(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

And Jeremiah chapter 18, the Bible reads in verse number one, the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, arise and go down to the potter's house and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter. So he made it again another vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it. Now this is actually a really famous portion of scripture. I've heard a lot of sermons about this parable of God being the potter and us being the clay and in fact, there are even songs in the hymnal about this, you know, I am the, or sorry, thou art the potter, I am the clay and I've heard a whole bunch of songs that were based on this. Besides that, I've heard sermons on this, but every time I've heard this passage preached, I've actually never heard anyone actually give the context of what he's saying in this chapter, the primary meaning. There are a lot of secondary meanings that they draw from this passage, but the primary meaning has to do with the nation of Israel itself. It has to do with the land of Judah itself. I've never really heard that expounded. What he's saying here is that the nation of Judah is like a vessel that he has created, that he has made and he uses this illustration about a potter that's making a piece of pottery on a wheel and hopefully you've seen images of someone making pottery or maybe you've even seen it in person or done it in person. I know when I was a kid, this was something that we worked on in school where we actually worked with a potter's wheel. Who knows what I'm talking about, making pottery with a spinning wheel? Well, what it's saying here is that as he was making a piece of pottery, it was broken. It was marred. There was some problem with it where he basically just decided to just scrap the whole thing and just kind of smash it down and just kind of start over again and start from scratch. Because of the fact that as he was making it, something went wrong, he realized I'm going to have to push a reset button here and just kind of just smash the whole thing down, start from scratch, get it right this time. That's what this story is talking about. Now look at the application that God makes from this parable. It says in verse 5, then the word of the Lord came to me saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter sayeth the Lord? Behold as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it. If that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build and to plant it, if it do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them. Now what he's actually explaining here is that because the children of Israel, the house of Israel, which that's what the pot represents, what he's making, because they had done evil, he's going to destroy them. Basically he's going to pluck down is the word he uses. He's going to destroy it. He's going to pull it down in verse 7. Just as that potter would do if there were some problem with that pottery that just couldn't be salvaged, he's going to have to destroy the thing. He's going to have to push the thing down and start over again. And he says if there was a nation where in the past he had told that nation that he was going to do good unto them and that he was going to bless them, but then if they turned around and did evil in his sight, he said then at that point I'm going to turn on you. I'm not going to do good unto you if you do evil. I'm going to turn around and punish you. But conversely, if there's a nation that's doing wickedly and they repent and they begin to do that which is right in the sight of the Lord, then even if he had planned on doing something bad to them, he'll repent of the evil and do good unto them. Does everybody understand what I'm saying here? So when it comes to a nation, we're not talking about personal salvation here. This is not a parable about a person's salvation, whether or not they go to heaven or go to hell. That is not even close to being the context here. The context is about a nation. He says the whole house of Israel, Israel as a whole is like this pottery and I God am like the potter is what he's saying. And he's saying that he has the power whenever he wants to when he looks at it and says look, there's a serious problem here. This thing's marred. Whenever he wants to, he's going to destroy that thing. And you say well yeah, but in the past, God said he was going to bless Israel. Yeah, he said he was going to bless Israel when they're worshipping the true God. When they start worshipping false gods and doing evil, he can change that and destroy them. And then conversely, the good news is that if there's a wicked nation that turns unto the Lord, then even if God had planned on destroying them and even if he had said I'm going to destroy you, if they turn unto the Lord, he'll turn away from his fierce wrath. That's what happened in the book of Jonah. When you look at Jonah's preaching, he didn't say you need to turn from your evil ways or else. He just walked in and said yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. He just told them destruction's coming. And even though he didn't give them an option to turn from their evil ways, they knew the nature of God, that God is a merciful God, that God is a forgiving God, that he is long suffering. And because they knew that, they said why don't we just turn from our evil ways and pray and fast unto the Lord and peradventure maybe he'll turn away from his wrath. And he did turn away from his wrath and Nineveh was spared. Now another thing I want to point out, of course, is that according to this scripture, God will repent. Look at verse number eight. If that nation against whom I pronounced evil, he's saying, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I had thought to do unto them. So God's saying that he will repent or turn from the evil that he had said he would do unto them. Some people have the wrong definition of the word repent, they think repent means to turn from your sins. Well, God doesn't have any sins. So repent just means to turn from anything. In this case, excuse me, God is turning from the destruction that he had said he would bring upon a nation. Now this ties in with what comes just a little bit later in this chapter. Beginning in verse number 11, it says, now therefore go to speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord, behold, I frame evil against you and devise a device against you. Return ye now everyone from his evil way and make your ways and your doings good. But watch what they say in verse 12. And they said, there's no hope, but we will walk after our own devices and we will, everyone, do the imagination of his evil heart. So here's what's going on. And this is so important of a concept. And I really want to make sure you get this tonight because this is something that you can apply in your life. Children, you can apply this with your parents. Wives, you can apply this with your husband. Employees, you can employ this with your boss at work. This is a principle that is very important. Okay? Even when the boss is coming down on you and angry at you and you feel like there's just no hope, there's no way to please that boss. You know what? If you turn from your evil way and if you humble yourself and do that which is right in the sight of your authority figure in your life, your authority figure will be merciful unto you. In most cases, obviously, when you're dealing with human beings, you know, everybody's different. But I'm telling you, this is an important principle. You never want to throw up your hands and say, Well, you know what? I blew it. I made my mom mad. I made my dad mad now. There's no hope now. You know, I'm just going to just go all the way into disobedience or sin. I'm not even going to try to please them anymore because there's no pleasing them. No, no, no. The Bible is saying here that when it comes to God, he will turn from his plan to judge you if you do what's right in the sight of the Lord. You know, Romans 13 teaches something similar. Flip over to Romans 13. Keep your finger there in Jeremiah Chapter 18. And here's the thing. Authority in your life is not always necessarily going to spell out to you. Now listen, if you'll do what I say, I'll actually go easy on you. I'll actually soften up on you. I'll actually relax my rules on you. I'll actually turn around and reward you. But it's just true. It's implied and you should just realize that. Let me show it to you from the Bible in Romans 13. The Bible says, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God, the powers that be ordained of God. What this is explaining is that all legitimate authority in our lives, they derive their power from God. The only reason that anybody has any legitimate power or authority in this world is if they derive that authority from the mandate of God's word. So basically, why do children have to obey their parents? Only because God said, children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. See if you're an atheist, you can't really prove that children have to obey their parents. You have no authority for saying that children must obey their parents. It says who? Well says God, that's who. Why do wives have to obey their husbands? Because the Bible says that wives are to be obedient unto their own husbands in all things. Why do we need to obey our boss when we go to work? Because the Bible says that servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh. Why does the government have any authority in our lives? Because God ordained human government to be a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil, as it says in chapter 13 here a little bit later. And the Bible talks about in verse number 4, let's just read through the passage, we'll talk a little more about it here. It says, whosoever therefore, verse 2, resisteth the power, resisteth... What he's saying is if you're a child and you disobey your parents, you're actually disobeying God. If you're a wife that disobeys your husband, you're actually disobeying God because he told you to obey. If you're an employee and you're disrespectful and disobedient to your boss at work, you're actually disobeying God. If you're resisting your earthly authority that God told you to obey, that is rebellion against God as well. He says, and they that resist shall receive themselves damnation. Now when we say the word damnation, we think that means going to hell, but that's not what it means in the Bible. Damnation and condemnation have the same meaning in the Bible. Damnation is just a stronger word. It's not necessarily talking about heaven and hell, it's just talking about you will receive condemnation in the sight of God, meaning that God sees you as guilty of committing a sin in this case. So the Bible's saying, whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. Look children, if you want your parents to get off your case and start praising you, do what's good and you will have praise of the same. If you want the boss to stop treating you like dirt at work, well guess what? Do a better job and you'll have praise of the same. Okay, the same thing goes for your husband, the same thing goes for your boss at work, whatever. We're the legitimate authority in our lives. Now the reason I say legitimate authority in our lives is that we live in a day where there is some illegitimate authority that's trying to come into our lives. We have what we know as government overreach. Now look at verse number four. It says, for he is the minister of God to thee for good. That's the authority in your life. God has placed authority in our life for our benefit. Whether that's a husband, a father, a mother, a boss, the human government, the state of Arizona, whatever, the United States government. These governments, these leaders, these authorities in our life are there for a reason and they're there for our benefit. See we as Christians do not believe in anarchy where everyone just does that which is right in his own eyes. We need to have some structure and authority in our churches, in our homes, in our nation. A lot of people today say, well I'm an anarchist and they say, you know, I'm an anarcho-capitalist and I'm for libertarianism and then they take it to the point of anarchy but what these people don't understand is that when you have anarchy you have a power void and evil people will step in and fill that void and take away all your freedom. In order to have freedom you have to have a government that protects the liberties of the people. If you have no government then the worst people will just come in and rule and take over and fill that vacuum, that power vacuum. So it says, for he, meaning the power in your life, the authority in your life, he is the minister of God to thee for good but if thou do that which is evil be afraid, watch this, for he beareth not the sword in vain for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore you must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake. He's saying not just because he's going to come after you but also for your conscience sake you should also obey your authority just because it's the right thing to do also. You know, one reason is because he's going to come down on you with wrath and he's also bearing a sword in the case of actual human government and then also because of your conscience you want to do what's right in the sight of the Lord. For this cause pay ye tribute also, tribute is like taxes, for this cause pay ye tribute also for they are God's ministers attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Some people will misuse and misapply this passage to say that you have to obey the government no matter what they tell you to do and no matter what area of your life they try to rule you, God gave them that power. And then people will also try to use this passage to say that every single leader that we have was put there by God, which there are scriptures you could use to disprove that. For example, in Hosea it says that they made them kings but not by me. God said that he did not approve of the kings that they made and that they did that totally without him. Also, one day there's going to be a great king who rules over the whole earth, it's going to be called the anti-Christ and the Bible says the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority. And I'm here to tell you that a lot of the leaders that we have today in the United States were placed there by the dragon, not by God. So don't sit there and tell me, oh well God ordained all these leaders and what they do they take a verse in Daniel where the Bible says that God raises up one and brings down another but here's the thing, just because God raises up one and brings down another that does not say that every single leader is raised up by God and every single person who's brought down is brought down by God. Just because he does that, just because he has the power to intervene and just because he does intervene sometimes doesn't mean that he is picking because if he's picking he's doing a pretty bad job at picking the leaders. But the dragon's doing a wonderful job for his agenda, right? And so, you know, really if we could see with spiritual eyes we wouldn't see the Republicans and the Democrats, we would basically see those of the dragon, which would be a huge majority and then we'd see those of God and it would be a handful, right? If that, right? So it's, you know, the dragon, also the devil, the serpent, is the one who puts a lot of these people in authority according to the Bible. Now what this scripture is actually teaching is not that the government has a carte blanche to rule every area of our lives, in fact it's teaching the opposite because if you actually look at this scripture it says in verse number six, for this cause pay ye tribute also for their God's ministers attending continually upon this very thing. What's the very thing that they're attending continually on? Well the Bible says at the end of verse four, he is a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. So in the Old Testament, let's say someone was killed or robbed or something went wrong, there was no police force, there was no standing army that would enforce the laws in the nation of Israel. Didn't exist. Under God's perfect system, basically the people were self-governing. Now there were authority figures in place and those people were known as the judges. There were also rulers of tens, rulers of hundreds, rulers of thousands, there were patriarchs, there were judges, there was a legal system. So it wasn't just a wild west, mob justice type of a system. There was structure there legally but the person who actually carried out the punishment would just be anyone and that person was just known as the revenger of blood. And if you study the Old Testament, you know what I'm talking about where basically let's say a murder is committed, anybody can just go kill that murderer because he's a murderer so as long as it was premeditated murder. Now the Bible only prescribes the death penalty for premeditated murder, not for a murder that was on the spot, a crime of passion, what we know as second degree murder today in the United States. That was not punishable by death. That was punishable by exile to the city of refuge where they would have to live somewhere else until the death of the high priest and so forth. So in the old covenant system, which was a perfect system by the way because the Bible says the law of the Lord is perfect, obviously the people didn't follow it very well but if they would have followed it, it would have been great. It's a perfect system. I believe in the millennium we will follow that biblical system. But in the Old Testament, the avenger was just anybody would avenge. Now if somebody wrongfully avenged, then they'd be punished for wrongfully avenging. So it wasn't just a free for all. There were judges who made laws and there were checks and balances to this and I'm not going to sit here and explain it all because it's outside of the scope of this sermon. But what we need to understand is that according to Romans chapter 13, the government now fulfills that role of being a revenger, right? The Bible is telling the Romans, look, you have a government and he says unto them that he is the minister of God to thee for good but if thou do that which is evil, be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain, verse 4, for he is the minister of God, a revenger. So just like there were revengers in the Old Testament, the government today is a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil and the Bible says that they are supposed to be just continually attending upon that very thing. So does it say that they're supposed to be operating school systems for us? They're supposed to be dictating how high our grass is and basically how we're going to build our houses, how we're going to drive, how we're going to live our life. Does it say that it's there to provide for us in our retirement? Does it say that it's there to provide healthcare for us? It says it's there to punish evildoers, to punish and revenge and execute wrath upon him that doeth evil and that they are to continually attend upon that very thing and that they're not a terror to good works. They don't come into churches and say, whoa, stop preaching the Bible. That's not what God ordained government. God did not give government a blank check and say all power is given unto you in heaven and in earth to rule and everybody has to obey everything you say about every subject. He said that to Jesus, you know, Jesus said, all power is given unto me. The government has power, but you don't want to go too far the other way and say, hey, the government has no authority. Yes they do. The government does have authority when it comes to evil. Now what is evil? Evil is when you harm someone else, okay? People who harm others shall be punished by the government. That's what God has ordained. So basically if someone robs someone, that's harmful to someone. If someone commits adultery, seduces someone's wife and commits adultery with their wife, that is harmful, okay? If someone commits murder, that's harmful. If someone rapes, that's harmful. Any of the crimes where you're actually harming other people and affecting other people, not just these kind of made up crimes of just, you know, things that you did, even things that are sinful but they're not really evil things. You understand what I'm saying? You're not really harming other people necessarily. So the government today is kind of just out of control and, you know, they basically want to just step into all these realms that God has not given them authority and then the Christian pastors will sort of turn to Romans 13 and just say, hey, we need to obey the government no matter what they tell us and so forth. You know, the FEMA pastors and you've heard all that jazz maybe. But anyway, the thing I want to talk about though in Romans 13 here though is legitimate authority in our lives. Now first of all, I want to point out that the Bible says that that revenger of wrath, meaning human government, beareth not the sword in vain. Now listen, the sword is used to kill people. Now that should be obvious. The sword is not an implement that you would use to give a spanking, okay? The sword is not something that you would use to dole out any punishment other than death, which that is how many people have been executed throughout history. They've been slain with the sword, whether that's a beheading or whether that's a piercing through with the sword. And what the Bible is teaching there is that capital punishment is biblical. Now there are plenty of Old Testament scriptures that over and over again teach capital punishment. Capital punishment meaning the death penalty is biblical, okay? God is reiterating in the New Testament that the government does have the power from the Lord to carry out the death penalty upon people who have committed crimes worthy of the death penalty. Now throughout history this has been abused. You know for example, back in 17th, 18th century England, 18th century France, people were executed for stealing. That's not biblical. I mean that's overkill, no pun intended. But when you're executing people for stealing, executing people for forgery, executing people even in the United States for cattle rustling, steal cattle, hang them high. That's not biblical. The only things that people should be executed for are things where God said, okay this is a serious enough crime, this person shall be executed. They don't just have the right to just execute people for whatever crime they say is worthy of death. It should be what God says is worthy of death, okay? But the thing that I want to point out here especially in Romans 13 is that if you do that which is good, the Bible says at the end of verse 3 there, thou shalt have praise of the same. Look, do you want your parents to praise you? You want your parents to be happy with you? Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same. You say, oh man, my husband is on my case. Well, what are you doing to make him so mad? Oh man, the boss is just all over me at work all the time. Why don't you start doing what he tells you to do? Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same. This concept goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 4 with Cain and Abel. And Cain gets all down in the mouth because he disobeys God and God does not respect him. He's not getting respect from God because the Bible says that God did not have respect unto Cain's offering of fruits and vegetables. See the world wants us to just respect sin and respect that which is wrong. And God said, well frankly, I don't respect your offering. And then Cain gets upset and he's mad. And here's what God says to Cain, Cain, why art thou wrong? Why is thy countenance fallen? Your countenance is your face. Why the long face, Cain? If thou doest well, wilt thou not be accepted? And if not, sin lieth at the door. And so over and over again the Bible is teaching us that if we want to be blessed by God, blessed by our parents, or blessed by any other authority in our lives, we do what's right and we'll get a blessing. We do that which is wrong. And you know, obviously the parents and the boss at work don't bear a sword in vain, but they bear not the spanking paddle in vain. You know, they bear not the pink slip in vain at your job, right? There are other ways that they punish you. But anyway, go back if you went to Jeremiah chapter 18. So what God's saying in this passage is, don't get this attitude that the children of Israel had where they said in verse 12, there's no hope. We just can't please God. He just won't be pleased with us no matter what we do. He's just unhappy with us. That is not true. He said, look, if you do what's right, I will turn from the evil I've said that I would do unto you. I will turn away my fierce wrath. I will give you the second chance. Now that's what you usually, what you hear preached out of this passage is that portion. And that is a legitimate preaching. And that's a legitimate song where they basically teach, hey look, God's the God of the second chance, God's willing to give you another chance, but you have to do what's right. If you want to be blessed, if you want to, you know, have God build you up and plant you, then you have to do what's right. And if you do that, which is wrong, he's ready to just, you know, whether it's a nation or whatever, and that's what he's teaching in this passage. So their attitude was, oh, there's no hope, it's too late, throw in the towel. Look, people do this every day. Christians do this every day. They commit a sin and they feel like, oh, I blew it now, just throw in the towel. God's saying, no, no, no, look, I can remake you, I can build you and plant you if you'll just get on my program. You know, maybe you've had a lot of sin in your life in the past, or maybe you've had a lot of sin in your life lately. You know what? It's never too late for you as a Christian, it's never too late for you to just turn from your wicked ways and start to live a good Christian life and that your Father in heaven will be pleased with you. Again, it has nothing to do with personal salvation, it has to do with blessing, being blessed by God. There's a difference between just being saved and being a child of God and being blessed by God. Those are two very different things. Being saved is just by faith alone. Being blessed by God has to do with our deeds, has to do with our works. And especially as a nation, nations don't go to heaven or hell as a whole. It's not like America gets saved as a nation. But that's why America is either blessed or cursed as a nation based on its deeds, based on its works. So let's keep reading in the passage here. They said in verse 12, there is no hope but we will walk after our own devices and we will everyone do the imagination of his evil heart. Therefore thus saith the Lord, ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things? The virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon, which cometh from the rock of the field? Or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken? Because my people have forgotten me, and they've burned incense to vanity, and they've caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths in a way not cast up. That I am like the streams of crystal clear fresh water that would be from the melted snow in the mountains. And you know, if you've ever been hiking in the forest and in the woods and you've drunk that fresh, clear, clean water that springs up from those mountains and that comes in those crystal clear streams, it's cold, it's refreshing, it's healthy. And God's saying, why would you leave that? Why would you forsake that for junk, for tap, you know? And what do you know, for chlorine laden, fluoride laden tap water, he's saying, look, these vanities of the heathen, these idols, these false gods are nothing. You know, you're leaving the best thing that's out there, which is the Lord, the only true God. And he says, you know, why would you turn from him? And what he also says here at the end of verse 15 is that they've turned away from the ancient paths. See, God often in the book of Jeremiah and elsewhere in scripture equates the right way with the old paths. That's why that's a popular name for a church, old path Baptist church, right? Show us the, give us the old paths wherein is the good way, the old path wherein is the good way. Why? The Bible's old, God's old. I mean, does anybody think this is new? And you see, God never changes. Bible says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. God the father said, I'm the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. And so if God doesn't change, then the word of God doesn't change because the word was in the beginning with God and the word was God. Jesus doesn't change, the Holy Spirit doesn't change, God the father doesn't change, the written word doesn't change, therefore the right path is not going to be some new thing. It's going to be an old path, it's going to be an ancient path. We are living in a day when the independent Baptist who once used to stand for the old paths and they would even talk about that even more than I talk about that, they would talk about, we need to stay with the old paths, amen. But now they're jumping on board with some of the newest doctrines and then they have the gall to call me crazy, radical, fanatic. They're on new doctrine, my friend. Now look, some of this offends people and I'm not trying to offend people, but honestly the reason why it offends people is simply because we have grown up in this modernistic newfangled society. So when somebody brings out the ancient paths, here it doesn't even say old paths, it says the ancient paths. When somebody brings out the ancient paths, people sometimes are a little bit shocked by the ancient paths because they're so different. Because we didn't grow up with some of these paths and we need to make these ancient paths, we need to make them our paths at Faith Word Baptist. And here's a perfect example where the independent fundamental Baptists have embraced modern paths and rejected the ancient paths, and that's in the subject of having children. Okay? See the ancient path says be fruitful and multiply. The ancient path says children are inherited from the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward. Now what's interesting about this, and you can, a lot of people when they hear that, you know that the Bible commands us to multiply and have children? And when I get up and say, hey, I believe that birth control is wrong, a lot of people just panic. Or they'll just kind of shut off at that point and they don't want to hear anything else you have to say, just, okay, you've gone too far, all right, you're crazy, it's too radical. But hold on a second, just turn off emotion for a minute and just hear me out what I have to say. Did you know that 100 years ago, every Christian pastor in America taught that birth control is wrong, virtually? And that birth control was illegal in this country, in all 50 states, 100 years ago. Did you know that? Did you know that in 1916, it would have been illegal to sell birth control devices? It was illegal for a doctor to even talk to a married couple about birth control options. That was a crime in the United States of America. Did you know that? Did you know that 100 years ago, the President of the United States, President Theodore Roosevelt made a speech in which he said, birth control is sinful. I mean, can you imagine Barack Obama getting up and saying, you know, let me be clear, birth control is sinful. I mean, I don't have a good Obama impression, I'm sorry. My only Obama impression is when the teleprompter broke and he's like, they believe a bunch of okey-doke. Did anybody see that one? I still can't figure out what okey-doke is. I thought okey-doke was just a way of saying okay, like okey-dokey, but he's like, you know, and then they believe in a bunch of okey-doke and then the teleprompter starts working again and then he starts talking normal. Who saw it? Several people. Alright, God bless you, I see that hand. Hands all over the building. But the point is, 100 years ago, that was the President of the United States. I wasn't some radical Baptist pastor. The President of the United States said that. It was illegal in all the states. Then this lady Margaret Sanger came along, okay, she's speaking to the Ku Klux Klan, she was a total racist, she was just a total white supremacist, total eugenicist, and she started a movement in this country fighting and pushing for birth control. And she started an organization called the Birth Control Federation of America. And she fought and fought and fought and she was trying to import birth control devices, you know, I don't even want to use the word, let alone would I ever use the item. I don't even use the word, you know. But anyway, these, what do you call them, these barrier type devices, you know, these barrier methods of birth control, she's trying to import them from Japan and they were held up in the legal system for like 20 years, this box of these perverted devices. And then after like 20 years or something, she won this court battle and they opened up the box. I don't, you know, I don't know if the stuff was expired or what, but this box of Japanese, and all kinds of weird goofball stuff comes from Japan, doesn't it? You know, they're inventing like toilets that talk to you and everything, you know. Why does all the crazy stuff come from Japan? Nothing against Japanese people, I'm just saying. They got some weird stuff over there, all right. Because they were kind of isolated from the rest of the world for a little while. So they got some strange ideas, my friend, but we, you know, nothing against Japanese people. But the thing about that is, the birth control federation of America later changed its name to Planned Parenthood. Okay, now, not only did the world and the government and the criminal justice system, not only were they all in agreement that, hey, birth control is wrong, it's a sin, it's a crime, but the Baptist preachers of that day, they taught and preached. For example, John R. Rice, and John R. Rice was a mainstream guy, I mean, this is not some obscure guy. John R. Rice was pretty much a household name amongst independent Baptists, even to this day. The founder of the sword of the Lord, R. Hymnal is the sword of the Lord Hymnal, you know, and the sword of the Lord was founded by John R. Rice, famous Baptist evangelist, super popular. When my dad was a teenager, John R. Rice came and preached once a year at his church. John R. Rice wrote a book on this. He wrote a book called The Home and sold a whole bunch of copies, very popular book. When I was at Hiles Anderson College, it was for sale in the bookstore, ironically, and it has three chapters on why birth control is wrong. I mean, he rips, I mean, he rips on it harder than I've ever ripped on it. I mean, he is preaching hard on it, and that was just considered normal, it was just considered par for the course, because that's just what people believe. But then all of a sudden, the world changes, and the world has the so-called sexual revolution, and brings in easy divorce, and brings in birth control, and brings in the sodomites, and brings in all this stuff, and then all of a sudden, isn't it interesting how the Baptist changed their doctrine, to go right along with the world, and they lead the ancient path, and then they look at somebody like me who has nine kids, like I'm crazy. No, no, no, I'm just reproducing like a normal human being over here. I don't need, I just assumed that that box of devices would have just stayed in the box, and been returned to Tokyo. I don't need that stuff. But somehow that makes me radical, fanatic, crazy. And that's just one example. You know we could bring up a whole bunch of examples where society changes, and then the Baptist just conveniently changed their doctrine. And then you tell them the truth, you say, you know what, you're a coward, you're afraid to preach what the Bible teaches, because you know it's going to offend people. And they're like, no, no, I'm not a coward, it's just that I just believe different. But isn't that convenient? How their beliefs just kind of tend to just be in lockstep with our government and with our society. Isn't that convenient? And then it's like, well, we're not being persecuted. Well, of course you're not being persecuted when you're always in lockstep with everything that society and the government tells you. You know, maybe you're in, well, I'm not in lockstep with the Democrats. Yeah, but you're in lockstep with the Republicans. So I mean, you're still in lockstep. You're still teaching views that are socially acceptable. I'm just trying to stuff that's biblically acceptable. You know, so put that in your in your pope and smack it, because honestly, I'm going to preach what the Bible says. And I'm somebody's got to preach it because that, you know, a lot of people aren't saying this stuff because it's too radical. Well, so be it. Call it what you want. But anyway, Jeremiah Chapter 18, let's not turn from the ancient paths. Let's not walk in paths in a way not cast up. I mean, literally people today in 2016, they're walking in paths that have never been trod in this country. And they're going into some uncharted waters, let me tell you. But anyway, let's move on. I got to finish the chapter quickly here. To make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing, everyone that pass it thereby shall be astonished and wag his head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy. I will show them the back and not the face in the day of their calamity. So God's saying, I'm giving people a chance to get right with me now. But there's going to come a day where if they don't get right with God, in the day of their calamity, when things go bad, he's basically just going to turn his back to them. Show them the back, not the front, like I'm not listening. Too late for you. Okay, look at verse 18, then said they. Then said they. Who made them say that? All of Jeremiah's hard preaching. So Jeremiah's preaching and he's talking about how they're going to be destroyed. He's giving them a chance to repent, but he's telling them, look, judgment's coming. Then said they, come and let us devise devices against Jeremiah. For the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise. That priest is their phony preacher, okay. The priest is the Levitical priest who's a total compromiser and a phony who Jeremiah's trying to rebuke. So they're saying, well no, our pastor is right, you know. And they're saying, the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us smite him with the tongue. And let us not give heed to any of his words. So they're conspiring against him. Elsewhere the Bible makes it clear in the book of Jeremiah that these people are also trying to kill him. And they want him dead. They're trying to get him arrested or killed repeatedly. So now we're going to see Jeremiah's words. So that's what they're saying, right? They're saying, come on, we're going to conspire against him, we're going to devise devices against him, we're going to smite him with our tongue, we're not going to listen to anything he says. You know, we're going to make sure that our priests, our phony priest and prophet continue teaching the people. Look what Jeremiah's response is. This is Jeremiah speaking to God now, okay. Everybody pay attention. Verse 19, give heed to me, O Lord, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me. He's saying, God, give heed to me, and I want you to pay attention to what these people are saying. Harken means pay attention. Harken to what these people are saying, God, hearken to the voice of them that contend with me. Shall evil be recompensed for good? For they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them? See, earlier in the book of Jeremiah, if you remember, Jeremiah was actually interceding for these exact people. Jeremiah, do you remember that from a few weeks back? He's praying for them and saying, oh God, would you please turn away your wrath from these people? Would you bless them? They're of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, why won't you bless them? And God kept telling him, no, I can't bless these people. And God's telling him, they're reprobate. He even used that word, reprobate. He says, and he told Jeremiah, pray not for these people. Pray not for them for their good. Okay, well this is where Jeremiah's going to start obeying that command. All right, now here's the thing about this. What's funny is that the 2016 preachers would pretty much read like verses 18 through 20 and then they'd pretty much, that's where they'd pretty much cut off the sermon. So they'd sit there and show, oh man, Jeremiah was such a godly man that he's being persecuted in verse 18 and in verse 19 he's pleading for God to intercede and help him. And then in verse 20 we see that Jeremiah was such a godly man that even though they hated him and were so evil and wanted him dead, he still was just speaking good to them. Just speaking good for them. Just kept on speaking good. All right, isn't that a blessing? Let's close our eyes and pray and go home. But let's keep reading. Okay? And you know, here's the thing about Wednesday nights. Wednesday nights are usually the most negative preaching but it's not my fault because on Wednesday nights I'm preaching verse by verse through the Bible. So I have to preach all this negative stuff because it just keeps being there. And what am I supposed to do? Just skip whole sections of the book of Jeremiah? Look, every chapter's like this. Look, you might want to just lay out of Wednesday night church for like the next nine months if you don't want to hear this stuff because the whole book of Jeremiah is like this. So you might want to find an art class or a dance lesson or something that meets on Wednesday nights. If you can't handle biblical preaching. See on Sundays I pick the sermon so I try to balance it out with a lot of positive sermons and try to, there's nothing I can do on Wednesday nights, all right? So listen to what he says. Therefore, verse 21, deliver up their children to the famine. That wasn't a very nice thing to say. Now look, let me just ask you this question real quick. Just think, think with me for a minute. What if a Baptist pastor in America said that about anyone, said that about anyone in 2016? Would it be considered acceptable? If a Baptist pastor said this about anyone, no matter how bad they were, he would be condemned of 99% of his fellow evangelical and Baptist pastors and they'd say his hate speech is wrong. So, but somehow Jeremiah gets a free pass because they'll all tell you that Jeremiah was a great man of God. I mean if we were to call up every Baptist in America and say, hey, was Jeremiah a great man of God? They'd say, of course, that's a foolish question. Okay, what if we called up every pastor and said, hey, what if a pastor preached this and then we just read, didn't tell them where it came from, but just, there was a pastor who preached, you know, about this group of really wicked, reprobate people, but he said that their children should starve and that their blood should be poured out by the force of the sword and that their wives should be bereaved of their children and be widows and that their men should be put to death and that their young men should be slain by the sword. They'd say, oh man, what a bunch of junk and hate, garbage. You know it's true. Let their young man be slain by the sword in battle. Let it cry be heard from their houses when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them for they've digged a pit to take me and hid snares for my feet. They'd say, no, no, no, you need to pray for these people and pray for them that they might be saved. Yet Lord, verse 23, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me. Let them be saved, Lord. He said, forgive not their iniquity. Forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee. Deal thus with them in the time of thine anger. Let me ask you this. What if any preacher said about any group of people, forgive not their sin, Lord. Forgive not their iniquity, Lord. Forget everything else he just said. Let's just take that one phrase and let's say a preacher said, forgive not their iniquity. About anyone for any reason, what would people say about him today? And look, as I was reading this and studying this passage for this week's sermon, this is the thought that came to my mind. And honestly, I want to give people the benefit of the doubt. I'm a very optimistic person and I try to think the best of people. The thing that I decided to give people the benefit of the doubt is that I've decided that these pastors must just never read their Bible. Like they just never read the book of Jeremiah. They just don't read it. That's giving them the benefit of the doubt. Because if they do read this stuff, because it's not just this one passage. It's been like this week after week. Remember last week? Remember chapter 16? You know, remember, I mean look, we're 18 weeks into this thing, more than half of the chapters have been like this. And there's going to be more coming. So the point is, it's either one of two things folks. Either they're reading this, either they're reading their Bible, and look, I think a pastor should be reading his Bible frequently and that he should be reading copious amounts of Bible. I mean here's the thing. I think that for Joe Churchmember, reading the Bible once a year is a pretty good rule of thumb, a pretty good starting point, a pretty good basis, a pretty good foundation. You know what? If you've been saved for 10 years, you should have read the Bible 10 times cover to cover. I think that that's a pretty, because you know what, that represents about 15 minutes a day of your time. And I don't care how busy you are, I don't care how much you have going on, everybody can carve out 15 minutes. And obviously if you're a super slow reader, okay, you might not get through it as fast. But I'm saying for an average reader, it's going to take 15 minutes. We all have 15 minutes, don't we? If we really wanted to make 15 minutes, we would do it, okay? So if you read the Bible for 15 minutes every day, you're going to read the Bible cover to cover in a year. But let me ask you this. Do you think that that's enough for the pastor to read the Bible and spend 15 minutes a day reading the Bible when he's in full-time service? It's his job, he's the leader, he's responsible, he's going to receive a greater condemnation if he teaches that, which is false. I mean wouldn't you say that the standard would need to be higher? And that a pastor should be spending more time in his Bible than 15 minutes a day, which means that he should probably be reading it somewhere in the neighborhood of three, four, maybe five times a year, you know, just a lot more reading, right? And by the way, guys that want to be a pastor, you need to get on that reading program. Don't come to me and say, oh, God's calling me to preach, I want to pastor a church. And you're reading the Bible once a year or less? Now look, if you're just a church member, if you're just a layman and you're reading the Bible once a year, praise the Lord, I'm not down on you. If you read it more than that, great. But if you're reading it once a year, great. You can't read it too much, read it more. But the bottom line is though, that if you're a guy in this church that wants to pastor a church someday, don't come at me and you're reading the Bible once or twice a year. You need to boost that and start preparing to be a real man of God that knows what he's talking about. But here's the thing, I just find it hard to believe that these guys are reading these books like Jeremiah and all the other scriptures that have these type of things in them, frequently. I find it hard to believe that they're reading this chapter three, four times a year, meaning that after 10 years they've read this chapter like 30 times. And look, it's either one of two things, folks. Either they've read this passage 30 times or 20 times and they're just refusing to acknowledge it, refusing to obey it, incapable of understanding it, having no discernment of what this even means, or they're just not reading it. Now, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt by saying that maybe they just don't read it. Because I would hate to think that they would actually read all this and actually understand all this and actually learn all this and then get up and teach lies. That'd be a lot worse, to actually know that the Bible has all these negative things, that the Bible says hateful things, that the Bible talks about people being a reprobate and that it's too late for certain people, and to just get up and never teach it, never say anything, or even worse, lie about it, or even yet worse, attack the people who do have the guts to preach this word. I just have to think, no, they must just not read it. And I've come to the conclusion, and I think that I'm right about that in most cases when it comes to these independent fundamental Baptists, because I think a lot of them are not bad guys. It's just that they don't read the Bible. I think there's an epidemic of not reading the Bible. Another reason that I think that is because I've known people personally in this church who basically want to pastor a church, and their Bible reading leaves a lot to be desired. So if in a church like ours that's a red-hot, fundamental Baptist church, and where I'm constantly emphasizing, read your Bible, read your Bible, read your Bible, read your Bible. I mean, do I not emphasize that in a lot of sermons? I thought I did. Maybe I need to start. I thought I'd make a big deal about that. But then you'll talk to people, even guys that are serious about the ministry who've been saved for many years, and they're serious about it, and then you talk to them, hey, how many times have you read the Bible? Once. Twice. Been saved for years. So that tells me that if in a church like ours there are people like that, it tells me that in the liberal church down the street, oh, good night. I mean, I guarantee you that. Look, I've literally, you're not even going to believe this, I've known a Baptist pastor who actually admitted that he'd never read it cover to cover even one time, and he was a pastor of a church. No kidding. No kidding. Now, I personally am not going to have any part in ordaining any pastor that comes out of this church who has not read the Bible at least 10 times cover to cover. That's a minimum. But I don't want you to think that, you know, oh, that just means if I just read the Bible 10 times, I'm automatically ordained. You know, you need to also meet up with other criteria, you know, and be found faithful. Plus, you know, if you get to your 10th time after like 20 years of your Christian life, you know, then we might look at that and say, well, okay, but yeah, you read it 10 times over the course of 20 years and you want to be a pastor? So the point is there's enough pastors out there who don't read the Bible, we don't need to send out more. That's where I stand. Okay. The thing is, though, that people just don't read this stuff. Or I don't know, because I remember the first time I read the book of Jeremiah. I was 17 years old and, man, this kind of stuff was jumping off the page at me, right? I mean, look, have you ever been reading the Bible and you kind of zone out? I know that happens to me all the time. Like I'll be reading the Bible and all of a sudden I kind of zone. Next thing I know I'm like five verses down and I don't even know what the last five verses were that I read. Who's ever had that happen? Everybody. Yeah, and I kind of zone, or you're listening to it on the audio, you kind of zone out, you got to rewind a little, whoa, whoops, whoa. But sometimes I'll even physically read like five verses on autopilot and I'm like, wow, I have no idea what I just read. But here's what you do when that happens, you pack up and you, you got to back up and read that again. You know, you don't want to miss anything. I mean, good, I don't know. Is that what these guys are doing? Because I remember the first time I read the Bible, all the really, because I grew up in church and I grew up in Sunday school. I mean, I was in the nursery as a baby. I've been an independent Baptist my entire life, except when I was a teenager we went to some denominational Baptist churches. But I've been in a Baptist church all my life and I remember the first time I read the Bible cover to cover, all this really harsh, negative stuff was jumping off the page because I'd never heard any of it in church. It was a lot of sweetness and light. And then I'm reading my Bible and it was just like, what in the world? And I remember I would tell people, I told all my friends, I was so, I was so astonished that I would just, I would literally just, everybody I knew, I'd be like, I got to tell you this story from the Bible. It's the craziest story I've ever seen. And I remember like I would go to family gatherings and I'd be talking to my siblings and my cousins and people, and I'm like, this guy's concubine, you know, he had to, and then he's chopping her up in 12 pieces and mailing it out and everything. And I'm like, and people were like gathered around me listening, like, and they're like, whoa, that's in the Bible? And they were like, you know, they're blown away. They're like, really? And then they, I mean, you know what people said? Like, I'm going to start reading the Bible, like, cause that's wild. So I'm like, oh yeah, you got to read judges, man. It's wild. I'm telling them about the lady who takes the tent spike and creeps up on the guy while he's sleeping and hammers it through his head and people are just like, no, that's not in the Bible. I'm like, that's in the Bible. But I just understand. I mean, the first time I read it, that's the stuff who, who felt the same way the first time you read it, that kind of stuff was kind of jumping out at you like, whoa. But then it's like you talk to these pastors and it's like they've never read it or something. But it's there. Now obviously these verses could be misunderstood and misconstrued and people could, you know, go too far in the other direction and become too angry and hateful and, and whatever. But here's the thing though. You have to understand that this is God's word and that there is a place for this type of preaching and there is a place for this type of a prayer and Jeremiah was a great man of God and so was David and so was Elijah and so was all these other guys that had moments like this and it was warranted and it's biblical and he was told to pray that way. So again, we need to understand that the word of God is our final authority for all matters of faith and practice. It's real easy to cherry pick the sweetness and light verses just to try to just negate, you know, a negative sermon you hear. But let me tell you this though. It will only work on people who haven't read the Bible. That's the only people who will be fooled because anybody who's read the Bible when they hear the all sweetness and light sermon, this kind of stuff is going to be coming to their head and they're going to be like, no, no, no, just no. Whereas people who haven't read the Bible are like, yeah, yeah, God is love, yeah, yeah. Because look, false teachers, of course false teachers use the Bible. Look the Mormons are going to come to your house with a King James Bible in their hand, okay. Of course, the devil, when the devil came to tempt Jesus, he just keeps quoting scripture at Jesus but it's misused, it's out of context. The only way to know the context is to read the whole book yourself. Don't rely on me, don't rely on yourself to read the Bible and rely on the Holy Spirit to explain it to you. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the Bible, Lord, and help us to never be ashamed of your words, Lord. Help us to teach them, preach them, expound on them, explain them, love them, embrace them, Lord. Help us to be ashamed of that which is wicked, Lord, but help us never to be ashamed of the word that you've given us, Lord. We pray that you would bless us as we go our separate ways and bless our church, continue to bless our church, Lord. You've blessed us in an amazing way over the years and especially in the last few months we've had just bountiful blessings in this church of spiritual growth and numeric growth, Lord. I pray that you continue to bless, Lord, and help us to do right in your sight. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.