[0:00] All right, go with me to Jeremiah chapter 11. While you're turning, Israel, Judah, God's people have betrayed him. God's angry.
[0:11] Chapter 11, I was going to do three chapters, but I said I just can't do it. So chapter 11, basically, God's mad. You didn't do what you said you would do.
[0:22] And Jeremiah is going to say, God, I'm on your side. God, I'm on your side. In other words, here's God, and he's angry with God's people, and the preacher's got to decide, do I stand with my people or do I stand with God?
[0:35] That's kind of a question you have to answer often. You ever think about that? Sometimes your family's like to you, let's do this, and you know it's wrong, or let's not go to church, or let's not give, or let's not whatever.
[0:49] And family screams and says, let's don't, and God says, let's do, and you're kind of stuck in the middle. Well, Jeremiah knew who would pick. He picked the right side. It is said that Charles Spurgeon's mother, the great English preacher, told him before he accepted Christ, who knows if it's true or not.
[1:07] They write anything in a book after you guys did. But it is said that she said to him, if you do not trust Christ as your Savior, I'll stand on God's side and say, throw you into hell. I will stand with truth.
[1:20] I don't know if my mother said that to me. Well, I might have expected it from my mother. But if your mother said it to you, that'd be shocking. Amen. So who's on the Lord's side? That's what we're going to look at tonight. Go with me to Jeremiah chapter 11 and verse 20.
[1:32] And I just wish, this is kind of like, you know, where I really, and you're going to say, man, that doesn't stick out very much, but it really does after you got through the whole chapter. But O Lord of hosts, O Lord of the armies, God's armies, the heavenly host.
[1:45] When it says host there, that's an army. O Lord of the armies, that's God's armies, the angels, that judges righteously. You make right decisions. So let's see you down the line there.
[1:57] You make right decisions. You try the reins on the heart. You try the emotions of a man. You go to the inside of a man and you know what's right and not.
[2:09] Let me see thy vengeance on them. God, I want to watch it when you kick their backsides. Lord, help me. I just want you to imagine, I want you to imagine the preacher standing up and said, all right, God, burn them.
[2:24] Because that's what's going to end up being talked about in this whole chapter. And then he says, where I think it says who's on the Lord's side, he said, for you know I have revealed my cause to you. For unto thee have I revealed my cause.
[2:37] I'm on your side. I've tried to make that clear. I'm on the Lord's side and I've tried to make that clear. Father in heaven, I pray now that you would make this passage of scripture come alive out of my mouth.
[2:49] It is alive and I know it's alive, but help me not to stand in the way of the beauty and the life that's in this passage of scripture. And I pray that you'd help us to learn from it and believe it. And I'll give you praise, honor, and glory for all that you do.
[3:00] In Jesus' name, amen. I do need to go ahead and tell you before we get started, you probably want a seatbelt on and you might want to go ahead and get that little plastic bag out that they have on the airplane in case you need it, you know, because it's going to get turbulent.
[3:12] But look at this. Here's the message from God's man. Jeremiah chapter 11 verse 1. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying. So God's sending a message through his man, Jeremiah.
[3:25] And he's telling them he wants to remember what God already promised. What Jeremiah is about to say is get out your Bibles and let's go over history and let's remember what God's already said to you.
[3:38] He said that you'll be cursed if you do not obey the agreement. Look at verse 2. Hear ye the words of this covenant and speak unto the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
[3:50] Now what's really sad is we're talking to Judah and Jerusalem. You know, in the north, that's Israel. In the north, they're really heathen. In the south, they're godly.
[4:00] All the southerners said amen right there. It's a joke really for all you Ohio people. But the northern kingdom is Israel. The northern kingdom is Israel. Graham, it's okay, wherever he is.
[4:11] It's okay. The northern kingdom is Israel. And they got two golden calves set up there. They've thrown out all of God's preachers and they're doing religion their own way. They have basically said, we don't even like religion.
[4:22] We don't want you to go to Jerusalem. Because if you go to Jerusalem, you worship the true God. Then you might be loyal to the king of Israel, Judah, which is where the king of Israel comes from. So they set up a false religion. But Judah is the place supposed to be worshiping God.
[4:35] But they're not. Verse 3. And say thou unto them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel. This is what God said. Cursed be. Cursed be the man that obeys not the words of this covenant.
[4:50] Cursed be the man that obeys not the words of this covenant. Now, by the word covenant, see, everybody gets all torn up about these words. That's really not a hard word. It means agreement.
[5:01] It means contract. It means pact. It is the covenant. That's what it is. They already had a covenant. And we'll find out in a minute when he gave the covenant and when they agreed to the covenant.
[5:13] And the nation of Israel has already said, all right, God, you've said, I set before you blessing and I set before you cursing. And if you do what I want you to do, I'll bless you. And if you don't do what I don't want you to do, I'll curse you.
[5:25] So y'all just go ahead and do what I want you to because I want to bless you. They heard that. They believed that. And they agreed. God had warned them that they would be cursed. You see, they had a promise, a covenant, a pact, an agreement, a contract.
[5:39] You do right, I'll bless you. You obey me and I'll do really special things with you. And then he said, but here's another part of the contract. If you don't do right, I'll do really bad things to you. Just as much as I'd ever do good things to you, I'll come back on the other side.
[5:52] You need to write these two words maybe somewhere in the margin of your Bible or somewhere if you don't already know them. I know most of you will. But there are two types of covenant principally in the Bible. There are conditional covenants and there's unconditional covenants.
[6:04] There are some covenants that God says, I will just do this, period. But there are other covenants where God says, I'll do this if you do this. I'll do this if you do this.
[6:14] And if you do this, I'll do this. And so it's like we got a two-way going thing here. So God had placed conditions on the covenant. He's going to make that clear to them. And he had told them there was blessing and there was cursing.
[6:27] Go down to verse 4. I wish you'd just read the verse.
[6:47] And if you mark your Bible, you ought to put this. Have you caught the word I in there? It's in there four times. In one verse, God goes, I, I, I, I.
[6:57] It's really not a good thing for you and I to use I too much. But God can. And he said, I commanded. I brought you out of the land of Egypt. I command you.
[7:08] I will be your God. If they'd have obeyed God, they would have been blessed. I want you to look at the verse. He said, you remember? I brought you out of the land of Egypt. I brought you out of where you were burning and suffering.
[7:19] And I told you, obey my voice and do what I tell you to do. He's talking to a nation. This is a nation. And he said, I command you. Do all the things I command you. If you do that, look at the verse.
[7:32] So shall you be my people. If you do that, I command you. So shall you be my people and I will be your God. But it's a conditional thing. If they obeyed, they would be blessed. He would have a special, personal, intimate relationship with his people.
[7:47] This is not New Testament salvation. But you can mark it down this way. If a Christian knows what God wants him to do and doesn't do what God wants him to do, he won't lose his salvation. But the intimacy he's going to feel is a board upside the backside.
[8:00] Amen. God spanks his people. And then you're going to be like, I think he's really beating up on me. And I would say, yeah, he is. He does that. Look at verse 5.
[8:11] That I may perform the oath. You need to circle that word. He said that. That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers to give them a land flowing with milk and honey. As it is this day.
[8:24] Then answered I and said, so be it, Lord. Now look at this, would you? He said, I want you to notice that I may perform the oath. You see what he said? God goes back and he goes, hey guys, look. Everybody look at me.
[8:35] If you'll do right, I will really be good to you. If you'll do right, you'll obey me as a nation. I'm going to be extremely good to you. You're not going to get sick like other people do. You're not going to have to borrow money like other people.
[8:46] You're going to win your battles. I'm going to be on your side. I'm going to be a great God to you. I want to do that. I want to do that for you. I want to work in your life. I want you to enjoy the abundant life.
[8:57] Verse 5, underline it. That I may perform the oath. Do what you're supposed to so I can do what I said I would. You do your part and I'll do my part. It's what I swore to your fathers. I said I was going to give you a land flowing with milk and honey.
[9:10] And underline it, you didn't pay attention. But he said as it is this day. I kept my word. You're in a good country. You got good blessings. You remember when they walked in? When they crossed over the Jordan River and walked into the promised land, they moved into houses they didn't build.
[9:27] They got gardens they didn't plant. They got vineyards they didn't plant. They walked in. It would be like somebody just walking into Alfreda and taking over your house, your car, your stuff. They just walked in and they got it.
[9:39] God said, told you be good to me and I'll be good to you. What he told them. Look at chapter 11 verse 6. Then the Lord said unto me, proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.
[9:55] Hear ye the words of this covenant and do them. Jeremiah, I want you to walk all over the city. I want you to go up street after street. I want you to tell everybody. Y'all remember the promise we made to God.
[10:07] Y'all remember the promise we made to God. Y'all remember the promise God made to us. Y'all remember the promise God made to us. I want you all over the city. I want everybody to be reminded of the promise I made and the promise they made.
[10:19] Jeremiah chapter 11 and verse 7 said, I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt. God said, I made it really, really clear.
[10:31] Underline, he earnestly protested. He said, man, I have made it abundantly clear. Blessing, cursing. Obey me, blessed.
[10:42] Disobey me, cursed. Obey me, things go good. Disobey me, things go bad. I have earnestly protested this. And I've done it since the day I brought them up out of slavery. That's what Egypt was to this day.
[10:55] I did it rising and early. And I was protesting and I kept saying, look at what his message is. Obey my voice. Would you underline that in verse 7? Obey my voice.
[11:06] The man of God was just reminding God's people of God's word and telling them to do it. It's just Bible preaching. Basically, of course, it wasn't printed like it is in our Bible today.
[11:17] Still wasn't that far along. In Jeremiah's day, the Old Testament's still being written. But basically, it's like Jeremiah's got the book of Exodus open going, hey, y'all remember? You remember? Remember? Y'all remember?
[11:28] That's what God said. Remember? That's what God said. Remember? That's what God said. And God told Jeremiah, I said, now go around and tell everybody that. I have a question. Do we pay attention and put in practice what we learn from the word of God?
[11:43] When preachers are earnestly protesting and saying it early and late, do we put it into practice? You might be saying, we're in the New Testament, thank God. We don't have to worry about that obeying stuff.
[11:56] Well, that's not what the New Testament said. The New Testament said, if you love me, keep my commandments. So you know what? If you love God, you do obey God. And when you don't obey God, you're saying, I don't love God.
[12:08] Can I get an amen right there? So it's the same message. Now, honestly, we're not talking here about going to heaven because you don't go to heaven because the good you do, but you do get blessed or burdened or broken by obedience and disobedience.
[12:22] Second thing he talks about is the wickedness of God's people. Go with me if you would to Jeremiah chapter 11 and verse 8. So 1 through 7, the preacher just walked around all over the place reminding them, this is what the Bible says.
[12:33] This is what God said. This is what God said. But the one difference is, and it had to be pretty special, I mean, I get alone with God and I take my Bible and I study and I write and I study and I write and I study and I write and I put it all down and I come in here and I say, I'm coming here to tell you what God said and I'm taking off these pages.
[12:48] But Jeremiah's sitting there and God goes, hey, just get up. I got a message for you. That'd be a little, yeah, you probably preach with some power there, amen? You wouldn't be wondering if it was the word of God. I'm not, but I'm just saying.
[12:59] Jeremiah chapter 11 and verse 8 though, I want you to just look at these phrases. Yet, they obeyed not. No matter how much it was preached, no matter how much they heard it, they obeyed not.
[13:14] Not only that, verse 8, neither would they listen, nor inclined their ear. You know, they came in, they came into church and it kind of reminds me of what I was when I was a kid.
[13:24] I used to go to church and just to be honest with you, I found church kind of boring. I've been all my life. So I knew how to count all the tiles in the roof. I can just see all the young people saying, I didn't know about that one. Let me try that one for a while.
[13:34] So I used to count all the tiles. I'd go, one, two, three, four, and I'd count all the tiles in the church. Then I learned how to just think about other stuff. Think about the movie you watched last night. Think about what you're going to do later and help the time to pass because that preacher drones on and on and on.
[13:48] And I know that's what y'all are thinking. And here's what Jeremiah said. Jeremiah said and God said, he said, they don't obey and they don't listen. I wish you'd just think a little bit about this inclining thing.
[14:00] You see, the idea, I think, of your inclining their ear is, I'm not going to obey God. And the fact is, I'm not even going to listen if you tell me to. I'm not going to hear you when you tell me what I'm supposed to do.
[14:12] I'm not going to incline my ear to that. Let me tell you what I am going to do. Look at verse eight. I'm going to do what I want to do. That's verse eight. Look at it. But walked everyone in the imagination of their evil heart.
[14:25] Walked everyone in the imagination of their evil heart. What did they imagine? What did they think up? In fact, we're going to find out as we go further in this passage of scripture, here's what they thought up.
[14:37] They knew they were supposed to obey God. Now, here's a clear teaching. It's really clear. We can't argue. This is a preference. He said, I don't like idols. I don't like images.
[14:48] I don't like false gods. I will be the only God you have. First commandment. I'll be the only God you have. And you'll put nobody before me. Do you understand that? That's pretty simple. I mean, we could argue about, did you look at a woman or didn't you look at a woman?
[15:00] But do you have another God? You know what? In the later, as soon as we get into this chapter, just a little bit, Jeremiah's going to say, and y'all got gods on every street corner. In the whole country, in the whole city of Jerusalem, everywhere we turn, there's a false God.
[15:14] You didn't listen. You imagined. You wanted to dream up what church ought to look like. You wanted to dream up what you ought to feel like when you come here. You wanted to do what you thought was cool. Said the word of God.
[15:25] They sat around and thought up what they believed to be a good idea. Maybe the hard thing and the boring thing about serving God is it's not up to you to make a choice. The only choice you make is obey or not obey.
[15:36] Verse nine. It's going to get worse. Somebody said that night, all you did was read that passage. Guilty. We're just reading the Bible. Amen.
[15:47] Verse nine. You really can't say I'm picking up my own messages either, by the way. And the Lord said unto me, a conspiracy is found among the men. Now, wait a minute.
[16:01] Jeremiah's running around going, hey, remember what God said. Hey, remember what God said. Hey, remember what God said. And they're going, we're not going to obey. And we're not going to listen.
[16:12] Fact is, while you're preaching, we're dreaming about what we can do. That's right. And then after church, there was a men's meeting. But Jeremiah wasn't invited. And they had a conspiracy.
[16:24] By the way, this conspiracy is going to get so bad, they're going to try to kill him. They're going to try to kill him. It's all right in the verse. We'll get to it and just say, so they got this conspiracy going on. And guess what the conspiracy was, verse 10.
[16:37] Look at it. They turned back to the iniquities of their fathers. They are turned back to the iniquities of their fathers, their forefathers. They got there and they said, you know, this is Jeremiah, guys.
[16:49] Man, he's got that old-fashioned religion. He's got that serve God stuff. He's got that marry one woman stuff. He's got that, he's just really strict and old-fashioned. Let's get together and talk.
[16:59] I think we've got some ideas on how to do this right. You know, our forefathers, they worshiped idols. Hey, let's form a God-making committee. That's a good idea.
[17:11] Let's see what we can figure out. So they did that. And then Jeremiah says in 1110, and they refused to hear my words. And they went after other gods.
[17:22] There is the conspiracy right there that's as clear as day. Here's what they did. They said, preach all you want, Jeremiah. Bring it on, Jerry. Bring it on, Jerry. Here's what we're going to do.
[17:33] We're going to go back and do what our wicked forefathers did. We're not going to listen to what you got to say. And we're going to make up other gods we can serve. Verse 10. And they broke my covenant.
[17:45] They broke my covenant. I need you to underline in verse 10, they broke my covenant. See, here's what Jeremiah and God are kind of in this little thing. You got Jeremiah and God over here, and you got these wicked Jerusalem and Judahite people over here.
[18:01] And God says, Jeremiah, I made an agreement with them. I told them I'd be good to them. I told them I had all kind of good stuff for them. I said, do right, and I'll do this, and do wrong, and I'll do this.
[18:13] Because I wanted to do this. I was just saying this just in case. If you'll pay me, I'll sell you my house. But if you don't, I would put you in jail for stealing my house. That's the contract.
[18:24] The contract is you'll pay me what you said. You're signing a contract. You're agreeing to it. You don't. I'm coming after you. God said they broke the covenant. They made me a promise. They said they'd be my people.
[18:35] They said they'd follow me. They talked real good, but they didn't do it. Not only that, in verse 17, they provoked God to anger.
[18:47] By the way, God is so good. In case I don't get around to coming back to this, because of time, the Lord that planted thee, the Lord that planted thee. Now, is that sweet? He uprooted them from Egypt and slavery, where they were killing their babies.
[19:04] I just want you to understand, we always got pregnant women here. I just want you to understand, that baby's born. If it's a boy, they're going to kill it. And God reached out and picked them up, planted them in a place where they were free, in a place where they don't have to worry about people killing their babies.
[19:21] By the way, they'll imagine it so bad that they'll burn their babies before it's over. They will. They will. And God has pronounced evil against them. But I want you to understand, look, I want you to underline in verse 17.
[19:35] I mean, I'm just reading the Bible. Can we be honest? I'm not a good preacher. I'm a Bible reader. Would you underline in this? They done against themselves.
[19:47] God said, let's get something clear here. It's not me doing this. I'm not the one hurting them. Come on, if that's what it says, say amen. Does it say that in this verse?
[19:59] Because I divide mine up real good. Which they have done against themselves. Say, the Lord of hosts that planted you, he gave you all these blessings. He's pronounced evil against you for the evil of the house of Israel, which is those people up north that got the two idols, and now the house of Judah's doing it.
[20:14] Which they have done against themselves. They brought it on themselves. We had a guy here one time. He got drunk. I mean, drunk. He went to jail. I visited him in jail.
[20:24] And he was like, I don't know what God did to me. I'm like, God didn't get you drunk. God didn't put you in a car and drive you down the road, make you try to kill some people with your car? Well, you don't blame that on God. You brought that on yourself. So here's somebody eat up with porn, and they're like, I don't know why God's doing this to me.
[20:38] God ain't doing it to you, buddy. You need to underline that in the verse. That's pretty stuff. That's pretty tight stuff there. Amen. Have done against themselves.
[20:49] But then here's what he said, to make me mad. They made me mad. That's what it means when it says to provoke me to anger. Look at that. They made me mad, offering worship, incense, prayers to Baal, a demon god.
[21:06] A demon god. Verse 19. See, when God gives them the message, we're talking about what the people do and how they react.
[21:17] And they react by doing everything the wrong way and conspiring together and provoking God, and now they want to get rid of the preacher. Jeremiah. That's the preacher they want to get rid of.
[21:28] Look at verse 19. Jeremiah says, I was like a lamb or an ox that's brought to the slaughter. They're just dumb. I mean, I grew up on a farm.
[21:40] You want to haul something off to kill it? Put a little grain in the back of the trailer. He'll go in there and say, Lord, I got free food. By myself. Nobody's with me. He'll just run in there like, bring her on, buddy.
[21:51] Pour me some more corn in here. And we're going, enjoy it. In just a minute, we're going to cut your throat, and you're going to be a hamburger. He said, that's why I was acting like a lamb or an ox that they're fixing to kill.
[22:07] I didn't know that they had devised devices against me. I didn't know they were plotting to kill me. I didn't know that they were saying, let's destroy the tree and all the fruit. Let's get rid of Jeremiah and all his preaching.
[22:18] Let's cut him off from the land of the living. Let's make sure nobody remembers his name anymore. They wanted to kill him. I have a question every time on every passage.
[22:30] I try to ask you one. How do you respond to the preached word? Mad at the preacher? Get right with God? Mad at God? How do you respond?
[22:42] So then, in these passages, God reacts to their sin. I want to take you back up to verse 8 again. They've been warned, and they knew exactly what would happen if they disobeyed.
[22:54] I just need you to see that God warned them. God warned them. Oh, I think countries all over the world ought to get warned. We're going to go to hell. I think they ought to get warned.
[23:06] I think that's why we send mystery. But anyway, that's a side subject. But walk everyone in the imagination of their heart. Therefore, I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I command them to do.
[23:18] But they did them not. Now, they're not getting... This isn't a speed trap. They're not running down the road 65 miles an hour, and then it changes to 45 and 5 feet.
[23:29] And the cop's sitting right there behind the 45 going, And they're not getting... Got another one! No, no. It's a clear, obvious, you knew it. You didn't want to do it. You disobeyed me on purpose, and I'm coming to get you.
[23:40] They knew. God said he would punish them, and they would not escape. Look at 1111. I think it's hard for us to imagine that God does this.
[23:51] I will bring evil on them. God says, I'm going to see to it they hurt. That's tough, huh?
[24:06] That's tough. Then he said, and they won't be able to escape. You're looking at verse 11. They will not be able to escape. And when they pray to me and ask me to help them, I'm not going to listen.
[24:19] We're just reading the Bible. Would you look at verse 11? And though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken to them. Then Jeremiah, then God turns to Jeremiah and says, And by the way, you don't pray for them either.
[24:37] You don't pray for them either. Look at Jeremiah chapter 11 and verse 14. Jeremiah, pray not for this people. Don't lift up a cry or a prayer for them, because I will not hear them in the time they cry unto me for their trouble.
[24:54] I pray to God that our country, our church, us personally, that we have not gone so far that God would say, no need to pray. You know, you can cross the line when God says, all right, you brought this on yourself, and I'm fixing to tear your backside up.
[25:11] Verse 16. God had blessed them, but now he'll break them. That could be us.
[25:23] Verse 16. The Lord called your name a green olive tree, fair and of goodly fruit. Now, you know, that don't mean much to us. We read that and we're like, I don't even have any olive trees in my house.
[25:36] So maybe you got a Georgia peach or you got an apple, but the point is they could look out there and say, Lord, God, that's a beautiful fruit. And God said, that's what I'm calling you. I'm giving you a name of a green olive tree, something so special to you, and you're beautiful, and you have great fruit.
[25:53] But, you know, you've been disobeying me. And so he kindled a fire and broke the branches. He kindled the fire and broke the branches.
[26:04] God had loved them and blessed them. But their rebellion brought horrible consequences. Do you understand that God will deal with our sin?
[26:18] And there are consequences. Do you understand that God will deal with our sin? We're saved by grace and we're on our way to heaven because our God is good. But don't think that gets us a get out of jail card free.
[26:31] When we do wrong, there will be repercussions. So what do the people do as they suffer? Jeremiah 11, 12.
[26:43] They call on their false gods. Then shall the cities of Judah and the people that live in Jerusalem go and cry unto their gods. The ones they worship, the ones they offer incense to.
[26:54] But those chunks of wood will not save them. And by the way, verse 13, they got a lot of gods. Look at verse 13.
[27:06] For according to the number of your cities, that's how many gods you guys got. According to the number of the streets of Jerusalem, have you set up altars to that shameful thing.
[27:17] Underline that. That shameful thing. That false god. And you burn incense, which is a symbol of prayer.
[27:28] You're praying to Baal. Baal. Baal's a boob. Demons. Hell. Satan. And then they said, but wait a minute.
[27:39] We'll get right real quick. We'll just run to church. Say a quick prayer. And he'll forgive us. And it'll all be okay. You know, fornicating on Saturday night, praying on Sunday morning, and everything's okay.
[27:52] So he said this. You don't believe us in the Bible. I know you don't believe us in the Bible, but watch it. Verse 15. What has my beloved to do in my house? What are you doing in here, my sweet people?
[28:05] You have wrought a lewdness with many. And then you pass the holy flesh to sacrifice from you. When you do evil, then you rejoice. Like you think you can come in here and kill a lamb, and I'm just going to walk away and forget it?
[28:22] Not happening. Not happening. You don't pass me the holy flesh, the dedicated sacrificial offering. It kind of reminds you of the story of old Saul.
[28:34] Do you remember Saul? Old Saul was supposed to kill Oagag, and he was supposed to kill all these animals. And Saul said, you know what? I have in my own imagination that God would really like it if I saved the best of these sheep to take to my house.
[28:47] But in a minute, I'll lie about that. And I'll save the king because, you know, kings don't kill kings. If one king kills another king, other kings will kill another king. It's best to just kill regular people. Don't kill kings. And Samuel shows up, and he said, what are you doing?
[29:01] He said, well, we're just waiting on you, man of God, so we can do what we're supposed to do. And he says, I think I hear the sound of some animals, and you was told to kill them. And he said, well, you know, I just thought it would make a great sacrifice.
[29:11] Now he's changed. Because I think in the very beginning when he was saving them, he's like, that's a good bull. I'll take that bull home. Boy, I breed some nice cattle. We're just going to sacrifice. I never planned on taking it home. Never planned on taking it home.
[29:22] Not one time did I ever plan on that. We're just going to sacrifice it. And Samuel says, it's better to obey than to sacrifice. I'm not that interested in your money, honey, in South America.
[29:36] You can drive down a road in Peru in my day, back in my day. Things are changing. It's getting much more secular, much more like here where God doesn't matter at all. But this false popular religion, they'll do wrong.
[29:50] And all they've got to do is run in and get absolved, and it's all okay. They just run in and say, hey, I've been fornicating, thought I'd come by and tell you. And he goes, well, say 10 Hail Marys, and you'll be fine. And so they run out and say, whew, Lord of God, I'm good for another round of sin.
[30:04] And then what they'll do when they've really done bad, they'll just build a church building. So one time I'm driving in to Hunter where my church is, and I notice there's a whole new building going up.
[30:16] And like the vilest group of people in town, these people that sell the Adikipa beer, the Adikipa beer, and they were building that for the church. You know what they was doing, getting brownie points.
[30:27] God, I'll build a building so I can send some more. That's what's going on in that verse. They can't commit sin and get away with it. Now let's go to the last thing. Jeremiah chapter 11, verse 18.
[30:39] What's going on with the preacher? Well, in chapter 11, verse 18, God said, Jeremiah, you dumb dumb, they're going to kill you. So you're kind of oblivious.
[30:51] You seem to think they like you, but they don't. So look at it. The Lord has given me knowledge, and I know it. Then thou showest me their doings. God showed me. God said, let me tell you what your plan is, buddy.
[31:03] They're going to take you out. In verse 20, Jeremiah wants to see God punish them. Jeremiah says, oh God, oh Lord of hosts, you do right.
[31:16] You check out our hearts. Let me see you wreak your vengeance on them. Because you know I'm on your side. I want to see you bring it on them.
[31:28] But God promised he'd take care of his man. The men hated Jeremiah, and they wanted him dead. God knows exactly what they're saying. Look at verse 21, if you would. Verse 21. Therefore, thus saith the Lord of the men of Anathoth, that seek thy life, saying, prophesy not in the name of the Lord.
[31:43] You keep preaching, and we'll kill you. You keep preaching, Mr. Jeremiah, and we will kill you. In verse 22, God said, I will punish them.
[31:56] I will punish them. Not only will I punish them, but their young men are going to get run through with a sword, and their children are going to go hungry and die from a famine. And I'll just tell you how mad I am.
[32:08] I ain't letting anybody off. This is really bad. Most of the time, God says, I'm going to kill like 90% of them because they're all doing wrong. But in this particular group that won't listen, and they've chosen demons over God, he says, taking them all out.
[32:22] Look at verse 23. And there shall be no remnant, no peace. You know, here's what a remnant is. If that's the whole piece of cloth, and that's what's left after I use it, that's the remnant.
[32:34] God said, nope, no remnant either. No remnant for them. For I will bring evil upon these men in the year of judgment. None of them will escape.
[32:46] No remnant. God is coming to judge. It would be God, not coincidence, that was going to bring the bad on them. The preacher could go out with confidence knowing this.
[32:58] God's going to take care of me. That's Jeremiah. He could go out with confidence knowing God was going to take care of him. The preacher could be confident that God cared about him, what was happening in his life. So just think with me about chapter 11.
[33:10] Chapter 11 was about, you need to obey God. You need to obey God. And God has made it clear. He's gone around and told them, obey God, obey God. You know, that's what we get tired of at church. I mean, we really do.
[33:20] Because when it boils down to it, you've got to get saved God's way. You've got to marry God's way. You've got to raise your kids God's way. You've got to handle your money God's way. It's like we come in here and we go, do we get to make any plans?
[33:32] And he said, no, I bought you with a price. You belong to me. I'll just tell you what to do. That's Bible. Can I get an amen there now? Come on. He said, I'll just tell you all what to do. Y'all just do it. It's your reasonable service.
[33:45] Just give your bodies to be a living sacrifice. And we're like, could you make us feel good today, God? And he's like, nah, I'm not working on that one today. Today, I'd like to talk about, if you don't obey me, I'm going to curse you.
[33:58] I'd just like to see somebody slip Jeremiah 11 to Joel and let him preach that one Sunday. That'd be an exciting Sunday. Huh? That's what we want. And they don't like Jeremiah.
[34:10] Because Jeremiah is not going to make people feel happy mood. Jeremiah is a man of God. So to you, all of you, I love you. But we are called to obey him.
[34:23] We're called, if we love him, we obey him. Which means, I'm not going to get another woman. I'm going to love my wife. That's what he taught me to do. I'm not going to mess with porn, because I'm going to honor my wife.
[34:37] That's what he told me to do. You say, do you really feel that way? Not so important how I feel. I am not. He never said, y'all feel like obeying me? He didn't say, I said before you blessings if you feel like obeying me.
[34:49] And cursings if you feel like, he said, you just decide, obey me. You know, I'm not going to be a drunkard. I'm not going to be a thief. I'm not going to be a liar. I'm not going to do those things because he told me not to. You say, well, now, brother, we're saved by grace.
[35:02] We're fine. And that's the truth. You know, if you're really born again, you'll go to heaven. You just might get there quicker if you don't know how to obey. Hmm? Because God could easily say to you, you know, I told you not to get drunk.
[35:17] And so now you're driving down the wrong side of 400 at 85 miles an hour the wrong way, drunk. And when that other car clips you and kills you, you brought it on yourself. I love you.
[35:28] I'll take you on to heaven. But you sure could have done something more valuable with your life than that. Dang bat. I set before you blessings and cursings. Thank you. Thank you.
[35:39] Thank you. Thank you.
[35:52] Have a great day. Okay.ką naar a Road tojam Look.