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Jeremiah chapter 13, beginning in verse number 1, the Bible reads, Thus saith the Lord unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water. Now, this chapter starts out with an object lesson that God is going to have Jeremiah do with this article of clothing. And he tells him to basically put on this article of clothing, this linen girdle, and he says, put it not in water. So what he's basically telling him is to wear this thing for a while without washing it. So put on this girdle, put it on your loins, and wear it without washing it, okay? Verse number 2, So I got a girdle, according to the word of the Lord, and put it on my loins. And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying, Take the girdle that thou hast got, which is upon my loins, and arise, go to Euphrates. And of course this is some distance from where Jeremiah is preaching at this time, okay? So he wears this girdle, and he travels to Euphrates, and it says, Hide it there in a hole of the rock. So I went and hid it by Euphrates as the Lord commanded me. And it came to pass after many days that the Lord said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there. And I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it. And behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing. Marred means it was ruined, it was destroyed, it was good for nothing. And that would kind of go without saying. So imagine him putting this clothing upon the loins of his body, and just sweating, and just wearing it, and it's dirty, and he's not changing it, he's not washing it. Then he takes a long journey, and goes and buries it under a rock, then he comes back however long later, many days later, comes back and digs it up again, and of course it's just a gross, worthless piece of junk. I mean even if he just buried it, it would be messed up. But it would be more messed up because he'd already worn it, so he got sweat on it, and you know, bacteria, and everything else, to kind of work on it, you know, while it was in the earth. Now this is kind of a strange thing that he had Jeremiah do, right, but he's trying to teach him something, he's trying to make a point that would stick with people. He said in verse 8, Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Thus saith the Lord, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart and walk after other gods to serve them and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle which is good for nothing. For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I cause to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah, saith the Lord, that they might be unto me for a people and for a name and for a praise and for a glory, but they would not hear. Now he seems to indicate that this girdle, because I'm not really 100 percent sure exactly what article of clothing this is or what exactly this is or where it would be worn, because there are various type of girdles and the word girdle can refer to a few different types of garments, but this seems to be something that was cleaving to his loins in the sense that it was directly on his body, okay. So this dirty article of clothing, this, you know, possibly even a dirty undergarment, okay, that's worn, not washed, then buried under a rock, and then dug up later. God says, that's what I'm going to do to your pride. He says, this people, Judah, Jerusalem, he said they're an evil people, their wickedness is great, but they had great pride in themselves as a nation, and God basically holds up this filthy rag and has Jeremiah show them this and say, you know what, this is what your pride is really worth, what you think is so valuable and are so proud of. It reminds me of an Isaiah, and if you would flip over to Isaiah chapter 40, but it kind of reminds me of Isaiah 64, 6 when the Bible says that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags before him. I mean, this is definitely a filthy rag by any definition. And look what the Bible says in Isaiah chapter 40, dealing with the pride of a nation like Judah or like Israel, or even like unto the United States. Look what the Bible says in Jeremiah chapter 40 verse 17, all nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity. And I'll tell you this right now, that dirty rag that Jeremiah buried and dug up, that was worth less than nothing, because I'm sure if you had the choice between having nothing and having that dirty stinky garment that was buried in the earth, you'd probably choose nothing. That's less than nothing. It's gross, it's germ ridden, it's just dirty, it's worthless, you can't use it for anything, and God says that all nations before him are as nothing, that would include the United States, that would include Israel, that would include any nation. God is all in all, he is the all powerful, the all knowing, he is the king of kings, he is the lord of lords, and he stands upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are like grasshoppers unto him, it says in the same chapter, and that nations to him are less than nothing. So how much does proud to be an American mean unto the lord? It means nothing, sorry, it means less than nothing to him. Or oh, you know, Israeli pride, and listen to me, people in Israel today are proud to be a Jew or to be an Israelite, but there's nothing to be proud of when you're part of a nation that has forsaken the lord. If you're not worshipping the lord Jesus Christ, if you're not following the bible, even if in the past you were used by God, at this point, you're like a dirty piece of clothing that just needs to be discarded. That's what the bible's teaching here, you see, this girdle was a piece of clothing that at one time had value unto Jeremiah, it was something that he used, something that he wore, it was something that was necessary for him. But because it was not continually washed, because it was buried in the rock, it became good for nothing, and of course had to be replaced. I'm sure that he went out and got a different girdle. After that one was destroyed, he had to have another piece of clothing. And this is what God's demonstrating is that, you know, even if God is using a nation, and even if that nation is very close to the lord, like the girdle would cleave unto the loins of a man, even if that nation had been close to God in the past, if they've turned away from the lord, then they're going to be discarded, is what he's teaching here. Now of course this has nothing to do with personal salvation, because the bible's real clear that when it comes to our personal salvation, we are saved by believing on the lord Jesus Christ as our savior, and that's the only thing that saves us. Because it's by grace that we're saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. So it's not by living a good life, it's not by following the commandments, it's not by being baptized or joining a church, those are all good things to do, but none of those have anything to do with getting us into heaven. And if we were to try to present our righteousnesses unto the lord as a ticket into heaven, it would be like presenting a filthy rag, because the bible says all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. So we're not talking about personal salvation here. Personal salvation is just based upon, do you believe in the lord Jesus? If you believe in Jesus, you're saved. Now if you go out after you believe in Jesus and commit a lot of wicked sins, God's going to punish you. You're not going to lose your salvation, because it's eternal life. Jesus said, I give unto them eternal life, they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand, but God will punish you on this earth. Now that's what we see in this passage, and that's what the book of Jeremiah is about here. Physical punishment that is coming to them on this earth. This isn't a heaven or hell issue. Later in this chapter he's going to explain how they're going to be carried away captive. The Babylonians are going to come and destroy their city and take over the place. That's a punishment in this life. Now obviously these people that are worshiping other gods are not saved. But I'm sure that there were many people in Judah who were saved, of course. Jeremiah was one of them. Many others were saved. But as a nation they had turned away from the Lord, and as a nation they're being discarded. Obviously God's not going to discard the saved individual. Jeremiah comes out of this thing in the end smelling like roses, although he goes through a lot of trials and tribulations along the way. So here we see a nation that is very similar to the United States of America today. A nation that in the past had been a Christian nation, a nation that in the past had worshiped the Lord and been somewhat righteous, but has now turned away from the Lord, forgotten the Lord, is filled with evil and wickedness. Jump down to verse 27 of this chapter in Jeremiah 13. It says, I've seen thine adulteries, and thine nayings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills and the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! Wilt thou not be made clean? When shall it once be? And of course we can apply this to the United States tonight. Because in the United States today adultery abounds. What does he mean by nayings? Well the Bible talks about in the book of Jeremiah how when the people had gotten wealthy and were comfortable, unfortunately as a result of their idleness, the idle mind is the devil's workshop, and so it said that they were like fed horses in the morning, everyone nayed after his neighbor's wife. And so the nayings there is another reference to adultery. Look adultery is a wicked sin. Back in the Old Testament days when they were under the Mosaic law, the punishment for adultery was the death penalty. That's how serious of a crime it was in God's sight, where he said that if they committed adultery they should surely be put to death. So we should never think that adultery is just a minor thing today. And even if our country might portray it as a minor thing, they might call it an affair or slipping up or cheating or these, no it's adultery and it's a major wicked sin. In fact I would say it is as wicked as murder, which is why under the Mosaic law it had the same punishment. I mean murder was punished by the death penalty, adultery was punished by the death penalty. You know and honestly the pain and harm that adultery causes is similar to the pain and harm that is caused by a murder. I mean it's that bad. I mean you'd almost rather be dead than to have your spouse commit adultery. It's that hurtful. It would be that hard to endure. And so we need to not take it lightly, but today in the United States there's a more relaxed attitude toward adultery. It's seen as not that big of a deal. Nangs and then the lewdness of the whoredom and even more than adultery is the whoredom. The whoredoms is basically referring to people who before they're married they're sleeping around before they're married. They're sleeping with one, sleeping with another instead of keeping themselves pure until marriage. And of course this is considered the norm today. There are many people growing up in America today that have never even heard of the fact that it's a sin to go to bed with someone before you're married. That it's a sin to commit fornication. They're not even familiar with that sin. They think it's just well as long as you love each other you know just as long as you do it safely this is what they're teaching down at the public school system. Even if the teacher is not teaching that that's what they're learning from their friends and that's what they're learning from TV. If you were to turn on the TV and watch the typical sitcom, watch the basic movie, you know and I know that they're often going to bed together after the first date, second date, third date they're ending up in bed together. And even if it doesn't show what goes on they make it clear what goes on. The lights turn off and the next morning everybody's in the kitchen and there's orange juice and there's pancakes and everybody's smiling and everybody's happy. But God's not happy about it. And let me tell you something, you young people that are still a virgin, you need to remain a virgin until you get married. That's what God expects. And just because we live in a nation where adultery and whoredoms have become normalized, the Bible says that we should hold forth the word of life in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom we shine as lights in the world. We need to hold forth the word of life and take a stand for what's right even if we dwell in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. We're to be that light that shineth in the darkness. We're to put our good works before men that they may see them and glorify our Father which is in heaven. Not hide our light under a bushel but let it shine. Make it clear that that's not the lifestyle that we live. We don't live a life of adultery or whoredom or drunkenness as God's people. We're to be different. We're to be separate. We're to live a clean life and not be corrupted by this nation that we live in. That's what God expects of us today in 2016. And you say, well it's really hard. Well we'd hate for you to do anything hard now wouldn't we? It was hard for Jesus to die on the cross. He sweat as it were great drops of blood in the garden of Gethsemane asking that that cup would pass from him. And let me tell you something, young teenager or young adult, you need to drink that cup of abstinence and you need to wait upon the Lord until you can be married. And look, I'm all for young people getting married. I think it's wonderful. I'm not one of these people that tries to make them wait until they're 30 or something to get married. You know what? I'm all for young people getting married. I'd encourage them to be. I got married young. I got married when I was 19. Best decision I ever made in my life besides being saved. My best friend, brother Roger Jimenez, he got married when he was 18 years old. Nothing wrong with that. Other people get married later. That's okay. There's nothing wrong with that either. But whenever you get married, you need to be pure until you get married. That's what God wants from you. And you say, well, I've already messed up. I've already committed fornication. You know what though? Now that you're hearing the word of God being preached from a pulpit, at this time you need to push a reset button and say, hey God, I'm sorry for what I've done in the past and from here on out I'm going to be pure. Start over today and say, you know what, hey, I did wrong but now I'm convicted. You know, I'm hearing God's word preached and I realize the error of my ways and so I'm going to just confess that sin to God. I'm going to forsake that thing and move on because the Bible says he that confesses and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy. But he that being often reproved, hardened at his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy. And unto whom much is given, of him shall much be required. God's going to be more lenient with the public school young people who've never heard the Bible, never heard this kind of preaching, never darkened the door of a Baptist church. If they commit fornication, although it's sin and although they're going to suffer for it, they're not going to suffer for it as much as the young person who's heard the Bible preached on the subject and knows that it's wrong and then goes out and does it anyway. They're going to receive a sorer punishment than the one who didn't know. The Bible gives an illustration about a servant who just gets out of control when his master is away. He gives an illustration in the New Testament, he tells a parable about a servant whose boss has gone away in a far country and basically the servant is wondering if the boss is ever coming back. Because in those days they didn't have the communication that we have today where you could pick up the phone or send an email. So people would go off into a far country, they might never come back. You know, who knows if they got held up by bandits or if they just died somewhere, you might not get word for many months or even years, depending on how far away that person went. So the servants began to just party, you know, because the master's gone away and they've got the run of the place and they start getting drunk and they start beating their fellow servants and they're partying and they're not doing the work. They're not bringing forth the fruit of the vineyard. They're not going to work. They're just goofing off, getting drunk, partying, abusing the weak, beating them up and it talks about how when the master comes home he's going to punish those servants and he's going to bring down his wrath upon them. But it said the servant that knew his Lord's will and didn't do it is going to be beaten with many stripes when that master comes home. But the servant that did not know his Lord's will, he'll be beaten with few stripes. He'll still be beaten. I mean, he still did wrong. He still sinned, but he didn't really know better. He's going to get beaten with fewer stripes than the guy who knew better. Listen, if you are sitting in church, if your parents are Christian and they're bringing you to church and they're raising you in a godly home, you ought to know better and God's going to come down harder on you than he would on your average Joe out there. And those that are older, those that are even already married, it's important that we keep ourselves faithful to our spouse and not commit adultery. The Bible says they had whoredoms, abominations in the hills and the fields, woe unto thee Jerusalem wilt thou not be made clean. When shall it once be? When do you want to be clean? God would help them get cleaned up, but right now they were about as clean as that girdle, that dirty undergarment that had been buried in the earth. God's looking at them and saying, you know what? That's what you're like. You're good for nothing. You've gotten so wicked that I'm going to discard you. And of course he does discard them temporarily because for 70 years they go into captivity, into Babylon. Now 70 years later he's going to come back and visit them and we read all about that in the book of Zechariah where he said, I'll choose them again. And they became his people once again and so forth. But then of course later on they rejected Jesus Christ hundreds of years later. Then they got permanently discarded at that point and got completely wiped out and destroyed his nation. But let's keep going through this chapter. It says in verse 10 of chapter 13, this evil people which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart and walk after other gods to serve them and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle which is good for nothing. For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judas, saith the Lord, that they might be unto me a people for a name and for a praise and for a glory, but they would not hear. Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word, thus saith the Lord God of Israel. Every bottle shall be filled with wine. Now watch this. This is funny. He says every bottle shall be filled with wine. And then God predicts their response. And they shall say unto thee, do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine? Now elsewhere in the book of Jeremiah it talks about how the phony preachers, and this is something that comes up in Isaiah as well, how the phony preachers were the prophets that would prophesy of oil and wine. What does he mean by that? He's talking about the positive only preachers. Because these preachers were the ones that are telling them, even though they're living in sin, even though they've forsaken the Lord, during Jeremiah's ministry there were a lot of prophets that were saying, the Babylonians are not going to invade, Jerusalem is not going to be destroyed, I mean God is not mad at you, and it's your best life now. And all this encouraging preaching that was basically telling them, peace, peace. And God said there is no peace to the wicked. And so these positive only preachers were the prophets of wine and of oil and so forth. What he means is that they're preaching prosperity, saying you're going to have plenty of wine and oil. And the reason why he brings up wine is because wine was expensive back then. Wine was very expensive. Any kind of fruit juice is difficult to make without machines, alright? Now today we go to the store, and by the way, the word wine in the Bible, it can mean any kind of fruit juice, it's not even just grape juice, it can mean any kind of fruit juice. It can be referring to a pomegranate juice, a peach juice, and if you study the word wine in the Bible, you'll see it's all types of fruit juice, whether it's fermented, unfermented, any fruit beverage is called wine. It's used over 200 sometimes in the Bible to describe all manner of beverages. Now if we went down to the store right now and bought a bottle of juice of any kind, it wouldn't really be that expensive, it wouldn't really, I mean pretty much anybody in here, even if you work a pretty low paying job, you could afford to go down and get a bottle of juice, okay? And even if you wanted to get a bottle of booze, you could afford it. I see plenty of poor people buying bottles of wine, you know, I saw a little 99 cent wine at the CVS pharmacy, right by the door, they had a bucket of little bottles of wine, 99 cents. I saw a bottle of champagne, $2, $3, you know, just the really cheap stuff or whatever. I've never been a drinker, so I don't know, it's all junk as far as I'm concerned. But anyway, but back then, I mean, any kind of a fruit beverage is a commodity back then because you got to sit there and squeeze it all by hand or step on the grapes with human beings. I mean this is a lot of work. Who's ever juiced citrus with that citrus juicer where you smash it? That's a lot of work, isn't it? I mean you get just oranges and oranges. I mean you're doing that thing more than a gambling junkie in Las Vegas, you know, I mean you're pulling that lever down, and I mean you do that for hours and you have like 8 ounces of juice. Alright let's split this amongst the 11 people of our family, you know, we all get a little teaspoon full or whatever, you know, and then think about juicing, you know, grapes or any, I mean it's all going to be work, a lot of work, expensive, difficult to preserve without the refrigeration of it is a lot of work that went into it. So when they prophesy of wine and oil, when it's the land of milk and honey, these are the finer things in life. You don't need it to survive, it's a luxury item, right? You could never drink another sip of fruit juice in your life and you'll live, because you could just eat fruit. You wouldn't have to drink juice, it's a commodity that has to do with prosperity. Poor people, they're doing Kool-Aid, right? So when they say gin and juice, that's not juice, that's Kool-Aid, alright? But the point is, you know, they got the Kool-Aid stain over their mouth, you know, which obviously has zero nutritional value. So sometimes they're so poor they can't even put the sugar in the Kool-Aid, but anyway, it's just a red water they drink. But anyway, the point is, the prophets are telling them. So Jeremiah, he gets up and he starts preaching and he starts to sound like a prosperity preacher for a minute. So God has him get up and preach and say, okay, I've got a prophecy here, I've got a word from the Lord, every bottle is going to be filled with wine. And they're like, well, yeah, that's what we've been saying. Do you see that in the passage? They're like, well, of course, we already know that, yeah, man, Jeremiah is finally starting to come around. No more of that doom and gloom, hellfire and damnation kind of preaching. He finally gets it. Every bottle is going to be filled with wine. But here's what he meant by that, though, he's tricking them. Because they shall say unto thee, verse 12, do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine? Tell us something we don't know. Verse 13. Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David's throne and the priests and the prophets and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with drunkenness, and I'll dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together. Sayeth the Lord, I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them. And then they're like, okay, this is the preaching we're used to hearing from Jeremiah. Yeah, every bottle is going to be filled with wine, I'm going to make you drunk with it. And he says, I'm going to dash you into each other. Now this reminds me of an expression that we use in my house, and we only use it figuratively now, not literal, okay. But you know, if the kids are being real disobedient and, and, and ornery and they need to be punished, my wife will often say, hey, you need to, you need to go back there and crack some heads, okay. And obviously it's just figurative now, but you know, you get the idea of just taking two people's heads and just, you know. And no, that is not a discipline method that we ever would use. But you know, I just grab a couple of kids' heads and just. So I mean, God, isn't that basically what God's saying here? Because he says, I'll dash them one against another. I mean, he'll grab one and grab the other and just slam their heads into each other, just crack. I mean, that would hurt. And I'll destroy them. I will not pity, nor have mercy, but destroy them. Is God a God of mercy? Of course, but here's the thing. God's mercy has a limit, folks. He's slow to anger, but eventually he gets there. If you keep pushing him, keep pushing him. He is slow to anger. He's of great mercy, but if you just keep pushing it, it runs out. That's why if you're smart, you know, you'll, you'll, you'll get your, your life on track before it's too late, you know, and try to take advantage of God's mercy and God's grace before you get too deep into sin and before you mess things up too much. But the Bible says in verse 15, hear ye and give ear, be not proud. Don't be proud for the Lord has spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God before he caused darkness and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains and while you look for light, he turned it into the shadow of death and make it gross darkness. But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride and mine eyes shall weep, sore and run down with tears because the Lord's flock is carried away captive. Now what does he mean there when he says I'll weep in secret places for your pride? Well, the Bible teaches that we should have a time of prayer with the Lord that is totally private. That is not something that we do publicly. Now praying publicly is biblical. The Bible does say I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. But our prayers that are done publicly or in church, they should not be long prayers. Those are shorter prayers that we do publicly. If you look at the public prayers of the Bible, they're shorter. And Jesus condemns the Pharisees and the scribes because they love to make long prayers. Why? Because they want to be seen of men. They want to look really spiritual by doing a big, loud, long public prayer that goes on and on and on. Whereas Jesus said but thou when thou prayest enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy father which is in secret and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. So the bulk of our praying should be done privately. It should be done secretly. He said pray to thy father in secret, right? Shut the door. Do it in secret. Why? Because you don't want to do it to be seen of men. It's a sign of hypocrites when they put on a hyper-spiritual facade in public. These are the people that usually end up being phonies. I'm just warning you. Now when you first get saved and you first start coming to church, you don't think anybody's a phony. You look around and you see everybody and your heart is right. You love the Lord. So you just assume everybody here loves the Lord, everybody here is saved. But there are some phonies out there, let me tell you. And the longer you're in church, you'll see people turn out to be phonies and turn out to be hypocrites and turn out to be frauds. And I'll tell you, there are certain red flags that you start noticing over and over again. And when I see these red flags, I don't condemn people in my mind because I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt. But I do make a mental note to kind of just beware of that person a little bit, maybe just keep an eye on that person a little bit. But I always give them the benefit of the doubt and I want to treat that person as if they are legit. And in fact, some of the people in our church that have turned out to be frauds and phonies and infiltrators, it really broke my heart when I found that out because I thought, you know, I really like that person. I thought that was a really nice person. I can't believe that they ended up being a phony. And it really broke my heart because I really try to think the best of everyone and try to give people the benefit of the doubt. But here are some red flags to watch for in phonies. And this is all straight out of the Bible, very biblical. Number one, the flattering tongue. You know, when you have somebody who's going overboard giving you compliments, that's a red flag. Now, I love compliments, like I like to compliment people and I like to receive compliments as much as the next guy. When they're appropriate though, when they're appropriate as in they're not over the top, they actually are the truth, they're actually meant from the heart. And when they're expressed in moderation, you know, for example, somebody preaches a sermon and somebody says, hey, great sermon, enjoyed the sermon. Hey, God bless you, appreciate it. That's a pretty normal interchange right there, right? Or, hey, you know, I just wanted to tell you, I really appreciate, you know, you playing the piano, you're doing a wonderful job playing piano, sounds great, all right? You know, that's an appropriate compliment that would make perfect sense to give that compliment, right? Or to say to somebody, hey, you've been doing a great job, you know, cleaning the building, it looks great, you did really well. Or, hey, I really like that suit, that's a great suit, looking sharp. You know, somebody comes in a new suit, I mean, totally normal, totally, right? I mean, I think that's appropriate to compliment people, express, you know, gratitude, express just admiration or wow, you know, you really did a great job at that soul winning door handling that guy, that was great. But when compliments are over the top is when you compliment people when they didn't even do a good job. They did a bad job and you compliment them. That doesn't make any sense. Save the compliments for something that they did right, okay? Number one, nobody wants to get a compliment when they know that they did poorly or if they know that they're dressed poorly or whatever. Now if they're dressed nice, if you like the outfit, compliment it, but let it be from the heart, let it be real. And you know, people tell me compliments of, oh man, I love your preaching, I've really grown a lot. Hey, praise the Lord, I've learned a lot, great, enjoyed this sermon, great. But this is where it becomes over the top, like, you don't understand, you are just the greatest preacher in the whole world, you know? Or like, you're like my dad, I mean, you're like a father that I never had and it's like, I just met you like 30 seconds ago, you know? Or just, you know, just going overboard of just, wow, you are so amazing, I mean, I've just never met anybody like you, I mean, just, where it's just over the top and you're like, whoa, I mean, it makes you uncomfortable, like, what in the world? You know, it's just over, it's just inappropriate, you know? So when people have a flattering tongue, or you'll see people just constantly giving compliments and trying to kind of stroke people's ego and kind of lift them up and exalt them more highly than they ought to be, not just a normal, natural complimenting. So flattery is a big one. But another big one is the hyper spiritual, and this is sort of like what Jesus warned about with the long public prayers. This is the guy where just every word out of his mouth is hallelujah, praise the Lord, amen, brother, like he can't even talk in normal language without just mixing in a whole bunch of just amens and hallelujah. Who's ever known somebody like that where you kind of know what I'm talking about? Where they just mix in this real spiritual lingo. Or for example, you'll be at a, let's say you're at a restaurant, right? It's like, hey, why don't you say the blessing for the food? When you pray for your food, right? You know, typically when you pray for the food, it's just a basic giving of thanks to God. It's not a full sermon. You know, you might say something along the lines of, you know, dear Lord, thank you so much for this wonderful food that you've given us, Lord, bless it to our bodies. And then you might throw in something about, hey, bless our soul winning as we go out soul winning a little bit later, or hey, bless our church service tomorrow, and Lord, let us all get home safely, Jesus' name, amen. You know, you just kind of, just a few basic blessings on the food, right? But not just, dear Lord, we thank you so much for your provision today, Lord. We know that you provided for the children of Israel in the wilderness for 40 years, Lord, and you led them by that cloudy pillar by day and the flame of fire by night, Lord. And we know you fed them with angels' food, Lord, and they ate manna from heaven. But when they got in that promised land, Lord, they had to work for their food. And Lord, we thank you for giving us the strength to work for this food and to earn the money to pay for this food, Lord, that we have before us. And dear God, if there's any impurity in the food, Lord, I pray that you would just remove the impurity, sanctify this food, Lord, by your word and by prayer. And Lord, we know that when Elisha and the school of the prophets had that bowl of pottage that had been defiled, Lord, you purified that food, and they were able to cast in the meal, and the death in the pot was removed, Lord. And we pray that if there be any death in this pot, Lord, if we were, you know, I'm just kidding, you know, hey, I could go on all night, how long you got? The point is, you know, in the name of Jehovah, the most high God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets from Abel to Zechariah, and in the name of your most precious and holy Son, the name that is above all names, the which name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, amen. And obviously I'm exaggerating, but you've seen people that took that meal prayer and they went too far with it. And you say, well, you're just unspiritual if you just can't wait to dig into your fudruckers or your Chipotle, you should have five minutes for that prayer. Yeah, but here's the thing, though, that's not really the time and the place for real deep praying. Why? Because prayer publicly is not a putting on of a show. It's not what it's intended to be. You know, prayer is supposed to be from the heart, my friend. Now if you're by yourself in your closet praying, it's going to be from the heart because there's nobody to impress. It's just you and God. When you're in public, you don't want to put on a show. You pray and it's real. Now I guarantee you that I'm not known for big fancy public prayers. When people have asked me, I was at a, you know, I went to some Republican thing, you know, when I was misguided enough to think that there was something we could actually do politically to help our country, so I went to this Republican meeting or something and I, you know, they said, oh, well, you know, we have a pastor here, so he's going to open us in prayer. You know, there were about 120 people there. You know, so I prayed a prayer where I kind of, you know, put in a few political jabs in that prayer, you know, but it was still a short prayer. But you know, I don't pray these big fancy flowery prayers in church or after a sermon or, you know, before meals because honestly I don't really believe that that's what God wants you. I think God wants us to give him glory, publicly honor his name and all things we should acknowledge him, right? In all thy ways acknowledge him, it says on the wall behind me, and he shall direct thy paths. So I do think we should acknowledge God and pray publicly in Jesus' name and give thanks unto God and glorify God, but you know what we should not do? Glorify ourselves, right? So we need to make sure that when we pray publicly we're not like that Pharisee who prayed with himself. Remember it says he prayed thus with himself. Don't pray with yourself, okay? Pray to the Father, okay? Give him the glory. Make sure it's about him, not about the people that are around you. Make sure you're talking to him, okay? And you know, you might want to say something for the edification of the people around you in your prayer. That's also biblical. You know, especially a parent wants to pray in front of their children and edify the children, and the Bible talks about a prayer being made in church and that that prayer could edify the body. But it shouldn't be about impressing the body or showing how spiritual you are or putting on a show, yada yada yada, you know. That kind of serious praying should be done on your own. So I think we should pray both publicly and in private, but that the bulk of our prayer should be in private, that should be the serious prayer and that public prayer has its place, it's appropriate, but we shouldn't go overboard and try to impress people, you know. Today, we live in a day where preachers come to events and they pray a prayer and they have notes. To me, that right there, that's fake. If you can't pray without notes, like your prayer is probably too long, number one, all right. I can preach a whole sermon without notes. I don't have any notes tonight, no notes. Half my sermons, okay, that's not notes, people, all right. There's nothing up the sleeve. This is the list of songs we're singing tonight. But the point is, you know, I preach about half my sermons with elaborate notes and half my sermons without notes, but the point is, if you can't pray without notes and you're a pastor, your prayer is probably not coming from the heart, number one, because if it's from the heart, you can just speak from the heart. You wouldn't have to have the teleprompter all the time, like these TV talking head bozos that have no brain in their head to think for themselves. They just always have to use notes and teleprompter all the time. Now look, obviously, if you're preaching a sermon for 60 minutes, don't be like, well, Pastor Anderson said I don't need notes. I don't need notes because I've been preaching for 15 years, okay. You need notes if you're a beginner. When you've been preaching for 15 years, you won't always need notes either, so I'm not recommending to preach without notes, but I am recommending to pray without notes. Because if you're using notes to pray, that just seems like, number one, it's not really a heartfelt prayer, it's probably too long, 60 minutes, yeah, you need notes. I hope you're not praying for 60 minutes, publicly. I mean, I hope you're praying for 60 minutes at home in your closet, but don't pray for 60 minutes publicly. But these guys go to these political events and they have notes because it's just all about impressing the crowd and impressing people. It's not really about talking to the Lord. It's not really about getting through to the Father. It has nothing to do with that. So anyway, those are just some thoughts on this. So he says, I will, look down at your Bible there, verse 17, but if you will not hear it, he's saying if you won't listen to the preaching and get yourself right with God, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride. He's saying he's going to go into his prayer place and he's going to, just in a secret place, he's going to pray for them and weep for them and be sad for them privately. And mine eyes shall weep, sore, and run down with tears because the Lord's flock is carried away. Now, I believe that when we pray unto the Lord, there's a time for tears in our prayer. I mean, all of the great men of the Bible wept repeatedly in the Bible. I did a sermon called Jesus Wept, and I went through the three instances that the Bible records Jesus weeping. I actually wept three times that we have recorded. And then not only that, David probably wept more than any man in the whole Bible. David is constantly weeping, and Jeremiah is weeping, and most of the great men of God in the Bible, it records them weeping. But I don't believe that it should be something where, you know, like I saw Joel Osteen where he did this interview, and he like, he went down like this, and you can tell he just like rubbed his eyes and made the tears come. And then he kind of popped up like, you know, but before that, it's like he wasn't crying at all, but he kind of went down and like hit the right pressure points or whatever and just kind of like, you know, put some dirt in his eyes or salt or something. And he's like, you know, now look, if somebody's, if somebody is praying or preaching publicly and tears come unbidden, then there's nothing wrong with, you know, getting emotional. I mean, there have been times when I've been preaching, and I'm kind of choking back the tears sometimes, you know, or, you know, you're in a situation where you're, but you know what? It shouldn't be something that's putting on a show though. I mean, if it happens, it happens, but you know, the real tears are in the prayer closet, you know, alone with the Lord when we really weep over sin and we weep over the condition of our country or weep over loved ones that need the Lord and so forth. So tears are great, but, and it's biblical, and here we see an example of it, but we just want to make sure that we're not like trying to work ourselves up to try to purposely cry in public for effect as a preacher or as, or praying or whatever, right? Don't do the Joel Osteen style. So then it says in verse 18, say unto the king and to the queen, humble yourselves, sit down for your principalities shall come down. Even the crown of your glory, the cities of the South shall be shut up and none shall open them. Judah shall be carried away captive. All of it shall be wholly carried away captive. Lift up your eyes and behold them that come from the North. Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock? What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? For thou has taught them to be captains and as a chief over thee, shall not sorrows take thee as of a woman in travail? And if thou say in thine heart, wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered and thy heels made bare. He's saying, look, you've done all this sin. That's why bad things are happening. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then may he also do good that are accustomed to do evil. Now someone should have showed Michael Jackson this verse before it was too late. You know what I mean? Somebody should have just showed him, look Michael, if you're black, you're black, just stay black. You don't need to start looking like a white woman. And you know people say he went from a black man, you know Michael Jackson, they say he went from a black man to a white woman. Then that's the ugliest white woman I've ever seen in my life. I mean, I'll go weep in secret places after looking at that face. I mean, that guy was ugly. You know, but you know, a life of sin will do that to you. Man alive, he could have looked like a normal person if he would have just stayed black and stayed a dude. But he got, you know, he gets a nose job to try to look like a woman. Like he gets like a feminine nose put on and he may, and he bleaches his skin all white and everything. People say, oh yeah, the skin just, baloney. He made himself white. I'm sure he gave himself skin disorders by trying to lighten up his skin and whatever. What a vain fool. There's nothing wrong with being black. Just be black. If you're an Ethiopian, be Ethiopian. And by the way, I'm not trying to become black. I'm white. I'm fine with being white. I'm happy to be white, you know. And if you're black, be happy to be black. Who cares? Like it doesn't matter. And if your hair is blonde or brown or red or gray or falling out or whatever, just be who you are. Just be real. Just keep it real, Michael. But Michael's dead now, so it's too late for him. But you know what? Somebody should have showed him, you know, maybe if little Michael would have heard this verse in church, he would have just known to just stay black. But anyway, it says, you know, hey, can the Ethiopian change his skin? Michael Jackson proves no. Or the leopard his spots? No. Then may he also do good that are accustomed to do evil. He's saying basically these people were so messed up in their sin. He's like, you guys aren't going to be able to change just like a leopard isn't going to be able to change to a zebra. You know, it's not going to be able to change its spots into stripes or a solid color or just like a black person couldn't become white or a white person become black. He's just saying, you know, now look, I've had some people pull this out and say, oh, this is negative toward black people. It's not negative. It's just it's look, is it negative toward leopards? You know what I mean? He's just saying certain things have been created a certain way and that's how they are. End of story. You can't, you know, so he's just kind of rebuking these people and he's saying, man, you guys are so wicked. You're so over the top. You know, you guys are so used to doing evil. It's like you can't even change. He's rebuking them. You know, he's railing on them, trying to get them to take their situation seriously. Therefore, because they're not changing their ways, because they're not getting the sin out of their lives, therefore why scatter them as the stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness. This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the Lord, because thou has forgotten me and trusted in falsehood. Therefore why discover thy skirts upon thy face that thy shame may appear. I've seen thine adulteries and thine nangs, the lewdness of thy hoardom and thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, Jerusalem. Wilt thou not be made clean? When shall it once be? So again, at the end of the chapter, at the end of a lot of these chapters, God kind of ends with an appeal to them. He says, look, don't you want to be made clean? And he says to them, hey, when do you want to do it? So he is kind of reaching out to them. Over and over again, he keeps stretching forth his hand to the people and reaching out to them and giving them an opportunity to get right. And even though those that are accustomed to do evil are not able to do good, through the grace of God and through the power of the Holy Spirit, anyone can change if they'll come to the Lord and have a desire to change. God gives us the strength to overcome sin in our lives. It is possible. And so again, it's just an appeal unto them to get things right and to be cleaned up. You know, even though it's a very negative book, God does constantly give them a chance. Now, unfortunately, we know the end of the story. They don't get it right and they go into captivity. But that doesn't have to be the end of the story of our life. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, Lord, and all the things we could learn from it. And Lord, please help us not to just continually sin until it's too late to fix it, Lord. Help us to receive mercy, Lord, to confess and forsake our sins. And Lord, help us to be a good steward of all the wonderful things you've given us, Lord. You've given us a great church. You've given us a nation where we have freedom. You've given us prosperity, Lord. And you've given us your word in toto. You've got the whole Bible right here, Lord. And so help us to be good stewards of this preaching and this information, not to go out and make a fool of ourselves and destroy our lives through whoredoms, adultery or fornication or drunkenness. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.