Man, Jeremiah chapter number 43, the Bible reads in verse 1,
And it came to pass, that when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking unto all the people,
all the words of the Lord their God, for which the Lord their God had sent him to them,
even all these words, then spake Azariah the son of Hoshea, and Johanan the son of Korea,
and all the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely, the Lord our God hath not sent
thee to say, Go not into Egypt, to sojourn there.
So let me just give you a quick refresher on where we are in the story.
In chapter 42, they're in a bad situation.
Their leader, Gedaliah, has been assassinated,
and they're afraid that the Babylonians are going to come down on them,
that Nebuchadnezzar is going to just destroy the remnant of Judah.
The few Jews that are left after the rest have been taken into captivity,
and the rest have been scattered,
they're afraid they're going to lose everything.
Now remember, earlier in the book of Jeremiah, God has told them repeatedly,
you're going to lose everything.
You're all going into captivity, this entire nation, every single person,
this place is going to be empty.
And he even told them that the captivity is going to last for 70 years,
and that after 70 years they're going to come back and rebuild and re-inhabit the land.
But it seemed there for a little while like some remnant was going to be left behind
and still have a semblance of a kingdom of Judah.
Well, now that hope has been shattered because Gedaliah has been assassinated.
So they come to Jeremiah and they ask him,
what should we do?
What do you want?
You need to talk to the Lord for us.
Now these are people that have disrespected him in the past,
not listened to the word of God, not done what's right,
but they acted like in chapter 42 that they were having a change of heart.
And they went to him and said, whatever God tells you to do, we're going to do it.
And if you remember from last week, he told them what they should do and what they shouldn't do.
He said, you need to stay here and serve the King of Babylon.
If you stay here and serve the King of Babylon, everything's going to be fine.
He's not going to wipe you out.
He's not going to be too mad about the whole Gedaliah thing.
Just stay here.
But he said, if you go into Egypt, you are all going to suffer.
You're all going to be wiped out.
You're all going to die down there.
The thing that you greatly fear is going to come upon you down there,
whether it's by the sword or by the famine or by the pestilence.
I will make sure that all of you are not blessed if you go down to Egypt.
And then of course, God revealed to Jeremiah at the end of chapter 42,
that he already knew that they were going to disobey
because when they went and asked Jeremiah for advice in the first place,
they dissembled in their heart, meaning that they didn't really want a real answer.
They just wanted Jeremiah to rubber stamp what they'd already decided to do,
which was to go to Egypt, and they weren't going to listen.
So that brings you up to speed here.
In chapter 43, they speak up and say,
Thou speakest falsely, the Lord our God hath not sent thee to say,
Go not into Egypt to sojourn there.
So instead of admitting, we don't want to obey the Word of God,
we don't want to obey the Bible,
we're not going to do what God said, even though we promised we would,
then they just make up this thing of,
Oh, well, we don't really believe that God told you that.
We think, and if you look at verse number three, it says,
But Barak the son of Neriah setteth thee on against us,
for to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans,
that they might put us to death and carry us away captives
into Babylon.
So they don't believe the Word of God that said,
If you stay here, you'll be fine.
If you go to Egypt, that's where you're going to be captive.
That's where you're going to die.
So they say, Well, we think that this guy Barak is putting those ideas into your head.
We don't think you really heard anything from God.
We think you're a spy, and Barak's a spy, and you're working for the Chaldeans, etc.,
which is something that they've already accused Jeremiah of in the past.
But notice that God brings up something here.
In verse two, he says,
And no word in the Bible is incidental, coincidental, or accidental.
And I believe the reason why he's bringing up that they're proud men
is because they're not willing to admit that they're disobeying the Lord,
but instead they want to attack the preacher.
Call them a liar, call them a traitor, and so forth.
You see, most people in this world don't like to admit when they're backslid.
You know, obviously it's a bad thing to be backslidden.
Obviously it's a bad thing to disobey the Lord,
but it's almost refreshing when somebody actually just tells you,
You know what? I'm a little backslidden right now,
and that's why I wasn't at church.
Or I'm backslidden.
That's why I'm only coming twice a month or whatever.
Instead of lying and saying, You know, Hey, why haven't you been in church?
Why haven't you been so many?
Well, there's some stuff that Pastor Anderson preaches that, you know,
it's like, Whoa, buddy.
Why do you have to turn on me?
But the reason why is because people don't like to admit that they're backslidden,
so they'll start picking apart the church.
Or, Well, Pastor Anderson offended me.
Or, Well, I don't believe that doctrine anymore.
Well, you know, it's pride.
Pride never wants to admit that you're going through a spiritual low point.
And here's the thing.
If you're going through a spiritual low point, if you're backslidden,
join the club because everybody's been there at some time or another.
Everybody's been there at some time or another.
Our life is not just this upward, I'm pressing on the upward way,
new heights I'm gaining every day.
I mean, I love that song.
It's a great song, but it's more of a, that's what we're shooting for, right?
We're, we're, we're pressing on toward our ground.
I don't think anybody could really say that they were more spiritual every day
than they were yesterday.
I mean, it's just, it's just continually just better, better, better.
No, there are going to be ups and downs.
There are going to be times where you get a little back sledding.
There are going to be times when soul winning time comes around.
You don't feel like going soul winning, but you just drag yourself out there anyway.
Why?
Because if you drag yourself out there and start knocking doors,
the Spirit of the Lord is going to come upon you,
and then you're going to be glad you showed up,
and that's going to renew your attitude.
I can't even tell you how many times I've been a little bit down,
discouraged, feeling bad, and then I come to church.
We start singing the hymns.
I start hearing the preaching, and God lifts my spirit right up,
and I'm back feeling excited about the things of God again.
But without church, you'll drift further and further away.
Without going soul winning, you'll drift further and further away.
So it's easy for people to quit going to church for a couple weeks.
They get busy.
Things come up, and then they sort of get out of the habit,
and then they just slowly fade away.
Now some people, they quit the church because they get offended,
or they switch to a different church, or they move to another area or whatever,
but I've seen a lot of people over the years that just kind of fade away.
They just kind of drift away and fade away,
but the sad thing is when those people then turn around and start blaming other people,
and it's not always me that they blame.
They might blame other church members that offended them,
or hurt their feelings, or whatever,
but really it's just that when you first get in church,
you're excited about it, but then the newness wears off,
and then character has to kick in to keep you coming,
and then it gets sweet again, but not always.
It has its ups and downs.
So if you ever get backslidden, don't try to point the finger at everybody else.
Just realize that you're going through a spiritual rough patch.
Realize that you're a little down, a little discouraged, maybe a little bit backslidden,
and just drag yourself down here,
because honestly it doesn't take a lot of spirituality to just sit in a chair.
You know what I mean?
Like no matter how down in the dumps or backslidden you feel,
you can always just show up, and just sit in the chair,
and just fold your arms, and at least just be here,
because when you get here, something in the sermon or in the singing could inspire you,
and you can be back in the saddle again,
instead of just slowly fading away, drifting away,
or even worse, trying to blame other people and saying,
well I just don't believe this dog.
That's what the proud men say when really they just want to disobey.
They really just don't want to serve the Lord,
because serving the Lord is fun sometimes,
and sometimes it's not fun at all.
Sometimes it's suffering.
That he calls us to do, right?
Look down at your Bible there.
Barak the son of Neriah said to Theon against us,
for to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans,
that they might put us to death and carry us away captives into Babylon.
So Johanan the son of Korea,
and all the captains of the forces, and all the people,
obeyed not the voice of the Lord to dwell in the land of Judah.
But Johanan the son of Korea, and all the captains of the forces,
took all the remnant of Judah, all of them.
He took all the remnant of Judah that were returned from all nations,
whether they had been driven, to dwell in the land of Judah,
even, and the Bible is real specific here,
even men and women and children and the king's daughters,
and every person that Nebuzar Adan, the captain of the guard,
had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahicham,
that's the guy who was assassinated,
the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet,
and Barak the son of Neriah.
So they came into the land of Egypt,
for they obeyed not the voice of the Lord.
Thus came they even to Topanese.
Now, when I've read this, the thing that always stood out to me,
even from the very first time I read this story,
when I was 17 years old, reading the Bible for the first time cover to cover,
the thing that stood out to me was that Jeremiah went with them.
Jeremiah and Barak went with them.
And that always stood out to me,
and you know, I come to the same conclusion tonight,
that I came to, you know, 18 years ago,
the first time I ever read this story, when I was 17 years old,
and that is that, you know, I believe that actually Jeremiah was in the will of God
when he went with them, okay.
He told, I don't think that he's part of the disobedient faction,
that wouldn't make any sense,
because the first thing he does when he gets to Egypt,
is preach a sermon to them, why they did wrong by coming,
why they're not supposed to be there,
and God gives him this word to rebuke them with.
I believe what's going on here is that it wouldn't make any sense
for Jeremiah to be sitting in the land of Judah by himself,
with nobody to preach to, he's a preacher.
You see what I'm saying?
What sense would that have made for Jeremiah to just be like,
well I'm saying, when every single person goes down to Egypt.
Now the Bible doesn't specifically record God telling him to go down there,
but God does record a message that he's told to preach down there,
and obviously he can't preach that message down there if he's not down there,
so the implication is that God led him down there, okay.
And what I would take from this and apply to my own life,
is that God wants us to be where the people are
that we're trying to reach with the preaching, with the word of God.
Even in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation,
we need to shine as lights in the world.
This is a disobedient nation, this is a stiff-necked people
that God has called Jeremiah to preach to,
but he had called him to preach to them,
and sure, when they all leave Judah,
somebody's going to come into Judah and inhabit that land,
but chances are there's probably gonna be a language barrier
with whoever kind of comes in and dwells there.
You know, that could be part of the reason.
Or God just wanted Jeremiah to continue his ministry
with actually the children of Judah, with the Jews themselves,
because these are still a people back then in the Old Testament
that he was still working with.
He's planning on, you know, doing things with their descendants or whatever.
For whatever the reason, God, I believe God has him go down there,
because when he gets down there, he preaches against them right away.
You know, there's an attitude out there,
and people always get mad when I preach about it,
there's always some people who get irritated or angered by this preaching,
but it's what I believe.
You know, I'm against this idea of moving out to the middle of nowhere as Christians.
I don't believe in it.
And, you know, a lot of people disagree with me on this,
even people in the church have sometimes disagreed with this philosophy,
but honestly, I just strongly believe that if our purpose in life
is to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ,
then we need to be in a place where there's people to reach.
Life's not just about our own desires and our own comfort.
And look, there are a lot of people
who have a desire to live out in the middle of nowhere
and sort of live off the land and be off the grid,
and you know what, it's cool.
I see where they're coming from.
I understand that too.
But I don't believe that's a spiritual desire for a soul-winning Christian.
You know what, there aren't a whole lot of soul-winning Christians
in the state of Arizona, are there?
Most of them are sitting in this auditorium.
Now, there are other soul-winning churches out there, thank God.
I'm not saying we're the only one.
But there aren't just a whole ton of them
where your door is constantly getting knocked
from these independent fundamental Baptists.
So look, we here represent the few.
We represent here a remnant of people who still believe in
preaching the gospel to every creature, every house, every door.
We're zealous about it.
Sure, there are other churches that have soul-winning.
A lot of them it's just a tract.
A lot of them it's just an invitation to church.
But there are some that do legitimate soul-winning,
but there's not a whole lot.
There's not a ton of them.
And there's four million people in this city.
And so we don't need soul-winners to go move out to the boondocks
to fulfill their dream of organic farming.
We actually need to do some urban farming by planting the seed of God's word
up and down the rows of crops that are neighborhoods and subdivisions.
And you know what?
Sure, it's not as cool or as glamorous or as easy living in a subdivision
as it would be to be out on the farm and out on the ranch.
But I'm telling you, we're not here to plant literal crops.
Just as Peter was told not to be a fisher of men, you know,
or I mean he was told not to just fish but to rather be a fisher of men,
you know, we need to be planting some spiritual seeds.
And I'm not against farming, but I am against you moving out to the middle of nowhere
living your isolated hermit dream.
You need to get where the people are and do some soul-winning.
Now people have accused me of saying, well, you know,
you're against people in the small towns and yada, yada, yada.
Here's the thing, I wouldn't be against somebody living in a small town
if they actually give the gospel to every single person in that town
and then they should also be willing to take some trips to other neighboring towns
to do the work of an evangelist, right?
So look, I'm not against people living in a small town if that's where God put them.
If God put, you know, a lot of people born and raised in a small town or circumstances,
you know, that, you know, from the past or from their job or whatever,
put them in a small town because that's just where God led them
and that's where God put them or where they were born.
You know, I'm not against living in a small town
if you are gonna give the gospel to every person in your town
or at least attempt to give the gospel to every person in your town
and then you should be willing to take trips to the neighboring towns.
Don't just say, well, there's only 300 people in my town
and I've given the gospel to all of them.
Well, you know what?
What about the town that's 15 minutes away?
What about the town that's 45 minutes away?
What about the town that's 20 minutes away?
We've got the technology to easily hop in a car, hop on a bus,
hop on a bicycle and go somewhere and find somebody to win the Christ.
But what I find is that a lot of people that are living in small towns,
they, the ones who say, well, what are you saying?
The small towns don't need to be reached.
You know, they're often not doing any soul winning
because they're not in a soul winning church
because, let's face it, when you're in a real small town
or in a really remote area, chances are there's probably
not a soul winning church in that area.
Now, if there is one, great.
But you're not gonna have the same selection of churches
in a small town, rural area as you would in a big city
where you can easily find a soul winning church to be a part of.
So what I'm saying tonight is that we need to understand
that even though Phoenix may not be your dream city
and you're not necessarily living the carnal dream,
God has us here to do a great work in a huge city
with pretty much an endless supply of doors to knock.
To just win souls, win souls, win souls, win souls.
Yeah, you know, some of us would love to be living on an island
somewhere in the Pacific, right?
Or living somewhere out on some beautiful forest
or on some piece of farmland.
But you know what?
We need to just realize that it's about what we can do
for the Lord spiritually.
And you know what?
Some people that are living out in the middle of nowhere
and they don't have a church, they need to kind of decide
what's important to them, relocate to where there's a church
where they can grow in the Lord and be a part of the team,
be a part of the work.
And I'm all for reaching small towns.
That's why we have a small town soul-winning ministry.
Small town soul-winning ministry.
Look, we're knocking the doors of all the Indian reservations
and those are basically small towns.
Two, three hours from here.
I'm all for going to the small towns.
And you know what?
I'd love to see eventually churches planted in some of these
reservations and other parts of the state and so forth,
small town areas.
But you know what?
We need to base our decision on where we're going to be
on, okay, who am I preaching to?
Who am I winning to the Lord?
Where can I give people the gospel?
And especially we don't want to get this attitude that says,
well, the city's wicked.
The city's wicked, so we need to relocate to the boonies
to keep our family from being exposed to any of the sin
or wickedness.
That's a wrong philosophy.
Jesus said, I pray not that thou shouldst take them
out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them
from the evil.
We're supposed to dwell in and among the midst of a wicked
generation, but we're supposed to shine as lights in the world.
We're to be in the world, but not of the world.
And we're not to just isolate ourselves.
Hey, let's go.
I mean, this is what cults do.
They go make a compound somewhere.
Get away from all the bad influences.
Now, look, there could come a point where a city becomes
like Sodom and Gomorrah, where you can't just vex your
righteous soul every day in seeing and hearing
their unlawful deeds.
But Phoenix is not to that point yet, where you just can't
even go anywhere or walk down the street without just seeing
sodomites everywhere.
It's not that bad.
It's not to that point yet.
There could be some cities in the world that are that bad,
of course, and even some cities in America that people should
consider getting out of that are possibly that bad,
or at least areas or neighborhoods or places.
But look, Phoenix is not even close to being to that point.
You know, in Sodom, I mean, they were all reprobates,
you know, because if you look at it, the only righteous person
in that city was Lot.
One guy, just Lot, was the righteous man dwelling among them.
And that's why when the angels came to not destroy the
rights of the wicked, they just brought only Lot out.
He's the only one who got out of there.
And then the daughters came along with them.
They were wicked, though.
They just wrote on his coattails.
Okay.
But the bottom line is that we're not living in a modern day
Sodom quite yet, and we need to reap the harvest of souls
right now.
I believe that God right now is blessing us with a little
bit of freedom and a calm before the storm, before God
judges America, not so that we can live our farming dreams,
but so that we can actually get the gospel to every person
in America one last time.
And Phoenix, Arizona is a huge part of that.
Four million people in our county.
And not just Phoenix, but other large cities where there's
a great harvest of souls to be one.
We don't want to just isolate ourselves and go out to the
middle of nowhere.
I don't believe in that.
And you say, well, but the city's too wicked.
But here's the thing.
Jeremiah goes to dwell amongst a wicked people in a wicked
country, Egypt, because he's there to preach, because he's
there to win souls.
He's there to be a missionary.
He's there to be an evangelist.
And that's a calling of God on our lives to win souls to Christ.
And look, I don't like living in a subdivision any more than
you do.
You know, I don't like the fact that I have 20 neighbors
like right around me because I'm just in this subdivision
of just house, house, house.
Yeah, of course I would love to have some big piece of
property and whatever.
But that's not really a spiritual desire, though.
Houses and lands and gold and silver and all these things.
You know, we need to make sure that we keep the main thing
the main thing.
Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
You know, we're going to have the whole millennial reign to
ride horses and do whatever we want.
Right?
We're going to inherit the earth.
Amen?
So why don't we, with the short time that we have now,
dwell in a more straight accommodation, a tighter space,
and win hundreds of people in the Lord, win thousands of
people in the Lord as a church.
And you know what?
Those people are going to be in hell for all eternity.
You say, ah, Phoenix is too hot.
They're going to be in hell.
Right?
Are you willing to be hot so that you can win souls and save
people from hell?
Are you willing to endure a summer in Phoenix, you know,
or a summer in whatever the hot place or a cold winter
somewhere where it's cold?
You know, we need to not let geography determine the will
of God for our lives based on the weather necessarily.
But we need to make sure, hey, is there a good church there?
Can I be an effective soul winner there?
Are there a lot of lost souls for me to reach?
So I think that's an important teaching.
Jeremiah went where the audience is that needs to hear his
preaching that God's called him to preach to.
That's where he went.
Okay.
Look down at your Bible if you would.
It says in verse number eight, then came the word of the Lord
unto Jeremiah in Toppenese, saying, take great stones in
thine hand and hide them in the clay in the brick kiln, which
is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Toppenese in the sight
of the men of Judah and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord
of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I will send and take
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and will
set his throne upon these stones that I have hid.
And he shall spread his royal pavilion over them.
So keep in mind, they're going to Egypt to try to escape the
king of Babylon.
So he has Jeremiah take these big stones and hide them.
And he says, these stones that I'm hiding right now, I'm
actually putting them out of sight and hiding them away.
Nebuchadnezzar is going to literally use these exact stones
and he's going to set up his royal pavilion.
When he comes here and takes over and defeats Egypt, this is
where he's going to set up his base camp.
The man himself, Nebuchadnezzar and his royal pavilion will
be here.
So he's just really trying to drive in the message that he's
coming.
The man whom you fear is going to come down here and get you.
And you thought you're hiding from him, but he's coming to
get you.
Says in verse 11, when he cometh, he shall smite the land
of Egypt and deliver such as for death to death and such
as for captivity to captivity and such as for the sword to
the sword and I will kindle a fire in the houses of the
gods of Egypt and deliver and he shall burn them and carry
them away captives and he shall array himself with the
land of Egypt as a shepherd put on his garment and he shall
go forth from thence in peace.
He's saying, look, Nebuchadnezzar is going to put this
place on like putting on a jacket.
That doesn't really communicate something that's hard to do.
That's something that you do very casually putting on a
jacket.
It's easy.
It's casual.
It's natural.
And it's something that you're just kind of putting on.
He's just kind of wearing it like like it's just something
that he's going to use.
He's just going to use it.
It's just another ornament of his kingdom.
So it's a nonchalant type of activity.
He's going to array himself array has to do with putting on
clothes.
He's going to array himself with the land of Egypt as a
shepherd put it on his garment and he shall go forth from
thence in peace, meaning he's not going to flee here in
battle.
He's not going to be retreating.
No, no, no.
He's just going to add Egypt to his kingdom.
Put it on like a jacket and then just walk out the door
comfortably calmly at peace because he won total victory.
Total security.
Egypt is fully under his control.
And he said in verse 12, I'll kindle a fire in the houses
of the gods of Egypt and he shall burn them.
Now we talked about this in the sermon about a week and a
half ago.
The gods word that's used hundreds of times in the Bible
gods and it's always talking about false gods because the
Bible says there are those that are called gods but we
know that there's only one God.
And we talked about the fact that gods are demons.
They're devils because the Bible says that the things that
the Gentiles sacrifice to idols, they sacrifice unto
devils.
And he said I would not that you would have fellowship with
devils.
So God sometimes exercises judgment in the Old Testament
on false gods where he specifically wants to destroy
their houses of worship and destroy their idols, break
them down, burn the place down.
And he actually desires that even the names of these false
gods would be wiped out and forgotten and that they
wouldn't even be remembered anymore.
And so he sends a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt.
And also, by the way, when the children of Israel left the
land of Egypt after being enslaved for 400 years and when
they crossed the Red Sea and all that, God said that when he
sent the plagues, he was also going to exercise judgment and
pour out punishments upon the gods of Egypt.
What's he talking about?
You know, the basically the demons that they're worshiping,
that he would even punish them and even destroy their houses
of idolatry.
Of course, there's the famous story of the Ark of the
Covenant being put in the presence of the false god Dagon.
And then Dagon just falls on his face and shatters.
And the only thing that's left is the stump of Dagon, right?
And it says here he will burn or kindle the fire in the
house of the gods of Egypt.
He shall burn them and carry them away captives and he shall
array himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd put on his
garment and he shall go forth from thence in peace.
He shall break also the images of Beth Shemesh.
So this is talking about the destruction of their literal
idolatry.
Again, graven images, molten images.
And he shall go forth from thence in peace.
He shall break also the images of Beth Shemesh, verse 13,
that is in the land of Egypt and the houses of the gods of
the Egyptians shall he burn with fire.
Now, what I'm not seeing in this verse is a respect for all
religions.
I mean, isn't that what we're taught today?
Hey, we need to have respect for all religions.
It's okay to have your religion.
It's okay to disagree, but we need to have respect and
tolerance for all religions.
Is that what the Bible really teaches?
No.
Now, obviously, we're not conquistadors of the United
States that are just here to just destroy every false house
of worship and destroy every merry idol and destroy every
Hindu temple.
Obviously, God in the New Testament has not called us to
fight a physical battle.
The Bible says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against the
rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places.
The Bible says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal or
physical.
They are spiritual, so we're not called to destroy wicked
houses of worship or burn the idols or smash the graven
images.
But I will say this.
We are to destroy them with the word of God.
You know, the Bible doesn't say we wrestle not, period.
It says we wrestle not against flesh and blood.
We do wrestle against principalities and powers, which
are what?
Demons, devils, principalities, powers, the rulers of the
darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high
places.
The battle is a spiritual battle in the New Testament, but
it's a battle that includes fighting against false religion,
wicked religion.
That's why I'll preach a sermon against Hinduism.
I'll preach a sermon against Buddhism, preach a sermon
against Catholicism, Mormonism, all the different false
doctrines that are out there, all the false gods and
idolatry and lies that are out there.
God wants us to burn it down spiritually.
You know, God talks about removing the idols from your
heart.
And so we need to cast down.
And if you would go to 2 Corinthians, let's look at that
scripture, 2 Corinthians chapter 10.
And today we're constantly being told you need to have
respect for false religion, but I don't have respect for
false religion.
Why would I respect lies?
You know, God's word is exceeding pure, and that's why
we love it.
But we hate every false way, says in Psalm 119.
Jesus is the only way to heaven.
The Bible says in verse three, for though we walk in the
flesh, 2 Corinthians 10, three, we do not war after the
flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.
They're not physical.
They're not fleshly, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds.
So there is a building that needs to be torn down.
There is a building that needs to be destroyed or burned
down.
He says casting down literal buildings of churches that are
false?
No, casting down imaginations.
And every high thing that exalted itself against the
knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Christ and having in a readiness to
revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
So the Bible is real clear here that you know what?
We are fighting a battle, and it's a battle of ideas.
It's a battle of the mind.
It's a battle for the hearts and souls of men.
And so we need to tear down certain strongholds.
You know, where the devil or where his minions have built
up strongholds of false doctrine, strongholds of false
religion, strongholds of idolatry.
What's a stronghold?
It's something that's very deeply entrenched.
It's going to be difficult to tear down.
But God said we need to cast it down.
We need to tear it down.
We need to burn it down.
And we do that through preaching.
I mean, we shine the glorious light of the gospel into the
darkness and get people the gospel so that they can be
saved.
But then we also need to tear down other false doctrine.
You know, there are certain strongholds of false doctrines,
even amongst Baptists.
And we don't want to just go through life saying, well, we
grew up with it and I was born and raised a Baptist.
And this is the way we grew up doing things.
We should just stay with that tradition.
Now, I will say this.
We should stay with the tradition unless there's a
compelling reason to change.
We shouldn't just change for the sake of changing.
The Bible says, meddle not with them that are given to
change.
People who are given to change means they tend to change.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?
We need to stay with the traditions we've been taught,
the traditions we've received until they conflict with the
Bible.
And if it conflicts with the Bible, it needs to be burned
down, needs to be torn down, needs to be cast down.
And even, look, Baptists are not exempt from having false
doctrines as strongholds and imaginations and things that
exalt themselves against the knowledge of God.
You know, one of the perfect examples of this is the second
coming of Jesus Christ.
When we talk about the knowledge of God and the knowledge
of Christ, one of those things is his second coming.
That's kind of a key point.
And obviously, when it comes to Bible prophecy, there are
some certain gray areas because of the fact that we see
through a glass darkly and there are some certain things
that are hazy.
But, you know, there are plenty of things about the second
coming of Christ that are crystal clear and that are black
and white.
And one of those is that the rapture comes after the
tribulation.
Okay, but there's a stronghold of a pre-tribulation rapture.
Even though there's no scripture that says it's before
the tribulation, Matthew 24 says it's after the tribulation.
But how deeply that is entrenched, isn't it?
Another doctrine that's just deeply entrenched that I grew
up with is this thing, well, the Jews are God's chosen people.
You know, Israel is an ally that we have to bless.
And if we don't, God's going to punish us.
You know, that's a false doctrine.
Bible actually says that he that believeth not, the son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Unbelieving Israel is under God's wrath.
God told them, he said, the kingdom of God shall be taken
from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the
fruits thereof.
And so we have clear scripture over and over again on these
two doctrines when it comes to the second coming of Christ.
And when it comes to Israel, yet there's a stronghold of
false doctrine today, and I've been spending the last 10 years
burning it down, breaking it down, tearing it down, casting
it down because, because, and by the way, when it comes to
Israel, it is idolatry.
You know, he burned up the house of the idols.
He burned up their images with Israel.
It's idolatry because they literally worship Israel.
And they actually put Israel as a substitute for Jesus
Christ, because in Jesus, all nations will be blessed, but
they teach that in Israel, all nations will be blessed.
The Bible teaches that Jesus is the fulfillment of Bible
prophecy.
Jesus is the fulfillment of the old Testament.
Jesus is the fulfillment of all the promises made to Abraham,
but they teach that Israel is the fulfillment of the promises
made to Abraham.
I'm talking about the physical nation of 1947, 48.
See, that's taking away the preeminence of Jesus.
That's taking away some of his glory and giving it to his
enemies, his literal enemies that despise him, hate him,
reject him.
That's a stronghold.
That's a false doctrine.
And so what I'm saying tonight is that we need to burn these
things down.
And the way that we do that is by preaching, because God's
word is like a fire.
The Bible says God's words like a hammer that break at the
rock in pieces.
So we need to get up behind the pulpit as men of God.
And even in the pew, those who preach and teach others or
those who speak to others and take the hammer of God's word
and just keep breaking through these false doctrines and lies
with the word of God.
And we take the fire of God's word and we need to burn down
these idols of Israel and other things that have taken the
place of Jesus Christ in our worship.
And basically, we need to not just have this idea that,
well, I grew up with it.
Yeah, but when we run into a Catholic who grew up with that,
we expect them to receive Christ and believe in salvation
by faith.
We don't accept that answer from them, do we?
Well, but I was raised Catholic.
Well, OK, you raised Catholic.
Time to change.
In fact, that's what repentance means to change something.
Turning.
Turn from that.
We need to study our Bibles.
We need to listen to Bible preaching.
We need to be in church.
We need to know the doctrine so that we can tear down some of
these strongholds and some of these wicked ideologies and
false doctrines.
You know, that's what the Bible is teaching.
And so in the Old Testament, it's physical where they're
burning it down and destroying idols, smashing idols and
crashing them.
We need to smash some spiritual idols.
And, you know, when it comes to the Hindus and the Catholics
and people who literally have graven images, we need to
preach against those images.
And preach against really, you know, it's not enough just to
preach what's right.
We need to preach against that which is wrong.
And this attitude that says, well, we only build, we only
are edifying.
No, no, no.
The Bible says we need to tear down, to pluck up, to pull
down and to build into plan.
And we need to make sure that preaching is both positive and
negative, that our Bible study is positive and negative, that
every part of our life we have both sides, not just a
positive only pleasant peace, peace when there is no peace
kind of an attitude.
So next week, we're going to get into more of the reasons
why these people disobeyed Jeremiah.
We're going to find out just how bad these people are.
Because they tell them once they're down in Egypt and
they're already totally out of the will of God, they actually
just come right out and tell them that they're worshiping
false gods and what gods they're worshiping.
So we'll talk about that next week.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this chapter and your word,
Lord.
And we thank you so much for the example of Jeremiah,
because he gave his life to reach people through his
preaching.
And even when it took him places that he didn't want to go,
he still went there and did the preaching.
Lord, help us to geographically be where you want us based
on the work that you've called us to do based on church,
based on soul winning opportunities, based on opportunities
to serve you.
Lord, help us to keep that the emphasis in our lives, not
just fulfilling our own fleshly desires, but Lord help us
to have a spiritual desire to do your work and to further
your kingdom, not to create for ourselves a perfect little
kingdom for ourselves on this earth.
Lord, help us to build a spiritual kingdom for Jesus.
And we ask these things in Jesus name.
Amen.