[0:00] Jeremiah 26, Jeremiah 26, and it's Wednesday night reading time here.
[0:13] I like to read sometimes when I have a little chunk of a passage. Instead of me doing all the reading, I like to get you all involved. And it's easy reading tonight, just so you know. There's no weird names, no hard words that I notice.
[0:25] I don't think there is, so I think anybody could read. But if I could, we'll bust this up into eight chunks here. Two verses each, we'll get eight different readers.
[0:38] And I'm just going to pick you out, okay? I mean, you can turn me down, but I don't know. No, you can't. You can't turn me down here. So, verses 1 and 2. Let's start over here on my left side.
[0:49] Ashley, you're on. Verses 1 and 2. Carla, verses 3 and 4. And Rich, I'm going to count on you for verses 5 and 6. Oh, boy.
[1:01] 26? All right. So, that's 5 and 6. That's 1, 2, 3. John? Linda's going to help you. 5 and 6. 5 and 6.
[1:12] Okay. John, you're 7 and 8. So, we're halfway there. Now, are we good so far? Okay. Mark? All right.
[1:22] Yep. 11 and 12. Anybody in the back? Gary, you got it? Good night.
[1:35] Jeremiah 26. 11 and 12. Faith, you got 13 and 14. And Joel, can you finish this off with 15 and 16? So, let's start in Jeremiah 26.
[1:48] This is going to keep everybody following along. I love it. So, okay. We can start in verse 1, please. That's Jehoiakim, by the way. Sorry, there is a name. Go ahead. In the beginning of the week, everybody's going to be the Messiah.
[2:00] All right. Well, thank you for that, everybody. Good job. That's your little King James Bible check right there. Just making sure we all got Bibles here. But, all right. Let's all have a word of prayer. Father, please bless as we study now this scripture.
[2:12] Please help it to be profitable. Help us each to receive instruction. And may this, even this passage here, tucked away in Jeremiah, some historical content here be relevant to us today.
[2:25] May we see ourselves. And may you bring light to this and bring it to our understanding, I guess I'm asking, Lord. Pray for that in Jesus' name. Amen.
[2:35] So, the Bible says that these things are written aforetime. They're written for our learning. And Jeremiah's a big book. And right dead in the middle of it, to chapter 26, just this little passage about him going, my heading in my book here by chapter 26, it says, The Message in the Temple Court.
[2:53] And so, I'm just going to title the message that. We're just going to outline this passage of what we read, The Message in the Temple Court. And it's an interesting thing. It's something that really happened, that God told Jeremiah to go to that spot and preach.
[3:05] And he did it. And there was the result of it. And we'll study that here in a moment. But understand, there's something. It's here for a reason. And I believe we can get something out of it. I believe we could probably see ourselves in here somewhere, maybe to one extent or another.
[3:19] And so, Jeremiah is a prophet of God. And he receives a message from God from the very beginning. He receives the word of the Lord came to him. And that was his job.
[3:29] That was what God from the womb called him to be. He's this medium between God and man that God would give his word. And a specific message for a specific time and people, he would deliver his word through this prophet Jeremiah.
[3:43] So, let's begin outlining this from verse 2 on. It says, here I want you to see, first of all, the reporting of the message. The message in the Temple Court.
[3:54] And let's study briefly the reporting of the message. Because there were some specific instructions that God gave to Jeremiah. Notice verse 2. Thus saith the Lord, stand in the court of the Lord's house and speak unto all the cities of Judah which come to worship in the Lord's house.
[4:11] Stand and speak. Jeremiah. Specific instructions. He says to stand in a specific place. He told him to go to the court of the house.
[4:22] Now, not every time that Jeremiah gets a message from God does he go to that place and preach it. Sometimes he tells them another place we'll see later. He stood at a gate by the court. He didn't go in. But this time he went through one of the gates into this courtyard.
[4:36] And the way the temple's built up, there's an inner court where the priests can go in and do their duties and minister and take the sacrifices. And slaughter them and do what they do. But outside of that is an outer court that the people could come through many different gates and come in and kind of assemble in that area.
[4:53] And realistically, this is the closest the people would get to the presence of God, the court. Jeremiah was told to go stand in a specific place. A public gathering place at Israel's religious center.
[5:07] This was his duty now to go there and to report the message. And so then secondly, Jeremiah is to stand in a specific place. Then he's to speak specific words.
[5:19] In verse 2, he said, Speak unto all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the Lord's house. All the words that I command thee to speak unto them diminish not a word. Now, other times, Jeremiah was shut up in prison when the word of the Lord came to him.
[5:33] And he wasn't able to go out and speak publicly. So in one case, he had a scribe write down all the words at his mouth. And he penned them down. He put them in a roll of a book and went and he read them in the ears of certain people.
[5:45] And if you recall, that roll ended up getting burned in the hearth of a fire. And then he went back and did it again. But in this case, he says, No, this time you're going to go stand in the temple court.
[5:57] And you're going to speak all the words that I command you to speak. And so this is the reporting of the message. This was Jeremiah's job, if we want to call it that, his calling, his duty. He's called to preach.
[6:09] It was his responsibility to be obedient to the word of God and to what God said when God said it and to report a word. And that's the preacher's duty today.
[6:20] To report a word, to report a message from the Lord to people that come and assemble at the, I'll use it lightly, the Lord's house, but you get the idea. And they come to church and they assemble together.
[6:32] And it's the Lord's job or it's the preacher's job to deliver the word of God, to deliver all of it. And to go off of what we were talking about Sunday, to do it in the right spirit and to seek to edify and to help and to encourage.
[6:45] Never in pride, never in haughtiness, never to cast down, but with humility to lift up and to be a blessing and to minister. But sometimes the message that the preacher has to preach is ugly.
[6:57] Sometimes it's condemning. Look at verse number six. This is the message. Then will I make this house like Shiloh? I'll make this city a curse. It wouldn't mean Shiloh.
[7:08] It's desolate. He's gone. It's done. He used to be there, but it's no longer there. I'm going to make this place just like that place. That's a negative thought. Matter of fact, while you're close by, look over at chapter 25.
[7:19] There's an awful lot of ugly parts of this message. Look at verse 10. Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstone, the light of the candle.
[7:34] This whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment and on and on. We don't have to go far to see judgment and destruction prophesied and preached by Jeremiah.
[7:45] Sometimes the message is ugly. Sometimes it's condemning. I want to show you a little more, a stronger case. Look at the next book over to your right, Ezekiel 22.
[7:57] And it's a total another guy and not too much different time frame, very contemporary with Jeremiah, but in a different area. Is he preaching? And look at Ezekiel 22 and verses 1 and 2.
[8:20] And consider this is God speaking to this preacher. He says in verse 1, He goes on and on just ripping them up.
[8:52] And notice it's God saying, preacher, you're going to preach? You're going to judge them? You're going to tell them their sins? You're going to tell them their abominations? You're going to get up and do it?
[9:03] Do it! Because that's your calling. And sometimes the message is ugly and it is condemning. And it has to be to be preaching the word of God when it needs to be.
[9:14] But then other times it's beautiful. And other times it's comforting. And other times it just gives your spirit peace and rest and what you need. And come back to Jeremiah now and look at, here's a couple here.
[9:29] Look at 29. Here's just close by a message that's kind of softer. A bit more comforting of a message preached by God's preacher.
[9:41] Jeremiah 29, 11. Boy, that's good stuff to hear.
[10:10] Look at chapter 33. That's comforting. Chapter 33. Everybody knows verse 3. Call unto me and I'll answer thee.
[10:20] Show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Look down at verse number 6. Jeremiah 33, verse 6. Behold, I will bring it health and cure. I will cure them and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth.
[10:35] He's just going to take care of them and build them back up. And so there's both sides of the spectrum and everything in between as God commands his preacher to stand and to speak.
[10:46] And so whether you like the message or not, you can come back to chapter 26. That's immaterial to the preacher. Whether it's received or acceptable to the congregation.
[10:59] It's his duty and job is to preach the word of the Lord. And right now we're looking at the reporting of this message. The preacher's commanded to report, to preach.
[11:10] And I say this. If you love the Lord in your heart and you love the word of God, all of it, no matter what that message is, you'll receive it. You'll hunger for it.
[11:21] You'll take it. If it's from God, you'll take it, whether it's good or bad. It could be an ugly message and you'll say, thank you, Lord. I needed that. It could be a comforting message. You'll say, thank you, Lord.
[11:32] I needed that. Whatever God delivers, you'll receive and be grateful for it. If your heart's right, if you love the Lord. If your heart's not right, you'll hear a message and you'll pick at it.
[11:44] And you'll fuss about it. And you'll complain. And you'll disagree. And you'll find fault with the preacher. You'll find fault with the message and the messenger. And you'll close your heart to receiving it.
[11:56] You won't receive it like it was the word of God to you. You'll look at it like, oh, that's just his opinion. I don't agree with that. And have something to say. And you need to remember that preaching is God's method.
[12:10] It's his choice to deliver his word. And the apostle Paul said that God manifested his word through preaching. And he commanded Timothy to preach the word.
[12:21] And so this is God's, his way. It's our job to hear, to submit, and to be in agreeance with the word of God. So here's the reporting of the message.
[12:32] Jeremiah, Ezekiel, they're just one, two of many. Noah was called a preacher of righteousness. Jesus Christ sent forth his apostles. And he sent them out by two and two. And he said, and as you go, preach.
[12:45] The apostle Paul identified himself as a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. As a matter of fact, he said this.
[12:56] He said, how shall you hear? How shall they hear without a preacher? And so the reporting of the message here. This is God's way. Let's just, we understand that. We can accept that.
[13:07] That preaching is what God established and designed. And it's our job to receive it. He told the preacher to stand and preach the words of God. So now let's look secondly at the recipients of the message.
[13:21] You're in verse number two now again in chapter 26. Who was Jeremiah preaching to? In verse two, thus saith the Lord, stand in the court of the Lord's house and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the Lord's house.
[13:39] So these are Jews from the tribe of Judah specifically, but from the region around the city that make their way into the city to the temple to worship the Lord.
[13:53] There are no doubt coming at different times, at different seasons even, but I don't know the time exactly of this. It's the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim. You could probably trace that down somehow to find the timing.
[14:06] But there was times where they'd pilgrimage to that temple, where they'd have to offer sacrifices according to the law, where there are specific days that they had, whether male or female, to show themselves before the priest, the Lord and all that.
[14:17] And so this recipient is considered the cities of Judah that come voluntarily come to worship in the Lord's house.
[14:27] They came to worship the Lord. They came to the Lord's temple to offer an offering. These are God's people, but they need something preached out of them.
[14:41] They're showing up to the temple. That sounds like a wonderful thing, but according to verse 3, their way is evil. In verse 3, it says, If so be, they'll hearken and turn every man from his evil way, that I repent me of the evil which I purpose to do unto them, because of the evil of their doings.
[15:02] They're coming to the temple. That's not evil. Offering their offerings and their sacrifices to their God. That's not evil. They're considered God's people, named after his name.
[15:13] That's not evil. They must be then doing things outside of their temple attendance that they're guilty of. They must be guilty of something else for God to call his own people and say, You need to repent of your evil ways and of the evil doings.
[15:31] So what are they doing? Well, one thing they're not doing is apparently they're not walking according to God's law. In verse number 4, Thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord, If you will not hearken to me to walk in my law, which I have set before you.
[15:46] They must obviously then have not been walking in that law. But they showed up to church. But when they leave, they're not walking after the law of the Lord. And God has a message for them.
[16:00] Their way is evil. They're not walking according to God's law. Look later in chapter 26 at verse 13, where Jeremiah preaching says, Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God.
[16:16] It seems obvious to me that they are not obeying the voice of the Lord their God. To us, the voice of the Lord our God is written in black and white pages, in words, pure words on a book, that we're to obey, that we're to seek and read and love and pattern our lives after.
[16:37] And apparently, God's people are not obeying the voice of the Lord. Something else they're doing is they're ignoring the preachers that God sends to them. In verse number 5, he says, And hearken to the words of my servants, the prophets whom I send to you, both rising up early and sending them, but ye have not hearkened.
[16:56] And so God's people are guilty. They're guilty of some things. Now turn back to Jeremiah chapter 7. And the book of Jeremiah is not laid out chronologically.
[17:11] If you want a real quick reference of that, in chapter 26, verse 1, it was the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim. But in chapter 25, it was the fourth year of Jehoiakim.
[17:21] And so just one chapter is four years prior. But going back to chapter 7, this one's about six years, five or six years after this temple message that we're reading about.
[17:34] And he comes back, and he preaches another message. And this one gives us a whole lot more detail. It sounds like the same message, but just with a lot more material. This one goes four chapters long.
[17:45] And we're not going to read all four chapters together, but let's just pick a little bit of it out from the beginning. Look at Jeremiah 7. A longer version of what I believe is the same message.
[17:57] The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, Stand in the gate of the Lord's house. So he didn't go inside the court, but stood in one of the gates and proclaimed there this word and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.
[18:12] Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your doings. Same thing. And I'll cause you to dwell in his place. Trust you not in lying words, saying the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord of these.
[18:27] For if you throughly amend your ways and your doings, if you throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt, then will I cause you to dwell in his place, in a land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.
[18:46] Now, I want you to see what they're guilty of. He's going to carry on with some lists here of things that these people that are showing up to worship at God's house have going on in their life. Verse 8 says, Behold, ye trust in lying words that cannot profit.
[19:00] Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not, and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do these abominations.
[19:15] In other words, they're saying, We can't help it. We're delivered to do it. It's like we had to do it. We were led to do this. You're going to come in my house and stand before me and say that stuff with all this sin and guilt in you.
[19:28] Later on, he says in verse 17, Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? This is there in public.
[19:39] The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, and make cakes to the queen of heaven to burn out drink offerings unto other gods that they may provoke me to anger.
[19:51] And that they did. Later on in the chapter, in verse 30, The children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the Lord. They have set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to pollute it.
[20:05] They have built the high places of Tophet. He just goes on about them burning their sons and daughters. These are wicked people. And yet they show up. They show up in the temple. They show up there in the court of the temple to worship the Lord, as he said.
[20:19] But God has a problem with them. And so while they're voluntarily coming to church, the Lord tells his preacher, Get there and preach to them that their ways are evil.
[20:32] And they're not walking according to my word. They're not obeying me. They're ignoring the preaching. And these are God's people.
[20:42] The recipients of this message is God's people. And they're guilty of so many multiple worldly abominations and just playing religious games on Sunday morning, pretending they're okay and worshiping God on their terms rather than in spirit and in truth and according to holiness.
[21:04] And I don't know. I look around the land today. I look around churches in our land. I don't think some things haven't changed too much from Jeremiah's day to watch God's people show up to God's house to worship the Lord, but inside of their hearts is an unclean spirit married to the devil, working the works of abomination, living their lives with wicked, sinful pleasures.
[21:31] After the abominations of the heathen around them, look like the world, talk like the world, live like the world, the preacher gets up and says, amend your ways, but they don't.
[21:44] They ignore it. They hearken not. They go drink their wine and drink their beer and watch their filth and listen to their wicked music and carnal things and they're dishonest and their mouths are open sepulchers.
[21:58] They grieve the Holy Spirit. They shame the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that bought them and then show up in church on Sunday morning. It happens all over the world.
[22:12] It happens all over the world. These are the recipients of the message, God's people that know better, but they choose to sin instead of live in righteousness. They show up pretending to be okay.
[22:26] Now come to chapter 26 again and let's look at verses 7 through 9. I want you to see the response to the message. How would they respond to the message?
[22:39] In verse 7, so the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. Now it came to pass when Jeremiah made an end of speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people, notice all three, the priests, the prophets, and the people took him saying, thou shalt surely die.
[23:02] Why hast thou prophesied the name of the Lord saying this house should be like Shiloh and this city be like a desolate without inhabitant? All the people were gathered against Jeremiah, against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.
[23:13] He drew a crowd. He drew a crowd right at him. There's always a response to the message. I want you to consider that. This is their response, which we'll talk about in a minute.
[23:24] But first realize there's always a response to the message of the Lord. Sometimes it could be an outward response, revealing a tender heart, where if the Lord deals with you, you respond, you repent, you want to get it right, you want to get it fixed.
[23:40] And if you're convicted, you just melt and give God the glory. And some repent outwardly and they get harder and they get angrier and they reject and rebel against the word of God and there's always a response.
[23:54] Sometimes it's outwardly, sometimes it's inwardly. Sometimes somebody that just is in kindred spirit with the word of God, no matter what it is, they'll agree with it, they'll say amen or inside, they're nodding and they're thankful.
[24:08] And someone else will be cold and inwardly just indifferent and just say, whatever, I don't care. I don't believe it. I don't see it that way and just ignore the message completely but there's always a response.
[24:23] Whether it's outwardly, inwardly, there's always a response to the word of God. Now in this passage, the response was unanimous. We saw that it was the priest in verse 8.
[24:34] The priest and the prophet and the people took him saying, thou shalt surely die. Now what a great day for Jeremiah. I want you to notice something here.
[24:46] The priest, the prophet, and the people, all of them are against Jeremiah. Jeremiah is God's man. Jeremiah is God's messenger delivering God's message to his people.
[25:00] The Lord cares about his people. He sends a message to his people. He wants them to get right because he doesn't want to destroy them. And so he raises up a man that obeys him by himself, stands up, and just tells him what God said to tell him.
[25:17] And they get mad and they all come against him. And so really, though, what I want you to see is their fight is not with the messenger. Their fight is with the one who gave him the calling and the message.
[25:30] The people and the priests and the prophets are fighting against God. The one that loves them. The one that wants them to get things cleaned up and get right and restore fellowship.
[25:40] They're fighting against God. I want you to notice in this that the priests and the prophets, the priests and the prophets, the holy men of God, are against God.
[25:56] They're fighting against God. They're fighting against God's preacher because they don't like what he's saying. The leaders, the religious people, Jesus Christ had a time with him too when he walked this earth.
[26:10] The religious people, the big religious leaders, they said to Jeremiah, you're worthy to die. It's the same thing they said to Jesus Christ. We're going to kill you.
[26:22] You're blaspheming. Isn't that something? The priests and the prophets, God's called men, are the ones that are against him. It shouldn't surprise you to say today that religious leaders in our world are not working for the Lord either.
[26:40] They're guilty of a long list of filthy sins and that they pass off as if they're some servants of God because people are very, very ignorant of their sin and their self-righteous ways and they just follow along.
[26:53] Here's the people following the priests and the prophets, just blind leaders of the blind as Christ told them. But something changes. Look at verse 10 because princes are now going to show up.
[27:06] Princes. Look at verse 10. When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king's house under the house of the Lord and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the Lord's house.
[27:18] So the princes show up. Now let's understand something here. Verse 10. The princes are not the priests and the prophets nor the people. The princes are going to represent the civil authority or the political power.
[27:33] Notice that they came from the king's house. So this is a different entity, a different body here. The princes are representing the power of the land, the rulers.
[27:46] They aren't in this. They aren't listening to the message. They're not in the house of God. So there's the king's house and there's the house of God. The priests and the prophets represent the religious authority, the religious leaders, they're in the house of God.
[28:01] Jeremiah goes and preaches against the house of God and against the city. The priests show up, sorry, the princes then hear this. They show up to see what's going on. So understand that part of this is the political authority is arriving on the scene and these are two different bodies of people, two different houses, two different authorities.
[28:23] The princes held the real power in the land. The princes held the real power over the people and over the priests and the prophets. All right, so let's move on to the last part here and that is, fourthly, the rehearsing of the message because the princes want to know what's going on and watch this.
[28:43] Verse 11, then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people saying, this man is worthy to die for he hath prophesied against this city as you have heard with your ears.
[28:59] There's something interesting that we need to note here in the rehearsing of the message. The priests and the prophets reveal their sinful nature here. It's on full display.
[29:11] I want you to see they omitted certain words of the message. Look at verse 6 again. This is Jeremiah speaking. Then will I, God, then will I make this house like Shiloh and will make this city a curse.
[29:27] House and city. Look at verse number 8. Not 8. Verse 9. They ask him, they understood the message, they heard the message, they repeat it to Jeremiah.
[29:39] Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the Lord saying, this house shall be like Shiloh and this city. See the two? House and city. Come all the way down to verse 12.
[29:52] Jeremiah, after the priests say what they say, Jeremiah spake unto, then spake Jeremiah unto all the priests and all the people saying, the Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard.
[30:04] Now let's repeat what those priests rehearsed to the princes in verse 11. Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people this man's worthy to die.
[30:14] Why? For he hath spoke, he hath prophesied against this city. I hope you're catching what they're doing. They omitted certain words of his message. They omitted any reference to the house.
[30:28] That's the house of God. Because Jeremiah was preaching against the house of God. You know who's guilty in the house of God? God, the prophets, and the priests.
[30:40] And they just totally dodged that and deflected that portion of the message and went straight as they're talking to the princes, the civil authorities, and said, you know he's preaching against this city because that would get their attention and that would stir them up and that would fire them up.
[30:58] You're preaching against the city? Because that gets into their realm of government, the king's house. Now why would God judge the house of God?
[31:09] Because of the wickedness of the priests and prophets. But instead, they just focused in their rehearsal of his message to the princes on a singular item that they believed would enrage the princes against Jeremiah and say he is guilty and worthy to die.
[31:26] It wasn't a mistake on their part. It was a purposeful slip of the tongue. So it was on purpose to rehearse the message that way. Remember what God told Jeremiah in verse 2?
[31:38] Diminish not a word. Look who's subtracting from the word of God. Look who's messing with the word. It's the religious leaders once again. These wicked, wicked men.
[31:51] But I want you to consider this is common. This is common when a religious person, when a person that's been around the house of God for a long, long time or just some self-righteous but guilty churchgoer feels threatened by the message of God.
[32:10] They deflect the personal guilt. Anything that hits them square in the heart, they're hard, they deflect it, they ignore it, they just pretend that wasn't even there and they focus on the one thing if they can find it that others will lend an ear to.
[32:26] And they'll get them on their side against the messenger of God and just pick apart the message of God and just pick something that they can use as ammunition to declare the man of God guilty.
[32:44] The rehearsing of the message reveals the sinful nature of these priests and prophets. I think Christians do this all the time when they get a little problem going on.
[32:55] they rehearse the message. They omit the parts that they're guilty of and where they're wrong and they just sow discord and cause divisions with what other people will agree with.
[33:07] Just find something they'll agree with and blow that up. It's just your sinful nature on display. God's people are guilty of it. Now, closing this down, I just want to look at some concluding things from the last part of this passage and we'll stop here shortly reading again verses 12 through 16.
[33:27] Chapter 26, verse 12, then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people saying, the Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words you have heard. Now therefore amend your ways and your doings and obey the voice of the Lord your God and the Lord will repent of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.
[33:45] As for me, behold, I'm in your hand. Do with me a seam of good and meat unto you but know ye for certain that if you put me to death ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and upon the inhabitants thereof for of a truth the Lord hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears.
[34:03] Now, the last verse, then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets, this man is not worthy to die for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God. I want to conclude with three quick thoughts here.
[34:16] Number one, the princes at the end, they don't want any trouble. They have enough sense to realize and believe the preacher's preaching in the name of the Lord. He's not done anything wrong.
[34:29] And so the princes, the political things, they don't have anything to, it's not as personal to them as it is the guilt of the priests and the prophets at the house of God.
[34:41] It's the religious crowd that's been around the house of God so long that are too filled with pride to admit when they're guilty and to agree with God and his message. How about that?
[34:53] Secondly, notice that the people now in verse 16 are with the princes and no longer associated with the priests and the prophets whereas they were from the beginning against Jeremiah but now then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets.
[35:12] They switch sides. He's not worthy to die. First they said he was, now he's not. I notice this, the common people here are more easily convinced to obey the preacher and the word of God than the religious crowd that have been around the house of God all their lives.
[35:28] The common people have enough sense to be like, yeah, that is right because they're not so full of pride. They're not so worried about their stature and standing and position among everybody else.
[35:40] And the warning to all of us today from that is don't be so steeped in your church attendance or how long you've been saved and let some self-righteousness creep into your heart and think that doesn't apply to me.
[35:51] I'm better than that. Oh, I can't go forward to the altar. I can't respond to the preaching. I can't say amen. Don't be too full of pride because it can grow inside of you too.
[36:05] You can presume yourself to be godly that you can't, so godly you can't even hear the voice of god like the priests and the prophets. Thirdly, god is no respecter of persons.
[36:19] Whether it's a priest, a prophet, a prince, or the common people, all have sinned, all must amend their ways, all will be held accountable, status and authority mean nothing to god.
[36:34] He calls them all to get right. Meaning it doesn't matter who you are in this church, it doesn't matter how long you've been here, it doesn't matter if you got saved this morning, God's calling all of us to amend our ways, to walk holy before him in righteousness, to heed the word of God, to lead by example and humility.
[36:57] I think the most important thing for every single one of us in here is your relationship, your personal relationship with Jesus Christ, yours. That should be the most important thing in your life, which you strive for every day, what you fight for every day, your personal walk with Jesus Christ.
[37:15] Forget about your position. Forget about what people think about you. Forget about fitting in or not fitting in. Strive to walk with Jesus Christ. Strive to obey the word of God.
[37:27] One foot after another, one day after another, walking with Jesus Christ, having ears to hear, having a tender heart, willing to respond to the Lord, whatever it is.
[37:39] It's such a good thing to before you come to church or when you get in here is just to pray. Before you come to pray and just to tell God, I'm open and if I'm not, help me to be open.
[37:54] Give me ears to hear. Feed me, teach me, grow me, show me where I'm wrong. Help me to be a blessing and help somebody else. Have a tender heart to respond to the Lord and don't ever stop fighting the old man and his self-righteous pride because it's inside of you.
[38:14] The longer you're around, it'll just, it'll sneak in there and deceive you. So there's some thoughts tonight about Jeremiah's message in the temple court and it's not aimed at anybody.
[38:26] It's just something that I saw reading a few days ago and decided to put it together today and I pray that it's just something that we can be for our learning as it's written before time, it's written for our learning.
[38:38] So let's learn from it. Let's be careful that we don't get shut up to the word of God and that we don't think we're somebody and we've been around and heard it all before. He that hath an ear, let him hear.
[38:51] Let's close in prayer. Father, thank you for our time. Thank you for this good old book here and all the truth in it and Lord, I pray that what was said would be received and would be relevant and taken to heart where it needs to be.
[39:05] God, help us to be always tender to your word. Lord, I know it's in us. Pride is in us and it'll deceive us. It will resist you.
[39:18] And so God, please keep us humble. Help us to be obedient to your word and to be willing and always ready to get right, to be open and not to rebel and not to resist.
[39:33] I pray you'll continue to grow us as individuals as we seek your face. I pray you'll continue to grow this church in your time as you please. And we love you. We trust you. You're the greatest thing that's ever happened to any of us.
[39:44] And we thank you for Calvary again in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You're dismissed tonight. Amen.