are failing.
Right before Jesus died, He said to His disciples, I have a new commandment for you. That commandment is that you love one another. The way the world will know you are of me is the love you show for your brother. Selah!
Yea God's call to service is one of love and righteousness.
2 – SALVATION:
Let's talk about Salvation. If you were Muslim, you would be taught that Allah is the true god and Mohammed is his prophet. You would learn that if you died by killing an infidel you would gain heaven with 72 virgins. You would have to pray 5 times a day facing Mecca and of course live by the Koran.
Now, if you were Catholic you would be taught that you would have to merit your way to heaven through many good works. You would have to belong to the Catholic Church. You would have to confess your sins to the priest. When you died you would, if you were a good Catholic, you would have to go to purgatory. Your wife and children would have to pray for Masses and engage in other means of works to help atone for your sins.
But, you aren’t Catholic; you are what the world calls a Protestant. In Protestant theology, wars were fought over to main views on the doctrine of Salvation: Calvinism and Arminianism.

CALVINISM: John Calvin was a Roman Catholic, humanist lawyer that came to the Lord. His background greatly influenced his teaching.
Simply put, Calvinism says that man is so dead in his sins and so blind that he has absolutely no choice in the matter of his salvation.
In other words, man has no free will to choose to be saved or lost.
It teaches that God elected whom He would elect and will save whom he would save and his grace is absolutely irresistible to the elect.
Sadly, however God would chose whom He would chose and if you were not on God’s list to go to heaven, you simply will not get to go.
And then it teaches, if you were on God’s list, then you will persevere to the end and if you don't persevere to the end, then you were never on God’s list in the first place.

ARMINIANISM: The other doctrinal view is Armianianism. The Armenian doctrine teaches that though God is sovereign and knows all things, man has a free will.
Man’s election is based on his faith in Jesus Christ. Though Jesus Christ died for the whole world, man has the free will to resist God’s salvation. Man is free to chose or reject Christ when he decides to. Then, lastly it says, man can fall from grace and lose his salvation.
BIBLICIST:

Now, I am a Biblicist. I don’t agree completely with Calvinism and I don’t agree completely with Arminianism.
I would be a 11/2 pt. Calvinist and a 3 1/2 point Arminianist.
I must based my belief of Salvation strongly on John 3:16 and Second Peter 3:9, along with the rest of the Bible.
Jesus said “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have ever lasting life.” I believe that Jesus Christ died for the whole world.
Peter said, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
I believe any person that hears the gospel has an opportunity to be saved. That separates me from Dr. Author Pink and John MacAuthor completely.
For the record, here is my brief belief of Salvation.
1 - God has made a way through His Son that every person born may be saved. The gospel is this: Jesus died was buried and rose again on the third day. This is what everyone must believe but is not enough to be saved.
2 – Man is a sinner. He is separate from God. As Biblical seeds are sown in the heart of man, he sees and senses the wonder of Salvation. He realizes that he must make a choice.
3 – However, according to John 1:11-13 man cannot get saved when he wills to get saved. (11He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.)
"But of God" means man must be convicted by God’s Holy Spirit (John 3:8; John 16:8). ( 8The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.)
And great old Baptist Preacher, Dr. R.G. Lee, 85 years old stood for the fundamentals of the faith. He preached at Highland Park Baptist Church in 1973. He said something I will never forget. He said, "I fear the day will come in America when we will preach a salvation apart from the conviction of the Holy Spirit. That day has been here for a long time.
4 – At this time, when God’s Spirit convicts, man must then surrender his life to the Lord. He must humbly ask the Lord to forgive him of his sins. Then as he prays with all earnestness and calls upon the Lord, he may be saved. (Romans 10:8-10).
Salvation is supernatural. Many of you have heard of the Prince of preachers, Dr. Charles Spurgeon. He packed out the Metropolitan Tabernacle every service. One week he preached that man was the elect of God and the next week he would preach you must exercise your free will and receive Christ as your Savior. Dr. Spurgeon knew that the key was the Holy Spirit. He must convict. He must convert.
5 – The true Christian will have a beautiful love for the Lord and the things of God. But, he is in a war. Satan will do everything he can to steal that love.
Some Christians will lose their love. Some will go AWOL, some will back slide, but most will remain faithful and all who have truly been saved will go to heaven.
You can’t lose that which God gives you. That is Salvation.
You are called to salvation and to service. But, you must chose Christ to be your Savior just as you must chose how much service you will give to Him.
It is a greater decision then getting married or having a child. Your decision if it is real will change your life for time and eternity.

II – GOD’S CONSULTATION
In verse 6-9, Isaiah has a talk with God about his calling.
6 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.
How old was Jeremiah? Well, it is evident that he was chosen before he was conceived.
It may be that he and God had some discussions when he was a youth, for that is what the word “child” means. Jeremiah may have been only a teenager or twenty when God called him to begin preaching.
He thus felt very uncomfortable preaching God’s word. I asked, "So, why did God call such a young man? It may be that he learned from his father the priest, Hilkiah, what truth was. And God wanted someone to preach truth. And it may be that God knew that Jeremiah would make a better prophet than he would make a priest.
What good is a priest to make sacrifices for a people when their hearts are not prepared to receive those sacrifices.
Jeremiah 1:7 But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.
I have noticed that those who are truly called of God feel unworthy.
To preach God’s Holy Book is a divine calling and it is at times a lonely calling.
We would all like to preach like Peter and see 3,000 saved, but in the last days of Israel and Judah few walked with God. And in the last days we are living in today, we may see people like Jeremiah saw.
Their faces were like flint and their backbones were like rock.
A preacher or any of Gods’ children who wants to witness for Christ must do so because they know God has called them to do so, not because of the response they may receive.
Let me say, I thank God for the good people we have at our Church. If I preached to many churches what I preach to you I would be met with so very hard looks and probably would never receive an invitation to return.
God tells Jeremiah in verse 8, “Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.”
Someone said to me, "Did you see such a person's countenance this morning?" I said, "No." They said, "It was evident they didn't enjoy the message. Her face was truly hard."
Listen, you laughed a lot at some humor in the message this morning. I did not put one funny thing in the message. God added every humorous saying because He knew it need a little humor.
I don't look at people's faces when I preach. If I look at you it is just coincidental.
Some folks say, ‘How can I be a better witness?” Ask God to do for you what He did for Jeremiah in verse 9. “Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.”
God touches us differently today. He touches us with His spirit and with His Scriptures. That is the way He puts His words in our mouths.

III – GOD’S COMMAND
10 See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.
When God called a prophet, He gave that prophet great power. God’s prophets had the power to turn water to blood and call down fire from heaven. They had the power to send plagues upon a people and the power to wither people physical well-beings. They had the power to bless and they had the power to curse.
God gave this power to Jeremiah. But because his mind and heart was filled with God’s holy Word, God knew Jeremiah would use his power righteously.
We have an important application here: God gives us authority to be parents, husbands and pastors. Are we using our authority righteously?

IV GOD’S CORRELATION
God gives two parallel illustrations to Jeremiah.
In verse 11-12 God ask Jeremiah what he sees. And Jeremiah says, I see a rod of an almond tree.
11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.
12 Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.
What is the significance of the rod of an Almond tree? The rod is the shoot which has just been transplanted. It would take only about three years before the fruit would produce.
The almond tree is the first to blossom in mid-winter and the last to bear fruit. God is saying, when the judgment begins, it will not end until everything I have said has come to pass.
The key word is “almond.” It is the Hebrew word “shaked” and means to watch diligently or wait.
Jeremiah would wait and watch for forty years and everything God tells him to preach will happen.
Secondly, Jeremiah sees a seething pot.
13 And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.
The seething pot referred to a boiling pot of judgment. It spoke of a war that would soon come upon Jerusalem and Judah.
Why must this war come? Why won’t God stop it? We know that the king, Josiah, will do everything righteously possible, yet the judgment from the north would come anyway.
Most Bible expositor preachers believe that the days will get worse and worse. The terrible conditions to come may bring revivals to many churches where truth has been sown for years. I pray that will take place.
Will that stop the judgment to come? Will that stop the tribulation? Sadly, it will not for America or this world. But, neither did the revival in Josiah's last days stay God's hand.
But, one thing it will do. Many will come to know the Lord.
So, you see why Jeremiah was not loved very much by the Hebrew people in Judah. He was a prophet of truth but his truth was doom.
God had offered forgiveness and mercy for years, but the people ignored God. Now it was too late.
He tells them who would invade their land and why?.
Who would invade Judah? 14 Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
15 For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set everyone his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.
A map of the Middle East in the days of Josiah will reveal that Babylon was to their North and east. They controlled all of the Middle East. But, when they came to conquer Judah and Jerusalem, they would come down from the mountains north of Jerusalem. We know literary that the walls and gates of Jerusalem were destroyed, but always remember this, before a physical transactions takes place in a nation, the spiritual transactions has already transpired.
The gates of the city refer to the government. Thus who made the laws had allowed to much evil to reign in the land for too long.
The walls referred to the truths of God’s word which people were to build their lives upon, but sadly, God’s word was unimportant in most people’s lives.
Why would they invade Judah?
16 And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.
That is pretty clear. Judah had lived wickedly. They had forsaken God's ways. O, they would declare that they loved God and was living for Him but, they had give of themselves to other gods.
This past week I talked to a wife that told me her husband didn't sin anymore.
A god was an entity to which a people gave themselves whole heartedly. They gave their thoughts, their emotions and their time to their god. They talked about their god and it was their god that gave them joy.
In America we don’t want to admit it but many folks have many different gods. Jesus Christ is to be our God. He should be the One who gives us joy and love. He is the one who should stir us emotionally.
If it is true our god or God is the entity that gives us joy and stirs our emotions and if it is he, whom we think upon most of the time, just who would your god be? I have downloaded the new Testament to my IPOD. It is wonderful. I listen to it when I go to the gym, do physical work, or ride down the road. It is wonderful to be able to listen to God's word all day long.
The burning of incense to other gods was literal in Jerusalem, but it refers to a person’s prayers life. Question: Are your prayers for the will of God to be done in your life. Or is your prayer for God to do your will? Sad but true, many folks worship to much of self! This was Israel's great sin.

V – GOD’S CONSOLATION.
God now gives consolation to Jeremiah, for He knows when Jeremiah tells the people of Judah, the visions God has given him, they will not be happy.
17 Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.
A man of God must speak truth.
He preaches truth because of time he has spent alone with God.
If someone were to ask me, “Preacher, what seest thou? What do you see for America?” Would you want to know what is in your pastor’s heart?
I try to preach God’s word to you as it is written. I try to be kind and gentle. I sense that most people in our church want to hear the whole council of God and that is good.
I know some have made changes in their personal life and family life and that is good.
Please don't ever stop changing for the Lord. Don't ever stop drawing closer to Him.
I know according to God's word, if we will draw closer to God, He will draw closer to us. We can have his love and joy and peace.
Our righteous living will touch God's heart that can prevent judgment and bring peace in our hearts and in our families, though it may not divert the judgment our nation must face one day.
We can see souls saved and lives changed.
Our homes can be places of envy to the unsaved world and our churches can places of great joy and wonder.
But, Judgment is coming to America.
Let me rephrase that, judgment has already begun on America.
Twenty years ago, in the 1980's when everything was doing so well, I preached a message from the words of President Ronald Reagan. He said, "America is back." I asked that question and I told you this. Financially and economically things were going well but morally things were worse than ever. There was more drunkenness, adultery, co-habitation, drugs then ever in America. Sin was running rampant. Men were lovers of self, children were disobedient to their parents, the laws of sodomy and abortion was being paraded down main street.
God had been kicked out of our schools and every public arena and it is worse today than then. I told you two ways we could recognize God's judgment. First, we would sense disunity in our family and second judgment would fall upon our finances.
We could keep our family problems behind closed doors and with charge cards we could keep our financial problems behind closed doors. But, now it has affect our nation.
We want to fix the environment. We want to fix the economy. We want to fix the education problem. We want to fix out health care problems.
But, nobody is trying to fix the hearts of men.
Friend, our problem in America is our hearts are evil.
We can blame others, but we must see as Isaiah did when he came before God's throne. He said, "Woe is me for I am undone, I am a man with unclean lips."
So we come to this final thought. Can we fix America? Let me say, don't worry about fixing America, just fix yourself.
Worship Christ in your heart and in your home. That is your hope!
God told Jeremiah in verse 17 to tell them the truth. He ends this chapter by saying these words:
18 For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.
19 And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for

I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.
Jeremiah, nobody is going to like what you say. With truth come tribulation. But, wait! I will protect you, for I am with thee, saith the Lord."
Christian, thirty-five years ago I heard that in Russia, if you were a Christian, your education and positions in the public sector was altered and limited. It is happening all over America today, especially in public education and politics. Are you willing to take a stand for God in these last days? It may cost you a lot, I pray you will stand.