Jeremiah 25:15-38 | This Wine Cup of Fury | 2.5.1997

[music] Jeremiah chapter 25, I'll read verses 15 through uh 419 and verses 15-1 17 and we'll get into our study. Jeremiah chapter 25 beginning at verse 15. For thus says the Lord God of Israel to me, take this wine cup of fury from my hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it and they will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them. Then I took the cup from the Lord's hand and made all the nations drink. to whom the Lord had sent me. Now Jeremiah has been prophesying as we know throughout this entire book but has been prophesying judgment against the nation of Israel and he has stated uh we have just read last time or together uh in verse 11 he had stated that the nation would serve Babylon the nation of Babylon for some 70 years and the reason that the uh nation of Israel would begin to serve Babylon these 70 years is because they had gone into idolatry. Throughout the book of Jeremiah, we see that Jeremiah is crying out against the idolatry of Israel. Not only had Israel gone into idolatry and exchanged their glory for that which was not a God, but they also had been ignoring the law of God in some very practical ways. And one of those ways is they had been excuse me [clears throat] ignoring God's commandment for a Sabbath rest, a yearly Sabbath rest. What it is is this. The land was to be tilled for six years and then they were to have a seventh year that the land was not tilled and they were giving that a year of Sabbath rest. God had commanded that in the book of Exodus in chapter 23 in verses 10 and 11. In that passage, it said, "For six years, you are to sew your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year, let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it. The wild animals may eat, but they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove." So God had given them a year that they were to rest their land. Six years they could work it, and on the seventh it was to rest. And they had been ignoring this. God had pronounced though in the law a curse on the nation if they refused to obey this particular law. In the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament again in chapter 26 27 the Lord had said if in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile towards me. And he goes on in verse 33 and says I will scatter you among the nations and draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste and your cities will lie in ruins. Then the land will enjoy its Sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies. Then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the Sabbaths you lived in it. Israel had been ignoring the Sabbath year rest. And so the Lord is going to forcefully enforce that obedience by taking them into Babylonian captivity. We know from studying the scriptures that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was one God used to enforce this particular uh 70-year rest. And in 2 Chronicles, if you're taking notes, it's found in 2 Chronicles 36. We see what took place in verses 14- 21. This is what we read. Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful, following all the detestable practices of the nations, and defiling the temple of the Lord, which he had consecrated in Jerusalem. The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God's messengers, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people, and there was no remedy. He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with a sword in the sanctuary, and spared neither young man nor young woman, old man or aged. God handed all of them over to Nebuchadnezzar. He carried to Babylon all the articles from the temple of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the Lord's temple, and the treasures of the king and his officials. They set fire to God's temple and broke down the wall of Jerusalem. They burned all the palaces and destroyed everything of value there. He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant who escaped from the sword and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power. The land enjoyed its Sabbath rest. All the time of its desolation, it rested until the 70 years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah. And so God's word when he gives it always has its purpose. it will always accomplish what he has set it forth to do. And when God made this promise of judgment on the nation of Israel, a promise that if you go into idolatry, a promise if you reject my laws, then I will deal with you with harshness, well, God brought that about in the time of Jeremiah. And that's what we've been looking at. Now, in spite of the fact that God brings judgment, yet in his judgment, in his wrath, he still has mercy. Because in Jeremiah in chapter 29:es 10-13, God gives a promise. Even though he's bringing this judgment, he brings a promise along with that. Because in Jeremiah 29:10, this is what the Lord says. When 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. And so the Lord says, "You will seek me and you will find me, but there's a prerequisite and that is that you seek for me with all of your heart, that you pursue me with everything that is within you." He said, "I will bring you back, but there needs to be something in your heart for me. There needs to be a drive in your heart to have a relationship with me, but I will bring you back and I will fulfill my plans for you." So, as we've been looking here in Jeremiah chapter 25 again, God had said when the 70 years are completed that he would punish the king of Babylon and that nation. And indeed, God did that. God punished the nation of Babylon for its own sins by bringing against that nation a man by the name of Cyrus. Cyrus was a king who was in league with another individual whose name was Duras. And Cyrus came and he and uh Das together went against the nation of Babylon and they destroyed it and they overwhelmed it. And that occurred uh some 70 years uh after God had initially stated you will be in exile for 70 years. The book of Daniel, if you're taking notes, you might want to you don't have to turn there, but it's found in Daniel chapter 9 gives us some real insight into this because God fulfilled his word during the day of Daniel. And Daniel records some things concerning that. So as we look at this passage here and we pick up at verse 15, the Lord is speaking to the nation and he says,"For thus says the Lord God of Israel to me, take this wine cup of fury from my hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it and they will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them." So the Lord speaking concerning this wine cup of fury. This cup that is spoken of here symbolizes the wrath of God and also is going to demonstrate the response of the people who are under his wrath. And it's to be administered to these people through a prophetic ministry of Jeremiah. And the wrath of God is going to be fulfilled through Nebuchadnezzar. And so Jeremiah is given the commission by God to go with a prophetic message to these nations and to cause them to drink of this wine of the cup of the fury of the Lord. The Bible throughout gives us instances of scripture that gives us an indication that this wine cup is a cup that symbolizes God's wrath. And let me read a couple scriptures to you just to demonstrate that. In Psalm 60:3, you have shown your people desperate times. You have given us wine that makes us stagger. Isaiah 51:17, "Awake, awake, rise up, oh Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord, the cup of his wrath, you have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger." That's a picture of the wrath of God. God is going to be bringing, in other words, such extreme judgment on the people that they're going to be like they're crazy. They're going to be staggering like they're drunk. They're going to be reeling under the judgment. That's the picture that he's given to us. So this cup is a is a symbol of his wrath. And something interesting about this is when you take this and you look at the life of Jesus Christ, you see that he also drank of a cup. And it's a cup that he even makes reference to when he's agonizing on one occasion. It's recorded in Mark 14:36. In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking here and he says, "Aba, Father, everything is possible for you. take this cup from me yet not what I will but what you will. When Jesus Christ was there in the garden and when he was coming to the knowledge of the fact that it was time for him to lay his life down on that cross for the sins of the world and he was praying and agonizing there in the garden. He went so far as to ask the father to take the cup away from him. That cup that he was drinking of is a cup of God's fury, his wrath, his indignation against sin. I want to show you something. Let's turn our Bibles to John's Gospel, chapter 3. John chapter 3. Let's begin reading at verse 35. We'll read verses 35 and 36. This is spoken by John the Baptist. We read, "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." The settled displeasure of God rests constantly on the one who has not the son of God. That's what John is saying literally. So that gives you insight into why your life before you committed yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, though it may have had many bright spots, was really basically miserable. It's because the settled displeasure of the Lord was upon you. And one of the things about the wrath of God that scripture seems to indicate to us is that it rests on you constantly before you commit yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, when Paul was writing to the Romans, he indicated to them that we actually were treasuring wrath against the day of judgment. In other words, every day that a person lives without the Lord Jesus Christ, every day that that person lives without the salvation to be experienced through Jesus Christ, every day of their life that they live without the grace of God in their life, every day is a compounded interest day of wrath. Every day, one day after another, you're compounding your interest until the day of judgment. Every day of your life, God's wrath is settled on you. But not only is it settled on you in a single event sense in terms like God is resting his displeasure on you, but it's actually accumulating, if you will, interest over time. That's one of the reasons why ministers of the gospel have such a sense of urgency. That's one of the reasons why ministers will proclaim, "You need the Lord today. It's not next week and it's not next month and it's not next year. It's not let me think about this for a little while longer. I'll come back to you some other time or I'll hear you again. Perhaps I'll be in this area again next year. And somebody comes to church maybe even tonight and they listen to the gospel and they've heard some of these things before and they begin to think more and more about it and they keep thinking more and more that maybe this is true. Maybe this is something for me. But sometimes they get turned off because it seems like that that guy's so pushy. He's just trying to force me to make up my mind. But they don't realize it's the urgency of the call because you're treasuring up wrath for yourself against the day of wrath. And if you leave this place tonight without commitment to Jesus Christ, who's to guarantee that you're ever going to have another opportunity to be saved? Who's the guarantee that you even make it home tonight? Nobody can guarantee that. So, that's a mighty big chance. And the older you are, the greater the chance is that this is your last day on the face of the earth because everybody has to eventually face that. That one day they're going to drive and never make it home or they're going to put their head on their pillow and never open their eyes again. That's just reality. That's just life in general. We know that. And so if you die without the grace of God, then you've treasured up wrath against the day of judgment. And the Lord is going to pour out on you what you deserve. But Jesus Christ took upon himself that which was for me the wrath of God. And when Jesus was there in the garden of Gethsemane and he had his prayer time with the Lord, he said, "Remove this cup from me, it's the cup of God's wrath and the cup of suffering. If there be any other way, yet there is no other way. The Lord had determined to pour out his indignation on his own son. Now for a good man, you might consider dying. For a righteous man, you might dare to die. But God demonstrated his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And when you look at the Apostle Paul, the way he describes mankind without the Lord Jesus Christ, you get an idea of what he's referring to. Let's look at Romans chapter 5 for just a minute. I want to show you something in the book of Romans chapter 5 to develop this a little bit further. Notice verse 6, Romans chapter 5. Paul writes, "When we were still without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly." Notice verse 8. God demonstrates his own love toward us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Notice verse 10. If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Let me show you four things in those three verses. Notice once again verse six. Notice how you're described. First, without strength. When he says, "When we were yet or still without strength," that without strength that he's referring to isn't simply physical strength. He's speaking about strength to save yourself. we were incapable or unable to save oursel. Therefore, the scripture says we were without strength. That simply means you were incapable of saving yourself. You had no way that you could do that. I was watching the news just tonight. They're having some kind of a warning right now for people with a certain kind of spa. Perhaps some of you have seen this. We've seen it in the news in the past where people have gone into a particular model spa and uh the suction is so great that it actually catches people's hair and it has actually drawn people's heads into the suction and has drowned people. They've died. And they were speaking concerning that tonight. It's that picture. You are without strength. You are helpless. You are incapable of saving yourself. And so the first thing he's saying is one we were without strength. Notice that. Secondly, in verse six, he describes us as being ungodly. So one, we are without strength. Secondly, he describes us as being ungodly or without God or any quality of godliness. Notice verse 8, we were still sinners. And then notice verse 10, we were enemies without strength. ungodly sinners and enemies. That's what the scripture describes us as being before we have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, it isn't with the preacher that a person has the argument when they say, "But what about my grandma who is such a good good old lady? God most certainly wouldn't send granny to hell." But the Bible teaches that Granon, is without strength, is ungodly, is a sinner, and is an enemy of God. That's what the Bible does teach. And and any who would differ, you need to look at these scriptures again and just investigate them with an open heart. That's exactly what Paul is saying here. We were without strength. He's saying we were ungodly. He's saying we're sinners and he is saying we're enemies. And that is the condition of the human being without Jesus Christ. And the Bible teaches that God is right now having a settled displeasure or wrath that rests on us and also that we are treasuring up wrath for ourselves. So Jesus Christ is in the garden. Let this cup pass from me is his prayer. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. When the Bible speaks back in Jeremiah concerning this wine cup of fury, it's a picture of the wrath of God that is about to be poured on the nation in God's judgment. And it cannot help but call to our mind the fact that our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, took this fury upon himself on our behalf that we would not suffer judgment. God poured his judgment out on his son in order to demonstrate to us his grace and his goodness towards us. What an incredible message this gospel is for us. A message of mercy and grace, a message of goodness and love, a message that God cares about us. And yet, lest we take his grace for granted, God gives us an indication that when we reject him, all we have left is his wrath and his fury. And seeing that during the time of Jeremiah, Judah, Israel had rejected the Lord, God is saying,"I am now about to pour out my wrath on the nations." So again, verse 15 and reading on, "For thus says the Lord God of Israel to me. Take this wine cup of fury from my hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it. They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them. Then I took the cup from the Lord's hand and made all the nations drink to whom the Lord had sent me. So when he says I took the cup from the Lord's hand and made all the nations to drink, as I mentioned a moment ago, the question would be how did he make all the nations to drink? And the answer would be by proclaiming God's judgment that is coming. That's how he made them to drink. by proclaiming the message of judgment to come. And as he begins to pronounce this judgment to come, I want you to notice with me that he begins to give us a list of places that are to be judged. He says in verse 18, "Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its king and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse as it is this day." So God's wrath is to be poured out. And he's, by the way, going to be using whom he has already referred to, and he did so in verse 9. He's going to be using whom he referred to as my servant Nebuchadnezzar. So, as God is pouring out his judgment, he's actually using Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, as his tool or his weapon of war. And so when it begins with Jerusalem and in Israel, it shows that the Lord begins to pour out his wrath first on those people who at one time had been called by his name. He begins from there and then he moves south because as you look, excuse me, as you look in this passage here, especially beginning with verse 19 and going down to verse uh 26, you see actually a list ge a geographical list. I'm not going to try and pronounce the names of some of these places. I might try a couple of them. I think that we have uh Chino and Ontario and Montclair in the list here. But you see that he begins south with Pharaoh who's king of Egypt. And the reason he begins with a Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is because the Pharaoh at that time, a Pharaoh by the name of Pharaoh Neco had initiated an alliance against Babylon. And so naturally, he's going to begin by pointing to to Pharaoh as being when Babylon began to u to come and destroy other countries. as he started with Egypt, but he goes on through and he shares a few things. For example, I'll read a little bit. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, verse 19, his servants, his princes, and all his people. Speaking of Pharaoh and his allies in verse 20, all the mixed multitude, when he speaks concerning the mixed multitude, there are Bible commentaries who are saying that this is basically some mercenaries who were part of the the force of Pharaoh. All the kings of the land of Oz, you guys remember Oz? Uh you see Oz in the book of Job chapter 1 verse one and um Oz is mentioned there very ancient land it says all the kings of the land of the Philistines Philistines namely uh Ashcolon Gaza Echrron and the remnant of Ashdod the reason it's called the remnant of Ashdod and these are the principal cities of the Philistines the Philistines if you were to look at a map we'll say of California um picture a map of California in your mind and you have uh northern central central southern California. Israel is very similar in its in its description as a as a country. So it's always very easy for us. So just picture just south of San Diego following the coast down. That's where the Philistines were. And these particular c uh cities are the major cities of Philistia. And so those are the the what they used to call the chief cities. Ashcolon, Gaza, Echron, and the remnant of Ashdot. The reason it's called the remnant of Ashdod is simply because Ashdod had already been destroyed and it was simply in ruins. And that's what he's referring to. He says in verse 21, Edom and Moab and the people of Ammon which are in what is called Trans Jordan or south of the Jordan River on the east side. All the kings of Ty, all the kings of Siden, and the kings of the coastlands which are across the sea, speaking Ty and Siden are up in the northern area in Phoenicia. Then you have some that are are really uh nobody really knows where these are. Don tema. Everybody knows where Buzz is. I give you the past Calvary Chapel Buzz, you know. It's filled with a bunch of old marijuana smokers and all the I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I always have a I always laugh at Oz and Buzz. And I'm not quite sure why, but I always do. Interesting names. All the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mixed multitude who dwell in the desert, which is speaking of the Bedawins. All the kings of Zim, all the kings of Elm and the kings of the Mes. And notice verse 26. all the kings of the north far and near one with another and all the kingdoms of the world which are on the face of the earth also. Now this is interesting here and I should have taken some notes and developed this for you because when he says also the king of shall drink after them. Sheesh is a code name and I should have written this down but it was confusing to me and I knew if it's confusing to me I wouldn't be able to explain it. But what it is, it has something to do with the Hebrew letters that formed the name Babylon. And what this was was a code. Very interestingly, he's bringing a word of judgment against Babylon, but he's doing it in a coded fashion. And the commentators don't really know exactly why he wouldn't have simply said, "Babylon will be judged." But perhaps it's the Holy Spirit simply telling them, "Don't be saying that because you'll get yourself in a little bit of trouble." Because when Nebuchadnezzar hears that they're going to be judged, who knows what Nebuchadnezzar might have done. It may have been one of the ways that the Lord just simply preserved Jeremiah. But the name is actually a coded name and it's the name of Babylon. So he's basically saying this. He's saying God is going to pour out his wrath and he's going to begin with Israel, but he's going to go right through and he's going to get all of these countries because Babylon became the greatest nation the face of the earth has ever seen. Babylon was, when you read the book of Daniel, described as being the head of gold, the most awesome, powerful nation that mankind has ever seen. And when you study the book of Daniel, you'll notice that there are basically four nations that are prophesied. And what happened is the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, had built an image. And in the image, he had basically it was to have he had had a dream basically. And then he later on built an image. But it was an image that had a head of gold. And he had a great trouble over this and didn't really understand what it was all about. And he had called the Calaldanss, all the magicians, soothsayers, sorcerers and all. And he said, "Come and tell me what my dream means." And they had said, "Well, let us know what your dream was and we'll tell you what it means." And Nebuchadnezzar did a wonderful thing. Nebuchadnezzar said, "No, you tell me what my dream was and then you interpret it for me." They said, "This has never been done. Nobody's ever asked a soothsayer or sorcerer or magician or anything calaldian to ever come up with the dream without knowing it. You need to first tell us and then then then and Nebuchadnezzar said, "I can see you're buying time." So if if you don't tell me, then I'm just going to burn you up. And so they got all freaked out. Now, wouldn't it be kind of cool if somebody called the psychic hotline? Anyway, that's something else. Dion Warwick would be all freaking out. But Daniel had been gifted by the Lord to be able to do just that. And he came to Nebuchadnezzar when he heard that Nebuchadnezzar was going to be slaughtering all of these people. And he said that he could do this thing for him. Now Daniel said, "I can't interpret dreams. I know nothing of it. But the God of heaven, well, he can do this and it's God who's going to give you the interpretation. So, he gives all glory to God and he describes this statue that he had dreamed about and head of gold and silver and etc etc in descending value. He goes from the top to the bottom and then he looks at Nebuchadnezzar and he says to Nebuchadnezzar, you king are the head of gold. And as you study the book of Daniel, you discover that Babylon was the greatest empire that the earth has ever seen. And the king Nebuchadnezzar was the most powerful monarch that the world has ever seen. Because he gives a description of the Babylonian, the Meo Persian, the Greek and then the Roman empires that descended in that order. And when he speaks concerning the head of gold and he pointed to Nebuchadnezzar and he said you are the head of gold. He was basically saying that your empire is the most powerful empire that this world will ever see ever see. And all the others though there were great empires all the others the meersians and the Greeks and the Roman had their glory and their grandeur and their power. No king was as powerful as Nebuchadnezzar. You see, Nebuchadnezzar, for example, ne Nebuchadnezzar could say to you, "You're a dead person, and there's nobody that could save you from his hand." Which is what gives us insight into why it was such a fantastic thing when the three uh young men refused to bow down to his image and worship. And when Nebuchadnezzar said, "Who is the God that can save you from my hand?" Nebuchadnezzar knew that he had final authority and nobody could convince him otherwise. And yet later on in the same book you see Daras or Darius. And Darius has a relationship now with the aged man Daniel. And Daniel has been basically put in a position of worshiping the Lord in an open fashion where um it had become illegal at that time. And so with the Meo Persian law, when Darius found that Daniel had broken the law by praying to his god and he was not to have done that, he tried from sun up to sun down to save Daniel and could not do it because the law of the Mes and Persians is binding. During the day of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar would have said, "Well, you know what? I was tricked. No problem. You're free." But according to the Meo Persian law, that wasn't possible. And so what you're looking at is you're looking at the Lord using a man by the name of Nebuchadnezzar as a tool to bring judgment. And it is the most powerful nation Babylon that the world has ever seen. And so when Jeremiah is proclaiming here that God is going to bring judgment on Israel, on Egypt, and goes through the various areas that the nation of Babylon came and conquered, he codes the name Babylon there and calls it Shashak. And that is a Babylonian name that is in reference to a goddess who is called the goddess Shack. Now judgment is going to come. Notice verse 27. Therefore, you shall say to them, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, drink, be drunk, vomit, because of the sword which I will send among you. And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, thus says the Lord of hosts, you shall certainly drink. For behold, I begin to bring calamity on the city which is called by my name, and should you be utterly unpunished, you shall not be unpunished. For I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord of hosts. Now, this is interesting. Let's turn to first Peter chapter 4. I want to develop something with you. 1 Peter chapter 4. I cannot tell you how many times over the years I've heard something like this said. Well, the Lord wouldn't get mad at me because he's so filled with grace. I have seen people who call I have to be careful because I don't mean to sound judgmental here. Just basically trying to illustrate something that I'm going to show you in scripture. But I've seen people who have claimed to love the Lord Jesus Christ, who have used God's grace to basically cover their sin so many times, it's not it's not uh unique anymore. Normally, it it's kind of like an excuse. Somebody will say, "Well, God knows that I'm just a human being and he doesn't expect me to be perfect." And and in a way, we would all identify and understand and say, "Well, of course not. God doesn't expect you to be perfect." And yet God never gives grace as an excuse to continue in sin. He He doesn't give us his grace as license or permission for me to remain in my sinful condition. And a person's unwillingness to repent and turn away from the sin very often is an indication of whether or not they even know the Lord at all. So that's one of the reasons why I give invitations for rededications because it's an inc it's an encouragement for people to make sure that they know where they stand with the Lord Jesus Christ because there are quite a number of people in my own personal experience and I think this is true who believe themselves to be Christians who have never really even embraced the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior who have intellectually believed that there is such a thing as a God and there is one called Jesus. There is a place called heaven. there is a place called hell and maybe even have embraced certain ideas and concepts like grace and forgiveness and mercy, love, truth and things like that, but who have never really ever embraced Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I have talked to a lot of people over the years who who actually have thought themselves to be saved when after listening for a while to Bible studies, I've actually answered invitations that I've given. And and I'll be honest with you, I've seen people who've been in this church that I've recognized by faith sometimes for more than a year. I've seen them out there sometimes for several Bible studies a week and then you give an invitation and they're standing up here sometimes weeping. And when this first began to happen, I began to be puzzled. I began to wonder what is going on here. And I figure if you can handle me for a year, you've got to be saved, you know? But then they come forward and they give their hearts to the Lord. I have spoken to I remember one occasion more than once but on one occasion comes to mind speaking to a young lady after one of the church services who came forward at the invitation. Actually that's not true. She came forward after church services were concluded and I was standing in the front. An invitation had been given and people had come forward. We had prayed with them. She and her husband came forward after the service and I was standing and uh just visiting and sharing and praying with people and all and she said could I speak to you for a moment and I said of course she said I have been raised in the church my father is a pastor and she named the church she said my father pastors such and so church she says I have been raised with Bible studies I've been raised with devotions I've been raised as a preachers's kid my whole life. And she said, "Today I realized that I don't have a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ." Now, when I heard that, first thing I think is my own children. Do my children know the Lord Jesus Christ? Just because their father does doesn't mean automatically that they do. And so that causes me to have a greater desire to to to evangelize my children into the kingdom of God. And it doesn't matter that they're in their late teens now. I still have that heart. But beyond that, it began to awaken me to the fact that there are quite a number of people who go to church who can talk Christianity. There are quite a number of people who may even buy books in Christian bookstores and bumper stickers for their cars and they wear their crosses and they know the Christian jargon. They can speak about the grace of God and the mercy of God and they can speak even sometimes with misty eyes and they don't have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the truth. It's a bottom line thing. And because it's true, we need to examine ourselves to see whether Christ really dwells within us, whether we really know Jesus Christ. It's the utmost important. Do I know him? Am I absolutely sure I have a relationship with him? Well, it is true that there are times that my emotions will betray my faith and I may not feel saved. I have to go beyond my emotions and I have to know what the scripture says. And have I embraced what God says? But it's all who call upon the name of the Lord, the scripture says, shall be saved. And if I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ died on the cross, was buried, and raised from the dead, and that God's Holy Spirit will indwell me as I confess this reality, if I believe that God has sent his son Jesus to die on the cross, not just for the sin of the whole world, but for my sin, if I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have embraced this as a reality for me and not just something I talk about or I can visit with other people about, if I absolutely am certain that this is true in my life, life, then I can have the peace of God which passes all understanding. But there are a number of people who think that yes, I'm saved, but it really doesn't matter too much about what I do. Well, I think that the Bible speaks otherwise. 1 Peter chapter 4, you're thinking, are you ever going to get there? Verses 17 and 18. For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God. And if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? The Lord, I want you to notice how this works. The Lord poured out his judgment on who first? On Israel first. When it starts speaking, as we're in Jeremiah, as it starts speaking concerning where the Lord began to pour out his wrath, where was it again? It was in Jerusalem. It was in Judah. He began there and then it went throughout the nations ultimating in Babylon. What does that mean? That means that the Lord will not allow those whom he loved to get away with sin. He doesn't Hey, just because you may not have been caught yet, doesn't mean he doesn't know. And as a father, may I say it this way? As a father, I know a whole lot more about what my kids are doing than they think I know. I was telling one of my kids the other day. My child decided that it would be better for them to hang around with a friend than to be in school. It wasn't It wasn't better for them, but they thought it would be. And uh I was speaking to them. They said, "How did you know I wasn't in school? How did you know?" And [clears throat] I told him, "I believe in God." Said, "I believe in God." And I said, "God loves you so much, he doesn't let you get away with anything." And he tells me, and it's true. And it's true. My daughter Karen told me years ago, "Dad, I really don't want to try. I don't try to do a lot of bad things cuz I always get caught. I always get caught." And I said, "Bless God. He is so good. He is so good. And you always will get caught. Keep that in mind." So, my kids can think that they're getting away with something and there have been times I have to confess that I've wked my eye to it. I've closed my eye to it and I've said to their mama, I'm going to let this one go by. I used to when they were very small, I thought trying to be the wise parent, I thought, well, I'll try and teach him grace. And so David would do something that deserved a spanking. And I would say to Dave, I should spank you because what you've done was wrong and you deserve a spanking, but I'm going to give you grace. It's undeserved favor, my son. You should be spanked, but I'm not going to spank you. I'm giving you grace. But it backfired because the next time he did something, HE'D BE SCREAMING, "GRACE, DAD. GRACE, GRACE." You know, grace, nothing. Judgment. Whack. You know, no more grace for you, son. We're in the Old Testament. The Lord loves you so much that he doesn't allow you to get away with what you think you're getting away with. Keep that in mind always. Because just because you haven't gotten spanked yet doesn't mean you're not going to. And the smartest thing in the world is to confess your sin and forsake it immediately because judgment begins in the house of God. He's purifying his bride. And as he purifies us through his chastenings, prepares us to meet him. And so it will always begin first with those whom he calls. And that's what you see back in Jeremiah. God is bringing judgment. And he's basically telling the nations, if I'm judging those who are dear to me, my own nation Israel, what makes you think that you're going to go without punishment? Therefore, verse 30, prophesy against them all these words, and say to them, the Lord will roar from on high and utter his voice from his holy habitation. He will roar mightily against his fold. He will give a shout as those who tread the grapes. When the people used to tread the grapes during the time of harvest, there was a rejoicing. There was a shout. But the Lord uses the term shout which the uh the nation of Israel was great greatly familiar with. And he uses it instead of a a shout of rejoicing but rather a shout of war. But it's the same kind of idea. He will um he will give a shout as those who tread the graves against all the inhabitants of the earth. Noise will come to the ends of the earth like a trampoline army is the picture here. For the Lord has a controversy with the nations. He will plead his case with all flesh. He will give those who are wicked to the sword, says the Lord. When he says he has a controversy, he's speaking about a legal matter. When it says he will plead his case, he's saying he's the prosecuting attorney as well as the judge. And so he's presenting his case against the nation. They've gone into idolatry and rejected his word. Thus says the Lord of hosts, "Behold, disaster shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the farthest parts of the of the earth." This is a picture of Nebuchadnezzar, who's going to be coming and sweeping in and bringing judgment. And at that day, the slain of the Lord shall be uh from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. They shall not be lamented or gathered or buried. They shall become refu on the ground. In other words, the slaughter will be so complete. Whail shepherds and cry. Roll about in the ashes you leaders of the flock. For the days of your slaughter and your dispersions are fulfilled. You shall fall like a precious vessel. And the shepherds will have no way to flee, nor the leaders of the flock to escape. A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and a wailing of the leaders to the flock will be heard. For the Lord has plundered their pasture, and the peaceful habitations are cut down because of the fierce anger of the Lord. He has left his lair like the lion. For the land is desolate because of the fierceness of the oppressor and because of his fierce anger. So the Lord is saying, I am bringing judgment against you. Yes, it may be Nebuchadnezzar who sweeps in, but it's really me who energizes and uses him as a tool in my hand of judgment. And he's simply saying this. You're going to weep and you're going to mourn. As a matter of fact, you'll cover yourself in ashes in mourning. But the hour of judgment has come and you will not escape. There's no way you can get away. What a warning that is to us today. What a warning that is to us. I find it interesting these last days. Exciting times to be alive, but very confusing. Some of you might agree with that more people were watching the results of the OJ trial than the state of the nation. And I saw portions of the coverage yesterday and I saw all the people standing outside waiting for the judgment to come. And I said to one of my children, "You know what those people need?" Because the crowds that had filled up around there, what, Dad? They need a life. They need something to occupy their time. I just pray that this nation can get on with its life. But I especially pray that as we the church begin to observe our time that we'll begin to realize the great emptiness in the hearts of the average American. The great emptiness in the hearts of the average person today. And I believe that what we're watching right now is the Lord's timetable slowly ticking towards the time when he finally pours out his wrath. It's coming upon us. It's going to come in our generation. Absolutely. As we watch nation after nation turn away from God and reject God. When you start considering that Europe used to be the place where Christianity was a hotbed of activity and missions and you begin to see one nation as one nation and another nation and another nation begin to turn away from the Lord Jesus Christ. When you begin to realize that England used to be the missionary sending nation of the world, that old statement that the sun never sets on the British Empire. Much of the reason that there was this kind of uh activity to go out into all the world was not simply to conquer and make money, though revisionist history would probably portray it most clearly that way, but because there was a great movement of a missionary spirit for people to go out and reach the the lost of the world and bring the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you see that and you see that and you see that at one time this nation was mored in the traditions of Christianity and we've rejected those things and we've said in essence that that that Christ is not important and God is not important and as I watch this nation as I watch it very closely and I watch the young people growing up today without a sense of who God is and what right is and what is wrong just another challenge a great challenge for us to go out and win the lost to go out and share the gospel, to live in a clear fashion the message of Jesus Christ, to learn to love and to care, to learn what reconciliation really is and how to really go about doing that, and to take the the message that like the Promise Keepers is giving right now on racial reconciliation and taking it out of stadiums and putting them in actual churches and in neighborhoods and really living those messages out because it's one thing to embrace somebody who's of another race in a promisekeeper kind of thing. It's another thing to work alongside of them to live in their neighborhood and to uh go to school with them and to actually have relationship with them that's much beyond we have a tendency of trying to minimize relationships to them. And that's only going to take place guys when the gospel of Jesus Christ really is lived out when lives really are transformed. We've got the greatest message in the world don't we message of love and mercy and goodness. We have a message of God demonstrating to us all that it is to be uh God of this universe and to love the people of this planet. We have a great message but we need to live it. We need to present it because even as God brought judgment against the nation of Israel, I believe that God is waiting to pour out his wrath on this earth. We know this to be true. The book of Revelation describes it perfectly and it's coming. So if judgment begins on the household of God, then maybe we ought to live lives that reflect a knowledge of the same God. For our God is not only a judge, but he's also merciful father. Let's take him and embrace him today as father. We don't want to meet him as judge.