Open your Bibles, if you would, to Jeremiah chapter 27. We'll study the whole chapter today, verses 1 to 22. Jeremiah chapter 27, beginning at verse 1, listen now to God's holy, inerrant, and life-giving word. In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord. Thus the Lord said to me, make yourself straps and yoke bars and put them on your neck. Send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the sons of Ammon, the king of Tyre and the king of Sidon by the hand of the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah, king of Judah. Give them this charge for their masters. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, this is what you shall say to your masters. It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth with the men and the animals that are on the earth and I give it to whomever it seems right to me. Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him. All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the time of his own land comes. Then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave. But if any nation or kingdom will not serve this Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and put his neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, declares the Lord, until I have consumed it by his hand. So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your fortune tellers, or your sorcerers who are saying to you, you shall not serve the king of Babylon. For it is a lie that they are prophesying to you, with the result that you will be removed far from your land and I will drive you out and you will perish. But any nation that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave on its own land to work it and dwell there, declares the Lord. Does Zedekiah, king of Judah, I spoke in like manner, bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people and live? Why will you and your people die by the sword, by famine and by pestilence as the Lord has spoken concerning any nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are saying to you, you shall not serve the king of Babylon for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you. I have not sent them declares the Lord, but they are prophesying falsely in my name with the result that I will drive you out and you will perish. You and the prophets who are prophesying to you. Then I spoke to the priests and to all this people saying, thus says the Lord, do not listen to the words of your prophets who are prophesying to you saying, behold, the vessels of the Lord's house will now shortly be brought back from Babylon for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you. Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a desolation? If they are prophets, if the word of the Lord is with them, then let them intercede with the Lord of hosts at the vessels that are left in the house of the Lord, in the house of the King of Judah, and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon. For thus says the Lord concerning the pillars, the sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels that are left in this city, which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, did not take away when he took into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. concerning the vessels that are left in the house of the Lord in the house of the King of Judah and in Jerusalem, they shall be carried to Babylon and remain there until the day when I visit them, declares the Lord. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place. The grass withers, the flowers fall, and the word of our God abides forever. Amen. Let's pray. Well, Father, we're reading events so long ago in a world that is strange to us. And yet, Lord, you cause your word now to speak not merely about those things, but to us. Give us ears to hear, Lord. Cause us to be obedient to the word, believing what you preach. In Jesus' name, amen. It's helpful, I think, from time to time in our study to Jeremiah to consider where we are in this book. Jeremiah began in chapter one with that great call to the prophetic ministry. And then chapters two to 11 was a summary of the early years, 20 years of Jeremiah's preaching, where he was prophesying the coming judgment. And then chapters 12 to 20 are, you remember what was called the confessions of Jeremiah. There's new episodes in there, but it's largely his wrestling with God in prayer about his mission and his message. And then starting in chapter 21, we begin a series of passages located at various times in the final years of Judah and Jerusalem, the main theme of which is Jeremiah's conflict with the false prophets. the opposition he receives for preaching his word and the conflict he has with the false prophets. Now this theme is very much the case in chapter 27 and it actually, our scenario actually will continue, Lord willing, next week into chapter 28. Jeremiah is going to challenge the consensus developed by prophets who actually are not prophets. What they're saying is a lie. What they're doing is they're encouraging Judah and the other nearby vassal states of Babylon to revolt against their overlord. Well, verse one of chapter 27 identifies the occasion as in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah. But if you go just a little bit ahead to chapter 28 verse 1, we're told that it's the fourth year of Zedekiah's reign. Now we know when that was. That was the year 594 BC. And very interestingly, we also have a Babylonian source. We can know what's going on in Babylon because of the Babylonian chronicles. And it turns out those were very tumultuous times, particularly for Nebuchadnezzar. Because in the years, actually 596 to 594, there had been a large war on the other side of the empire, on his far eastern side. And he'd had his armies far from Judah. And there was a revolt among his own people that had to be put down. There was another war fought with Syria. That's what was going on. And you see, seeing their conqueror distracted and far away, the subject states of the West, of what we today call the Middle East, they considered the chances they might have if they revolted against their overlord. And so emissaries from these countries, Edom and Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon, they gathered at a council, a diplomatic council arranged by Judah's king, Zedekiah, in which he hosted in Jerusalem. On the table were their prospects for restoring their sovereignty as states by throwing off the Babylonian yoke. Well, into this setting, and as always, very dramatically, comes the prophet Jeremiah. And he informs these rulers that God had ordained that they would not succeed in a revolt, that they would stay under the domination of the yoke of Babylon. Verse 6, the Lord declared, I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant. And so the yoke of Babylon, so despised by these subject nations of the Middle East, actually they learn it's not the yoke of Babylon, it's the yoke of the Lord. No matter what their false prophets told them, Whatever they said to the King of Judah and the others, they were going to remain under the Babylonian control, and frankly, whether they liked it or not, the only alternative was destruction. And so in this manner, Jeremiah 27, which ostensibly is about the sovereign rule of Nebuchadnezzar, it actually highlights that the Lord of hosts, the creator of the earth, he is the true sovereign. His will will be done. Well, chapter 26, if you remember, saw Jeremiah as a host of a party. He had a party, he hosted it, it was a drinking party. He served wine, brimming wine that was a symbol of the wrath of God that would give them a stupor. He was the host. In chapter 27, he's the party crasher. gathered in Jerusalem were these envoys from the various nations and they were considering their rebellion to Babylon. Verse 3, the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the sons of Ammon, the king of Tyre, the king of Sidon. And with them were the prophets from the various states, each of whom claimed to have a revelation that was encouraging this reckless course of action. And I think we can be fairly sure the prophet Jeremiah was not invited, but he had his own invitation. It came from the Lord, whose word, verse one, came to Jeremiah. Now, before he crashed the party, Jeremiah was to make some, shall we say, unusual preparations. Verse two, thus the Lord said to me, make yourself straps and yoke bars and put them on your neck. And Philip Riken makes the comment that Jeremiah would have been a great youth pastor. He did dramatic things. He had interesting props. And here's another one. We've had some really interesting ones. Well, this is really interesting. He's got an oxen yoke on his neck. Now, the way it worked in the ancient world was you needed to link two oxen to a plow, and you placed a yoke. It's a heavy crossbeam with curves for their necks. And there were pegs, four pegs. And then those pegs were tied by rope, or in this case, straps of leather, to secure the oxen to the yoke and therefore to the plow. And so for obvious reasons, the language of wearing the yoke was a symbol of one's submission. John McKay writes, the animal that wore the yoke was one that had been domesticated and was under the control of its owner, so also for nations. And they were yoked, they were domesticated and submissive to their overlord. And so it was undoubtedly a dramatic scene when the prophet Jeremiah made his entrance into this council of nations. It's interesting that the text, you may notice it says, it uses the plural, make yoke bars. And some scholars suggest he actually had more than one. I think that's not likely because they're large. These are not little things around his neck. These are big yokes. But what's probably the case is that there's two notches. He's got his head in one. There's another notch for the other. And his implication as he goes around is, here's a place for your neck to go under the yoke. Well, here's the message the Lord gave him in verses four to six. Give them this charge for their masters. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, this is what you shall say to your masters. It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth with the men and animals that are on the earth and I give it to whomever seems right to me. Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant. Now again, we don't know exactly how this played out. Did he come through the doors and slam his yoke onto the conference table? Did he go around, I think this is more likely, to emissary, ambassador after ambassador, and place the yoke on their shoulders? That would have been uncomfortable. However he did it, the message was clear. They were not to be deceived into thinking they could throw off the yoke of Babylon for the simple reason that God had given dominion over them to Nebuchadnezzar. And so instead of revolting against the Babylonian rule, the nations were to accept their domination. It might not be pleasant for them to receive orders from far off Babylon, although frankly, like most imperial powers, once they were conquered, once all that was over, if you just paid your taxes, did what you were told, worshiped the false gods they told you to do, Nebuchadnezzar was going to leave you alone. But still, no one likes being dominated. But wearing the yoke, they are told, is the only way they will survive. Not only was it folly in a human sense to rebel against so dreadful a conqueror as Nebuchadnezzar. But you see, God himself had threatened destruction if they did. Verse eight, if any nation or kingdom will not serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with a sword, with famine and with pestilence, declares the Lord, until I have consumed it by his hand. Conversely, if they only submitted to the yoke of Babylon, they could avoid further destruction and exile. Verse 11, any nation that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave on its own land to work it and dwell there, declares the Lord. That's a big difference. You get to stay home. You get to till your own land. Now, one of the reasons these assembled delegates were considering risking all this actually a rebellion against Babylon, was they were being given assurances by their so-called prophets. These are not real prophets who speak on the Lord's behalf. As our text says, God did not actually speak to them. These are the official prophets, however, of Judah. but also those who served other kingdoms using a variety of means for supposedly gleaning divine insight. Some of them would have sought for omens, others interpreted dreams. Still others were fortune tellers and sorcerers. Now, I think we can think of these prognosticators as the kind of, we call them talking heads, the kind of commentators who appear on our news shows today. A war is in Ukraine, or an election's coming, and there'll be an expert, an analyst, and they'll opine, and they'll tell you, often with a great confidence, let me tell you what's going to happen. And this is what they're doing. That's the role they're playing. They're giving their view of the geopolitical situation. And here at Zedekiah's diplomatic council, they are all agreed that now was the time. We can break the yoke of Babylon. We can restore our freedom. And I don't think it really required much divination. It's simple human deduction. Here's the argument. Nebuchadnezzar is something like a thousand miles away. He's got his handful. He's not even thinking about us, why he might be defeated. In fact, we've heard news that maybe he will be defeated. He could suffer a palace coup, as so often happens in these kinds of governments. And they would have charts, probably, showing time and distance. The supplies have to get here and there at so many marches. And they would say, you see, we've got plenty of time. We can band together, we can shore up our defenses. It won't be worth the cost of invading us. We'll get our freedom back. And no doubt they were whispering in their ruler's ears, you will never get another chance to be great. You can restore your nation if you act now. And as is so often the case today, these gathered prophets were totally wrong. Well, into this agreeable conference, Jeremiah burst like a thunderstorm. Phil Reichen notes, his style of diplomacy is not very diplomatic, and that is true. He rudely breaks in with this large prop. and he declares the folly of their plans and he particularly points out the folly of the soothsayers. Look at verses 9 to 10. Do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your fortune tellers, your sorcerers who are saying to you, you shall not serve the king of Babylon. It is a lie they are prophesying to you with the result that you will be removed far from your land and I will drive you out and you will perish. Now, ordinarily, a king, it's the same with rulers today, they don't have much choice but to listen to their experts and they have to make good judgments. But you see, here now, a true prophet of the living God has come and he is giving them the truth direct from the source. I have given, verse six to seven, all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, so that all the nations shall serve him. Well, John Calvin rightly points out that the real target of this message wasn't the king of Tyre or the king of Sidon, it was the king of Judah. He's the one who was orchestrating this. He's the one to whom he's really speaking. And he does so, Calvin says, so that the king might know that it was wholly useless for these kings to promise their assistance for he had to do not with the Babylonian king, but rather with the judgment of God, which is irresistible, and men struggle with it in vain." Now, Jeremiah has long been prophesying this is the judgment of God, and that being the case, They must not think they can break away. And so in verses 12 to 13, he gives a message specifically to Zedekiah. To Zedekiah, king of Judah, I spoke in a like manner. Bring your necks under the yoke of Babylon and serve him and his people and live. Why will you and your people die by the sword, by famine, by pestilence, as the Lord has spoken concerning any nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? Now among those who were gathered for this diplomatic conference, Judah's king especially should not listen to the false prophets. Verse 14, do not listen to the words of the prophets who were saying to you, you shall not serve the king of Babylon for it is a lie that they were prophesying to you. Now one thing that the Jewish king should have noted that there's a problem when the so-called prophets of the Lord are saying the same thing as the occult diviners of pagan nations. By the way, all the things that are described here, the dream interpretation, the divining, the sorcery, these things are all expressly forbidden in the law, Deuteronomy 18 verses 9 to 11. And so the very fact that these paid prophets spoke in agreement with occult diviners condemned by scripture should have been a tip-off. There's a warning here. Something similar, not the same exactly, but I think very similar happens today when the church derives its policies and its plans not from the written word of God, but from secular consulting firms based upon sociological analysts. almost without fail, however well-meaning they may be, their advice will reflect the priorities of the world, and they will be widely at odds with the priorities of the kingdom of God, and especially of the Great Commission." Church, it's happening all the time today. Sessions are hiring secular consulting firms to get a better ROI, to get faster growth, to employ marketing plans, and those sorts of things. The devices of the world, the prophets of the pagan nations, and they are seeking from there the counsel of the church. I don't think it's unfair when people say today that today in the evangelical movement, there is the ABCs of church success. By the way, how you measure success tells you everything about who you are. And in the evangelical movement of which we're a part, it's the ABCs, attendance, buildings, and cash. You've heard me say it before when I fly on planes and they discover I'm a minister. The question, almost invariably, the first question they will ask me is what? How many people are in your church? And it's not an irrelevant question. By the way, I like a full parking lot better than an empty one. I'm not at all, it's true, in itself it's a good thing to have more people, but since when was that the definition of a Christian church? Just once, I want someone to say to me, do you all preach the word of God in a serious way? Do your people pray? Is there a pressing on to personal holiness? Are you standing against the tide of the world? Are you raising your covenant children in gospel love and truth? No, the question, the only question, how big? Now again, attendance, buildings, and cash are fine as byproducts, but never as the aim of the church. Often the Lord will prosper the gospel. The gospel is very powerful. And so a church often will grow, not always, but often it will grow. And we need buildings. And yes, we have to have money to do these things, but it is not for these things that the church exists. following business or sociological advice, a church, here's the problem, you can get the ABCs without preaching the Bible. You can get large numbers. In fact, it's easier to get a bigger church. As some of you know, I'm a graduate of the university that has the largest stadium in America, and they fill it every Saturday in the fall without prayer or preaching the gospel. You can have numbers, you can have money without serving Jesus Christ. No, we're to receive our mission from Jesus. We're to preach the word, we're to pray, we're to administer the sacraments, the means of grace provided to the church for its spiritual mission of biblical evangelism and training in godliness. That is the Great Commission, of course. You see, what happened here was because Judah had taken counsel of these ungodly nations. They even were worshiping their false God. That's why the yoke of Babylon was on them in the first place. They were being judged. Back in chapter five, Jeremiah, the Lord said that you had broken my yoke. They were supposed to be in submission to him through his word and his law. And they had broken that covenant. They had cast off the yoke of the Lord. Well, my friends, there's always a yoke. And they now had the yoke of the imperial conqueror upon them, and they would receive judgment. And Jeremiah, the true prophet, told them now that God expected them to bear it. Something similar seems to be happening today, and for the same reason, the evangelical movement, at least as we listen to the voice of the worldly prophets, and as we cast off obedience to God's word, we will wear the yoke of worldly powers instead of his. Well, that's the gist of what happens in Jeremiah 27. He urges Judah's king and the other kings to forget this notion of rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar and not to listen to these soothing false word from the prophets. But the bigger point, really the main point being declared here is the truth that the ultimate sovereignty over all the nations of the world belongs to God. That's the message of this passage. That the reason these things are so and the reason God can save them is that he is a sovereign over all men, over all nations. And he declares this by means of his rights and power as the creator of the world. Look at verse five. It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth with the men and animals that are on the earth. And so the God who speaks through the Bible and through his true prophets like Jeremiah, he's not like the false gods of the other nations. The false gods were made, were made by men. Men were made by the true God. He is the creator of heaven and earth. He has the power. He has the right to be Lord, to dictate the affairs of nations. As a God of creation, He subsequently acts as the Lord of Providence. For this reason that I've often said the most important verse in the Bible for a Christian worldview is also the first verse in the Bible. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He made it. He owned it. He is Lord. If you have the power by your own world to bring all that is into being, you are sovereign, my friend, and you have the power to exercise that lordship. Now he points out in verse 5 that he made the men and animals that are on the earth. The whole thing about the animals, he's describing the territory. Everything in it. Everything created in there, he says. And he is able, he says, to grant dominion over this to anyone he wants to give it. Verse 5, I give it to whomever seems right to me. And this statement means that the will and power that elevates one nation and cast down another, that that power comes not from man, it comes from God. It was not Nebuchadnezzar who achieved this great empire. And you go, oh no, no, don't talk about the battle of Carcamesh. It was a really good battle. He won his wars. He was like a really effective leader, though ruthless. All that's true. It was given to him by God. God was sovereign. He says, I have given all these lands, verse six, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant. It's not saying that Nebuchadnezzar's a believer. He's not. He's not a believer. It's not saying that he knows he's doing God's will. It doesn't matter. He is doing God's will. God raised him up for his purpose. I have given to him the beasts of the field to serve him. And so when Jeremiah bursts into the council chamber with this yoke and he throws it on the table or walks around with it and he rebukes all those gathered, these other kingdoms, Sidon, Ammon, Moab, they had to be thinking, who does this guy think he is? Who does his God think he is? And the answer is the answer we need to give. People say to us today in our culture, who does God think he is? God is who he thinks he is. The creator, the Lord, the sovereign over all nations. And Jeremiah tells him this, even yes, mighty Nebuchadnezzar striding across the nations, he is a mere servant to the purpose assigned to him by the living God. Now in general, the world's powers are not aware of this. They are not aware that they serve the purposes of the creator and Lord. But here's the point of this passage, we need to know it. I know the world doesn't know. You see what's going on in the world today. If you ask, was it God who did this? They'll say, who? But as you and I live in this tumultuous world, we're to know that God is sovereign over all things. He rules the nations and all the affairs of the earth. Our perspective on world history, on our own times and on our lives should be shaped by a God-centered awareness of divine providence and sovereignty. And one result of that God-centered view of the world is that we are delivered from the fear of those powers that otherwise would seem so overwhelming. We could not possibly stand up to them. We would just give in. We would let them tell us what to think and what to say, what words to come out of our mouth, how we're to live. But you see, the Christian, oh, we do, they may hurt us. We have a duty so far as we are able to obey them. But they are not sovereign. God is. We are safe in his hands. We do not surrender our lives to live according to the rules of the world. Why? Because God is sovereign. I'm reminded of Peter and John in Acts chapter 5. They were preaching the gospel and the Sanhedrin called them in and said, no more preaching in Jesus' name. This is causing a problem. It's a disturbance. And they went on preaching the gospel and they got arrested. They were called before the authorities. Didn't we tell you? Aren't we the Sanhedrin? Didn't we tell you to stop preaching in Jesus' name? And what they said in answer should be the conviction that we hold. We must obey God rather than men. And you might say, yes, but they were beaten. Yes, but the text says they rejoiced at the privilege of serving disgrace for the name of Jesus Christ. We must obey God rather than men. Why? Because he is sovereign. Moreover, a Christian perspective will realize not only that God is sovereign, but that there's a different agenda in this world from God's perspective that's actually going on from what the world thinks is going on. The world thinks it's all about the rising up of empires, the accumulation of wealth and power and pleasure and social media hits now, I suppose. That's the currency. And this is what's going on. And one goes up, another goes down. But the Bible tells us, and Christians know, that while all this is going on, Jesus has a purpose for this world that is so different. It comes in the Great Commission. I'm being greatly helped by the Lukean version, Luke 24, the version of the Great Commission there. Jesus says, the purpose for this age of the world until he returns is this, that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. So the newspapers and the internet thinks it's all about the election and the championship and about the stock market and all these things. And the Christian goes, it's merely the stage. That's merely the backdrop on which God is doing something completely different. They don't even aware of it. The gospel is going forth through his church and the power of the Holy spirit as Christ on high gather sheep to himself until they're all gathered in. And then the age will come crashing down and he will return. Let me give you some examples. Why was it that Rome in the time of the apostles dominated the entire Mediterranean world, the Pax Romana? And you might say, well, it's because Augustus Caesar really did a great job and their army was so good you couldn't beat them. And we go, that's all true, but the real purpose we know from the scriptures was that the roads were there and the order was there so the gospels could be spread in the age of the apostles at lightning speed. And so what we read in our history books, it's very interesting. I enjoy it. But it's merely the backdrop in which God was doing his thing. And when the time for that was over, Rome fell. Let me give you another example. Why did America swiftly rise to power and wealth and influence? Well, surely it is not unrelated to the great missionary enterprises coming out of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ in a culture that valued the gospel once upon a time. And it's the, even today, when you go on the mission fields, they'll say, we pray for the American church because even in today's environment, the missionary labors of the evangelical church are so important. But my friends, if that should all stop, then our usefulness would end. And the time will come, like those before us, when our nation will fall. We're to have a God-centered view of history that perceives the Great Commission. Not only does God raise up these nations and rulers to serve His purpose, but then when their purpose is done, He judges them for their sin. And look at verse seven, so it would be for Nebuchadnezzar, all the nation shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the time of his own land comes, then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave. Now we know what was the purpose for Babylon. Why did God raise up Nebuchadnezzar? To judge covenant breaking Judah, to destroy Jerusalem, to take the Jewish people into the Babylonian exile. And so he was given dominion for that time. But when that job was done, guess what? He was judged by God for the many wicked and evil things he had done in the process of that work, and his kingdom itself was destroyed. You see, God did not intend for the people to remain in exile forever. Back in chapter 25, he's already promised it'll only be 70 years. I say only, in retrospect, for them it's a long 70 years. But in the time of his grandson, who by the way is Nabonidus, Nabonidus was the son of Nebuchadnezzar's daughter. You had a number of palace coups, it gets a little obscured, but Nabonidus is who we see in Daniel, many, many Tekel Parson, the one who, not actually, Belshazzar, the son of Nabonidus, that's who I meant. He is the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar and right on schedule just as prophesied in a one fell swoop the Babylonian Empire went down. The Medes and the Persians with their armed might revolted and Cyrus the Great destroyed the Babylonian people. He ended the dynasty of Nebuchadnezzar. And in the first year of the reign of Cyrus, what did he do? The most astonishing thing, he gave the decree for the Babylonian exiles from Judah to be sent home. The first year of his reign, 539 BC, he gave the decree for the restoration of Jerusalem. Well, Christopher Wright points out from this perspective that we see that even so great a historical figure as Nebuchadnezzar, there probably is no one living today who's historically a great, I mean, he's a Genghis Khan level type person. And yet, Nebuchadnezzar is nothing more than a blip on the radar screen. He moves into focus, he does the work God gave him to do, and he is gone. Well, Christians are right to serve the nations we live in. There is a proper place for Christian patriotism. We're to be interested in our nation's well-being. You'll see that in Jeremiah 29. You'll see it in Romans 13. But a Christian has a different vision as well. We claim membership in the transnational church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so our vision inevitably transcends the well-being and ambition of our own tribe or our own nation. We realize if God raised up a country to serve a purpose, that when that purpose is done, he may very well send it back down. We understand that history is shaped by the gospel and Christ's great commission, and therefore our own chief passion. Oh, we care about America. We care for other loyalties, but our chief passion is the great commission. It's local evangelism. It's world mission. It's the building up of the local church. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, Jesus said. And this is why Christians do not resent tithing of our income or giving of our time and talents and efforts to the work of the church. We realize that the church of Jesus Christ is the only institution of this age that will continue into the age to come. Everything else will pass. This world and all the things in it, apart from the church, will come crashing down. And so we raise our children not merely for successful careers and for national service, but primarily to know the Lord, primarily to trust in Jesus Christ, primarily to spend their lives making an impact on his undying kingdom. You've heard me say it before, the idea of a purposeless Christian is an oxymoron. We serve the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. We serve a church that is going to endure when all the stars are gone. We fix our hearts on the eternal glory. And yes, we gladly employ our treasure and our labors and our time to make a heavenly impact now in the passing world. Well, speaking of the church, Jeremiah's message at this council not only shows that God is sovereign over nations, but then secondly, that at the center of world affairs, it turns out, is his church. What's really going on is the church, why are they having this council? Because they've all been conquered by Babylon. Why were they all conquered by Babylon? Because God was judging his people Judah. And why do they have to stay under the Babylonian yoke? Because that judgment of Judah required the Babylonian exile. And then why would, 70 years later, one of the greatest world empires suddenly come crashing down? Because the people of God needed to come home. It was centered on the church. The world didn't know it, but it was true. God's purposes for his church would be fulfilled. So it is in every generation that while nations rise and fall and fortunes are made and lost, it is the church spreading the light of saving truth, doing the work of Jesus that's at the center. What did Jesus say? I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. J.C. Ryle says this, has the true church been oppressed in one country? It has fled to another. Has it been trampled on or oppressed in one soil? It has taken root and flourished in some other climate. Fire, sword, prisons, fines, penalties have never been able to destroy the church's vitality. Its persecutors have died and gone on to their own place. But the word of God has lived and grown and multiplied. Weak as this true church may appear to the eye of man, it is the anvil on which the hammer of God has broken many nations. Well, one place we see in our passage this central focus on the church is the final section of Jeremiah chapter 27, beginning at verse 16. Because he's going to direct another message to the priests and the people. Thus says the Lord, do not listen to the words of your prophets who are prophesying to you, saying, behold, the vessels of the Lord's house will now shortly be brought back from Babylon, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you. Now, you remember, there was a first deportation in 597 BC, and a lot of the sacred vessels for the temple worship had to be taken, and that was a scandal. It was a humiliation, and the prophets said, don't worry, they're gonna come back. Nebuchadnezzar, someone's going to beat him. And I prophesy in the name of the Lord, they're all going to come back. And Jeremiah says in verse 17, do not listen to them. They are lying. Serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a desolation? And so again, he rebukes the false prophets for speaking out of their own hearts instead of with a message for God. In fact, he gives them some relevant advice. It's actually relevant to us. Look at verse 18. If they are prophets, if the word of the Lord is with them, let them intercede with the Lord of hosts, that the vessels that are left in the house of the Lord and the house of the king of Judah and Jerusalem may not go to Babylon. Now here's what he's saying. Since you and I are not sovereign, and we do not know what's going to happen, and since God is sovereign, and He is the cause of everything that's happened, maybe we should start praying. In fact, prayer is the chief lever, he's saying, by which you influence things. The question he has here is, what will happen to those sacred vessels that are still in Jerusalem? And Jeremiah says, don't worry about the ones that are gone, they are gone. Worry about the ones that you have now that God would not take them, i.e., that you would not be destroyed. They were to pray. Prayer is our appeal to the sovereign throne of God. Does prayer change things? Yes, according to God's will. God ordained even our prayers, but we need to believe the Bible teaches it, experience shows it, that the prayers of God's people is the great lever that moves the nations. James 4 verse 2 rightly identifies why they were weak and failing. He says, you do not have because you do not ask. We are to prayer. It is through prayer chiefly that God's people shape history. And let me give an example. I mentioned the restoration. that would occur when Babylon fell, and history records. Why were the Jews restored? Because of Cyrus the Great. Cyrus the Mede conquered Babylon. He issued that astonishing decree in 539. Yes, humanly speaking, that's why it happened. But let's look in the Bible. And you'll see that before and behind Cyrus the Great is the prophet Daniel in Daniel chapter 9. And we've already seen in Jeremiah 25, the Lord says it's going to be 70 years. And Daniel goes, I've got a calendar. He was a teenager. He's an old man. He's going, it's year 70. And what does he do? The great prayer of Daniel nine. He prays before the Lord. Lord is that time. And he prays as a prophet on behalf of the church. And the angel comes and says, God has heard your prayer. His prayer was the lever all according to God's will and fulfillment of God's prophecy. And that is why Cyrus set them free. That's one illustration. Let me give you one that's closer to our time just last week. The United States Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that had wrongly established the right, as it were, to abortion. And for years, Christians in America, we've spoken, we've politicked, and well, we should in legitimate ways. We have protested in peaceful ways, seeking to achieve its overflow. But I think that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis put his finger on the chief lever of Christian influence that made this wonderful day possible, he said, the prayers of millions have been answered. Jeremiah says, God is sovereign. Why are you not praying to him? The church lies at the center of world history in the fulfillment of God's promises. And so God's people can be sure that though there is an affliction, there will be a restoration. There will be salvation in the end. And that's how the passage concludes. And Jeremiah points out first that, you know what? Since you're not going to listen to me, the Babylonians are going to come back and all of it's going to go away. Verse 22, they shall be carried to Babylon. They will remain there until the day when I visit them. All those vessels, all the gold and brass objects, off they would go because they would not obey. But he concludes, then I will bring them back and restore them to this place. Well, that prophecy also was fulfilled to the letter. Go to the chapter one of the book of Ezra, where you read the decree of Cyrus the Great in 539. It explicitly says, open up the treasury and return the vessels. that were taken from Jerusalem and give them into their hands just as the Lord promised. Well, the lesson for us is that since God's saving purpose rests on the church, my friends, there will always be a remnant of faith and it will carry forth the gospel until Jesus returns and that is what we're here for. Because many great things go on in the church, but we are a missionary outpost of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to, yes, we're to raise up disciples. We're to ingather people in the church so that the gospel would go forth until Jesus returns. And will afflictions come? Yes, they will. And we will endure them by grace through faith. We will be restored by God's mercy. In Matthew 24, Jesus is speaking of the great tribulation at the end of the age. And he describes it as a time of such great evil that no believer could possibly endure except, he said, that for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. Matthew 24, 22, God will preserve the church. He will preserve you. And by God's faithfulness and compassionate mercy, the faithful church that trusts God's Word and serves the Lordship of Christ will endure and triumph under His sovereign power. The church shall never perish, her dear Lord to defend, to guide, sustain, and cherish is with her to the end. Though there be those that hate her and false ones in her pale, against or foe or traitor, she ever shall prevail. Well, Judah, together with these nearby nations, was going to bear the yoke of Babylon. It was the penalty for casting off the yoke of the Lord. Do you realize that as a Christian, you too are given a yoke of submission that you're to wear, that you're to place yourself under as a result of your discipleship to Jesus Christ? Jesus said, take my yoke upon you, Matthew 11, 29. He means that believers were to learn the Bible, were to learn the truth of God's word, were to discipline our lives into a pattern of biblical obedience and service to his gospel. But what a great difference there is, for Jesus says, I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. But why is it that the yoke of Jesus is light? It's because he bore the heavy weight on his shoulders as he carried the cross where he died for our sins. He from heaven, he sends the power of the Holy Spirit to strengthen us in our service. Here's the question, will you take the yoke of Christ? Will you not only believe in him, particularly in some nebulous way, no, will you surrender yourself to him? Will you submit to him as Lord? Will you give yourself, taking him, will you give yourself to his life and service? You see, if you do, you're not gonna miss out. Your life's not gonna be weary or burdensome. No, Jesus says, he says it to you now. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Father in heaven, we thank you for Jeremiah 27. Another pretty intense passage, Lord, but it speaks directly to the world in which we now are living. Father, would you cause us to have a God-centered worldview, that we would see in all the affairs of men that you are reigning, would we understand your purposes in and through the church, would we believe on Jesus and make ourselves together and individually servants of that gospel that will prevail. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.