Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

God is not a god a distance.

He is very close and present in all places at all times.

One cannot hide their lies from God. God knows all and sees all.

It would seem that the false prophets wanted to test these truths.

They wanted to question God’s ability to know.

In doing so, they were causing the people to forget who God is.

God had a message for them.

They could not hide and he knew.

He would show the difference between the truth and a lie.

He was not for them, but against them.

Focus Passage

Outline

You need to know (vv.23-24)

God continues to address the false prophets.

He wants them to know that there is no escaping.

He wants them to know that He is the great I AM.

That he sees it all, hears it all, and is a witness to all.

We find within our text that he address three specific areas in which the false prophets, nor the people could escape.

They needed to know three truths about God’s person and presence.

You need to know that God is omnipresent - ‘Can any hide himself in the secret places that I shall not see him…Do not I fill heaven and earth...’

You need to know that God is provident and imminent - ‘…Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off...’

You need to know that God is omniscient

Being that God is omnipresent, that is he is in all places at all times and that He is provident and imminent, that is all things happen according to His will and plan and that He is actively involved in His creation and the acts of His creation, God was well aware of what was being said by the false prophets.

Dreams were a were considered a normal mode of revelation in the ancient near east.

We find several examples of where dreams are connected with a message from God or the seeking for a message from God.

Two examples of this are when God tells Israel that if he has a message for the people it would come through the dream of a prophet, that He would give them (Numbers 12:6).

We also find where Saul sought a message from God, but it is recorded that God would not deliver to him a message via a dream, the Urim, or via the prophets (1 Samuel 28:6) Within the New Testament, it was within a dream that the angel told Joseph that Mary was pregnant with our Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:20).

The prophets declaring they had a message from God through a dream was not something to cause alarm to the people.

This is how God said he would speak to His people.

The problem was that no dream or vision was to be accepted without an interpreter.

There was no interpreter but the prophets themselves.

These dreams, that they supposedly were having, were not from God.

They were lying to themselves, to the people, and making a mockery of God and His truth.

Causing forgetfulness (vv.26-27)

The lies and dreams that the prophets of Israel were claiming, had a source but that source was not God.

The source of prophets dreams were from their own heart

Let us be clear about the heart of man.

It is not to be trusted or followed.

We find that man’s natural disposition is bent toward evil and deceit.

God ask a question, How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophecy lies?

This question was pointing toward the character of the false prophets.

These false messages by these so called dreams were self bread and intentional, they are prophets of the deceits of their own hearts.

They were giving the people false securities through false lies.

The false prophets were causing the people to forget the character of God - ‘...cause my people to forget my name by their dreams...’

As the people followed the lies of the false prophets and found themselves being driven away into a world of idolatry and spiritual adultery, they also were forgetting who God was.

They were following the example of their ancestors in rebellion of God rather than embracing God, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.

The obvious difference between the truth and a lie (vv.28-29)

God does not mince words toward the comparison between His truth and the prophets’ lies.

He says, let him tell a dream.

That is he is telling the false prophets to keep on keeping on.

You are going to do it anyway.

Then God states the obvious difference between truth and lies.

God calls his true prophets to speak his true word - ‘…he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully...’

God states that there is no comparison between the truth and a lie - ‘…what is the chaff to the wheat?

saith the Lord...’

Straw v. wheat is not even something to compare.

Straw is worthless and has no value compared to that of wheat.

God points out that those dreams have no value, but His word does.

God states that his word will...

Purify the heart of the people

Break the confidence of the people and bring them under conviction

God is against the false prophets (vv.30-32)

God was against the prophets because they were leading the people astray - ‘…I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words every one from his neighbor…and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness...’

God was against the prophets because He did not commission them - ‘that use their tongues, and say, He saith…yet I sent them not, nor commanded them...’

God was against the prophets because their message had no value - ‘…therefore they shall not profit this people at all...’

Conclusion

Let us be cautious in what we say is a message from the Lord.

Let us be cautious in what we believe and follow.

Not everyone who says that they are from God is from God.

Not every pastor preaches the truth of God’s word.

We are called to test the spirits.

Let us be obedient to God and His word and do so.