Evangelist Herman E. Wesley III
SAFE AND SAVED
Jeremiah 17:14
Message prepared for Delivery at the 64th Annual National Lectureship of the churches of Christ in Birmingham, Alabama
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 4:50 p.m.
W.C. Edwards, Host Minister
PRELIMINARIES
Giving honor to God, I am appreciative on this day to brother W.C. Edwards and the team of individuals working with him for the extension of this opportunity to speak with this audience today. We bring you greetings from the NorthPointe Church of Christ in Montgomery, Alabama where God has smiled on us richly in the establishment of this new work. I am honored to have in the audience this afternoon my greatest supporter and best friend, the one who holds my hands when they grow weak and gives strength to my stride when I grow weary. The one who signifies in my life the meaning of encouragement, loyalty and love…not only as a life partner, but as my sister-in-Christ. My wife, Sonja is here today, and she is accompanied by my sons, Brandon and Christian, and a few members of the NorthPointe family. We also sincerely appreciate your support of THE REVIVALIST NEWSMAGAZINE, and our editor is also present today, sister Dianna Tease of Plano, Texas, and we encourage you to stop by our place that has been set up in the main foyer of this Civic Center.
THE TEXT
The text and subject assigned to me this afternoon is this:
Jeremiah 17:14, and I want to read it into your hearing from the New International Version:
Jeremiah 17:14 (NIV) 14 Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.
SAFE AND SAVED. That’s what I want to talk about. SAFE AND SAVED.
INTRODUCTION
Life is a complexity. Anybody who has traveled down the birth canal ought to be able to testify to that. LIFE IS A COMPLEXITY. We are continually engaged in a process that leads to ups and downs, hills and valleys, highs and lows. We are victorious, and yet we are defeated. We are strong, and yet we are weak. We are big, and then we are small. Don’t let anybody fool you into thinking that life is always lived on an even keel. That’s not life…Life, help me somebody, is a complexity!
The time allotted for the proper treatment of this text is not available, and I am resigned to hone in specifically on the context herein, but what’s going on here is we find Jeremiah, the prophet Jeremiah, the man of God, Jeremiah, the leader of the people, Jeremiah, praying to God for healing and saving mercy, for himself. I think this is significant what’s being revealed here,
and I am not in the mode this afternoon of casting general assumptions on the pulpit or the pew, and so, if you don’t mind, I’m going to make some personal application with this message, and share with you how it helps me, and hopefully, if you find yourself n a similar position, at some time or another, this will prove helpful to you, but whatever the case may be, I think it significant that in this text the man of God found it necessary to pause, to stop for a moment, to take a break and pray to God for healing and saving mercy for himself. We are in an age that says, when the preacher needs prayer, something must be wrong, but I suggest that when the preacher does not need prayer, something is wrong.
SAY AMEN IF YOU CAN!
Jeremiah has just closed a section of scripture where he recognizes that there are those who depart from God. He acknowledges the righteousness of God in abandoning those to ruin that forsook him and revolted in their allegiance to Him (verse 13). He recognizes that those who “depart from me (Jeremiah), from the word of God which I have preached, do in effect depart from God, and that their names are like names written in dust, which describes the lack of permanence in their calling and their relationship with God, but it’s almost as if Jeremiah was saying, as Paul would say many years later, “I don’t want to be preaching to others while I myself become a castaway!”
The Psalmist said it this way, “If the case of those that depart from God be so miserable, let me always draw nigh to Him”(Psalms 73:27,28), and in order to do that, Lord, heal me, and save me! This is the preacher! Heal my backslidings, my bent to backslide, and save me from being carried away by the strength of the stream to forsake thee.” In Jeremiah’s ministry he was continually exposed to the malice of unreasonable men. Lord, save me from them, and let me not fall into their wicked hands. Heal me, or sanctify me by thy grace; save me, which is just another way of saying ‘bring me to thy glory.”
Now I know the method I am about to employ flies into the face of proper hermeneutical and homiletical sermon preparation, and point alignment, every now and then I find myself departing from form to deal with the substance, and so there are just two points I want to amplify on in this short and brief treatment of this text. Two things that are evident in Jeremiah’s prayer:
THE FIRM BELIEF HE HAD IN GOD’S POWER.
Heal thou me, and then I shall be healed; the cure will certainly be wrought if thou undertake it; it will be a thorough cure and not a palliative one. If God heals me, I will be healed. Those that come to God to be healed ought to be abundantly satisfied in the all-sufficiency of their physician. Save me, and then I shall certainly be saved, be my dangers and enemies ever so threatening. If God hold us up, we shall live; if he protect us, we shall be safe!
What’s going on here? Well, because there are some things I need to say and some ground I need to cover in these few minutes, let me just shoot a few bullets your direction in order to give flesh to the context, and then I want to pull some practicalities from the thought we are exploring…Jeremiah is a wounded preacher, and he wants his wounds to be healed. Here he prays for deliverance. Now, how does he go about this?
First of all Jeremiah complains of the infidelity and shallowness of the people to whom he preached….he has faithfully delivered the message of God to the people, and what is their response?
Verse 15 says “Behold they say unto me, where is the WORD OF THE LORD? LET IT COME NOW”….the people made fun of the prophet, they made a joke out what he has delivered with seriousness….you know the kind…people who laugh when there ain’t nothing funny, people who scratch when there ain’t nothing itching…they denied the truth of what he said, and they defied the terror of what he said….
Secondly, he appealed to God concerning his faithful discharge of the duty to which he was called (verse 16)…the people did all they could to make him weary of his work, to exasperate him, to make him uneasy, to tempt him to alter his message for fear of displeasing them, they wanted him to “pull up”, to “water down” and to make the message of none effect. Any of ya’ll been there…folk won’t participate, folk won’t attend, folk won’t give…you do what we tell you to do if you want a job…I gotta ride this horse, but I must needs say this, I’ve been preaching now for 30 years, and I’ve served as a minister of a local congregation for 28, and I declare before you in the presence of God that not one Sunday has passed me by without me receiving substenance from the Lord…I have not missed a pay period yet, and that’s because I don’t work for no church, I know that’s a double negative, but deal with it! I am not on the church’s payroll! I’m on the heavenly payroll! Abraham said it first…Jehovah Jireh, and I second the motion GOD WILL PROVIDE! SAFE! SAFE! STAY WITH ME NOW!!
He continued constant in his work, even though his job exposed him to reproach, contempt and injury. “Yet” says he, “I have not hastened from being a pastor after thee; I have not left my work nor sued for a discharge…Prophets were pastors to the people, to feed them with the good word of God…it may be rough and it may be tough, but a good preacher continues to follow God, though the storm rages about them
Thirdly, he kept up his affection to the people. Though they were abusive to him, he was compassionate to them. I have not desired the woeful day. The day of the accomplishment of his prophecies would be a woeful day indeed to Jerusalem, and therefore he deprecated it, and wished it might never come, though, as to himself, it would be the avenging of him upon his persecutors and the proving of him a true prophet (which they had questioned, v. 15), and upon those accounts he might be tempted to desire it. Note, God does not, and therefore ministers must not, desire the death of sinners, but rather that they may turn and live. Though we warn of the woeful day, we must not wish for it, but rather weep because of it, as Jeremiah did.
3. He kept closely to his instructions. Though he might have curried favour with the people, or at least have avoided their displeasure, if he had not been so sharp in his reproofs and severe in his threatenings, he decided that no matter what, he would “Preach the Word… 2 Timothy 4:2-8 (NIV) 2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
There is a sense of safety and security that comes from walking with God. Pull on it if you want to, but I have learned that it might not be a perfect walk, but it can surely be a faithful walk. LIFE IS A COMPLEXITY. I’M UP AND I’M DOWN…BUT GOD HOLDS ME, GOD SUSTAINS ME, GOD BUILDS ME UP AND GOD SAVES ME! SAFE! SAFE! SAFE!
He humbly begs of God that he would own him, and protect him, and carry him on cheerfully in that work to which God had so plainly called him and to which he had so sincerely devoted himself. Two things he here desires:-
1. That he might have comfort in serving the God that sent him (v. 17):
2. That he might have courage in dealing with the people to whom he was sent, v. 18. Those who persecuted him should have entertained and encouraged him. "Lord," says he, "let them be confounded (let them be overpowered by the convictions of the word and made ashamed of their obstinacy, or else let the judgments threatened be at length executed upon them), but let not me be confounded, let not me be terrified by their menaces, so as to betray my trust."
Listen, God's ministers have work to do which they need not be either ashamed or afraid to go on in, but we do need to be helped by the divine grace to go on in it without shame or fear. Jeremiah had not desired the woeful day upon his country in general; but as to his persecutors, in a just and holy indignation at their malice, he prays, “Bring upon them the day of evil,” in hope that the bringing of it upon them might prevent the bringing of it upon the country; if they were taken away, the people would be better; "therefore destroy them with a double destruction”; let them be utterly destroyed, root and branch, and let the prospect of that destruction be their present confusion." This the prophet prays, not that he might be avenged, not that he might be eased, but that the Lord may be known by the judgments which he executes.
Is there a New Testament parallel? Consider Hebrews 13:17:
17 Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.
As I close, let me quickly share with you
II. THE SINCERE REGARD HE HAD TO GOD’S GLORY.
"For thou art my praise, and for that reason I desire to be healed and saved, that I may live and praise thee, Psa. 119:175. Thou art he whom I praise, and the praise due to thee I never gave to another. Thou art he whom I glory in, and boast of, for on thee do I depend. Thou art he that furnishes me with continual matter for praise, and I have given thee the praise of the favours already bestowed upon me. Thou shalt be my praise" (so some read it); "heal me, and save me, and thou shalt have the glory of it. My praise shall be continually of thee," Psa. 71:6; Psa. 79:13.
It is important to remember WHO brings you out!
I hear somebody saying, OUT OF WHAT?
Out of the despair of an unpopular ministry…
Out of the anguish of unrealized dreams…
Out of the disappointment of hopes that have been crushed and visions that have grown dim…
It is important to remember WHO brings you out!
Out of sorrow into joy!
Out of confusion into peace!
Out of barren lands into fruitful fields and dry places into rivers of life!
Yes, it is important to remember WHO brings you out!
Out of failure into victory!
Out of laying flat into standing strong!
I don’t know the song in your spirit this evening,
But if I were able to testify, I’d tell you…
I’ve had some good days, I’ve had some hills to climb, I’ve had some weary days, and some restless nights…but when I look around and think things over, all of my good days, outweigh my bad days, I won’t complain!
You see, I praise God, because He is the One who brought me out!
I praise God, because He is the One who picked me up out of the miry clay and set my feet upon the rock!
I ain’t standing here because you put me here…
I’m not preaching today because you decided you’d let me live again…
I’m not in a successful ministry because you decided to have grace on me…
I am appreciative for your prayers.
I am thankful for your support,
I am humbled by your love…
But I will never forget that it is God alone who has saved me, and God alone who keeps me safe!
CONCLUSION
He saved me from my sin!
He saved me from my iniquities!
He saved me from my shame!
He saved me from myself!
You might fall, but get back up! You might stumble, but stand strong again!
You might falter, but hold to His strong and mighty hand, and GOD WILL BRING YOU OUT!
Safe…from those who would destroy you!
Safe…from those who will scandalize your name!
Safe…from those who will diminish your ministry and doubt the Sovereign decision that’s arrives SPECIAL DELIVERY from the seat of Heavenly authority itself!
God declares, WHEN I HEAL, I HEAL!
WHEN I SAVE, I SAVE!
AND HIS PRAISE SHALL FOREVER BE ON MY LIPS,
FOR WHAT HE HAS DONE, WHAT HE IS DOING, AND WHAT HE HAS YET TO DO!
