Please turn to the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 11, beginning with verse 18.
And the Lord gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it:
then Thou showedst me their doings.
But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter;
and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying,
Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof,
and let us cut him off from the land of the living,
that his name may be no more remembered.
But, O Lord of hosts, Who judgest righteously,
Who triest the heart and the mind,
let me see Thy vengeance on them;
for unto Thee have I revealed my cause.
Jeremiah 15, verse 10.
Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife
and a man of contention to the whole land!
I have not lent, neither have men lent to me;
yet every one of them doth curse me.
The Lord said, Verily, I will strengthen thee for good;
verily, I will cause the enemy to make supplication unto thee
in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.
Verse 15.
O Lord, Thou knowest: remember me, and visit me,
and avenge me of my persecutors;
take me not away in Thy longsuffering:
know that for Thy sake I have suffered reproach.
Thy words were found, and I did eat them;
and Thy words were unto me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart:
for I am called by Thy name, O Lord, God of hosts.
I sat not in the assembly of them that make merry, nor rejoiced;
I sat alone because of Thy hand:
for Thou hast filled me with indignation.
Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable,
which refuseth to be healed?
Wilt Thou indeed be unto me as a deceitful brook,
as waters that fail?
Therefore thus saith the Lord, If thou return, then will I bring thee again,
that thou mayest stand before Me;
and if thou take forth the precious from the vile,
thou shalt be as My mouth:
let them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them.
And I will make thee unto this people a fortified brazen wall;
and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee;
for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked,
and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.
Jeremiah 17, verse 14.
Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
save me, and I shall be saved:
for Thou art my praise.
Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the Lord?
let it come now.
As for me, I have not hastened from being a shepherd after Thee;
neither have I desired the woeful day; Thou knowest:
that which came out of my lips was before Thy face.
In these few chapters, from Jeremiah 11 through Jeremiah 17, we are shown the life of a prophet. What is the life of a prophet like?
Of course, Jeremiah continued to prophesy, and as he continued to prophesy, he went through a kind of life that is common to a prophet of God.
Now, we would like to use the word prophet in a very broad sense. Of course, a prophet is one who is called by God to be God’s mouth. A prophet is one who speaks for God, one to whom God has revealed His mind. Therefore, he has a word for God’s people as well as for the world.
Not all are called to be prophets, because in the body of Christ we are not all mouths. If we are all mouths, then where is the body? So, in one sense, not all are prophets.
Yet, in another sense—in a broader sense—you remember that in 1 Corinthians 14 we are told that we need to seek spiritual manifestations, and among the spiritual manifestations is the gift of prophecy. By prophesying, it simply means to exhort, to edify, to encourage, and to comfort.
In this broader sense, I believe that every child of God can prophesy. Every child of God can be used of God, at one time or another, to encourage brothers and sisters, to comfort those who need comfort, and to build up those who need to be built up.
Let us broaden it still further. We may not prophesy in words, but we may all be used of the Lord for building up, for encouraging, and for comfort.
Sometimes, you know, you do not use words to comfort people. You do not need to use words to encourage people or to build up people. Sometimes it may be a deed, it may be conduct, it may be just a heart of sympathy, or it may be prayer.
So, in that sense, let us say Jeremiah was called to be a prophet. We may not be called to be prophets, and yet we are all called to minister to God and to one another.
Because we are all called to minister to God and to one another, there are certain things that we need to understand.
It is good to be a prophet, but what are the qualifications of a prophet? What does God require of a prophet? What kind of a life will a prophet live?
We all desire to be used of God in one way or another, and the desire is right. We should desire that, because we are saved to serve God. We are saved to minister unto God and to one another. There should be a strong desire within us that we may be used of God according to His will.
But to be used of God requires certain qualifications. It requires certain things of us. If we want to be used of God, we will have to accept—or be ready to accept—a certain kind of life.
Are we prepared for these things?
So, in these few chapters, we would like to share just a few things in relation to a prophet, or to a servant of the Lord. By “servant of the Lord,” we cover everybody.
The Lord says, “Many are called, but few are chosen.”
So far as God’s call is concerned, it is very broad and general. God calls every one of us, all of His children. God does not specify by saying, “So-and-so, I call you.”
One day, when Isaiah entered into the temple to pray, he saw a vision of the glory of the Lord: the Lord in the temple, high and lifted up upon His throne. He heard the seraphim crying, “Holy, holy, holy.”
When Isaiah saw this vision, he cried out and said, “Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, dwelling among a people of unclean lips.”
After he was cleansed, he heard a voice. God said, “Whom shall We send? Who will go for Us?”
It was as if, among the Godhead, there was a consultation: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God was consulting within the Godhead: “Whom shall We send? Who will go for Us?”
Isaiah overheard it. God did not say, “Now, Isaiah, you go. Now, Isaiah, I call you and I send you.” Isaiah only overheard, in a very general way, “Whom shall We send? Who will go for Us?”
And Isaiah offered himself and said, “Now, God, I am here. Send me.”
Dear brothers and sisters, God has called every one of us. He calls all of us to come to the use of Him as vessels in His house. But many are called; only few are chosen. Why?
Because when God calls, many do not hear. Their hearts are so hardened, they are so far away from God, and their ears are so deaf that when God calls, they do not hear. It is not because God has not spoken; it is because they have not heard. If you do not hear, you cannot respond.
Some people may have heard, but they draw back. They are not willing to offer themselves. They are not willing to lay themselves on the altar. In other words, they do not respond to God.
But those who are near to Him, those who hear Him, and who offer themselves to Him—these God will apprehend, and these God will use.
Here, in the case of Jeremiah, God said:
If thou return, then will I bring thee again,
that thou mayest stand before Me;
and if thou take forth the precious from the vile,
thou shalt be as My mouth.
Who can be as God’s mouth? Here are the conditions.
Number one: “If thou return.” If you turn to Me, if you commit yourself to Me, if you give yourself to Me, then you shall stand before Me.
So first of all, brothers and sisters, if we want to be used of God, we must return to Him. We must turn ourselves to Him. We must give ourselves to Him completely. Then we will be able to stand before Him.
Then number two: “If thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth.”
There must be a separation, a separation between the precious and the vile. The vile refers not only to the vile things of this world. How we need to be separated from the world, that we may be set apart for God. But the vile here is more than that. We must be separated even from the vile things of the flesh.
You find in 2 Timothy 2 that in the great house of God there are all kinds of vessels: vessels unto honor and vessels unto dishonor, vessels of gold and silver, and vessels of wood and earth. If we purify ourselves from that which is unto dishonor, then we will be made vessels unto honor, fit for the Master’s use.
So, brothers and sisters, if we want to be used of God, we have to come to Him and commit ourselves to Him. More than that, we must take forth the precious from the vile. There must be a dividing of ourselves and the world. There must be a dividing of the soul and the spirit. We must be separated from that which is vile, which is of the flesh, that God may consider us precious.
It is only by His life that we are able to be used of Him. We are chosen by Him.
Now, that is the first point. The second point: a man who is to be used of God must know His Word, as well as the hand of God.
Here in Jeremiah 15:16, we read:
Thy words were found, and I did eat them;
and Thy words were unto me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart:
for I am called by Thy name, O Lord, God of hosts.
I sat not in the assembly of them that make merry, nor rejoiced;
I sat alone because of Thy hand:
for Thou hast filled me with indignation.
Here you find two things: the Word of God and the hand of God. A prophet is one who has found the Word of God.
The Word of God is here; it is always here. But do you find the Word? We have the Word here, but sometimes we do not find God’s Word. We may read the Word of God, and yet there is no revelation—there is no revelation.
You remember it was said in the Old Testament that David searched and found the ark of God hidden in the woods, in the forest. There he went to worship God. The ark of God was hidden; it was forgotten. Because of the diligent searching of David, he found it, and he went there to worship God.
Dear brothers and sisters, if we want to be used of God, the Word of God is always here, but you have to find it. You have to search the Word diligently. You have to look to the Spirit of God to explain His Word to us. You have to ask God to give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation unto the full knowledge of God.
As you seek after God and seek after His Word, you will find His Word.
When you find His Word, Jeremiah said, “Thy words were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” As we find His Word, His Word becomes the joy and rejoicing of our hearts.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, I do believe you must have had something of such an experience. When you read the Word of God, when you wait upon the Lord, when you look upon Him, when you meditate upon His Word, in God’s graciousness He opens His Word to you. The Word becomes living to you.
When God reveals His Word to you, is it not the joy and rejoicing of your heart? Who can read the Word of God with indifference? Who can read the Word of God without emotion, without feeling?
If you do not find His Word, then you will read it with indifference, just as if you were reading any other book. But when God reveals His Word to you, you leap for joy. There is a joy and rejoicing. God’s Word is the joy and rejoicing of our hearts.
You remember in the book of Revelation, when John the apostle took that little book and ate it, it was sweet in his mouth. But that is not the end.
Not only is there the Word of God, but if the Word of God comes to you and becomes the joy and rejoicing of your heart, then you will find that following the Word of God, there will be God’s hand.
God’s hand will come upon you, and when God’s hand comes upon you, as John said, it becomes bitter in your belly. Here you find the prophet Jeremiah saying, “I sat alone. I was filled with indignation.” Why? Because the hand of God was upon Jeremiah.
Dear brothers and sisters, how true it is. When the Word of God comes to us, it is so sweet. It rejoices our hearts. But because the Word of God is with us, the burden of the Lord begins to come.
It is as if the hand of the Lord comes upon you. When the hand of the Lord comes upon you, when His burden comes upon you, you are burdened with God’s burden. You begin to see things as God sees them, and it fills your heart with indignation.
It becomes bitter. Why? What a contradiction you find in this world. What a contradiction you find even among God’s people. God’s people are far away from His Word. How can God’s people be one with the Word of God? It is a burden—a tremendous burden.
Jeremiah felt as if there were a fire burning within his bones. Now that is the feeling a servant of the Lord must have: full sympathy with God.
It is not merely a matter of becoming a mouth. My mouth does not utter words mechanically. It is not a matter of merely opening my mouth and saying something mechanically. No. When my mouth is opened and words come forth, they come from the very bottom of my heart. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
It is not mechanical. To be a prophet of God is not a mechanical thing; to be a prophet of God is a living thing. In other words, if we want to be used of God, it is not just a matter of gifts.
You may have gifts, but if your heart is not one with God, if you are not in full sympathy with God, you may exercise your gift as if it were something external, something additional. You may help people, but remember: a gift not backed by life never becomes ministry.
If we really want to minister unto God and to one another, our hearts must be in full sympathy with God. We must feel as God feels.
As we read His Word, it becomes living. We begin to feel it. We begin to be burdened with it. We begin to be overwhelmed by it. We get angry, as it were—angry at the situation. Out of that will come true ministry.
There must be such sympathy with God. That is the second thing.
Now, the third thing: Jeremiah, as he was in full sympathy with God, saw the situation of the children of Israel as God saw it. How God sent His messengers to them early in the morning, even until night, and yet they would not hear. They would not hear.
Jeremiah was in full sympathy with God. He felt as God felt the situation.
When he spoke, when the Word of God came out of his mouth, sometimes, because of the condition of God’s people, the words had to be harsh and hard. When you read the book of Jeremiah, you find that he spoke many hard words.
He did not want to speak them, but he had to. God put words in his heart. It was burning in his bones, and it came out—sometimes in denunciation, sometimes in very hard words: “If you do not repent, you will be scattered. You will be killed. You will be left desolate.”
He had to reprimand them. He had to scold them. He had to say to the king, to the princes, and to the prophets, “You are all in falsehood.” These were hard words.
Yet, when he prophesied, he was not only in full sympathy with God; he was in identification with God’s people.
So everyone whom he scolded was not a third person to him, because he was one with them. Therefore, in Jeremiah 14, he prayed to God, “Our iniquity.” It was not merely the iniquity of the people, but “our iniquity.” He included himself with God’s people.
Now, brothers and sisters, if we want to be used of God, we must identify ourselves with God’s people. We cannot stand apart and aloof, as if we are holier than all the others, and then begin to scold them and point our fingers at them. Brothers and sisters, it will not work. That is not God’s way.
Here you find that when Jeremiah was prophesying strongly against the children of Israel, his heart was broken. He prophesied with many tears. He wept much. Why? Because he considered himself as one of the people.
Brothers and sisters, you find this is true with all true servants of God. There is love behind, because there is identification. So when the word comes forth, even if it may be strong, it reaches the hearts of people.
By the way, there was a prophet who was not sympathetic with the people to whom he prophesied. You know who he was: Jonah.
He was sent to prophesy against the destruction of Nineveh. He did not want to go in the first place. He wanted Nineveh to be destroyed. He did not understand why God should be merciful to a Gentile city. So he fled, and God caught him and brought him back through the belly of a fish.
He had to go and pronounce the judgment of the Lord. After he pronounced it, he put up a tent outside the city on a hill, waiting to see Nineveh destroyed. But Nineveh repented.
Now, he was a prophet who was not sympathetic with the people to whom he prophesied. Of course, that was irregular. To be a real prophet of the Lord, you have to be in full sympathy with the people to whom you prophesy. You have to identify yourself with them.
Now we come to number four. Jeremiah not only prophesied, but he prayed much. How he pleaded before God for the children of Israel.
Oftentimes, we may think that speaking before people is about all there is to the work of God. But to speak to people is just one part—a small part—of the work of God. The greater part is behind the scenes.
There you find how Jeremiah pleaded before God on behalf of God’s people. He pleaded to such an extent that God said to him, “Do not pray any more.”
Even if Moses and Samuel were praying, God said He would not turn from His purpose toward this people. Think of that.
You remember Moses. Moses was a man of prayer. Through his intercession, God forgave the children of Israel more than once. God wanted to wipe out the children of Israel, but Moses pleaded before God. He had such a shepherd’s heart that he even told God, “If Thou wilt not forgive them—oh, if only Thou wilt forgive them—even if Thou blot my name out of Thy book, I am willing.”
God heard Moses.
Samuel was another person. How he prayed before God, and God heard him and destroyed the Philistines. Yet God said, “Even if Moses and Samuel were praying, I would not turn to this people.”
Why did God say that? It must have been because Jeremiah was on his knees. Jeremiah was pleading with God: “In spite of all that the people are, Lord, forgive them. Forgive them, forgive them.”
God said, “Do not say that.” It was as if, if he should pray more, God would have to change His mind. God said, “Do not say any more.”
Is that our condition, our situation? Have we prayed to such an extent that God says, “Now, do not pray any more”? Or is it because we do not pray that God would say to us, “Why do you not pray?” Probably that is more our situation.
So, dear brothers and sisters, how important is prayer in the work of God. How we need to be on our knees. How we need to plead on behalf of God’s people. How we need to pray for God’s sake, for His purpose, for His will to be done on earth.
How we need to give ourselves to prayer, and He will answer us.
Then finally, in these chapters you find that to be a prophet is not an easy life. Do not expect that you can be a prophet, or that you can be a person used of God, and live a very easy and comfortable life.
Here you find Jeremiah, because he answered the call of God and was faithful to God. Oh, what a difficult life he lived. Even his own brethren—the men of Anathoth—devised devices against Jeremiah. They wanted to kill him.
Not only the king, not only the princes, not only the false prophets, but even the priests wanted to kill him.
Jeremiah said, “Woe is me, my mother. Why did you give birth to me? I am a man of contention and a man of strife. Everybody curses me—not because I have taken usury from people. I have done nothing, and yet everybody seems to curse me and wants me to die.”
What a life. How he suffered.
How he was taken and put into a dried-up well, sinking in the mire. How he was held prisoner in the court of the guard.
If what tradition says is true, then you find that he was faithful to God to the end. When the king of Babylon destroyed Jerusalem, as God had said, he gave mercy to Jeremiah. Jeremiah was set free. He could go anywhere he wanted to go.
Yet Jeremiah continued with the people, the remnant. The remnant decided to go to Egypt. He told them, “Do not go to Egypt,” but they did not obey God and went to Egypt. Jeremiah went with them, and we are told that eventually Jeremiah was stoned to death by his own people.
It was a difficult life, a life of suffering in the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ.
Oh, brothers and sisters, every servant of God—anyone who is to be used of God—will live a difficult life. There will be persecution. There will be misunderstanding. There will be contempt. There will be mockery. There may even be physical problems.
But thank God, Jeremiah continued faithful to the Lord to the very end. What God had spoken through Jeremiah was true. It was true.
Of course, there are still things in Jeremiah that have not been fulfilled yet. But we know all his prophecies will be fulfilled.
So, dear brothers and sisters, here we see the life of a prophet: the qualifications, the demands, and the life of a prophet. If we want to be used of God, may we be prepared. May we answer the call of God, respond to Him, and be willing to be separated and used by Him.
For the sake of some who do not quite understand English, I will use five minutes to conclude this in Chinese. So, if you will just bear with me.
Shall we pray?
O heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou hast called every one of us to come, to serve Thee and to serve one another.
O our Father, we pray that we may be chosen. We pray that we may return to Thee and separate the precious from the vile, that we may be used of Thee.
O Lord, we ask Thee that Thou wilt give us Thy Word. May Thy hand be upon us.
We pray that we may not be those like the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who think that they are far above other people. But Lord, we pray that we may identify ourselves with Thy people, with those to whom we will minister and whom we will serve.
And God, we pray that we may lie before Thee on our knees, pleading before Thee on behalf of Thy people. O Lord, we pray that, if it means that we have to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow Thee; if it means that it will be a narrow way; if it means the way of the cross, Lord, make us worthy.
Encourage us, O Lord. Lead us on. We want Thee to use us, that Thy work may be done on earth as it is in heaven. Unto Thee be all the praise, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus.
Amen.