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[0:00] So, the second session in the study in Jeremiah.

[0:15] ! Some of the things we see tonight a bit of repetition from last week,! but for the most part there's some new stuff in here, so we'll consider that in just a little bit.

[0:26] So, we'll be back in Jeremiah chapter 1, and let's read again the first 10 verses just to begin the study this evening. Well, let's start in verse 4.

[0:37] Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 4. Then the word of the Lord came to me, that's Jeremiah, saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew and approved of you as my chosen instrument.

[0:49] And before you were born, I separated and set you apart, consecrating you. And I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. Now, by the way, remember I'm reading out of the Amplified Version here.

[1:02] Then said I, Ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am only a youth. But the Lord said to me, Say not, I am only a youth, for you shall go to all to whom I shall send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.

[1:19] Be not afraid of them, that's their faces, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord. Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

[1:32] See, I have this day appointed you to the oversight of the nations and of the kingdoms to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow and to build and to plant.

[1:47] And that last verse just really gives us more of an indication of some things that God's going to do through Jeremiah in this ministry that He's placed him and as a prophet.

[1:58] Again, let me remind you that last week we said the focus of our study through this is going to be basically on Jeremiah, Jeremiah on his call to become a prophet and his response to that call so that we in turn can look at what God's called us to do in our lives and then see how we have responded to that specific or general call that God has given to us.

[2:27] So keep that in mind as we look at these things tonight. Now, God called Jeremiah to become a prophet in the year 629 B.C.

[2:40] and his ministry of prophecy continued for 40 years. Now, as we begin to look at the character of the nation that he's going to be preaching to, 40 years is a long time, my friends, to be ministering God's word to a bunch of hard-headed, rejecting, backslidden people known as the people of God.

[3:05] Amen? Yeah, so 40 years is a long time, so keep that in mind. To put it in perspective here, it was 346 years after the covenant nation of Israel was divided in two.

[3:18] Remember, that happened. After Solomon died later on, after a bit of time, the nation divided in two. The ten of the tribes formed what's known as the northern kingdom of Israel, headquartered themselves in Samaria, and then the last two tribes, the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a state in Jerusalem and became the southern kingdom, basically known as the southern kingdom of Judah, although both tribes were included in that.

[3:53] So, Jeremiah, in his ministry, in his calling of God, was called to be the prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah. But yet there are still times in the prophecy that he addresses both, and sometimes even considers them as still a unified nation, as the people of God, the people or the covenant nation of God.

[4:14] And so keep that in mind, if you will. So, as we saw at the first four verses last week, this was in the 13th year of the reign of Josiah, and it was a time when the kingdom of Judah had unbroken peace from everyone, in particular from the Assyrian army.

[4:35] Assyria at the time was just going rampant, eating up nations, eating up kingdoms, eating up countries. But at this juncture of Jeremiah's call to ministry, Judah was pretty well having peace, even with Assyria.

[4:51] And the reason being is because of what happened in the time of King Hezekiah. Since the 14th year of King Hezekiah's reign, there was no longer any fear of power from the Assyrians.

[5:06] In that time, the northern kingdom had been taken captive by Assyria. So they were captive people to the north, those 10 tribes. And that happened 95 years prior to Jeremiah's call of God to be the prophet to Judah.

[5:25] So that captivity, of course, was a result of their apostasy from God and their idolatry. The idolatry came when Jeroboam, who was the king of the northern kingdom, established two places of worship.

[5:40] His idea was, you know, we've got to have places to worship. When we were a unified nation as the covenant people of God, we had one place to worship.

[5:50] So we're going to have two. All right. So he erected places of worship in Dan and Bethel. And in both places, erected an image, erected a calf image, if you will, just like they did when they came out of Egypt and came to Sinai.

[6:09] Erected a calf image to place in both those areas, Dan and Bethel, to worship God. Now, think about this just a minute. Idolatry, when we think of idolatry, most of the time we think of people worshiping idle gods, different gods.

[6:27] But when Jeroboam placed those two calves in Dan and Bethel, it was not the idea of worshiping a different god. Those were to be a representation of Jehovah God.

[6:40] All right. Now, there was two things wrong with what he did. What were they? Okay. No graven image to even represent him.

[6:52] So that was the first strikeout. What was the second? When, when, was it when he spoke to David? What did God say about Jerusalem or what would be Jerusalem?

[7:06] He said, this is the place where I'm going to place my name. Jerusalem.

[7:17] In other words, this is the place where I'm going to inhabit with my people, Israel. And this then will be the place to worship.

[7:30] No place else. It didn't make any difference whether Jeroboam put those calves in those places or not. Just the idea of erecting places of worship to Jehovah in Bethel and Dan was sin because God said, no, it's going to be in Jerusalem.

[7:47] That's where I'm going to dwell with my people. Not in Dan, not in Bethel. All right. So you see the two things that Jeroboam and the northern kingdom had against themselves.

[8:00] Now, when the northern kingdom was taken captive, what I say, 96 years prior to Jeremiah's call to ministry, consider the idea that the southern kingdom, already in existence before Jeremiah's call, the southern kingdom of Judah had right at 100 years to look at what happened in the northern kingdom.

[8:28] 100 years. They knew they had been taken captive by Assyria and they knew why. They knew it was the result of their idolatry in particular.

[8:41] And then the other case of erecting other places of worship. They knew that. They had 100 years to watch that, to look at that. But yet what happened?

[8:54] Aren't people just really hard-headed? Amen. Yeah. Yeah. Takes us a long time and takes a lot to take place for us to really get it. And that's what happened with Judah.

[9:06] Even though they saw that idolatry in the northern kingdom, and now under Hezekiah, they are in relative peace from Assyria. They still end up going into idolatry.

[9:24] Now, so Judah's history, if you really consider it, Judah's history is just a complete cycle. All right? A cycle of sin, a cycle of God raising someone up, and then they come to repentance for a while, and they go right back into sin, and the cycle just continues.

[9:43] Under Hezekiah's ministry, though, something changed. As early as the grain of Ahaz, idolatry became the thing of popularity in the kingdom.

[9:57] Ahaz began that practice of idol worship along the kingdom, but also he was completely opposed to the idea of a theocratic kingdom, of the idea of having a kingdom in which God himself ruled over them.

[10:21] He was totally opposed to that. And so as a result of that, then they became just a complete nation of idol worshipers. All right? And as a result, though, Judah had sunk into dependence upon Assyria.

[10:36] Now, Hezekiah comes on the scene, and Assyria would have gobbled him up had Hezekiah not been the man of God that he was.

[10:50] During the reign of Hezekiah, revival broke out amongst the people of Judah. They repented of their sin. They returned back to their faithful God who loved them and cared for them in the midst of their idolatry.

[11:09] Hezekiah tore down the high places, the idols, all those things. And so it was a time of rejoicing and joy in the kingdom of Judah as a result of their returning back to the Lord.

[11:25] Now, as a result, God did some tremendous things for them. Go over with me, if you will, to 2 Kings chapter 19. Look at 2 Kings chapter 19.

[11:37] Remember what God did here for the people of Judah? Yeah, chapter 19.

[11:59] There's a king by the name of Sennacherib of Assyria that was just really giving the people of the southern kingdom fits.

[12:10] He even wrote a letter, in essence, that said, no other kingdom had a God that could stand up against us.

[12:23] We've just taken every kingdom we've gone up against. What makes you think your God's going to be able to deliver you? He won't. He won't be able to do that. Well, Hezekiah got a copy of that letter, read it, and then went to visit with Isaiah and said, we need to pray.

[12:42] All right? That's a good thing to do. Amen? Yeah, when you're in straits, good thing to pray. When all else fails, pray. What a theme, huh? Now, so Isaiah prays to the Lord, and God answers them.

[12:58] Look at verse 20. Let's start there. Well, verse 19. Now, therefore, O Lord, notice that's Jehovah, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only.

[13:16] Now, catch that with me, if you will. Do you think God's going to hesitate to answer positively with that motive in mind? No, He didn't say, He didn't say, God, deliver us, conquer Sennacherib, so we won't be destroyed.

[13:35] He doesn't say that. He said, do that, if you will, save us out of his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art Jehovah Elohim, even thou only.

[13:51] Amen? Amen. Didn't say that you're the Lord God of Judah, but that that's who you are. You're the Lord God. So that every kingdom of the world can see that you are the Lord God.

[14:04] That's the motive of their prayer. Now, look what happens. Verse 20. Then Isaiah the son of Amos sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, I have heard.

[14:24] This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning him. The virgin daughter Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn.

[14:35] The daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? And against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high, even against the Holy One of Israel?

[14:52] Now, go on down here to verse 34. God says, I will defend this city, Jerusalem, and save it for mine own sake and for my servant David's sake.

[15:11] And it came to pass that that night, notice this, that, boy, they didn't even have to pick up a sword. That night, the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred and four score.

[15:30] That's 185,000 men. And when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. Amen.

[15:41] Now, the dead corpses didn't arise in a wake. It's whoever was left over. Amen. Particularly Sennacherib and all those rulers or understudies he had.

[15:53] When they woke up, 185,000 of their men were dead. Yeah. Nobody raised a sword against them. What do you think they thought?

[16:06] Verse 36 says, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and went and returned and dwelt in Nineveh. And it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nishroch, his god that Adrammelech and Shesior, his sons, smote him with a sword, and they escaped into the land of Armenia.

[16:28] Yeah. Wouldn't you love to live in a world where you can't even trust your sons? Amen. Now, so, God miraculously delivered Judah from Assyria.

[16:44] Nothing like it since their deliverance from Egypt. All right. Now, so great revival broke out. But what generally happened with Israel and Judah, whether it's Northern Kingdom, Southern Kingdom, or the United Kingdom, what usually happened in cases like that?

[17:02] The king dies at some point. Now, he had a good long reign. But as everybody else ends up doing at some point, he dies.

[17:14] And as tradition took place, he was succeeded by his son. What a sad case, though, that his son didn't learn anything from his dad.

[17:30] Because as Hezekiah was one of the greatest, most godly kings Judah had, his son was just the opposite. He became the most ruthless and ungodly king Israel ever had.

[17:48] Started the reign at 12 years of age. Not very old. 12 years of age when he became king over Judah.

[17:59] So, in spite of the fact he no doubt saw his dad do what he did, he probably just really didn't know what he was doing. All right. So, he reigned then 55 years as the most godless king of all of Israel.

[18:14] And as a result, idolatry again rose its head up and reached its peak in that time of his reign. Now, so he restored all the pagan high places, all the altars of Baal, and even went so far as erecting an image to Asherah in the house of God, the temple.

[18:36] So, the nation was then seduced back to sin against God. Now, as we said last week, Jeremiah's father was a priest to the nation of Israel.

[18:47] And his grandfather was a high priest during the reign of King David. So, he knew well what the Mosaic law had to say. And he knew the value as well and the truth of God's prophetic word.

[19:01] So, he had that background and understood the word of God. Get this principle now for us, if you will. We recognize the submission of Jeremiah to God's call.

[19:17] It didn't take much. He hesitated for a little bit, ran some excuses by God. But that didn't last long. He began to obey God once God responded to his objection. So, the imperative thing for us as well, in responding to God's call, is that understanding God's word, understanding what it says, and then being obedient to it, is a prerequisite.

[19:46] I'm whack with it. Well, hello folks. A prerequisite to being able to fulfill God's call. Knowing what God's word says, understanding it, and then being obedient to it.

[20:01] You know, anytime we have a hesitation to obey God's word. And sometimes, sometimes it's tempting to do that.

[20:15] But anytime we find ourselves doing that, we need to stop and recognize what we're doing and come back to the Lord and say, God, I'm sorry. Forgive me of that sin of rejecting your word.

[20:28] But that is prerequisite for our calling of God in our lives. Of course, as we saw last week, Jesus knew that well in fulfilling the ministry that God had him to do, the Father had him to do.

[20:43] In Matthew chapter 4, wilderness experience, remember. When he goes and faces Satan face to face, we have a record of three accounts of the temptation.

[20:56] Of three temptation accounts. Each time, there's a particular way that God, that Jesus responded to what Satan had to say. Satan would throw out his temptation, and what would Jesus say?

[21:12] It is written. It's written. Here's what God says. Again, not just the idea of quoting Scripture here. The idea is, what Jesus was doing was, just reiterating to Satan, verbally, what he was thinking in his mind.

[21:33] Here's what God says. You're saying this, but here's what God says. You see, the word of God took such a place in his life, in his heart, in his humanity, that he was living the word of God.

[21:48] Just living it spontaneously. Here's what God says. You know, if we could learn to let the Spirit of God do that, and dig into the word on such consistent, regular basis, to learn it and understand it, so that it could become a spontaneous thing for us.

[22:09] Wow. What a difference that would make in our lives. Amen? Yeah. Fewer gray hairs. Amen? Larry? I understand. Larry's been a worrier all his life, evidently, because he's been gray-haired ever since I've known him.

[22:25] But it's just because that's the color hair God's given you, and it looks so debonair on you. It really does. Especially when you have it combed and sprayed, like you do.

[22:38] Doesn't he look good? Doesn't he look good? Amen? Amen? All right.

[22:53] So, that's what you and I need to learn to do. Remember what Colossians chapter 3 and verse 16 says. Here it is in the Amplified. I like this. Let the word spoken by Christ have its home in your hearts and minds, and dwell in you in all its richness, as you teach and admonish and train one another in all insight and intelligence and wisdom and spiritual things, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody to God with his grace in your heart.

[23:29] When he says, let the word of God dwell in you in all richness, King James says. The word dwell there literally means to be made to feel at home. Yeah?

[23:40] I'm sure I've used that illustration before, but if I go to your house, if you were to invite me to your house, Ted does that every once in a while. He's given me an open invitation.

[23:53] Yolanda doesn't really like the idea, but Ted does. I used to go over to drink a cup of coffee with him, and if I really felt inclined to do so, I could go into his house, sit down with a cup of coffee, in the chair, in the living room, or even in the kitchen, dining room, whatever, and I could kick my shoes off and stick my shoes up on the coffee table and relax, and I'd be at home.

[24:23] I really would. I would be at home. So now you're never going to invite me over to your house, are you? But that's the idea here. The word of God, feeling at home, having unrestricted liberty within our hearts and lives, so that when God wants to use his word to speak to us about our lives in particular, then we've given him unrestricted liberty to do that, to speak to us by his word, and to such a degree that we then will respond in obedience to what he says.

[25:02] Amen? So when he uses the word of God to bring conviction to your heart and your life, let the word of God have that unrestricted liberty.

[25:15] Now, take note again. Notice how Jeremiah begins his prophecy again, verse 4. Then the word of the Lord came to me. That's Jeremiah saying. It's important for us to know who it is that's speaking here to Jeremiah.

[25:30] It's the Lord. Capitalized letters, remember. So it's the term Yahweh, or we know it as Jehovah. Characteristic of Jehovah is that he is a self-existent God.

[25:42] But the important aspect for us is as well that he is the self-existent God that reveals himself to man. All right? He's the revealer of himself to man.

[25:53] So when you see that term, Lord, capital G, L-O-R-D, or capital G-O-D, it's the word Jehovah. Recognize that in the meaning of him being the self-existent God that reveals himself, and then see how it is that he reveals himself to Jeremiah in this case.

[26:15] But also, as we're meditating in the word of God, and we see that terminology. And whatever the passage is saying to us, here's what the Lord, here's what Jehovah is saying.

[26:30] All right? Recognize, here's something God's saying to me. He's revealing himself to me by what he's saying here in this passage.

[26:41] Make the personal, practical application of it to your life, and then just live in obedience to what he says. That's what he's wanting. That's being obedient to the Lord and letting the word of God dwell in our heart.

[26:56] So, it's the Lord, the eternal self-existent God that reveals himself to man. But he's also the Lord God. Jeremiah had no doubt that it was God who spoke to him.

[27:10] And as he spoke to him, there's something that God did. Now, yes, his father was a priest in the nation. Grandfather had been a high priest, had that background.

[27:22] So, you know, it's not unusual that God would call him into ministry. But, you know, the rationale, humanly speaking, would think he's going to call him to be a priest, put him in the priesthood.

[27:37] But he didn't do that. Called him to be a prophet to an idolatrous nation. I don't know.

[27:47] It doesn't say. But I would almost speculate that Jeremiah would have thought, okay, if the Lord is going to do anything special in and through my life, it's going to be in the priesthood.

[27:59] I mean, after all, look at my heritage. Amen? Yeah. Yeah. But no. So, what did God do? God took Jeremiah and interrupted, if you will, the routine of his life.

[28:14] Just interrupted it. Yeah. A lot of times, when we think of God doing something, wanting to do something through us, a lot of times we think, okay, he's going to do something that has something to do with the talents or abilities that he's given me.

[28:34] Amen? Yeah. Yeah. Now, sometimes he does that, but most of the time he doesn't. Because he does something completely different than we would ever conjure up in our heart and mind that he would do.

[28:50] You see, he takes our lives, interrupts the routine of our lives, and draws things out of our heart and lives and our minds to get us prepared, as we mentioned last week, for the ministry that he's got for us to serve in.

[29:08] Jesus did that with Peter. You remember that? Remember when those guys had gone fishing all night, Luke chapter 5.

[29:18] Turn there just a minute. Luke chapter 5. Luke chapter 5. Verse 1. And it came to pass. I love that phrase.

[29:29] Amen? Came to pass. A lot of times when the preacher preaches too long and it came to time to pass out. No, I mean, don't tell him I said that.

[29:41] That's a generic term, preacher. Any preacher. Amen? Not Pastor Mike. Luke chapter 5. Verse 1. It came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God.

[29:54] That, of course, is the people pressing upon the Lord Jesus. Everywhere he went, people wanted to hear what he says. As they came, the crowds just multiplied, they pressed upon him, wanted to be close by.

[30:07] The people pressed upon him to hear the word of God. He stood by the lake Gennesaret and he saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their net.

[30:20] Just like any preacher. You got a crowd of people that that crowd just keeps getting bigger. You want to get a good vantage point for them to be able to see you and hear you. All right? So, that's what Jesus does here.

[30:33] He sees a couple of boats sitting here, fishing boats sitting here. The fishermen were going out of them and they're over here washing their nets. All right? They've been fishing all night. They're cleaning their nets.

[30:44] They're getting ready to fold them up, put them up nice and neatly for the next night's fishing expedition, and then go to the house because they smell the bacon cooking already. They're ready for breakfast.

[30:57] But look what happens. Look what happens. I mean, that was their normal routine. All right? Every night, fishing, come in, clean the nets up, get them ready for the next night's fishing journey, and then go home.

[31:13] Eat and rest. But verse 3, he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, that will become Simon Peter, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land.

[31:32] And the people sat down and taught the people out of the ship. Now, it's interesting the Lord doesn't give us indication here of what Peter's thoughts or what Peter said at that first encounter.

[31:44] Peter, Peter, just thrust out a little from the land, Simon. I need a vantage point here. God and I believe Simon probably thought, okay, no big deal.

[31:57] I could do that. You know, I've already got my nets cleaned up and folded up. We can do that for just a little while. He won't be too long. So, he does that.

[32:08] But Jesus was doing something here. He didn't absolutely have to have that vantage point, floating pulpit, if you will.

[32:23] But he knew that was Peter's boat. And he asked Peter to launch out just a little from the land because he wanted to do something with Peter.

[32:35] Peter. He's wanting to draw something out of the heart of Peter in this episode here. Peter's probably thinking, okay, I can do that. It's no big deal.

[32:46] Won't be long. And, you know, if I get tired, I'll just get out of the boat and walk to the shore. It's not that deep right here. Okay? So, he does that. But look what happens here.

[33:03] Verse 4. When he had left speaking, when he got finished, that's Jesus, he said unto Peter, now notice this, this is after he'd finished speaking, after he'd finished teaching, preaching, whatever he did.

[33:20] He was done. Peter knew that. Perhaps the crowds even started to disperse. He said to Peter, Peter, launch out into the deep and let down your net for a drop or a multitude of fish.

[33:39] Now, here it is. Peter, professional fisherman. I would almost venture to say he was probably one of the tops in his occupation.

[33:52] He knew how to catch fish. They'd done it all night, hadn't caught a thing. But Jesus now says, launch out into the deep.

[34:03] Let down your nets. Look what Simon says in verse 5. He responds this time.

[34:15] Simon says, Master, we have toiled all night. That is, that word toilers to labor with wearisome effort, tired, exhausted.

[34:33] Master, we've toiled all night and we've caught nothing as if to say. Now you're saying to us here when the time is not right to fish, you're telling us to take our nice clean nets that we've already folded up, throw them in the water and you say we're going to catch some.

[34:57] So he said, Master, we've toiled all night and taken nothing. But he says, nevertheless, nevertheless, because you say so, at thy word, I'll let down the net.

[35:17] You see, it's one thing to just go out in shallow water, isn't it? Yeah. Just do those things that you, you know, are accustomed to doing.

[35:33] But when he says, I want you to go and do something you've not done before, I want you to launch out into the deep, what is he doing? taking us to places probably we've possibly never been before, doing things we've never done before, but he's doing that because he wants to get results.

[35:57] And that's what's happening here. He's wanting Peter to recognize something here. Peter, Peter, probably at this juncture, does not really know yet what God has in mind for him.

[36:08] but he's getting him ready because he wants him to see that when God calls to do something, there's going to be results.

[36:20] God's going to produce something here in what he tells for us to do that we have no clue that he's going to do or produce. And that's what he does with Peter here.

[36:33] He interrupts the routine of his life tells him to do something out of the ordinary when you wouldn't think there would be any results.

[36:48] And look what happens. When they had done this, they enclosed a great multitude of fish and their nets broke.

[37:03] They beckoned unto their partners which were in the other ship that they should come and help them and they came and filled both ships so that they began to sink. Now look at Peter's response to it all.

[37:15] Verse 8. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me. Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

[37:27] Yeah. Yeah. Glorious experience here of seeing what God can and will do when we obey.

[37:39] Amen. We need to allow God to interrupt the routine of our lives. Amen. But a lot of times, I'm going to preach here a little bit, but a lot of times, a lot of times when we pray, God, I need to know what your will is for me.

[37:57] we're doing that with the hesitation in our mind saying, I want to know what you want me to do today as long as it's something comfortable for me to do and I'm used to doing.

[38:09] Yeah. Amen. Yeah. What does God do with that? We still got our nets folded up.

[38:21] Amen. He's saying, I want you to throw them out to the right side of the boat. see what happens. Let God interrupt the routine of our lives and let's just totally submit to him and say, all right, Lord, whatever you want to do in my life, I'll let you do that.

[38:45] Got to let him do that. Now, the author and the purpose of Jeremiah's call, verses 4 and 5, Jeremiah 1, then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, before I formed you in the womb, I knew and approved of you as my chosen instrument.

[39:05] And before you were born, I separated and set you apart, consecrating you, and I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. See, God had a plan for Jeremiah before he ever was conceived in the womb, born.

[39:22] God had chosen him as his own instrument, set him apart, that is, dedicated him to holy use, consecrating him, that is, anointing in the sense of being a special, setting apart for particular office or purpose.

[39:42] All right? That's what I've done, God said. Now, that's not the only occasion we've seen in the scriptures. Isaiah said in chapter 49, verse 1 of his prophecy, Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken, you people from far.

[39:58] The Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother, hath he made mention of my name. In Isaiah 49, verse 5, And now saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength.

[40:21] Notice again, formed him from the womb to be his servant. So, again, Jeremiah's call was not of his own doing, it was God's call.

[40:33] And God's purpose in him was, as he said, I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. Again, primarily to the southern kingdom of Judah, secondarily to the northern kingdom, but thirdly the Gentile nations as well.

[40:50] Now, Jeremiah's response to that, again, was in verse 6. Then said I, O Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am only a youth. Remember, that's the same thing, again, that Moses had said in Exodus chapter 4, verses 10 through 12.

[41:06] He said, Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue.

[41:19] The Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth, or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the blind? Hath not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.

[41:34] It's useless, amen? Just completely useless to fight against the Lord when he tells you something, amen? as if we're going to change his mind, or make him see it our way.

[41:50] Now, God's response to Jeremiah, again, verse 7 and 8 of chapter 1, But the Lord said to me, Say not, I am only a youth, for you shall go to all to whom I shall send you, and whatever I command you, ye shall speak.

[42:04] Be not afraid of them or their faces, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord. Now, realize something, again, it's God that called him, but it's God also that's going to empower him to fulfill the ministry that he's got to fulfill, in spite of what the people of Judah do, and they do some very drastic things against Jeremiah.

[42:30] Now, you and I have to realize it's imperative, and I stress that word imperative, that when we're fulfilling the will of God, in the call of God in our lives, that we do so in the direction and power of the Spirit of God, and not in the flesh.

[42:55] Now, remember Zechariah chapter 4, the image of the candlesticks and the olive trees, and then the statement that God makes to Zerubbabel, he said, it's not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

[43:17] In that, God was reminding Zerubbabel of what the calling of Israel was, but also to show him that they would never reach that calling if they tried to do it in their own power, without the power of the Spirit of God.

[43:37] And that's what he was showing them there. Not by might, that's by the force of a mighty army is the idea, nor by power, that's with human strength.

[43:50] It's not by either one, but it's by my Spirit, says the Lord. All right. And then, in verses 9 through 10, we see God's provision and picture of that overwhelming work he's got to do.

[44:06] And we'll look at that next time, because our time is gone already. Going to be a lot of stuff, so hopefully we can either review the notes or listen again to the recording when it gets put on the website, or both, and retain what we can of it to remind us of our calling that God's given us and what we need to do to fulfill that calling.

[44:32] Amen. All right, let's pray together then. Father, again, thank you for your loving kindness. Thank you for loving us, calling us to your service. Lord, just thank you for saving us, but also involving us in the work that you're doing to fulfill your kingdom purposes in this world.

[44:54] And so, Father, enable us again to seek your direction in our lives as we study through the prophecy of Jeremiah. Enable us to see and recognize you're working on our own lives to produce what you want to produce and help us to submit to that, if you will.

[45:12] Enable us to submit and by setting aside those things that would hinder our submission to us. Thank you again for these great folks that come out each night, each week, and study together, and I pray your blessings upon them.

[45:27]  just honor their faithfulness to you, if you will. Well, thank you for what you do now. In Jesus' name, for his sake we pray. Amen. Amen.