INVINCIBLE

Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words which Baruch had written at the instruction of Jeremiah, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying: “Take yet another scroll, and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned.”  (Jeremiah 36:27-28)

How would you feel if on Sunday morning as you went to the pulpit, the deacon chairman grabbed your sermon notes, cut them up with scissors, and burned them right in front of the congregation?  Would you be sad?  Would you get mad?  Would you turn to flight?  Would you stand up and fight?

Jeremiah, the faithful prophet had been given a message for wicked King Jehoiakim.  He so despised God’s Word as to cut it into pieces and burn it in front of the court officials.  What did Jeremiah do?  He wrote the same message and added to it—a message of judgment for the king and his kingdom.  There is a time to speak to power.  If God gives us a message we dare not flinch in the face of opposition.  The Word of God is invincible!

Old John Bunyan believed that—and preached accordingly.  His arrest was ordered by the king of England, whose tyranny Bunyan had spoken against.  He was imprisoned for twelve years for preaching the Gospel.  His wife, Elizabeth, pleaded his case before the judges.  She was alone, raising their four children, and begged to have her husband released.  Of course Bunyan would be set free on only one condition—that he stop preaching.  Elizabeth’s response, “He dares not leave preaching, my lord, so long as he can speak.”  Was it so?  The judges pressed Bunyan for an answer and this was it: “If you free me today, tomorrow I will speak in the streets that all men have a right to worship God as conscience guides them, and that the state has no right to tell them how to worship.”  It was in the Bedford prison that Bunyan had a dream that was put to paper, and became the immortal, “Pilgrim’s Progress.”  The Word of God is invincible!

I do not know what you are facing, dear brother.  Maybe no one has burned your sermon notes, or cast you into prison for preaching.  Still, if we are faithful to the Word and speak out against the world—we know there will be hostility to some degree.  On the present trajectory in this nation, we are facing increasing opposition to the Gospel.  Some dear sister sits and scowls during your sermon.  A deacon verbally chastens you after the service.  You receive that dreaded anonymous letter attacking your ministry.  Just preach anyway.  Remember, the Word of God is invincible!