At the beginning of verse number one, the Bible reads,
Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
and see now and know, and seek in the broad places thereof,
if ye can find a man, if there be any that
executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth,
and I will pardon it.
Now, that's a pretty bold statement there.
God is basically saying that in the city of Jerusalem
at this time, he couldn't even find anybody
that was living a righteous life, that was doing
what they were supposed to do.
He couldn't find anybody that was seeking the truth
and executing judgment.
He said, if I can find one, I'll pardon it.
Now, that's important because it shows us
that God is a merciful God.
He wants to be merciful.
He wants to bless his people.
He wants to turn away his wrath.
He's not on a hair trigger just to punish and destroy
people's lives.
But people push him to the point where he's left with no choice.
And that's why he says at the end of this chapter,
in verse number 29, shall I not visit for these things,
saith the Lord?
Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
It's not that God is just so strict or so angry
and just has so little mercy.
It's that people just keep pushing him
to the point where eventually he has
to cloud up and reign and punish.
But it says in verse number 2, and though they say,
the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely.
Now, what this is referring to is that in the Bible,
a lot of times people, when they would make a statement
and they really wanted to convince someone
they're telling the truth, they would just
swear to it by saying, as the Lord liveth x, y, and z.
And that was just their way of saying
what we would say perhaps in our monomaniacular, I swear to God.
You know, people would say that, right?
But the Bible actually teaches that we should never
swear to anything, by the way.
It says, above all things, my brethren,
swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth,
neither by any other oath, but let your yea be yea
and your nay nay, lest ye fall into condemnation,
the Bible says in James chapter 5.
Jesus also said, ye have heard that it
had been said by them of old time,
thou shall not forswear thyself, but shall perform unto the Lord
thine oaths.
But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven,
for it is God's throne, nor by the earth,
for it is his footstool.
Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, neither by Jerusalem,
for it is the city of the great King.
Neither shalt thou swear by thine head,
because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
But let your communication be yea, yay, or nay, nay,
whatsoever is more than these, cometh of evil.
That's why when you go to court, they'll often have you swear,
or they'll say, or you can just give your affirmation.
You can do it upon oath or affirmation.
So you don't have to solemnly swear
to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth so help you God.
You can say, I affirm to tell the truth.
I will tell the truth.
But the Bible tells us not to swear.
These people are swearing in the name of the Lord,
saying, as the Lord liveth, x, y, and z is true.
And in fact, it's a lie that they're telling.
So they're actually telling lies and then
swearing in the name of God that what they're saying is true,
which is obviously very wicked to say the Lord liveth,
and then they swear falsely, it says in verse number two.
First of all, it's wrong to invoke God in an oath,
even if you're telling the truth,
let alone if you're lying.
That's much worse.
Look at verse number three.
Oh, Lord, art not thine eyes upon the truth?
Thou hast stricken them, but they've not grieved.
Thou hast consumed them, but they have
refused to receive correction.
They have made their faces harder than a rock.
They have refused to return.
Therefore, I said, surely these are poor, they're foolish.
For they know not the way of the Lord,
nor the judgment of their God.
So what it's saying here is that God is trying to correct them,
he's trying to discipline them, and they're just
hardening themselves against the discipline.
It would be like if a parent went to spank their child,
and the child just kind of just, they're
going to take the punishment.
But on the inside, they're still rebelling.
There's no submission there.
And we've all been there when we were kids,
where you got a spanking, and I'm not even
going to give them the satisfaction of crying.
And you're just kind of just harden yourself to it.
That's what the Bible is saying here,
that God is trying to correct them, trying to discipline them,
and they're just not receiving correction.
Again, this is just more evidence
that God's not just on a hair trigger to pour out his wrath.
First, he's trying to correct them,
he's trying to discipline them, he's
trying to get them to straighten up and fly right,
but they're not receiving the correction.
And the Bible says, he that being often reproved
hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed,
and that without remedy.
So the Bible warns us that when God is reproving us,
when God is chasing us, when God's
trying to get our attention about something, if we just
keep hardening our neck and refusing to obey,
refusing to get right with God, then eventually God's
going to stop reproving us, and sudden destruction's
going to come, and that without remedy,
meaning that there will be irreparable damage done
to your life if you just keep pushing God.
Eventually, he'll destroy your life.
Suddenly, you'll be destroyed, and that without remedy.
So a lot of people, because God is long suffering
and keeps giving them more chances,
they abuse that and just think, oh,
I can just keep getting away with living a sinful life.
But they don't realize that one day it's
going to come down on them like a ton of bricks
when they don't even expect it, and that's
the warning that's given here.
He says in verse 5, I'll get me unto the great man,
because he's talking about all these poor, foolish people,
liars, and slanders, and so forth.
He says, I'll get me unto the great men,
and will speak unto them, for they
have known the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God.
But these have altogether broken the oak and burst the bonds.
Now, this reminds me of Proverbs chapter 1,
where he says here, I'll get me unto the great men.
You don't have to turn there if you don't want to,
but I'm going to flip over to Proverbs chapter 1
and read for you verse 5, the famous verse there.
A wise man will hear and will increase learning,
and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.
So a smart person listens and learns and gains knowledge,
and they also will attain unto wise counsels,
meaning they'll seek out wise people to give them advice
or to give them doctrine and so forth.
Now, we need to be careful that we don't go through life
listening to fools, listening to liars,
listening to people who don't know what they're talking about.
There are a lot of people in this world
who talk about all kinds of subjects
that they don't know anything about.
They just like to hear themself talk,
and so they do a lot of vain jangling
and just kind of blabbering on about things
that they don't really know about.
There are a lot of false teachers
when it comes to the Bible, a lot of false prophets
out there, a lot of liars, charlatans,
or even well-meaning people who just are unlearned
and just haven't studied and just don't know the truth.
And so we need to be careful not to listen to fools,
not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly,
but rather to attain unto wise counsels,
to increase learning by getting us
unto the great men that have known the way of the Lord.
We need to be careful who we are listening to.
Now, I'm not saying, don't listen to anybody,
because a lot of people, they wrongly react to this
by saying, well, there's so much false teaching out there,
and there's so many liars and bad counselors out there.
Just don't listen to anybody.
Just only read the Bible and don't listen to anybody.
Well, that's not really true,
because obviously reading the Bible
should be our main source of learning,
but the Bible does teach that we should
attain unto wise counsels.
We should listen.
God did give us pastors and teachers and preachers
for the edification of the saints.
So it is good to listen to people
who know more about certain subjects
or to listen to people in regard to Bible doctrine,
to get to church and listen to Bible preaching,
or even to listen to other preaching.
Besides going to church, there's nothing wrong
with downloading some extracurricular preaching
and listening to something.
But the question is, who are you listening to?
Because a lot of people just have no discernment,
where they'll just listen to people
that aren't even Baptist and just listen to people
where they don't even know where they stand on salvation,
and just listen to people
that are just random Bible teachers.
And yeah, well, where does this guy stand on salvation?
Is he even using a King James Bible?
You know, is this guy even a soul winner?
Is this guy even qualified to be a pastor?
Is this even a real pastor?
Who is this that you're listening to?
Is this a tried and proven source of information?
Or is this just some yahoo that's talking
about things that they may or may not even understand?
So we just need to be careful who we listen to.
And a wise man will hear and will increase learning,
and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels,
because there are many false prophets
gone out into the world, the Bible says.
So we need to always be on our guard
and not just listen to whatever and just trust.
Just turn on the TV and just find some preacher
on some Christian channel.
What are the chances that he's gonna be a real man of God?
Pretty much zero if he's on cable TV or something.
But the Bible says here in verse six,
wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them,
and a wolf of the evening shall spoil them.
A leopard shall watch over their cities.
Every one that goeth out then shall be torn in pieces,
because their transgressions are many
and their backslidings are increased.
How shall I pardon thee for this?
Thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them
that are no gods.
When I'd fed them to the full,
then they committed adultery and assembled themselves
by troops in the harlot's houses.
They were as fed horses in the morning,
every one knade after his neighbor's wife.
So here he says in verse seven,
how can I pardon you for this?
You expect me to forgive you?
You expect me to pardon you?
You expect me to let this go?
How can I let you go when you're not even raising
your children to worship the Lord,
your children don't even know the Bible,
your children are worshiping other gods,
and your children are committing fornication.
You're committing adultery.
He said, I'm not gonna pardon this.
I'm not gonna put up with this.
And sadly, this is the state of America today.
But we have even people that are Christians today
where their children aren't even saved.
They don't even get the gospel to their children.
Their children don't go to church with them.
They don't get the same doctrine that the parents have.
And today we see here fornication
and adultery running rampant.
That's exactly what we see in the United States today,
where fornication is the norm.
And if someone basically abstains from fornication,
they are considered the exception.
Like, oh wow, wow, you were actually purer
on your wedding day?
You were actually a virgin when you got married?
Oh wow, it's like an extreme case or something.
That should be the norm.
That should be the standard.
But today fornication has just become the new normal
in America today, which makes us not a Christian nation
any longer because that's not part of Christianity.
In fact, the New Testament rails on the sin of fornication
almost more than any other sin.
Over and over again it's brought out
in the epistles of Paul.
Jesus hammers it.
Everybody in the New Testament's hammering on fornication,
adultery, and these types of things.
But yet today they've become acceptable,
especially fornication.
The Bible says here at the end of verse seven
that they assembled themselves by troops
in the harlot's houses.
He's basically just painting a picture
of people just lining up to just be with these loose women,
these harlots, these whores.
And it's just that plenty of people just lined up,
just looking to commit fornication.
And of course he says,
when I had fed them to the full halfway through verse seven,
then they then committed adultery
and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses.
They were as fed horses in the morning.
Everyone knade after his neighbor's wife.
So there's a tendency when people are well-fed,
when people are prospering and succeeding,
there's a tendency for them to then commit sin.
And it's sad because God wants to be good to his people
and he wants to bless us
and he wants to fill us with good things.
But when we're fed to the full
is often when we become idle and then turn to sin.
We turn to adultery and things like that.
He said they're like fed horses
that everyone knade after his neighbor's wife.
Basically the picture is of horses that are in the barn,
they're fed, they don't have to do any work.
So what are they doing?
They're just looking to be with whatever the partner.
And you know what?
That is an animalistic thing to do.
We as human beings are supposed to be monogamous creatures.
We're supposed to be faithful to one spouse
till death do us part and not behave ourselves as animals.
Now there's another scripture that's similar to this.
Go to Ezekiel chapter 16.
Ezekiel chapter number 16.
Because he said that when they were well fed,
when they were fed to the full,
that's when they committed adultery.
They were as fed horses in the morning,
everyone knade after his neighbor's wife.
Look at Ezekiel chapter number 16.
The Bible says in verse 46,
and this is preached to the same group of people,
the children of Judah.
And then the elder sister is Samaria.
She and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand
and thy younger sister that dwells at thy right hand
is Sodom and her daughters.
Verse 47.
Yet as thou not walked after their ways
nor done after their abominations,
but as if that were a very little thing,
thou was corrupted more than they in all thy ways.
As I live, saith the Lord God,
Sodom thy sister hath not done she nor her daughters
as thou has done thou and thy daughters.
Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom.
Pride, fullness of bread,
and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters,
neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
And they were haughty, haughty means prideful,
and committed abomination before me,
therefore I took them away as I saw good.
So we see here that of course,
Sodom committed abomination.
But the Bible here explains
what led up to them committing that abomination.
What started the process?
It said, pride, fullness of bread,
remind you of Jeremiah 5,
fullness of bread, abundance of idleness,
which goes along with fullness of bread,
because they have plenty of food,
they have plenty of riches,
so now they can just take their ease
and sit back and relax.
And abundance of idleness is an abundance of free time
where you're doing nothing.
So when they had an abundance of free time
where they're doing nothing,
then that's where they go into sin.
They go into sins like fornication, adultery,
and of course, the Sodomites went into even abominations
of queerness and filthiness, even worse things.
Now, a lot of complete fools,
and this is one that kind of the gatheists
and phagnostics of this world will bring up to show you,
oh, well, you know, there's nothing wrong
with being a homo.
And they'll take you to Ezekiel chapter 16 and say,
well, no, the only problem with Sodom was just
that they didn't strengthen the hand of the needy.
You know, they just weren't hospitable enough.
That was their sin.
They just, they ate too much food
and weren't hospitable enough.
But what they're missing is that it says,
and they committed abomination before me.
Did you guys miss that part?
The abomination was the sin of man lying with mankind
as he lies with a woman.
That's why God came and took them away.
But the reason that pride, fullness of bread,
abundance of idleness are brought up is that
that's what led up to the abomination being committed.
When they had been fed to the full,
then they committed adultery, it said in Jeremiah 5.
And in Sodom, they had fullness of bread,
abundance of idleness, and instead of using their abundance
to be generous with the poor
or to serve the Lord in some way,
instead they just got prideful, puffed up
and committed abomination before
and then he took them away as he saw good.
This is a pattern in the Bible,
go back if you went to Jeremiah 5,
that when things are going good
and when we have bread to the full,
we tend to take things for granted,
get lazy and go into sin.
And therefore, God has to keep us lean.
God actually has to keep us kind of running scared
and working hard and lean,
just in order to keep us right with him,
to keep us from getting too prideful.
For example, Proverbs chapter 30, it says,
these things have I, two things have I required of thee,
deny me them not before I die, remove far from me
vanity and lies, and it says,
give me neither poverty nor riches,
feed me with food convenient for me,
lest I be full and deny thee and say, who is the Lord?
Or lest I be poor and steal
and take the name of my God in vain.
So in Proverbs chapter 30, he's saying,
don't make me poor or rich God, just keep me in the middle,
I don't wanna get too full because then I'll be prideful
and say, who is the Lord?
And I don't wanna be too poor and steal
and take the name of my God in vain.
He says, feed me with food convenient for me.
So if you wonder why you never get ahead financially
and why you're always kind of struggling
and you always feel like you're gonna turn that corner
and then you realize that it's kind of a round room
that you're in, so you never really turn that corner
and you're always struggling and you're always
just kind of paycheck to paycheck, running scared.
Part of that is God keeps us that way
so that we don't get too puffed up.
Because honestly, if you look at how many people
won the lottery and had millions of dollars
that it just destroyed their life,
you'd know that the prosperity of fools
shall destroy them, the Bible says.
And so God keeps us lean in order to keep us
from getting idle.
Because if you talk to people who fantasize
about winning the lottery, people who buy lottery tickets,
which by the way is a foolish thing to do.
It's very foolish to buy lottery tickets
because the Bible says, don't make haste to be rich.
Bible talks about being diligent and working hard,
not trying to get rich quickly, not desiring to be rich.
The Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil.
And so buying lottery tickets violates all that,
in addition to just being a big waste of your money.
But when you buy a lottery ticket and you're lusting
after this big payoff and you talk to people,
they talk about how they wouldn't have to work anymore.
Isn't that the thing that they really like?
Oh, I wouldn't have to work anymore.
Yeah, but that just shows that you're lazy.
And it shows that you are misguided
about what your life is about.
We're here to work.
That's why we're on this earth.
Okay, if there's no work to do,
then our life becomes worthless.
Worthless, we're here to do works.
The Bible says we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God had before ordained that we should walk in them.
Now, obviously there's a time for rest and relaxation.
There's a time to make merry and enjoy life
and rejoice with our wife or husband or children.
There are times for that,
but then there's also a lot of work time.
That's what God created us to do.
And this desire to just be idle,
to sit around and do nothing,
is why God sometimes has to keep us leaner
than we wanna be.
Because otherwise we'd sit around,
and my mom told me this growing up all the time,
an idle mind is the devil's workshop.
She would drill that into us.
An idle mind is the devil's workshop,
and that is very true.
You know, when we stay busy, it keeps us out of trouble.
When we sit around doing nothing,
that's when we tend to get into trouble.
And this well-fed society, you say,
oh, I just wish that we could be like France,
where they have a 35-hour work week.
Oh, so what, you lazy jerk.
35-hour work week.
You know what, you wanna have a 35-hour work week
because you're lazy.
That's what you are.
And by the way, if you envy and covet
places like France and Sweden and Norway,
you are either stupid, wicked, or both.
Okay, those are godless, wicked countries.
Horrible places.
And you say, oh, but it's so wonderful,
it's a socialist paradise.
You know, I would love to drop you off there
and see how well you do over there.
But you know, oh, it's so wonderful.
Yeah, it's so wonderful where they force you
to put your kids in school, whether you want to or not.
And then they teach them sex education in elementary school.
The worst possible filth.
I mean, whenever you hear about the weirdest,
like, oh man, they're teaching this crazy stuff
to kindergartners and first graders,
it's always like Denmark, Sweden, Norway, isn't it?
And obviously, there are still 7,000 men in these countries
that haven't bowed the knee to bail.
And there are godly, righteous people
that live over there, but there are a small remnant
over there in places like France and Scandinavia.
And we as Americans foolishly look to them
as a role model now, and the young people
and the college students now are buying into this rhetoric
of, oh, well, if we could just be more like Sweden
and just be more like France and Norway.
You un-American fool.
No, I'd rather live in a free country.
I'd rather trust in the Lord God
and actually work hard and work for six days a week
and actually preach the word of God
without it being against the law.
Like over there, if you preach the way that I preach,
you'd probably be thrown in prison in these places
for hate speech or whatever.
Oh yeah, that's probably just around the corner here anyway.
But the point is that over there,
the people are idle and they're sinful.
That's why in France, the majority of people
think that adultery is acceptable.
In fact, it's one of the only countries in the world
where most people think that adultery is acceptable.
There's nothing wrong with it.
I'm not saying that they're doing it.
I'm saying they're doing it and they think it's fine.
I mean, there are some people who do it and know it's wrong.
These are people who just say it's acceptable.
And Sweden and Norway are also known
for having some of the loosest morality
and some of the most backward values in these places.
And you know, I think that God's punishing them right now
from what I hear.
And I don't really know a whole lot about it.
So I don't wanna speak too much about it
because I don't really follow the news.
You know, I'd rather read this.
So I don't really follow the news that much.
So I'm not really up on it.
And there are probably people here in the auditorium
that know more about it than I do.
But I will say this.
I've heard a lot about a lot of raping
and pillaging going on over in Scandinavia.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
You hear about people coming into Germany and France
and Sweden and Norway and people are getting beat up
and assaulted and raped and there's pillaging going on.
You know what?
That's the judgment of God on a wicked nation
when those type of things happen.
You know, you can't just spit in the face of God,
blaspheme God, corrupt your youth, teach perversion,
and then not expect God to send his wrath and judgment.
And obviously the people who are committing these crimes
are very wicked people.
But the reason that God is allowing it to happen
is because he removes his hand of protection
when you spit in his face.
If you don't want to retain God in your knowledge,
well then God will say, all right,
then you can fend for yourself against the heathen hordes.
You know, you can fend for yourself against these,
you know, immigrating people that commit all these crimes
and everything like that.
So, you know, again, I'm not an expert
on what's going on over there,
but I've heard a lot of people who live there
and, you know, could speak from firsthand experience
that they're experiencing, you know, some serious problems.
And I'm sure it's only gonna get worse.
As they get more ungodly, they're gonna get punished more.
They're gonna suffer more.
And if we in America foolishly go down that same path,
God said he will judge a nation such as this
at the end of Jeremiah chapter five, he will punish.
You can't just have a society filled with adultery.
Everybody's like a horse, you know,
neighing after their neighbor's wife,
you know, just completely animalistic
without being punished.
The Bible says that you will be punished.
Shall not I visit for these things, verse nine,
sayeth the Lord, and shall not my soul be avenged
on such a nation as this.
You know, God forbid that you would ever be found
in such a nation as that.
But that's where we're headed, folks.
And that's why we need hard preaching.
It's the answer.
That's what they don't have in Sweden.
That's what they don't have in Norway.
That's what they don't have in France.
That's what they don't have in the United Kingdom.
You see, when you talk to people from the United Kingdom,
they say, oh, we don't have this kind of preaching.
We've had different reporters and things from the UK,
and they wanted to interview us and talk to us.
And in fact, we're going on the soul-winning marathon
in Atlanta, and this reporter from the BBC is coming
and covering the Atlanta soul-winning marathon
that we're doing.
Because she said, you know, we just don't have preachers
like you in England, so we're just showing our people
in England, wow, look at, this is a preacher from the US.
And I'm thinking to myself, yeah, I pretty much represent
what preachers in the US are like.
You know.
See, but this is another example of everything on TV
not being real.
People in the UK are gonna think that American churches
are like our church.
Like this is just your typical, you know,
evangelical Christian church.
So, you know, again, TV is never real.
So, you know, but she said, she said,
the pastors over here are all just,
and this is just coming from not even a church member.
This is just coming from a journalist.
She doesn't have a dog in this fight.
I don't think that she's, you know,
a really dyed in the wool member of any religion.
She's just sort of a worldly reporter,
and here's what she said.
She said, well, we wanna interview you
and talk to some of your church members
because we just don't have anything like this in the UK.
The pastors over here are these really kind of soft
and weak kind of guys, and they, you know,
they never like would raise their voice
or speak out about things and stuff.
Yeah, that's why your country's
in the condition that it's in.
And that's why France is in the condition that it's in
and Sweden and Norway and Denmark and the rest of it.
See, you need men of God to rise up
and cry aloud and spare not
and show my people their transgressions
in the house of Israel their sins.
The Bible commands us to stand in the head,
stand in the gap, make up the hedge,
preach hard on sin, rebuke iniquity
because that's our job in society.
You know, we have a role to play in society as preachers.
God uses men who preach to be a balance
against the devil's push for more sin,
more wickedness, more ungodliness.
Somebody has to push back and say, no!
But the problem is the preachers
aren't fulfilling that role today.
Look at the last verse in this chapter
because what's the chapter about?
We're in Jeremiah five tonight.
What's it about?
It's about a nation that's committing adultery.
They're not teaching their kids the same doctrine,
the same religion that they had.
He says in verse 30,
a wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land.
Now, wonderful here doesn't mean like, oh, it's so great.
Wonder, if something is a wonder, it means it's amazing.
You know, it's something that people would wonder at
or be amazed at, an amazing thing.
So he's saying it's an amazing thing
and it's a horrible thing.
A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land.
The prophets prophesy falsely.
So the preachers are not preaching right.
Why is it that the people are committing adultery?
Why are the children growing up and going after other gods?
Why are people lying and swearing falsely
and cheating each other in business dealings
and saying, oh, is the Lord liveth and it's a total lie?
Why?
Because the prophets are prophesying falsely, that's why.
And the priests bear rule by their means.
Watch this.
And my people love to have it so.
And what will you do in the end thereof?
So what the Bible is showing here is that often,
God's people will flock to a lying preacher.
They'll flock to the feel-good preacher.
They'll forsake the Jeremiahs of this world
and flock to the guy who's not standing in the gap,
that's not making up the hedge,
that's not crying aloud against sin,
and they'll go to the one where they're comfortable,
is what they'll do.
He said, my people love to have it so.
They love to be lied to.
And then later on in the same book,
they say to the prophets, prophesy unto us smooth things.
Preach lies to us.
Now, if you would go back in Jeremiah five here
to verse 10, it says, go ye up upon her walls and destroy,
but make not a full end.
Take away her battlements, for they are not the Lord's.
Now, what are the battlements here?
What are the walls represent?
They represent the protection around the city.
It's the defenses, the physical defenses.
And basically what they're saying here about the battlements
what the Lord is saying is, they're not the Lord's.
Basically, God's saying, I'm not gonna protect you.
These walls, these battlements, they're not mine.
It's not me that has these things in place to protect you.
Therefore, they're gonna fall.
Therefore, they're gonna come crashing down.
Because except the Lord build the house,
they labor in vain that build it.
And except the Lord keep the city,
the watchman waketh but in vain.
That means that we as a nation,
no matter how good our defenses are,
and how strong our military is,
what kind of technology we have,
if God decides that we're gonna be judged and punished,
it's gonna happen.
No matter how strong we are, no matter how tough we are,
God can bring down anyone he wants at any time he wants.
And so he's warning us that we shouldn't lean on
these worldly protections
and just think that we can do whatever we want.
You say, well, you know,
it's really important to me politically
that we're for a strong national defense.
But you know what the strongest national defense is?
Actually having God on your side.
I mean, that's the strongest.
That's the best thing you could do for your home security,
for your personal security, for your security as a nation,
our security as a church, just have God on your side.
Because God can protect you.
God can be a wall about you.
And the Bible says, the name of the Lord is a strong tower.
The righteous runneth into it and is safe.
I mean, God can protect you.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I'll fear no evil for thou art with me.
But if God's not with you,
you can't really say that as a nation.
Let's keep reading.
It says in verse number 12,
they have belied the Lord and said,
it is not he, neither shall evil come upon us,
neither shall we see sword nor famine.
See, it's a very positive message.
But it's just a lie.
That's the problem.
I mean, it sounds encouraging, right?
I mean, this would be something that someone
would write a book now.
Basically one of these popular TV preachers
would write a book called, evil shall not come upon us.
There's a big like smiling on the cover, perfect teeth.
It's all photoshopped.
All evil shall not come upon us.
Your best life now.
God's not mad at you.
But they're denying the Lord here
because the Lord said, no, I will punish that.
I will punish those sins.
And the prophet shall become wind.
Basically, it's just a bunch of hot air,
what they're saying.
And the word is not in them.
Thus shall it be done unto them.
Wherefore, thus saith the Lord God of hosts,
because you speak this word.
Behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire.
And this people would, and it shall devour them.
So he's telling Jeremiah as a preacher,
your word is going to be like fire when you preach.
And the people are going to be like wood.
He's just torching them.
Now you say, well, this sounds like a destructive guy.
But here's the thing, if you remember Jeremiah chapter 1
when he's commissioned to preach,
he's told that he's going to root up
and throw down and destroy and build and plant.
So he's told that he's going to do some destruction.
You see, when people are living in wicked sin
and disregarding the word of God
and have no fear of the Lord,
they don't need to be built up and encouraged.
They actually need to be rebuked.
They actually need to be taken down a notch.
Sometimes people need a swift kick in the pants,
not a pat on the back.
But today we're taught that all we should ever do
with God's word is just encourage people,
just pat people on the back, just build people up.
But what about when they're just spitting in God's face?
What about when they are even a saved Christian
and they're committing fornication or committing adultery?
Are we supposed to just encourage them and say,
hey, you know what, God loves you.
And just keep living your best life now.
And now here's the thing, God does love them.
But is that really what they need to hear
while they're living in sin?
Or do they maybe need to hear, hey, you know what,
God's going to destroy you.
I mean, think about it.
Like, wow, you're destroying your life right now.
You know, God's only going to put up with you
living in fornication for so long
because you're a saved child of God
whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth
and scourgeth every son and he receiveth.
But he that being often reproved, hardened at his neck
shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy,
watch out, beware.
But see, that's what people often need to hear.
And sometimes we need a fiery preacher
to burn the wood, hay and stubble out of our lives
so that we can be left with some gold, silver
and precious stones.
And some people can't take that heat
so they get out of the kitchen instead of sticking around
and being purged of some of this junk.
That's what should be happening.
Let's keep reading.
The Bible says in verse 15,
lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, Sweden.
I mean, no house of Israel, saith the Lord.
It is a mighty nation.
It is an ancient nation.
A nation whose language thou knowest not,
neither understandest what they say.
So he's saying they're coming from a far country
to the point where the language is unintelligible.
Because often nearby countries,
they kind of speak similar languages
and you can kind of figure out what they're saying
or at least there'd be interpreters
who would know the languages.
But he's saying, no, I'm bringing people
from a far country and it's an ancient nation.
The nation that he's referring to is the Chaldeans, okay?
The Chaldeans are ruling the Babylonian empire
at this time.
And if you remember, the Chaldeans go all the way back
to the days of Abraham.
Because Abraham grew up as a kid in Ur of the Chaldees.
Well, that same group, the Chaldeans are the ones
who are ruling from Babylon right now.
And the Babylonians are coming,
but they're actually the Chaldeans.
It's that same ancient culture
from the Tigris and Euphrates River there.
And then the Bible says that he's gonna bring them up.
And it says in verse 16, their quiver is an open sepulcher.
They're all mighty men.
And they shall eat up thy harvest and thy bread,
which thy sons and thy daughters should eat.
They shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds.
They shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees.
They shall impoverish thy fenced cities
wherein thou trustest with the sword.
Nevertheless, in those days, saith the Lord,
I will not make a full end with you.
He doesn't destroy the nation completely.
And that's why 70 years later,
they're able to rebuild and continue as a nation.
Of course, the nation was completely wiped out in 135 AD
after they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ.
But at this time, he did not make a full end
with the nation.
There were still some that remained
and of course, ultimately would come back.
The Bible says in verse 19,
and it shall come to pass when ye shall say,
wherefore doeth the Lord our God all these things unto us.
Why is God doing this to us?
Then shalt thou answer them, like as you forsaken me
and serve strange gods in your land,
so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
He's saying, you like to serve strangers?
Okay, you wanna serve a false god?
Well, I'll stick you in a land
where you can serve a false god,
where you can be a slave of a strange people
instead of serving the god that you grew up with.
He says in verse 20, declare this in the house of Jacob
and publish it in Judah saying,
hear now this, O foolish people.
Now, this is what Jeremiah is being told to preach.
This is a hard message to preach.
It's not gonna make it popular.
It's gonna be hard for him to say these things.
But this is what he's told to preach.
Hear now this, O foolish people,
and without understanding, which have eyes and see not,
which have ears and hear not.
Fear ye not me, saith the Lord?
Will ye not tremble at my presence,
which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea
by perpetual decree that it cannot pass?
Now, God's saying, don't you fear me?
Aren't you afraid of me?
That's what God is saying.
And a lot of people, when we talk about the fear of God,
here's what they'll say.
Well, the fear of God's not really being afraid or scared.
It's just respect.
Have you heard that, where they try to downplay it?
It's just respect.
When he says fear, it's just respect.
Okay, then why did he say tremble?
You know what trembling means, right?
Trembling is when you're so scared that you start shaking.
You know, when you get really scared and you start shaking.
Like the Bible talks about Belshazzar,
where his knees smote one another.
His knees were hitting each other.
He was so scared, it was like a Scooby-Doo cartoon or something.
Ooh, ooh, ooh.
He's so scared.
So basically, he's saying, don't you fear me?
And he's saying, will you not tremble?
Proving that fear means fear.
We're not talking about just, well, just kind of a respect.
No, this is a knee-knocking, trembling fear
that we're talking about.
And though the waves thereof toss themselves,
yet can they not prevail, though they roar,
yet can they not pass over.
Verse 23, but this people hath a revolting
and a rebellious heart.
They are revolted and gone.
Neither say they in their heart.
Let us now fear the Lord our God.
They giveth rain, both the former and the latter
in his season.
He reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
Your iniquities have turned away these things.
All the good things that God wanted to give them,
he wanted to bless them with a good harvest and prosperity.
He said, no, I couldn't make you prosperous.
I couldn't give you good things.
Your iniquities have turned away these things.
Your iniquities have withholden good things from you.
For among my people are found wicked men.
They lay weight as he that set its snares.
They set a trap, they catch men.
As a cage is full of birds,
so are their houses full of deceit.
Therefore they're become great and waxen rich.
So what the Bible is saying here is that God has
all these good things that he wants to give us,
but sin is what withholds good from us.
God can't be good to us when we're sinning
because then it will just get worse.
God wants to give us good things.
And then the Bible is saying here basically
that the people who are prospering,
the people who are waxing rich and waxing fat
are the people who are dishonest, thieves and so forth.
You know, they're waxing fat.
It says they're waxing fat, verse 28,
they shine, yea they overpass the deeds of the wicked.
They judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless,
yet they prosper.
Talking about basically corrupt government officials,
judges, people in politics.
You know, they're basically ripping everybody off,
making a bunch of money for themselves
and just prospering at the expense of everyone else.
The right of the needy, do they not judge?
Shall I not visit for these things?
Sayeth the Lord, shall not my soul be avenged
on such a nation as this?
And by the way, the right of the needy there,
that's not the right to a cell phone
or the right to birth control paid for by the government
or the right to a free housing or the right to free food.
You know, when it says turning aside the right of the needy,
it's talking about basically something that the needy
deserve or have a right to or belongs to them
and it's basically being taken away from them.
And then they go to court to try to get justice
and they can't get any justice.
They don't get any justice.
And you know, that's how it is nowadays
with a lot of the courts and things.
You know, you try to take people to court
and try to just get a fair shake
and it doesn't always happen that way
because there's so much corruption in the justice system.
That's what he's referring to here.
And if you look at the people
who are running our country today,
the people in Congress, you know,
the vast majority of them are millionaires.
They're literally millionaires.
Have you ever wondered, like,
how are these people all millionaires?
Because they don't really make that much money.
If you look at the salaries for a congressman,
the salary for a senator, it's not a huge salary.
What's the salary for the president of the United States?
Isn't it about 300,000 a year?
About three, it seems like when I was a kid,
it was like 200,000 or 250.
It's like $300,000.
But obviously, of course, everything's paid for.
He's got a house to live in,
he's got the jets and everything.
So he gets paid like 300,000 a year.
But the salaries go down from there.
You know, when you get into the Congress and the Senate,
it's a lot less than that, what they get paid.
I don't have the numbers in front of me.
But yet these guys are millionaires.
So you wonder, like, how do you become a millionaire?
And here's the thing, I'm sure they're getting paid well.
So let's say that they're legitimately making
125,000 a year, 150,000 a year or whatever,
that they're actually making through their job
or getting paid, whatever they get paid.
Wouldn't you think that they would just be satisfied
with that and just say like, okay, you know,
I've got a good income.
Now I'm just really just gonna buckle down and do my job.
And I'm gonna try to, sure.
Once you're elected, and then if you lose the election,
you still get your salary for life.
Really? That's right.
Oh, so even after they're voted out of office,
they're still basically getting paid?
Yeah.
Well, that doesn't surprise me
because the government prints their own money.
So, you know, they take care of each other and stuff,
because it's gonna be them next that gets voted out.
All in favor, say aye.
But the thing about that is that these people,
they get paid enough money for what they're doing.
And you say, well, you know, you want them to be paid well
because then they're not corruptible, you know,
because then they don't, they have what they need,
they don't have to try to get it through dishonest means.
Okay, great, they're paid well, great.
But then why are they multimillionaires though?
But the reason why they're multimillionaires is through fraud
because how else can you become a multimillionaire
while you're supposed to be doing one job?
And look, if somebody's paying you real good money
to do a job, you should do it with all your heart, right?
I mean, how many, oh, you'd be moonlighting
when you're getting paid real well to do that job on salary?
They should be, maybe they could actually spend that time
that they're out becoming a multimillionaire.
Maybe they could spend that time like reading the bills
that they pass.
Like who was the only guy that ever read the bill
was Ron Paul, the only one who actually read anything
before he voted yes on it.
He's known as Dr. No, because he voted no so many times.
But these other people vote yes on everything
and they're gonna pass the bill to see what's in it,
type of a mentality.
But the reason why, if you actually do some research
on how these people are multimillionaires,
the way that they're multimillionaires
is through what's called insider trading.
Because anybody in the United States
who does insider trading goes to prison,
unless you're a member of Congress.
I mean, how does that work?
So basically, Martha Stewart does insider trading.
She goes to the Who's Gal for a few years, right?
Remember that?
You and I do insider trading, we're going to federal prison.
Major crime.
And here's what insider trading is.
You know inside information about an announcement
the company's gonna make tomorrow or some change in the law
and you use that information to buy or sell stocks
because you know which way it's gonna go
and no one else knows.
That's called insider trading.
Well, here's the thing.
The members of the Congress and Senate,
they have all kinds of information like that.
Because they get together and they say,
okay, we're in a committee, we're gonna pass this bill
that opens up this industry and this state.
It's gonna just completely have hundreds of millions
of dollars go to this whatever.
And then they know, oh, let's buy our stock in that.
Or, oh, we're gonna pass all these regulations
that's gonna really harm this industry.
Let's pull out of that.
And I'm using real simple examples.
I'm kind of oversimplifying just to make sure
everybody understands what I'm saying.
But they know what's up before it happens.
They know that a road's gonna be built through
a certain area because they're passing a bill.
Hey, let's build a road from this city to that city.
So then they go in and they buy up all that land.
Because they know that in advance.
And then they just make money hand over fist.
But if it's dishonest for Martha Stewart,
why isn't it dishonest for them to do the same thing?
But basically, they've just voted themselves a right
to cheat and steal and rip other people off.
Because when one person makes a whole bunch of money
in the stock market, you know what that means?
Other people are losing a whole bunch of money.
And when one person goes in and they know the information
and they buy the land real cheap, right?
Well, the guy who owned that land,
he should have been the one to benefit
from that road being built.
But oh no, no, no, the senators in Congress,
they're gonna benefit.
Because they can go in and buy it real cheap
without telling the guy, oh by the way,
this land's about to be worth a whole bunch of money.
So these are the type of just fat cats.
I mean, they're waxing fat.
Verse 28, they shine.
You know, they just have so much money
and they're just, they don't care about the poor.
And these politicians, they pretend like they care
about the poor, especially the liberals, right?
But all of them do.
And they act like, oh, we care so much about the poor,
we just love the poor,
and we just wanna make their lives better.
They really just wanna keep the people poor
and relying on the government.
Because if they can keep people relying on the government,
then they'll vote for bigger government
and keep giving the government more power.
So this is a description of our nation today.
And if you can read the Book of Jeremiah
and not see the similarities with America,
your eyes are closed, my friend,
because the Bible says in here, you know, there's adultery,
there's a lot of fraud, the rulers, the judges, the leaders,
they're getting real fat.
And it's not talking about
that they're getting physically fat.
I mean, although that could be part of it
just because back then, you know,
not everybody had access to rich foods.
So I mean, these people could be literally waxing fat
in the sense that they have enough money
to go out and just purchase whatever,
they don't do any physical work.
And so basically what it's saying here
is that it's just government corruption, adultery.
Preachers won't preach right.
Fornication is just, I mean,
people are just lining up by troops at the harlot's houses.
You know, what is he saying here?
He's basically describing a nation
that used to be a godly nation that's gone down the tubes.
And so we need to identify the problem today
and look around our country and say,
hey, we're going down that same road that Sodom went down,
the same road that Judah went down,
and we need to take heed.
And we need to turn unto the Lord our God.
And we need to make sure
that we teach our children the Bible
so that we can raise up a godly generation
that would stand against this stuff.
And at least, even if we can't turn this country around,
because it's kind of a big ship to turn around,
because it's 340 million people,
but at least if we could just, you know,
at least slow down the decay
so that we can at least live quiet and peaceable lives
and at least win more souls to Christ
before the thing has just completely gone off the cliff.
So this book of Jeremiah is very relevant today.
I wish that the relevant churches
would start preaching out of this,
because this is what we're dealing with today.
I mean, Jeremiah five is more relevant
than today's newspaper.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord,
and we thank you that it,
even thousands of years after it's written, Lord,
it paints a picture of what we're dealing with today, Lord.
And we pray that you would just please
just bless us as your people, Lord.
I know you can't bless our nation
because our nation is too wicked,
but I pray that you would bless us individually,
that you'd bless our church, Lord,
and help us to raise up children that would stand up
and shine the light of the gospel
in the coming generation, Lord.
Please help no one in this audience tonight, Lord,
to be going to the harlots' houses,
to be neighing after their neighbor's wife, Lord.
Please put that wickedness far away from us, Lord,
and help us to speak the truth and be honest and work hard
and not to rip people off and wax fat
at the expense of others, Lord,
and make ourselves rich in order to
basically rip others off, Lord, and keep them poor.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.