Jeremiah 46 | Judgment On Egypt | 8.6.1997

[music] Let's begin reading in Jeremiah. I'll read to verse six. And we'll get into our study. And this is simply entitled, "A word against Egypt." Because the Lord God is giving word to Jeremiah, a word of judgment against the nation of Egypt that we'll be looking at in some detail tonight. Jeremiah chapter 46. The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the nations against Egypt concerning the army of Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt which was by the river Euphrates and Caramish and which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoakim the son of Josiah king of Judah. Order the buckler and shield and draw near to battle. Harness the horses and mount up you horsemen. Stand forth with your helmets. Polish the spears. Put on the armor. Why have I seen them dismayed and turned back? Their mighty ones are beaten down. They have speedily fled and did not look back. For fear was all around, says the Lord. Do not let the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape. they will stumble and fall toward the north by the river Euphrates. Now, as we get into this, let me give you a little bit of a background in order for us to be able to get a better understanding of what Jeremiah is prophesying at this point. The following chapters from chapter 46 to the conclusion of chapter 51 are a collection of prophecies against 10 nations. Jeremiah will prophesy, as we see here in chapter 46, against Egypt. But he'll also be prophesying, and we'll see this as we go through our study, against Felistia and Moab, against Ammon and Edom, against Damascus, which represents the nation of Syria, against Hazar, Alam, and finally against Babylon. Now, these prophecies that he is prophesying against these foreign nations actually follow the commission that God has given to him. Remember all the way back in chapter 1 how the Lord had called him and as the Lord had called him in found in chapter 1:es 4 and 5 how originally in the initial call of Jeremiah we read in Jeremiah 1:4 the word of the Lord came to me saying before I formed you in the womb I knew you before you were born I set you apart and God commissioned him in this way and he said and I appointed you as a prophet to the nations and so as we get into chapters 46-51, Jeremiah is prophesying against the nations. Now, it would seem apparent as we go through these several chapters and as we come to the conclusion of our study of Jeremiah that these prophecies that we're looking at actually came at different times. They were collected though under a single theme. And the single theme of these prophecies from chapter 46 to 51 is the theme of judgment. That's what we're going to be seeing as he is prophesying against these 10 nations that there is judgment. And as we look at it, the judgment is going to begin from east and go to the west, Egypt to Babylon. Now, why are these prophecies so important? Why is it important for God to include these prophecies in the book of Jeremiah? Well, I believe that as we study these particular prophecies and and prophecy of judgment in general, there are certain things that we need to learn about God, the God that we serve. See, one of the things that I'm discovering about this generation, one of the things that I'm discovering about the times that we live in, is that God has got to be defined over and over again for people. In other words, it's no longer like it was even 30 or 40 years ago. The nation of the United States even 40 years ago had a common sentiment and that was that there was such a thing as a Christianity that had an influence in a nation and at that time say 40 years ago if you were old enough to remember that if you were even alive then 40 years ago for those of you who weren't and let me give you brief history 40 years ago if you said to me Christianity I would think well that's basically the religion of most of the people I No, if you use the word God, I would not think of Allah. If you said anything about religion, I normally would think in terms of the Christian religion. So, if you approached me and you spoke to me and said, "The Bible is from God," I would say, "Yes." And I would even know kind of basically what God you're referring to. You're speaking of the God of the Bible, the Christian religion worships. That's not the same anymore. Today, if you use the word God, you actually have to define which God you're referring to because there are various people who have come into the United States and have brought the variety of religions that they have learned in their homelands. And so, when you speak about God, we're not speaking about Allah. When you speak about God, you're speaking about the God of the Bible. When you speak about God, you speak about a God who is revealed clearly in scripture. Now, the problem is is a lot of people are worshiping gods after their own imagination and their own liking. And that's one of the reasons why when you speak to somebody about judgment and and actually say, "Hey, the Bible says there's a place of judgment," people have a real problem with that today because they'll say things like this. They'll say, "The God I worship would never judge people. The God I worship is a loving God." And and and you begin to think within yourself, are we following that through to its logical conclusion? When you say God is a loving God, what does that mean? Somebody can say I'm a loving parent. But is it a loving parent who does not discipline his child? Is that love or is that neglect? A loving father and a loving mother will neglect will if they neglect discipline are actually rejecting their child, not loving their child. They're actually abusing their child and not helping their child. And why would I say that? Well, if somebody's four or five years old and they get away with murder in the house and you send them off to school, they're going to have a lot of trouble on that schoolyard the first time they try and get away with the things that they're used to getting away with at home. If there's no discipline there, there's going to be a bigger schoolyard bully kind of person who's going to come and going to take care of business with that little kid there. And then you're going to think, "Oh, that schoolyard bully is is so mean and rotten. Why didn't their parents discipline them?" And the fact of the matter is is they were probably raising the kid very similar to the other parent who was neglecting the discipline of their own. It just so happens the law of the jungle is out there on the schoolyard and the bigger ones usually survive. You raise your child and you say to the child, "Why are you hitting that small child? What's the child going to tell you?" Well, because if it was a big child, I wouldn't be so stupid as to hit it. I hit the small ones because I can get away with it. If I had a big one, they might hit me back. That's the law of the jungle. And what we're learning today, what kids are being raised with today through the neglect of discipline in the name of love is they're learning that they can basically do whatever they want whenever they want. And there's very little that anybody's going to do about it. We take that kind of thought and we project that on God in the Bible and before you know it, you've got a God who never would judge. But does the Bible contain a God that does not judge? And the answer to that question is no. The Bible reveals a God who is love, but he is also just. And as we look at this passage here, we're going to be seeing some things about the Lord. We're going to be seeing that God is revealed to us in a variety of ways. Let me give to you four things that we'll see even as we develop a foundation or about to move into these prophecies. But let me give you four things about these prophecies and why they're so important and what they reveal about God. Four basic things. The first thing that will be seen in this is that God is the king over the entire earth. He's not a tribal god. Ancient pagans had tribal gods. Their god was the god of their country. The god of the bible is declared throughout scripture as being the god of the whole earth. Psalm 24, for example, verse one, the psalmist said, "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. the world and all who live in it. He's not saying I'm only the God of Israel. He's saying I'm the God of the entire earth over all the people. In the book of Daniel in chapter 4:35, we read all the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him, "What have you done?" And so the Bible says to us first that God is the sovereign king, the Lord of the universe. Not simply the God of Israel, but the God of the world. It's the first thing we see as he brings judgment against these nations. The second thing we see is that the God of the Bible is holy and the God of the Bible is righteous. And he will always operate consistently with these attributes. Isaiah 6:3 says this. When the saraphim were speaking to one another, Isaiah said they were calling to one another and they said this, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory." And so our God is holy and righteous. In the song of Moses found in Exodus 15:11, the question is asked in song form, "Who is like unto you, oh Lord, among the gods? Who is like you? Glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" And so the God of the Bible as we see the scriptures, one is the sovereign king over the earth and two he is holy and he is righteous. Psalm 47:8 says God reigns over the heathen. God sits upon the throne of his holiness. A third thing that will be seen as we go through these prophecies is that God judges but God is not vindictive. He's not a petty God. His desire is for those he is judging to repent. Ezekiel 33 11, say unto them, as surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. And he goes on to say, turn, turn from your evil ways. Why will you die, oh house of Israel? And so the God of the Bible is a just God. is not vindictive or petty but actually cries out for people even in his judgment for them to turn from their sin and turn to him. And then fourthly, God's judgment is fair. He judges Israel and he also judges the nations. In 1 Peter 1:17, the Apostle Peter said, "If you call on the Father, who without respect of persons judges according to every man's work, past the time of your sojouring here in fear, God is a righteous judge and with no respect for persons." So, as we get into this passage here, as we begin to look at Jeremiah chapter 46, we're going to see God bringing judgment, and he's pronouncing judgment, and he'll be continuing to do so over 10 nations beginning in chapter 46. And then the judgments of he declare, his declared judgments will conclude with the last verse of chapter 51. But let's look at the judgment against Egypt. So, he begins here and he says this once again, beginning at verse one. The word of the Lord, which came to Jeremiah the prophet, against the nations, against Egypt, concerning the army of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates and Caramish, which was uh which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, defeated in the fourth year of Jehoakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah. So he begins concerning the army of Pharaoh Neco. This particular pharaoh that he's referring to is a pharaoh that ruled Egypt from some 609 before Christ to 594. And according to 2 Kings 23 29, he is a pharaoh that slew one of the kings of Judah by the name of Josiah. Now this pharaoh was defeated by Babylon in 605 at Caramish. And Caramish was what would be called a key city on the Euphrates River. It was a key city for Syria and it protected the passage on the Euphrates River. And in this particular battle, the military ambitions of Egypt were stopped and the ambitions of the Pharaoh ended. Nebuchadnezzar began to pursue, as a matter of fact, after defeating him there at the battle of Caramish, he began to pursue him. And as he was pursuing him, the only thing that kept him from going in and just tearing up Egypt was the fact that Nebuchadnezzar's father, who was the king of Babylon at that time, Nebuchadnezzar being a general in Babylon's army, his name was Nablasser, Nablasser died. And when his father Nablasser died, news arrives to Nebuchadnezzar. And as he was chasing after Pharaoh going into Egypt, he turns around 605 and he returns to Babylon. And secular history records that's when he was crowned as the king of Babylon. And so Pharaoh, who was such a mighty and powerful king, as a matter of fact, who had aspirations for world domination, was defeated at the battle of Caramish. And so what the Lord is doing here is actually having a song of taunting, a song of ridicule. But the Lord is doing is he's mocking Egypt in a song. And as he does so, he's basically telling them what happened. You were so big and you were so bad and you were going to go and you were going to take over the world and all of this. What happened? And it's actually a song that's uh pointing that out. Notice what he says beginning in verse three. Order the buckler and the shield. Draw near to battle. Harness the horses and mount up you horsemen. Stand forth with your helmets. Polish the spears. Put on the armor. Why have I seen them dismayed and turned back? Their mighty ones are beaten down. They have speedily fled. They didn't look back. For fear was all around, says the Lord. Do not let the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape. They will stumble and fall toward the north by the river Euphrates. So the Lord begins to sing with sarcasm towards them. And Jeremiah is describing the Egyptian preparation for battle, he describes their march to the battle and then their defeat. Now when he speaks for example of the buckler and the shield, this is a picture of a a small shield. The buckler was a small shield. And when it says buckler and shield, the small shield was used for those who were lightly armored and the other shield for those who were heavily armored. And it's just a picture of the troops and their preparation. And he's saying get ready to fight. When he says in verse four, harness the horses, you need to understand that horses during this time were like our tanks. You know, chariots and horses were very important in battle. They gave them tremendous advantage. So, he's speaking about them getting ready and preparing themselves with military strength. And yet, as they go out there and he says, "You've got your your helmets on, your spears are polished, you've got your armor." He says in verse 5, "But I I see that you're dismayed and turned back. Their mighty ones are beaten down. They have speedily fled." What is he saying there? Well, what he is saying there basically and I want to develop this with you for just a moment and I was thinking about this in preparation today and I thought how many times you can multiply this through scripture. What he's basically saying is no matter how this army prepared itself didn't have a chance. The Lord is saying I put a fear into your heart and if a warrior has fear in their heart they're as good as defeated. They're as good as defeated. Because if you went into battle thinking you're going to lose, you might as well not even go in in the first place because you're doomed. And if you lose courage and if you lose heart in a battle, then victory is almost completely insured for your opponent. That's just the way it is. For those of you who watch sporting events, and I know you ladies don't like boxing, so I'll speak to the men for a moment. Some of you might. Marie's always saying, "What a brutal that you call that a sport? You call that a sport?" Yeah, as long as it's not me in the ring and as long as it's not my ear. Stay away from my ear. How many times, you know, my dad when I was growing up, my dad watched the the fights. I had an uncle who was a boxer and you know I guess I just grew up seeing the fights on TV and all of that. And I've been watching these things most of my life, sporting events, boxing matches and all. One of the things I've noticed, it's really interesting, is a lot of times when the two opposing fighters are looking at one another just before they touch gloves and they go out and start the fight, you watch them. And when you start seeing fear in the eye of one of those fighters, it's almost he's almost as good as dead. I think that's one of the things that Mike Tyson has brought into the ring is such an incredible ring presence and intimidation that a lot of the fighters won't even look at him. They don't even want they might as well go and lay down on their gloves and count to 10 and go home and count their money. Because when these fellas walk in the ring, the intimidating glare and the posturing and all that's going on in that ring and you see these guys staring at one another, when you start seeing one fighter looking at his gloves or looking at his feet or looking past that guy or getting a worried look in his face, then that's part of the strategy of the opposing fighter. What he wants to do is he wants to take the heart out of his opponent. And if he can intimidate him before the bell even rings, he's won the fight. And that's how it works. Because if the person is not afraid of that guy, then he's a dangerous opponent. That was the charm of a Holyfield the first time they fought and that was the charm of Holyfield the second time. He said, "I'm not afraid of this guy. Everybody else is. I'm not." He walked into the ring with a confidence. Now, he was saying things like, "My God will give me victory. I'm not sure that God is a boxing fan or not. I I don't think so. But I do know that when he stepped in, he had a confidence that was beyond just his own physical abilities. But he actually was fighting with a faithfulness of heart also. And it's very difficult to beat a or defeat an opponent who has a heart of a tiger. It's very difficult. It's very difficult. And so the Lord is speaking here about an army. And now as you look at this, and you know what happens, guys? Sometimes we read our Bibles and we look at this and we're missing the point that the Lord is making. And that's why I'm making this big deal out of this. When you look at it and he speaks about the buckler and the shield and the horses, when he speaks about battle lines and he speaks about helmet, spears, and armor, he's speaking about people who are trained professional military men. These are veterans. These are people who have probably put on their armor hundreds of times before, gone out and fought, and they're part of the greatest army that the world had seen, the Egyptian army. This is an army that's used to winning. And yet the Lord is saying, "Prepare yourself in the way that you normally do. Get everything prepared. Polish your spears, put on your helmet, grab your armor, get ready. You've got light and you've got heavy uh, you know, uh, infantry. Go on out and prepare yourself." But the bottom line is, why are you running? And the reason that they're running is because as much as they prepared themselves, the Lord is involved in this battle. And that's the point he's making. I'm involved in this battle and I'm going to put something inside of you called fear and you're going to turn and you're going to run away from that battle. You remember a man by the name of Gideon? Gideon lived in a time when there weren't any kings. There were only judges. And Gideon was a man who was threshing his wheat in a threshing for hiding from the enemies who had been overrunning the land. And while he was there hiding and threshing out his wheat because he was afraid that the enemy would come because they would come seasonally and take all of all of the food. He was there hiding and he was threshing. And as he was threshing, the angel of the Lord appeared to him and the angel of the Lord speaks to Gideon and says, "Hail, thou mighty man of valor. the Lord is with you. Now, every time when I read that and I think about it, I said, "Now, wait a minute. Now, if he was standing there, you know, ready for a spoiling for a fight or something and I'd say, "This guy looks like a mighty man of Ella, he wasn't doing that. He was hiding." And the Bible says he was hiding for fear of his opponents. And yet, when the Bible says that this angel of the Lord approaches him and speaks to him, the Lord says, "Hail, thou mighty man of valor." And I think to myself, "No, wait a minute. What does that mean?" And then you begin to think about it and you think, how many times did does the Lord say something to somebody that doesn't seem to fit at that moment when he looks at Simon, a man who seems to vacasillate, a man who's who only uh, you know, he takes his foot out of his mouth long enough to put the other foot back in it. He's a man who's very impetuous. You study his life in scripture and you see that he's constantly saying something that's really inappropriate. And yet the Lord says, "Your name may be Simon and you're the son of Jonah, but your name shall be Cphus. You shall be a rock. You shall be a stone." [snorts] Or you see how the Lord calls the apostle Paul. What was Paul's name before? It was Saul. And what does Saul mean? Saul means great one. What does Paul mean? Paul means small one. Why? Because in my weakness then I am made strong. And the Lord has a way. And I encourage you go through and see how the Lord names people in scripture. So very often he saw something that he was going to do in these people's lives and he calls them and he says, "You know what? Your daddy called you Simon, but I'm going to call you Peter because you're going to become a rock for me." And you see this through scripture where the Lord does this. And so there he is. Hail thou mighty man of valor. The Lord is with you. Well, if the Lord's with me, Gideon's immediate reply is, "What about all the signs and the wonders, the miracles that our fathers have told us generationally that the Lord had done? What happened?" Well, when you study the book of Judges, you find that the nation had gone into a cycle of backsliding and that the Lord would have to bring judgment against him and constantly was doing so. And then he would raise up a judge. To make a very long story short, the Lord finally says, "I'm going to use you to deliver the nation." And so, I've got a plan for you, and this is what I want you to do. I want you to call the men of Israel together and garner an army. And so, he does. And 32,000 men show up. And there are 32,000 military men. And the Lord says, "Okay, this is what we're going to do. Just say to them, any of you have any fear in your heart? You can go home." So he walks up. He says, 'If you're afraid, you can go home. 22,000 leave. Thanks a lot, Gideon. See you later, man. You know, we'll be praying for you. And off they go. And then the Lord says, "There are too many. [clears throat] There are 10,000 left." And he said, "And they're going to brag that it was the strength of their own hand that saved them." He says, "So I've got a test." And they took him to the spring and they said, "Call it now Gideon spring." And they took him to the spring and they said, "I want them to drink those who uh kneel down and drink and those who lap like dogs and separate the ones who lap the water like a dog for me and the ones who uh bend down, kneel down and drink. Um, send them home." He ends up with 300 men. Now he's saying, "Oh man, what can I do? I had 32,000. They're all gone. I've got these 300 men." So the Lord says, "Well, we've got a plan here, and this is what we're going to do." He says, 'I want you to have a pitcher and I want you to have a torch and I want you to have a trumpet and this is going to be your military weaponry. He says, ' But I know that you're a bit afraid. He says, "So this is what you can do. Go on down, take one of your men with you and listen to the conversations that are taking place in the camp down there." And so Gideon and one of his men go on down and they're hiding there in the darkness and they overhear a conversation between two men. And one man says to the other, "I had a dream about barley bread rolling down a hill and smashing into the camp." And the other guy says, "Oh no, this is nothing but but but Gideon. This is this is a dream about Gideon. Oh, we're doomed for sure." Now, when he hears that, he goes, "All right, you know, the Lord has given to us victory." He goes back and he says, "Okay, this is what we'll do. Let's break up into three sections of 100, and I want you to space yourself. I want you to have torches underneath the uh the pot and I want you to have a trumpet. And he said, "And at the right moment, what we're going to do is we're going to break the uh the pot and the torch will blare forth and we'll blow the trumpets and we'll yell out the sword of the Lord and Gideon." And so that's exactly what they do. They surround they break them into sections there and they surround these multiple thousands of Midianites and various other soldiers. And right when the camp is changing guard and there's a lot of confusion right at that point where people are waking up and starting to take their post that's when he says now and they break the pots the light shines forth they blow the horns the sword of the Lord and Gideon and the Lord put puts fear in the hearts of these enemy soldiers and they thinking that they're being swarmed by these Jewish uh uh green berets you know they begin to swing wildly with their swords in fear and they kill themselves. You can multiply those stories in scripture over and over again where the Lord does the fighting and the people don't have to do anything except simply obey. And it's the Lord who put the fear in the heart of the people in the first place. And so when the Lord is speaking here back in Jeremiah 46 and he's speaking about the fear that they have all around, it's because the Lord has placed a fear in them. The Lord has placed a fear in them and they are so afraid that they end up running. When he says in verses 7-9, who is this coming up like a flood? Whose waters move like the rivers? Egypt rises up like a flood and its waters move like the rivers. And he says, I will go up and cover the earth. I will destroy the city and its inhabitants. Well, come up, O horses, and rage, O chariots. Let the mighty men come forth, the Ethiopians, the Libyans who handle the shield, and the Lydians who handle and bend the bow. So when he says in verses 7-9, who is this coming up like a flood whose waters move like the rivers? Egypt had boasted that they were going to conquer the world. But instead of conquering the world, uh Egypt flees and she flees in a humiliated way. Now notice he speaks about mercenary soldiers. He speaks about those from Ethiopia and Libya and Lydia. These are all mercenary soldiers. In verse 10, he says, "For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance that he may avenge himself." The scripture says, "That he may avenge himself on his adversaries. The sword shall devour. It shall be satiated and made drunk with their blood. For the Lord God of hosts has a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates." And so he says, "It's time that I will deal with this nation. And it's now my opportunity to deal with justice. And the Lord deals with justice against Egypt. And Egypt is defeated because it's the will of the Lord. In verses 11 and 12, go up to Gilead and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt. In vain you will use many medicines. You shall not be cured. The nations have heard of your shame. Your cry has filled the land. For the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty. They both have fallen together. So go up. when he says go up to Gilead, Gilead is known for what you would call its healing balm or its healing medicines. And the point the Lord is making obviously is there's no healing for Egypt. You can go and you can try and find some healing, but you will have none. In verses 13-1 17, the word that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, would come and strike the land of Egypt. Declare in Egypt and proclaim in Mgdal. Proclaim in Noff and in topness. Say, stand fast and prepare yourselves for the sword devours all around you. Why are your valiant men swept away? They did not stand because the Lord drove them away. He made many fall. Yes, one fell upon another and they said, "Arise, let us go back to our own people, to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword." They cried there, "Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is but a noise. He has passed by the appointed time." So in these verses, verses 13-1 17, these verses reveal Nebuchadnezzar's invasion of Egypt. After Egypt was defeated, Nebuchadnezzar invaded a small portion of it. That's why you see in verse 14 uh proclaiming Mgdal, proclaiming Nof and Top. These are cities in Egypt. And Nebuchadnezzar had entered in and begun to invade. And even as I shared earlier, that's when he heard that his father had died and he went on back to Babylon to be crowned as the king. But look what happened to the mercenary troops here. They're saying, "You know what? I want to get out of here." And not only did they do that, but notice what they said about Pharaoh in verse 17. They cried there, "Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is but a noise." What that means is he's just a big bag of wind. He's just a braggard. Why would I want to lose my life for somebody like that? Is what the mercenaries are saying. What would I gain by dying for somebody like this? Let's get out of here while we can. When you see the Babylonian army, this incredible army marching towards you and you're thinking, "What am I going to die for? You haven't given me enough money to do that." And even if you were to double and triple my pay, it's not worth dying for you. So, I'm getting out of here as fast as I can. And as I see these Babylonians, these warriors coming on down, I'm getting out of here as fast as I want to. Now, one of the things that as I was preparing this in verse 17, when it says they cried there, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is but a noise. That's the ridicule that they give to somebody who loses. Let me turn you for just a moment to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 14. I want to show you something there. Luke, chapter 14. The Lord Jesus gives us uh some insight here in this passage in Luke 14 that I'd like to share with you. Pharaoh's a big bag of wind. He's nothing but noise is what they're saying at this point. He's talking big, but he doesn't back it up. Beginning at verse 25 in Luke chapter 14, a great multitude went with him. And he turned and he said to them, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost whether he has enough to finish it? Lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, "This man began to build and was not able to finish." Or what king going to make war against another king does not sit down first and consider whether he's able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000? Or else while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever view does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple. Couple of interesting things here. One is a man who is building. He said, if you're going to be building anything, make sure you count the cost. Why? Because if you begin to build and don't have the amount of money that's necessary to complete it, then people are going to walk by this half-completed building and they're going to mock you. And you think today, well, is that possible? Does that still happen? And of course, it does. It wasn't that long ago that I was in Greece and uh I was in a city in uh southern Greece called Patras. And in Patras, uh, friend of mine's uncle and aunt, my friend being a Greek American, has an uncle and aunt family still there in Greece. And we went and visited them. We're traveling with his cousin down one of the dirt roads. We came by a house. And this house, he points out this house to us. It was a very large house. It was two-story house made of block. And as we went by it, this Greek cousin of this friend of mine says to us, "See that house there?" "Yeah." "Well, that guy came here and began to build it and didn't have enough money to finish it." And it's become the laughingtock of the neighborhood. People will drive by and point at this house that a man began to build and didn't have enough to finish. And I couldn't help but think of this passage that Jesus said, "If you're going to begin something," he says, "you need to count the cost. Make sure that you don't only just begin, but you go on." and you continue and you complete. And in the case of the Pharaoh, the Pharaoh had said, "Let's go. We'll fight. We'll win. We're going to overcome." The mercenaries, on the other hand, said, "He's nothing but a bag of wind. He's a braggard. He's just noise. He just rattles and makes sounds, but he doesn't have anything to back himself up with." And I think by way of application for us too as we walk and follow the Lord in the battles that we go into, we can sit down with friends and we can tell them non-believing uncchristian friends and we can say in all the Lord is good. He's going to bless my life. He's always in charge. He's in control. And then the first time we find ourselves without resources rather than turning to the Lord and saying, "God, help me. I'm weak and I'm empty. God, show yourself strong." So many Christians stop the race at that point and give it up. And they say, "It's not worth it." And what happens? Well, the people begin to mock the God who was able to to bring you up but wasn't able to bring you in. And so the Lord would have us to know that if we begin something, we need to continue on, especially in our walks with the Lord. Why? Because whatever I do in the name of Jesus Christ, the world is watching for sure. And if I begin and I begin with this big braggadosio, you know, saying, "Oh yeah, the Lord is in this man. You watch what God will do." then I better be sure that he's in it all the way with me or don't start it at all because people still have a tendency of saying he began but he was unable to finish. Remember when Moses was so tired of the children of Israel? I mean how would you like to babysit 2.5 million cryb babies? And as they were leaving, you find in the history that that Israel continually cried out, continually complained, "Oh, we wish we were still back in Egypt where we could eat garlics and leaks. Oh, to our hearts content." Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You weren't doing that. That's what you wanted to do. But that isn't the way of life. You were slaves. What do you mean going back to Egypt? What do you mean going back and eating all of this stuff here? All we have is this mana. You know, mana in the morning, mana at the evening, mana at supper time. You know, I mean, you know, mana means what is it? That's what the word means. What is this that we're eating every day? Well, it's bread from heaven and God giving to you to sustain you. But they complain and they complain and Moses is hearing and finally, you know, it's gotten to the point where he's starting to say, "I don't know." But then the Lord says, "You know what, Moses? These people do nothing but complain. Tell you what I'm going to do. I'll just slaughter them all. Not a bad idea. I'll just slaughter them all and begin over with you. Now, wait. Let's think for a moment. In the history of Moses's life, there was a time when that might have been appealing to him. There was a time when he was a man of flesh, a man of war. And that might have been an appealing thing to him. The Lord gave him an opportunity to make a choice. But what did Moses do at that point? Moses says, "No. Oh no, God, no. Because if you were to wipe them out, then the people who know of how you rescued us out of Egypt will say of you, he was able to take them out, but he was not able to deliver them in." And he says, "No, no, I would never." Now, it wasn't as if the Lord was going to actually do that. He was testing Moses to see where his heart was. And Moses's heart was where his heart ought to be in the glory of the Lord. Caring about God's name. Even going so far as caring about God's reputation. That's why it's so striking when the Apostle Paul speaking to the nation of Israel said that the name of God is blasphemed amongst the Gentiles because of you. Because you took that holy name and didn't live for him. I think by way of application sometimes people who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and go out and start sharing their faith and all and I've seen so many do this who begin to run that race only to stop in the middle of it and go back to the world go back to Egypt go back to the drugs. Go back to the sex. Go back to the violence. Go back to the gossip. Go back to whatever it is that they were saved out of. Like the dog returning to its vomit. Like the pig running back to that mire that it had been cleaned from. Just returning to that old way of life. And the people will say, "Oh, what happened to Jesus Christ in your life?" "Oh, you were here coming over to my house and you were telling me how God saved you and you've got a new life and oh, you're born again, right?" And I've had people say that and they'll say, "You know who needs it? If God can't take you all the way, how can he take me?" Anybody who's telling somebody else, you know what you need? You need Jesus Christ who gives you the new wine and yet you're still tugging on the old wine. They say, "Why do I need the new wine? Why do I need this stuff called the Holy Spirit when you don't even have a filling of him yourself? You're telling me you got new wine, but you're still drinking the old. Now tell me, and there are quite a number of people like that today who want the Lord and want the world at the same time. They want to walk with Jesus and they want to walk with Satan. And you want to know it comes down to just that. Either you worship God or you worship the enemy. But you can't worship both. You can't have an unconditional, complete, total commitment to two. Jesus said, you're going to have to make a choice. And who is it that you're going to serve? One of the big problems I see in the church today, I see it quite frequently, is this double-hearted, double-minded way that a lot of people are. They want both. They want heaven and they want earth, and they want it at the same time. We even develop doctrines that say you can have it. You can have it all at the same time. Now, you have to make a choice. Either we're going to be heavenly minded or we're going to be earthly minded. But you can't be both. Now, I've heard people say in the past, "Oh, he's so heavenly minded. He's no earthly good." I say, "No, he's so earthly minded. He's no heavenly good." I have yet to encounter somebody that heavenly minded. Because if you're really heavenly minded, then the things of the Lord are going to be just surrounding your life. And the evidences of God's presence are going to be there. There's going to be love for the unsaved. And there's going to be this commitment to Jesus Christ. Most of the Christians that we encounter over over the years are are still struggling making the determination whether they really want to get completely into the things of the Lord or not. And a lot of people think, well, you know what? I'll get sold out to Jesus when I'm 95 and I've got no more things that I can do with this old body. No, I think that it is so wise for us to take all the strength we have in our youth and use it for the Lord Jesus Christ in his glory. It is so wise to do that. And it's like the person who begins to save for the retirement at an early age. When do you want to begin saving for retirement? When you're 55 or when you're 20. Most people start at 45 55 because they don't think. But if you're wise and you begin to do it at an early age, then it's just all the better. It's acrewing over interest over the years for you. And you know what? As a young man just doing my works as unto the Lord and and having my treasures in heaven, think of the amazing amount of treasure before the Lord that I'm compiling right now. If I start following the Lord at an early age rather than a late age, God would have us to work for him every day, serving him with all of our lives and not being like the Pharaoh who runs around saying, "Oh, we're going to do it. We're going to conquer. We've got it made." Because these mercenaries who weren't even loyal to Pharaoh finally said, "You know what? He's just a bag of wind. Let's get out of here while we can, while we're still alive and leave him. He's just a big mouth." And look at him running before Babylon. Let's get out of here while we can. And that's the picture back in Jeremiah chapter 46. We ought to go back there, huh? Verse 18. As I live, says the king, whose name is the Lord of hosts, surely Taber is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so he shall come. Oh, you daughter dwelling in Egypt, prepare yourself to go into captivity, for enough shall be waste and be desolate without inhabitant. And so in verses 18 and 19, the Lord is simply saying that the defeat will be as obvious as the mountains in Israel. Taber and Carmeal are both mountains in Israel. And they're very obvious while you're there. And he's saying the defeat of Egypt will be just as obvious as the mountains in Israel. And the defeated Egyptians are being advised here to prepare for their exile. They're going to go into captivity. In verse 20, Egypt is like a very pretty heer. Now, that that may not sound nice to you today. [laughter] You know, I met this girl last night and man, she's a beautiful cow. I mean, that does not doesn't carry the same connotation anymore. But it's an agricultural term and and any farmer knows exactly what the Lord is speaking about. She's a very pretty heer. But destruction comes, it comes from the north. destruction actually literally is gadflies. A gadfly is a large stinging insect that when it stings the cow leaves an open wound. And so he says destruction or the gadfly comes and it comes from the north speaking of Babylon. Also her mercenaries are in her midst like fat bulls. Now when he says fat bulls he's speaking about a fatted slaughter fatted calf ready for slaughter. That's the picture of destruction that's coming. They also are turned back. They fled away together. They didn't stand. For the day of their calamity had come upon them, the time of their punishment. Her noi shall go like a serpent. When he says her noise shall go like a serpent, there's a picture and I'll read the rest, but there's a picture here of a serpent in a wood pile and somebody goes there and he's going to begin to cut some wood and all. And the serpent is there and sees this intruder coming and slithers away silently off and moves away. And that's the picture that you have here. No shall go like a serpent, for they shall march with an army and come against her with axes like those who chop wood. They shall cut down her forest, says the Lord, because it cannot be searched, because they are innumerable, more numerous than grasshoppers. The daughter of Egypt shall be ashamed. She shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north. It's just a picture of the slaughter that's coming, the onslaught. In verse 25, the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says, "Behold, I will bring punishment on Ammon of No, and Pharaoh and Egypt with their gods and their kings, Pharaoh and those who trust in him. I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their lives, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and the hand of his servants. Afterward, it shall be inhabited as in the days of old, says the Lord." And so when he says in verses 25 and 26, the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel says, "Behold, I will bring punishment on Ammon of No." Ammon was the chief god of the city of No. And No is what we would call thieves. And so it was a a very powerful city. Eventually, this particular god was united with another god by the name of Rey. and it became Amanray which was the chief god of Egypt. He was the king of the gods of Egypt. It's a picture of destruction, a picture of destruction and judgment that God is going to bring that God is bringing a judgment on Egypt and Egypt's gods. And he's saying as I come down there and as even as I use uh Nebuchadnezzar in reality, what I'm doing is bringing judgment against the people of Egypt as well as the gods that they worship in verse 27. But do not fear, oh my servant Jacob. And do not be dismayed, O Israel, for behold, I will save you from afar, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return. Have rest and be at ease. No one shall make him afraid. Do not fear, oh Jacob, my servant, says the Lord, for I am with you. I will make a complete end of all the nations to which I've driven you, but I will not make a complete end of you. I will rightly correct you and I will not leave you wholly unpunished. I will bring judgment. And let's close with this thought here. God is a God of his word, isn't he? God is a God of his word. Listen, if I can communicate anything to you tonight that makes sense and that you take home tonight, please take this home. God is a God of his word. And in God's word, God says, "I will chasen you and I will deal with you." When the Lord says, "I will not make a complete end of you, I will rightly correct you." By way of application, God when he worked into the hearts of Israel, his correction was correcting them because he loved them. And those who were willing to be corrected would be restored. It was true in the nation of Israel. The same kind of principle is true in the church. When the Lord loves you, he also chastens you. Both in the Old and the New Testament, we find scriptures that state, "Those whom I love, I chasen." And Jesus speaking in the book of Revelation says, "Be zealous, therefore, and repent." There are Christians right now who aren't experiencing the fullness of the joy that they at one time had. Sometimes I will have my brothers and my sisters approach me after service for a time of prayer and often over the years I've heard the same theme. It's I don't understand what happened. You know, I I don't have that joy that I used to have and I'm wondering whether I'm even saved or not. And when we begin to speak so very often, there are things that they're dealing with, things that perhaps they haven't even thought about that are actually putting a barrier between them and the Lord, things that are sinful. And the sad thing is is very often I have said, "Well, you know, this is what the word says." And then they'll say, "Yes, I know that." Well, the next thing that you need to ask is then why aren't you doing it? I know I ought to be in fellowship, you know, but I I want to sleep on Sunday morning, you know. I do my worship at St. Mattress, [laughter] you know, the Church of the Hidden Springs. [laughter] How many times I've heard that over the years? one thing or another like that, you know, I don't need to be in fellowship. I don't need to get into the word. I listen to the radio. I get my cassettes. I fellowship with my friends, you know. No, you need to get into the word. When I first started going to Bible college, my mama used to sit down with me after every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday class. I would come home and I'd spent time in school and I'd come home and I'd get the newspaper and put it down there on the kitchen table and I'd get something to drink and I'd just kind of be unwinding. Mama would sit right across from me. I mean right across from me every Monday. Every Wednesday. Every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and Friday because I went every day and I think about it. Mama would do that every day. And you know what mama would say? Well, son, what did you learn today? And so I would basically regurgitate everything that I'd learned. You know, well, mom, I learned this. I learned that. In Old Testament history, we learned this. And in New Testament doctrine, we Mama loved it. And mama would ask me questions. Well, what about this? And and what about that? And I would answer her. And and and I did that for weeks. And the Holy Spirit began to work in my mom's heart one day. And as he was working on her heart, he was working on mine. And so finally one day, I was seated there at the table. And and you need to know my mom and I are very open with one another and we have permission. I have permission as her son to speak openly to her. It's no disrespect. But one day as I was there, my mom said, "Well, son, what about this?" And I looked at my mom and I said, "You know, mama, you've been a Christian long enough. It's time for you to find out for yourself. You go open your Bible up and you start looking and you come back and mama, you tell me what the Bible says about that. Mom looked at me and it was one of those looks like, h I don't know if I'm supposed to be mad at you or whether that's what I'm supposed to be doing, but to my mom's uh credit, that's when she began to get into the word on her own, began to study on her own, began to devour the word on her own, and God began to move in her life and teach her things just between her and him that were so very important for her You see, you can only lead people for so long. They need to learn to feed themselves. And that's where we're supposed to be. And the best way to know the grace and mercy and restorative power of God in your life is to get in the word yourself and to discover the promises and blessings that God have for has for you and then apply those to your life. Then the areas that you may not understand, those are the areas that you bring to your pastor and to elders and all and say, you know, I'm just working this out and I'm just wondering how this works. And that's part of what we can do. We can help you in those kinds of areas. And if the Lord begins to chasen you because as you go through the word, you begin to discover things about yourself. Whereas before you used to say, well, you know, I just speak my mind, you know, whenever I feel like it. If you get in my face, boy, you're dead. And then you read the word and the word says turn the other cheek and you say, "Oh no, how do you do that?" You know, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And you begin to read passages about God's love and how he ministers to people. And you see the life of Jesus. I he was beaten and he was mocked and he didn't he didn't revile those who were hurting him, but rather prayed for them. And you begin to learn, you mean I'm I'm supposed to love my enemies and pray for those who despitefully use me? You mean it's not right for me to get mad anymore and to tell them all off and give them a piece of my mind? You mean I ought to bite my tongue because any fool can open his mouth, but it takes a wise man to shut it? You mean I I need to learn to to be quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to wrath when all this time I've been quick to get get angry and tell him what's on my mind and then listen afterwards? You mean I've got that backwards, James? James says, "Yeah, you've got it backwards." How am I going to do that, Lord? The Lord says, "Have you noticed lately that you haven't had joy?" "Yes." "Do you want joy?" "Yes." "Repent." H But that means I have to admit I'm wrong, huh? Yeah. Confess. I don't know if it's worth it. You like being miserable. Oh, no. But I thought you'd do it another way for me because you love me so much. I'm so cute. No, it doesn't work that way. No. You repent. You confess. You forsake, you return, and I bless you. And the Lord says, "And I will chasen you. I will spank you like your daddy never did because I love you." Because I love you. Now, who likes to be spanked? Not Not normal people don't. [laughter] Chastening for the moment is not pleasurable, the writer of Hebrews says, but it yieldeth up the peaceable fruit of righteousness. And when the Lord works that into our life, he changes us. So yes, the Lord says to the nation of Israel, I'm dealing with you, but I won't make a complete end of you. I will restore you, but you need to turn to me. And if he said that to Israel, that he says that to even his bride today, his church, I will deal with you, but I won't destroy you. Just come back to me.