Jeremiah 37 | They Did Not Listen | 6.18.1997

be looking today at this particular chapter. I especially want to let you know that the Lord has placed on my heart to share a couple of things that that I ask you to think through and to pray with me as I look at these things because I think that um I think that what I have to share at least in this one portion for some people may be difficult to listen to may be difficult to hear. So even now you might be wanting to prepare your heart to receive what the Lord would have for you especially as we look at uh this chapter together today. Let's begin reading at verse one. I'll read verses 1-5 and we'll get into our study. Jeremiah chapter 37. I chose to entitle this particular installment of our study of the book of Jeremiah. They did not give heed. Beginning at verse one. Then King Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Kayiah the son of Jehoakim whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah. But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land gave heed to the words of the Lord which he spoke by the prophet Jeremiah. In Zedekiah the king sent Jerukal the son of Tmia and Zephaniah the son of Maasia the priest to the prophet Jeremiah saying pray now to the Lord our God for us. Now Jeremiah was coming and going among the people for they had not yet put him in prison. Then Pharaoh's army came up from Egypt and when the Calaldanss who were besieging Jerusalem heard news of them they departed from Jerusalem. Now, the events that we're about to look at here in chapter 37 are taking place during the reign of a king by the name of Zedekiah. Even as we just read, if you wanted to date these particular events in chapters 37 and 38, the dates are some 588 to 586 before Christ. And these are messages that are given during the siege and the capture of the city of Jerusalem. In verse one, when it speaks of King Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, and it says that he reigned instead of Kanayiah, the son of Jehookim, whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, made king in the land of Judah, we need to know that King Zedekiah was not the son of King Jehoakim, but was rather his brother and he was the uncle to the king who had been mentioned a moment before uh under the name of Kanaya. He was his uncle. Now, Kanaya also had another name. It was Jehoakin and he only reigned for a short time. When you study your Bible, you discover that he reigned some three months. That's found in 2 Kings in chapter 24 8 and 9. The scripture simply says Jehoakim was 18 years old when he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem some 3 months. And so Zedekiah was placed in position by King Nebuchadnezzar. And Zedekiah has been at this point influenced by the nation of Egypt. He had begun to believe that the Egyptians could save him from Babylon and he had made a treaty originally with Babylon but he had broken it. The Bible speaks a bit about this in 2 Kings for example in chapter 24 at verse 20. It says it was because of the Lord's anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah and in the end he thrust them from his presence. It says, "Now Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. And the prophet Ezekiel makes reference to this in chapter 17 of his book in verses 15 and 16. It's the Lord speaking." And the Lord says, "The king rebelled against him by sending his envoys to Egypt to get horses and a large army." Then the question is asked, "Will he succeed? Will he who does such things escape? Will he break the treaty and yet escape? As surely as I live, declares the Lord, he shall die in Babylon in the land of the king who put him on the throne, whose oath he despised and whose treaty he broke. And so, King Zedekiah had originally made an oath to the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, that he would remain loyal. But he broke his oath, went to um made an agreement with Egypt for horses and an army and began to trust in the arm of flesh, thinking that perhaps he would be able to escape the judgment that God had been declaring through this prophet Jeremiah. Notice what he says in verse two. It says, "Neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land gave heed to the words of the Lord which he spoke by the prophet Jeremiah." So this is the root of their problem. And I want to speak about this for just a moment. What was the root of the problem of Israel? What was the root of the problem with Zedekiah? It's given to us here in verse two. The root of the problem of the nation was not political. The root of the problem of the nation was spiritual. When it says, "Neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land gave heed to the words of the Lord which he spoke by the prophet Jeremiah." This gives us the root of the problem. The root of the problem in that nation is that they refused to hear what the Lord had to say. And in their constant refusal to hear what God's word had to say concerning his relationship with the nation and the things that he was planning to do. And even as we know as we've been studying through the book of Jeremiah, the Lord has even gone so far as to say to them, "Perhaps they'll repent. Perhaps I can withhold my hand of judgment if they'd only listen." And what you end up with is you end up with a nation that is being judged. A nation that has problems. But the problems are not just the political. The problem at its root in the nation of Israel is spiritual. It's a lack of obedience to what God has said. Now, I want to speak about that for just a moment because I believe that the root of the problem of the United States and I know that even as I say this, I know that people like myself who stand up in front of people and say the root of the problem of the nation is spiritual. Well, most of the time we're shouted down by the intelligencia of the nation. When I immediately say we have a real spiritual problem, there are people who will immediately say, if you're saying there's a religious solution to our problems, then what religion should we look to? I believe that we need to look at look to the God who is responsible for establishing this nation in the first place. And I believe with all of my heart with no reservation and no apology that Christianity is God's way for all men, not just for Americans and not just for a segment of the society. I believe that Jesus Christ is a savior of all men. Whether those men happen to live in a North American continent, in South America, in Australia, in Europe, it doesn't matter. Jesus Christ according to the word of God is the savior of all men. And God so loved the world, not just the city of Jerusalem, not just the region of Judea, not just the area of Samaria, but the uttermost parts of the earth. God loved all men. Now, this is biblical Christianity. We have many people today who would argue and say that this is nonsense and simplistic. But I absolutely believe that the root of our problems in the United States today are spiritual and not political. I believe that there are political solutions that people are seeking, educational solutions, financial solutions, but they will never ever remove the cancer by education or politics. It just doesn't happen. We have a problem in this nation. Even as this nation had a problem several hundreds of years ago and the problem is moral. The problem is spiritual. Homosexuality is being presented as a normal way of life. It is such an onslaught on everybody. Such a constant slam, such a constant move, such a constant argument. And it's been going on for years and years and years. And let's face it, people get tired of the argument and eventually yield to it. We have parades now in major cities of the United States like New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles where people come out of their closets and marched by the thousands down the street where 30 years ago that would have never been accepted. It is now and it's actually applauded and we have mayors of the cities joining in these things giving the city support. It's amazing to me. Just last week I had the opportunity to speak at a school just for a moment. Only spoke for a minute and a half. It was a new record in briefness for me. I had been asked to speak at a graduation. My daughter Anna graduated from the eighth grade into the ninth grade and Adair Satderfield who was the principal who's moving on now up to uh the reading area. Adair used to go to our fellowship for a number of years and he's known my children since they were very small. And Adair asked if I would come and speak. We had mixed signals to be honest with you. to the lady, one of the ladies who sets up the speaking and all who was involved in setting up and letting us know when to be. There was another member who at one time had been a member with us for 10 or 11 years. And she had said to me uh through Marie that I was supposed to speak at the actual commencement exercises. In reality, I was supposed to have shown up for an award ceremony somewhere around 8 or 8:30. So, I got there at 10:15. I was supposed to speak, I thought, around 10:30 and they squeezed me in. So I was able to not only speak to the children which I was going to speak to the graduating class but I also had a chance to speak to the hundreds of of parents who were there and so it was quite an honor and I shared a few things with them and I concluded my comments and it really was a brief amount of time because I I knew that I was only going to have a short period and I concluded my statements by encouraging the people to trust in the Lord with all of their hearts and to lean not unto their own understanding in all their ways to acknowledge him and he will direct your path. And when I shared that with the kids and I said, "I'm going to give you a few things that I want to encourage you in." And I encouraged them in a few things. And I said, "And and last but not least, and the most important of all, young ones, I encourage you to cultivate a faith in the Lord. Cultivate a faith in God." And I shared just briefly about that. But there was a lady who was from Orange County from the Mission VJO area and she turned and said to my wife, "He would never get away with saying anything about God in the school system that my children go to." The minute he quoted scripture, the microphone would have been turned off and he would have been pulled out. And that's true. That's true in a lot of areas. And and some of you know this. In a lot of areas, the church has been cowed into silence. and and the preachers in attempting to be politically correct won't even mention the name of the lord even in con commencement exercises even in balorat which are intended uh were originally intended to be a religious service of faith to the high schools it was a volunteer thing it wasn't even a mandatory thing but the baloria is a religious celebration that is part of the tradition of the United States and the graduation of its seniors from high school and yet we have today people who are being told you can't say these things. Few years ago, I spoke at the commencement exercise baloria rather balorate of Chino High School and they had told me I had been told you're not supposed to speak about God uh too much at a balora and so I I did speak about God because that's my responsibility. We're telling young people that faith in God is an option that you don't really need to exercise to be a good person. And I think that the fruit of this has been evidenced recently in the upsurge of incredible crimes. Three men just was it today or yesterday kidnapped a 14-year-old little girl. 14year-old little girl. That's my daughter's age. A little girl who's still really young enough if she would be honest with herself to play with dolls and raped her. 14 years old. We read of the seven-year-old baby who's being left completely without supervision while her father gamles and then everybody's blaming the casino. Where's dad? Where was dad? You know, no, it's the casino's fault. And you want to know something? This is so normal for us that people are missing the point. Recently, all of us have heard of this. A young lady went to her prom and gave birth in the bathroom and threw her baby, a six-PB 6 baby boy, into a trash bin. Next to the bloodstained stall in the restroom where she had given birth. She seemed to be enjoying herself, said a classmate about her postpartum dancing. Medical examiners have determined that the baby was alive during the birthing process, which occurred early in the prom. It was soon discovered by a maintenance worker who thought the trash bag was unusually heavy. Unsuccessful attempts were made to resuscitate them. This young lady's name is public. So, I'll stated who taught Miss Drexler to think or not to think in a way that caused her to regard her newborn baby as disposable trash. Many people and things, no doubt. She's grown up in a society that does not stress deferral of gratification, and it's not her fault that the baby arrived during the prom. She's come to age in a society where condom dispensing schools teach sex education in the modern manner. If she is like millions of other young adults, she has spent thousands of hours watching movies and television programs not designed to encourage delicacy of feelings or to suggest that sexuality has morally complex dimensions and serious consequences. If she's like millions of other young adults, she has pumped into her ears thousands of hours of the coarssening lyrics of popular music. And she certainly has grown up in a social atmosphere saturated with opinion leaders approbation of and collaboration with the political program of reducing abortion, the killing of something to a mere choice like choosing to smoke a cigarette only not nearly that serious. Think of that for just a moment and you'll agree with the writer George Will. We have people who are fighting Camel cigarettes and ads about cigarettes right now. I mean, people are fighting cigarette production, cigarette sales, and yet there's a chance you may die from smoking a cigarette. There's a 100% reality that you will die if you're aborted. But they're putting more emphasis on cigarette smoking than on the plight of the unborn. However, foremost among the moral tutors who prepared Ms. Drexler to act as she did is the Supreme Court. By pretending in Roie Wade not to know when life begins, the court encouraged looking away from the stark fact that abortion kills something. Ignoring elementary science, the court said preposterously that a fetus is potential life. Walker Perry, an MD as well as a novelist, wrote, "The onset of individual life is not a dogma of the church, but a fact of science. How much more convenient if we lived in the 13th century when no one knew anything about microbiology, and arguments about the onset of life were legitimate." George Will said, "The barbarism at the prom is being termed a tragedy, calling for compassion all around." This is where I I have to agree. He says, "No, an earthquake is a tragedy. This was an act of wickedness, a wicked choice, and a society incapable of anger about it is simply decadent." Perhaps the brevity of the life of Miss Drexler's son will accelerate the transformation of the nation's vague unrest into a vivid consciousness that today's abortion culture with its casual creation and destruction of life is evil. It's time somebody says that. The preachers need to be saying it. But I'm glad that a man like George Will has agreed and understands that it isn't just a choice. It's an evil act. It is evil. And a lot of people wonder what is evil. That is evil. It's evil. And we say you have to have compassion. Of course. Of course there needs to be a sense of sorrow on behalf of a young girl whose life has amounted to so little. And yet at the same time we need to call it what it is. It was an evil act and anybody who stands up and says that it is is going to be shouted down. People don't believe that. They don't want to hear that because we do have a culture that has become dense. We do have a culture that is not willing to call sin sin. We have a culture that is willing to argue in favor of the perpetrator rather than say now wait a minute. This must change. We have a culture that will not regard sin for being what it is. And the church is becoming vaguely silent about this. And I realize that numbers of people in this fellowship and others have had abortions. I wouldn't want to appear cruel as I make these statements. But the bottom line is there was a sorrow. A sorrow that led to repentance, of forgiveness, and a restoration that God offered. But the world will not offer that. The world will continue to convince young ladies and young men that those are simple choices that they make without even touching on the absolute fact that there are repercussions for every choice that we make. And indeed, you can make a choice to have something like that. But let's call it what it is. It is an evil choice. And you know what? This society that we live in needs God terribly. And we need to begin, I think, as a body, as people, as the church to recognize evil for what it is. Isaiah cried out and said, "Woe unto you who call evil good and good evil, who say that bitter is sweet and that the sweet is bitter, who have exchanged light for darkness and darkness for light." He's saying you have to watch out because you've begun to use arguments that have allowed the continuation of incredible sins to the point of God's judgment falling on the nation of Israel. And even so, the problem that was taking place here in the nation was not a political problem. Egypt could not come and save Israel. God had made a determination that he would judge it. And the only thing that would have saved Israel would have been a national repentance. The only thing that would have saved them from the judgment that God had intended to bring would have been a national repentance. The nation had to fall on its face. But as long as there were false prophets crying out peace, peace when there was no peace, the people refused to hear what God was saying to the prophet Jeremiah. Even then, as it is today, if a lot of people repeated the same thing, it was taken as common wisdom and actual fact. And so all you need to do if you want to convince somebody to do something is get several people to agree with you that the thing that you're convincing the other person to do is right. And before you know it, because of the multiplicity of counselors who are saying it's okay because we're a democratic nation, people begin to make moral choices based on the amount of people who say it's all right. There was a man by the name of Athanasius who existed in the history of the church in the 4th century. And Athanasius was a was an arch deacon. And during the time of his life, there was a group of people who were arising who were called aryans. There was an individual by the name of Aras who was beginning to declare that Jesus Christ was not God in the flesh, but rather that he was the creation of God, the first creation of God. He is the spiritual father of the Jehovah's Witness movement that we find in our society today. And Athanasius stood up in opposition against him. And the Eastern Church was being infiltrated with this heresy that Jesus was a creation and not God in the flesh. And finally, Athanasius had a group of these men who were in opposition to him. And they said to Athanasius, they said, "Athanasius, Athanasius, change your mind. Can't you see that the world is against you, Athanasius?" And Athanasius said, "It's not the world against Athanasius. It's Athanasius against the world." And there was a sense that he knew he knew what God had called him to, and he would remain faithful to that. He knew what God's word declared and he would remain faithful to that. Even if the entire mood, even if the entire world were in opposition to what God had stated was so he said, I would take my side with God. I really believe that we need to in the 20th century become aware of the fact there's an incredible evil that is constantly being pressed on us and we as a nation are not even seeing it. We're like that proverbial frog in the in the water in the pan that's being boiled to death. And as the water is slowly boiling around the frog, the frog never leaps out because he doesn't notice that the temperature in the water is rising to a boiling point and ultimately will die. And in many ways, I believe that America is that way. Sometimes I scratch my head. And I don't want to seem to be unkind in this, but I scratch my head and I wonder how we could have elected who we elect to political office knowing what we do. And yet we go ahead and we elect them anyway. It amazes me. We don't use the power of the mind. We certainly don't use our prayer to ask God, "What do you want to do?" So as we look at this passage here, what we're dealing with is a spiritual problem, not a political problem. Is a problem in this nation. Now God had said in 2 Chronicles 7:14, God had said, "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. If they repent, if they turn, if they repent and ask for forgiveness, God said, "I will forgive them." But they didn't and they wouldn't. And so judgment comes upon them. They are simply disobedient to God. Now notice with me in verse two, it says, "Neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land gave he." Notice his influence. It began with him, but he had his servants and it also influenced the people of the land. And none of those people were listening to what the Lord had to say. He had influenced his court and his people to rebellion. Now in 2 Coronicles chapter 36 in verses 14-16 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 father, 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. And there was no remedy. They had gotten to the point, in other words, where they were beyond repentance, and there was nothing to occur now except the judgment of God. Now, we know that those in authority have influence for good or for evil. And normally, it's not a neutral thing. You're either for good or for evil. And so, we have to be very careful. Be we the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have to be very careful that our influence that God gives to us be for good. In 1 Corinthians 10:32, Paul said, "Do not cause anyone to stumble." And in 2 Corinthians 6:3, he said, "We put no stumbling block in anyone's path so that our ministry will not be discredited." And so you and I, we have influence that God has called us to and a responsibility to wield that influence in a proper way. And so as a father, I have a responsibility of being a dad. As a husband, I have a responsibility of being a godly husband. A man who loves the Lord, who leads my family properly, to the best of my ability, obviously not perfectly. And all of us do because every one of us has some sphere of influence that we exercise whether it be with our friends, whether it be with our family, whatever it may be on the job. We all have a sphere of influence. There are people who look to us in one way or another. Especially when we declare our intention to follow the Lord. So people will look at you and they want to see the model of Christianity. They want to see how a Christian live and they will watch you. Perhaps you were a person who watched others when they declared themselves to be Christian. They will watch you and they want to see how a Christian acts on the job. They want to see how Christians act in the neighborhood. They want to see how Christians act in school. They want to see how Christians act when they're out with their friends. They want to see how Christians act even in even in u in restaurants. years ago, Maria and I I I performed a wedding and I I went out with Marie after the wedding and we were in a uh a restaurant up in Leverne and as we were there, there was a young couple sitting right next to us in a in a in a little table there, a young man and a young woman right next to us. And Marie and I were seated and as we're there, my wife's the kind of woman who will look at your plate to see what you're eating. And I don't know if there's anybody quite like that. I find myself burying my head in the menu when she does that. But Mariel Marie will just look and she'll see what you're eating. And then if she feels like it looks that good, she'll ask you, "What is it?" And and that's what she did. And we were seated there and she I said, "What do you think you want to eat?" And she goes, "I really don't know." And then this young couple had just been served just before us. And so I saw Marie's eyes turning over there looking at him and I go, "Oh no." And and and she did. She kept and then she she'll turn to me and she'll go, "Doesn't that look good?" And I It looks all right, you know. And she go, "No, no, it looks good. I wonder what it is." And then she'll look at and she'll say, "Excuse me." She goes, "What is that?" You know, "Oh, it's You're almost waiting for her to get up and can I taste it?" You know, I you're really close to that, you know. But she did it. She She turns to this young couple and she asks them, "What are they eating?" And then we ordered our food and then we we said our grace and we ate and everything. And the next day I was doing a church service and this young couple comes walking up to the front of the church after the service was over and walked up to me and said, "Do you remember us? We were in the uh restaurant yesterday and we were invited to come to this church today." And lo and behold, you know, it's the husband of the interesting wife. You really never know. You really never know. the little things that you do, the things that you say when you're at the table eating. There are people often times who are directly behind me and they've gotten up and turned around and said, "Hi, Pastor David." I mean, I've had that happen in so many places. You never know who is next to you. And this church is so large. I don't know everybody by face, but they know me and they'll walk up. I've had people in St. Louis Abyspo when I've been walking with Marie holding hands who have walked up and they've said, "Now, what are you doing here? Uh, we knew you were here." Just a few months ago, Marie and I went to St. Lab Bispo and she and I were walking on a Saturday. It was early. We smelled a bakery was open and and you know Rigo goes, "I wonder what that is." And off we went and we walked and and we're standing in front of a bakery. It was 8:30 in the morning and we're standing in front of a bakery and there's a couple in there who come walking out and and as we're standing there talking to each other, this young man and his wife walk up. Hi, Pastor David. My wife's been saying that she was expecting to see you here, but I never really thought we'd see you. How are you? You know, it happens all the time everywhere I go. I've been so many places and it's not just here. It's not just in Chino or Ontario, Montlair. It's in places like in San Diego. It'll be up in St. Lucis. I've had people approach me in New York who used to go to our church and they'll say, "Oh, I used to go to the church a few years ago and now I moved out. It's nice to see you." You never know. And there are people who will see you and when you're there and you're and you're saying grace and you've got your kids and and all of that, they see that as a witness. They see that as a witness. It's an obvious tangible influence that people see. Even the smallest thing like holding hands with your kids and and thanking God for your food is a tangible witness to a world that basically just throws elbows and digs in. And when they see you there, let's take a moment and thank Jesus for our food. Thank you, Father, for this food. Please bless it in your name. Amen. And your kids have their little hands folded and stuff and you're praying. There are people in that restaurant and some of them are watching that small significant witness of somebody who actually thanks God for the food they're about to eat. You'll be surprised at the amount of influence that you wield for good or for evil. And this king here, his influence was for evil. So he didn't receive and he wanted the rest of the nation to be just like he was. Now in verse three, Zedekiah the king sent Jehov the son of Shalemia and Zephaniah the son of Maaya the priest to the prophet Jeremiah saying pray now to the Lord our God for us. What he wants is he wants him to pray. But beyond that, Zedekiah wants him in essence, it's been said and I agree with this, in his prayer to support his action. In his prayer, he's wanting him to agree with what he's deciding to do. Now, as a minister, I've had people approach me before asking me to pray for them, but not for God's will, but for theirs. Pastor, will you pray that this guy will ask me for a date? You've got to be kidding. Why would I do that? Because I want him. And the Lord said that I could have anything I ask for please. In his prayer when he's saying pray for me, there is also this inference that his prayer would be one of support. But in verses four and five, it says, "Jeremiah was coming and going among the people, for they had not yet put him in prison." Now later on, he is imprisoned, but at this time, the Egyptians are coming against Babylon only to be defeated. And you'll see something said in just a moment about that. In verses 6-10, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, thus you shall say to the king of Judah, who sent you to me, sent you to me to inquire of me. Behold, Pharaoh's army which has come up to help you will return to Egypt to their own land. And the Calaldanss shall come back and fight against the city and take it and burn it with fire." And thus says the Lord, do not deceive yourselves, saying, "The Calaldanss will surely depart from us, for they will not depart. For though you had defeated the whole army of the Calaldanss who fight against you, there remained only wounded men among them, they would rise up, every man in his tent, and burn the city with fire." God saying, "There's no hope for you. Think that there is. I've determined judgment to come and it will come. There's no basis for any false hope. Jerusalem is going to fall no matter what the appearances may be. God's word is declared and that's what's going to take place in verses 11 and 12. It happened when the army of the Calaldanss left the siege of Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army that Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin to claim his property there among the people. And so his enemies are interpreting him leaving the city as a defection into the hands of the enemy when in reality he's actually gone just simply to take care of some family business. Now, why would they think he was defecting? Well, he had been preaching that the enemy was going to be victorious. And so, they thought that he was following his own message. Remember in chapter 21:es 8-10, remember how he had been preaching and he had said, "Furthermore, tell the people this is what the Lord says. Behold, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death. Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine, or plague. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Babylonians who are besieging, you will live. He will escape with his life. I have determined to do this city harm and not good, declares the Lord. It will be given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will destroy it with fire. And so, they thought that he was simply following his own words. They thought that he was defecting to the enemy. But the fact is, how could he be deserting? They'd already gone. So, this makes the charge that they're lodging against him vicious and nonsensical. It's the fact that they're simply guilty for judging according to appearances. In verse 13, when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard was there, whose name was Aria, the son of Shalemia, the son of Haniah. And he sees Jeremiah the prophet, saying, "You are defecting to the Calaldanss." And Jeremiah said, "It's false. I'm not defecting to the Calaldanss." But he did not listen to him. So Aria seized Jeremiah and brought him to the princes. So he's there at the gate of Benjamin and this captain of the guard takes him. Now this man who is mentioned here by name, Ira is really an unknown person. But his grandfather is mentioned and his name was Haniah. And most likely he's that false prophet that we've already looked at by the name of Haniah that we saw in chapter 28. In Jeremiah 28 15-17, you remember the story. It says, "The prophet Jeremiah said to Haniah the prophet," listen Haniah. The Lord has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies. Therefore, this is what the Lord says. I'm about to remove you from the face of the earth. This very year, you're going to die because you have preached rebellion against the Lord. In the seventh month of that same year, Haniah the prophet died. Now, could you picture Jeremiah giving that kind of prophecy on Christian TV today? Think about it for just a moment. Would he be asked back? Do you think that John the Baptist would be invited to speak on TV or to have a radio program? Think about it for a moment. Do you think he would? Or when Jesus in Matthew 23 gives his woes, calling the Pharisees a brood of vipers. When Jesus stood up and said, "You whitewashed tombs." He said, "You're beautiful on the outside, but on the inside you're filled with dead men's bones and all kind of uncleanness." Could you picture Jesus's message being televised today where people would begin to send money in to support this m ministry? I don't think so. or the many times that the Apostle Paul would speak from the Lord, the word of God, a word of correction, a word of righteousness. I don't believe that any of these prophets that we study, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, would have any TV time because the society we live in is like the society that they preach to. It's hard to truth. It doesn't want to hear it. And anybody who says anything that is contrary to what they want to hear is branded a fool, unloving, judgmental, harsh. And that's what we discovered to this day. It's a very difficult thing to be given the responsibility, speak the truth. And yet you have been given that responsibility, every one of us. And if you have a desire to be liked by men, you must have a very terrible, terrible time preaching the gospel. Because there's bad news before there's good news. And a lot of times we simply want to give what we call the good news. God loves you. Have a nice day. But the bad news is we're sinners. The bad news is is we're cut off from fellowship with God. The bad news is that because of that, we'll enter into an eternal fire and never have fellowship with God. Not only in this life, but in the life to come. One of the most famous sermons that this nation has ever had preached to it is a sermon that was given by a man by the name of Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards was the president of Princeton when Princeton at one time had Christian roots. and his message, sinners in the hands of an angry god. He went into a town that was absolutely opposed to the gospel. He was an evangelist and Jonathan Edwards had at one point decided, I don't even want to preach to these people. They're so hard to the gospel. I just But he was he was prevailed upon and ultimately he came up and this is in a time when the preachers would write out their messages. And I read the story of Jonathan Edwards when he came into the town to preach the message and all the rowdies were there to shout him down. And Jonathan Edwards came and there was a a post that he he he records that he kind of leaned against and he held his notes in his hands and without raising his voice in any kind of drama, without getting sweaty or or or anything like that, Jonathan Edwards simply read his message. And when he was halfway through the message, these people who had come to oppose him began to hold on to the pillars of the church. And some of them began to cry out that they could sense the hell's flames were upon them even then. And he just kept reading it. It's a wonderful thing to read. It's one of the most incredible stories of how God in a sovereign act through the preaching of his word. And he wasn't even yelling. He wasn't using illustrations. It was just a contemporary kind of preaching at that time the way they did. And as he read this to them, the people actually had such an incredible conviction that they were lost as he was reading the sinners in the hands of an angry god that the people began to repent. Before you know it, bars were closing and and prayer meetings were starting and the the city that he went to that was so hard had an incredible transformation. It's one of the most famous messages ever given in the history of the United States. And yet in Vista, in the school district a while back, young people in the schools were to read that that message. And then the teacher, an unbeliever, destroyed did her best to destroy everything that Jonathan Edwards had to say, mocking and making fun of what was called the Puritan faith in the United States as if it was a horrible evil. And that's the kind of society we live in today. When you stand up and you say God is a holy and a righteous God, people don't want to hear that. When you say that God has given his word and we need to change or else we're going to be estranged from him forever. People don't want to hear that. They want to hear that they can fornicate. They want to hear that they can go out and do their drugs. They want to hear that they can gossip. They want to hear that they can backbite. They want to hear that they can do all the sins that they're doing and yet still go to heaven. They want to hear that. And if you say anything that opposes that kind of mindset, then immediately you're some backwards cook. Why in the world would I want to hear what you have to say? And you want to know something, guys? Human nature being what it is hasn't changed. It hasn't changed. So, the message of the gospel is a powerful message because it divides our heart. It awakens us to who we are and what we need, which is forgiveness and a new life in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so they began to claim that he is defecting. But in reality, that wasn't the case at all. It's very, very possible that revenge was his motivation. In verses 14 and 15, when it says, "It's false. I'm not defecting to the Calaldanss." He didn't listen to him. So seized Jeremiah and brought him to the princes. Therefore, the princes were angry with Jeremiah, and they struck him and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe. for they had made that the prison. So he said, "It's it's false. I'm not defecting." But they refused to listen. They were bent on putting him in prison. And not only that, but they beaten they beat him. Now they'd beaten him before and they beat him again. And even as he's there in this prison, it says in verse 16, "When Jeremiah entered the dungeon in the south, Jeremiah had remained there many days. Then Zedekiah the king sent and took him out. The king asked him secretly in his house and said, "Is there any word from the Lord?" Jeremiah said, "Burn." No, he didn't say that. Jeremiah said, "There is." Then he said, "You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon." Moreover, Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, "What offense have I committed against you, against your servants, or against this people that you have put me in prison? Where now are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, "The king of Babylon will not come against you or against this land?" Therefore, please hear now, my lord, the king. Please, let my petition be accepted before you, and do not make me return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there." Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah to the court of the prison and that they should give him daily a piece of bread from the baker street until all the bread in the city was gone. And thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. So briefly as we conclude, I believe in a rightful way there's a legitimate question. Jeremiah says, "What have I done wrong? What's my charge? If you're calling me a false prophet, you need to remember the words that I spoke to you. They've come to pass. And that's the mark of a true prophet. Now, your false prophets were prophesying that you wouldn't have this kind of problem, and yet you have it. So, they are the ones who are most guilty because they're leading this nation into judgment. So, I want to know what your charge is against me. I want to know what you're saying I have done. What is my accusation? The real traitors, in other words, were the people who had led the nation into God's judgment. And these false prophets were free. But Jeremiah is there in a horrible prison. And so he asks them a question. He actually makes a request. He says, "Hear now, oh my lord, the king." He says, "Please don't make me go back to that prison because I may die there." And so what does he do? Well, the king gives him permission to go into the court of the prison, which is another way of saying the guard room. and he had a daily portion of bread to sustain him. As we close this study, a couple of thoughts. One, there will always be a price for telling the truth. So, don't be surprised when you begin to pay it. And you have to pray about whether you're willing to be separate unto the Lord and mocked and rejected. You have to pray about that. A lot of you have been. A lot of you have family that don't really want much to do with you because you're so weird. A lot of you have moms and dads who are really upset because you've gone off the deep end and brothers and sisters who think you're crazy because you love the Lord. Some of you have co-workers on the job who like to make fun of you. Whether it's on the construction site, they come and they take your radio and you're listening to Kwave or something and they change it and they put on whatever they want and then basically dare you to do something to them. or bosses who tell you don't bring that garbage or use some profanity about your faith in the Lord to you. A lot of you go through some pretty tough times. Some of you are students and your beliefs are being constantly questioned. So one thing that you'll find in school, you normally don't find teachers arguing about the faith of Islam or Hinduism. The normal attack will be on Christianity, mocking your faith in scripture. If you stand up and say something, an opinion, you can count on several people who will reject it. And and some of you are very timid in that and it bothers you and it can hurt you. And I have been there, too. You know, I'm 46. I'll be 47 years old pretty soon. I've been walking with the Lord for almost 27 years. But I can tell you when I first got saved and I went to college, there I am hardly knowing anything at all. Just I was once lost and now I'm found and there I am in college and I've got people who would mock me. And man, I'll tell you, you know, I gave him a reason to mock me because I really didn't know a whole lot at that time about what the word of God has to say. I just knew it was true. And the teacher would say, "I pity you guys who believe that that little black book has the answer to life." or somebody would say, "Can't you answer a question without a scripture from that old book?" And you get to the point where you want to just be quiet and not say anything. But kind of like Jeremiah, you make a decision not to speak, but the word of God begins to burn like a furnace, a flame in your heart, and you have to. And I've been there. And you want to know something? I'm still growing in this. But let me share something with you. Two things. One is if you preach the word of God, if you share that you really believe it, you will always have opposition and you may even be thrown into a kind of a dungeon spiritually where you feel like you're the only one there. But God will provide bread for you day by day. Day by day, he nourishes you. And I've discovered that it's been in the the lonely in the the times when I have felt that nobody understands. It's been in those times that God has spoken most forcefully to me. It's been in those times when I have really felt rejected by everybody and nobody understands that I've cried out to God and I've said, "God, nobody understands. I feel like I'm all alone. Lord, nobody understands." You know, some of the deepest wounds that you'll ever have will come from brothers and sisters than the Lord. Isn't that sad? But it's true. It's true. People who should know better, who will make you feel like you're some kind of weird fanatic for believing what you believe, maybe even tell you, "Why do you keep on hammering that person with the gospel? Why don't you just shut up for a while? You know, can't you see you're just pushing them away?" I had friends like that. And then I began to use my discernment and common sense and I said, "Now, wait a minute. I've never seen this person witness to one person, not one person. It's not as if they're out there giving the message and they have all this experience." There's a reluctance to preach on their part. And so, even the church will tell you to shut up sometimes when you want to talk about the love of the Lord. But you want to know something? The Lord provides for you a piece of bread every day. Jesus is that living bread, isn't he? And it's that fellowship time that you have with God as he provides for you in a city that's filled with famine. God provides his living bread. And it comes through the word and it comes through prayer. And thankfully it can come through the time of fellowship with those who are likeminded. And the Holy Spirit just works and feeds your your starving little spirit there. You're saying, "Oh Lord, I I need a word from you. I need I need to hear you. Lord, I feel Oh, God. I don't want to go back in that class. Last time I went there and I said what I said, I I felt so stupid, Lord. Lord says, "No, you need to go back in." Lord, I feel like I'm in the lion's den. Yes. And I was with Daniel when he was there. I'll be with you, too. You'll learn. You'll learn. You'll learn that sometimes you are opinionated and you ought to shut up. True. And you'll learn that sometimes you should have spoken when you remain silent. And you'll learn how to speak with with with authority and not arrogance. and and the people will see that love and you'll be surprised at the amount of people who will begin to gravitate towards you at the end of the class when you walk out and one or two will walk next to you and say you know what I agree with what you had to say didn't know how to put it into words but I agree with what you had to say or like I've had the chance to walk out with one of my professors and to talk to him and he's you know more than one professor but this one in particular walked out a Canadian professor walked out of class with him and he said you know what you had to say was very interesting and then you share with them as you walk them to his to his car and it takes you 15 or 20 minutes and one thing after another you're able to share and just pouring to this man because they know so much but they don't know God. Watch Jeopardy and you see that they know things about microbiology and nothing about Genesis. It's the last category these people will go into. I was sharing this the other day. Who's the strongest person in the Bible? Hercules? No. You know, God has a way. God has a way of sustaining us, guys. God has a way of giving to us the bread of life. And even as Jeremiah was there eating a little bit a day, God sustained him through this bread. And doesn't he sustain you, too? Absolutely. What a wonderful God we have. He sustains us with his bread. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, you have stated that you are the bread of life and the one who comes to you would never go hungry and he who believes in you would never thirst. And Lord, we would ask that even as we sometimes feel like we're in some kind of prison that you would continue to sustain us with the bread of life. You are the bread of life and your word is food indeed. So I would lift up all of us, Father, right now and do pray that we would just have a growing hunger for you. Lord, I lift up this nation. Our Father, without you, this nation is doomed for destruction. And though that's not a popular thing and many are looking for good in it, and there is so much, Lord, that is residual that is good. And yet we love this nation and only want to see it turn to you. Father, we lift up our nation. We lift up ourselves first. We lift up the pastors and the churches, Lord. For even as in the book of Revelation, when Jesus had a message to the church, he gave it first to the pastor. Lord, we would lift up the pastors of the churches of this nation and pray that they may be bold witnesses of your gospel. Lord, we ask that you would work in us. We have friends. We have family who really don't know you, Lord. Some who claim to who aren't following you. Lord, we lift them to you right now. Father, we lift up this young lady that I mentioned in in our message today. Father, in Jesus' name, I would pray that she would come to know you and the forgiveness and love that only you can give to someone who's done something. Lord, not just this bad, but her whole life needs to be touched by you, Lord. Just the culmination of a life without you. Father, we lift her and so many millions of little girls, Father, throughout this nation who have been sold alive. so many young men, Father, sold the alive. Oh God, we just pray that you would just touch our young ones, touch us. May we who are older, who've been there, Father, may we be evidences of your goodness and your grace. We lift up our children to you, those of us who are parents, Father, we ask that we might be God, Lord. We just lift all of this to you now, our schools. Thank you for the teachers who love you, Father. Thank you for the teachers who want to do well for the kids. Lord, I just ask that you'd be with them, too, and that you would somehow use their influence for good. We lift up the president of this nation, Father, and I pray that you would speak to his heart, to his family, that they might truly know Jesus. Father, that he might have a truly genuine born-again experience, though he claims to know you, Father. We do pray that your word would become so very important to him that he'd learn your policies over the policy of the world, Father. So we lift up to you, Lord, our our leadership. We lift up this city, Lord. We lift up ourselves. Work in us today. Draw us to yourself. And even as our eyes are closed and our heads are bowed, we're going to stand in just a moment. And as we stand, we're going to sing. But perhaps some in this room or in one of the overflows, perhaps some of you have been thinking, you know what? I'm not standing right with the Lord right now. Maybe we have some people who are sensing right now a conviction, a a sense of alienation, a sense of lostness. Well, that's because the Holy Spirit has spoken to you today and has said to you, you're not right with him. You may be religious, but you don't have peace with God. You may have gone through religious ritual, but you still don't know who Jesus is. You're not hungry for his word. And prayers are simply when you need something, but it's no fellowship. If you're here today and you need to get right with the Lord, I invite you to do that today. I invite you to confess your sin to him because that's what's separating you. The scripture says that our sin make a separation between us and our God. And so today, you could ask God to forgive you, to cleanse you, and to at that point establish relationship with him. There's no sin that God can't forgive. If you turn it over to him, he will wash you and cleanse you. The Bible says he is faithful and just to forgive us all of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So today you need to confess and ask for forgiveness.