[0:00] Jeremiah chapter 50. Lord willing, tonight we will finish the book of Jeremiah. You may be excited about that. I don't know how you feel about it. I'm pretty excited about it. It's a long book.
[0:14] We're going to do 50 through 52 tonight. I've loved it. I've loved studying it. Loved learning more about what God does. I think this is a very unique church, whether you pay attention to that or not, but we've gone through everything in the Bible.
[0:30] And we've gone all the way up to Psalms. We're working on Psalms and Proverbs. We're still missing Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. We're missing them. And then we got Ezekiel and Daniel, and we're done with the Old Testament.
[0:44] And Lord willing, a week from Sunday morning, we will start the book of Luke. We'll move Psalms and Proverbs to Sunday night and Thursday night. And when I plan on dying or retiring just before Ezekiel.
[1:02] So I just thought I'd advise you on that and tell you up front what the plan is. Because that wheel on the wheel still has me scared. Amen. I want you to read a verse of me, if you would, in Jeremiah 50 and verse 20.
[1:17] I love you and I appreciate the chance. I don't deserve to be working here or be the pastor. And I do appreciate the opportunity. And I pray that the Lord will bless us tonight. This verse right here, if it doesn't light your fire and take you to town, I don't know what will.
[1:34] I call this so great salvation and it's because of this verse. In Jeremiah 50 and 51, he is in an all-out attack on Babylon. He has taken Babylon out.
[1:46] He said, you beat up all my people long enough and your day has come and it's over for you. And that day has probably still not even happened. Probably Babylon will come roaring back one more time in the great tribulation.
[2:00] But God has already declared, buddy, I'm wiping you out. And so Jeremiah gives us that story. In Jeremiah chapter 52, he will say, he will take that back and make sure it's 52.
[2:15] Yep. In Jeremiah 52, he's just going to kind of recount some of the bad things that happened and how things end up. But 50, 20, look at it. In those days and in that time says the Lord.
[2:30] Now listen to this. Before you read it. Do you know that Jeremiah, he has been all over his people about their sin? He has been like you dirty, filthy sinners.
[2:45] And he has brought it all up. And he's shown it to them. But in 50, 20, he says, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for.
[2:58] And there shall be none. Now, I don't know about you. But if we was in a camp meeting church right now, some of them would already be making a lap. Some of them would be running around the building.
[3:09] Because you see what happened. He said, Israel, you've done a lot of stuff. You've been iniquitous. You've been bad. You've been sinful. But when they, there's a day coming when they look for your sin and it won't be found.
[3:24] It's talking about Israel. Not talking about America. Talking about Israel. But it also talking about you. Because the same thing, I'll get it to you when we get to the end of this.
[3:35] That's a truth that's going to happen to all of us. I wish you'd underline, there shall be none. And the sins of Judah, they shall not be found.
[3:47] Would you underline that? They will not be found. Now, you probably wouldn't have expected that if you'd been reading up until now. You'd been saying, boy, I'm telling you, God's in a bad mood.
[3:59] But he's going to end this book saying, gotcha. Because I reserved you. Look at the verse. For I will pardon them whom I reserve.
[4:09] See, God's, they're his people. He keeps them. They don't keep themselves. He keeps them. Can I get an amen there? Can I just tell you, you don't keep you either.
[4:22] If you're born again, you first found out something. That you were a pretty, dark, dirty, horrible, wicked, vile sinner. That's right. You found out you deserve to go to hell.
[4:34] You found out that if you got what you deserve because of your failure, you'd go to hell. And then one day you trusted Jesus. And what Jesus did is he reserved you.
[4:44] And he took away your sin and he wiped it away. And I'll show you the verses in a minute. He buried that sin. He's done all these things to your sin. And you can mark this down just like he said to Israel, there shall be none.
[5:00] And it shall not be found. Thank God. I can find my sin. It is ever before me. I think about it all the time. I think about my failures.
[5:10] I think about how I failed as a leader. I think about how I failed in every area of my life. But God says, I won't find it. I know other people find my sin. But God said, I won't find it.
[5:22] I think that's a pretty exciting verse, personally. I want you to go with me now, if you would, to Jeremiah chapter 52 and verse 3. And I want you to just notice the consequences of sin.
[5:34] Now, he's talking mainly now to Babylon. You remember, he's already talked to a whole bunch of countries. First, he talked to Judah, mostly Judah, some of Israel. He's talked to them.
[5:45] But then last time we were in the book of Jeremiah, he said, by the way, I don't just talk to my people. I've talked to all of them. And he talked to them. Now he's talking to Babylon. But look what he says. He said, there are consequences for sin.
[5:58] No one sins and gets away with it. Christians don't sin and get away with it. Lost people don't sin and get away with it. Look, if you would, at 52, 3, 4.
[6:09] Through the anger of the Lord, it came to pass in Jerusalem. Just underline this. It was through the anger of the Lord that all that had happened in Jerusalem.
[6:21] Now, you know what happened. They have broken down the walls. They have burned the city. They have, I'll get to it all in just a second. But they have killed the princes. They've killed Zedekiah's boys.
[6:32] They have put Zedekiah's eyes out. And he said, I'll tell you why. You brought it on yourself. You brought it on yourself. I didn't do it. God's not the mean guy here. But sin has consequences.
[6:45] In chapter 52 and verse 1, the politicians died. Zedekiah is 21 years old when he starts. And he does evil in the eyes of the Lord. Following the example of others.
[6:57] He looked at other leaders and other men. In verse 2, he said he did evil in the eyes of the Lord according to all that Jehoiakim had done. He learned from somebody else. Because my bad habits and my bad example in the way I fail influences other people to do wrong also.
[7:14] I need to be real careful, don't I? I need to be more careful than I am. In Jeremiah chapter 52 and verse 10 and 11, they caught Zedekiah. Now, God had gone to Jeremiah.
[7:26] He said, Jeremiah, you go tell Zedekiah that if he'll just hang up a white flag and walk out there, I'll see to it he doesn't die. I'll take care of him and his family.
[7:38] And I'll take care of the city of Jerusalem. But you mark this with that. If he doesn't do it, I'm going to burn the place down. I'm going to let them burn the place down. Now, the place has been burned. And Zedekiah took off running, hoping he could get away.
[7:50] But he got caught. And then in verse 10, underline it. They slew his sons before his eyes. I'm not sure about any other dad.
[8:02] But I got a good idea. I love my kids. I adore my kids. When somebody hurts my kids, it hurts me. When somebody has an attitude about my kids, it hurts me.
[8:14] I can't imagine watching my children die. But sin had got so bad in his life, he watched them die.
[8:25] And it was the last thing he saw. Because it says in verse 10, he slew them. And in verse 11, they put out his eyes and put him in prison till he died.
[8:37] No one is too big to be judged by God. And leading a rebellion against God brings horrible consequences, even to the high and mighty.
[8:48] But not only the politicians, but the people were damaged. In chapter 52 and verse 6, they were hungry. There was a famine. There was a hard famine in the city.
[8:58] There's no bread. People were going hungry. You know that's not unusual in Israeli history. There are times that they will eat their children. There are also times that they will eat dove dung.
[9:12] They go find bird poop and cook it and eat it. Because sin has had that kind of an impact on them. Then they were carried away captive in chapter 52 and verse 27.
[9:23] In chapter 52 and verse 13, their place of worship was destroyed. They burned the house of God. And in chapter 52 and verse 14, their walls, their protection was demolished.
[9:35] The walls were broken down. In chapter 52 and verse 17, even their prosperity, the riches they'd had were delivered to their enemy. They came in and looted God's house.
[9:49] And took that stuff and took it to Babylon. Sin has horrible consequences. But I live in a sanitized world.
[10:02] I live in a world where we don't see that much. We got money and we got comfort. And we somehow see coincidence or see a disease or something.
[10:15] And we don't take responsibility. But every one of us ought to have in mind, sin has horrible consequences. Number two, go with me if you were to Jeremiah chapter 51 and verse 27.
[10:29] And I just want you to write some things down quickly. And I'll get this to you. But God, the Almighty controls even the pagan nations.
[10:40] You and I need to get a hold of something. We can be afraid of what's happening in D.C. We can be afraid of what's happening between China and Taiwan.
[10:50] We can be afraid of whatever we hear on the news. But you and I belong to the one who's in control. You can be afraid of a pandemic. But there's a God who's even in control of that.
[11:02] There is nothing outside of his control. And Jeremiah 51, 27, he said, you blow the trumpet and call the nations. Get them all over here. I'm fixing to take the nations and have them whip Babylon.
[11:16] That's funny, isn't it? God's up above all of it, staying way up there in heaven. And he says, get those nations. He's playing chess with nations. He said, there's Babylon. She thinks she's tough.
[11:26] I'll bring the nations from the north. I'm going to whip her. She will be out of it. And he judges his own people. And then he turns that same judgment on them. In 52, 13, he said, through the anger of the Lord, it came to pass in Jerusalem until he cast them from his presence.
[11:43] And Zedekiah had done it. Now that same thing will be turned on Babylon. Chapter 50, God judges. God judges his own people.
[11:56] God judges the pagans. In 50 and verse 1, the word of the Lord spake against Babylon and against the Chaldeans. In 51, 29, every purpose of the Lord shall be performed.
[12:09] Nobody stops God. Nobody stops God. And the God up in heaven said, I'm in charge. Now, if we were alive today, you'd have to understand this is about like the United States of America, because this great superpower decided to go down and destroy Peru.
[12:29] You understand, Peru wouldn't have a chance. With my most intimate friends, because it's culturally totally inappropriate. But they used to tell me at night when the TV would go off back in those days, they would have these Peruvian jets fly across the screen.
[12:47] And it would say, Peruvian jets, sovereign over the skies of Peru. And the guys would say, y'all don't have jets like that. I said, no, we don't. We sold you those after they were used up.
[12:59] And y'all got two, and we're going to bring down enough. And one jet will wipe them out. They say, y'all not talk like that. But can you not imagine Israel, that little puny country in Babylon, that massive country.
[13:12] Can you not imagine a little Peru in a big old America attacking them? And then God looks at it and says, oh, don't worry. You're my people. You're going to win. I'm going to bring it on them. And God promises, I will destroy Babylon.
[13:26] Chapter 50, verse 34. The Redeemer is strong, pleads their cause, and he will disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon. In Jeremiah 51, 63, Jeremiah's always doing crazy children's church stunts in his preaching.
[13:43] And a lot of the prophets do that. You know, they eat their food over human poop or animal poop. But later, after they get it changed, and they dress in weird clothes. And we've been through a lot of that.
[13:54] We've watched them do a lot of that stuff. And the Lord said, now, when you get through writing this book, I want you to take it and tie a rock around it and throw it out in the middle of the river. Look at it. Jeremiah 51, 63.
[14:07] He said, when you get through reading this book, tie a rock around it and cast it in the midst of the Euphrates and then say, and that's how Babylon's going down. And that's how Babylon's going down.
[14:18] Don't worry about it. God didn't lose his word. You've learned enough of that, haven't you? You could cut it up and throw it in the fireplace to God and say, that's all right. Just give me another piece of paper. We'll write it again. Say, man. I mean, it's the word of God.
[14:29] It's not the word of Jeremiah. So God told him to do that. Number three, God condemns all false gods. God condemns all false gods, all false religions.
[14:41] I cannot explain to you how I wish people loved me and how I wish I didn't say some things I say.
[14:52] But you need to understand there's only one way to heaven. That's Jesus. There is no tolerance in Christianity. I wish Buddhists could go to heaven without getting saved.
[15:06] You know, I wish that God had said that, but God didn't say that. And God hates all this devil stuff. And you could say it's not devil stuff, but God says it's devil stuff. They built a prayer wheel up on the top of Kathmandu in Nepal, up on that.
[15:23] And they pray to those demons. And they build these gods all over the place. And everybody's worshiping all these gods. And the God of heaven's ever like, I'm the only God. There's no other God but me.
[15:35] And watch this. I'm going to confound them. I'm going to embarrass them. I'm going to destroy them. In Jeremiah 15 verse 2, he said, skip down. Baal is confounded.
[15:47] Meldorak is broken in pieces. Her idols are confounded. Her images are broken. No false god can protect its people. They can't even protect themselves.
[15:57] They are broken. God says there's no comparison to him when you talk about these other gods. In chapter 51 and verse 17, every man is brutish by knowing a demon.
[16:12] If you like Buddha, if you got this little, you know, you're in love with Buddha. You're in love with Hare Krishna. You're in love with any of these demon gods.
[16:25] It'll make a brute out of you. A dummy out of you. And you will be embarrassed from knowing them. Because when you need them, you will find that the people that even make them are confounded in verse 17.
[16:39] You will find out that they are a lie. When they go to die, there'll be no comfort. Every image is falsehood. They're not alive. Verse 17, there's no breath in them.
[16:51] There's nothing real, true, or of any value to them. They are vanity. And they shall perish. We can't coexist.
[17:05] Because it's Jesus. And only Jesus. He's the only one that died on a cross. He's the only one that shed his blood. He's the only one that can save.
[17:16] That's why we have to train more missionaries. That's why we have to send out more missionaries. Because they believe in this stuff, but they've never even heard the truth many times. Jeremiah 51 and verse 47, God's going to crush the idols.
[17:30] I will do judgment upon the graven images. Verse 52, I will do judgment. Now, before I leave this. You know, we have a modern day idol.
[17:47] In Alpharetta. It's covetousness. When you get to the New Testament, Paul said in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 5, he said, Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.
[18:01] Now, look at the last and covetousness, which is idolatry. I'm afraid that the two of us would say, hey, we don't have idols.
[18:16] I don't have any idols. I would never set up a Buddha in my house. I would never set up a, I would never set up a, one of the 330 million gods they have in India. I would never set up any of these things.
[18:28] No idols. And the apostle Paul said, oh, oh, you got one. You want stuff. You want stuff. You want to, you want what other, what you don't have.
[18:39] You never satisfy what God gives you. You're greedily going for more. But now we come to two great promises and I'll be done.
[18:49] Go with me, if you would, to Jeremiah 15 verse 4. Israel will be converted. Israel and Judah are privileged people.
[19:01] And you need to mark that down and remember that. I'm often confounded with scholars who don't understand the difference in Israel and the church.
[19:13] It just blows my mind. It's like they must have read one book in the New Testament, never read an Old Testament. Because once you get from the first 11 chapters of Genesis, there's almost no Israel because it's not happened yet.
[19:27] But in Genesis 12, there's Israel. And you know, Israel is not really set aside until you get to the end of the Gospels. And then Israel is coming back. I mean, there are 66 books in your Bible.
[19:40] 39 of them are about Israel. Plus four at least, maybe five in the New Testament about Israel. They're God's people. Did you know that Jerusalem or Zion is mentioned in the Bible 900 times?
[19:58] 900 times. Don't forget them. Don't push them to a side. Now, that doesn't mean that Israel that we look at today. It's the Israel that will end up trusting Jesus. By the way, Babylon is the second most mentioned city at 287 times.
[20:12] And way over half of those are mentioned in just the book of Jeremiah. Finally, God's people propose to return to him. After all this preaching and all this teaching, and this hadn't happened yet.
[20:26] But look what's going to happen. In Jeremiah chapter 50 and verse 4. They will say in verse 5.
[20:48] How do you get to Zion? Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.
[21:00] And Sam Wilson here is a missionary to the Jews. And he can tell you they're not seeking God. They're not seeking God. But there's a day coming when God is going to do some more supernatural almighty God work.
[21:15] And they're going to trust him and come back. Something great is going to happen. And God's people won't return to Israel physically only. But they'll return spiritually.
[21:27] And there will be a perpetual covenant with his people. That means it never ends. You know that there are different kinds of covenants. In the Bible, you've got conditional covenants where God says, if you, then I.
[21:38] But you've got other ones where he just says, don't worry about it. I'll do my part. Thank God that's our salvation. In Jeremiah chapter 51 and verse 5, God promises his people, Israel has not been forsaken.
[21:52] Listen, though their land was filled with sin. I'm going to have to pause there and just say this. I praise God for that. I praise God that he would look at Israel and say to Israel, you know what?
[22:06] I won't turn on you, though you've turned on me. Because I sure mess up a lot. And I think I've lived a life oftentimes more full of sin than I would have ever wanted or dreamed or thought.
[22:19] But Israel has not been forsaken. And so, you know, it's a New Testament promise, too. Listen to this. In 2 Timothy 2.13, if we believe not, yet he abides faithful.
[22:33] He cannot deny himself. I could wake up weak tomorrow doubting things. He's got to be like, I already knew you was kind of weak. I'll take care of it. Praise the Lord for that. Amen. You ever thought maybe I'm not sure about my relationship.
[22:45] I don't know if God loves me. I sometimes get full of doubt. And God looks at him and says, well, if you don't believe, I'm still faithful. If you don't believe, I'm still faithful.
[22:57] I don't change. I can't deny myself. He can't lie. Titus 1.2. The God that cannot lie. God's promise is bigger than our failure.
[23:07] Romans 5.20, the Bible says where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That is why you trust God for eternal life, just like he promised. The praise of God's people.
[23:20] In Jeremiah 51.10, the Lord has brought forth our righteousness. Come, let us declare and sign. Let's go talk about how good our God is and talk about what he's done.
[23:31] The prospects for Israel are great. I won't take the time because my time is up. But in Romans chapter 11 and verse 25, this is where so much bad doctrine comes from because you don't understand that God was dealing with the church in Israel.
[23:48] But he said, you know what? I put the church in. I put the church in, but don't y'all get braggadocious because I'll take you out. I'm going to put Israel back in.
[23:59] Let me get you the last thing. Go with me to Jeremiah 50.20 where we started. When God forgives sins, he does so completely. Isn't that sweet?
[24:10] Thank God for the way he forgives sins. Their sins will be forgiven. He said, I sought for them and there were none and they shall not be found. Do you want me to tell you some truths that apply to them and us?
[24:24] In Micah chapter seven and verse 19, he casts all their sins in the depths of the sea. He cast all their sins in the depths of the sea.
[24:35] In Psalm 103 and verse 12, he said, he put so much distance between them. He said, as far as the East is from the West. So with God removed our transgressions from us.
[24:45] To me, that is maybe my favorite picture of God and how he forgave me. Because when God looks at me in the East, my sins are in the West and he doesn't join the two.
[24:59] He's like, I'm not looking at your sin. I'm not thinking about your sin. I'm just looking at you. What a God. God deletes our sins from our account in Colossians 2, 14.
[25:10] He blots out the handwriting of ordinances. He blots it out. Everything that was against us. And he took it out of the way and he nailed it to the cross. He took down my list of sins and my list of failures.
[25:22] He took down the rules that even show I'd done wrong. He blotted it out. He wrote finished on it. And then he took it up on a tree and he nailed it up there and said, if anybody comes by and says, I don't know if you're safe.
[25:32] Just look at the cross. That's where my stuff is. And then God declares us righteous, doesn't he? Look at 2 Corinthians 5, 21, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
[25:46] God looked down and said, Austin Gardner, you dirty, wicked sinner. You don't deserve any of it, but I love you. And I'm going to say you're righteous. Not by what you've done, but by what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary.
[26:02] There could be somebody in this room who's not saved. You probably are, but I need to ask. Do you know your sins have been forgiven? Do you know your sins have been blotted out? Do you know that Jesus' death and his shed blood have been applied to your life?
[26:17] If you don't, you need to trust him today. You need to trust him today. You need to say, come, let's go to Jesus and let's get forgiveness of our sins. Don't stay in your sin. Sins have consequences.
[26:29] Don't stay in your sin and think God can't do anything about it. He controls the whole world. Don't stay in your sin and think you'd get away with it. Trust Jesus tonight.
[26:40] Father God in heaven, I ask you to work. And I pray you deal with hearts and draw people to you. I pray that you'd save those that aren't saved. And I pray you'd help Christians to believe you and trust you.
[26:52] And I'll ask you to work tonight.