“At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah. For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, “Why do you prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall capture it;” (Jeremiah 32:2–3, ESV)
I am sure you have seen this in a movie or on television, perhaps in person. Someone wants to tell another something, something true. However, the hearer does not want to hear the truth. So, the one to whom the truth is spoken will put his fingers in his ears and begin making some sort of noise to drown out the truth spoken. Very often people try to silence the truth that they do not want to hear.
Jeremiah had prophesied truth to Judah. They had turned their back on the Lord their God and worshipped idols. They did detestable things in the eyes of the Lord. Thus, Jeremiah prophesied a judgment was coming upon the nation at the hands of Babylon. They were taking siege of Judah and would destroy the city of Jerusalem. Because Jeremiah prophesied this message, Zedekiah king of Judah imprisoned the prophet to shut down the proclamation of the truth.
Today we find a similar problem around the world. There are many places in the world where it is illegal to preach the truth of the gospel. Christians are martyred in various countries for merely trying to help people experience the joy of salvation.
In this country we still have freedom to proclaim the truth of God’s word. However, the freedom that we enjoy is under attack. There are restrictions in certain places as to where the truth can be presented.
When I was in Savannah, Georgia, we used to do much in the way of beach ministry. We would rent a public pier upon which we had our praise band play music. We played a mix of Christian contemporary, and praise and worship. People would come up from the beach to hear the music. During the band’s break time someone would share a testimony. I would mingle with the people and just ask if they had any questions. I had the opportunity to share the gospel with many. They were not upset by this or opposed.
However, sometime later a city official called for a meeting. We met and he ordered us to stop what we were doing. He said that we could not play Christian music and talk about the Bible on the pier. When I moved to New Hampshire, I had the same issue as we decided to do a Sunday worship in the park’s free-speech area. There too the city shut us down from using that area to worship. Granted, no one went to jail for this, but it was just a sign of the effort to shut down the truth.
We must realize that there are spiritual forces of evil that oppose the proclamation of the truth of God’s word. These forces do work through people to oppose and even implement laws prohibiting the truth. There has been an effort to prevent pastors from preaching on certain biblical truths that condemn sinful practices.
Here is the point, just as Jeremiah stood firm and proclaimed the message God gave him, we must stand firm on the word of truth, the Bible. We cannot sugarcoat the truth. We must preach it completely. And even as Jeremiah suffered persecution for preaching the truth, we must be prepared to experience the same if it ever comes to that. Stand firm, preach God’s word by the power of the Holy Spirit without reservation, and trust the Lord.
Renewing the Heart 