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That didn't all change, that didn't all go out the window. We're still talking about that same subject. And this is what we would call reading the Bible in context. Meaning that chapter 30 follows the other 29 chapters and it's on the same subject. But all of a sudden people will wanna just isolate scriptures from chapters 30 and 31, take them out of context and give them an end times Bible prophecy application for the 21st century, negating the clear teachings of the New Testament by pulling an Old Testament scripture completely out of its context. Now Jeremiah talks a lot about them going off into captivity. Well, he also talks a lot about them coming back from captivity and repossessing the land precisely 70 years later. That's what he just finished telling us in chapter 29. But look at chapter 30 here. He says in verse three, "'For lo, the days come,' saith the Lord, "'that I will bring again the captivity "'of my people Israel and Judah.'" Now stop right there. If you were actually reading the book of Jeremiah cover to cover, you already know and is already hammered into you that you know when those days are coming. 70 years later, he just finished telling us that for the umpteenth time, that they're coming back from captivity. So he says, "'The days will come "'that I will bring again the captivity "'of my people Israel and Judah,' saith the Lord, "'and I will cause them to return to the land "'that I gave their fathers, "'and they shall possess it.'" But people will rip this out and say, oh, this is talking about in the end times. God's gonna bring the Jews back to Israel in the end times. Totally out of context of what the book is saying. But let me go a little further. It says in verse four, "'And these are the words that the Lord spake "'concerning Israel and concerning Judah. "'For thus saith the Lord, "'we've heard a voice of trembling, "'of fear, and not of peace. "'Ask ye now and see whether a man "'doth travail with child. "'Wherefore do I see every man "'with his hands on his loins as a woman in travail, "'and all faces are turned into paleness. "'Alas, for that day is great, "'so that none is like it. "'It is even the time of Jacob's trouble, "'but he shall be saved out of it, "'and it shall come to pass in that day,' "'sayeth the Lord of hosts, "'that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, "'and will burst thy bonds, "'and strangers shall no more serve themselves of it.'" So not only do people turn to Jeremiah 30 and 31, where God's talking about them returning from the Babylonian captivity, which already happened before Christ, five, 600 years before Christ already happened, okay? They'll try to apply that to the end times, but then they'll take verse seven, okay, little old verse seven there, and they will build an entire doctrine on this one verse, verse seven. Now this is not an obscure thing I'm talking about tonight. I'm telling you that if you were to look at the statement of faith of independent Baptist churches across America, fundamental Baptist churches, hundreds of them, hundreds, maybe even thousands, but for sure hundreds, will say in their statement of faith itself, we believe in a seven-year tribulation period known as the time of Jacob's trouble, and they'll use this term, time of Jacob's trouble, about the tribulation. They'll claim it lasts for seven years, and it'll even be a part of their statement of faith. They're hanging so much on this verse. Now let's just be reasonable people here tonight. I mean, we're all hopefully saved here tonight. I mean, I know 90-some percent of us I'm sure are saved and have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, so we should be able to read the Bible and understand it with the help of the Holy Spirit, and we're all reasonable people here, right? Can we just look at this verse and see what it says? Look at verse number seven. Alas, for that day is great so that none is like it. It is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. Now stop right there. According to that verse, if we actually just read it and throw out all the statement of faiths and the Ruckman books and the Larkin books and the John Nelson Darby and the C.I. Scofield, what if we just actually just read that verse? What is the time of Jacob's trouble according to that verse? And by the way, this is the only verse in the whole Bible that ever uses the term time of Jacob's trouble. What is it according to this verse? That day. Now let me ask you this. Does it say seven years or does it say that day? So how in the world can anybody say, oh, the seven year period of the end times is known as the time of Jacob's trouble? How are you getting that from the scripture at all? First of all, we're not even talking about the end times we're talking about them coming home from the Babylonian captivity and second of all, this isn't talking about a seven year period, this isn't talking about any length of time, this is talking about a day and the day is called. He said that day is great so that none is like it. It is even the time of Jacob's trouble but he shall be saved out of it for it shall come to pass in that day, sayeth the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck and will burst thy bonds and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him. Now someone may say, well yeah, but the day is like a thousand years with the Lord but hold on, is a day like seven years with the Lord? Where is that in the Bible? Where is any such teaching in the Bible that one day equals seven years, doesn't exist? And then another person would say, well, when the Bible says day there, it just means a period of time like, for example, if I'm talking to my grandson and I said, back in my day, in my day, we walked two miles in the snow to school every day and it was uphill both ways. So people say that's what it means by in that day, it just means in that time period. Okay, so here's how these people are interpreting scripture. They make these just logical leaps where they go, well, the day is just a time period and that time period's in the end times and it just happens to be the tribulation and it just happens to be seven years long. Where are they getting all that information though? Nowhere, it's not in the chapter. So people can get up and say a lot of convincing things and spin your head by drawing a chart and say, oh, well, if you turn to Jeremiah 37, it says right there, that day is great, there's nothing like it, the time of Jacob's trouble. So the Bible calls the seven-year tribulation the time of Jacob's trouble right there. Okay, so you ready for the next logical leap? Are you warmed up? I don't want you to pull anything doing these mental acrobatics. I don't want something to break in your brain because this is some pretty wild maneuvers. We're about to do a triple axel here, okay? So we've already established, I mean, it is verse seven. There's your seven years right there, you know? So it's like, okay. So basically, we've already kind of added a lot to this verse that isn't there. It's the end times, it's the tribulation, it's seven years long. Okay, so now that we've established all those clear facts from this verse, I mean, it's right there, folks. Well, since it's the time of Jacob's trouble, that means that the Christians can't be there because it's the time of Jacob's trouble. Not my trouble, not your trouble, not any Christian, no, it's Jacob's trouble. I have literally shown people crystal clear scripture in Matthew 24. Let's all go look at it together again, shall we? Keep your finger in Jeremiah 30 there. I've literally shown people this crystal clear scripture in Matthew 24, and there's a lot more scripture. There's a whole movie about it on the shelf, right? After the tribulation. It has 91 verses in it about this. But in Matthew chapter 24, verse 29, it says immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken and then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. So here we have a very clear timing of Christ coming in the clouds, sounding the trumpet and gathering the elect, which are the saved. In the New Testament, the elect are those who are saved. We'll find the same thing in Mark chapter 13, the same chronology. We'll find the same thing in Luke 21. And if we go to 1 Thessalonians four and five, we see the day of the Lord tied in again with the rapture being when the sun and moon are darkened, it all is consistent. Whether you're in Thessalonians, whether you're in the four gospels, whether you're looking at it in the book of Revelation, this stuff all fits perfectly. And it's a clear scripture. There's nothing vague about this. After the tribulation, sun and moon are darkened, Christ comes in the cloud with the sound of a trumpet and gathers the elect. I mean, look, folks, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. That's the rapture. Trumpet sounds, Christ in the clouds, elect gathered. Mark 13, Luke 21, it's all fitting perfectly with Thessalonians. Okay, I've literally shown people that clear scripture and this is their response. Well, how could the church be here for the tribulation when the tribulation's called the time of Jacob's trouble? So basically Jeremiah 30 verse seven is trumping this clear statement out of Jesus' mouth, talking about a trumpet and clouds and Christ gathering the elect. No, no, no, you're missing, no, no, the time of Jacob's trouble. How could we be here? We're not Jacob. And then they build a whole teaching on this where they say that the tribulation is not for believers, it's not for Christians, it's nothing we're gonna be here for. There's what they say, the tribulation is for Israel. I mean, have you not heard this? It's everywhere. The tribulation is for Israel. The tribulation's all about the Jews. It's where God, they say, is gonna go back to dealing with the Jews. This is what they teach. It's called dispensationalism. Here it is in a nutshell. In the Old Testament, God was dealing with the Jews. Then he kind of put them on the shelf for a while. And he turned away from them and we have this little interlude known as the age of grace, the church age. And then there's gonna be a pre-trib rapture and then he goes back to dealing with the Jews again. And so the tribulation is all about the Jews, it's all about Israel. Okay, here's my question then. If the tribulation is all about the Jews, I mean, it's all about the Jews, right? Well, what's the book of the Bible that talks a lot about the tribulation? I mean, there's chapters about the tribulation by anybody's definition. Revelation, right? So if the tribulation's all about the Jews, because after all, it's the time of Jacob's trouble as we saw very clearly in Jeremiah 30 verse seven. There's a seven right in front of it right there. Okay, well, basically, wouldn't you expect then that Revelation would talk a lot about the Jews if it's all about them? Okay, well, did you know that the word Jews, the word Jew or Jews or Jewish is only mentioned twice in the book of Revelation and both times is to tell you that it's the synagogue of Satan. Both times, look it up. Look up references in the book of Revelation, the main Bible prophecy book. I mean, the number one source for New Testament Bible prophecy, the book of Revelation, see where Jew or Jewish is mentioned. It's only mentioned twice, Revelation two and Revelation three before we get anywhere near even talking about the tribulation and both times is to say, well, they say they're Jews and they're not. They're the synagogue of Satan. No mention of Jews anywhere else. Well, if it's such a big deal, why wouldn't he mention it? Because it isn't, because it's not real, okay? And then not only that, then people will say, well, it doesn't say Jew, but it says Israel because it says that, you know, the 144,000, right? Okay, well, that's a whole subject in and of itself that I've already preached on, I've already covered, but the 144,000 are from 12 specific tribes. It isn't just 100, but you'll hear these dispensationalists and these people who teach this junk constantly say 144,000 Jews. That's how they'll misquote it. The 144,000 Jews, what about, but here's the thing, it never says 144,000 Jews. It says 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel and those are not Jews, my friend. The word Jew is never used until 2 Kings chapter 16. If you start reading the Bible in Genesis, you won't get to the word Jew until 2 Kings 16. After the kingdom has long been divided into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah, and Jews is only referring to those of the southern kingdom. Those are the Jews. Southern kingdom of Judah, not northern kingdom of Israel and if you look up the scripture in 2 Kings 16 and you read it carefully, you'll find that the first mention of Jews, the Jews are fighting against Israel. So how can they be the same? Because it's the southern kingdom fighting against the northern kingdom. That's the first time that the word Jews is used and God didn't do that by accident. God's trying to show you what that word means. A lot of times when a new word is introduced in the Bible, God puts it in a place where you can see what it means and so when you get to Jews in 2 Kings 16, if you're reading carefully, you'll see, oh, he's differentiating between those of the northern kingdom of Israel partnered up with Syria against the Jews. The Jews are fighting against that coalition. So equating the all 12 tribes with just the term Jews is not correct, okay? And the 144,000 is not a major, major thing in the book of Revelation. They have a certain role to play and that role is played, by the way, after the tribulation because the 144,000 doesn't even come into play until after the sun and moon are darkened which is after the tribulation. That's the first mention of the 144,000. They're after the tribulation when God's pouring out his wrath. Mentioned for the first time in Revelation seven and they're mentioned barely touched upon in chapter number nine and then they're talked about again in chapter number 14. And so you can see how people can take one verse, go back to Jeremiah 30 if you would, how people can just take one verse and really run with it, can't you? I mean, look, if we treated every verse in the Bible the way they treated Jeremiah 30 verse seven, we could pretty much make the Bible say whatever we wanna say. If you're just gonna make things up, if you're just gonna look at a verse that says, oh, that day, that's a great day, the time of Jacob's trouble and just say, oh, that's a seven year period known as the tribulation. If you're gonna make those kind of logical leaps, I mean, I guess you might as well when you read Genesis and God created stuff on that day, you could say that day is billions of years. Would that kind of a logical leap? I mean, you can pretty much make the Bible say whatever you want it to say if you're gonna make those kind of jumps. We should not base what we believe on vague scripture, we should always base what we believe on a clear scripture, especially on important subjects like the second coming of Christ. You better find a clear scripture to hang your hat on and it better not be Jeremiah 30 verse seven which has nothing to do with the tribulation. He says, the time of Jacob's trouble, what is that day? He shall be saved out of it for it shall come to pass in that day, sayeth the Lord of hosts that I will break his yoke from off thy neck and will burst thy bonds and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him. Now whose bond is he gonna break off his neck? Whose? Well, here's the thing, he's gonna break Nebuchadnezzar's bond off his neck, he's gonna break the bond of the Babylonians off his neck and you'd know that if you read chapters 28 and 29. If you read the first 29 chapters, we're still in that same context, that's why he just says he because it's a reference back to what we've been talking about in this book. Look at verse number nine, it says, but they shall serve the Lord their God and David the king whom I will raise up unto them. Now, who is David the king that God will raise up unto them after the 70 year Babylonian captivity that we're reading about? That is a man by the name of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel is the son of David who reigned over the children of Judah after they come back from the Babylonian captivity. Jump down if you would to verse number 20 of chapter 30. It says their children also shall be as a four time and their congregation shall be established before me and I will punish all that oppress them, referring again to the Babylonians and the coalition of nations with them. Verse 21, and their nobles shall be of themselves and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them and I will cause him to draw near and he shall approach unto me for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me, saith the Lord and you shall be my people and I will be your God. Now, this man that the Bible calls their governor, it says shall proceed of themselves. What that means is they're no longer gonna be ruled over by a foreigner, right? They're not gonna have a foreign power like the Babylonians coming in and ruling them. Their leaders are gonna proceed from themselves and their governor is gonna be one of them. That governor, who the Bible calls governor, is Zerubbabel, the son of David who is in the lineage of Jesus in Matthew chapter one and he's a descendant of David. He rules over them and governs them when they return from the Babylonian captivity and he's a man who, the Bible says, had engaged his heart to approach unto God. He's a godly man and as a result, the people will be God's people and he'll be their God because their leader is gonna rally them back to the Lord. Okay, so let's jump back to verse nine where we were. But they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king whom I will raise up unto them. That man is the descendant of David, Zerubbabel, who's raised up. Verse number 10, therefore, Fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord, neither be dismayed, O Israel. For lo, I will save thee from afar and thy seed from the land of their captivity and Jacob shall return and shall be in rest and be quiet and none shall make him afraid. Fry him with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee. Though I make a full end of all nations whither I've scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee, but I will correct thee in measure and will not leave thee altogether unpunished. So again, talking about they're gonna come back, they're gonna dwell safely in the land after 70 years, they're returning, and so on and so forth. He says in verse 12, for thus saith the Lord, thy bruise is incurable and thy wound is grievous. There is none to plead thy cause that thou mayest be bound up. Thou hast no healing medicines. All thy lovers have forgotten thee, they seek thee not. For I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity because thy sins were increased. What's he saying here? He's saying, look, for 70 years, there's punishment, there's chastisement, then he's gonna heal them and bring them back to the land. But notice what God says to them, that he had wounded them, verse 14, with the wound of an enemy. Why? Because when Israel turned away from the Lord and worshiped other gods, they became enemies with God. They were at enmity with God. And the Bible's real clear on this throughout the Bible, that it's possible for us as human beings to become the enemies of God. God has enemies and they're human beings on this earth. In fact, the Bible even says in James chapter four, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God, whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God, is the enemy of God. Whosoever therefore will be, meaning wants to be, because will be is referring to desire, their will, whosoever therefore will be the friend of the world is the enemy of God. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. James chapter four, verse four, New Testament, crystal clear scripture, that when you have a desire to be everybody's buddy and you wanna be buddy-buddy with the wickedness of this world, with the ungodly filth and adulterers and adulteresses of this world, the Bible says you're putting yourself at enmity with God. Churches that seek to yoke up with the world and have friendship with the world and get along great with the world are losing the friendship of God and they're actually making themselves the enemy of God. Now, most people don't believe that and you can preach that and it just goes over their head. Let it sink in. The adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God whosoever, whosoever, what's whosoever mean, anybody? Whosoever, I don't care if you're saved, if you're not saved, whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. That's what the Bible says. It's pretty clear, isn't it? And so we see churches all over America and all over the world that seek to get along with everybody. That's their goal. And they think that they can stay right with God and still preach the truth and get along with everybody. But you know what? That's not true. David said, I'm for peace, but when I speak, they're for war. And we see the apostles were constantly persecuted. They were hated. They were thrown in jail. They were attacked. They were stoned. They were sawn asunder, the Bible says. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They wandered about in deserts and in mountains being destitute, afflicted, tormented. I mean, look, people who preach the word of God are going to have enemies. They're not gonna be everybody's friend. And if you have a desire in your heart that says, I want to have friends.