Address—R. Klassen
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Might turn back to the book of Jeremiah that was referred to in the reading.
Jeremiah chapter 29, just to preface, just for a little bit.
We're going to read a letter.
That was written probably about 2600 years ago.
Jeremiah the prophet, and that letter is as good today as when it was written.
That we can draw things out of this letter.
Just as though it was written to us, we have several letters in the Word of God. But think of how Paul wrote a personal letter to Philemon here. It is divinely inspired and we can read that letter. Probably been a blessing to many generations and many different circumstances.
And so we'll read this letter with this in mind, verse one.
Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem under the residue of the elders, which were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. Verse 4.
Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives.
Whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon.
Build E houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them.
Take ye wives, and begets sons and daughters. Take wives to your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters, and that you may be increased there and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city. Whether I have caused you to be carried away captives.
And pray unto the Lord for it, for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. Let not your prophets and your diviners that be in the midst of you deceive you. Neither hearken to your dreams which he caused to be dreamed, or they prophecy falsely.
Unto you in my name I have not sent them, saith the Lord.
For thus saith the Lord, that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you.
Perform my good word toward you in causing you to return to this place, for I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me.
And I will hearken unto you, and you shall seek me and find me.
When ye shall search for me with all your heart, and I will be found of you, saith the Lord.
And I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places. Whether I have driven you, saith the Lord. I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive. There was a time.
In the life of the Lord Jesus.
When he was in a place called Caesarea Philippi, the far northern border.
And he was there with his disciples, and it appears that he was beyond the reach of the Pharisees and in their interference with his pathway of service. And there's a time of quietness. And if we could picture.
Them sitting there, perhaps resting.
And the Lord Jesus says to his disciples, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, AM?
To thinking.
When someone spoke up and said, well some feel that thou art John the Baptist.
Another spoke up and said, Some think that thou art Elijah.
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Someone else spoke up and said some think that thou art Jeremiah.
Somebody else said. Or some prophet.
And I was thinking about why did they bring Jeremiah?
Why did they look at the Lord and what was there about him that made them think that He might have been Jeremiah come back and resurrection?
We have here the thought of being taken captive.
And it's one thing to be taken captive.
To a foreign land, strange land, and try to put your roots down there and.
And try to live some near normal way.
And there's another captivity to be captive in your own land.
As the children of Israel were in the days when the Lord Jesus was here, they were captives in their own land and the Romans ruled over them.
You know either situation, I don't know which is the worst or the best, but I don't think we had volunteer for either one. It's oppressive, it gets things riled up and and rebellion is just right under the surface and breaking out.
But you know when Jeremiah wrote this letter?
It was not rebellion.
It was submission to the will of God.
No circumstance can we be in.
That we can't look to the will of God.
And to submit to those circumstances.
Now before we develop this any further.
We want to notice what the preliminary was to this letter. There's a prophet by the name of Shemiyah, and Shemia seemed to have his own.
Popularity in mind, should I say.
And so he heard Jeremiah prophecy, he heard what he was saying to the people as to how they could save their life by making it a prey and going out and submitting to the Chaldeans.
And they didn't like that and so.
He comes along, we'll just read what he says.
Verse three of the preceding chapter 28. Verse 3.
We're in two full years. Will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the Lords House at Nebuchadnezzar? King of Babylon took away from this place and carried them to Babylon. You know, that would be a message that your heart would just grab onto. The only problem is it's not true.
And so I may accept captivity as long as it's just a little short span of time. And he said two years and Nebuchadnezzar power would be overthrown and everything had come back to Jerusalem and returned to normal notice.
What it says here in the 16th verse.
Jeremiah says Therefore. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will cast thee off the face of the earth this year. Thou shalt die, because thou hast taught.
Submission, No rebellion against the Lord. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.
You know, Jeremiah was a was a weeping prophet.
And.
He was born in the time.
When the good king Josiah came into power.
And now those must have been wonderful days in Israel.
And perhaps you could hear the statement made. You know, we're just getting back onto the track after such terrible bloodshed in Jerusalem like Manasseh did.
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And we're we're just kind of easing into being normal and idolatry is being dealt with.
And Jeremiah was a part of the choir of the singing men and singing women.
And things were going on normal. They kept the Passover in a very unique way. And all of a sudden, one day that's just chopped off.
And it's gone.
The staying power.
Of going on in godliness was removed.
And if we read the history?
From the time that Josiah died, things started down.
And I enjoyed someone saying that Jeremiah was there to keep Israel.
From falling.
To try and stay there, fall or try to break it.
And so he ministered the word of the Lord, and it looked like they were going to go, and he steadied him up a little bit, but it was still a downward pitch.
Until finally it came to the point where the Lord said there's no remedy, they're going to have to go into captivity.
Well, what a day.
Don't we look over to that land today and think of the disengagement?
That those dear people have gone through established 2530 years.
In their homes and one day to be evicted.
And to get into a bus and to go somewhere.
But it's not going home.
What are they going to do about it? What is their spirit going to be? Well, we know there was an awful rebellion.
And we say we don't blame them.
That we find in this chapter.
Now Jeremiah gave some wonderful advice.
But before I leave this point of thinking of the blessed Lord Jesus being there in that land under Roman rule, that there was no thought in his heart of being a revolutionary and and getting men together and try to overthrow or break down the resolve of the Roman Empire.
No, it was submission again. And so he too sought to break the fall of Israel that they are our obviously going to when they took and they crucified their Messiah.
And the cross of Calvary.
And he was went into death.
Rose again.
And then we go on to Stevens testimony, a final testimony to stay the awful situation that was on the horizon. They rejected Stevens testimony and the veil went over their hearts and they went on to AD 70.
To be slaughtered, to be carried off captive, to have no nation that they could call their own.
It's strange, isn't it? Whether it's man or whether it's ourselves, we have a very difficult time learning from history to look back to see what happened.
And we can read it. We can think about it.
But what have we gained? Or if we could see the rebellion in this world this afternoon rebelling against government and authority?
You know it crushes, but it's just simply.
The heart of man.
And the rebellion is all against God. They may be targeting a man, but here we have that they are rebelling against God.
Well, we want to consider another man before we go into this chapter and this man is Shemi. I think I said this got the wrong name on this other man is Hananiah.
This is Shemi Ayah.
And the day came when Nebuchadnezzar came in, and he took.
Captive, those that were in Jerusalem, right in the seat of authority, they just marched right in and took these men of influence and wealth and so on and off to Babylon they went. And so this is when the first prophet said they'll be back in two years and they'll bring everything back to the temple.
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Now notice this man, they get Jeremiah's letter and they read it to those that were taken captive.
And notice his reaction verse 26.
The Lord hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest. He's writing back now to Jerusalem.
That he should be officers in the House of the Lord. For every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, that thou should have put him in prison and in the stocks. Now therefore why hast thou not reprove Jeremiah of Anoth, which maketh himself a prophet to you? For therefore he sent unto us in Babylon, saying.
This captivity is long.
Build ye houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat the fruit of them. Can you hear the tone of sarcasm? Verse 31.
Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus saith the Lord concerning Shemiah the Nihilomite, because that she Amaya hath prophesied unto you, And I sent him not, and he caused you to trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will punish Shemayah.
Then eh Alamite and his seed, he shall not have a man to dwell among his people.
Neither shall he behold a good that I will do for my people, saith the Lord.
Because he has taught rebellion against the Lord.
We had this afternoon.
That it's not an easy path for the servant of the Lord.
This was not an easy matter for Jeremiah.
But to think of the grace of his heart that he would write to those captives there in Babylon, and write such a letter of hope and peace and blessing.
Oh again, it's the spirit of submission.
To the will of God.
And so we see the consequences in these two men.
They lost not just their life, but the last man lost his whole family.
How did he come by that?
I poisoned his family.
The Lord didn't just do something to cut them off when there was number reason.
No, the Lord only backs up.
What man does in his folly to poison his children against the Lord and against his people? Well, we come to this letter, and he says, Build ye houses and dwell in them.
And plant gardens and eat the fruit thereof.
We were to determine to the book of Ezekiel.
Ezekiel went out in the second captivity and some of you know there was a third captivity, but Ezekiel's was called a great captivity where the mass were taken away.
And the Lord said to Ezekiel, I want you to go to the river Chibar.
And I want you to sit where those captives sit.
So he did. You know, sometimes that's a good thing.
To go and sit where others sit before you make any judgment of things.
If you do that, you're going to learn some things, you're going to hear some things.
The Lord is going to see to it that you do.
And then after seven days.
Sitting among these complainers and hearing all this rebellion, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel.
To give them a word from the Lord.
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And I can just imagine this company here.
Looking at their circumstances there in Babylon, saying what are we going to do? We don't fit in here.
He says build houses.
And plant gardens.
And eat the fruit thereof. You know, that's, that's wholesome, isn't it? That's what we call the fundamentals of life.
And so to see these complaining captives.
Stopping to consider what the word of the Lord was to them.
And this calls for to be industrious and to have purpose, and it's something that you delight in.
Recently.
We were in a home. We were invited there for a meal.
And I sat down to this meal.
And almost everything out on that table was out of the garden that morning. Corn, potatoes, red beets, cucumbers.
And rose lamb. And when the dessert came, there were blueberries and strawberries and Kiwi and pineapple. What a meal. You know this translates spiritually, doesn't it?
That's practically now what does the Lord delight to do to His people spiritually?
Oh, to feed them with the finest of the wheat and honey out of the rock.
Oh, it's so wonderful to be fed spiritually, to have a meal like we had practically.
And so to think of digging the ground and planting a seed and watering it and then the day.
Comes to eat out of that garden.
Couldn't have better food in all the earth.
And so this is an encouragement to us because, you know, we're in captivity too. First we are in captivity to Satan, bound into the chains of sin. And the gospel came and delivered us and showed us the precious Savior, and now we're captives in the chains of love.
What a captivity. We're not free to live down here as we dare please.
We can't afford one rebellious day in our life. It's too costly.
But to love.
That perfect?
And good and acceptable well of God. Good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
And so we try rebellion.
Thank God when it throws us down, let's us down.
But it goes on here, and it says, Take ye wives, and begets sons and daughters, Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters, that ye may be increased there and not decreased.
You know, I've known a couple.
For quite a number of years.
And this couple is a Christian couple.
And they agreed before they got married that they would not have any children.
I wonder why did they make an agreement like that?
To come to find out that they said this world is so wicked that we have no mind to bring children into this world.
You know, I've watched them over the years and they build an empire.
The wife worked. They can do anything they want.
But I look on that situation and you know, my heart just aches. I wonder down in the deep recesses of their heart if they realize what a foolish.
Agreement they entered into.
And I suppose that there were those in Babylon, as they looked around, they said this is such a wicked place, we're not going to bring children here.
And they have to contend with all this confusion.
Jeremiah says yes, you go on, you have marriage and you have children.
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And don't just barely be making it, but increase. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wholesome?
What a godly desire to have children in a wicked world and know that he's going to take care of them. And not only that, but to embrace our little one to our heart and say, you know, this is one of his elect. And I have the perfect liberty to treat that little one as one of his elect. And I look for the day when they realize that.
They have a sinful heart and that they need the precious Savior.
They need to be born again. That is such a wonderful experience and to hear your children confess the Lord.
Don't give up your gospel testimony, brethren, in your assemblies.
That is a wonderful testimony. How many hundreds have been saved by that feeble effort? Had my children say I got saved tonight? And the vessel that he used just astonished me.
Such are the ways of God.
You know.
When it comes to the captivity, naturally our hearts rebel against it.
But I want to look just for a little bit.
At the blessing of accepting the truth of captivity.
We turn to the 17th chapter of this same book, Jeremiah 17.
And verse 7.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, whose hope the Lord is, for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when he cometh, but her leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought.
Neither shall cease.
From yielding fruit. You know if you could look in my Bible you would find.
Five stars.
By verse 8.
As to the blessing of accepting captivity.
Can you imagine being in Babylon in a strange land?
And this be your portion you say. Is that possible?
Yes, it certainly is. And you know, it's a preserving principle.
In our Christian pathway and in our assembly life, and I'll tell you what I mean.
There was a time in my life that I was very grieved.
With what was going on in the assembly.
To the point where I said to my own heart, I wonder if the Lord is really among us.
Or not, you know, I was preparing to leave.
And as I was contemplating the moves.
The voice of the Lord cut through my thought pattern.
And said to me, Well, ye also go away.
That broke my heart because I had questioned whether he was there or not.
Calling into question.
And oh, he drew me back.
To accept the captivity.
Of going on where He is in the midst, and allow him to take care of his own affairs in his assembly.
Oh what a change came over my life and I thought of that being a green tree.
And not take cognizance of every little thing that goes on and who said what and this thing and that thing. We've had some good things this afternoon in connection with avoiding the pitfalls of division. And to see what happens when things get to that point, we turn to the Psalms again.
To.
Chapter 92.
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Like to go on with the thought of the trees. You know people are trees.
And it's nature itself teaches us.
And there's two trees here.
Psalm 92.
And verse 12.
It says the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree.
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Two trees.
The palm.
Is out in the desert.
In that harsh climate of heat and sandstorms.
And there it survives.
Where other trees can't survive. And here's a cedar up in Lebanon and the lofty heights of Lebanon, and it's subject to intense cold and snow.
And wind and so on.
We might say, you know, I wouldn't choose, I wouldn't choose any path like that. But you know.
It's unavoidable if the Lord is going to take us up.
For if we are without chasing, then are we ******** and not sons?
And the remarkable thing about these two trees?
In their harsh circumstances is that they're green year round.
Life.
Vitality.
Say.
Are you still talking about the captivity? Yes, I am.
To the cedar tree, choose to be up in the heights of Lebanon. No, that's where God planted it, out there in a desert with no other trees around.
Picture 70 palm trees and 12 artesian wells just pouring out. The Lord isn't going to forsake us. He's not going to put us out there and say, well, we'll just see how you make it. If you don't, I'm sorry, sink or swim.
No, He's got provision for us for every circumstance that He puts us through. And when we go through these things, these trials that he tempers them with His mercy have an eye for that.
To look at your trial and say, well, when I think about brother so and so's trial, it sure minimizes mine.
We won't turn to it, but.
The blessed Lord Jesus.
Is on his way to the cross.
Condemned to die.
The greatest miscarriage of judgment has ever been carried out in this world.
He's on his way to the cross and he said if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
You know there's not just one.
Thought and scripture you know that there are facets.
And I thought of the Lord Jesus as that green tree.
That perfectly submitted to the will of God and none of us would choose His path.
To get up in the morning, the think of the rejection that would be there waiting for you be the song of the drunkards, and yet manifesting the grace of God to the needy. What a man.
And so he's that green tree that suspended up on the dry tree, the cross.
The Roman cross that man awarded to him.
What is this world going to do?
In the dry tree.
No life.
No, it once had life, but it's gone, gone forever.
And I see that blessed man this afternoon lifted up on the cross.
Submitting to the will of God his Father.
And looking at.
Us and he would rather die than disobey his father.
To bear our sins in his own body on the tree.
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To hear that cry of abandonment. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Do you have?
An offended heart this afternoon.
Are there those things that sorely displease you? Have you been treated in an unkind way?
And that vengeance should be taken.
Or do we go to the cross?
And I hear that Blessed One.
Confessing and burying my sins before a holy God.
What can I say?
Love the hymn writers words, he said. We love the.
For the glorious worth which in myself we see.
We love thee for the shameful cross endured so patiently to think of that shed blood that flowed from his ribbon side.
And we can say this afternoon that precious blood will never lose its power.
Tell every ransom St. of God be saved a sin no more.
What a glorious moment that will be.
When the Lord calls us out and will sin no more.
Oh, to be redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, to be delivered from myself, delivered from my foolish thoughts.
And to be brought to be brought into reconciliation to that man who stood in the breach between a holy God and bankrupt sinners.
Let's go back to Jeremiah 29.
Jeremiah has some more good advice.
Notice that there in verse 7.
And seek the peace of the city. Whether I have caused you to be carried away, captives.
And pray unto the Lord for it, for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
You know, and that's just asking too much, isn't it?
Seek the peace of the city. But what happens when you do?
You know, the children of Israel.
It says that when they left Egypt that Egypt was glad to have them gone.
But just for a little bit. And they gathered their army to go and bring him back. Why? Because they missed the spirit of things.
You know peace is a cushion and living in a neighborhood where things can turn upside down.
Oh, they're just those remarks of peace that disarm the bullets that would fly from the mouth.
And so they were to pray for the peace of the city.
You know, the assembly is likened to a city. There's an operation in the assembly that's marvelous, that love and care for one another.
Just let somebody come into sadness like our brother Peter on.
And you feel the flood of sympathy.
Immediately among his people.
You know this is normal Christianity. It's normal assembly life.
There are many here.
That have only heard about dear brother Harry Hale.
But I was in my teens when he came to town several times and I heard those sentence sermons that meant so much to my heart.
And one of them stands out clearly, said brethren.
Never.
Never disturbed the peace of the assembly unless the glory of God demands it.
Never disturbed the peace of the assembly unless the glory of God demands it.
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Well, you know, if this was taken to heart.
We wouldn't have to talk about division. We wouldn't have to weep over its consequences today. But we do.
That somebody thought something was so important that God, that the Lord Jesus could not manage the affairs of the assembly.
You know, if you have any questions in your mind about His ability, I can tell you one thing. You can't second guess what the Lord is going to do. You try it. And that isn't what he did. He touched in another place that seemed to be unrelated.
He takes care of his own affairs. Let me submit my heart.
To the will of God.
It's good and acceptable and perfect.
Well, you know.
There were those that took this Council to heart.
You know, there's a danger on our part of always overdoing things.
We take counsel and it's good counsel and we just throw our heart into it 100%.
You know what happened is that when that 70 years was up?
Wasn't like coming out of Egypt. There were those that were stationed there, they were rooted there and they stayed there.
And there were those that went and entreated with him come on back to our captivity is over and we could go back to Jerusalem.
And rebuild and so on.
Some weren't treated and went back. That many just stayed where they were.
How is it with us?
Are we ready to go when the Lord calls us?
I search my own heart.
If all of a sudden the Lord is there and I know the issue, I'm leaving earth and to be in heaven in less than a moment of time, would there be just a little bit of hesitation?
There's hundreds of reasons why.
There could be a little hesitation.
You may know him better than I do.
But to accept the captivity of God?
Whatever it may be, in circumstances that I don't like, the Lord has had to bring those circumstances into my life to preserve me in the path of faith.
I don't like to admit that, but it's absolutely true.
And it takes a while to say Lord Jesus.
I hear it was right. I needed that.
And so for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
Now there's one more thing that Jeremiah says here, that among other things, but verse 11.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you an expected end.
You know they could have their calendar.
The years go by.
And it's getting closer to the end of 70 years.
Thinking about how they're going to pack and how they're going to transport and so on.
That expected end is there as we have an expected end.
All we have the blessed hope.
And are we preparing in heart for that meeting in the air in every way that we can?
Is another part to this expected end in chapter 31?
I'll just read The Hope in verse 17.
And there is hope.
In thine end, saith the Lord.
That thy children shall come again to their own borders.
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I think of how many?
Dear ones, Babylon has robbed us of.
I could weep like Rachel.
Leaping for children.
But there's an expected end.
Thy children shall return to their borders.
All we would like for them to return to the assembly to enjoy the feasts that we enjoy.
You know they give an ear. Try to check out what took place at this conference.
They won't come back.
Because of the cost they think is too great.
A cost that they're going to feel bad about.
That there is loss and yet as a parent's heart.
To look off.
And see the family circle unbroken, perhaps to our amazement.
That God was true to his promise, lest we should be cast down and in total despair. Paul isn't a wonderful.
To be a captive in the chains of love. There we have in Ephesians chapter 4 that He led captivity captive, and he gave gifts unto men.
It seems kind of disconnected, but you know what it is what it means. It means that the work of the cross, the precious Savior, has won our hearts. He's delivered from us from the captivity of Satan.
But he's taken us captive.
In the chains of love. And he gave gifts unto men. What are those gifts? Those gifts are to Harold. The victory that was won at the cross of Calvary. Let the whole world know.
About that work, how it affected your own life and changed you completely. Oh, what a captivity.