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Jeremiah chapter 25 beginning verse number 1 the Bible reads the word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon the which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Ammon king of Judah even unto this day that is the three and twentieth year the word of the Lord hath come unto me and I have spoken unto you rising early in speaking but you have not hearkened. Now a few things I want to point out about these verses that first of all the book of Jeremiah is not written in chronological order that's why throughout the book of Jeremiah there will be these little resets or reboots where he gives us a time frame of when this prophecy was preached because some other things in the book of Jeremiah are out of order so it gives us the context of when these things were stated and that's the way some books of the Bible are because they're organized thematically they're organized by subject and not strictly by chronology. Now what he says here when he says from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Ammon king of Judah in verse three even unto this day that is the three and twentieth year the word of the Lord hath come unto me. If you do the math of the kings that he's referring to there he's basically saying that he's in his twenty third year of saying I've been preaching to you for twenty three years that's a pretty long time so he's been faithfully preaching God's word now for twenty three years and he keeps warning them and warning them over and over the Bible says in verse number three at the end there I've spoken unto you for twenty three years he's saying rising early and speaking but you've not hearkened he's saying you didn't listen you didn't take heed unto what I preached verse four and the Lord hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets rising early and sending them but you've not hearkened nor inclined your ear to hear. Now this term incline your ear is similar to another term that's found in the book of Proverbs and elsewhere about bowing your ear incline if you think about that is a slant right think about if you lift weights and you do the incline press right that's where you have a slant going on the bench so inclining your ear or bending your ear means to basically you know lean in and try to listen very carefully you know we hear God's word being preached we should be careful to listen to what's being said we should hang on every word when we're reading our Bibles we should pay attention to what is being said he said in verse five about all the prophets that the Lord sent they said verse five turn ye again now everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your doing stop right there God is saying that every prophet that he sent told people to turn from their evil ways and from the evil of their doings that tells me that the positive only preachers are not sent from God the preachers who won't tell you that you're living in sin that won't tell you to get the sin out of your life that won't preach hard against sin and tell you to turn from the evil of your hands and your evil they're not sent by God because all of the prophets that God sent that's the preaching that they did according to this verse they said and this is again all God's servants the prophets all the prophets are actually serving God and not just serving themselves and serving their own wallets and serving their own bellies by preaching what people wanted to hear they said turn ye again now everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your doings and dwell in the land that the Lord has given unto you and to your fathers forever and ever meaning that if they don't turn from their evil way they're not going to dwell in that land that God gave them because God giving that land was always conditional upon their faith and obedience both he said in verse number six and go not after other gods to serve them and to worship them and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands and I will do you no hurt meaning if you don't turn away from these other gods I will come hurt you I won't hurt you if you turn from the false gods he says verse number seven yet you've not hearken unto me sayeth the Lord that you might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt so according to the Bible when we do wrong we commit sin when we have evil in our hands we're hurting ourselves the person that gets hurt the most is ourself and we also of course hurt the people around us but that's why God says in Revelation 22 11 he that is unjust let him be unjust still he that is filthy let him be filthy still he that is righteous let him be righteous still and he that is holy let him be holy still you know it's really even though God loves us and and God cares about us and God laments for us when we do wrong you know in the end though it's really no skin off his back because in the end of the day he's still holy he's still true and the people who are living a good life and following God's rules they're still going to be blessed the people who turn aside from the paths of righteousness are hurting themselves they're shooting themselves in the foot and it's funny because sometimes they get this attitude backslidden Christians like well I'll show them I'll quit the church you know or I'll show my parents I'm gonna go out and and get drunk and party and fornicate and get pregnant and do whatever you know but while you're showing the church and showing God or showing your parents you know those people are still being blessed and you're the one who's gonna have to live with the consequences of your actions so when you turn away from the Lord and his commandments and his word you're doing it to your own hurt it's to your own destruction the Bible says the way of transgressors is hard you wanna live a hard life you wanna hurt yourself you want God to hurt you then just go out and live a sinful life the Bible says in verse 8 therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts because you've not heard my words behold I will send and take all the families of the North saith the Lord and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon so all the families of the North this is the Medes also and the Babylonians other nations that are affiliated with the Babylonians in the North he says and Nebuchadnezzar himself the king of Babylon my servant and will bring them against this land and against the inhabitants thereof and against all these nations roundabout and will utterly destroy them and make them an astonishment and in hissing and perpetual desolations moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness the voice the bridegroom the voice to the bride the sound of the millstone and the light of the candle and this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years now let me just stop right here this is a pretty straightforward scripture that we just read it's basically just saying the same thing that's been said over and over again in the book of Jeremiah that they're gonna be judged they're gonna be punished that the Babylonians are gonna come as a result of the wrath of God and take the captive and they're gonna be captive for seventy years I mean nothing new here I mean this is over and over again in the book of Jeremiah and that's what he's saying I've been preaching this for 23 years I've been saying the same thing but I want to point out here is that this scripture uses wording that is similar to the wording that's used about the destruction of Babylon in Revelation 18 if you want to flip over to Revelation 18 let me show you that Revelation chapter 18 uses actually the same wording at the end of the chapter look at verse number 21 of Revelation chapter 18 let's do a little comparison here and a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea saying thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down and shall be found no more at all. Look at verse 22 and the voice of harpers and musicians and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in thee and no craftsman of whatsoever craft he be shall be found any more in thee and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee for thy merchants were the great men of the earth and by thy sorceries were all nations deceived and in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and all of all that were slain upon the earth. So it's interesting that some of the same things are mentioned you notice for example the light of the candle is found no more at all the sound of the millstone the voice the bridegroom the voice the bride so you see a lot of the same elements there what's interesting about that is that in Jeremiah 25 it's Babylon that is carrying out this judgment they're wiping out and leaving desolation and destruction to where these different things are no longer heard anymore at all and then spiritual Babylon in Revelation 18 which is obviously not a literal Babylon since the literal city of Babylon no longer exists today there's no one living there at all is receiving basically the same judgment upon itself that it doled out in Jeremiah 25 so in Jeremiah 25 we have Babylon doling out this type of destruction and desolation and in Revelation 18 we have Babylon receiving that type of desolation and destruction and I think what's being symbolized here is that you reap what you sow you know Babylon is not a righteous nation Babylon is a tool that God is using to punish his people to punish the land of Judah and others and so they are the tool in his hand Nebuchadnezzar is his servant in the sense that he's using Nebuchadnezzar to carry out his will but that doesn't make Babylon a righteous nation Babylon is a wicked nation and Babylon will get what's coming to them now of course 70 years later the Babylonian Empire is going to fall to the Medes and the Persians in the days of Belshazzar the king but then if we go even further into the future we see spiritually the recompense upon Babylon in Revelation chapter 18 and notice the same wording is used why because he that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity and he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword this is the patience and the faith at the same I want to point out another thing here because of this correlation here this is something that people have used to propagate this wrong theory that Jerusalem is Babylon in Revelation 18 now here's the thing about that theory there's no scripture that teaches anything like that anywhere but they make a case based upon circumstantial evidence in the sense that they'll take things that just sound similar or sound the same and just kinda pin it on Jerusalem you know here's what I mean by circumstantial evidence let's say there was a murder right and let's say a woman is murdered and the killer was identified fleeing the scene of the crime and he had brown hair and he was of a medium build the murder weapon was a great plumbing wrench right well Joe is a brown haired plumber who lives nearby ergo Joe must be guilty of this murder that is circumstantial evidence of you know killer has brown hair Joe has brown hair killer used a plumbing ranch Joe owns many plumbing wrenches killer lives in that subdivision Joe lives in that subdivision you know book him Danno well no here's the thing that is a totally circumstantial case there's really nothing that clearly pins Joe to the crime it's just a bunch of things that could be a coincidence okay circumstantial evidence so this is the type of case that people will make for this half-baked theory of Jerusalem is Babylon they'll say things like well you know Babylon's called that great city and Jerusalem's called the great city great city great city course Nineveh was called a great city other cities that you've never even heard of were called great city in the Bible because great in the Bible is usually referring to size a big city Phoenix is a great city New York is a great city you know Fort Worth is a great city I mean we can name cities all day long just great city Mexico City Tokyo that great city right it's huge so we could go on and on with all these great city great city great city and then this I've had people hitting me with this scripture a whole bunch of times as a just case closed I mean light of a candle no more at all in Jerusalem light of a candle no more at all I mean it was the murder was done with the candlestick you know so it's circumstantial evidence but here's the problem with pinning this murder on Joe Joe's got a rock-solid alibi okay Joe's alibi is rock solid and just like Jerusalem is in a different place at a different time okay go if you would to Revelation 16 I think you're already in Revelation 18 and look I'm not gonna re-preach my sermon called Babylon in the end times that's where I really just chewed up that theory and spat it out and you know if you actually think that Jerusalem is Babylon just listen to that Babylon in the end time sermon for the love of all that's holy because I can't see how anybody could listen to that sermon and still believe in it because I disproved it six ways to Sunday but here in Revelation 16 it says right here in verse 19 it says and the great city and in Revelation when it says the great city it's referring to Jerusalem like in Revelation 11 8 other places and the great city which is referring to Jerusalem was divided into three parts and the cities of the nations fell now these other cities of the nations that fall these are gigantic cities across America and across the world that have skyscrapers in them right so imagine when God sends this great earthquake with the seventh vial because the end of verse 18 it says there was a great earthquake such as was not since men were upon the earth so mighty an earthquake and so great so when God sends this colossal earthquake skyscrapers are going to be coming down all over the world right I mean think about the shaking and then the cities of the nations fell I mean can you imagine what it's going to be like when all those buildings are coming down all over the world so he says first of all that the great city referring to Jerusalem is divided into three parts and the cities of the nations fell and great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give under her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath so in this verse it's obvious to anyone that Babylon and the great city are not the same place because there are three distinct events here that are happening we already look Joe's already got an alibi he's already at the beginning of the verse right here the great cities divided into three parts and the cities of the nations fell and great Babylon came these are separate judgments on three different localities judgment on Jerusalem judgment upon the cities of the nations and then Babylon comes in remembrance before God to give under her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath I don't see how any person could read this verse and walk away saying that the great city in that verse is Babylon it's Jerusalem which is separate from Babylon okay but when we go back to Jeremiah chapter 25 we find that even this piece of circumstantial evidence falls apart it turns out Joe's not even a plumber he's a sprinkler pipe fitter and he used a totally separate toolkit of what a plumber would use he doesn't have the same type of wrench he has different type of tools but somebody in their haste just assumed that a sprinkler pipe fitter is a plumber no these are two different trades look down at your Bible and let me call the jury's attention to verse number eight of Jeremiah chapter 25 before we just railroad Joe here to the death penalty here and just and just you know just throw them under the bus here counsel for the defense would like to point out Jeremiah 25 verse 8 therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts because you've not heard my words behold I will send and take all the families of the north saith the Lord and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon my servant and will bring them against this land and against the inhabitants thereof watch this and against all these nations so are we talking about Jerusalem we're talking about Judah here are we talking about all the nations read it and against the inhabitants thereof and against all these nations round about and will utterly destroy them and make them an astonishment and an hissing and perpetual desolations moreover I will take from them take from whom all the nations I will take from them all the nations the voice of mirth the voice of gladness the voice the bridegroom the voice of the bride sound of the millstones in the light of the candle and this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years and by the way these nations are listed in verses 19 through 26 it lists all the nations that he's talking about so even this piece you know the hey sound of a millstone sound of a millstone great city great city candle candle well here's the thing you actually look a little closer this has nothing this verse has nothing to do with Jerusalem so that piece of evidence just completely falls apart and you know if the glove don't fit you must have quit all right you know it just isn't there folks but I can't even and you say oh you're just making this up no I probably have had 10 people email me with this verse it's just oh case closed it's Jerusalem's Babylon now look when we talk about end times bible prophecy obviously we don't know exactly how things are going to play out we see through a glass darkly when it comes to how it fits in with the world that we live in you know I believe that it's crystal clear that if this were to happen in our lifetime and that's a big if although I believe that we can see the signs of times that if the end times events were to happen in our lifetime there's no question that Babylon is referring to the United States of America since the main thing that's emphasized in Revelation 18 is the merchandise he goes on and on all the merchants the ship masters the shipment nobody buys the merchandise anymore because they were all shipping it to this great wealthy powerful empire city of Babylon which what's the world empire today there's only one world empire we went we flew around the country and talked to historians and experts and everybody everybody agreed they scoffed at anyone saying that any other nation was a world empire right now except the United States because it's just that clear so obviously Babylon was a world empire Persia Greece Rome and the Bible calls Rome Babylon and refers Rome to Babylon so obviously if we were to fast forward to 2016 the nation that fits that bill is the USA now if it's beyond our lifetime then all bets are off but I will tell you one thing though I will tell you one thing I don't care if it's a million years from now it would never be Jerusalem because that contradicts what the Bible teaches in Revelation okay so even if we don't know even if we don't know that bill is the killer okay whether or not you believe bill has committed the crime is not relevant to Joe's innocence Joe has a rock-solid alibi we know it wasn't him maybe it was bill maybe it wasn't but Joe's not guilty does everybody understand what I'm saying he's off the hook folks because he's already somewhere else now look does Joe have a violent past yeah I mean has Joe look does Joe have a few domestic violence calls on his right yeah he sure does but propensity to violence is not admissible as evidence against Joe and therefore Joe is not guilty but the Bible says here that Babylon is going to come in and bring a judgment upon all of these nations that are all listed from 19 through 26 and that the voice of the bridegroom the voice of the bride the light of a candle the sound of millstone are not going to be in all the nations none of this is directed specifically at Jerusalem therefore that's just silly look at verse number 12 and it shall come to pass when 70 years are excuse me accomplish that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation say at the Lord for their iniquity in the land of the Chaldeans and I will make it perpetual desolation so again in verse third verse 12 he follows it up by saying I'm going to punish Babylon and make them a perpetual desolation so God uses one nation to punish another and then he punishes the nation that he used to do the punishing right because they were wicked as well look at verse 13 and I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it even all that is written in this book which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations for many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also and I will recompense them according to their deeds and according to the works of their own hands for thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me take the wine cup of this fury at my hand and cause all the nations to whom I send thee to drink it again the reference to all the nations which is going to continue throughout the rest of this chapter and the main thing about and again I'm not listen to my sermon Babylon in the end times but the main thing I want to point out about this Jerusalem theory that people float out there of oh Babylon's Jerusalem and here's the thing look I'm as anti-Judaism and anti-Jew as anybody my credentials speak for themselves all right I've got a whole litany of sermons and I've got the marching design film that I participated in and so you know that's not the point here just because you got a hammer in your hand doesn't mean that everything's a nail my friend and here's the thing about this theory it's a half-baked theory meaning that they want to put Joe at the crime scene committing this murder but here's the thing they can't tell us how he got to the crime scene they can't tell us what Joe's motive is they can't tell us where he got a hold of a plumbing wrench when he's a sprinkler pipe fitter and when you talk to people who have this theory and you start pinning them down on specifics that will explain this explain this it's just a lot of I don't know I don't know I don't know they can't flesh out the whole book of revelation with this theory they just have some stuff that kind of points to Jerusalem oh see it's Jerusalem but they can't break it down to you verse by verse they can't go verse by verse every verse of revelation 17 and every verse of revelation 18 and coherently teach this doctrine it's just something that's just thrown out there by people that get too excited about being anti-Jewish and look I'm anti-Muslim I'm anti-Jewish I'm anti-Mormons I'm anti-Catholic I'm anti-Orthodox I'm anti-Buddhist I'm anti-Hindu I'm just you name it I'm against it if it's not Christianity okay but but I'm not just gonna every sermon I preach is somehow against the Jews or else oh Pastor Anderson is a secret Zionist you know I'll tell you what there are a lot of people in this world that go overboard on a lot of things and let me tell you we as Christians need to strive for balance in our lives and not just become a one issue preacher or a one issue Christian think about how many people that you've met and known that are a one issue person no matter what you talk to them about it all comes back to that one thing have you known people like that I mean I've talked to people that are so into freedom and liberty and patriotism that just everything goes back to liberty I mean look there are pastors where every sermon they preach they tie it in with the United States and liberty and freedom I mean the whole bible is a freedom struggle I mean from Genesis to Revelation it's just it's all about freedom from tyrants I mean that's the way they see the bible right and then other people just everything is just the Jews that's all they talk about the Jews this the Jews that it's just all just all they talk about and then there are other people all that they can talk about all that they can think about is the King James versus other versions and that's all they talk about all it's like a hobby horse that they just keep coming back to you know all they want to talk about is bible prophecy or all they want to talk about is creation versus evolution or all they want to you know we need to make sure that we get a well-rounded view of scripture and not just go off on a certain hobby horse where we just pick one thing and we just want to pin every tail on that donkey right just everything everything's the Jews or here's how about the Catholics if you're one of these people are just everything's the Catholics everything's the Roman Catholic every chapter in the bible is about Catholicism I mean who's run into those types everything's the Jesuits Jesuits you know and then if it's not the Jesuits Jesuits Jesuits it's Jews Jews Jews you know blah blah blah it's just they just fixate on certain things why don't we attack everybody equally you know yeah let's attack Judaism Islam the homos Mormons fact Gnostics atheists and every everything I mean equal opportunity face ripping not just focusing on one thing and just running it into the ground I mean look I'm telling you I you talk to people who go to churches that are like that and they get bored after six months like they first get there like oh it's great I'm learning new things real interesting and then it's just kind of like ho hum here we go again you got to branch out you know I would hate to be I would hate to just be known for just one thing oh pastor Anderson that's just that guy who's just always talking about you know the the tribulation he's that after the tribulation guy that's all he talks I mean nobody could really say that because I also talk about the King James bible issue and wait a minute what about that movie against the Jews and wait a minute what about the stuff I did against the homos what about the you know the border patrol incident you know so what about the liberty movement what about the conspiracy that what about the sermons on prayer what about the sermons on bible reading what about the bible memorization what about soul winning isn't his big thing soul winning I thought he talks all about soul winning all the time but see here's the thing which if I asked 20 different people the one thing I'm known for I'd probably get 20 different answers because of the fact that I'm trying to have balance in my life I don't want to just become this guy who's just beating the same drum every time just the same thing same very one dimensional you know we need to branch out and understand that this world has a lot of evil in it and it can't all just be concentrated to one group see the devil controls all of these groups I mean are you going to tell me the devil's not behind islam but how many people do you know that that's all they talk about everything's islam all evil in the world goes back to islam right you know it's out there a lot of these conservative talk radio types that's all they want to talk about all day long and they're like when are you going to preach on islam why don't you preach against islam for a change huh you don't ever talk about it's like okay well here's a list of all the sermons I preach against islam but yeah but that was like three months ago that you covered it because they just want to keep hearing about it again they're like a little kid who wants to keep watching the same movie over and over again isn't that what little kids do little kids is hey you you want to see something different no I want to watch that one again and again and again and I know because I was a little kid once and I watched the same movie every day every day every day and then the little toddler who gives the storybook to their parents read it to me again read it again read it why don't we read something different nope this is the one I want to read read it again read it again read it again and then I remember my son Solomon one time he just fixated on one page and I would say to him we've already read this page he would turn to the page and then turn back like as a reboot he thought that he could trick me that we hadn't just read that page so he kind of flipped some pages around like oh yeah we're going to other parts of the book oh how about this page dad it was this book called a fly went by the name of the book was a fly went by and oh I know which page it was because I read 100 bucks oh naughty fox oh shame on you oh shame shame shame for what you do you want to kill the little cow you stop or I will whip you now all right read it again read it again read it again read it again why that's how a little kid but you know what that's how babes in christ are oh tell me about the tribulation again again again again again it's like no why don't we talk about your drinking problem why you know you do your work you don't talk about the end times why don't we talk about your sin no no no let's not talk about myself let's talk about how the king james is perfect amen yeah why because the king james being perfect doesn't require you to change anything about the way that you live right except to just switch bibles to the right one see people really like to fixate on these doctors that are real convenient like hey we didn't evolve you know i mean that that doesn't require a lot of changing but here's the thing you know they don't necessarily want to hear when they're a babe in christ when you start getting on their sins and you start really you know hitting them where it hurts they just want to keep on hearing about how about you know they or they just want to hear about how bad the homos are all day long it's like well no i'm kind of sick of talking about that it gets a little old but people just they just want to hear it over and over and over it's childish we we should want to hear a variety of get a get a variety in our diet not just wake up every day and eat the same thing for breakfast same thing for lunch same thing for dinner because then we're going to miss out on nutrients that are in other meals and that's kind of one of the things i like about wednesday night is it forces me to preach on stuff that i might not have thought to preach on because we're just going chapter by chapter so you know whatever's in the chapter sometimes oh man i wouldn't have thought about preaching that but you do and then on the sunday sermons i really strive for variety and if you look at the list of sermons you'll see that there there's variety there and one of the biggest things whenever i'm picking a sermon is just what have i not preached on a long time what have i not covered lately because we want to cover everything and not just keep on with the same old thing and i'm telling you some people that just it's like if you're not preaching against catholicism every week you're a secret jesuit and if you're not ripping on islam every single week well then you know you're just part of the global jihad and if you aren't ripping on the jews every single week well you're a secret i mean somebody literally called me last week you that i'm a zionist are you insane but it i mean it's true though because you just can't say enough for them they just want the same thing over and over and over and over and over it's ridiculous branch out a little bit folks there's other evil in this world besides your pet evil you know you need to branch out your your hate life no i'm just kidding just kidding you need to branch out your you know the things that you're against all right or just people that just pro-life that's all they talk about all they do is just constant just pro-life protesting abortion play okay but what about everything else you know let's let and i'm not saying not to be against these things i'm against all of them i strive to to fight against them all but we need to make sure we don't become a one issue christian and we live in a day of specialists see in the 21st century everybody's a specialist and look when it comes to preachers i say beware of specialists watch out for the specialists now every once in a while you get a good specialist but most specialists they can't see the forest for the trees they're just an imbalanced over the top on one issue instead of studying the whole bible and getting a a balanced view we just have these people that are just an expert and these are not usually pastors of churches they're usually like a parachurch ministry like a ministry all about homeschooling or a ministry all about the family or a ministry all about you know bible prophecy or a ministry that's just all about you know the pre-trib research center you know in texas or whatever you know instead of just living a normal christian life and learning all subjects learning the whole bible we live in a day of specialization and we ought to strive to be general practitioners even in our personal lives we should strive to have balance you know there are people out there that are very athletic but they don't cultivate their brain and so they become a big dumb animal right right and then there are people out there who just cultivate the brain all day long but they don't work on their body at all and it's like they are just these kind of dweeby like pale their skin doesn't get enough sunlight they're skinny they're weak they're frail they're unhealthy because they're not getting out and doing anything physical it's just all they're just reading or you know doing other mental activities even even even things that are more brainless than reading like you know video games or tv or whatever just things that only engage their mind and you know if you watch a lot of tv it makes you tired but have you really done any physical activity no so you go to bed feeling like oh man i'm tired but your whole body is atrophying it's not healthy right so we don't want to be the big dumb animal but we also don't want to walk around with a big swollen head full of information and our body is weak and frail to even hold the thing up okay or you know people that go overboard on art and music but then it's like they have no practical knowledge or practical skills so they're this penniless starving artist you know busking by the side of the road with a can for people to throw a few bucks in and they can't hold down a job and they can't support their family but boy are they a wonderful artist and a musician but here's the thing we need balance in our lives we need to be musical we need to get some exercise we need to you know get some smarts and we need to be spiritual and we need to read our bibles yes we need to pray we need to go soul winning we need to go to church we need to sing the hymns not just a whole bunch of bible study with no soul winning that's these seminaries and theological ivory towers out there or what about this a whole bunch of soul winning and no bible reading oh that's out there and then what happens false doctrine because you're not rooted in the truth you're carried about with every trendy new wind of doctrine okay whole bunch of prayer with no bible reading you're praying about stuff that god already told you isn't even legitimate you're praying all the wrong things or praying that people will be saved but not going out and getting them saved you know these are imbalances okay in our personal lives we should strive to work on our weaknesses look if you're a person who is just physically weak and frail as a man you need to get stronger i only got one amen on that and the whole lot of time thank you brother charlie you need to get stronger you say oh what are you talking about what do i need that for well you know what all the guys in the bible were strong i don't see any frail weakling men in the bible they were all strong bible says a wise man is strong yeah a man of understanding increases strength and you and by the way it's for your health maybe it'll add 10 years to your life if you actually get some physical activity and get out there get outside quit listening to the american cancer association and get some sun amen get a tan and look if you're just some big dumb animal oh reading's not my thing well make it your thing because god gave you a book to read the bible it's not a dvd it's not a workout you know it's a bible well music's not my thing well you show up to church and you sing out as loud as you can until it becomes your thing make a joyful noise in the lord let everything that breath praise the lord you know we need to balance ourselves out here people let's look in the bible here i'm getting off on a rabbit trail here but the bible says in verse number 15 for thus saith the lord god of israel and i really like this passage that's coming up here for thus saith the lord god of israel unto me take the wine cup of this fury at my hand and cause all the nations to whom i send thee to drink it and they shall drink and be moved and be mad mad means crazy because of the sword that i will send among them then took i the cup at the lord's hand had made all the nations to drink unto whom the lord had sent me to wit jerusalem and the cities of judah and the kings thereof and the princes thereof to make them a desolation an astonishment and hissing and a curse as it is this day pharaoh king of egypt and his servants and his princes and all his people now here's what i like about this is it shows that the preaching of god's word wasn't just to israel in the old testament god got his word out to all nations i mean jeremiah the prophet in chapter one was ordained a prophet to the nations not a prophet to judah prophet to the nations and all throughout the old testaments we have examples of god's word going out to the whole world so this idea that god was only interested in israel people are only being saved in israel no no people all over the world got saved through the preaching of god's word look at this list of where it went besides egypt and and israel it says in verse 20 all the mingled people and all the kings of the land of us and all the kings of the land of the philistines and ashkelon and aza and ekron and the remnants of ashtad edom and moab and the children of ammon and all the kings of tyros and all the kings of zidane and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea now the sea there is referring to the mediterranean sea tyre and zidane are on the coast of the mediterranean sea just north of israel so he's working his way out like tyre zidane and then all the isles beyond the sea isles or coasts because sometimes when the bible used the word isle it doesn't necessarily mean island but just you know geography that's along the water maybe on three sides for example like what we would call a peninsula and if you think about places like greece and italy and even into spain you know they would fit that bill these different coasts and isles beyond tyre and zidane god even sent jeremiah to preach unto them the bible says besides the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea didan and teema and buzz and all that are in the utmost corners i mean talk about the uttermost part of the earth right and all the kings of arabia and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the desert and all the kings of zimrai and all the kings of elum and all the kings of the meads and all the kings of the north far and near one with another and all the kingdoms of the world which are upon the face of the earth and the king of shishak shall drink after them so he's like everybody in the whole world and the king of shishak whoever that is therefore thou shalt say unto them thus saith the lord of hosts the god of israel drink ye and be drunken and spew and fall and rise no more because of the sword which i will send among you and it shall be if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand and drink then thou shalt say unto them thus sayeth the lord of hosts ye shall certainly drink so he's bringing a literal cup of wine to them saying drink this and be drunken and spew and fall down drink it and throw up and pass out and if they say no we don't want to drink that he'll say oh you're gonna drink it you will drink it whether you drink this physical cup that i'm holding by way of illustration or not you're gonna drink the cup of the wine of the wrath of god god's fierce anger so he went around all these nations and preached this sermon of destruction and he brought the cup as a as a symbol see all throughout jeremiah uses object lessons like he wears a yoke for part of the time or he's got a cup or you know ezekiel sets up little army men and and sets up a battle i mean all throughout the bible men of god would use sometimes physical illustrations to to really drive in the message and he says in verse 29 for lo i begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name which is jerusalem and shall ye be utterly unpunished ye shall not be unpunished for i will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth sayeth the lord of hosts therefore prophesy thou against them all these words and say unto them the lord shall roar from on high and utter his voice from his holy habitation he shall mightily roar upon his habitation he shall give a shout as they that tread the grapes against all the inhabitants of the earth a noise shall come even to the ends of the earth for the lord has a controversy with the nations he will plead with all flesh he will give them that are wicked to the sword saith the lord i mean god's got a bone to pick with everybody that's what it's saying here he's got a controversy with the nations he will plead with all flesh verse 32 thus saith the lord of hosts behold evil shall go forth from nation to nation and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coast of the earth and the slain of the lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even under the other end of the earth they shall not be lamented neither gathered nor buried they shall be dung upon the ground howl ye shepherds and cry and wallow yourselves in the ashes ye principle of the flock for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel and the shepherds shall have no way to flee nor the principle of the flock to escape a voice of the cry of the shepherds and an howling of the principle of the flock shall be heard for the lord hath spoiled their pasture and the peaceable avocations are cut down because of the fierce anger of the lord he hath forsaken his covert as the lion for their land is desolate because of the fierceness of the oppressor and because of his fierce anger so god here is likened unto a lion that's hidden in a covert some kind of a covering and it's like he just comes out with a vengeance just ready to just rip something apart and that's how god is sometimes god hides himself and we see evil prosper and we see people get away with wickedness and they think that they're getting away with it and that god's not going to judge god has forgotten but in reality he's just waiting until the time is right when he's just going to pounce and he's going to rip them apart and you know god has a different timetable than us because with god a day is like a thousand years so we might think that god is allowing evil to prosper for so long but for him it's just a short time because he knows that in just a few years he's going to cloud up and rain on these people so the world doesn't understand that and they continue in their wickedness thinking oh look i haven't been judged yet but once it comes down on them like a ton of bricks then it's too late and even in our personal lives we need to not just sit and wait see you we don't want to put our foot in the water of sin test it see nothing bad's happening look i'm up to my knees nothing bad see everything's fine you know hey look i'm out up to my waist now everything's good you know look i'm all the way under my back you know the alligator the alligator comes and rips us apart that's life that's life people just go and just say oh yeah this is great until it all isn't great and then they say oh i'm such an idiot look how many people could we find who are old who could just tell you what an idiot they've been right we could find all the old drunks and we could find all the old drug addicts and we could find the old fornicators and the old adulterers and everything you know i mean how many do you need to talk to why don't you just trust the lord that he said that that that that that way of life is doomed and why don't you just trust in the lord that if we do what's right we're going to be blessed spire heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for jeremiah chapter 25 lord and thank you that you you you want your word to go to all the nations lord and i know that even today in 2016 you want the message of the gospel to go to all nations lord but i i believe that you want the whole message of the bible to go to all nations that which is positive and that which is negative lord i pray that your word would circle this globe lord and that people would hear your word your wrath your love your long suffering all of it lord i pray that they would hear all of it in this generation in every nation and tongue on this earth lord just like you did in the days of jeremiah lord i pray that you'd raise up men like jeremiah that would thunder out the word of the lord to all nations and all people lord and i pray that you would help us to hearken unto your word that we might lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty lord and i pray that no child or teenager that's in this church would go out of here and live a foolish wicked sinful life lord because i believe that they'll be judged doubly for the preaching that they've heard because unto whom much is given of him shall much be required and lord i pray that that saying would sink down into their ears lord that they would never forget those words of jesus and it's in your name we pray amen please turn with me to song 174