But Jeremiah 32, and look at verse number 10, please.
Jeremiah chapter 32 and verse number 10, it reads,
And I subscribed the evidence and sealed it.
The title for the sermon this evening is, Subscribe and Seal the Evidence.
Subscribe and Seal the Evidence.
One thing that I was thinking about as I was reading through this chapter,
one thing that kept popping out in this chapter,
and you'll notice as we go through it how many times the word evidence appears in this chapter.
Just after evidence, after evidence, after evidence.
It keeps coming up.
And so I do believe the Lord wants to bring our attention to this topic tonight.
So let's start there in verse number 1, Jeremiah 32 and verse number 1.
It begins by saying,
So we get the timing of this prophecy that comes from the Lord to Jeremiah.
You can see that it's during the tenth year of King Zedekiah.
We know that King Zedekiah was the last king before the complete destruction of Jerusalem
and the final exile of the people.
And you can see that really they are at the point of war right there.
Because it says the king of Babylon's army has besieged Jerusalem.
So there's a siege taking place.
People in Jerusalem, they can't go out for fear of being captured or killed.
And they can't bring resources in.
So it's a dire strait, right?
The prophecies of Jeremiah have been coming true.
And remember the book of Jeremiah is not always in chronological order.
So here we are toward the end of the captivity.
Now this should be so clear.
By now if you've been listening to Jeremiah, like if you lived in that time
and Jeremiah's preaching how the king of Babylon's coming.
And this is going on.
Shouldn't you just at this point say, man Jeremiah was right.
All along he was right.
I thought he was crazy.
I thought he was just off the wall.
I thought he had gone insane.
But actually everything Jeremiah had said had come true.
And it surprised me that even as we keep going through this chapter
people are still not listening to Jeremiah.
To the fact now where is he?
It says in verse number 2, he's in the court of the prison.
He was shut up in the court of the prison.
So Jeremiah has been arrested and is in prison.
Right? I mean this is what's happened to the man of God.
You might ask why is Jeremiah imprisoned?
Did he cause, was he speaking out against the authorities?
Was he out being a troublemaker?
What is it that caused Jeremiah to be in prison?
Well verse number 3 explains why.
It says, for, this is why he's in prison.
For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up.
The king had put him in prison saying,
Wherefore dost thou prophesy and say,
Thus saith the Lord, behold I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon
and he shall take it.
So king Zedekiah is sick of Jeremiah.
He says, look you've been preaching about the king of Babylon coming.
You've been preaching about this.
Why do you keep preaching about this Jeremiah?
You don't shut up.
I'm going to take you to prison.
I'm going to arrest you.
You're going to prison.
Okay?
So you see the king has not liked the preaching of Jeremiah
even though the city is besieged.
Even though it's so clear what he's saying is the truth.
Okay?
King, verse number 4.
And Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape into the hand of the Chaldeans
but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.
So king Zedekiah, full of pride.
He's saying, how dare you preach and teach people
that I'm going to be taken as a prisoner.
I'm going to be captured by king Nebuchadnezzar.
How dare you say that?
And shall speak with your mouth and mouth and his eyes shall behold his eyes.
Verse number 5.
And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon
and there shall ye be until I visit him, saith the Lord,
Though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper.
And so king Zedekiah, what we just read,
is repeating the words that Jeremiah has been preaching
which is why he shut him up in prison.
Now again, why was Jeremiah in prison?
Was he a troublemaker?
Was he causing problems?
Well, I guess he was causing some problems.
But the main reason he's in prison
is simply because he's preaching God's word.
I mean, that's why he's in prison, brethren.
And I just want to read to you very quickly from 1 Peter 4.15
which says, but let none of you suffer as a murderer
or as a thief or as an evildoer
or as a busybody in other men's matters.
Yet if any suffer as a Christian,
let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf.
Brethren, I don't know what the future may hold.
We may find one day that people are against,
you know, that the governments are against the people of God.
They might be against Blessed Old Baptist Church.
We've got a YouTube strike,
so YouTube's against Blessed Old Baptist Church.
I don't know what the future may hold.
And look, I have no problem, brethren, going to prison
so long as it's just about preaching God's word.
You know, I'm not going to compromise God's word.
We're going to preach God's word
and if I get arrested and thrown into prison,
I mean, it happens to Jeremiah.
It's not like the first time this has happened, okay?
But look, I'm not going to prison over other issues.
I'm not going to prison over my politics.
I'm not going to go to prison over my preferences.
I'm not going to go to prison
over being a troublemaker in society, okay?
You know, when I see people get arrested,
even Christians maybe, just for being a troublemaker,
I don't really pity them.
Now, I love them as my brothers in the Lord.
I'll pray for them.
I'll visit them in prison if that's the case.
But really, the only ones that really should be thrown in prison
if they're just preaching and standing on God's word.
And look, that can happen.
That may happen one day.
Even in our generation,
I don't know, again, what the future may hold,
where just standing on God's word alone
will get you thrown into prison.
Look at verse number six.
And Jeremiah said,
The word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
So now Jeremiah's receiving a new word from the Lord,
a new word from the Lord, a new prophecy.
What is the word of the Lord saying to Jeremiah here?
He says, Behold, Hanamiel, the son of Shalom,
thine uncle, so Hanamiel is his cousin, right?
If it's the son of his uncle.
Thine uncle shall come unto thee, saying,
Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth,
for the right of redemption is thine to buy it.
So they want to sell, you know,
some relatives here of Jeremiah,
they want to sell a piece of land.
Now again, don't you think this is
a useless activity right now?
You know, if they've been listening to Jeremiah,
Jeremiah's saying, they're coming,
the Babylonians are coming,
they're going to destroy the place.
So this proves to me even his own relatives,
what are they interested in?
Trying to sell some land, trying to make some money.
They're not even listening, they're not even hearing,
they're not even obeying the words
that are coming from Jeremiah,
their own relative,
the prophet of God that's been used,
they're trying to sell this land to Jeremiah.
Why are they selling it to Jeremiah?
Because you can see there it said that
for it is the right of thy redemption to buy it.
So if in the Bible times,
if you're going to sell a piece of land,
the people that got the first dibs at the land
was the closest relatives
before it got spread out to, you know, to others, okay?
So they're trying to sell this land to Jeremiah.
Well, the Lord is telling Jeremiah
they're going to come and sell this land to you.
And then it says in verse number eight,
So Hanamuel, my uncle's son,
came to me in the court of the prison
according to the word of the Lord.
So the Lord told Jeremiah this was going to happen
and then it did happen, right?
It did happen.
And then it says,
Notice the next words that Jeremiah says,
Okay, why would he say that?
Jeremiah's an experienced preacher, isn't he?
He's an experienced prophet.
He's been preaching for many decades already.
Okay?
And the word of the Lord has come upon Jeremiah
many, many times.
But we learn something about this experience
that Jeremiah had with the leading of the Lord.
Notice that when he received something from the Lord,
this is what we learn in this chapter,
he needed some type of evidence
or some type of proof,
some type of confirmation
that what he heard was definitely from the Lord.
Okay?
We learn about this here.
So he's heard from the Lord
that your cousin's going to come
and sell you a piece of land.
Then when it does happen,
he goes,
Oh, now I know that was from the Lord.
Okay?
So what I'm trying to say to you, Reverend,
is he sought confirmation.
Now, this is important
because as Christians,
I hear many Christians say this to me.
You know,
Oh, the Lord is leading me to X, Y, and Z.
The Lord has told me to X, Y, and Z.
I can't tell you how many people have said to me,
The Lord has told me,
you know,
He's directed me to your church.
You know,
The Lord wants me to be at
Blessed Up Baptist Church.
The Lord wants me to be at
New Life Baptist Church.
And then a few weeks later,
a few months later,
they're gone.
It's like,
Did the Lord tell you this or not?
Because if the Lord was so sure
about telling you to come,
where are you?
But people say this all the time.
The Lord told me.
The Lord's leading me.
Right?
But listen,
if you believe you've been hearing from,
and we have the Holy Spirit of God,
the Holy Spirit of God
works with our spirits,
you know what you need to do?
You need to confirm.
Is it true?
This is the confirmation you have,
God's Word.
You hear something from God,
you go,
Let me check in the Bible
if this is true.
This is the confirmation.
When you have the confirmation,
then you know it's from the Lord.
Hey, but if you're hearing from the Lord
and they're telling you something opposite
to the Word of God,
that's not from the Lord.
Hey, it could be from some devil.
It could just be your wild imagination.
Okay?
But it surprised me how,
you know,
how much liberty Christians have
to say,
The Lord told me.
The Lord's leading me.
The Lord's doing this.
Well, you know,
and then it all fails.
It all falls apart.
Now, how many people say,
The Lord's leading me to the ministry.
I'm going into Bible college.
I go to Bible college,
and then they're out of church.
Is the Lord leading you?
Or is it just your own wild imagination?
You can see Jeremiah seeks
to confirm the truth.
And I want you to notice,
God's Word lined up with reality.
Okay?
So, in reality,
his cousins did come
to try to sell a piece of land,
and reality lines up with God's Word.
Okay?
God's Word is truth.
Okay?
And any kind of truth
you can hear or learn from
in this world
will always be consistent with God's Word.
Always.
Always be consistent with God's Word.
Okay?
So, you know,
I'm not the kind of preacher
that says to you,
The only thing we can believe
is the Bible.
Now, what I would say to you,
the only thing that is
100% truth is the Bible.
But there are other things
in creation,
in general sciences,
and knowledge,
and wisdom
that are true.
There are a lot of things
that are possible,
and you can check it out
for yourself
and do your own experiments,
and you'll come to understand
certain things.
You know, mathematics,
you know,
there's a truth of that.
But whatever you learn
in the natural world,
as long as it's reality,
as long as it's true,
it'll be consistent with God's Word.
Okay?
Always.
And so you have this scenario
play out for Jeremiah.
He goes,
Yeah, that must have been true.
I've got confirmation.
This is why it's so important
that we build our doctrines
on multiple witnesses.
You know,
I have two or three witnesses
in the Bible.
Right?
The first one was
subscribe and seal the evidence.
Subscribe and seal the evidence.
Okay?
We need evidence
to understand
or believe certain truths.
Okay?
And you can see here
that in Jeremiah,
he saw the evidence
of his cousin's cousin
coming to sell him
a piece of land.
Now, why am I saying this?
Because you have to understand
that reality matches God's Word.
It matches God's Word.
It has to match God's Word.
Okay?
In Romans 1, verse 20,
it says,
from the creation of the world
are clearly seen,
being understood
by the things that are made,
even his eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse.
What does that tell us?
We can learn about God.
We can learn about his truth
by looking at creation,
by looking at the world,
by looking at the heavens.
We can learn about God.
And then it says in verse number 21,
because that when they knew God,
they glorified him not as God,
neither were thankful,
but became vain
in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart
was darkened.
Now, I want to be careful
what I speak about,
because the Bible also warns us
about false sciences.
Okay?
A science falsely so-called.
There's a lot of sciences
falsely so-called.
Evolution.
Okay?
I mean, I don't have time
to debunk evolution right now,
but that's nonsense.
That does not line up
with the Bible.
You can't make the Bible
line up with that stupid teaching.
Okay?
So, one's right
and one's wrong.
And I know God's word
is always truth,
so evolution, that's wrong.
Okay?
Now, let me give you
some other examples.
I'll just keep your finger there
in Jeremiah 32.
Can you please turn
to the book of Job?
Turn to Job 28.
Job 28, please.
I just want to give you
some examples of this.
Okay?
Job 28.
But while you're turning
to Job 28,
I'm going to tell you
about a person,
a mathematician,
who lived in the 1600s.
His name was Evangelista Torricelli.
Sounds Italian.
I didn't check if he's Italian.
Sounds Italian to me.
Evangelista Torricelli.
Okay?
Now, this mathematician
in the 1600s proved
that air has weight.
Okay?
That seems pretty cool
to prove that air has weight.
He's known for that,
of proving that.
Well, if you look at Job 28
and verse number 24,
Job 28 and verse number 24
it says,
For he looketh
to the ends of the earth,
and seeeth
under the whole heaven,
look at this,
verse number 25,
to make the weight
for the winds,
for he waiteth
the waters by measure.
So we see in verse number 25
there's a weight of the waters
and we know that.
That's not difficult
to understand.
But there's also
a weight for the winds.
Okay?
Now, before the 1600s,
before this was general knowledge,
I guess people would read that
and not really understand
what does that mean?
The weight of the winds.
Hey, but guess what?
Reality, true science,
okay, that can be measured
and tested and done again,
shows that there's weight
in the winds,
there's weight in the air.
So this is consistent
with the Bible.
You can see that reality
matches God's Word.
Okay?
Can you please now turn to Jonah,
the book of Jonah chapter 2,
Jonah chapter 2 and verse number 5.
I just want to give you some examples
of what I'm talking about.
Again, there's a lot of
false science out there.
Okay?
I'm not saying believe everything
that is being taught,
but there are certain things
that are testable, experimental,
you know, you can do it yourself
in your own time
and learn these great truths
of the natural world of creation.
And, you know,
it's only been recently discovered
in the last sort of century,
the last hundred years,
that there are mountains
under the water.
Now, maybe for you
that doesn't mean much
because it's been known
pretty much in our generation,
but they constantly,
as they continue to go deeper
into the oceans,
they continuously find
great mountains under the oceans.
Well, in Jonah chapter 2,
we know that Jonah was swallowed
by a whale, right,
because he tried to run away
from the Lord.
Well, he says this in verse number 5,
Jonah chapter 2, verse number 5,
he says,
The waters can pass me about
even to the soul.
The death closed me round about,
the weeds were wrapped
about my head.
So he had seaweeds
going around his face,
around his head.
Verse number 6,
I went down to the bottoms
of the mountains.
The earth with her bars
was about me forever,
yet hast thou brought up
my life from corruption,
O Lord my God.
So what is Jonah speaking about
as he's taken deep
into the waters by that whale?
He talks about being taken
to the bottoms of the mountains,
in the waters, mountains.
This was not known
in the time of Jonah scientifically, okay.
For the last hundred years
as we were able to get deeper
into the oceans,
better technology,
better scanning equipment,
all this kind of stuff,
yeah, we've discovered
that there's great mountains
under the waters, okay.
Again, reality lining up
with the word of God, okay.
Please turn to Amos chapter 9,
Amos chapter 9 and verse number 6,
Amos chapter 9 and verse number 6.
You know there's a lot of people
that believe if you're
a Bible believing Christian
that you're against science.
Like you've got to choose
between religion, Christianity,
the Bible or science.
I say, I want both, okay.
If the science is true
and God's word is true,
it's going to be compatible.
It's going to be perfectly aligned.
There's going to be no contradictions.
I'm happy to accept both
if they're both true.
But again, there's a lot of lies,
aren't there, in the world?
Amos chapter 9 and verse number 6,
Amos chapter 9 and verse number 6.
Let's just read this passage
together first.
Amos chapter 9 verse number 6.
It says,
It is he that buildeth his stories
in the heaven,
and hath founded his troop
in the earth.
Now notice the next words.
He that calleth for the waters
of the sea,
and poureth them out
upon the face of the earth,
the Lord is his name.
What's it saying there?
God calls the waters of the sea
and then the same waters
that he takes out of the sea,
he pours it upon the face of the earth.
Okay, the Lord is his name.
What is that about?
That's the water cycle.
You know the water cycle
the person that gets noted
as discovering or proving the water cycle
is a man named Bernard Palissy.
He lived in the 1500s
and he was a hydraulics engineer.
But even though he proved the water cycle
he was not accepted,
like it wasn't widely accepted
to the 19th century,
the water cycle.
That waters come from the sea,
back to the heavens,
and then that's what rains down.
Again, we learned this in primary school.
It seems like basic science
to us,
but that was not known,
you know,
just some hundreds of years ago.
Yet the Bible tells us
that this took place.
You know, before that
they used to believe
that the rivers,
because you know the rivers
run down into the oceans,
they believed that the waters
were coming out of the crust
of the earth,
filling up the rivers,
and then the rivers
were taking that water
into the ocean.
Now that's not the only passage
because then it says
in Ecclesiastes 1.7,
you don't need to turn there,
Ecclesiastes 1.7,
it says all the rivers
run into the sea,
yet the sea is not full.
So that would be the case.
Like if there was just water
coming out of the earth
filling up the rivers
and the rivers just kept
filling up the oceans,
eventually you'd think
they'd be full,
but the Bible says that
the sea is not full.
It says,
unto the place
from whence the rivers come,
thither they return again.
So the same waters
that run down the rivers
into the oceans,
the same water will be
back in the rivers once again
running down into the oceans,
okay?
It's the water cycle, okay?
And there are many passages
in the Bible actually
that speak about the water cycle,
but that was not widely accepted,
were not widely known
until the 19th century, okay?
So does reality
match up with God's word?
All the time.
All the time, okay?
Now why am I saying this?
Because as students
of the Bible,
we need to understand that
we take the Bible literally,
but you also need to understand
that God uses
a lot of poetic language,
a lot of figurative language,
a lot of symbolic things
as well in the Bible,
and you can't always take
everything literally.
Let me give you an example of this.
I'll just read to you.
In fact, this is one
of my favorite verses.
It encourages me
to go soul-winning, okay?
It's Isaiah 52 verse 12.
I'll just read it to you.
It says,
For ye shall go out with joy
and be led forth with peace.
The mountains and the hills
shall break forth
before you into singing,
and all the trees of the field
shall clap their hands.
Why does that encourage me?
That encourages me because
even if I'm unsuccessful,
maybe at the door,
maybe no one's interested,
no one's there,
I know that when I go out
proclaiming God's word,
creation is rejoicing.
Hey, but if I were to be
a hyper-literal person,
I would read that,
and I'll go,
well, see, the Bible says here
that the mountains and the hills
break forth into singing.
Wow, so they must have mouths,
and they can sing,
the mountains and the hills.
And then it says,
And the trees of the field
shall clap their hands.
So trees here must have hands
that they clap, all right?
And then I'll have some
scientists come up to me,
and, Pastor Kevin, don't you know,
you're just a, you know,
a brainless, religious nut,
you know, mountains don't have mouths,
they don't sing, right?
The trees, they don't have hands,
they're not clapping, right?
And I say, no, you know,
I'm just a boldly believing Christian, amen?
You know, I'm just going to
ignore reality.
I'm just going to ignore that
because God's word says
that the mountains and the hills
are singing,
and the trees clap their hands.
Okay?
Now, obviously, what is that?
Isn't that poetic language?
Hyperbole?
I don't know if you guys heard about that.
It's exaggeration, okay?
Now, yeah, creation rejoices
at the word of God, okay?
And so God uses poetic language
to give us an understanding
of how creation
loves hearing God's word,
and we have this example here,
not only hyperbole,
which is exaggeration,
but also personification,
so the trees and the mountains
are given human characteristics.
Okay?
This is what makes language beautiful.
The fact that we can be
expressive in our language, okay?
I mean, you know,
you don't want to be
this hyper literal guy
where just everything you read,
that's just how it is,
exactly how it is.
You know, trees have hands,
and that's it.
The Bible said it, and that's it.
Okay?
No, reality matches the Bible.
Okay?
And if there's something
that doesn't match,
then there's something wrong
with your understanding
of God's word,
or the science is messed up, okay?
And I'm saying that because,
you know, it's like little children
when they learn to talk.
You know, maybe little children
as they start to talk,
they'll say something like,
Me hungry.
Feed me.
Me hungry.
You know, I hungry.
Something like that, right?
Well, you know what?
We could communicate like that,
I guess.
You know, be a bit robotic,
but God, when he created language
in all the different languages,
it's all God's creation.
He's created to be beautiful,
to be expressive, right?
Instead of someone saying,
you know, me hungry, feed me,
you get the message across,
but how much better is it
when someone says, you know,
I'm so hungry that I can eat a horse?
You know, I'm starving.
Sebastian, I'm starving.
You know, he's had three meals a day,
but he's starving, right?
You know, we use expressive,
you know, exaggeration
to make language beautiful, right?
To express, you know, beyond
what words alone can give us.
And so if you say, you know,
I'm so hungry I can eat a horse,
oh, you're lying, brother.
You're telling a lie right now.
You can't eat a horse.
You reckon if I put a horse right now
and cooked it for you,
you reckon you eat the whole thing?
You're a liar.
No, it's, you know,
it's the beauty of language,
you know, expression,
illustrations, right?
You know, this is,
you need to understand this
about the Bible because
the Bible's full of this
beautiful language, okay?
Isabel, she doesn't say it so much now,
but she used to say it when I was little,
when she was little, sorry.
You know, I'd go to work and she'd say,
Papa, she could say, I love you,
and that's beautiful, I love you,
but she'd say, Papa,
I love you to the moon and back.
She's never been to the moon.
How can she love me to the moon and back?
How does she even know how far it is?
She's never done that.
I say, oh, you're lying, Isabel.
No, you know, I know what you mean.
You're being expressive.
You're using poetic language.
You're using beautiful language, right?
Not like, you know, me love you, you know?
The Bible's not like that, okay?
The Bible is written by God.
If anybody can be expressive
and beautiful with his words,
it's the Lord God and his used man, okay?
So I'm telling you that,
I feel like I've kind of lost my point now.
I can't remember what my point was.
My point was God's word matches reality,
but you don't want to be this hyper-literal guy
that even when things are symbolic
and even when things are poetic
and things are exaggerated
and things are using personification
and all other language,
poetic kind of devices in language,
you can't just be, well, that's what the Bible says.
That's literal and reject reality.
No, reality matches the word of God, okay?
Now, I'm saying that because we see in Jeremiah,
he sees reality and he matches God's word
and this gave him confirmation.
This gave him confidence that God's word was true.
Now, go back to Jeremiah 31, verse number 9.
Jeremiah 31, verse number 9.
As I told you, the title for the sermon
was subscribe and seal the evidence.
Evidence.
I love it when reality adds further evidence
to the truth of God's word, okay?
Now, listen, I don't need reality
to prove to me God's word is true.
What I'm saying to you is that it helps.
The evidence helps.
Understanding that God's word is true
gives you the confidence.
We shouldn't just reject
every other aspect of knowledge
or gaining knowledge
so long as it's true and consistent
with God's word, okay?
Jeremiah, chapter 32, verse number 9.
And then it says,
And I bought the field,
so he actually buys it,
of Hanamiel, my uncle's son,
that was in Anathoth,
and weighed him the money,
even seventeen shekels of silver.
They say, Jeremiah, why?
I mean, God told him to buy this.
But Jeremiah knows, what's the point?
I'm going to buy this.
I'm going to be out of pocket.
And then the Babylonians are going to come
and take it all anyway.
They're going to burn it all down anyway, okay?
This is like insider knowledge,
insider trading.
Have you heard of insider trading?
Where people in power and business
and government world,
they know what stocks are going up.
They know what stocks are going down.
It's illegal.
They're not meant to know.
But then they hedge their bets.
They buy the stocks.
They buy the things.
And they become wealthy.
They become millionaires, right?
Because they've got insider knowledge.
They've got insider trading.
They know what's going up.
They know what's going down, right?
And they make themselves rich.
It's corrupt, okay?
But Jeremiah's got insider knowledge.
He knows.
He never can.
In fact, he's been telling the whole nation
that it's all going to burn down.
And even with his insider knowledge,
he ends up buying.
He's at a loss here.
Like, you know, he loses what is it?
17 shekels of silver?
He's out of pocket now.
And that land is going to be taken
by the Babylonians anyway, okay?
Verse number 10.
Now, he does it because
of his obedience to the Lord.
The Lord has a lesson in this.
We'll have a look at it
as we go through the chapter.
There's a lesson to this whole
purchasing the land, okay?
But I want you to notice verse number 10.
This is where we start to notice
the word's evidence over and over again.
And I subscribed the evidence
and sealed it and took witnesses
and weighed him the money in the balances.
Listen, this is a great important truth.
This teaches us how to make agreements,
okay, how to make vows,
how to make promises,
how to fulfill contracts, okay?
There's a process.
There's a biblical process.
We know Jeremiah is a man.
We know Jeremiah is a man of God.
And you can see when he goes
to buy a piece of land,
this is not just some handshake agreement.
He does it properly, okay?
What does he do?
Number one, he subscribes the evidence.
What does it mean to subscribe?
It means to write down, okay?
So you want to sell me a piece of land?
I want to buy it.
We're going to document this.
We're going to say this is the piece of land.
This has been paid for, et cetera, et cetera.
We're going to write this down.
We're going to document this sale, okay?
Next thing he does
after he documents the evidence, he seals it.
Now, in the days of the Bible here,
to seal, they used to write in rolls,
and to seal it, they would use that wax.
Do you know what I'm talking about?
That wax seal like on a scroll
or something like that?
Well, that would be kind of like
someone's signature, right?
You'd seal that, and that would show
that is, you know, that is bonding.
It's an agreement.
And the thing is, it cannot be changed.
It cannot be altered
because the only way you can change
what is written in that scroll
is if you break the seal,
and by breaking the seal,
you damage the scroll.
So it's obvious that it's been tampered with, okay?
So he seals it to show that this is an agreement, all right?
It's locked into place.
It's kind of like envelopes.
If you get like a Christmas card, you know,
you know, the envelope bit has that,
you know, the seal, the sticky bit that you seal it.
Have you ever tried to open an envelope
that's like slowly and not damage the envelope?
Have you ever tried that?
Well, I mean, I've tried it.
I've always failed.
Like, it's always clearly been tampered with, right?
No matter how much I try to open it carefully.
Okay, that's the idea.
It's been sealed, right?
Now, in today's environment,
we don't really do that so much.
Like, if we're writing a document,
we're agreeing to some type of contract,
more often than not, we'll seal it with a signature, okay?
I'll sign it, you'll sign it,
and this is what seals the agreement, okay?
And I'll just quickly read to you 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 17.
You don't need to turn there,
but many times when Paul would write an epistle,
he would write this in second, I'll give you an example.
In 2 Thessalonians 3, 17, he says,
the salutation of Paul with mine own hand,
which is the token in every epistle, so I write.
So, Paul would speak,
he would have other people writing down what he's speaking
as he's being moved by the Holy Ghost,
but at the end of every epistle,
he would always write something with his own hand,
maybe like a signature or just these words.
Some people know this came from Paul, okay?
It's been sealed by the hand of Paul, okay?
So, subscribe, document, write it down, seal it, right?
Like we did today, signatures,
that seals the contract agreements,
and then he says, what else took place?
And took witnesses,
so this is not just a one-on-one thing,
there are other people watching,
there are other people there knowing
this transaction's taking place.
Why is that so important?
Because then it can become one person's word
versus another person's word.
He said this, he said that,
you know, he said 17 shekels,
he's giving me 17, but he told me 20.
Listen, when there's witnesses, they know what took place.
This is so important when you're making agreements,
when you're making contracts,
you have witnesses there to be there as a judge
if one person is lying to the other.
You know, this is why when I got ordained, right,
there were witnesses.
You know, there are some pastors
that claim they've been ordained,
but then you ask them, well, who ordained you?
Who were the witnesses?
What church were you presented before?
It's a secret, just a secret.
That's not right.
The biblical ways have witnesses, okay?
You know, there are men here that saw my ordination,
they saw that I was sent out, right?
They saw that I was sent out by another pastor
to start a church, and now, you know,
it'll never be a situation
where it'll be like my word versus another person's word,
but there are other people to confirm that took place.
That's important when you're making agreements, okay,
when a man and a woman are getting married.
What do we want?
We always want witnesses there, don't we?
We want the bridesmaid, the bridegroom,
and, you know, the people in the church,
you know, family and friends.
They're all there as witnesses to confirm
that a vow was made between a man and a woman.
There are other people there.
You know, even if it's just the clergyman
or whoever the... what's the word I'm looking for?
The government guy.
The celebrant, right?
There's some witness, there's some evidence
that this took place.
That's important when it comes to making agreements,
making, you know, contractual agreements.
Not only were there witnesses, it says,
and weighed him the money in the balances.
Jeremiah made sure, look, I'm giving you 17 shekels.
Shekels is a type of weight.
He takes balances, you know, and it shows everybody
this is definitely 17 shekels
that have been received by the hands of his cousin.
Can you see Jeremiah's very thorough here?
Why is it so thorough?
It's all going to be taken by the Babylonians.
I mean, I don't know how long he's going to own it,
probably not very long,
but then he does every effort to make sure it's done properly,
okay, the balances.
This is why we, you know, have, you know,
and it's coming up at the end of June,
I'll be doing a financial report on the church,
end of the financial year report
so you guys can know where the money has gone,
how much has come into the church.
It's important that we keep balance of money,
especially if it's a monetary exchange,
some type of monetary agreement, okay?
It needs to be reported on.
It needs to be balanced.
We need the books, right?
We have this book.
It gets counted, every service,
if there's, you know, any offering that gets put in.
You know, I've got some spreadsheets at home as well
of other things that have been done, expenses.
We've got, you know, bookkeeping software.
We've got, you know, we keep a balance of the finances
because many times churches divide over finances.
We see that Jeremiah is very thorough.
As a man of God, he makes sure it gets documented,
it gets signed and sealed, right?
It's got witnesses.
Other people know that transaction took place
and there's a balance, okay?
You can see the thorough work of Jeremiah
and I think this is so important for us
as we keep going through this.
Let's go to verse number 11.
He says, so I took the evidence,
there it is, of the purchase,
both that which was sealed according to the law and custom
and that which was open.
And I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch,
the son of Nereiah.
I haven't got time to explain who Baruch is.
Very quickly, he was like an assistant to Jeremiah.
We read more about him in Jeremiah chapter 36, okay?
He was like a secretary, an administrator for Jeremiah.
The son of Meir Sire in the sight of Hanamul,
mine uncle's son, and in the presence of the witnesses
that subscribed the book of the purchase
before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison.
Even all the Jews in prison are seeing this, okay?
Verse number 13.
And I charged Baruch before them, saying,
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase,
both which is sealed and this evidence which is open
and put them in an earthen vessel that they may continue many days.
What he's basically saying is this.
Take this document, and today we've maybe put it in a safe, okay?
A few months ago, my wife and I, we did a will, our very first will.
So if we passed away, people know what we want to do
with our possessions and with our children.
And then the, who's the person that does the will?
What are they called?
The solicitor, right?
She goes, so now that I've done the will, where do you want it?
She goes, I've got a safe here.
Do you want to keep it in the safe?
I'm like, yeah, put it there, okay?
So that would be equal to, you know, them taking this contract,
taking this document and putting it into an earthen vessel
so it can last, okay?
So, you know, if anyone needs to ever pull it out,
they have proof that this took place.
You know, when you take on a job, you know, you're offered a contract, right?
You're given an offer.
And off in that contract, you have to sign it.
They'll say, if you want to take this job, you need to sign it,
the manager signs it, a copy gets given to the employee,
a copy gets given to the employer, and if it's my workplace,
another copy will be given to HR, where it gets filed away.
And that way, if there's any problems in the future,
everybody's got access to it, right?
Or these days, we just put it on some cloud drive system
and you can access it as easily on a computer.
But this is the idea, you know, to make sure that these contracts
can be checked, you know, from time to time,
if there's any kind of disagreements.
Now, I'll get you to, please keep your finger there
and turn to 2 Peter chapter 1.
Turn to 2 Peter chapter 1.
We're talking about evidence here, having evidence.
That contract that was sealed was evidence of the purchase of the land, okay?
Now, we also have evidence in our salvation.
The Bible says in Hebrews 11, 1,
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of the land.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.
For by it the elders obtained a good report.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God
so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
So brethren, what is the evidence that you have faith in Jesus Christ?
That you believe, okay?
Your faith, your belief is evidence to me that you are saved.
That's all I need.
All I need to know is if I ask you, how do you know that you're saved?
What do you have to do to go to heaven?
And you say, it's simply by believing in Jesus Christ.
And that's your answer?
You know, I can never lose it. It's eternal life.
You give me that answer, that's sufficient evidence for me to say that you're saved.
But unfortunately, many Christians are like,
well, let's make sure he's coming to church.
Let's make sure he's reading his Bible.
You know, he was smoking a cigarette.
Let's make sure he gives up smoking
and then when he does all these kinds of things, now we know they're saved.
Now that's the evidence. No.
The evidence of our salvation is our faith.
We have an evidence-based religion in Jesus Christ.
It's not some stupid, blind faith. No.
It's based on evidence.
And we have a look at that. It's based on the Word of God.
But you're in 2 Peter 1, verse 16.
2 Peter 1, verse 16.
It says, for we have not followed cunningly devised fables.
When we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
You know there's a lot of cunningly devised fables in this world?
And look, the mainstream media gives us a lot of fables.
And then people run to alternative media.
Listen, there's a lot of fables there as well.
There's truth there, there's truth there.
There's fables there, there's fables there. I promise you.
As I said, there's only one place of ultimate, perfect truth that doesn't change.
It's the Word of God.
So no matter what source you get information from, you'd better compare it to God's Word.
You'd better subscribe it. Is it subscribed in God's Word?
Do you have the evidence of God's Word that it's true?
Listen, we build our life and our doctrine and our walk on God's Word.
Why am I saying that?
2 Peter 1, verse 16. Verse 17.
For he received from God the Father honour and glory,
when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory,
this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
And this voice which came from heaven we heard,
when we were with him in the holy mount.
We have also, actually before we read verse number 19.
So Peter is saying look, at the holy mount that's the transfiguration of Jesus Christ.
That's twice when God the Father said this is my beloved Son.
Number one is baptism, the second time at his transfiguration.
It was only Peter and who are the other two?
James and John.
James and John who were there with Peter seeing the transfiguration of Christ.
A cloud overshadowed them.
They heard the voice of the Father once again saying this is my beloved Son.
What an experience!
They were so shocked, they were overwhelmed by what they were experiencing,
seeing the glory of God.
You would say man, what an experience.
I know I'm saved.
I believe in God because of such an experience.
Well look, that was reality for them, that helped.
But notice, that's not what their faith is placed on.
There's a lot of charismatics, Pentecostals with their experiences.
You know, I've experienced this, I've got a born again experience.
I've spoken in tongues.
Their tongues is just gibberish, right?
But I've had that experience and they think this means I'm saved.
No, if we keep going, look at verse number 19.
It says, we have also a more sure word of prophecy.
There is something more sure than the experience that I saw with the transfiguration of Christ.
Listen, it's the prophecies.
It's the writings of God's word.
It says here, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed,
as unto a light that shineth in a dark place,
until the day dawn and the day star rise in your hearts,
knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation,
for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man,
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
So what is Peter saying?
Man, I experienced great things with Jesus, right?
I was there at his baptism, I was there at his transfiguration,
I was there at his crucifixion, I saw a resurrected Christ,
but even though I saw all of that stuff, even better than that,
even more sure than that, is God's prophecies, God's scriptures.
This is what gives us confidence.
This is the evidence of our faith, the word of God.
It's amazing that we have this.
I mean, I think it'd be great to have lived on the time of Jesus.
I think we all would have loved that, to speak to Jesus face to face,
see him work, see him speak, but even better is what you hold in your hands.
So please don't neglect the Bible.
How many times do we neglect the Bible?
This is even better than experiencing all the great miracles that Peter experienced.
Let's go back to Jeremiah 31, verse number 15.
Jeremiah, we better hurry up.
You guys ready for a two-hour sermon?
That's why you started early, brother.
Verse number 15.
For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.
So, you know, Jeremiah's been prophesying that they're going to be captured,
but God is now, through Jeremiah, once again revealing that there's going to come a time
where once again they're going to be buying houses and lands and vineyards.
So what Jeremiah was doing in purchasing this land was to be an object lesson
that one day they're going to be able to buy land once again.
This is the whole purpose behind it.
Verse number 16.
Now when I had delivered the evidence of the purchase,
there it is again, and to Baruch the son of Neriah,
I prayed unto the Lord, saying,
Our Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power,
and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee.
Thou showest love and kindness unto thousands,
and recompense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them.
The great, the mighty God, the Lord of hosts, is his name.
So Jeremiah now begins to praise the Lord
because the Lord has shown him the whole purpose of you buying that piece of land
before all the witnesses in the prison house, all these people watching you,
is that you will teach them that one day God will cause them to come back to the land
and be able to purchase land, purchase houses, get on with their lives,
and then through that Jeremiah has been encouraged once again.
He knows that God's promised them. He's not done with that nation.
They're going to come back into the land.
And so now he's rejoicing in the Lord.
Now I'm going to read a lot of these verses
because it just repeats a lot of what we've been looking through Jeremiah,
just for the sake of time.
But verse number 19.
Great in counsel and mighty in work.
By the way, where do you get your counsel from?
Do you seek the counselor?
Do you seek the counsel of men when you need help?
Listen, great in counsel. God is great in counsel.
When you need help, Reverend, before you run to the pastor, run to God, please.
Before you come to me and ask something, run to God.
Say, God, can you show me in your word I need some help, I need some counsel.
I'm not great in counsel, brethren.
I do the best I can, but I'm still a man.
It's God that's great in counsel.
And mighty in work.
For thine eyes are opened upon all the ways of the Son of men
to give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings,
which has set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.
So now we're going back in time in history, you know,
when all the plagues of Egypt fell upon them,
even unto this day and in Israel and among other men,
and has made thee a name as at this day
and has brought forth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt
with signs and with wonders and with a strong hand
and with a stretched out arm and with great terror.
Now notice verse number 22.
And has given them this land which thou didst swear to the fathers to give them,
our land flowing with milk and honey.
Listen, what's going on here?
We're talking about evidence, okay?
We're talking about an agreement.
You know when God has set an agreement,
when he's made a promise, when he's made a vow, he sees it through.
He's seen them out of the hand of Egypt, out of the hand of the Egyptians
and brought them into the land that he promised the fathers.
God will always fulfill his promises.
I often pray to the Lord when I'm struggling
and I find a great promise in his word.
The psalms are really good because how many times are the psalms
speaking about being delivered by the hand of the enemy?
And I just read something like that to the Lord
and say, Lord, you keep your promises
and I'm going to trust that you're going to help me in my difficulty.
And how many times does the Lord do it that does it, you know?
He's true to his word.
I think there's nothing wrong, nothing wrong at all
holding God accountable to his word.
He loved that.
He proclaims his word above his name, the Bible says.
God keeps his promises, okay?
But you need to understand Israel and Judah's failure at this point in time
was not down to God failing.
It was down to man failing.
Because verse number 23 then says,
and they came in and possessed it.
Yes, so God kept his promise.
But then what happened?
But they obeyed not thy voice,
neither walked in thy law.
They have done nothing of all that thou has commanded them to do.
Therefore, thou has caused all this evil to come upon them.
Listen, it's not like they just forgot one thing, all right?
It's not like they just messed up a little bit
and now God's just angry at them.
No, Jeremiah says,
they have done nothing of all that thou commanded them to do.
So at this point in time, as the Babylonians come,
it's not a godly nation.
You know, they're worshiping false gods.
They're doing all manners of wickedness, okay?
Even the stuff that's going on into God's house is corrupt.
They've got false preachers, they've got false priests, okay?
I mean, they deserve to be judged.
Brethren, what verse am I up to?
Twenty-three.
Twenty-four.
Behold the mounts.
They have come unto the city to take it,
and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans
that fight against it because of the sword
and of the famine and of the pestilence
and what thou hast spoken is come to pass,
and behold, thou seest it.
Now look at verse number 25.
And thou hast said unto me, O Lord God,
So Jeremiah's saying, look, the Chaldeans are coming,
that's the Babylonians, same guys, okay?
They come in, they're going to take it all,
but then he says, but then God, you told me,
O Lord God, buy thee the field for money
and take witnesses for the city is given
into the hand of the Chaldeans.
So Jeremiah says, Lord, this doesn't really make a lot of sense, right?
They come in, they're taking everything,
you're going to burn it all down, you know, it's your judgment,
but then you told me to buy this piece of land.
It just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.
Again, you know, Jeremiah's out of money here, right?
He's out of pocket, 17 shekels out of pocket, right?
He's not going to hold on to that land for very long, okay?
And so it might, you know, initially seem weird, okay,
for Jeremiah to be instructed to buy this piece of land
when God's judgment is about to fall.
But again, we're just going to notice that even though
this is a guaranteed loss to Jeremiah, guaranteed loss, okay,
and he's not going to make any profit, we know that,
even something that is seemingly so unimportant,
I'm going to buy this piece of land and it's going to be taken off me
by the Chaldeans, by the Babylonians,
even something that seemingly seems so unimportant
required proper process, subscribing it, sealing it,
witnesses, okay, proper process even though it may seem
insignificant, unnecessary, a waste of time, okay?
Why am I saying this?
Because again, we see this being brought up again and again in this chapter,
okay? This is so important, okay?
Now, especially when it comes to God's house,
when it comes to this church, all right,
I want you to understand that I don't have any secret,
you know, dealings with people.
I don't have any secret handshake, agreements with anybody.
You know, I don't have, you know, a group of people,
you know, two or three people, you know, one person or two people,
three people that just know my secret thoughts about this church.
There's nothing like that, brethren, okay?
I have nothing to hide.
You know, it doesn't matter how long, if you've been in this church
from the very beginning or you've just recently come,
I have nothing to hide.
If you want to know about this church, I'll tell you anything.
I'll tell you my plans. I'll tell you my vision, okay?
I don't have any secret agreements with anybody, all right?
When we started this church, all right, what do I do?
First thing, spoke to my wife.
Honey, what do you reckon?
Sounds like a good idea.
Next thing I did, went to my church, New Life Baptist Church.
What do you guys reckon?
I have to travel here.
I'd reduce how much I'd be able to preach for you guys.
I need you guys to step up.
You know, I'll be traveling down here.
I need you guys supporting me, praying for me.
What do you think? Do you think it's possible?
I say, yes, sounds good. Go ahead and do it.
Next thing, contact brethren in this church before this church started.
What do you think? Can we do it?
We have a meeting.
We get together amongst witnesses.
We talk about, you know, plans for the church.
Can it happen? Should we do it?
How can it happen?
We talk about it. It's not a secret, okay?
And then we have everybody knowing.
We make an agreement.
We decide, yes, we go ahead and we start this church.
That's how this church has started.
This is how decisions will always be made in this church, okay?
No secret handshakes.
No he said, he said, she said.
None of that.
It's out in the open, okay?
This is the instruction that we see from God.
Not only do we see a godly man do it,
but even when it seems unnecessary,
because he's going to lose it anyway,
he still follows through and does proper process.
You know, when I came down to Sydney,
you know, already more than halfway through,
same thing.
Honey, what do you reckon?
Sounds good.
New Life Baptist Church, what do you reckon?
Sounds good.
Come here, talk to you guys.
What do you reckon?
Should we do it?
Yeah, sounds good.
Before witnesses, right?
Every decision of this church is done with everybody knowing.
Anything that's important, even things that may not seem important,
like, you know, given maybe the finances,
you know, we need to give financial reports to these things already mentioned.
These things have to be out in the open.
Because when people start thinking there are secret agreements
and secret handshakes, secret contracts,
listen, that's going to tear apart a church.
Everything is in the open.
If you want to know about this church,
I'll tell you anything.
I've got nothing to hide.
Okay?
It's so important, so important.
If I ever entrust this church into the hands of another man,
or other men,
I promise you this, it's going to be before witnesses.
Okay?
If we ever ordain somebody in this church, it'll be before witnesses.
Listen, my track record is like this.
I understand.
I understand it's important to document.
I understand it's important to sign and to seal.
I understand it's important to be brought forth before witnesses
so everybody knows what's going on.
I understand this is so important.
This is part of my normal practice.
Not only is it part of my practice,
it's also the instruction that we get from God's word.
A godly man like Jeremiah,
God is telling him how to make contractual agreements.
This is how we even do it in this world today.
You know, even getting a job out in the secular world,
they follow these kinds of processes.
Okay?
You say, who are the witnesses?
Anybody can get your job contract.
Anybody in your HR can access it and say,
yeah, there's been agreements made.
There's been a signature.
It's been signed.
Okay?
Important.
Because if we don't follow through,
if we don't keep things open,
if we don't do things before witnesses,
it can hurt a church.
Please never make secret handshake agreements.
You know, if you walk away thinking
Pastor Kevin has promised me something
and nobody knows about it,
then you're wrong.
If nobody knows about it,
it was never made.
Look at verse number 26.
into the hand of the Chaldeans,
and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon, and he shall take it.
And the Chaldeans that fight against this city
shall come and set fire on this city
and burn it with their houses,
upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto Baal,
and poured out drink offerings unto other gods,
to provoke me to anger.
For the children of Israel and the children of Judah
have only done evil before me from their youth.
For the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger
with the work of their hands, sayeth the Lord.
So, you know, I don't want to expand too much on these verses.
We know what it's all about.
We've been covering Jeremiah.
The people of God here, these nations,
they've turned against God,
and God has handed them over to the captors
as their judgment, as their punishment.
Verse number 31.
For this city have been to me as a provocation
of mine anger and of my fury
from the day that they built it,
even unto this day,
that I should remove it from before my face,
because of all the evil of the children of Israel
and of the children of Judah,
which they have done to provoke me to anger,
they, now notice this,
who are the people that are provoking God to anger?
They, their kings, their princes,
so the authorities, the governments,
their priests, and their prophets,
the religious leaders, and the men of Judah,
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, all of them,
they've all turned against the Lord.
Verse number 33.
And they have turned unto me the back and not the face,
though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them,
yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction,
but they set their abominations in the house,
which is called by my name to defile it,
and they built the high altars of Baal,
which are in the valley of the Son of Him,
and look at this,
to cause their sons and their daughters
to pass through the fire unto Molech,
which I commanded them not,
neither came it into my mind
that they should do this abomination
to cause Judah to sin.
I've already preached on this before,
but that's basically,
these people were sacrificing their own children.
They were killing their own sons and daughters
in worship to some false god.
Look how far they had gone.
And again, you may say,
well, that never happened in Australia,
and yet mothers, 250 babies every day
being aborted in Australia.
Aborted, being pulled apart in the mother's womb.
I've already talked about abortion,
but just recently,
because, you know,
I'm starting to love Queensland a little bit
because I'm trying to live there, right?
I've been living there for the last three years,
and Queensland in Australia
has often been known as the conservative state,
like the Christian,
like that's kind of like the Texas, right?
It's supposed to be.
It's not.
Because just recently,
just two days ago,
the Queensland Labor government
is trying to pass assisted suicide.
They want to bring in a bill
so they can kill more people,
assist people to suicide.
Listen, this is already legal in Victoria,
okay, which is why it's such a wicked state.
It's been introduced recently in WA.
It's already been passed in Tasmania,
but it doesn't come into effect
until next year, 2022,
and now Queensland,
my beloved Queensland,
which the Lord sent me to.
Looks like there's going to need
a little bit of preaching in that area, all right?
But listen, I mean,
we live in a wicked nation.
Such a wicked nation.
I love Australia.
I love Australians.
I love the opportunities.
There's still freedoms
compared to some other places,
but at the same time,
I can't ignore the weakness of this world,
the weakness of this nation.
Let's just kill babies.
Let's just inject
a whole bunch of vaccinations into you,
all kinds of who knows what.
Let's kill the elderly.
Let's help them die.
Let's make it legal to commit suicide,
assisted so no one gets in trouble.
I mean, we live in a nation of death,
okay?
And look, these people love death,
don't they?
Sacrificing their own kids?
If they love death so much,
then God's bringing them death.
God's bringing them judgment.
Verse number 36.
And now therefore,
thus saith the Lord,
the God of Israel,
concerning this city,
whereof ye say,
It shall be delivered
into the hand of king of Babylon
by the sword,
and by the famine,
and by the pestilence.
Behold, I will gather them
out of all countries.
Now, we're looking at the end of the captivity.
Once again, he's talking about
how he's going to bring them back, okay?
But I want you to notice,
this actually has a double prophecy.
There's a double fulfillment
in these passages,
and I'll show you soon, okay?
So it's not just them coming
out of the 70-year period, okay?
Back in Zion, which is important.
That's important.
But this is also about us, okay?
So if you're not being paid attention,
at least pay attention now,
because this is about you, okay?
Verse number 37.
I'll just read it again.
Behold, I will gather them
out of all countries,
whither I have driven them
in mine anger,
and in my great wrath,
and I will bring them again
unto this place,
and I will cause them
to dwell safely.
Let's stop there for a moment.
I will cause them to dwell safely.
There are so many churches right now
that are dispensational Zionists, okay?
And they look at the nation
of Israel today,
and they say,
these passages that we're reading,
they say that was fulfilled in 1948,
when Israel became a nation once again,
and the Jews are returning
back to the land.
But what does it say there?
It says,
Cause them to dwell safely.
What's going on right now?
The Palestinians and the Jews
shooting rockets at each other.
They're from both sides.
Does that sound like
being dwelling safely?
Does that sound like a fulfillment
of this prophecy?
Of course not.
It's amazing.
Now look,
what is the fulfillment of this?
Number one,
a new generation,
a godly generation being led
by godly people returning
back to the land, okay?
And I tell you,
this is a double fulfillment.
This is about us as well, okay?
Cause look at verse number 38.
And they shall be my people,
and I will be their god,
and they'll say,
see, the Jews today,
they're God's people.
We've got to support Israel, yeah?
Support Israel.
Who cares about the Palestinians?
Listen, the Palestinians,
Jesus died for their sins as well.
Okay?
He died for the sins of the Palestinians.
He died for the sins of the Jews.
Hey, if either side,
they don't believe in Jesus,
they're both going to hell.
They both need to hear the gospel.
I'm not going to choose
one wicked nation
over another wicked nation.
I don't even want to support
my wicked nation.
Why would I support
some foreign wicked nations?
The nation I support
is the spiritual nation,
the Israel of God,
the people of God,
Jews and Gentiles
that have believed in Jesus Christ.
That's my nation.
That's the nation I support.
Now, why is this a double fulfillment?
When it says,
they shall be my people,
and I will be their god,
is this speaking about
Christ rejecting Jews?
No, because verse number 39
explains who these people are.
And I will give them,
these are the people
that he calls his people
and that are their god,
his god.
I will give them one heart
and one way
that they may fear me forever
for the good of them
and of their children after them.
Keep your finger there
and go to Acts chapter 4, please.
Go to Acts chapter 4.
So, in Jeremiah,
we read here
that God will give them one heart.
Now, there's only one other passage
in the Bible
that speaks about this one heart.
It's in Acts chapter 4.
This is where
the double fulfillment comes in.
Acts chapter 4, verse number 32.
Acts chapter 4 and verse number 32.
It says,
and the multitude of them
that believed,
that what?
Believed.
Believed what?
The preaching of Christ.
They believed the gospel.
These are the people
we're talking about.
And the multitude of them
that believed were of one heart
and of one soul.
Neither said any of them
that ought of the things
which he possessed was his own,
but they had all things common.
Listen,
as they went out preaching
the gospel of Jesus Christ,
all those that believed
became all of one heart,
which is the fulfillment
of what Jeremiah is saying
in Jeremiah 32.
So, you can see,
this isn't just the people
returning back to the land.
This is about those
that believed the gospel
in New Testament times.
This is about you.
God has given us one heart.
This is why we can be together
here in church on a Thursday
from all kinds of backgrounds,
all walks of life,
coming together
just to praise God
because we have that heart
to love the Lord,
to love our Savior.
Go back to Jeremiah 32.
Look at verse number 40.
This is also why
it's a double prophecy.
In verse number 40 it says,
and I will make
an everlasting covenant with them.
Now notice,
I will make,
does that mean
it's been made already?
Is this everlasting covenant
the old covenant,
the Old Testament?
Or is it something else?
No, because if he has to make it,
it's something new.
And if you were here
for last chapter's sermon
on Jeremiah 31,
I focused on the fact that
God was going to create
a new covenant.
Well, this new covenant now
is being called
an everlasting covenant with them
that I will not turn away from them
to do them good,
but I will put my fear
in their hearts
that they should not
depart from me.
So you can see here
these people that are part
of this everlasting covenant
will not depart from God.
The Jews today,
have they departed from God?
Do they believe in Jesus?
No, they've departed from God.
So it can't be about them.
It can't be about 1948, okay?
Because yeah,
even though they were brought
into the land
back in this time of Jeremiah,
sorry, past Jeremiah,
but eventually once again
the people turn against God
once again, okay?
When Christ comes on the scene,
establishes a new covenant,
and I'll just quickly read to you
from Hebrews 13 verse 20.
Hebrews 13 verse 20 says,
Now the God of peace
that brought again from the dead
our Lord Jesus,
that great Shepherd of the sheep,
next word says,
through the blood
of the everlasting covenant.
So we know that the blood of Christ
brought forth the New Testament,
the new covenant,
the everlasting covenant
is the covenant of Christ's blood.
If you believed on Christ,
you believed on his sacrifice,
you've believed on his blood, okay?
That means you've entered
into this everlasting covenant.
So as we read in Jeremiah 32,
yes, the first application is
as they come out of Babylon
back onto the land,
but secondly it's for us.
Christ is speaking about us
in this time.
We've entered
that everlasting covenant.
There's nothing we can do
to, you know,
even if you lived
that wicked Christian life,
you would still die
and go to heaven.
You know,
because once saved,
always saved.
Eternal security.
Christ has paid for all our sins.
Jeremiah 32 verse 41 now.
I'm coming to the end now.
Thank you for your patience.
Verse number 41.
He says,
Yea, I will rejoice over them
to do them good,
and I will plant them
in this land assuredly
with my whole heart
and with my whole soul.
For thus saith the Lord,
like as I have brought
all this great evil
upon this people,
so will I bring upon them
all the good
that I have promised them.
And fields shall be bought
in this land,
whereof ye say,
It is desolate
without man or beast.
It is given into the hand
of the Chaldeans.
And once again,
look at verse number 44.
Men shall buy fields for money
and subscribe evidences
and seal them
and take witnesses
in the land of Benjamin.
Do you notice how important
this is for God?
When you make agreements,
when you make vows,
when you make promises,
okay,
you follow the right steps.
You make contracts,
you seal it,
okay,
you take witnesses
and everybody's aware
of what's taking place.
And in the places
about Jerusalem,
and in the cities of Judah,
and in the cities of the mountains,
and in the cities of the valley,
and in the cities of the south,
for I will cause their captivity
to return,
saith the Lord.
Now can you please turn
to one more passage
and we'll end on this one.
Please turn to Ephesians,
chapter 4.
Turn to Ephesians,
chapter 4,
verse number 14.
It is so important,
Reverend,
especially if you're new
to the faith,
if you haven't been safe
very long,
especially the children
in this church.
You know, I'm not trying
to talk myself up right now,
but you hear a lot of good
preaching from this church.
I'm not talking just myself.
There are other great men
who come here behind the pulpit
preaching us God's Word.
Okay?
And one thing you need to do
is when you learn something
from God's Word,
you've seen the evidence
that's presented.
Maybe you've compared Scripture
with Scripture to make sure
it's definitely true.
Once you have seen something
from the Bible,
you know it's true,
hey, you know it matches reality,
you lock it in.
You say,
this is truth
and I'm not going to move
from this truth.
Okay?
It's going to keep you stable.
Okay?
Especially salvation.
You lock in salvation.
You lock in who Christ is,
the Son of God.
You lock in the Trinity.
You lock in the virgin birth.
You lock in that God created
everything in six days.
You lock it in.
Right?
The Bible says that a woman
is not to accept authority
of a man in a church.
A woman is not to preach
in a church.
You lock that in.
Because then you're going to grow up
and you're going to go to
some Hillsong church
with some woman preaching
and you're going to think,
this is great.
That's because you haven't
locked in the doctrines.
You haven't looked at the evidence
and locked it in.
Ephesians chapter 4 verse number 14.
Ephesians 4, 14 says,
You know there are people
waiting to deceive you?
As soon as you leave these doors
there are people hoping
they get hold of you
and lie to you and deceive you
with falsehoods,
with false doctrines.
There are people like this.
So we need to be aware
we cannot be children forever.
Listen, when we're saved
we become a baby.
A carnal Christian.
A baby in Christ.
Nothing wrong with that.
But we need the sincere
milk of the word of God
and then as we grow
we take on the meat of God's word.
We chew on it.
We meditate on it.
We lock in doctrines.
Right?
Especially the things
that are so black and white
in scripture.
You lock it in
and then you stand strong
and you won't be tossed to and fro
with the deceitful men,
the lying craft
and the cunning craft in us.
So important.
So important that we get
the evidence of God's word
into our hearts
and that you stand on the doctrines
that God has given us.
Let's pray.