[0:00] Take your Bibles, if you would, and turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 36. I certainly hope you enjoyed the time with Jeremy, and I hope you get to spend some time with him.
[0:10] I'm very proud of how God has used him and working in his life, and that's very exciting. This is a chapter and a half, I'm just telling you. It's about 25 lessons easily here.
[0:26] One, God takes care of his word. You can chop it up. You can burn it. You can destroy it, and God will say, it's all right. I know where I got it.
[0:37] I'll put it right back down, just like I did before. In fact, it's a really bad deal for poor old Jehoiakim in this verse is he ripped it up, burned it, and God said, that's all right, I'll just add some more to it.
[0:48] Next time you'll like it even less. So I'd quit burning it, you know? I mean, next thing you know, he's going to write you a catalog. But you know what I want you to look at as I go through this with you is what is your response to the word of God?
[1:00] This is like, to me, this is one of them stories. I want to make a video. I want to be a film producer for a minute. And if you go down to verse 21, you can kind of follow along with the story.
[1:12] But in the story, we got old King Jehoiakim, and he is sitting in this, I don't know, he's sitting in this house, and there's a fireplace roaring with it.
[1:22] And he's got a bunch of young guys with him, and they're all sitting around probably telling him what a great guy he is. You know, you're the best. You're the greatest. You're the man. And they're all sitting around talking, and they hear about this message that old Jeremiah wrote, had his buddy Baruch go out and preach it.
[1:41] All really Baruch did was just read the Bible. He wasn't that good a preacher. He's just a good Bible reader. He just read the Bible, and nobody liked the message. Some people got scared, and we'll go through that in just a second.
[1:52] And word gets to the king, and so the king says, well, just bring that to me. Look at verse 21. So the king, Jehoiakim, that's his name. I'll just put that in your Bible. But if you read the chapter, you'll know.
[2:03] He sends. He said, tell him, bring that role with him. And read in the ears of the king. He said, get up here and just read to the king. And all the young princes are sitting around with the king.
[2:15] And they're all listening. The king's in his winter house. He's got a fire on the hearth. Boy, it's just nice. It's kind of like one of them hunting cabins look. You know, it's the way I see it. And they're all sitting around there, and he keeps reading it.
[2:26] And the king says, hand me a, you get the reading a little bit, hand it to me. He reaches in his pocket and pulls out a knife and starts cutting it up and throwing it in the fire.
[2:39] And he did that until the whole roll was burned up, everything had been written. And what was really bad is nobody got nervous. Nobody was afraid.
[2:50] Nobody was worried. If you go down to verse 24, the king wasn't worried. The servants weren't worried. There were a couple of guys that did say, please don't burn it. That's really all that happened.
[3:02] He wouldn't listen, and they didn't burn it. I want you to go through it with me. Can I get young people to listen? Listen, the Bible says things we don't like.
[3:16] Just be honest. None of us really like everything the Bible says. In fact, as you read it, it'll cut and burn, going in a coming. It's like a double-edged sword. But how you respond to the Bible is like the most important thing in your life.
[3:32] You need to realize it is the Word of God. And you have to realize that in such a way that when the message comes and you don't like it, you know it's true.
[3:46] And since it's true, you don't throw it away. You don't cut it up. You don't burn it. You change. If something needs cut up, it's my opinion. If something needs thrown in the fire, it's my ways of acting.
[3:58] And that's what I want to get a hold of. So I want to just challenge you, young people. It bothers me. Sometimes your minds are being filled by the world with a bunch of garbage. And then you come to the Bible and you say, I don't like the Bible.
[4:11] It doesn't really go along with what my friends are saying or what my teachers are saying or what I'm seeing on the Internet or what I'm watching on YouTube. And I don't like the Bible. It kind of bothers me.
[4:22] I don't enjoy that. Well, that's kind of how this old king was. He didn't like it either. And that's going to bring death to him. It's going to bring death to all of his family.
[4:33] And they're never going to be who they could have been if they had the right attitude and responded correctly to the Word of God. God in heaven, I beg you. I love these kids.
[4:43] I am so desiring God that you would help them to quit going by what they think or feel. And same with the adults in the room, that we would all believe the Word and apply it.
[4:55] And I'll give you praise for what you're going to do now. Work in our lives. In Jesus' name, amen. Go with me, if you would, to chapter 36 and verse 1. We'll just kind of work our way through it.
[5:05] The first thing I want you to see is this. God gave Jeremiah a harsh message. I mean, the message he's going to give him is a pretty rough message. Now, the message came from God.
[5:18] And if you get verse 1, this word came unto Jeremiah from the Lord. It said in Jeremiah's opinion, it said in the guy sitting around writing a declaration of independence.
[5:30] It said in a bunch of men with some good ideas, God said it. And his message, I just wish you'd look at verse 2 and put a circle around, against. My brother, Jeff Myers is a deacon and has been for a while.
[5:45] And his joke among everything is he'll always say, well, I'm against it. It's a joke. We all know it's a joke. But in this verse, God's against it. And he ain't joking.
[5:56] Look at it. He goes, I'm against, I'm against, I'm against. Look at that. I'm against. That's a trinity of againstes. He's against.
[6:08] And so nobody likes that message. I like a message that says I'm doing pretty good. I'd like to be told I'm all right. I'd like to be told everything's good. I'd like to be told that God loves me.
[6:19] I'd like to be told that God accepts me in my behavior. But when Jeremiah gets the word of the Lord, I don't know how you see it. But Jeremiah's right there going, Lord, I mean, you kind of sound angry here. Maybe you could tone it down.
[6:31] I don't think he did that, but it's a pretty rough language. But the purpose that God gives harsh messages is not to be harsh. But it's to bring about repentance.
[6:43] Look at verse 3. Look at verse 3. It may be. Underline that. It may be. You need to underline that in your Bible. He said, I want you to go tell them I'm against it.
[6:53] I'm against them. I'm against them. He's against three groups of people. He said, but it may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I propose, I purpose to do unto them.
[7:03] What he's saying is, I'm fixing to bring harsh treatment on you. I'm going to destroy your country. I'm going to bring mean stuff on you. And he says, God says, man, I just want them to listen to me.
[7:17] Hear what's going to happen. And I want them to say, we change. We forget it. We repent. Underline it may be. Then go a little further in and notice that they may return.
[7:27] See, they've gone away. They were walking towards destruction. They were walking in rebellion. They turned their backs on God. And God says, preach it hard, Jeremiah. Lay it on them really hard.
[7:39] I want them to get a hold of something. If they don't turn around, it's going to get bad. And maybe when you preach the truth, they'll turn around. Why? Look at verse three, because I want to forgive them.
[7:53] What a God. He was against it, but he wasn't really against it. He's against the sin, but he wasn't against them. He just wanted to turn around. He just wanted to get it right.
[8:04] Now, you listen. I'm over here thinking about whatever I'm doing. I'm thinking about whether or not creation is correct, revolution is correct, and whether or not homosexuality is all right, and whether or not abortion is all right.
[8:16] I'm going through all these things in my mind, and somebody says, well, the Bible says, and we're like, well, I don't like that. I don't like that. It's a little too harsh. I think Jesus is the only way.
[8:28] Why does he have to be the only way? He's the only way for Christians, not the only way for everybody. No, he's the only way for everybody. God doesn't give a harsh message to be mean.
[8:39] Did you know the wages of sin is death? That's harsh. Do you know there's only one name you can have to go to heaven? Jesus? That's harsh. Did you know that they're going to say in that day, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, I never heard that.
[8:54] Lord, Lord, I did a lot of good stuff. And he's going to say, I never knew you. But he's saying, hey, the Lord was harsh, but he wasn't harsh to hurt. He was harsh to help.
[9:07] He was harsh that they might know that they were doing wrong, that they might turn, that they might be forgiven. It's a beautiful thing. Next, go with me to verse 34.
[9:17] In verse 34, we find out how the Word of God came. And I'm not going to take long here because we've done this already. But sometimes you may wonder or question how you got a Bible in your hand.
[9:28] The way you got a Bible in your hand, in verse 4, Jeremiah just explains it. Jeremiah called Baruch in. And Baruch wrote down what Jeremiah said to him. And Jeremiah was telling Baruch what God told him.
[9:41] If you go down to 36.5, Jeremiah commanded Baruch, said, I'm shut up. I can't go. So you take what I dictated. Now you go tell it. So do you understand what happened? Oh, Jeremiah is sitting there and he says, God said, I got a word for you.
[9:55] And Jeremiah said, hey, Baruch, come in here and write it down for me. And then God tells Jeremiah. Jeremiah says, write it down. And the Bible says he took a pen with ink and he wrote it on a scroll.
[10:05] The fact is, in verse 17, he goes and talks. When Baruch goes out and talks, they bring him into a room and they say, Baruch, how'd you get this message? Did a bunch of y'all get together and write this up?
[10:18] How'd y'all get this message? And Baruch says in verse 17, he said, or verse 18, he said, well, he pronounced it. And I wrote it. Y'all don't know that in your Bible.
[10:29] He pronounced it, all these words unto me, and I wrote them with ink and a book. After God gives his word, his man is responsible to deliver his word.
[10:41] If you follow in chapter 36 and you're reading the story, we got a divine book given by God through his man written down in a place. And what's going to end up happening now is Jeremiah's going to say, Baruch, this is what God said.
[10:55] Now go tell him what he said. That's what every preacher is supposed to do. That's what every preacher is supposed to do. He's supposed to go into a place. He's supposed to open a Bible and say, here's what God said.
[11:05] So in verse six, he takes and reads the roll. And he said, the words of the Lord. And he did it. They were all gathered together to fast. And he read it where everybody could hear it.
[11:17] He read it where everybody could hear it. And he read it and it's harsh and it's mean. But in verse seven, he said, it may be that they'll return. I don't think people want to hear this, but I'm going to read it anyway.
[11:31] Because God's angry. It's often we're like, God's not an angry God. Just depends on what you're talking about. Just depends on what you're talking about.
[11:43] In verse seven, great is the anger and the fury of the Lord. That's uncomfortable.
[11:55] That's uncomfortable. Don't you want to sweet God? For God so loved the world. He gave his only begotten son. But in that same chapter, could you throw John 3, 36 up there?
[12:07] I know you weren't warned about that. Look at John 3, 36. Look at John 3, 36. You know what happens? The wrath of God abides on them. Look at that.
[12:17] He that believes on the son has everlasting life. He that believes not the son shall not see life. But the wrath of God abides on him.
[12:30] Can I get you to understand something? God is not a nice guy that's going to let you get saved after it's too late. God's not a nice guy that's going to let Chinese people go to heaven.
[12:43] His anger is great against sin and the consequences are horrible. In verse eight, old Baruch does his job. He reads in the book, the words of the Lord in the Lord's house.
[12:55] He did it on a day they were fasting in verse nine. He got where people could hear him and he read it in the house of the Lord in the ears of the people. That's all I do.
[13:08] That's all your Sunday school teacher does, I hope. That's all the discipling person does. Nobody here has any real authority. When we walk in, we take the authority and we read the authority.
[13:21] We see what the authority says. We say this is what the word of God says. When this guy walked in, what's really funny about this story is he didn't, there's no commentary. He just went in there and said, I'll just read it to you.
[13:34] And he just read it to them. Now notice how they responded, if you would, in verse 11. When Micaiah, the son of so-and-so there heard the words he told his friends in verse 12.
[13:48] He went down to the king's house and the princes and he told them. And verse 13, he declared all the words that he had heard. He said, boy, you didn't believe it. I heard that message. I heard what old Jeremiah wrote down and sent Baruch out to read.
[14:02] I heard it. And he's running around and he's telling people what he's heard. And the friends said, if you go down to verse 14, they said, we'd really like to hear it firsthand. We're hearing what you got to say.
[14:15] And that's kind of like it was to the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4. A lot of people got saved because of what she said. They came to Jesus because of what she said. But then they ended up saying, well, we're not believing because of you. We heard him for ourselves.
[14:27] And they believed him and they were saved. So he told his friends and they said in verse 14, they sent Jehudi and said, take the roll wherein thou hast read in the ears of the people.
[14:40] And Baruch took the roll in his hand and came unto them. And they said, sit down now and read it in our ears. And so he sits down and he reads what Jeremiah has written.
[14:56] I think there's some people telling what they heard. I think that's what we ought to do. Man, I've heard what the word of God says. I'd go tell my friends. I go tell people I know. I go share it with people that are important.
[15:09] I think we ought to be saying, I want to hear it for myself. And I just throw this in for you real quick. You ought not eat only regurgitated food. You know, I come in every week and I've been chewing on the word of God and chewing on it and filling it up.
[15:23] And I come in and I just vomit out what it's in here, what I've learned. And I give it to you. But God wants you to get it for yourself. God wants a personal appointment with you.
[15:33] If you really believe it's the word of God, then if you act like you do and get a Bible and read it. Get a Bible and live it out and get a Bible and do what it says. They responded by being afraid in verse 16.
[15:45] When they heard, they were afraid. We're going to have to tell the king. And so they're like, we better get rid of old Baruch and Jeremiah because the king's not going to like this message.
[16:00] They knew that the message was too hard. And they warned Baruch to go hide. And then they told the king. I want to say something before I get down here to where he cuts it up.
[16:12] And that's the next part of the story. But I just want you to realize this. You don't like what the Bible says. You know? You don't like what it says. It says stuff that kind of goes against the grain and what we're thinking and what we're feeling and what we want.
[16:25] And so we reject the Bible. And it's against us. And it really is. They say the old preacher Billy Sunday used to say that people said to him, they'd say, brother Sunday, you rubbed the hair on the cat's back the wrong way.
[16:42] And he used to say, well, tell the cat to turn around and it'll be all right. Tell the cat to turn around and it'll be all right. So you and I want to know what God says. We want to apply it. We want it to be real.
[16:53] But this old king, buddy, that's not him. He cuts it up. He throws it in the fire. He shows the greatest disrespect you can imagine as he burns the word of God.
[17:03] And what's really bad is everybody hanging around with him. They're not afraid. And if you go down to verse 25, when they said, please don't burn the road, please.
[17:14] That might be the word of God. Please. Jeremiah is the man of God. He said the word. He said, I will not listen to you. And he said, go get them boys. I don't like the message.
[17:24] Don't like the messenger. I'm going to get rid of them. Here's the big lesson. Destroying the word of God doesn't change the truth. Boy, isn't that something?
[17:36] Oh, Jehoiakim thinks I'll get rid of the Bible and I'll get rid of the preacher and that'll change things. But the Bible in this instance, that's reproducible. God knows exactly what he wrote.
[17:47] He can rewrite it. He can give it to you again. He not only inspired it, he protected it. He preserved it. And God can redo it. That's not a problem. Tear it up all you want. You could kill the preacher if you want, but I'm still God.
[18:01] And you're not getting away with it. Amen. Verse 27. After he burned the Bible, Jeremiah got a word from the Lord. Get another, just go ahead and get you another scroll out.
[18:12] Verse 28. Get you another scroll out, he said. And start writing everything you wrote before. And I'll just go ahead and add some things to it. Verse 29.
[18:26] Jehoiakim. Thus saith the Lord, thou hast burned this role. And you said, what sayest thou, what is thou written therein, saying the king of Babylon shall surely come and destroy this land and shall cause to cease from thence man.
[18:40] And because you said Babylon's going to come kill us. I will not listen to that. I don't like that. It's not what I'm preaching about. I'm making Israel great. And you're wrong. But it's coming.
[18:53] And the second he did it, he sealed his own fate. Look in verse 30. It's a horrible verse. Maybe the most horrible verse in the chapter.
[19:03] He shall have none to set upon the throne of David. So the king's boys won't ever be kings. And the king's grandsons will never be kings.
[19:15] He destroyed a legacy that quick. But then look at what it says. And his dead body will be thrown out in the day while it's hot. It'll bloat and bust and stink.
[19:27] The punishment is deserved because they intentionally have not listened to God. Verse 31.
[19:38] I will punish him. I will bring Babylon on them. All the evil I said is going to happen. And you can't stop it. Write some more words.
[19:49] Let me give you some truths I wish you'd take home. If I sum this chapter up in my own words, this is the number one thing. Number one thing, it's a very harsh message a lot of times.
[20:00] Sometimes it's a little bit uncomfortable to preach what the Bible says. But sin has come into the world. And sin has brought horrible consequences. And God doesn't want us to be living in sin.
[20:12] And God doesn't want us to suffer the consequences of sin. God wants us to turn from it. Just because the message is harsh. And you know that's exactly what everybody that's out there who doesn't believe in God.
[20:26] They're like, man, those guys are just too narrow-minded. Those guys are just too legalistic. Those guys are just too stuck on one message. God might have sent a harsh message.
[20:37] But the message was for them to get right. You know what the lesson of this chapter is? It's not Jeremiah's message. You know what the lesson is?
[20:47] It's not Jeremiah's message. And it's not Baruch's message. And you don't have to be embarrassed to stand and preach when you really get a hold of the fact that I believe this is the Word of God.
[20:57] And so when I stand up and say something, I don't have to back up and say, Well, now, in the old days, Jeremiah thought this. And maybe nowadays we don't accept that. If we believe it's the Word of God, I believe it's a lot more than the Word of Jeremiah.
[21:10] And Jeremiah just wrote down what God told him to write down. You have to acknowledge the Word of God. All authority and all power. What's interesting is God calls on a man to deliver his Word.
[21:24] He gives the Bible. He writes it all down. But then it's still got to get out there. And so God says, Hey, Jeremiah, you're shut up. You can't go out. So tell Baruch to go read my Word. Just go read it. Fact is, I got a big meeting going on down at the temple right now.
[21:36] People are coming in. And they're going to be there. And they're going to be fasting. It's a special time. Go read the book to them. And so there he goes down to read the book. Simple task.
[21:48] You don't need to be eloquent. You don't need to be fancy. You don't need to have an alliteration. You don't have to be smart. You don't have to be cute. You just need a book. I don't know if you can see that.
[21:59] I see that so clearly. I mean, old Baruch, who is this guy? I know he knows how to write. And I know he knows how to read. What else you know about him? He knows how to write and read and read and write.
[22:10] But that's all that was needed. It caused quite a stir. God called on a man to go do that. Whenever you teach or preach the Bible, you won't get the response all the time.
[22:21] People won't like it. People will go tell others. People will want to hurt you. People won't even be afraid when others mock the Bible right in front of you. But anger and rejecting the Word of God is not the solution.
[22:36] You can't get rid of the Word of God. Voltaire and other people in history back in the days of the writing of the Declaration of Independence and before that, the French guy Voltaire and Thomas Paine, everybody said, the Bible won't last.
[22:50] And here it is. Still lasting. And it's still going to last. Your rebellion will cause some to try and restrain you. Others will say, you shouldn't be throwing on the Bible like that.
[23:02] But it won't work. You can reject the message. You can hate the messenger. You can hate the church. You can hate the Bible. You can hate the preacher. But it doesn't change anything.
[23:15] The Word of God is still true. Now, real quickly, I just want to, I think maybe one of the most beautiful things, and I think you know it and you've heard it enough, but I just want to remind you, you cannot destroy an inspired, protected, preserved Word.
[23:32] It's a beautiful story. I mean, they didn't have photostatic copies. The guy has painstakingly written down the Word of God. And so when old wicked Jehoiakim cuts it up and throws it in the fire, he's like, ruined your plan, buddy.
[23:48] You don't have a Bible anymore. You have no more message against me. And Jeremiah goes back to the house. I don't know what Jeremiah's thinking. You know, when he gets back to the house, I'm not sure what's going on in his head, but he very likely was thinking, boy, he did cut up the Word.
[24:02] And then the Holy Spirit goes, hey, don't worry. I got another copy. Start writing. It's God's Word. It's more than what Jeremiah said.
[24:14] It's more than a translation. Your rebellion seals your fate. Your rebellion seals your fate.
[24:29] Jehoiakim, just admit God's right. All he wants is for you to say you're sorry. All he wants is for you to turn around. All he wants is you to quit being obstinate and arrogant and proud and full of your own self and turn to God and he'll forgive you.
[24:48] That's what the chapter says. But no, he won't do that. I think probably the most horrible thing I read in the chapter is his kids and his grandkids.
[25:01] My sin doesn't hurt anybody but me. Ask Jehoiakim. His bloated body will be out in the frost at night and the heat during the day and he'll rot like a dog on the side of the road, like a deer, you see, on the way over here, a deer thrown up on the sidewalk.
[25:17] That's the king's body. The guy who ought to be laying in state and treated like a great guy. And then his kids will never realize what they could have. I want you to, last of all, the most, probably the most famous lesson in this chapter is this.
[25:36] God just gives you another copy of the word of God. If this was Jeremiah's book, I don't think he got it right.
[25:48] I don't think he would have remembered. I don't think Jeremiah could write the book, get it torn up, and then write it exactly like he had it before. Just don't believe he could.
[26:00] I know you couldn't and I can't. I know most people couldn't do that. But you can when the guy that wrote it just tells you what to write. Could I remind you how old Jeremiah wrote it down the first time?
[26:11] Somehow he said, and I don't understand how this happens, but the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah, and Jeremiah called old Baruch and said, Baruch, grab a pencil and paper, start writing.
[26:21] He's telling me stuff. I'll pronounce it. You write it. And he starts talking. And old Baruch's over there going, writing her down as fast as he can go. And Jeremiah's able to go up to speed.
[26:33] He can write. He gets it all written down. And when it all gets destroyed, when it's all burned in the fire, and it looks like it's all over, Jehoiakim's laughing. I don't know what you see.
[26:45] Man, I can just see a movie there. But Baruch goes out the door. They probably kicked him and threw him out in the street, fell down in the snow, and walks back to the house.
[26:55] And Jeremiah says, hey, bud, what happened? He said, they burned the whole scroll. It's over. And Jeremiah says, wait a minute. Let me talk to the boss. Oh, you already know.
[27:07] Yeah, I figured you would. He said, get another pencil and paper. He's about to write it again. And old Jeremiah says it, pronounces it, and Baruch writes it.
[27:19] And when they get to the end of what they'd written before, the Holy Spirit said, I think I'll just add a little bit here. I got more. Somehow you ought to have some more confidence in the book. I stand and preach it and believe it every bit of it.
[27:32] I believe it from the top of the bottom of the page, from the front to the back. I believe it every way up and down. It's the Word of God. It's the only reason we have a church service.
[27:43] It's the only reason we ought to be here. And if you've ever read the Old Testament, just go back in those, go back in the books of the law, and I promise you, you'll love the Bible because you'll see God knew stuff 3,500 years before people knew it in America.
[27:59] The God of the Bible's over there saying, hey, they won't know this about science for a long time. Hey, but you little nomad walking around in moccasins and a robe, write this down.
[28:09] I got stuff. And God gave them the Word. You hold the Bible. Let's live like it. Father in heaven, I love you. And I thank you for who you are and what you're doing and what your Word says.
[28:22] And I pray, God, it'd be real and that we'd fall in love with it. God, I pray for those of us that are in rebellion against it. We're angry with what the Bible says.
[28:34] We don't like what you say. I pray, Holy Spirit, you convict us and draw us to you. Help us to respect the Bible and not bring the consequences of our rebellion on ourself, on our family.
[28:53] With every head bowed and every eye closed, I want to ask you a very straight question. Would you come tell the Lord you'll at least give him five minutes a day in the Bible? You know you're not very faithful.
[29:07] You know you're not reading your Bible every day. Why don't you come say, Lord, I'm going to really work at being at least five minutes a day, at least, just to get me started. Why don't you come tell him?
[29:18] You haven't been taking the time to hold the Bible like it's really the Word of God and say to your wife and children, listen, I want you to hear the Word of God. Why don't you come and say, Lord, I want to make a strong effort to get the Bible and to teach the Bible because it is the very Word of God.
[29:36] Would you be honest and say you've been a little bit upset, a little bit angry with God because you don't like what it says, but now he just wants you to turn. He just wants you to turn.
[29:49] He wants to forgive you. He wants to work in your life. Why don't you come and say, God, I'm not going to rebel anymore. God, I'm not going to be angry with what you say. I'm going to put it into practice. Would you do that right now? Obey God.
[29:59] Father in heaven, I love you. I thank you for the chance to share your Word. And I pray, God, that tonight lives will be changed. The Word of God will become more important to us.
[30:11] And I'll give you praise. With your heads bowed and your eyes closed, you can pray up here or in your seat. Whenever you're finished, you can stand and sing with Stephen. Let's do business with God, please.