Man, Jeremiah 17 verse 1, the Bible reads,
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron and with the point of a diamond.
It is graven upon the table of their heart and upon the horns of your altars, whilst
their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the
high hills.
O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the
spoil and thy high places for sin throughout all thy borders.
And thou, even thyself, shall discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee, and
I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not.
For you have kindled a fire in mine anger which shall burn forever.
Now God here is continuing what we've seen, and I always say this at the beginning
of every sermon in the book of Jeremiah virtually, because each chapter reiterates
this again.
The theme of Jeremiah is impossible to forget, because he says it again in every chapter,
the children of Judah are sinful, and because of their sinful ways and because
the nation has become a wicked nation and turned away from the Lord, God is bringing
them judgment.
And that judgment that he's bringing is going to be in the form of the Babylonians
invading and taking them captive into a far country.
We know that eventually this will come to pass at the end of the book of Jeremiah.
It's recorded that they go away captive.
And we know from the books of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, that they are in that captivity
for 70 years, and then the next generation, 70 years later, turns back unto the Lord,
and God brings them back from Babylon and the other nations that he has scattered
them and plants them once again in Jerusalem and in the land of Judea.
And that's what we read about in the book of Zechariah, for example, them coming
back after the captivity.
But this is before the captivity.
Judah had once been a godly, righteous nation, but because they've turned from the Lord
and become sinful, God's wrath is upon them.
God says that their sin is written with a pen of iron and with the point of a diamond.
What does he mean by that?
He's saying basically that their sin is not going to be washed away.
It's not going to be blotted out.
It's not going to be forgotten about.
It's going to be dealt with.
And that's why he says a little bit later, he says, ye have kindled, at the end of verse
4, ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn forever.
Now the Bible talks a lot about a fire that burns forever, and where is that place
located?
Hell.
The Bible says that in hell fire, the fire shall never be quenched.
It also calls it everlasting fire.
Jesus Christ preached about it, and he said, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
So again, it's being emphasized that by and large, the people of Judah are not going
to get saved.
They're not going to turn to the Lord.
Most of them are not saved.
In fact, in Jeremiah 6.30, he told us they were reprobate.
Many times in the book of Jeremiah, up to this point, he's talked about how it's
too late for these people.
Now obviously there are individuals that are saved, but as a nation, they had gone
too far, they've gone off the cliff, and they're not going to be redeemed.
Now let's keep reading here.
It says in verse 4 there, and thou, even thyself, shall discontinue from thy heritage
that I gave thee.
The heritage that he gave them, heritage is another word for inheritance.
They inherited the promised land as Jews, as God's chosen people of the Old Testament,
but he's saying that they're not going to continue in that heritage.
He said that they shall discontinue from that heritage because of their sins, which
again emphasizes the point that just because someone is of a certain ethnicity, that doesn't
mean that they're just automatically going to receive the blessings of God and automatically
get to inherit the promised land.
That's what people think today.
They say, all these people are Jewish, and you say, well, they don't believe in Jesus.
Oh, but they're still God's people.
Wrong.
God said, if you're going to turn away from me, you'll discontinue from the heritage
that I gave you.
Oh, we inherited it from Abraham.
Well, you're going to discontinue from that heritage if you discontinue from worshiping
the true God.
And the Bible says that if you don't have the Son, you don't have the Father.
So if you're not worshiping Jesus, you have a different God.
If you say, well, I believe in God the Father, I just don't believe Jesus is the Messiah,
you have a different God.
Because the Bible says, he that denyeth the Son, the same hath not the Father, but he
that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
So you have to receive Jesus in order to receive God the Father.
The Bible says in verse 5, thus saith the Lord, cursed be the man that trusteth in
man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.
For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh,
but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land, and not inhabited.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots
by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh.
But her leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither
shall cease from yielding fruit.
Now these are two plants that are being contrasted.
God talks about one person who's cursed and one person who's blessed.
The cursed person is like unto a heath that is dwelling in the desert.
Now a heath is basically a shrub that often grows in places that are not fertile
for growing anything of value.
In areas of land where you can't grow any food or grow any crops because the soil
is too acidic, this is where the heath would grow.
This is often known as heather also.
But this shrub grows in a soil that's a bad soil, that's a worthless type soil,
and the area where it grows is known as the heath, and the plant itself is known
as the heath.
That's why God says that the one who trusts in man, the one who puts his trust in the
flesh and human beings, he's going to be like the heath that's going to be, if you look at the
end of verse 6, it's going to inhabit the parched places in the wilderness.
When the Bible uses the word wilderness, it's usually referring to what we would call
a desert.
In fact, if you study scripture, you'll notice the word desert and wilderness being
used interchangeably.
Like, for example, John the Baptist and Jesus Christ spending time fasting out in
the wilderness, but then it also will sometimes word it as they were out in the desert.
Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Or the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his
path straight.
Wilderness is talking about a desert type place, a place that lacks water, a place
that has an acidic soil.
It also says a salt land.
Well, think about Utah, the great salt lake, and you think of these great salt
deserts where things can't grow.
What about in the book of Judges when they would conquer an enemy, and to punish that
enemy, they would sow the land with salt to ruin the soil so that they couldn't grow
anything there.
And they would also sow the fields with stones to make it harder for them to plow
the field and make it produce crops.
So that's what the heath in the parched wilderness is.
Then the man who's blessed by God, the one who's trusting in the Lord, it says
he shall be like a tree planted by the waters.
Now keep your finger here.
Let's go to Psalm 1.
Obviously, most people who've read the Bible a lot are pretty familiar with Psalm 1.
And it probably popped into your mind as we were reading that just because the wording
is so similar.
So let's compare these two scriptures and get a greater understanding.
Remember, we're comparing two people.
One person is trusting in man.
He's trusting in flesh.
He's making flesh his arm.
Arm represents strength.
He's relying on the might and strength and power of that which is flesh instead of trusting
in the power of the Lord and leaning on the Lord and trusting in his word.
What does that mean?
Well, let's compare these two scriptures to get a greater understanding.
Look at verse 1 of Psalm 1.
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth
in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seed of the scornful, but his delight
is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit
in his season.
His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Now, this is the same type of thing that we saw in Jeremiah being planted by the
rivers of water and also the leaf not withering.
When the drought comes, when the dry times come, that tree will survive even when the
plants around it are dying, because the roots go down deep by the rivers of water
and are able to tap in to that moisture even below the soil.
And so what does it mean to trust in the Lord?
Because the Bible said the guy who trusts in the Lord, he's like the tree planted
by the water.
And then the heath and the wilderness and the dry salt land, I mean, it's alive,
it's surviving, but it's not really thriving, is it?
The heath is just in a wasteland.
It's just dried up and surviving.
And look, as a Christian, you can just kind of survive or you can thrive.
You can grow, you can accomplish great things, you can live a life of victory or you can
live a life of just, whoa, you're barely alive because the soil and the climate is
so bad where you're planted.
Why?
Because you're planted in the wrong place.
You know what else I read when I was reading about what a heath is?
It's often a sandy place.
Isn't that interesting?
Because when you think about the shifting sand, trusting in man, that's a shifting sand.
That's exactly where a heath would grow in a very sandy place, a very salty place.
Whereas what God wants us to be is planted with deep roots by the rivers of water where
we could tap into that washing of the water by the word.
What does it mean here to trust in the Lord?
Well, what I see in this passage, if you look at Psalm 1, this is what it means to
not trust in the Lord.
It's to walk in the counsel of the ungodly.
Do you see that?
He says, bless is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.
So if you're going to be planted firmly rooted and grounded by the rivers of water,
you're not taking advice from the world and from sinful people.
That's what counsel means, advice.
So who are you going to go to for advice on your marriage?
Who are you going to go to for business advice?
Or who are you going to go to for advice on raising your children?
Are you going to go to the word of God?
Are you going to go to the Lord?
Or are you going to go to the counselors of this world, the wisdom of this world,
the books of this world and things to tell you how to live your life?
Now, there are many profitable things that you can learn from the books of this world.
The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.
But let me tell you something.
You should never get lifestyle advice from the unsaved, from the world.
Don't get advice.
I mean, look, if you want to learn about, you know, Ohm's law from a book,
or if you want to learn geography, or you want to learn a foreign language,
you're great.
Those are great things to learn from books.
You want to get a history lesson.
You want to learn about grammar.
You know, there are all kinds of things that you can learn from books.
But what you don't want to learn from heathen books is how to be married,
or how to have children, or how to, you know, philosophically and ethically run your business.
You know, you should get that stuff from God's people.
And you should get it directly from God's word also through the Holy Spirit's instruction.
And you should be taught by godly counselors, not by the world, not the counsel of the ungodly.
So the Bible says,
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners.
Now, this is what cracks me up again,
and remember my sermon that I preached on Sunday morning,
how we talked about Jesus reaching Matthew and saying,
Follow me to the man who's known as Levi,
but he's also known as Matthew, the guy who wrote the Gospel of Matthew,
and he's sitting at the receipt of custom,
and Jesus said to Matthew, Follow me.
Remember this from the Sunday morning sermon?
And then he came and sat at meat in Matthew's house,
and many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.
Okay, so Jesus is sitting at the meal.
Publicans and sinners come to him.
Why did they come to him?
Because they wanted to hear the word of God.
Their heart was sincere.
Their heart was in the right place.
Yes, they lived a sinful life,
but their heart was sincere in wanting to come to Christ,
because the Bible says that when Jesus preached,
the common people heard him gladly,
but this is often twisted and misconstrued
that Jesus went to wicked places and hung around with wicked people.
That's what people try to teach, and it's a lie.
It's a fraud.
That's not what happened.
What the Bible teaches is that sincere people,
yes, they were wicked, yes, they were sinners,
yes, they were publicans and harlots, came to Christ and were saved,
and they drew near unto Christ,
and he said, They that behold need not a physician,
but they that are sick,
I'm not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
And so, of course, Jesus Christ wanted these people to come to him.
He said, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
The Bible is clear in Psalm 1 and other places that we are not to stand in the way of sinners.
So why would I believe that Jesus Christ went and hung out with wicked and evil people,
sought them out, hung out where they hung out, and stood in the way of sinners?
I mean, that's basically what they're telling you.
They're twisting the Bible to say Jesus stood in the way of sinners.
No, he didn't.
Why would he do that when the Bible commanded him not to?
Why did Jesus say, I do always those things which please my Father,
and why would he disobey the teachings of the Bible that tell us not to stand in the way of sinners?
Jesus Christ did not hang around with people who hated God.
Jesus Christ did not hang around with the reprobates.
When he saw anyone coming that was a reprobate,
he said, You serpents, you vipers.
I mean, look how he treated the Pharisees that were reprobate.
Okay, the people that Jesus received with open arms
were the people that were coming to him with their arms outstretched.
Now look, Jesus went into all the towns and villages.
Jesus sent his disciples into all the towns and villages
to try to reach everyone with the gospel, sort of like we do,
where we go out two by two, just like he sent them out two by two.
Jesus said, if you come into a house, salute it.
What does that mean?
You show up, you're friendly, you're nice, you come to a house, salute it,
and you basically would bless that house
and let your peace rest upon it, the Bible says, right?
But it says that if they rejected the word of God, if they rejected the gospel,
he said shake off the dust of your feet
and that it would be more tolerable for the land of Sodom
in the day of judgment than for that city.
That the apostles came to and they were rejected.
They shook the dust off their feet and they left.
And he said, if the house be not worthy, let your peace return to you.
Meaning you don't even leave on a blessing.
Now that doesn't mean that you leave angry or rude or, you know,
shaking the dust off your feet is just,
you know, you don't have to really show them that you're doing that.
You know, like, you know, I mean, the point is
that you shake it off and you move on to the next one.
You will not find Jesus Christ just spending hour after hour after hour
hanging around with people who had zero interest in the gospel,
zero interest in the, that's not what he did.
Oh, Jesus was just constantly hanging around with the dregs of society.
No, no.
Actually, he was constantly hanging around with super dedicated Christians
who'd given up everything to follow him.
Peter, James, John, Andrew, right?
These guys are super dedicated.
They forsook all and followed Christ.
That's who he's hanging around with.
And of course he's trying to reach everybody.
He's preaching the gospel to everybody.
He's going to every village and he's knocking every door,
giving everybody a chance.
But if they don't want to hear it, if they say no, he walked away.
He didn't say, well, I'm just going to keep hanging out with you and just,
you know, kind of chill with you guys for a while.
But yet people today teach this garbage that,
oh, Jesus hung around at bars, they'll say.
Jesus didn't hang around in bars.
Oh, Jesus hung around in houses of prostitution.
No, he didn't.
No, people like that who actually were good people,
sincere people who had lived a sinful life,
but they still wanted the gospel.
They loved the Lord.
They wanted to hear the truth.
They wanted to hear the word of God.
Those people came to Christ and he received them.
And that's why the Pharisees were angry with him for receiving sinners.
This man received sinners or, you know, your master Edith with publicans and sinners.
But don't just take that and run with it.
But the neo evangelical movement has just taken that and just completely twisted it
to make Jesus out to be a guy who stood in the way of sinners.
We should not walk in the counsel of the ungodly.
We should not stand in the way of sinners.
And we should not sit in the seat of the scornful.
Now, what does it mean to be scornful?
The scornful are the ones who mock and make fun of righteousness and the things of God.
And there are plenty of people in this world that laugh at, ridicule,
mock and scoff at the word of God.
We are not to sit with these people.
And often people have pointed out the progression.
It starts, you're walking with them and you're standing with them.
Next, you're sitting with them, right?
That's the downward spiral.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord.
And in his law, if you meditate day and night,
this tells me that trusting in man, trusting in the flesh is equivalent to
walking in the counsel of the ungodly,
taking advice from the world and being on that shifting sand.
Well, you know what?
If you want to be planted in sand, you're going to be a heath.
You're not going to be a giant fruitful tree of life that brings forth fruit in his season.
You're going to be a heath that just you're surviving.
You're alive, but you're not producing anything of value.
You're not bringing forth fruit.
You're just kind of there.
And you produce some pretty purple flowers every once in a while,
little lavender flowers.
That's what he produces.
But you're not producing any fruit unto everlasting life, okay?
You're not winning any souls to Christ.
You're not accomplishing anything for the kingdom of God.
And then this tells me that trusting in the Lord is equivalent to,
because if we, you know, we put Jeremiah at 17 and Psalm 1 side by side,
that trusting in the Lord is equivalent to meditating in his law day and night.
So trusting in the Lord is trusting in the Bible.
Because, you know, trusting in the Lord gets you planted.
Well, meditating in the word of God gets you planted.
Because how do we get to know the Lord?
We read his word.
How can we trust the Lord by getting his promises and relying on them?
That's what it means to put our trust in the Lord.
So when it comes to how to raise our children, how to have a good marriage,
how to work hard and succeed in our work and in our business,
we need to trust in the word of God,
not trusting in the books written by the financial gurus of this world.
Not, you know, instead of rich dad, poor dad, and Donald Trump, you know,
think big and kick whatever,
you need to instead get, you know, the Bible, the book of Proverbs ought to be.
Your business Bible, you know, you follow the book of Proverbs,
follow the word of God and the principles they're in.
Don't lean on the counsel of the ungodly.
But let's go back, if you would, to Jeremiah 17,
now that we've seen that comparison.
Jeremiah 17 is a really interesting chapter
because it's actually quoted a few times in the New Testament.
And that should just really drive home the relevance of Jeremiah 17.
Because we live in a day where Christians have a goofed up theology
where they reject the Old Testament's teachings.
Just, they just reject it out of it.
Instead of just understanding that the New Testament changes some things,
they basically just throw out the entire Old Testament.
And anytime you try to give them doctrine from the Old Testament,
they, oh, yeah, yeah, but Jesus, but Jesus,
like Jesus has somehow changed everything or abolished everything.
But the fact that Jesus himself, listen now,
the fact that Jesus himself quoted Jeremiah 17
and he quoted it about things that Christians today want to discard and reject,
you know, that should really tell us something
that Jeremiah 17 is just as relevant as it ever was in the New Testament.
It's quoted in the last book of the Bible, Revelation quotes.
Jeremiah 17 out of the mouth of Jesus Christ himself.
Let's keep reading.
It says in verse seven,
blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is,
for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, verse eight,
and that spreadeth out her roots by the river
and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green
and shall not be careful in the year of drought.
Neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Careful there means worried, not worried about the drought.
Verse nine, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it now that right there should also show us why
not only should we walk in the council of the Lord
and not in the council of the ungodly.
Also, we should trust in the Lord, not trust in our own heart,
because a lot of people will just say, well, just follow your heart.
Just trust your heart.
But the Bible actually says in the book of Proverbs,
who so trusteth in his own heart as a fool.
Why?
Because the heart is deceitful.
What does it, what does it mean to be deceitful?
It means it's going to trick you,
meaning that if you rely on your heart, you will be deceived
because your heart is not always right.
Your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
You know, your heart is a sinful heart.
Your heart is a deceitful heart.
Therefore, we need to understand that the word of God trumps your feelings,
trumps your heart.
Why?
Because I remember, and look, I remember thinking about this.
Even as a little child, I was a philosopher,
and I remember as a little child thinking about this and saying,
you know what, whatever is in my mind right now
is a product of everything that I've seen and heard up to this point in my life.
I remember thinking this when I was literally like 9, 10, 11 years old.
I remember thinking, you know what, what do I know?
What do I believe?
What is in my heart?
It's all from what my parents have taught me.
It's from what I've heard in school.
It's from what I've seen in TV.
It's what I've heard on the radio.
And so I can't just trust my intuition of, yeah, this seems right.
It seems right.
Because what seems right to me is just based on what my parents have taught me,
what the radio has taught me, what TV has taught me,
what school has taught me, what church has taught me.
I put all that together and mix it together, and that's what seems right.
You know what seems right to you?
Everything you're used to.
I mean, if you grew up on some Polynesian island somewhere
where people are cannibals, then that would seem right to you.
Because everybody's a cannibal, and you know, that's just what we do.
The other tribe comes over from another island on a bunch of canoes,
and we scalp them and eat them.
You know, that's basically what would seem right to you.
Because you're brought up a cannibal.
I mean, look, if you were brought up in the Islamic world,
that would seem right to you.
If you're brought up Catholic, yeah, that seems right, you know,
to do all this hocus pocus and all this superstitious stuff.
Look, if you grew up atheist, that might seem right to you.
Because that's what you're taught.
If you grow up watching seven or eight hours of TV a day,
which I'll confess, I had a lot of days like that.
And I'll tell you right now, that affects your heart,
that affects your mind, that forms and fastens your personality,
and let me tell you something,
if you trust in your own heart, you're a fool,
because all you are is just a heart that's taken in all this stuff
from the world around you, and you've mixed some good,
I learned good things from my parents,
I learned good things from church,
but then I learned bad things at school,
I learned bad things on TV, bad things in the radio,
mix it all up, and what seems right to me sometimes is right,
and sometimes is wrong.
But I decided as a small boy to not go with what seemed right to me,
or what felt right, or what my heart told me was right,
I decided to go with what the Bible said.
Because God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things.
So I decided to just go with the Bible.
God is smarter than I am.
God knows more than I am.
When God says that it's a certain way,
and my heart is telling me no,
then I'm gonna go with what God says.
Because the Bible says there is a way that seemeth right unto a man,
but the end thereof are the ways of death.
And the heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
How many times have you heard people say this though?
It's just, I just know it in my heart though,
that this just can't be right.
It's like, yeah, but that's what the Bible says.
And you know what really cracks me up more than anything though?
Is how so many people in this world are all following their heart,
but they all believe the same stuff.
And then 50 years ago, when everybody was following their heart,
they believed a completely different set of stuff.
Now, I don't think the heart has changed.
Here's what changed, TV changed, radio changed,
magazines changed, schools changed, parents changed.
So then their heart changed because different input
was put into the computer.
So now they're running a totally different software
for your computer, all the computer gigs.
Now I understand the sermon.
It just clicked with me.
You know, I mean, the point is,
we're not running Windows 95 anymore, folks.
This isn't DOS anymore.
You know, this Windows 10 is where we're at now.
All right, spiritually speaking, it's getting worse.
All right.
But anyway, the point is we can't trust our heart
or what seems, that just doesn't seem right to it.
So what?
Well, it just doesn't seem right.
Yeah, but that's what the Bible says.
So it is right.
Yeah, but this feels right.
This seems right.
Yeah, but the Bible said no, then it's not right.
Very important.
Look, I learned that as a kid and it changed my life.
Just thinking about that changed my life
because I remember as a kid thinking to myself,
man, I just can't comprehend hell.
I just can't comprehend that hell could be real
and that people are going there and spending eternity there.
But then I thought to myself, you know what?
It doesn't matter what I think.
The Bible says hell is real.
All the evidence points to hell being real.
It's everlasting fire.
It's everlasting punishment.
You know, I'm not going to sit here and just say,
well, I just don't think so.
It doesn't matter.
It's real.
And, you know, everybody has to come to the place
where they decide that the Bible is the final authority
in their life, not feeling,
and emotions and things like that.
Because why?
Feelings, emotions, your heart, your opinion,
that's all shifting sands.
That's why it's changed so much in the last few decades.
Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord
and whose hope the Lord is.
Verse nine, the heart is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
Now this is the part that I really like here.
Verse 10, I, the Lord, search the heart.
I try the reigns even to give every man according to his ways
and according to the fruit of his doings.
Keep your finger there.
Let's go to Revelation chapter two
and see this quoted in the book of Revelation.
Jesus himself, if you have a Bible
that's a red letter edition, words of Christ in red,
it'll probably have Jeremiah, or I'm sorry,
Revelation chapters two and three in red letters.
Most people, whose Bible has it in red letters, right?
Yeah, Jesus Christ's words are in red
in some editions of the Bible.
Not that it matters if they're black or red.
It still says the same thing.
But if you look down at your Bible,
it says in verse number,
let's just read the whole thing here.
Let's start in verse 18 of chapter two.
Revelation 2 18, and unto angel of the church
and Thyatira write.
And look, this is as New Testament as you can get.
This is the last book in the Bible, okay?
This is long after the New Testament is instituted.
These churches have been around for a long time,
many decades.
And Jesus Christ says unto them,
look at verse 18,
these things saith the Son of God.
What's his name?
Jesus.
These things saith the Son of God,
who hath his eyes like into a flame of fire,
and his feet are like fine brass.
I know thy works and charity and service and faith
and thy patience and thy works
and the last to be more than the first.
Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee,
because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel,
which calleth herself a prophetess,
to teach and to seduce my servants
to commit fornication and to eat things
sacrificed unto idols.
And I gave her space to repent of her fornication,
and she repented not.
Behold, I will cast her into a bed,
and then they commit adultery with her
into great tribulation,
except they repent of their deeds.
And I will kill her children with death,
and all the churches shall know
that I am he which search the reigns and hearts,
and I will give unto every one of you
according to your works.
Sound familiar?
Keep your finger there.
Look back at Jeremiah 17, verse 10.
I, the Lord, search the heart.
I try the reigns,
even to give every man according to his ways
and according to the fruit of his doings.
There's no question that Jesus is quoting Jeremiah 17 10.
What's interesting about that too,
notice in Jeremiah 17 10,
the Lord in all caps there,
which is what's known as the tetragrammaton,
the four-letter name of God,
Jehovah God,
the proper name of God in the Old Testament.
See, when the Bible uses the word Lord,
meaning just master or boss,
it puts it in lowercase letters.
But when it's put in all caps, it's a name,
the Lord,
meaning that that's his name.
It's the name of Jehovah,
translated into English as the Lord.
So this is clearly a reference in the Old Testament
to God Almighty, Jehovah.
And he says, I try the reigns.
I search the heart.
I give to every man according to his ways.
And then who's saying it in the New Testament?
Jesus.
So this is another powerful proof of the deity of Christ
as if we needed another.
There are hundreds.
But this proves that when Jesus Christ says
that all the churches shall know
that I am he which search at the reigns and hearts.
And by the way, he said,
if you don't believe that I am he,
you'll die in your sins.
You have to believe that Jesus Christ is God.
He was God manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit,
seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles,
believed on in the world,
and received up into glory.
And so the Bible here says
that Jesus Christ searches the reigns and the hearts.
And he says, I will give unto you
according to your works.
What does that mean?
What's the context?
What's the context in Revelation?
What's the context in Jeremiah?
Same context.
In Jeremiah, they've committed sin
and they're going to receive
an earthly physical punishment for their sin.
In Revelation, they've committed sin,
fornication, eating things offered,
and sacrifice unto idols.
They're going to receive an earthly punishment
for their wicked sin that they've committed.
So the God of the Old Testament
that is angry about sin
and is going to pay the sinner to his face
and punish and bring wrath,
same God in the New Testament,
still mad,
still giving to every man according to his works,
still trying the reigns,
still searching the heart,
still giving every man according to his works.
So don't sit there and tell me,
well, that was the Old Testament,
but Jesus said, you know,
smoke pot, make love not work.
No, that wasn't Jesus.
That was some hippie that you're listening to.
Jesus said,
I am he that searches the reigns and hearts
and will give every man according to his work shall be.
Jesus Christ said that he's the son of God.
His eyes are like a flame of fire
and his feet are like fine brass.
And he said, I will kill her children with death.
That's what Jesus said.
Put that on a greeting card, Hallmark.
Meet the Jesus of the Bible.
Cross stitch that.
Appliqué that.
Put that on the wall.
Well, because it's God's word
and it's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God.
Oh yeah, that's Hebrews 12, 29,
New Testament.
Once again, the most harsh language
against sin is used in the New Testament.
But the world has this weird idea
from not reading the Bible,
that the Old Testament's rougher
than the New Testament.
Nope, the New Testament is just as rough
as the Old Testament.
And it's an ungodly world
that says prophesy unto us smooth things.
Also a quote from Jeremiah.
Go to Jeremiah 17.
Jeremiah 17, 10.
Isn't that interesting though?
Revelation 2 quotes Jeremiah 17.
You know what that tells me?
Jeremiah 17 is very relevant
to the New Testament.
Now I already knew that
because I believe that all scripture
is given by inspiration of God
is profitable for doctrine.
But that should drive it in even further.
Look at verse 11 as the partridge
sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not.
So he that getteth riches and not by right
shall leave them in the midst of his days
and at the end, at his end shall be a fool.
So it's talking about working hard,
gaining riches,
but not being able to enjoy them
because of the curse of God.
Verse 12, a glorious high throne
from the beginning
is the place of our sanctuary.
Oh Lord, the hope of Israel.
All that forsake thee shall be ashamed,
and they that depart from me
shall be written in the earth,
because they have forsaken the Lord,
the fountain of living waters.
So again, they're that heath
dwelling in that sandy, salty, acidic, dry soil.
They don't have their root down
by that river of water
because the Lord is that fountain of living waters,
the Bible says.
The Holy Spirit is that fountain of living waters.
Look at verse 14.
Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed.
Save me and I shall be saved,
for thou art my praise.
Behold, they say unto me,
Where is the word of the Lord?
Let it come now.
As for me, I've not hastened
from being a pastor to follow thee.
Neither have I desired the woeful day.
Thou knowest that which came out of my lips
was right before thee.
Be not a terror unto me.
Thou art my hope in the day of evil.
This is Jeremiah speaking to the Lord, of course.
Let them be confounded that persecute me,
but let me not be confounded.
Let them be dismayed,
but let not me be dismayed.
Bring upon them the day of evil
and destroy them with double destruction.
Now here's the thing.
If any preacher says anything like that today,
he's deemed in the flesh, ungodly, hate speech.
Isn't that the truth?
Is there anybody on this planet
that I could get out behind the pulpit?
Anybody!
Out of 7.4 billion people,
is there anybody on this planet
that I could point to and say,
God, destroy them with double destruction!
And people would say,
yeah, you're right, amen.
No, no, no.
They'd all say you're not loving.
Isn't it true?
Well, that's Old Testament.
Well, Jesus just quoted it.
Oh, whoops.
This is quoted in the New Testament too.
Revelation 18.
Go to Revelation 18.
It is.
Revelation 18.
This is not as direct of a quote,
but it is still an allusion to Jeremiah 17.
Who is Jeremiah talking about?
Wicked God haters that are persecuting him.
He says of those people,
let them be confounded that persecute me,
but let not me be confounded.
Let them be dismayed,
but let not me be dismayed.
Bring upon them the day of evil
and destroy them with double destruction.
Well, what does the Bible say in Revelation chapter 18 verse 6,
talking of Mystery Babylon
and talking about the fact that she had shed the blood of saints and prophets,
which obviously refers to persecution of God's people.
For her sins, verse 5, have reached unto heaven,
and God has remembered her iniquities.
Reward her, even as she rewarded you,
and double unto her double according to her works.
And the cup which she hath filled,
filled to her double how much she hath glorified herself
and lived deliciously,
so much torment and sorrow give her,
for she saith in her heart,
I sit a queen, and am no widow,
and shall see no sorrow.
Therefore shall her plagues come in one day,
death and mourning and famine,
and she shall be utterly burned with fire,
for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
Go to the end of the chapter.
And the Bible says in verse 20,
and before I mention verse 20, let me say this,
there's a lot of mourning going on for the destruction of Babylon in chapter 18.
A lot of people are sad and mourning,
but you know who's sad and mourning in Revelation 18?
The sailors, the merchants, the ship masters,
those who trade by sea,
because they've been made rich through Babylon's wickedness.
But what does the Bible say?
To God's people that are in heaven,
because Revelation 18 takes place after the rapture has already happened, okay?
So God's people are already in heaven in this final destruction in Revelation 18.
Look what it says in verse 20.
Rejoice over her thou heaven,
and ye holy apostles and prophets,
for God hath avenged you on her.
And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone,
and cast it into the sea,
saying thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down,
and shall be found no more at all.
Now let me ask you this,
and look, I'm a reasonable person.
I'm not crazy.
I'm not a fanatic.
I am a reasonable, logical person, okay?
Come and let us reason together.
Who wants to be reasonable and logical with me and think
and use our brains for a minute, okay?
The Bible here is talking about wicked, evil people being judged,
who've murdered and shed the blood of saints and prophets, right?
And they're getting what's coming to them,
and the Bible's saying, rejoice.
Rejoice over it.
In Jeremiah, he's saying,
hey, render to these people double destruction, these horrible people,
these wicked God haters.
We're not just talking about your run-of-the-mill, unsaved people.
We're talking about those haters of God,
reprobate murderers of the saints and prophets.
We're talking about the worst kinds of people here.
It's in the Old Testament.
It's in the New Testament, okay?
But let's just be logical here.
Let's just be reasonable, okay?
Let me ask you this.
In the Old Testament book of Jeremiah,
who is it that's physically going to bring the destruction?
Is God going to open up the sky and rain fire and brimstone on Judah?
Is he going to send a great earthquake,
and is that going to be the primary means of destruction?
What is God's primary means of judgment in Jeremiah?
Somebody tell me.
Who is it?
The Babylonians.
Now let me ask you this.
Are the Babylonians good people?
Are they righteous?
Do they worship the Lord?
Of course not.
But are they still not the instrument of God's wrath
in the Old Testament to punish his people?
He used the Babylonians to punish his people.
Now there's a whole book of the Bible about this.
That book is called Habakkuk.
And in the book of Habakkuk,
the question is asked basically,
and I'll just kind of sum up the book for you.
You can read it more to understand this.
He basically says,
Why are you using a nation that's even more wicked
than we are to judge us?
Okay, we've sinned.
We're wicked.
We've done wrong.
But the Babylonians are devouring a nation
that's more righteous than they are.
Why would you do that, God?
And God's answer to Habakkuk is basically
that Babylon will also be judged.
He's going to use the Babylonians to judge
these wicked people in Judah,
and then he's going to turn around
and judge the Babylonians for their sins.
This is a pattern throughout the Bible.
God used the Assyrians to punish the northern kingdom of Israel.
Then he turned around and punished the Assyrians.
God uses the 10 kings in Revelation 18
to punish Babylon in the future.
Are those 10 kings righteous?
No, they're the tools of the Antichrist,
but yet they are the instruments of his wrath.
God put in the hearts of those 10 kings
to agree and to give their kingdom under the beast
and to turn around and destroy Babylon.
That was an act of God that they would,
with the Antichrist, conspire to turn
and destroy the great whore Babylon, okay?
God often uses wicked people to punish other wicked people.
Sometimes the wicked people that he uses
to punish the other wicked people are better,
and sometimes they're worse.
But God brings his punishment in a multitude of ways.
Sometimes God sends a famine.
Sometimes God sends disease.
Sometimes God sends natural disaster.
And sometimes God sends other people
that might be wicked, ungodly people.
Now, it doesn't make what those people are doing right.
It wasn't right for the Babylonians to come in.
And you know what?
When the Babylonians came in,
they didn't follow the rules of warfare.
You know, if you read the Book of Habakkuk, it's clear.
They did not respect the old and elderly.
They did not respect the young and the children
and the pregnant ladies.
They just came in and just indiscriminately killed
and slaughtered and murdered civilians.
Now, was that right for the Babylonians to come in
and murder civilians?
No, that's not right.
But when God sends his wrath,
sometimes he'll just basically remove his hand of protection
and just allow wicked people to come in
and do all kinds of wicked things.
And he sits back and lets it happen as a punishment
because these people have turned away from him.
So he turns away from them and he allows it to happen.
Now, you say, well, my heart is telling me no.
That doesn't seem right.
But hold on, this is what the Bible teaches.
You need to go read Habakkuk.
You need to study Jeremiah.
You need to read Revelation.
These principles are cover to cover in the Bible.
What I'm explaining to you right now,
those who know the Bible well understand this principle
that frequently God uses one wicked person
to judge another wicked person.
And then he turns around and judges that wicked person.
Does everybody understand the concept?
Okay, so here's the thing about,
here's what's funny about that.
You know, and I just want to briefly tie this in.
I don't want to spend the whole sermon on it or anything.
I think I already did that one time, like a week ago.
But you know, the point is everybody gets all mad
when you're not sad about the Orlando thing.
When you sit there and say, hey,
these are really wicked ungodly people
in the pretty much the most ungodly,
filthy place imaginable, a sodomite bar, okay?
And people just freak out like, what in the world?
How can you not be mourning?
And all of the independent fundamental Baptist
and evangelical Christians are all falling
all over themselves to show sympathy and mourning.
But you know, it's interesting.
There was an article in the New York Times
a few days ago that told about a similar incident
that happened in 1973.
And in 1973, there was a sodomite bar
that was firebombed, not by some militant Christian,
but by a disgruntled sodomite.
So what happened was a disgruntled sodomite
got thrown out of this bar.
Everybody know what a sodomite is?
A homo, okay, just making sure.
I just don't, the reason I say that
is because one time my dad brought a visitor
to church when I was a teenager,
and the pastor preached a sermon.
He kept talking about sodomites.
That was what the whole sermon was about.
And then they got in the car and drove away,
and the guy's like, I just have one question
about the sermon.
What's a sodomite?
You don't even know what it is.
Okay, so I'd hate for this to go over your head
if you're new to church, if you're new to the Bible.
A sodomite is a homo, okay?
Anybody not understand what that is?
All right, now here's the thing.
Oh, you mean the gay?
No, I don't use that word,
because gay means happy, all right?
So anyway, this establishment was burned down
by one of their own customers.
This guy got mad.
He got thrown out earlier in the day.
He came back that night, squirted a bunch
of lighter fluid, lit the place on fire,
and like 30-some people ended up dying in this fire.
It was in New Orleans in 1973.
But here's the thing about that.
When this happened in 1973,
the media didn't give a rip.
The media did not even care.
The only time the media covered it was to make fun of it.
I'm not kidding.
It's a true story.
The media literally, on the radio and TV,
if it was ever mentioned, they would just mock it.
And here's the thing that they made a mockery of.
The churches around the area, they all refused
to let the bodies be buried in their cemetery.
They said, no, you're not putting these kind
of wicked people in our cemetery.
Not only that, even the family members of the people
who died in this fire in 1973 at the Sodomite Bar,
the family members wouldn't even claim the remains.
They wouldn't even come and identify the bodies.
Three bodies were never identified
because the families wouldn't come forward.
One mother was called and said,
hey, we've got your son here.
And she said, I refuse to touch or have anything
to do with that body.
That's not my son.
OK.
There was a pastor of a local, like, super liberal,
United Methodist, just super left wing.
It was known for being like the most liberal church
in New Orleans.
There was a pastor there, OK?
And he turned out he was a sodomite.
Surprise.
OK, well, OK, that guy was completely just rejected
and disowned by his denomination.
OK, so one church in the area said, hey,
let's have a memorial service or let's pray for these people
or mourn for them, OK?
The church was rebuked by the archbishop of that state.
And not only that, they received stacks and stacks
of hate mail and over 100 complaints
from their own church members.
100 people complained and said, how dare you
mourn these people?
And so think about how times have changed.
In 2016, you get stacks of hate mail after Orlando
going to Moi, right, for not mourning.
Back then, the guy who mourned got all the hate mail.
And because they couldn't find any cemeteries that
would even take some of these bodies,
the joke that was going around on the radio,
and this is literally, this is all from the New York
Times, OK, explaining this.
The joke on the radio was, where will they bury the queers?
And they said, they'll put them in fruit jars,
is what they said, OK?
Look, I don't think it's that funny of a joke, honestly.
I can think of a lot funnier jokes than that.
I'll tell you, see me after service.
But the point is, OK, the point is, though, the reaction,
and look, I'm not making this up.
You think that you're so much smarter than me?
OK, I'll give you that.
You're smarter than I am.
Then you should easily be able to read this New York Times
article and explain to me what I'm missing, right?
I mean, you should easily be able to read the article
and show me why I've got it all wrong,
that every church in America virtually, and every preacher,
and everybody on the radio, and all the politicians,
none of them felt any different than I feel about
the Orlando thing right now.
In 1973, and today in 2016, I'm crazy.
And you know what's funny?
Is that even my fellow independent Baptists
are condemning me and Brother Jimenez,
even other evangelical Christians.
So basically, is everybody still logic in reason mode,
or have you guys gotten all emotional?
Stay logical, folks.
Stay logical, my friends.
All right?
Is everybody still logical?
You didn't forget about that whole speech.
OK, so think about this.
Basically, if we just use logic, what they're saying is
that in 1973, all the churches and all the Christians,
they all had the wrong attitude
towards sodomites back then.
And then in 2016, now we all have the right attitude
towards sodomites now.
Does anybody believe that?
Right?
One small child, all right.
Who likes to raise their head.
Take your child aside and teach it the truth.
The point is, but the point is, look,
look, the world's going crazy.
You know, and then, you know, truth is treason
in the empire of lies.
And so here we are in 2016.
Basically, we're just stuck in the 70s.
I mean, maybe we should change our decorating.
You know what I mean?
Just so that everybody will know,
we're stuck in the 70s here.
You know, it's like a spiritual Thorbeck's gym, right?
You know, you got a Thorbeck's gym,
it's like a time warp into the 70s in Tempe.
We're like a time machine, a time warp.
We're gonna start, we're gonna have shag carpet
installed in here, right?
Where we get some dark orange, some kind of puke greens
and yellows and browns and start wearing bell bottoms.
And it's gonna be like a retro Baptist.
You know, preaching and teaching like it's 1973.
And so if you're gonna be a logical person,
you can't accept the mainstream view today
on this subject, you just can't.
You can't just sit there and say,
well, all these preachers and all these Christians,
they're all right and everybody was wrong in 1973
except that one homo pastor.
He was right, everybody else was wrong
and now we're all right.
I mean, does anybody not get this?
Because I don't think it's that complicated.
But there are people who don't wanna get it
because they want to fit in with the world
and they don't like to hold positions that are unpopular
and today it's just on vogue to be mourning
the poor little sodomites instead of just saying
good riddance, bad rubbish.
Well, but the guy who did it, you're praising them.
When did I ever praise the guy who did it?
Somebody tell me, because I never did.
When did brother Jimenez ever praise the guy?
The guy who did it's a wicked person.
And guess what?
He's dead too.
And he's in hell, he's Muslim.
He's wicked, he's gone.
Nobody's praising him, but he was just an instrument
of the wrath and judgment of God.
You say, well, how can you say that's the judgment of God?
That wasn't the judgment of God, that was some Muslim.
Okay, well then you say, well, how can you say that Judah was judged by God?
That was the Babylonians.
I mean, how can you say that mystery Babylon being destroyed is the judgment of God?
That was the 10 kings.
God's wrath, the instrument that he uses,
is often someone that's as wicked or more wicked.
Some people are even trying to say
that the guy who even did this in Orlando is a sodomite.
Isn't that what they've been saying now?
I don't know if that's true or not.
To me, that seems like just a fake story to me.
Because they're like, well, he was there before.
Well, he might have just been casing the joint.
If you're going to commit a crime like that.
I don't know though.
And you know what?
I don't want to know.
I don't spend a bunch of time reading up on this thing.
Why?
Because I don't really care to know every sordid detail
about the sodomites and what happened to them.
Not really that worried about it.
All I know is that those people were the most wicked,
reprobate people, the most perverted, deviant people,
and they're gone.
I don't care.
Even so, amen.
Double destruction.
You know, and people just can't handle the truth anymore,
so they heap to themselves, teachers having itching ears,
and they turn away their ears from the truth,
and they're turned onto fables.
And of course, they can cherry pick and find that one verse
where God's being merciful and loving.
Of course, because of course God's very merciful and loving,
but hold on a second.
He's both.
He's a God of love, and he's a God of wrath.
He's a God of forgiveness, and he's a God of vengeance.
And what determines which side of God's vengeance or wrath or love or mercy or forgiveness,
which side of God's personality you're on, you decide.
You decide whether you believe in Jesus Christ or reject Jesus Christ.
That determines which side of God you deal with.
And then once you're saved, you decide whether to live a life of obedience
or to live a life of disobedience.
Now, even if you live a life of disobedience,
you still would not lose your salvation,
but you will be disciplined and chastised
as a father lovingly disciplines his child.
Let me quickly finish the sermon here in this chapter.
Verse 19 of Jeremiah 17,
Thus saith the Lord unto me,
Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people,
whereby the kings of Judah come in,
and by the which they go out,
and all the gates of Jerusalem and say unto them,
Hear ye the word of the Lord, ye kings of Judah,
and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
that enter in by these gates.
Thus saith the Lord,
Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day,
nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem.
Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day,
neither do ye any work,
but hallow ye the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.
But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear,
but made their necks stiff,
that they might not hear nor receive instruction.
And it shall come to pass,
if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the Lord,
to bring in no burden through the gates of this city
on the Sabbath day,
but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein.
Then shall there enter into the gates of this city,
kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David,
riding in chariots and on horses,
they and their princes, the men of Judah,
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and the city shall remain forever.
Now, we're out of time tonight,
so I have to just give this to you briefly.
But what you have to understand about the Sabbath
is that the Sabbath is a picture of salvation.
Why? On the Sabbath you were not to do any work,
which pictures the fact that we don't do any work to be saved
in order to enter into what God calls rest.
And God refers to being saved as rest.
God says that we must cease from our own works
as God did from His and enter into His rest,
meaning that we cannot work our way into heaven.
We have to completely rest on the finished work of Jesus Christ.
That's why when Jesus died on the cross,
if you study the biblical calendar,
He was in the grave or in the heart of the earth
for three days and three nights,
and during that time no work was to be performed.
Why? Because the first day that He was dead was the Passover.
The second day that He was dead was the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The third day that He was dead was a Saturday Sabbath.
All three were days that no one should be working.
Why? Because the message that Christ is sending
is that He's doing the work for salvation.
He's covering it with His death, burial, and resurrection.
Man rests on that.
Hebrews 4 makes that crystal clear.
And I don't have time to teach that from Hebrews 4.
I've done it in other sermons.
But what the Bible is saying here,
physically speaking to the children of Judah in the Old Testament,
He's saying to them,
look, if you'll observe the Sabbath,
you will remain in Jerusalem as opposed to what?
Being carried away captive.
If you keep the Sabbath and follow My word,
you will remain in Jerusalem,
and descendants of David will sit upon the throne judging you.
Who's on the throne at this time?
Josiah, Jeconiah, Jehoiakim, right?
These are sons of David that are ruling the children of Judah at this time.
When they go into captivity, that's not the case.
But when they come back from captivity,
guess who God raises up?
The son of David, Zerubbabel.
And he sits upon that throne, Shealtiel.
And he sits upon that throne.
He's a prince and a ruler and a governor in the land of Judah.
So what the Bible is teaching symbolically,
that's the literal interpretation.
Hey, obey my law, obey my word,
and you won't go to captivity,
and God's promise to David will be kept,
and he'll have a man sitting on that throne at the center of David.
The symbolism, though,
is that if we will rest on the finished work of Jesus Christ,
the finished work of the Gospel,
and not try to do our own works to be saved,
but if we'll enter into that Sabbath of rest that is Jesus,
then Jesus Christ, the son of David,
will come and reign and rule in our hearts,
and he will be there forever,
and he will never leave us nor forsake us.
The Bible says Christ in you, the hope of glory,
and Christ is truly the son of David.
Let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for Jeremiah 17.
Lord, thank you for quoting it in the book of Revelation
and giving us more insight, Lord.
I pray that no one would be offended by the sermon, Lord,
but that rather we would let these things sink down into our ears,
use logic, reason, and the Holy Spirit and scripture,
not a bunch of feelings and emotions and what seems right,
quote unquote, Lord.
Help us to have sound doctrine
that is based on the entire Bible read together,
and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.