Who Are We Listening To?

Jeremiah 23:9-40 has much to teach us about who we should be listening to. Listening to the wrong sources of information isn’t just a problem today—it’s been a problem since the Garden of Eden.

Adam and Eve, perfectly created and in perfect fellowship with their Creator, went astray when they started listening to Satan more than God. And mankind has ever since had a weakness for listening to the wrong people.

And if we don’t acknowledge this weakness about ourselves, and proactively trying to prevent it from occuring, then we are likely to keep repeating the same mistakes.

False Sources

There are many sources of false information. False gods, false philosophies, and even the thoughts that come our own minds can be false.

Israel’s prophets were getting their false information from the false god Baal.

Jeremiah 23:13 CSB

Among the prophets of Samaria I saw something disgusting: They prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray.

Imagine leaders being so corrupt that they don’t even try to pretend to hide the fact they’re speaking in the name of false gods. While there are some today who claim to be Christian Buddhists or Christian Moslems, most false teachers today are more subtle.

Many teach the false philosophies without using the names. For example, the idea that a person must approve of all lifestyles in order to be loving are running rampant not just within our culture but within our churches. “Everyone is welcome in this place” is biblical put that doesn’t mean we endorse every unbiblical lifestyle.

We believe in absolute truth but in surveys done within the last couple of years it’s estimated that only 43% of those who identify as born again Christians agree with the idea of absolute truth. Instead they believe false sources of information that say truth is relative.

That’s a concerning statistic and it’s one that I hope causes us to examine our own beliefs. Our own minds are where false beliefs start.

Jeremiah 23:16 CSB

This is what the Lord of Armies says: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are deluding you. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the Lord’s mouth.

Where do false prophets get their false ideas? They’re influenced by Satan, of course, but they’re also making stuff up that sounds good to them and believable to others.

Jeremiah 23:26–27 CSB

How long will this continue in the minds of the prophets prophesying lies, prophets of the deceit of their own minds? Through their dreams that they tell one another, they plan to cause my people to forget my name as their ancestors forgot my name through Baal worship.

The point is that these false prophets were giving too much weight to the stuff they were dreaming up—and the people loved it. The longer it went on the more the people forgot about God.

Modern Examples?

False prophets have been around since the Garden of Eden but these last few years we’ve seen quite a few false prophets say things and I’m afraid some of us might still be holding on to even though they have proven false.

The first group are all the prophesies that Donald Trump was going to be reelected and when that didn’t happen, reinstated. Now I’m not talking about people who just desire to see him reinstated but people who have actually said God gave them a prophetic word.

There’s people like the self-described prophet Jeremiah Johnson who claimed to see a vision that Trump would be reelected 2020. He’s since apologized and resigned from ministry over his mistake but, perhaps even more concerning, is that now he receives death threats and is accused of being “a coward and traitor to the Holy Spirit” from “Christians” who refuse to accept Trump’s defeat.

In many Christian circles faith in Trump’s return to the White House is the sign of true Christianity.

Helping to propel this idea is Mike Lindell, the owner of the My Pillow corporation. He doesn’t call himself a prophet but many people treat him as if he is. He has declared with 100% certainty his evidence proves the election was rigged and that his arguments are so compelling the whole world will recognize it and Trump was supposed to be reinstated on August 13. Well, that didn’t happen and now he’s changed the date to September 30th when I’m sure many more people will become disillusioned with his predictions.

Some of you may remember Hal Lindsay and Chuck Smith making similar kind of predictions about the return of Christ in the late 70’s. Using mathematical calculations they “proved” Jesus would return before 1981. I don’t mean to pick on them because nearly every denomination has made false predictions about the 2nd coming in the last several decades.

Some other modern examples of false prophecies are related to the Corona Virus.

Chuck Pierce of Glory of Zion Ministries said God told him Corona virus would be gone by last Easter. Remember that?

Nigerian televangelist TB Joshua prophesied that COVID-19 would end on March 27, 2020. It didn’t and it’s worse than ever in Africa right now.

Many, many more people (perhaps some of us) believed or still believe that the virus is only a hoax designed to prevent Trump from being reelected and would disappear after the election. “You’ll see” they said “as soon as the election is over it will be gone.”

Christians are the ones primarily keeping these false prophesies alive. Christians are the ones who say that vaccines, contain computer chips and along with masks are the mark of the beast.

Where do people get these ideas from? Not from scripture. Not from your pastor. They come from false sources of information that we are all too willing to believe.

False prophecies usually come from well-known people but then they are passed along by you and me just like in Jeremiah’s day.

Jeremiah 23:30 CSB

Therefore, take note! I am against the prophets”—the Lord’s declaration—“who steal my words from each other.

These prophets were copying and pasting from one another and then passing it off as “God’s words.” Not much has changed only I think we have “perfected” the art of copy and paste in the 21st century.

Not trying to pick on anyone because we are all susceptible to this, but just the other day I received an “emergency prayer request” about the 229 Christian Missionaries sentenced to death in Afghanistan last week. Did you hear about this? Sounds believable, right? The only problem is they’re aren’t 229 Missionaries sentenced to death in Afghanistan and this “emergency prayer request” is has been copied and pasted and passed around since 2009.

Now this is fairly benign example of a “false prophecy” because the Afghans certainly do need prayer. But it’s an example of just how easily we can be misled.

Christians should not be the purveyors of false information no matter how good our intentions are. Not only do we look foolish and gullible but in time we become known to the world for our belief in conspiracy theories more than our belief in biblical truth. To the world we just add fuel to the fire that our belief in Christ is just another one of those kooky conspiracy theories.

The Council of the Lord

So how can we be sure we are repeating the truth and not just the opinions of men? We need to focus on the council of the Lord.

There are many sources of false information and prophecy but there is only one source of truth—God.

Alternate sources may contain distortions of the truth but not the whole truth. If you want the whole truth we need to go to his word and we need to listen to those who have been with the Lord.

Jeremiah 23:18 CSB

For who has stood in the council of the Lord to see and hear his word? Who has paid attention to his word and obeyed?

The false prophets hadn’t. They had been in the presence of alternative sources of information like Baal and dreams from the minds of men. They weren’t paying attention to God’s word and as a result they weren’t speaking the truth.

Many of us spend too much time with the wrong sources of information, too. And as a result, whenever we do read God’s word it is always understood through a filter. Maybe it’s a liberal or a conservative filter, or some other kind of man-made filter, but those filters are causing us to misunderstand or even reject God’s word.

For example, some Christians are reluctant to show compassion to refugees because of political reasons even though the Bible clearly says we are to treat foreigners as citizens of our own communities and offer them compassion, because we ourselves were once foreigners (Lev 19:34; Genesis 15:13; Hebrews 13:2; Mal 3:5).

There’s not really any debate that this is what the Bible teaches and yet, many Christians make political or national excuses for why we shouldn’t help. Many Christians just echo what they hear on the news outlets...let other nations do it, we’re inviting terrorism into our country, it’s a drain on our economy, etc.

Christians also downplay racism as no big deal even though the Bible makes it clear we should be concerned about it and actively against it. Instead, many Christians echo what they hear on the news— “I’m not racist and I don’t know anyone who is. We don’t have a problem with racism in this country” they say.

We downplay the need to help the homeless and those that are poor. We quote verses like “if they don’t work they shouldn’t eat” while ignoring all the other verses about showing compassion and giving to those in need.

Sadly, pastors are being removed from pulpits who dare to emphasize caring for the poor and needy as more important than political concerns.

John Piper’s successor Jason Meyer and 3 other pastors at Bethlehem Baptist church resigned recently because the elders in were being domineering, manipulative, and hostile towards them. Why were they hostile? Because the pastors were trying to lead the church to show greater compassion toward black people, toward the poor and needy, toward refugees, and toward the kind of people that the Bible tells us to care for.

Of course there’s always more than one side to every story but when people are pushed out of leadership who are just trying to be faithful to the council of the Lord that’s an alarming problem.

What do true prophets prophesy about? What is the council of the Lord?

Amos 8:4, 7 “Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end...The Lord has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: I will never forget all their deeds.”

Isaiah 1:17 “Learn to do what is good. Pursue justice. Correct the oppressor. Defend the rights of the fatherless. Plead the widow’s cause.”

Jer 22:13 “Woe for the one who builds his palace through unrighteousness, his upstairs rooms through injustice, who makes his neighbor serve without pay and will not give him his wages,”

Ezk 16:49 “Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had pride, plenty of food, and comfortable security, but didn’t support the poor and needy.”

Micah 6:8 “Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Zech 7:9-10 ““The Lord of Armies says this: ‘Make fair decisions. Show faithful love and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the resident alien or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’”

That’s the council of the Lord and we would be wise to listen.

So, are we listening to God’s true prophets or are there other “prophets” that we are giving more weight to? In the name of winning the next election or “the culture war” are we neglecting to be obedient to God’s word?

We must not be misled. It only leads to...

A False Hope

Those that put their hope in the false prophesies about Trump being reelected or the Corona Virus ended are now disillusioned. Many feel crushed without hope.

Everyone needs something to hope for but if it’s built upon lies there’s only fake hope.

Jeremiah 23:17 CSB

They keep on saying to those who despise me, ‘The Lord has spoken: You will have peace.’ They have said to everyone who follows the stubbornness of his heart, ‘No harm will come to you.’ ”

Many preachers are hesitant tell people who despise God about his wrath. They cry “Peace, peace when there is no peace.” They say God is just a little disappointed with sinners but he’s not angry. In an effort to give a little hope they distort the truth and actually remove hope altogether.

They should encourage people to turn from their evil ways as Jer 23:22 says, “If they had really stood in my council, they would have enabled my people to hear my words and would have turned them from their evil ways and their evil deeds.”

But instead of the truth they tell people what they want to hear, much like our media does. When we turn on the news, and I don’t care which one, we’re getting a bias from people with an agenda. And it’s an agenda that wants to keep us coming back for more. They shock us. They speculate. They alarm. They exaggerate in order to get us to come back for our next fix of “news.”

They have to keep our attention and the best way to do that is to say crazy things. Christians are being beheaded! They’re taking over our schools! Masks and vaccines are killing people! Immigrants are ruining our country! White people are racists! As in nearly all headlines there is an element of truth in all of these statements but they are all distortions of the truth designed to get our attention.

What many of us are drinking in on a daily basis is influencing how we think and hindering our ability to obey the word of God. All the distortions are hard to filter out and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for Christians to know what to believe any more. Many are losing hope.

It’s heartbreaking.

A Broken Heart

Jeremiah didn’t take any pleasure in pointing out the false prophets. He didn’t get angry with them or try to get even. Instead he wept.

Jeremiah 23:9 CSB

Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me, and all my bones tremble. I have become like a drunkard, like a man overcome by wine, because of the Lord, because of his holy words.

The truth must be defended at all costs but there is an arrogant way to go about it and a compassionate way. Smugness is not a very pleasant Christian trait but it’s one far too many of us are guilty of.

Our bones should tremble at the thought of what is happening in many churches. Churches are dividing over issues of politics. Pastors and members are becoming afraid to speak up about social issues because they’re afraid they’ll put on someone’s list of liberal people not to listen to and “canceled.” The fact that this is occuring should cause us to weep.

Listen to Jesus

So turn to Jesus. The only prophet we need to listen to is Jesus Christ. We can always trust him. Jesus has been in the council of the Lord like no other Jer 23:18. and trust his word. Let’s make Jesus’ priorities our priorities. He doesn’t make false predictions. He doesn’t give us false hope and He will never break our hearts.