All right, so keep your Bible open there in Jeremiah chapter 1.
So what I'm going to be doing, I was thinking about preaching through a book of the Bible
during these 12 months that I'm here.
Now, does anyone know how many chapters there are in the book of Jeremiah?
Maybe check your Bibles if you don't know.
Anyone can, someone else might, yes, anything?
52.
How many weeks are there in a year?
52 weeks, all right.
So I just thought Jeremiah, 52 chapters, 52 weeks.
So every Sunday morning, we'll be going through a chapter in the book of Jeremiah.
And in fact, actually, that's not the only reason, it is a great book to go through.
So you have Jeremiah who's been called by God to be a preacher, to become a prophet.
And so there's a lot of great things that we can learn for the preacher.
In this church, it's not just me that's going to be preaching.
Of course, we're going to continue with some of the other men, especially those that may
have a desire one day maybe to get into ministry in the future.
There's no guarantees of that, of course.
But we need to hear what God requires from a prophet, from a preacher.
So we learn a lot of good things from Jeremiah.
Not only that, Jeremiah lived in a time before the seven kingdoms' captivity.
So if you know the history of Israel, when King David, when King Solomon, King Saul first
were kings, they were kings over a united one nation, the one nation of Israel.
But following Solomon, after Solomon passed on, the nation of Israel was divided into
two kingdoms, if you know that.
The northern kingdom was made up of ten tribes, and that northern kingdom was known as the
kingdom of Israel.
They continued that name Israel, but then the southern kingdom got its name Judah.
And so the capital city of Judah was Jerusalem, and the capital city of the northern kingdom
became Samaria.
And then eventually, that's where we know when Jesus Christ is walking the earth, that's
why the northern kingdom, they had a mix of the Assyrians there, were known as the Samaritans,
because the capital city of Samaria.
Anyway, so the northern kingdom, because of the disobedience to God, was taken into captivity
by the Assyrians, and then they were dispersed, other people came in, there was a mix of people,
that's why they're called Samaritans.
The southern kingdom, though, they were taken after the northern kingdom was taken into
captivity, they were taken into captivity by the Babylonians, okay, the Babylonians.
And of course, the southern kingdom of those two tribes became known as the Jews, okay.
So we have, the united kingdom was the children of Israel, but the southern kingdom became
known as the Jews, and so that's why you'll later see the term Jew being used to just
describe that southern kingdom, and then it became just a general term of those that were
of descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Anyway, the prophet Jeremiah is preaching at a time just prior, just prior to the Babylonian
captivity, and so it's a free nation, and the Lord has shown Jeremiah that it's going
to be taken into captivity by this foreign nation, and so Jeremiah preaches during this
time, also he preaches during the time of the attack of the Babylonians, and this is
where you get the book of Lamentations in your Bible, the book of Lamentations was also
written by Jeremiah, and Lamentations gets its name from the word lament, or to have
sorrow, to shed tears, to cry, and so Jeremiah sees the Babylonian nation come in, take people
into captivity, the city of Jerusalem is being destroyed, and as he sees this happening,
he's weeping, he's crying, that's where we get the book of Lamentations.
So we have the book of Jeremiah, you know, it's during the time before the captivity,
during the captivity, and a few years after the captivity as well, so we get this general
idea, and the reason why the southern kingdom is being taken into captivity, this was designed
by God, this was part of the punishment of the southern kingdom, because they had turned
their backs against God, because they became a wicked nation, and so brethren, let me put
it to you that Australia is a wicked nation, okay, you know, maybe in times past this nation
had a fear of God, but no longer, no longer when they redefined what marriage is, and
they think that marriage between man and man is fine, or between women and women is fine,
you know, that's a wicked perversion of what marriage is, you know, that there's no conscience
about killing babies, some 250 babies in the mother's womb every single day through the
process of abortion, murder, okay, these are killers, you know, these doctors are serial
murderers, right, and you know, the right punishment for these people is the death penalty,
but rather than these wicked people being put to death, it's the little babies, innocent
little children being put to death every single day in our nation, you know, these things
go under the radar, but it's happening in our nation, this has been permitted by the
governments, and you know what, churches are not preaching about these things, you know,
so what we find with the southern kingdom, we find a time in this nation is wicked, right,
and it's deserving the judgment of God, so I don't think it's all that different to what
we have in Australia, so that's another good reason why we should be going through the
Book of Jeremiah, and then we have this foreign power, the Babylonians coming in, right, stripping
the Jews of their rights, what are we seeing these days, with the coronavirus, and whatever
your opinion is on this pandemic, whatever your opinion is, what we are seeing is a removal
of our rights, okay, and so as we sort of think about how we're losing our rights, we're
losing maybe our privacy, you know, everyone wants you to contact and trace and know where
everybody is, and we're losing all that for the name of security, you know, what we see
here is again a powerful nation coming in, stripping, completely stripping the rights
of God's people, and they're being taken into captivity, so you know, I don't know what's
going to happen, you know, in the next 12 months, 2 years, we may see a furtherance
of our rights being removed, and so this is why I believe the Book of Jeremiah is a good
book to go through, because I think we can learn a lot, especially in this day and age,
we can apply these things here in 2020, here in Australia.
So let's start off with looking at verse number 5, just very quickly, I'll give the title
for the sermon this morning, verse number 5, it says, before I formed thee in the belly,
I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained
thee a prophet unto the nations, the title for the sermon this morning is a prophet unto
the nations, not only was Jeremiah a prophet to Judah, but he was called to be a prophet
to the nations, to the Gentile nations around, and so I really wanted that as a title, because
there is a misunderstanding of the Bible that exists today, you know, thinking that God
was only interested in the Jews, God was only interested in Israel in the Old Testament
days, but what do we find here, no, God doesn't want him to just be a prophet to Judah, but
a prophet to the nations, this is in the Old Testament, okay, so God even in the Old Testament
cared for the nations outside of Israel and Judah as well, so let's pick it up from verse
number 1, so if you're not used to this kind of preaching, you know, I'm going to basically
go verse by verse, and this is what we're going to be doing every Sunday morning, just
learning from the book of Jeremiah, learning what's going on during this time period, and
seeing how we can take applications for us today, verse number 1, the words of Jeremiah
the son of Hilkiah, now notice what is he, of the priests, priests that were in Anathoth
in the land of Benjamin, so we learned a couple of things here, that Jeremiah was a priest,
so you can see he's one of the priests, and because he lives in Anathoth, he's one of
the sons of Aaron, this was a city in the tribe of Benjamin that was given to the sons
of Benjamin, okay, so from the tribe of Levi is what we learned of Jeremiah, he's serving
as a priest, okay, so he's someone that is serving in the Old Testament, a house of God
in the Old Testament temple, look at verse number 2, to whom the word of the Lord came
in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the 13th year of his reign, so
this gives us the timeframe of this prophecy, and so this is again before the Babylonian
captivity, God is asking Jeremiah to preach before the Babylonian captivity, verse number
3, it came also in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, so we see
that Jeremiah not only preached during the time of one king, but of multiple kings leading
up to the captivity, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, unto the end of the 11th year of
Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive
in the fifth month, so here we have the idea, the timeframe, right, before the captivity,
leading into captivity, and even a few years after that captivity period as well, so this
is the time that Jeremiah was preaching, now look at verse number 4, it says, then the
word of the Lord came unto me, saying, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, and
before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations, verse number 5 is a great verse, there's a lot of points that I want
to take out of verse number 5, and number 1, what did we learn? We learned that God
was able, even while Jeremiah was being knit together in the mother's womb, God was able
to look at that child and say, yes, this child will one day be a prophet to Judah and
a prophet to the nations, what did we learn there immediately? That when God sees a child
when there's a baby in the mother's womb, brethren, it is a life, God has a plan for
that child, as I said, we started by saying that we live in a nation that's just killing
those babies in the mother's womb, you know, doing abortions, doing these wicked acts,
and yet God looks at that little baby and says, no, I've got a plan for that child,
I've got a plan, I know what's going to happen, and because of God's foreknowledge,
hey, God knows the end from the beginning, he's able to see that this child, you know,
I've sent him to one day be a prophet to the nations, what a great thing, you know,
when you get the idea of what a prophet is, some people have a misidea what it is, they
think of someone that can foretell the future, they think that is a prophet, and yes, many
times in the Bible, the prophet would foretell the future, but it's not so much about foretelling
the future that makes you a prophet, what makes you a prophet is that you're foretelling
God's Word, you know, anybody that gets up behind the pulpit, you know, or even goes
out door to door soul winning, when you're going out there, you know, sharing the Word
of God, hey, it's the Word of God that came unto Jeremiah, when you're sharing the Word
of God, you are prophesying, you are preaching God's Word, it's just another way of saying,
a preacher, a prophet was a preacher, and so God knows the end from the beginning, he
already set this out for Jeremiah, I'm just going to read to you, you don't have to turn
there, Isaiah 46 verse 9, it says, remember the former things of old, for I am God, and
there is none else, I am God, and there is none like me, look at verse number 10, it
says this, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, the things that are
not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure, and so what
we see here is that God is unlike any other God, God is unlike anybody else, he can tell
the future, why can he tell the future? Because God is outside of time, you know, one of the
laws in our natural world is that God created time, we're stuck in time, aren't we? You
know, today's one day later than it was yesterday, tomorrow it'll be one day later than it was
today, and so we are stuck in time, brethren, but we serve a God that is not stuck in time,
you know, he's omnipresent, but he can not only be everywhere at once, but he can be
anytime at once, God is outside of the laws of his creation, and so God can know the things,
the end from the beginning, you know God knows how you're going to end your life, God knows
the decisions you're going to make beforehand, you know, what an amazing thing that we serve
a God like this, he is an amazing God, and what I want you to notice also, because of
his foreknowledge, he knew that the prophet Jeremiah will one day be ordained to that
position, it's not like he was born from the mother's womb and that's prophet Jeremiah,
it wasn't prophet Jeremiah, you know, as a child he wasn't going around prophesying,
you know, as a little boy, as a little child he wasn't prophesying, there came a time when
he was serving as a priest, he was of the priest, when the time came, the right time,
that he was called to be a preacher as well, and so what else did we learn from this passage?
Number two, that if you one day want to be ordained as a prophet, you know, as a preacher
today in the New Testament, we have the two offices that serve the local church, one of
that is the pastor, and the other one is the deacon, okay, what did we learn from Jeremiah?
That Jeremiah, before he was a prophet, he was serving as a priest, he was serving in
the house of God, and Brevin, if your desire one day is to be a pastor or to be a deacon,
you know what you need to be found doing first of all? Serving the local church, you
know, the New Testament church is the house of God, you need to be someone that is faithful
to God, faithful to church, you know, just serving the local body, the best of your ability
like Jeremiah was, and if God can see that in you, he can see that you are serving him,
the time will come where he will take you and one day ordain you to a position of a
pastor or a deacon, you know, you can't think that, oh, I want to be a pastor one day, I
want to be a deacon one day, I want to serve in that capacity, but I'm just going to not
turn up to church, you know, when services are not, ah, you know, I don't know if I'm
going to turn up, I come to church but I don't serve the local body, listen, you're not going
to be the one that God selects then to be an ordained position in the church, you know,
I say this to anybody here that one day perhaps wants to be a pastor, we don't know, we don't
know, we have little children as well, maybe the little children one day will grow up to
be pastors and start churches, things are like, well, what you need to do is be like
Jeremiah and get busy serving the local body, you know, prove yourself in the local body
and then the day will come when you will be ordained to that position as long as you meet
the qualifications that are laid out for us in the Bible.
What else do we learn here?
Not only does God know the end from the beginning, not only is it important to be serving the
local body if one day you want to be in a, hold a position like this, but we learned
that, and I already mentioned this, but we learned that the life in the womb is a person,
as far as God is concerned, that life in the womb of a woman is a person, that person has
a future, keep your finger there in Jeremiah and please turn to Matthew chapter 1, turn
to Matthew chapter 1 for me, verse 23, we're going to be looking at Jesus Christ when he
was a child, when he was in his mother Mary's womb, look at Matthew chapter 1, verse 23,
Matthew chapter 1, verse 23, and before we read that, I'm going to, well you can look
down, I'm going to read to you from Isaiah chapter 7, verse 14, okay, because what we're
about to read in Matthew 1, 23 is the fulfilment of the prophecy of Jesus which is in Isaiah
chapter 7, verse 14, I'm going to read to you from first, okay, Isaiah 7, 14, it reads,
therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign, behold a virgin shall conceive and
bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel, of course that's a prophecy of Jesus Christ,
but let me just read the most important part there, it says, behold a virgin shall conceive,
what is conception, what is it when, you know, when someone conceives, what are we talking
about here, we're talking about the seed of a man fertilising the egg of a woman, okay,
that is conception, not only is that conception in the Bible, that's conception in our scientific
natural world, right, that is what is known as conception, but when it comes to, you know,
our medical system, don't they tell you that that is not a child, don't they tell you that's
just a fetus, that's just a bunch of cells, that's just a, you know, that's just a bunch
of what, organic material, it's not a living child just yet, they'll say, it's not a life
just yet, it's not living just yet, they'll say, and so they start making excuses for
abortion, they start saying well now, you know, it's fine, when you conceive, it's fine
to destroy that clump of tissue, whatever it is, but you're in Matthew chapter 1, let's
look at the fulfilment of this, Matthew chapter 1 verse 23, it says, behold, a virgin shall
be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which
being interpreted is God with us, and so Matthew chapter 1 verse 23 says, a virgin shall be
with child, and then when it says in Isaiah 7 14, behold, a virgin shall conceive, and
so when the Bible says that the virgin has conceived, God is also telling us that the
virgin is with child, child, and so even at conception, as soon as that seed fertilises
that egg, that is a child, no matter what it looks like behind a microscope, as far
as God is concerned, that is a child, and so brethren, abortion is wicked, you know,
these days they want to do late term abortions, things like that, that's wicked then, but
it's even wicked at conception, it's always wicked, what I'm trying to say to you, okay,
it's right for ladies, you know, if she's fallen pregnant, ideally it's in a marriage
situation, she can have that child, but even if she's a single parent, that's a child
that God has, that's a child that God knows the future of, you know, he's been ordained
to something, God has plans for that child, and that child ought to live, it's not anybody's
right to destroy something that God is creating in the mother's womb.
So that's the other thing that we learn in verse number 5, please go back to Jeremiah
chapter 1, verse number 5, Jeremiah chapter 1, verse number 5, and finally, just what
I kind of started off with, at the end of verse number 5, it says, and I ordained thee
a prophet unto the nations, a prophet unto the nations, now again, keep your finger there,
please turn to the book of Mark, turn to the book of Mark chapter 11, verse 15, Mark
chapter 11, verse number 15, one of the worst things that we find in Baptist churches, you
know, one of the worst things that I find in independent Baptist churches is this crazy
obsession for the Jews today, crazy obsession, they think of the Jews as some special, oh
man, this is an amazing race, you know, God loves the Jews more than the average person,
a lot of churches are like this, and they'll have the flag, look, we're not going to have
the flag of Israel here, okay, we're not even going to have the Australian flag here, I
told you we live in a wicked nation, I'm not going to promote this wicked nation, hey we're
of a holy nation, we are of the kingdom of heaven, hey that's our heavenly home, that's
our nation, okay, that future nation to come, that is our nation, and so I'm not going to
promote some earthly system here in this church, but there is this crazy idea, this crazy notion
that God loves a race of Jews more than the average person, now let me tell you Brevin,
if I told you, my background is Chilean, right, my parents came from Chile, they migrated
to Australia, if I told you that Chileans are better than every other race, what would
you think of me? What would you call me? Biased, but there's another word that gets thrown
around a lot, similar to biased, nationalist, racist, racist, if I'm saying this race is
better than this race, you know the white man is better than the black man, or the black
man is better than white man, what am I, I'm a racist, and what's crazy about these churches
lifting up one race, oh the Jews are so important, that's a racist position, I can't believe
I'm hearing this in a Baptist church, and so listen, that is not what we believe here,
we see that prophet was called not just to Judah, but a prophet to the nations, did God
care about the other nations? Absolutely, absolutely he did, okay, now you're turning
to Mark chapter 11, verse number 15, Mark chapter 11, verse number 15 please, because
even Jesus Christ makes this point, in verse number 15, Mark 11, 15, and they come to Jerusalem
and Jesus went into the temple, oh the temple, that's for the Jews right? Well let's keep
going, and began to cast out them that sowed and bought in the temple, and overthrew the
tables of moneychangers and the seats of them that sowed doves, and would not suffer that
any man should carry any vessel through the temple, and he taught saying unto them, it
is not written, is it not written, look at this, my house shall be called of all nations
the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves, you know what, that Old Testament
temple, yes it was for the Jews, but anybody of any nation could go there and make that
a house of prayer, you know what, the Old Testament temple is open to the other nations,
if they wanted to come and worship the God of Israel, they could do that, it doesn't
matter who they were, so we see that God cared about the other nations in the Old Testament,
and Jesus makes a point of this as well in the New Testament, but ye have made it a den
of thieves, can you also now turn to Matthew chapter 8, you're not far from there, turn
to Matthew chapter 8 verse number 10, Matthew chapter 8 verse number 10, Matthew chapter
8 and verse number 10, and I'm telling you a lot of these Baptist churches need to hear
these verses that we're about to read, they're not complicated, they're black and white,
they're easy to understand, let's look at it, Matthew 8 chapter 10, this is Jesus after
he was surprised by the faith of the Roman, yes Roman centurion, okay, and he says I've
not found such great faith, no not in Israel, he's saying look even more than the Jews,
this Roman centurion has a greater faith than the Jews of this land, that's an amazing thing,
and then he goes on to say, oh actually it's in verse number 10, when Jesus heard it he
marvelled and said unto them that followed, verily I say unto you I have not found so
great faith, no not in Israel, what an amazing thing for Jesus to say that about a Gentile,
about a person of another nation, that man had more faith than anybody that I see here
in Israel, okay, let's keep going, verse number 11, and I say unto you that many shall come
from the east and west, hey that's other nations, east of Israel, the west of Israel,
that would include Australians, that would include any of us, right, let me just read
that passage again, many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, hey when God puts these three names together
what idea do you get, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, remember Jacob's name was changed to Israel
and Jacob's children were the tribes of Israel, right, and so when we get these three names
put together we know he's talking about the Old Testament saints, well what Jesus is saying
is that people of all nations from east and west are going to come and sit down with these
great men, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, there's no difference is what Jesus is teaching,
right, between the Jews and people of other nations, but look at verse number 12, but
the children of the kingdom, hey that's the Jews, those are the people that should have
received Jesus as saviour, but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer
darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, hey when the Bible speaks about
the outer darkness, you can do your own study here, that's speaking about the lake of fire,
hey these Jews that do not believe in Jesus Christ, the Jews that follow the false religion
of Judaism, hey look Judaism is not the Old Testament religion, it's not, it's been corrupted,
New Testament Christianity is the natural progression of the Old Testament religion,
okay, and it's been you know, it's a new covenant that Jesus Christ brought in through his sacrifice,
and so what Jesus is saying is that these Jews that do not believe in Jesus, though
they should have received the kingdom, Jesus calls them children of the kingdom, they're
not going to because they're not even saved, they've not believed on the saviour, they're
not saved, they're going to be cast into the lake of fire, but people of other nations
from east and west, they're going to, those that believe, if you're here, you're from
another nation, maybe you're not a Jew, hey you're going to be able to you know, spend
time together in heaven for all eternity in the kingdom of heaven with people like Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, because these Jews, these Israelites, they did believe in Jesus Christ,
they did receive him as saviour, they did believe the gospel. Let's go back to Jeremiah
chapter 1 please, verse number 6, Jeremiah chapter 1 verse number 6.
Then said I, so this is Jeremiah speaking back to God, so God's called him to be a prophet, right?
Then said I, ah Lord God, behold I cannot speak, for I am a child.
So Jeremiah's like, I can't do this job God, I can't do, I'm a child, I can't speak like a man,
I can't do this work that you've called me to do God, he says. Verse number 7,
But the Lord said unto me, say not I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall
send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak.
Okay, so God says look, don't make an excuse that you're a child, don't make an excuse
that you can't preach, I'm calling you Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations.
What I love about Jeremiah, he actually reminds me a lot of Moses, let's keep our finger there,
let's go to Exodus chapter 4 please, Exodus chapter 4, and let's just look at a parallel with Moses.
Now Moses was another great leader, was he not? Hey, Jeremiah was a great preacher,
Jeremiah was a great prophet, in fact, his book, the book of Jeremiah, is one of the biggest books,
I think it's roughly about the same size as the book of Psalms, so it's one of the biggest books
that we have here in the Bible, and so God used Jeremiah mightily, okay, for a man who thought
he was just a child, okay, a man who thought he couldn't do the job, you go to Exodus chapter 4 please,
Exodus chapter 4 verse number 10, we see something similar when God called Moses,
Moses, what was Moses' job? Moses went to the Egyptians and was able to deliver the Israelites
out of Egypt, right? The Exodus, he was a great leader, he was a powerful speaker, Moses was,
and again, God used Moses in a powerful way, but in Exodus chapter 4 verse 10,
after God has called Moses out of the burning bush, it says,
And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou has spoken unto thy servants,
but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. I love that about Moses, he says, look, I'm not eloquent.
You know why I love that? Because I'm not eloquent. I don't like using big words because I get messed up,
sometimes I'm reading parts of the Bible and I can't even get it out of my mouth, right?
And so I'm not eloquent and I'm like, okay, well Moses, so what do we learn? What do we learn from these men?
A man like Jeremiah, a man like Moses, you know, when God calls them for a worker, they're like, yeah, I can do this.
Yeah, you know what, it's easy to be a prophet. It's easy to be a leader. Is that their attitude?
No, these men, what we learn from these men, they're not prideful, are they? They're very humble.
You know, they don't think of themselves so highly and they think, God, you're asking me to do a job, it's too much,
I don't think I can do it, God. But like God told Jeremiah, don't call yourself a child. What does it say to Moses?
Verse number 11, and the Lord said unto him, who hath made man's mouth, or who maketh the dumb,
or death, or the seen, or the blind, have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, I will be with thy mouth,
and teach thee what thou shalt say. Hey, what did he say to Jeremiah? And whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak.
You know what's good about being a preacher? I don't have to come here and wow you with my intelligence and my wisdom,
because, brethren, I'm not that wise. You get around me, you spend time with me, you realize just that I'm an average person.
But what's wonderful about being a preacher is we can go to God's word, and it's God's word.
So there's no greater word than this, there's no greater wisdom, and by proclaiming God's word, it looks like you're wise.
Like it looks like you, you know, wow, wow, man, look at this preacher, go. Really, we're just preaching what God says.
You know, thank God that I'm not using my own wisdom and my own words, you know, and that is the job of a preacher,
to preach the words that God puts in your mouth. Of course we've got that in our Bibles, alright?
Now, I'm going to read to you just very quickly. Another great man that God used in the New Testament
was of course the prophet Paul, the apostle Paul. And Paul, he wrote many, many epistles.
He wrote many books of the Bible, okay? And this is what he says about himself, you don't need to turn there.
Just 1 Corinthians 2, 1, I'll just read it to you. It says,
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
So Paul says, look, I'm not even a great speaker. Hey, that's pretty cool, alright?
You see, even Paul has humility. Even Paul does not elevate himself, right?
But then he says in verse number 2,
So he says, look, when I come to you, when I'm coming preaching God's word, I'm doing it in weakness, in fear, in much trembling.
And brethren, I've been preaching, I've been a pastor for 3 years now, and I promise you this,
every time I get up to preach, I've got butterflies in my stomach.
Every time I'm trembling with fear. Every time before I get up to preach, I'm like, God, can you help me?
I don't think I can preach today. Like literally every time, God, you've got to use me.
We see that with Paul. He's got the same trembling. He's got the same fear. He's got the same weakness.
But then he says in verse number 4,
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power.
That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Brethren, this is what makes preaching so good. You look good, but it's not you, it's God's word.
It's God's word that has the power. It's God's word that can change your life.
And please remind yourself of this, you know, when you may elevate a man too highly, a man that God has been using in your life,
and you think, wow, this man is so wonderful. Listen, it's the power of God that is changing your life.
God is using weak men. Whoever gets up here to preach, you know, he's just a weak man.
Thank God, God can use him for powerful preaching if we're preaching his word.
So you know, it's so important that we don't elevate men, number one.
Number two, that you don't become somebody that just listens to somebody because they've got great speech.
Brethren, listen, you want to turn, go to YouTube, turn on Hillsong if you want.
Okay, it's a much bigger church, much more activities. Listen, you're going to have a good time at Hillsong, okay.
But hey, churches like these are places of enticing words. It is man's wisdom, okay.
These churches, you go to these churches for a pep talk. It's like a life coach.
It's like, I need to be encouraged. They'll try to encourage you with the wisdom of this world.
They try to encourage you with the wisdom of men. They don't use God's word to preach powerful sermons, okay.
And God is using Jeremiah even though he's a weak man. He says, I'm just a child. I'm immature, God.
I don't think I can do this. He says, no, I'm going to use you, Jeremiah.
And so, brethren, if you're somebody that has a desire to preach, but you think, I don't know if I can do this.
Well, I mean, that's good because you're going to be numbered amongst the Jeremiah's against the Moses's and Paul and Pastor Kevin, right.
It doesn't matter. You just get, hey, do your study, get your sermon together, you know, preach God's word and I'll give you opportunities to do it.
You know, we all need practice. We all need the opportunity to study and proclaim God's word.
Now, again, I know it's not for everybody, but if you have that desire, if you have that fire in your belly to say something where God's word speaks, then do that.
I would highly encourage anybody to really do this. If you want to preach, let me know.
You know, if you've seen my New Life Afterchurch in Queensland, you know that I let many of the men get behind the pool bed and preach.
And now, because I'm here for 12 months, you know, they've got to really step up and I thank God for the men that we have in that church.
Back to Jeremiah chapter 1 verse number 8.
Jeremiah chapter 1 and verse number 8.
It says, be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
So, the preacher should not be afraid of the faces that he's preaching to.
So, if I'm preaching God's word, I'm preaching God's truth and I see that I'm getting somebody upset and someone's like, ah, this is wrong, they're shaking their head.
You know, I shouldn't be like, I better tone this down. I don't want to offend so and so.
No, you know, don't be afraid of their faces. You know what this means?
As a preacher, if you're preaching God's word, preach with boldness.
You know, there's no greater truth in this world but God's word.
And so, if you've got that great truth, you just have the boldness that what God says is true and you're not going to be preaching lies if you keep close to his word.
And it says there, what, I'm with thee to deliver thee. He says, look, don't worry. If people get upset, I'll help you out, is what God says.
And so, this is why I love preaching is, you know, if I offend people, I know it's coming from the word of God.
You know, if someone gets upset, someone gets uncomfortable, ah, Pastor Kevin preached about my sins, why did he say that?
He knows, he knows I've been divorced before. He knows I've had, you know, fornication before.
He knows, why is he preaching these things? Listen, we're just preaching God's word.
If it upsets you, great. You know, if you've made mistakes in the past, so be it.
You know, we're preaching to children as well and we don't want our children to make the same mistakes that we've all made in the past before.
You know, God's word is powerful and, you know, we ought to be willing to just face the fact that we're all sinners and we are all sinners.
We're not perfect. We've all made mistakes. Even your pastor has made mistakes, okay?
And so, there's no reason to get upset. I believe that I would offend you more, brethren.
Because listen, we just, what do we have, four walls that have been painted and nice now?
We don't have much going here except the preaching, right?
So, I feel like, you know, I feel like if I don't preach God's word, if I don't try and do my best and preach with power, then I'm going to offend you then.
It's like, hey, we came all the way to Blessed Our Baptist Church and Pastor Kevin preached some watered down ten minute sermonette.
Boy, that wasn't worth it. I feel like I would offend you more by doing that, okay?
And so, I don't want to do that, brethren. I want to make sure that I preach God's word.
If you get offended, then let it be. Just take the thought of the Holy Spirit speaking to me and this is something that I need to change in my life.
That's why we come to church, right? To get changed.
Not just to hear the same things that we already know, you know, just to make us feel comfortable.
Look at verse number nine.
Once again, what is the preacher to be known for?
God says, I have put my words in thy mouth.
What is the preacher meant to preach?
The words of God, okay?
This is why we go verse by verse, verse, verse, verse, verse.
We turn to the Bible again and again and again.
I think my average sermons, you're going to get like somewhere between 50 to 100 verses.
Every sermon, okay?
Because all I want to do is proclaim God's word.
I don't want to give you the wisdom of man, right?
And again, if it offends you, it offends you.
Listen, I've had people at New Life Baptist, I don't know what it is, brethren,
but we get visitors come to New Life Baptist Church when I'm preaching the most controversial sermons.
Like, you know, like when I'm preaching against the homosexuals or something.
That's when we get the visitors come in, right?
And we've had people leave, okay?
People just get up and they're like, whatever, I'm just going to keep preaching God's word
because that's what I mean, that's what I prepared.
That's what God put on my heart that day to preach, right?
Even in my, listen, even in my old church, a church, I won't even name it right now,
but I was there for nine years and if you know my history, you know which church that is, right?
I love the people, I still love them.
I love the pastor, he's a great man.
And this is me just starting out as a preacher.
Me just saying that if you believe you can lose your salvation, you're not saved.
Someone got up and left.
Me saying that, hey, Roman Catholics are not saved.
They don't worship the God of the Bible, they don't have the Jesus of the Bible, someone got up and left.
I'm just preaching basic things.
I'm not trying to be controversial.
I just thought everybody in church believed these things, right?
People, listen, man, if you preach God's word boldly and people get upset, just keep preaching.
Now let it be the Holy Spirit of God that works in someone's life.
Okay, let's keep going, verse number 10.
See, I have this day set thee over the nations, there it is again, the nations and over the kingdoms.
Now, this is the job of a preacher, okay?
I've set thee over the nations, over the kingdoms.
What is Jeremiah supposed to preach?
What is it meant to do?
It says here, to root out.
So it's like, you know, if you've got weeds in your garden.
You know, you want to take the weeds out, you want to take them out by the roots so they don't keep growing, right?
You've got to tear it out, you know, God is saying, right?
Root out, and into this, and pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down.
Say, well, that's a lot of negative preaching.
You know, that's what?
I mean, to destroy?
Do you think, I'm going to bless it up back to church this morning, I want to get destroyed.
Hey, that's the job of the preacher.
I mean, look at the first four things.
Root out, pull down, destroy, throw down.
I mean, those are four kind of, like, you know, people would think of that negative thing.
So again, listen, you're not going to go to Hillsong, and the preacher there is not going to pull down.
Okay, he's not going to root out.
He's not going to destroy, he's not going to throw down.
All he's interested in doing is the next two bits, to build and to plant.
I just wanted you to feel good.
I want to edify you.
Now listen, is it the job of the preacher to edify, to build?
Yeah, absolutely.
Is it the job of the preacher to plant?
Yes, absolutely.
Hey, these are two positive things, are they not?
To build and to plant?
But look, that's two things.
How many negative things were there?
Four, right?
There were four negative things, two positive things.
All right?
So yeah, you know what?
If you go to a church and all you're hearing is these two positive things all the time,
you know, God is good, God loves you, you know, keep serving God, you're doing well,
God's not angry at you, you know, yeah, you know, just do the best you can, whatever,
you know, you're fine, pat on the back.
If you're hearing that every Sunday, you're not hearing what the preacher ought to be like, okay?
The preacher for, what's that?
Double, double, double the time, double the time the preacher's preaching.
It should be things that are tearing things down.
And then, once everything's teared down, then we can build, then we can plant, right?
And so when we're, let's say, sin, right?
We ought to preach against sin.
We ought to say, hey, this sin will destroy your life.
This sin, God is angry at this sin.
You need to clean it up.
You've got to stop doing this.
You've got to hear that kind of stuff that'll make you uncomfortable.
And then once you hear it, you go, well, what do I need to do?
Then you need to be built up.
Then you need to be planted and say, well, I need to walk after God's ways.
I need to do what God has asked me to do.
And so these elements are important, the destroying, but also the building, okay?
Or if I'm preaching about a doctrine, let's say I'm preaching on the deity of Christ, okay?
I'm preaching on Christ, you know, who is God, who is 100% God, and yet 100% man,
listen, yes, it's good to build up.
It's good to plant.
It's good to teach good doctrine.
But at the same time, you also have to tear down doctrines like the JWs that don't believe Jesus is God.
You know, doctrines are like the Mormons that believe Jesus' brother is the devil.
You know, they've got a false idea of Jesus, right?
The Jesus of the Roman Catholic where he's got long blonde hair and blue eyes.
I mean, you've got to tear down the wrong images that you know of Jesus Christ
and then teach and build up the right doctrine.
So the preacher's job is to do both these things, not just to teach the truth, which is important,
but also to tear down false ideas, false doctrines, okay?
Let's keep going.
Actually, no.
What I want you to do, keep your finger there and go to 2 Timothy, please.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter 4.
If you're like, man, I'm listening to a lot of negative preaching these days, you know,
Blessed Hope Baptist Church, well, you know what?
That's what God's asked us to do.
That's the job of the preacher, okay?
Go to 2 Timothy, please, chapter 4.
You might have the idea, well, pass to Kevin.
That's the Old Testament.
There's a lot of negativity in the Old Testament, right?
Have you ever read, if you've read the Bible cover to cover, you know what I'm talking about, right?
You're reading through Jeremiah, Isaiah.
It's like, man, if God's angry at them again, it's like negative.
God's going to destroy them again.
God's going to judge them again.
It just keeps going, right?
There's a lot of negativity in the Bible.
Maybe it's just to teach us, right?
To teach us not to do the same mistakes that others have made.
And so what I thought was interesting is this is not just an Old Testament way of preaching.
This is also the New Testament.
When we look at Timothy, Timothy was a pastor.
He was the pastor of the Ephesian church, okay?
And so the book of 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy,
these are epistles that Paul the Apostle wrote to Timothy, yes, but also to pastors.
You know, if you're a pastor, this is some of the most important books that you need to read
because it teaches you how to be a preacher, how to be a pastor.
But look at verse number 2 there, 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse number 2 reads,
Preach the word.
So we've covered that before.
Then it says this, be instant in season and out of season.
Listen, even though it's out of season to teach that marriage between one man and one wife
to the day you die, you know, even though it's out of season,
we still have to preach the truth of God's word, right?
And then it says this, look at this, reprove, rebuke.
Hey, those are two negatives, right?
Reprove, you know, correct, rebuke, you know, call out errors.
Then it says, exhort, now exhort is the building up.
Exhort, we've all long suffered in doctrine.
So what do we see in the New Testament?
Two negatives, reprove, rebuke and then exhort.
So again, even in New Testament, the direction to a pastor is you've got to be,
you've got to tear things down, you've got to destroy twice as much as the positive, the building up, right?
So we see, hey, consistency from the Old Testament to the New Testament.
Look at verse number 3 there, 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 3.
Why is this important?
It says, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves,
teachers have been itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth
and shall be turned unto fables.
You say, Pastor Kevin, why do we have to hear negative preaching?
Why do we have to hear preaching that tears down?
It's because if we don't, we're going to endure, we're going to give in to false teachers,
we're going to want our ears itched,
we're going to allow fables to come into the church and being preached
and before you know it, blessed up after the church we'll have turned away from the truth.
And so it's important to preach the truth, but it's also important to tear down, to rebuke, right?
To reprove things that are wrong. Back to Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 11.
Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 11.
Normally at my church in Queensland I've got a clock back there so I know how long I've been preaching.
But let's keep going, verse number 11.
If I get to two hours just let me know that I've done enough, okay?
Verse number 11.
Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me saying,
Jeremiah, what seeest thou?
And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.
Now as we keep reading this, I don't know if Jeremiah's having this supernatural vision.
Because God's asking, what do you see?
I don't know if it's some vision that he's seeing or if it's just the natural world.
Because what he sees is an almond tree, maybe he's looking out the window.
And he sees a tree, an almond tree, and what stands out to him is the rod of an almond tree,
like a branch, like a branch is sticking out of that almond tree and he calls it a rod, okay?
Look at verse number 12.
Then said the Lord unto me, thou hast well seen, for I will hasten my word to perform it.
And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time saying, what seeest thou?
So again he's asking, what do you see?
And I said, I see a seething pot, and the face thereof is toward the north.
So again, I don't know if it's some supernatural vision or if it's just again he's in his house and maybe he's boiling some water.
Okay, so it's seething, we've got this bubbling happening in the pot there.
So he sees this seething pot, it's bubbling, it's boiling over, he sees these two things,
he sees a rod and he sees this bubbling over and it's toward the north, it's pointed toward the north.
Now what is this all about? Look at verse number 14.
Then the Lord said unto me, out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
And so this evil that is breaking forth is, as we'll keep reading on later on, we'll know, it's the Babylonian empire.
It's the Babylonian empire that will bring Judah into captivity.
And so what I believe is being seen here is what God is saying is, you know, Jeremiah's seen this seething pot,
have you ever boiled water in a pot and then it starts to boil over, it starts to come out?
Well just like that, what's coming out of the north is this Babylonian empire, this powerful empire, it's coming out.
And the other thing that Jeremiah saw was a rod, right? A rod.
And of course, when you think of a rod, you think of an instrument used for discipline, for correction, okay?
And even when Jesus Christ comes back, you know, to establish his millennial reign, speaking of Jesus,
you don't need to turn there, in Psalm 2, 9 it says, thou shalt break them with a rod of iron,
thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
And so when Jesus Christ is coming back to rule in his millennial reign, he's going to have a rod of iron.
Listen, would you rather be disciplined with a rod of an almond tree, a branch, or a rod of iron?
I'd rather the almond tree, I'd rather the branch, right, because it's flexible.
The rod of iron, that would be pretty bad to get disciplined by, okay?
But that just shows you the authority, the power of the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
And so what we're seeing here then is that God will judge Judah.
God will bring that rod of chastisement, of correction, and is going to use the Babylonian empire to judge the Israelites.
Okay, that's what we're seeing here.
Verse number 15.
So he's saying look, all of Judah, all the cities, they're going to be taken into captivity, even Jerusalem.
You're going to have these people blocking the gates of Jerusalem, and of course Jerusalem ultimately gets destroyed, okay?
Verse number 16.
Then he says,
So what do we learn about Israel here?
Why is God bringing judgment upon them?
Because they've turned against the God of the Bible.
They've turned against the God of Israel, right?
And so because you've turned against the God of Israel, because you've forsaken God,
because you're doing these religious practices toward other gods, this is why he's going to judge the southern kingdom of Judah.
What do we learn from there then, brethren?
Is that as the people of God in the New Testament, you know, our command, what gives God pleasure, is serving God, is worshiping God.
You know, you've been in the house of God, you know, for an hour, an hour and a half, whatever it is, you know, on a Sunday, you know, you could be doing other things.
There's a lot of activities going on. There's a lot of sport activities out there.
You know, you could be using your Sunday for something fun, you know, or I hope you find church fun and pleasurable.
But you know, you could be doing other things, right?
And yet, you know, you come into the house of God, God sees that and he pleases him.
You know, this is your offer of sacrifice unto the God.
When you sing praise, when we sing our hymns, when we sing songs to God, these are sacrifices of praise to God.
And so God wants his people to worship him. God wants his people to praise him.
But when we turn against God, what can we expect?
Well, we can expect God to bring on that rod of chastisement.
We can expect him to correct us, to judge us.
Hey, he'll never cast us into hell if you're a child of God, if you're saved.
He'll never chastise you in that sense, okay?
But yes, on this earth, the mistakes you make, the sins you make, God can correct you on this earth.
But listen, if when you pass away, because you're a child of God, because you're saved, you will be for all eternity with God in heaven.
And so, you know, I had on Wednesday, I had a pastor friend of mine preach in Queensland, Pastor Paul Stevenson.
He made a really great point.
You know, we may not be the kind of people that create idols. I hope not.
You know, you find some other God and say, I'm going to worship this other God.
But what we can do as Christians is have a God of our own imagination.
And this happens when you don't read your Bible cover to cover.
When you don't really understand God's wrath and God's anger and God's judgment.
You know, when you've gone to church and I've been like this, I've gone to church and all you hear, God is love.
God is love. God loves and God is love. God does love us.
God is long suffering. God is merciful. Praise God for that.
Otherwise, we wouldn't be here, okay?
God obviously showed his love by sacrificing his only son.
And so God has extreme love, but God also has extreme anger, extreme wrath.
Listen, I mean, throwing souls into hellfire for all eternity, think about how angry God has to be in order to do that.
We serve also a God that is angry at the wicked every day, the Bible tells us.
But you don't hear that from a lot of churches. You don't hear that.
And so people have this idea of God and there are people that deny hell.
They deny eternity in the lake of fire because they say, well, you know, if God is truly loving, then he wouldn't do that.
Well, yeah, that's a God of your own imagination.
That's not the God of your Bible. If you read your Bible, you would know what God is like.
God is both loving and yet he has perfect anger, perfect hatred for the things. He hates sin.
You know, God cannot allow sin in his presence.
And so this is the true God. You know, this is the God that I want to preach to you guys.
You know, you got to understand, the true God, you know, if you're like me, you've gone to churches and they don't tell you that God is angry.
And you think you can just go about life and do whatever you want and God's happy anyway? No.
God is angry at our sin. God will chastise us.
And especially if you create a God of your own imagination that doesn't reflect the God of the Bible, you know,
we see that the Jews here themselves, they've turned away from the true living God.
Let's look at verse number 17. We're up to verse number 17.
The Bible reads, Thou therefore gird up thy loins, speaking to the prophet, and arise and speak unto them all that I command thee.
Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.
So again, he's saying, look, don't be dismayed. People get upset with you, just keep preaching God's Word.
What a love, he says, and speak unto them all that I command thee.
Listen, as a preacher, it's not your job to pick and choose what you want to preach.
You know, the reason I want to go verse by verse, chapter by chapter for the book of Jeremiah,
is so you can't say, hey, you skip that, okay?
You know, it is tempting to skip things, especially if you think it's going to offend someone in church.
No, but God wants us to preach all that he's given us, you know?
The whole Bible needs to be preached, from Genesis to Revelation.
But here's the punishment. If you're a preacher, that avoids preaching certain passages of the Bible.
And in verse number 17, it says, lest I confound thee before them.
God says, look, if you skip parts of the Bible, if you don't want to preach God's Word,
I'm going to make you look like a fool, is what God is saying.
You know, in the eyes of others, they're not going to think of you as a powerful preacher of God.
They're going to think of you as some foolish man who shouldn't be behind the pulpit.
Someone else should be doing that job.
Verse number 18, for behold I have made thee this day a defended city,
and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah,
against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.
Listen, God says, look, if you just preach my Word, I'm going to make you a defended city.
You're going to be protected against all these people of authority, of power.
I'm going to keep you safe, is what God is saying.
And so, you know, we should never think that we should cut the message.
We should never think that we should sugarcoat the Bible in case, what if the media finds out?
What if the media finds out you believe certain things?
Listen, God's going to defend you.
God will be the one. He'll make you a defended city, an iron pillar,
brazen walls against the whole land.
What a promise to the preacher.
Verse number 19, and they shall fight against thee,
but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee, save the Lord, to deliver thee.
And so, what a wonderful thing to know that God will deliver someone that wants to just preach God's Word.
And brethren, if you, you know, want to come to bless it up at this church,
I want you here, but I want you to understand,
this is a place where God's Word will be preached without filter.
You know, we're not going to hide certain things.
We're not going to make excuses for things where God is harsh and God is angry.
We're not going to say, well, you know, that's how God felt in the Old Testament,
but now he's a totally different God. He's been reformed.
You know, no, we're not going to be like that.
We're going to preach what God says.
The Book of Jeremiah is a great book to go through.
It really is going to highlight to us, you know, this wicked nation that we live in.
Australia is a wicked nation.
And listen, I mean, I don't think there's a, every nation, every nation has turned to wickedness.
This whole world has turned to wickedness.
I don't know how much longer God will hold back his wrath.
I don't know how much longer we are till the end times.
Look, it could be 100 years from now. It could be 200 years. I don't know, you know.
It could be 1,000 years from now. We don't know, okay?
But as I see this world just progressively get worse and worse, you know, I'm 39 now.
I remember as a child, I thought the world was bad, but you could get away doing a lot of things.
I mean, children could just play on the street.
These days, I wouldn't even let my own kids play on the street.
I don't know what kind of widows are around these days, you know?
I mean, this place is just getting worse and worse.
And so, my hope, my desire is that this book will really give us a lot to think about
and to know how we ought to live in a wicked world.
Okay, let's pray.