Ron Dunn Podcast - What God Did Before

Episode Date: July 15, 2020

Ron Dunn continues his sermon series from Jeremiah

Well, it's good to be back for the 22nd year, but only 21 times preaching because of the time that I forgot. Well, I want you to open your Bibles tonight to Jeremiah chapter 1, to Jeremiah chapter 1. And I want to read the first nine verses. Jeremiah chapter 1, verses 4 through 9. Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.

And before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee. And I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. I look out over this congregation tonight and I see a lot of people with limitations. Anybody here with limitations?

Anybody here ever bothered by a sense of inadequacy? When I was 15 years old, I surrendered to the ministry. I surrendered to be the next Billy Graham. I'd been reading, of course this was in 1952 when Billy Graham, you know, was that just really popular, and I'd been reading, of course this was in 1952 when Billy Graham, you know, was that, just really popular, and I'd been reading biographies of Spurgeon and D.L. Moody and men like that, and I knew that's what God wanted me to be, something like that. Most disappointing thing I ever heard was when my pastor ordained me, he said, now, God didn't call you to be another Billy Graham. He said, God called you to be Ronnie Dunn. I thought to myself, who wants

to be that? Well, so I began to preach and held some revival meetings and went off to college and pastored a little church, First Baptist Church of Black Gum, Oklahoma. Fifteen members, fourteen women and one man. They wrapped my check each week as a gift, actually. It was $15 what they were paying me, one per person. But then I went to seminary, and when I got down there, I realized there were thousands of guys like me. And I surrendered two or three times to evangelism, you know, because I knew that's what God wanted me to be.

And after a while, it became clear that I might not make it as Billy Graham. And I set my eyes on W.A. Criswell's church. And I knew that probably I would go there someday. I want to tell you something. I was frustrated because I tried evangelistic work. Not only did I starve to death, but I wasn't successful. You know, I could preach and preach and preach. And nothing seemed to happen.

People just didn't seem, you know, a few people here and there. And I was so frustrated and had such a sense of inadequacy and overwhelmed by my limitations. And I can remember the day just as clearly as I can remember this day when something When something happened in my mind and in my heart that changed my entire outlook on ministry and Christian living. It's much of what happened to Jeremiah. Now in verse 4, God makes this great statement to Jeremiah. He says, I have appointed thee a prophet to many nations. Then look at his response. Then said I, Ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child.

Now notice he didn't say, I will not speak. His problem here was not one of unwillingness, but it was one of a feeling of weakness. Oh Lord, I am but a child. Lord, I cannot speak. I cannot do this thing that you've called me to do. I have limitations. And God said in verse 7 unto him, say not, I am a child. And I wrote margin of my Bible, don't harp on your limitations.

You do have limitations. You are a child. Actually, he really was a child. He spent 40 years in the ministry, so he did start out young. And he was a very young man at the time he was called. And so he was being literally true when he said, I am but a child and I cannot speak. But God said, don't harp on your limitations. He said, I know what I'm doing.

I want to talk to you tonight about what God did before you were born. And there are four statements in that fifth verse that I want to call your attention to. Four times God says, I did something. He says, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee. Now you see those four verbs? I formed thee, I knew thee, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee. Now three of those verbs, the last three verbs are perfect in their tense. And the first one is imperfect for whatever

that means, but anyway I just thought I would let you know I knew. But he says, before I formed you. So actually the sequence here is that that first verb comes last. Before I formed you, before I fashioned you, fashioned you, he said, I knew you, I sanctified you, and I ordained you. And that was the assurance that was to carry Jeremiah through all the dark days of his ministry and the dark days of his life. And it was that day in my life when I realized that before I was ever formed, before I ever came forth out of the womb, you mentioned a while ago, when did God call you to preach if you've just been saved a year? That's not the question.

Before I came out of the womb, before God formed me, he knew me, he sanctified me, and he appointed me as a prophet to the nations, is what he's saying. So let's look at those four verbs tonight, all right? Number one, not in order of sequence, but in order of God's activity, he says, number one, I knew thee. I knew thee. Oh, that is a great word in the Hebrew as well as its translation into the New Testament. I knew thee. Now, that word does not mean simply I knew facts about you. Or I knew that you existed. Notice God doesn't say, I knew you were in the womb.

He said, I knew you before you were even in the womb. Before I formed thee, I knew thee. Now, if you want to write a parallel word here, you write out the word election. Well, I'm going on from there. I'm not going to try to explain it. I just want to say this, that the reason it's so hard for us to understand the election is not because it's hiding there in the dark, it's because it's hiding in the light. The man hides in darkness, God hides in the light. And like looking into the sun, it's too bright to see and to understand. For instance, in Romans chapter 8, when he says, those whom I foreknew, doesn't mean those that I

knew facts about. It means those that I knew in this sense. It's the same idea of Adam knew his wife and Joseph did not know Mary until after Jesus was born. It means intimate knowledge. Actually, the New English Bible translates it like this. I knew thee as mine. It means I got acquainted with you. It means I set my heart upon you. It is a word of personal commitment. What God is saying to Jeremiah, what he's saying to me, what he's saying to you is, listen, before you were ever born, before the world was ever spoken into existence, I set my heart on you and

I personally committed myself to you, you see. Now, it's that kind of truth that sees us through the dark days. In those valleys of despair, to be reminded that even before the world was created, God set his heart on me and got to know me. You say, why? I don't know. Well, there must have been something that caused God to set his heart on you. Yeah, there was something. Ephesians says he did it according to his good pleasure. I don't have any other explanation, folks, other than just God, I don't know, God said, I'd like to get to know that boy. And he got to know me, and the more he got to know me, I think the harder it was to choose me. But he said, I committed myself to you.

I set my heart upon you. I knew you. Don't say I'm a child. Don't go on about your limitations. Don't talk to me about your inadequacies. Listen. I personally committed myself to you in eternity past. But not only did he know thee, he says,

he says, I knew thee and I sanctified thee. Now, outside here you can write the word consecration. It means, of course, to set apart. I sanctified thee. Sometimes the word is translated holy, and it means to be set apart, just as God committed himself to us. Now watch it. Now follow me. He committed me to him. Now where is my choice in that? Well, I'm not sure. That's why later,

when Jeremiah is complaining about the ministry, he said, Lord, you know, you didn't tell me all there was to tell me, all there was to know about this. And he said, I just want you to know, Lord, you seduced me into becoming a prophet. And he uses the word there of a man seducing a woman. And of course, God in his great sentimentality and compassion says, hey, Jeremiah, if you can't keep up with the footman, what are you going to do in the day of the chariots? What he's saying is, listen, man, if you can't handle it now, what are you going to do when it really gets rough? I mean, you haven't seen anything yet.

I set thee apart. And the word, of course, means something consecrated to the service of God. See, in the first place, God knowing me, He committed Himself to me. But in sanctifying me, He committed me to Himself. So that it is blasphemy if I remove myself

from the Lord's sovereign use of me in any way He wants to. Because, well, I've been sanctified. Set apart. I didn't choose this. I did not choose the ministry. I didn't even choose Him. He chose me.

And you say, well, you had to choose Him. Well, you want to put it in those words. It was merely my responding to what He initiated. But He sanctified me. And then it says, I ordained you. Now outside of here, you might want to write the word I gave you a job. I gave you a job. He set his heart upon me. He set me apart. He set me up in a job.

Now, I'll tell you what happened to me on that day. I realized that I'd been going against what God had set me apart and set me up and set me out on. I was trying to be one thing. And it was hard to come and realize that God never intended me to be those things. That God had set me apart for a specific task and he gave me a vocation, gave me a job to do. Now, got that? We're with us.

He said, I knew thee. I sanctified thee and then I appointed thee gave you a job gave you a task now he said this was all before I formed thee now the word before

is an interesting word. It means before. But it is often translated to interrupt or to suspend an action. Now, God's going to form me, right? I mean, you know, He's going to let me come. He's going to put me in my mother's womb. And then He's going to let me come forth out of my mother's womb. But hold everything before we do that. Let's suspend that work. Let's interrupt that work first before we

form Him. Let's get to know Him, and let's sanctify Him, and let's give Him a task to do. And then we will form the, you know what the word form means? Of course it means to fashion, but it literally means to squeeze into shape. In other words, God says, before you were ever born, I knew you, I sanctified you, I ordained you,

then when I had it set in my mind what I wanted you to be and what I wanted you to do, then I took to squeezing you into shape so you would fit right into what I had ordained you to do. And I want to tell you something, folks. I fit perfectly into what God has called me to do. If I get into some other area out of my element, I don't. You say, well, that's all Old Testament stuff.

You're right, it is. I'm glad you mentioned it. I want you to go to the New Testament for a moment. To Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10. For we are his workmanship, his finished product. If I complain about it, I'm accusing God of poor workmanship, always wishing I were somebody else, wishing I had somebody else's gift or somebody else's position or somebody else's ability. What I'm really doing is accusing God of not knowing what He's doing. It's like the Israelites said of Him in Isaiah 46, the potter and the clay said, You're all

thumbs, and you don't know how to shape and mold. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. Now watch it. Unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Now, if I understand language and words, I believe that what this verse is saying that God hath before ordained us some good works

that we should walk in them. You see? You know what success in life is? Not being the first pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas or Atlanta. Anywhere else is not making a million dollars. Do you know what success in life is? It's discovering what God created you in eternity past to do and doing it. Now, when I realized that, you know what happened?

An amazing thing. I became at peace with myself and at peace with what I am and what God has made me to do. And since that day, I have coveted no other man's ministry or blessing. Oh, but I am but a child. That's true. All of us have our limitations. And if you go ahead and read the book of Jeremiah,

you'll find that this sense of inadequacy is something that haunted him all the days of his life. But at the very outset of his call, God laid the foundation so that throughout his life, he lived with a sense of purpose. My wife, as I was sharing with her what I was working on, brought up a good question. She says, what about abortion? I mean, if God, before he formed us, knew us and sanctified us and ordained us, then abortion is not only taking a life, it's messing with the eternal purpose of God. I wonder how many Billy Grahams have been aborted.

Or Pauls or Peters. You see, folks, you and I must learn to live. You say, oh, preacher, I'm not a preacher or prophet. You know, I drive a gasoline truck. I work in the fields. Listen, I want to tell you something. If you and I do not learn to live with a sense of divine destiny, our lives are always going to seem a waste

to us in many instances. Live with a sense of divine destiny. Whoever you are, whatever you do, God's made you like that so you'll fit into what he has ordained you to do. Well, that's all I have to say on that matter and I trust we'll take the word of God to our hearts and Lord bless you The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. If you would like to

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