Several years ago, I met a pastor in Dagestan called Artur. He came to know the LORD through a testimony of his brother-in-law who was visiting him from Siberia. Finding himself rather alone in the Muslim city of Makashikala, Artur began praying to God for help. About the same time in the States, a pastor was praying for an open door in the newly opened country of Dagestan (still under Russian rule). The pastor went there and by God's providence two men met. Artur was discipled and eventually became the pastor of a congregation in the city. When I talked to pastor Artur, his fear was that some day hard-line Muslim youth might burn down his church. He told me that he had already received death threats. He asked me to pray for his church.

Even as we speak now, there are many men and women of God who risk their lives to serve the LORD and to be His witness. In the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews we find those men and women of God who lived their lives before God in full faith. They all faced difficult situations, some impossible. But their faith did not waver. They kept their eyes on Christ and did not allow their fears to control their destiny. Jeremiah was one of them. He was set apart even before he was born to be God's servant (Jer 1). He received death threats many times for speaking the truth. But he kept going.

The Voice of Jeremiah
Jeremiah lived and worked during the time when Judah was facing the most serious crisis as a nation. Babylonians eventually invaded and took the people of Judah into exile. The prophet Jeremiah lived to see all of his prophecies come true. The Southern Kingdom Judah was wiped out of history in 587 BC. Jeremiah was right there when the king Zedekiah was carried off into exile.

What was his job? It was the difficult job of speaking the truth against the wishes and hopes of his own people, speaking as told by God. His message was very hard to accept,

Accept the Babylonian invasion as God's punishing rod. You will serve 70 years in the exile, but God will have a new plan for you after exile.

He called upon the people of Judah to accept the verdict God has given to them, that their lives in Judah were now over, and that they were not to resist Nebuchadnezzar's invasion, for God was able to use a pagan king as His 'servant' to accomplish His purpose.

People do not like to hear bad news. In times of difficulty, people want the message of hope and optimism, of comfort and assurance that everything is going to turn out fine. But Jeremiah did not give what the itching ears wanted to hear. Instead, he gave straight what he had received from the LORD: the message of imminent destruction. From the eyes of most people of Judah, Jeremiah was hardly a spiritual giant; rather, he was a coward and a traitor. Jeremiah did not have many friends.

But wait. There is more. Jeremiah's job was made even more difficult, because there was a prophet who spoke the very opposite of what Jeremiah said. Hanaiah provided a competing voice in time of desperate need for leadership and guidance. Knowing what people wanted to hear, the prophet Hananiah preached a message of hope and salvation, that in two years the yoke of Babylon would be broken off and that everything would then return to normal.

The Voice of Hananiah

It is disturbing to see that Hananiah pretended like the real prophet from the LORD. He fooled the people using the formula, 'this is what the LORD says.' (Jer 28:11). He used the formula even when there was no word from the LORD. What was he doing? Was he deliberately misleading the people or was he himself being deceived by some evil spirits within? What he said did not come from the mouth of God. That was what he wished God said. The Bible calls it none other than 'preaching rebellion against the LORD' (28:16). Compare this with Jeremiah's preaching. In vs. 12, we read, 'the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah .' What a difference!

We look around today and find many preachers and pastors who claim to be speaking on behalf of God. Many in various prophecy movements come a bit too close to raise our eyebrows with their words and acts.

Once I was in a conference. The speaker ended the meeting with a prayer at the end, except as I was listening to the prayer, I could not tell when the speaker was praying and when God was saying through the speaker. He did it in such a 'skill' way that you would walk away either being certain that God spoke that night or that you were now very confused. We need to be careful when we claim to be the direct mouthpiece of God. I doubt God works like that nowadays.

Notice also how visual Hananiah became in his preaching. He went to Jeremaiah and broke off the wooden yoke that Jeremiah was wearing around his neck. Jeremiah was trying to send a strong message to his people that Babylon is like a yoke and that there is no way Judah would be freed from that yoke. But ever so confidently, Hananiah broke the wooden yoke and prophesied that in two years the yoke of Babylon would come off.

The story ends with a complete reversal. Hananiah did not live long enough to see his prophecy fulfilled. What an irony that he died so soon --- two months to be exact. So much for the prediction that things would be normal again in two years!

Deceivers in the Name of the Lord

The Bible is full of examples where deceivers and false prophets spoke as if they knew the mind of God.

It originates from the Garden of Eden with the voice of the serpent 'Did God really say that?' (Gen 3:1). It goes right to the end of the Bible. Satan is know as the deceiver in Revelation, the great serpent --- the deceiver, the father of lies.

What about in the early church? We know in the church at Colossae, there were many deceivers of faith. In Ephesus also Paul told Timothy to warn his people not to be deceived by the evil spirits. And deception and false voices continue in our time.

Discerning His Will

So, how do we discern the voice of the LORD from other confusing voices? How do we learn the mind of the LORD? How do we know what is God up to at this moment?

When I was a pastor in Toronto, some of the college students I knew were getting involved in the Church of Christ, a very aggressive sectarian group that started, I believe, in the Boston area. They target primarily university students; and when they make a convert, they place heavy demand on commitment. I listened to one of the sermons preached at the church. At first, I could not find anything wrong with it. In fact, it was a very challenging message. But when I began hearing that the students were being required to be baptized again if they wanted to join the Church of Christ, I knew something was not right. Whenever a sectarian group starts to say that they alone have salvation, you know they have crossed the line. It is safe to call them a cult.

We live in the midst of many confusing voices of cults and sectarian voices. In addition, we have the voices of seduction and comfort arising in this age. Instead of living out the gospel courageously, there are voices that lure us to take the road of comfort, luxury and safety. How can we avoid the dangers of both left and right?

One camp appeals to our empty hearts by stressing radical commitment and separation from the world, while the other camp seduces our unsuspecting minds by the promise of a better life. Notice in both cases, it all boils down to self-service. Religion, as these false voices teach, is reduced down to one of self-service.

Authentic Spirituality

Richard Lovelace in his book Renewal as a Way of Life states that the 'goal of authentic spirituality is a life which escapes from the closed circle of spiritual self-indulgence, or even self-improvement, to become absorbed in the love of God and other persons' (p. 18). Those who become unhealthily preoccupied with sects and cults have one thing in common: they have a pre-occupation with their own needs. Somehow, for them, spirituality has not transcended the level of self-indulgence and self-improvement.

How do we pursue authentic spirituality? We set our goal to pursue God each day by absorbing our minds with the things of God. Paul called it, 'being transformed by renewing of our mind' (Rom 12:1-2). Jesus described it as 'seeking first his Kingdom and his righteousness' (Matt 6:33).

We must walk with the LORD each day and not allow a day go by when you feel that you have not got to know God better or deeper. When we are steeped in the will and mind of the LORD, we are inclined to obey him more even if it may seem contrary to our instinct, even if it may seem like a threat to the security of ourselves and our loved ones.

>From time to time, I read Calvin's Institutes as a supplement to Bible reading. Each time I read Calvin, I am amazed at how much his mind was affected by the things of God. It is too bad that many people do not fully appreciate his writing, perhaps because of their pre-conceived notion about Calvin's doctrine of predestination. But Calvin will be the first to say that the doctrine of predestination is not his, but is from the Bible itself, and that it is the only natural outcome of a mind which is trying to grasp the wonders of God's working in spite of human sinfulness.

In answering the question on why we should pray, Calvin wrote that through prayer we experience firsthand God's presence in our lives and that without prayer we would never know the blessings God brings to our lives. Authentic spirituality is the key to understanding what God is doing in our lives and discerning his will for our lives. I believe that it was in this spirit of authentic spirituality that Jeremiah lived and worked as God's faithful witness.

Let me ask you. What are you doing each day that helps you get to know the mind of the LORD better? What are you doing each day to resist the temptation of turning to self-serving religion? Last week we examined Amos' prophetic message against 'convenient religion.'

What Jeremiah is teaching us this morning, is that discerning the mind of God and obeying his will lie at the heart of genuine spirituality, no matter what the cost is. May the LORD give you strength to live for Him and to be His true witness.