Bottom Line Up Front: Self-Sacrifice for the Truth: Love People Enough to Warn Them

Text: In Jeremiah 7, the great Old Testament prophet Jeremiah spoke the word of God to the people he loved:

7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

5 “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, 6 if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. (Jer 7:1-8, ESV)

Encouragement/takeaway: Recently when teaching the saints, I was again struck by the consistent teaching of God in Scripture about the costs involved for being a person of truth. Jeremiah endured a staggeringly difficult prophetic ministry. But he was God’s man in his season. He was one of many in a long line of Godly men and women, who had counted the costs, and who took up the struggle, casting it all on the providence of God. Jeremiah loved his people enough to tell them the truth, to try and reach as many as God would enable him to reach, to say hard things but with a loving heart/motive; namely, their salvation and redemption. Jeremiah told the people not to trust in deceptive words. He preached that message again and again. And you’ll remember what happened; most ‘shot the messenger,’ if you will. Most didn’t want the truth. Instead, most put their heads in the sand, and divine judgment fell upon the nation. But Jeremiah was proven to be right, was ultimately preserved by God, and went down as one of the greatest of the prophets of God. Do we think our generation is smarter than Jeremiah’s? The question answers itself. There’s sacrifice involved in loving people enough to tell them the truth, and to do so lovingly.