I Set My Face Like Flint

“Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

“’Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’

“Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.’  But the Lord said to me,

“’Do not say, “I am only a youth”;

for to all to whom I send you, you shall go,

and whatever I command you, you shall speak.

Do not be afraid of them,

for I am with you to deliver you,

declares the Lord.’” (Jeremiah 1:4-8 ESV)

“But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you.” (Jeremiah 1:17-19 ESV)

Now these were God’s words to the prophet Jeremiah. This was God’s calling upon his life. But this really isn’t much different than God’s calling on all of our lives who believe in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives. We are all called to deny self, to die daily to sin, and to walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands. We are taught in the Scriptures that God has a plan and a purpose for our lives which he had planned even before he laid the foundation of the earth. He planned who we should be from even before he created us in the wombs of our mothers (see Psalms 139:13-16).

We are all to be like Jesus in character, doing and saying the kinds of things he did and said when he lived on the earth. We are all to serve the Lord and the body of Christ (the true church) with our lives in the areas of ministry assigned to us by God, for his purposes, and for his glory, and for the salvation of human lives from sin so that they can have new life in Christ in walks of holiness and righteousness and in obedience to our Lord. We are all to be exercising the gifts of the Spirit for the encouragement of the body of Christ and for the salvation of human lives, sharing with them the gospel.

And we are to not be those who make excuses for why we cannot obey the Lord, or for why we cannot die to sin and live holy lives, pleasing to the Lord. For where God calls us he will provide. He will give us the knowledge and the understanding and the gifts that we need to do what he has called us to do. And we are not to fear what other people will think about us, or say about us, or how they might treat us because we are now living for the Lord and no longer for self, and because we are obeying the Lord in being, doing, and speaking what he commands.

Every day we are to get up and to do what God has called us to do, to go wherever he sends us, and to speak the messages that we need to speak and that others need to hear. First we must be following Jesus in obedience in holy living, and we must be walking in his ways and in his truth, and then he will guide us each day in what we are to do. Yes, many of you have paid jobs where someone else decides your day for you, but the Lord must be in that, and all of us must be sensitive to hearing his voice and to following his leading. For our lives now belong to him, and he is our Master, not us.

“But the Lord God helps me;

    therefore I have not been disgraced;

therefore I have set my face like a flint,

    and I know that I shall not be put to shame.” (Isaiah 50:7)

When we are following the Lord in obedience to his commands, and he is truly the one in charge of our lives, and not us, and so we are doing what he says we are to do as his followers, we are going to be faced with opposition. Especially since all of us are to be sharing the true gospel with the people of this world, and in order to share the truth, we must also be refuting the lies and exposing the fruitless deeds of darkness, we are not going to be well liked. And so we are going to have people yelling at us and accusing falsely of wrongdoing and fighting against us to try to get us to back down.

Now, we must be students of the Scriptures who study them in their full context so that what we are sharing with others is the truth of the gospel and not the lies that so many are spreading these days. We should not be getting our gospel message from other humans who may or may not be teaching the truth, but we should get our truth from the Scriptures taught in context. Then, when we are assured of the truth, we should not back down just because others are opposing us. We must stand firm in our faith and on the word of God and keep on speaking the truth even if all reject us.

[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:14-18; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; 1 Co 14:1-5; Gal 6:1; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:11-27; Eph 6:10-20; Php 2:1-8; Col 1:9; Col 3:12-16; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; Jas 5:19-20; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6; Jude 1:22-23]  

I Set My Face Like Flint

Video Talk

October 2, 2024

https://youtu.be/SFvTeb37VjY

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