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

Man, Jeremiah chapter number 38, the Bible reads, Then Shephatiah the son of Matan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashur, and Juchal the son of Shelomiah, and Pashur the son of Malchiah, heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken unto all the people, saying, Thus saith the LORD, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. But he that goeth forth to the Chaldean shall live, for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live. Thus saith the LORD, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which shall take it. This is the same message that Jeremiah has been preaching all along, just making it very clear there's no escape, they're doomed, the Chaldeans are going to win, you're going to lose, and the only way you're even going to survive, according to the word of the LORD, is if you just surrender to them. If you just go out to meet them and surrender to their army. If you fight or try to flee, you will die, that he's saying. Now this is of course not what they wanted to hear. It's not a very patriotic message that he's giving. So it says in verse 4, Therefore the princes said unto the king, We beseech thee, let this man be put to death, for thus he weakened at the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them. For this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt. Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold he's in your hand, for the king is not he that can do anything against you. Now this king, and we've seen it in previous chapters, and we're especially going to see it in this chapter, is a very weak, poor leader. He doesn't take a stand for what he believes in, he doesn't have the guts to say what he believes, he doesn't have the guts to do what he believes, he allows them to throw Jeremiah in prison, even though later in this chapter he goes and seeks counsel from Jeremiah, he respects Jeremiah, and even admits to Jeremiah that he believes what he's telling him is right, but that he's just afraid to put it into practice. So Zedekiah is just a very weak leader all the way around. He says to the princes, the king is not he that can do anything against you. You know, he's just being a total weakling, saying, Well, I mean, I guess if that's what you guys are going to do, that's what you're going to do. It's sort of like Pontius Pilate, where he's washing his hands, and saying, Go ahead, and you take him and crucify him. You know, like they did with Jesus, that's what's being done with Jeremiah. So he's going to be thrown in the dungeon. Look at verse 6. Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah, the son of Hamalek, that was in the court of the prison. And they let down Jeremiah with cords, and in the dungeon there was no water but mire, so Jeremiah sunk in the mire. So he is literally lowered into a pit where there's no water, but just mire, just filth. Basically he's being lowered into what we would know as a sewer. This is sewage. This is like the whole of an outhouse. And he's lowered down into this, and that's where he's going to be imprisoned. It says in verse number 7, Now when Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs which was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon, the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin, Ebed-Melech went forth out of the king's house and spake to the king, saying, My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they've done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they've cast into the dungeon, and he has liked to die for hunger in the place where he is, for there's no more bread in the city. Then the king commanded Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, saying, Take from hence thirty men with thee, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon before he died. So again, he's indecisive. Anybody who comes and talks to him, he just keeps switching opinions, Okay, yeah, put Jeremiah in the prison. No, go ahead and take him out. Now notice, he's sending thirty guys to go take him out of the prison. Why? Because being down in this mire, this hole that he's in, you know, it's not easy to even get someone out of this thing. Look what they have to do to get him out of this hole that he's in. So Ebed-Melech, verse 11, took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took those old cast clouts and old rotten rags, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah. And Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian said unto Jeremiah, Put now these old cast clouts and rotten rags under thine arm holes, or armpits, obviously, under the cords, and Jeremiah did so. So they drew up Jeremiah with cords, and they took him out of the dungeon, and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. So this is sort of like where somebody's sneaking out the second story window, and they tie all the sheets together, or tie all the towels and rags and whatever. So they tie this together and just makeshift a rope as it were. They lower this thing down in, and they tell him, Just put it under your armpits, basically, and just hang on, and we're going to pull you out. That shows that he was probably in a very weakened condition. You know, they didn't say, Here, climb up this, or here, grab on with your hands, and we'll pull you out. They're basically just having to double it up, put it under his armpits, so that they can do all the work. You know, the 30 guys can do all the work, and just pull him up, just lift him up by his armpits out of the mire. And we're going to come back to this in a little while, but let's keep going. It says that then he remained in the court of the prison at the end of verse 13. So now, instead of being down in the hole, he's just kind of hanging out in the courtyard. He's just under arrest in the courtyard of the prison. Verse 14, Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him, into the third entry that is in the house of the Lord. And the king said unto Jeremiah, I'll ask you a thing, hide nothing from me. Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death? And if I give thee counsel, wilt thou not hearken unto me? So Zedekiah the king swears secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, As the Lord liveth that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, neither will I give the end of the hand of these men that seek thy life. So Zedekiah secretly now comes to Jeremiah and wants to get advice. He wants to know what the word of the Lord is. He's already asked him before. He never hearkens unto him. He keeps allowing people to arrest him, but yet he comes back to hear it again from the mouth of Jeremiah. Verse 17, Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith the Lord the God of hosts, the God of Israel, If thou will assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire, and thou shalt live and thine house. But if thou will not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand. So God gives Zedekiah through Jeremiah a very clear instruction here of what to do. He says, look, if you do this, you're gonna live, your kids are gonna live, the city's not gonna be destroyed, it's not gonna be burned with fire, you're gonna be okay if you just obey the Lord here, okay? But if you do the other thing, you're gonna not be spared, the city's gonna be destroyed, you're not gonna escape, the whole city's gonna be burned with fire, all these bad things are gonna happen. So it's a very clear instruction here, it's just an A or B, are you gonna obey God or are you gonna disobey God? And Zedekiah swears to him, oh yeah, I wanna hear the truth, I wanna know what's right, I wanna do what's right, just tell me what to do, Jeremiah, tell me what to do. He gets this clear instruction and then look at the answer that he gives him in verse 19. And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, and notice these first three words, I'm afraid. And this is the story of most Christians' lives right here, this is the story of most leaders in their lives, this is the story of most independent fundamental Baptist pastors in America today where they're given a decision to do what's right or what's wrong, to do what's right or what's popular, to do what's right or what's gonna please the princes of the people and make them happy, and they answer with, I'm afraid, I'm afraid. See fear often prevents us from doing what's right, even when it's so clear what the right thing to do is, fear will stop us from doing what's right very often. All throughout the Bible, fear is mentioned literally over 400 times, and unless we're fearing the Lord, it's always negative. The Bible says God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. And let me tell you something, today fear has infected the hearts of God's people unlike I've ever seen it in my life. And pastors today, they're living in fear, and this spirit of fear did not come from God. It didn't come from God. Where is it coming from? It's of the devil is what it is. This fearful spirit that's just afraid all the time. Now, this is one of my favorite chapters, Jeremiah 38. I love this chapter because Zedekiah is given this really clear choice, and he answers, well, I'm afraid. And then look what he says he's afraid of. It says in verse number 19, I'm afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand and they mock me. So what's he afraid of? Oh, I'm afraid of being made fun of. Your whole city is going to be destroyed. Your whole city is going to be burned down. Your children are going to be murdered, but you're afraid somebody's going to make fun of you. I mean, that's what he's saying. Well, I'm afraid that they're going to mock me. Now, you know what is the exact thing that happens to him when he disobeys the Lord? Exactly that which he feared. Because what happens? They end up, first of all, murdering his children in front of him, and then putting out his eyes so that that's the last thing that he ever saw. He's destroying Jerusalem, burning it down, destroying everything. And think about when Samson had his eyes put out. What was the next thing they did with Samson? Yeah, they made fun of him, right? They made sport with him. They didn't kill Zedekiah, but they put out his eyes so that he's just a shadow of his former self. So he's just a prisoner. He's blind. He's just a laughing stock and a gazing stock unto men. You see, when we disobey the Lord because of fear, often the very thing that we fear is what is going to come upon us. God will sometimes give us that poetic justice where when we disobey God because of fear, he'll bring that exact fear upon us like he did with Zedekiah. Look what Jeremiah says in verse 20. But Jeremiah said, they shall not deliver thee, obey. He's saying, look, if you are obedient to the Lord and you surrender to the Chaldeans, they will not deliver you to the Jews to mock you. It won't happen. You will not be made fun of. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord which I speak unto you. So it shall be well unto thee and thy soul shall live. But if thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that the Lord has showed me. And behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah's house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes. And those women shall say, Thy friends have set thee on and have prevailed against thee. Thy feet are sunk in the mire and they are turned away back. What are they saying? That's what they're going to say when they make fun of you. He's saying, actually, if you disobey the Lord, you're going to get made fun of. And if you obey the Lord, you're not going to be made fun of. He says in verse 23, so they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans and thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon and thou shalt cause this city to be burned with fire. He's saying, it's going to be your fault that this whole city is burned down. Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah, well, let no man know of these words and thou shall not die. What's he saying? Oh, well, just don't tell anybody that we talked. I mean, what a baby. He's just so worried about what everybody thinks. Oh, don't tell anybody about this conversation. Oh, I'm afraid they're going to make fun. Here, let me talk to you secretly because I don't want anybody to hear that I was talking to Jeremiah or asking you, well, if anybody asks you, don't tell them we talked about this. I mean, what a loser. What a failure as a leader. What a failure as a king. But I'm telling you, there are a lot of Zedekiahs around today, even to this day. There's nothing new under the sun. We need to get fear out of our lives. We need to understand the simple truth that fear is a sin unless you fear the Lord. That's the only exception to fear being a sin. Any other fear is sin. In fact, in Revelation 21 8, the famous scripture about the unsaved being cast into the lake of fire, it says in Revelation 21 8, but the fearful. The first sin that's listed, but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and sorcerers and whoremongers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. The first sin mentioned is fear, the fearful and unbelieving. When is fear first introduced in the Bible? Well, it's after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden and then they hide themselves because they're afraid. Fear is not from God unless you're fearing God. We are not supposed to fear the devil. We're not supposed to fear persecution. We're not supposed to fear our fellow man. The Bible says the fear of man bringeth a snare. And whenever I have found myself in a situation where I was feeling fearful or scared, I would quote myself scripture to overcome that fear because I don't want to be a fearful person because that's not godly. So you know, if I were in situations that were scary or fearful, I would, I would quote scripture, you know, yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. I rod on my staff. They come for me. But fear is an epidemic today amongst Christians, especially amongst leaders. You know what? There are so many pastors who believe right in America, who know what the Bible says, but they're just too scared to actually preach what the Bible says. I can't even tell you how many times on a weekly or monthly or annual basis I'm talking to other pastors and missionaries and people and I'm just, it just seems like I'm just saying the same thing over and over again to so many Christians, pastors, just don't be afraid. Fear not. Just, just say, just do it. Just say, just pull the trigger, you know, and they're just, ah, I'm scared. Do it. Do it. Fear not. And now you know why Jesus said that over and over again. Fear not. Fear not. Fear not. Fear not. Why are you fearful? Oh, you have little faith. He said, because fear, if there's one thing and I'm not, if there's one thing I could change about America, if I could just push a button and one thing would be changed, if I could just push, it would just be that pastors would stop being afraid. That would fix everything. I'm not kidding. I wouldn't push a button to make them all believe like me. That wouldn't change anything. You wouldn't even hardly notice the difference. I mean, most of them already know what the truth is, these independent fundamental, it's just that they're afraid. They're scared. It's sad. I mean, I, I, you know, here's a, here's a good example. You know, ever since I was 12 years old, I've known that the pre tribulation rapture was a fraud that's not found in scripture. I've known that since I was 12 because the Bible is real clear that the rapture takes place immediately after the tribulation. You know, Matthew 24, 29 through 31, the trumpet sounds, Christ comes in the clouds, he gathers the elect. It's right after the tribulation. Now it's before God's wrath is poured out. It's before the wrath, but it's after the tribulation. But the teaching that's out there amongst most independent fundamental Baptist is, you know, Jesus can come back at any moment. He might even come back tonight, you know, before the service is over. That's not true. The Bible says first, the man of sin will be revealed. The son of perdition who opposed and exalted himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped so that he as God sit within the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. That abomination of desolation is going to take place first. The antichrist is going to be revealed first. The Bible clearly said after the tribulation in Matthew 24, after the tribulation in Mark 13, Mark 13, et cetera, couldn't be any clearer. There's no, there's no clear scripture that anybody could show you to say, oh, it's before the tribulation, but it's just what they believe because it's what they believe because they said so because it's what the Bible college said or because that's what they all believe. But look, I'm telling you, I've talked to so many pastors, I've talked to so many missionaries, I've talked to so many people about this subject and it doesn't, you don't even have to convince people half the time that it's after the tribulation because you just start talking about it with somebody and they'll just be like, man, I've always known there was something wrong with that, with that doctrine of the preacher of rapture. I always knew there was something off with that, right? You know, I never quite believed in that because it never made sense to me. I mean, I can't even tell you how many times I've had that conversation. It's just once you start talking about it with people, they're like, yeah, I've always known there was something wrong with that. Yeah, that never held up with me and never made sense to me, you know, even though Kirk Cameron movie showed it that way or whatever, it didn't make sense, you know, and growing pains was a stupid show anyway, man. But anyway, you know, they basically, it's like when you start talking to people about that subject, it's like you have them at hello. If they know the Bible at all, it just clicks with them right away. You know, I, I, I mean, I could give you tons of examples of people where it just clicked immediately the first time they heard it, you know, just because they already had seen so many scriptures. They'd already been doubting it or scratching their head about it, but you know what? I can also tell you story after story after story about pastor after pastor after pastor who I talked to about this and they just immediately say, yeah, you're right. I mean, yeah, it's right. That's what it says. It is, but they'll never preach it, never come out with it, never, never change their statement of faith, never teach the church, never preach it publicly because they're scared to preach it. They're scared to death because they don't want to lose church members and they know that if you come out against that doctrine of the any moment pre-trib doctrine that you will be blackballed, you will be blacklisted, you will be attacked, you will be persecuted, you will lose friends, you will lose the big name support. It's a fact. And so therefore no missionary will ever come out with it because if for a missionary to say, I don't believe in the preacher, rapture is to basically just say, cancel all my support. I'm not kidding. I talked to somebody recently who said, well, I wanted to be a missionary, but I could not find anyone that would, any mission board or anybody that would send me out to be a missionary because I'm not pre-trib. Now listen, when I was a child, I wanted to be a missionary when I grew up. I've actually wanted to be a missionary my whole life. When I married my wife, when I was dating my wife, I told my wife, I said, honey, I just want you to know that if you marry me, you know, I just want you to know what you're getting into. Like I plan to be a foreign missionary. Like I'm not going to always live in the United States. I'm going to go live somewhere else and be a missionary. That's why I told her. And she said she was ready to follow me anywhere. All right, but anyway, but this is what happened. I realized how the mission system works as an independent Baptist and I thought to myself, there's no way I'm ever going to be a missionary because I'm not, if I have to go around and get all the support from all these different churches, there's no way I'm going to be able to please all these people because they're not going to like my preaching. And you know what? 11 years of pastoring later, that prophecy has come true. They don't like, most of them don't like my preaching. You know, you're not going to find 50 churches to support me or whatever. Like, like the current system where they go around and get 25, 50, a hundred bucks from everybody or whatever silly, tiny amounts of money. So that's why I decided, you know what, I just need to start a church in the United States so I can be totally independent. And that's why when I started faithful word Baptist church, I didn't, I didn't take any outside support. I didn't raise any support. You know, I was sent out of the local church and then I just cut the umbilical cord and just was independent from day one and it didn't take long for the pastor that sent me out to disown me five months. And this is what did it the first four months. Everything was great. Everything's great. He's proud of me. He's happy. In 2005, I preached a sermon about why the pre tribulation rapture is false. May 21st, 2006, five months in, I preached a sermon called the book of revelation where I explained the book of revelation and I destroy the pre tribulation rapture in that sermon. And you know what? From that, from the time the pastor that sent me out, heard that sermon, he disowned me and wanted nothing to do with me to this day because it's like, Oh, you're not pre-trib. Now look, to me, that's not a test of fellowship for me. I mean, I'm friends with people that are pre-trib. I got, I got my token pre-trib friend. No, I'm just kidding. You know, I got, I got pre-trib friends. You know, I'm look, if somebody sees Bible prophecy different, I'm not just going to flip out and just be at enmity with that person because that's not a salvation issue. I mean, is that really an issue where I can't have fellowship with a brother in Christ because they, because they misunderstand Bible prophecy. So I would never break fellowship with somebody over an issue like the timing of the rapture. You know, obviously it's an important issue. Everything's important, but it's nothing to break fellowship over. Okay. But the pre-trib crowd, they will break fellowship over that. Even my pastor that sent me out, I mean, boom, fellowship broken. You preach that. Why? Cause he's plugged into a whole social network of churches and stuff that are all pre-trib. If you're not pre-trib, you're not in the club. If you're not pre-trib, you're an outsider, you're an outcast, you're blackballed. Another pastor, Dr. Roland Rasmussen, faith Baptist church, Canoga park. My parents went there back in the 1960s. My parents actually got saved in that church back in the 1960s. My mom rode the bus to the church and the bus ministry as a child. My dad was one of the Lord in his living room. My grandpa and my dad, the same day by the pastor, Dr. Roland Rasmussen back in the 1960s. And he was a really popular preacher, had a big church, couple thousand people in it or whatever. And he traveled the country preaching in conferences. He was a pretty big name guy until he came out. They didn't believe in the preacher of rapture. He figured it out and he wrote a book about it post-trib pre-wrath rapture. And he was just blackballed. Every meeting canceled. Ever invited to preach at any conference again, locked out of the club. And he tells stories in his book about missionaries and preachers where the same thing happened. I've literally explained this to somebody that was a missionary and had them just say, well, what am I supposed to do though? I mean, if I come out with this, I'll lose all my money. I'll lose all my support. That isn't right, folks. You got to take a stand for what's right and let the chips fall where they may. So what you have, it's like the emperor's new clothes. You talk to missionary after missionary after missionary that's pretending to believe in the pre-trib rapture to get paid and they don't really believe in it because they're just afraid to preach the truth about it. Pastors are doing the same thing. You have pastors that literally will go a decade without even talking about the rapture because they just don't want to come down on either side of the issue. It's like, what in the world? Strange world that we're living in, but it's just because everybody's scared. Everybody's afraid that they're going to lose the support of their big Pope that they're kind of leaning on, whether that's Jack Treiber or Paul Chapel or whether that's First Baptist Church of Hammet, you know, whatever Bible college kind of group they're hooked into, they're afraid that they're not going to be in the cool group anymore. They're not going to be in the club. They're going to lose the support, the endorsement, the church members, whatever the case may be. But you know what? In May of 2006, I'm going to preach the truth and I'm going to let the chips fall where they may. And you know, our church was small at that time. I just started the church from scratch in my living room. I had like 20 people total in the church and I knew that there was a chance that if I preach this, I'm going to lose some of them because people are so touchy about this issue and you know why they're touchy about it? Because they're wrong. That's why I'm so comfortable discussing it. I'm comfortable, you know, being around people that believe wrong on it. They get real uncomfortable because they just don't want anybody to talk. It's just like shut up and believe it because we said so and we don't want to talk about it because most pastors, 90% of pastors can't even defend their position on this because they don't even understand it. I mean when I talk to a lot of pastors about the rapture, first I have to explain to them what they believe and then I have to explain to them why it's wrong. I'm not kidding. And this is why. It's not because they're not smart. It's because if you pre-trib, the book of Revelation makes no sense if you're pre-trib. It just doesn't make sense. And I can't even tell you how many people I've talked to where they said, well, I read it and it made no sense. Then I realized the pre-trib rapture was a fraud and then it made perfect sense to me. And this is what they said. I used to not like reading Revelation but now I enjoy it because now it makes sense. So these guys are confused because they start with the starting point is like, well, it's pre-trib, amen. That's like the starting point. And then that kind of just blinds them from seeing anything else beyond that. But recently there's a missionary that I was with down in Guyana, a pastor down there named Pastor Ram Angad. And I mentioned how he helped me get into the school where I preached to like 575 students, preached the gospel. Many of them were saved, a huge amount of people saved. Everybody got a Bible, a flash drive filled with preaching. It was a really cool event. Well, just for being there and filming it on his phone to Facebook, live streaming it to Facebook, he lost supporting churches because they said he's pre-trib or he's not pre-trib. He's wrong on the rapture. Well, this pastor Ram Angad in Guyana, he basically just said, well, you know what? He told them, he said, well, I'm not pre-trib either. It's false. And they're like, you know, they're all panicking and freaking out. He literally, this is just a case in point, this missionary, he literally lost virtually all of his support. He might've lost all of it by now. Last time I talked to him, he lost more than half of it. And this is like a couple of weeks ago that this was set in motion. Now he's lost more than half. He's probably going to lose all of his support just on this one issue of pre-trib rapture. And listen to me, the pre-trib rapture is false. And listen, it's not a gray area. It's not confusing unless you're a pre-tribber. There's nothing confusing about Matthew 24, Mark 13. It's all crystal clear. The only thing that keeps it alive is fear. That's all. Fear, fear and intimidation of don't talk about it or we'll blackball you. Your pre-trib or your name's mud all over the country. Your pre-trib or you lose all your support. Your pre-trib or we'll declare you to be not even saved. I mean, I can't even count how many times they said, if you don't believe in the pre-trib rapture, you're not even saved, they said. I mean this is, and it's false. And if you think it's not false, you go watch, there's a whole stack of DVDs on that shelf and they're all free after the tribulation. If you watch that and you still believe in the pre-trib rapture after watching that, you are either number one, just very stubborn and have like some kind of an ulterior motive for not letting it go. Number two, you might be mentally handicapped. Or number three, maybe you're not saved if you're under that much of a delusion. But I don't declare pre-tribbers to be unsaved. Most of the time, they've just never heard the truth on it or they're just stubborn or they're just scared. You know, that's pretty sad when you don't have the guts to preach what you believe. I'm going to preach everything I believe and if it causes half the church to get up and walk out, so be it. If it causes no fundamental Baptist pastors to want a fellowship with me, I'm already there. So be it. No, I have some friends, the ones that I trained and sent out and no, I have other friends too. I have other friends too. Plus I have all kinds of friends that are the closet friends. You know, the friends who are, they're with me but they just don't want to openly be with me, you know. But you know, thank God this pastor down in Guyana, he's standing by his guns. He's standing by his guns. But you know what? I was surprised by that. You know why I was surprised by that? Because 99% of missionaries will just do what it takes and say what they need to say to get paid. He's taking a hard stand. He's stepping out in faith. He's going with his conscience. He's got integrity. He's standing with, you know, thank God for that. But where are the rest of them like him? People are too scared. They're too afraid to do. I mean, think about how fear cripples us. Fear keeps pastors from preaching hard against sin. And you know what's funny is that they think this, because Zedekiah is a leader here. You know, he's supposed to be leading the people into righteousness. Or if he's a bad leader, he's going to lead them down a wrong path. But think about this. A lot of preachers will not preach against the homos. They won't preach against the Sodomites because of fear. And here's what they say. You're going to bring persecution on us if you preach that way. They'll come right out and say that. I even had a pastor tell me one time, why agree with everything you said in your sermon, but I would never put that online because I don't want the persecution, he said. Okay. Other pastors have gotten angry at me and said, well, when you preach like that against the homos, you're going to bring persecution on all of us, they said. You're going to get us all persecuted. How dare you preach what the Bible actually says. You're supposed to preach what the Republican party told you. It's about the bathrooms. You know, don't tell these bunch of Republicans, but you know, this new bathroom over here, it doesn't even have a sign on it yet. It's not male or female. So I guess these pastors are going to have a heart attack when they come in here and see a bathroom that's transgender or unisex or whatever, you know, because they're all into that bathroom issue because that's what TV told them to be into. That's what Fox News told them to be into. That's what Sean Hannity's got them into and Glenn Beck and all their spiritual leaders that are Mormon and Jews and everything else. Okay. But then you get up and start preaching what Leviticus says and start preaching what Romans 1 says and start preaching what Jude and 2 Peter says. Oh, you're going to get us all persecuted. But here's the true story. The true story is that by not preaching hard against that sin, we're going to end up being persecuted because we're letting them just take over and then they will persecute you because pretty soon they're going to get to your bathroom issue and your marriage issue, which are not biblical issues. They're going to come and say, oh, we're a couple of fags. Marry us. That's what they're going to say. Right? Hey, me and my fag buddy want to get married. Perform the ceremony. Anyway, oh, you know, we can't do that. See, if we actually preach what the Bible said, our country will be light years away from that. It wouldn't even be near that. If the preachers had the guts to preach what needs to be preached, they'd still be in the closet. They'd be coming and announcing themselves as husband and husband at the church. They would be actually hiding like they used to be in the closet. But they've come out of the closet because they're emboldened by the weakness of Pastor Zedekiah who's afraid to do what's right. He's afraid to preach what's right. He's afraid to take a stand. And look, I sat in Bible college myself. I got to get this off my chest tonight. I sat in Bible college and had an instructor literally stand up and say this. He said, well, you got to be careful when you're preaching against the homosexuals these days. And this is in 2005. This is 11 years ago. It's gotten worse. In 2005, he said, he said, he said, you got to be really careful how you handle that subject because nowadays everybody's got one in their family. Whether it's an uncle or a cousin or an aunt or a step this or step that. You know, everybody, so you can't be getting up now and calling them queers and fags and sodomy. You know, you got to be gentle with that. You know what? That is hogwash. That is baloney. There's no, there's nothing gentle about the way the Bible handles that subject. Read Romans one, read second Peter two, read Jude. There's nothing gentle about it, but they say, Oh yeah, but we don't want to offend people. Well, you know what? I don't care if you're Siamese twins, a homo. You know what I mean? It's filthy and disgusting. You need to get that separated off your body. You need to cut that thing off your body. All right. It doesn't matter. The point is, you know, Oh, well, well, well, my relative or so what everybody's got a queer uncle. I mean, even the, even there's even a scientific theory about it called the gay uncle theory because they're trying to explain how they're born that way because it's like, well, how'd that evolve since they can't exactly reproduce, how'd that evolve? Oh, well, the gay uncle theory. It's been discredited by the way, the sodomite uncle theory didn't hold up to scrutiny, but the point is that, yeah, okay, so, so you got somebody in your fat. Well, so what? That doesn't change what the Bible says. Doesn't change the truth. Doesn't matter. We got to preach the truth, but fear is our enemy today. Fear is the enemy of every pastor and fear is your enemy. Even as a church member, you say, well, how is fear my enemy? Fear is what will keep you from going out soul winning, afraid to go soul winning. Oh, somebody might mock me afraid, afraid to read your Bible publicly because somebody might make fun of you afraid to take a stand at a family gathering when, when, when something wicked is being brought out and you say, Hey, wait a minute, you know, I don't want to participate in this. I don't want to drink that, or I don't want to watch that, or I, you know, I don't want to participate in this. You know, fear is going to cause you to give in to these kinds of peer pressures, whether it's the pastor peer pressuring you to preach pre-trib propaganda or whether it's, you know, it's some family member trying to get you to, to, you know, partake of the, the toast or whatever, you know, toasting, whatever the cheers, whatever they do, you know, it's fear that's going to cause you to do that, which is wrong. And it's courage, boldness that's going to cause you to take the stand and do what's right. You know, fear stops some people from getting baptized and it doesn't seem that scary, but some people are just afraid of the water, you know, or they're, they're just, or they're just afraid of everybody looking at them or whatever the case may be. But you know what you need, if you, if you've been saved, you ought to be baptized. If you're saved, you ought to go soul winning. If you're saved, you got to take a stand for what's right and don't let fear constantly stop you. Don't be a weakling like Zedekiah that's so worried about what everybody thinks. Children and teenagers struggle with this a lot where they're, they're very worried about what people think. They want to dress a certain way to fit in. They want to be cool, but you know what? When I became a man, I put away childish things. It's time for us to grow up spiritually and stop being a spiritual junior hire. Quit being a spiritual 12, 13 year old where you're worried about what everybody thinks. Why don't you grow up and be a man and do what's right and let the chips fall where they may and not let fear ruin your life, ruin your testimony, and ruin your service for God. I kid you not. If there's one thing that I could change in this world, it would be to take away the fear from the pulpit. That would fix everything. That would be the biggest thing that you could do that would make the biggest change is just to stop pastors from being afraid. If every past, look, they don't believe like me, fine. If everybody would just go out and just preach what they actually believe and preach it boldly, yeah, it would fix things. It would really fix things. Persecution is coming to those who are weak. Here's the thing. Jeremiah tells him, look, if you do what's right, they will not deliver you. You will not be mocked. But he said if you do that which is wrong, you will be mocked. Now obviously there are times when you do what's right and you're made fun of, right? I mean even Jesus was made fun of when he went to the cross. He was mocked and ridiculed. They put a crown of thorns on his head. They made fun of him. So there are going to be times when we're made fun of for the cause of Christ. I get that. But you know, that's not as much of a threat as you think it is. It doesn't happen as often as you think it is because if you think about Jesus' life and ministry for three and a half years, how many times during that three and a half years was he really mocked and made fun of? I mean there were a couple times, you know, like for example when he said the maid's not dead but sleepeth, they laughed him to scorn until he brought her back from the dead. Then they stopped laughing, okay? You know, yeah, he was mocked and ridiculed at the cross. There are a few examples. But you know, most of the time when Jesus preached and did his ministry, people respected what he was doing and saying. You didn't really see a lot of mockery of John the Baptist. You didn't really see a whole lot of mockery of Jesus. What you saw is that people trembled before them. People had respect. Even their enemies, you know, didn't see them as a joke. Now here's what I've noticed just in my own observation is that people who are watered down Christians and kind of half in, half out Christians and compromised Christians tend to get made fun of a lot more than dedicated, serious, bold Christians. You know, I mean the watered down, half in, half out type of Christianity gets you made fun of more. You know, growing up, I was half in, half out for most of my life until I got to be about 16, 17. That's when I really got serious about the things of the Lord. 16, 17, when I was 17 I got into a soul winning church and really started getting serious about serving God. But you know, I got saved as a six year old boy. So you know, from the time I was six to the time I was 16, those 11 years, I was pretty watered down, pretty half in, half out, didn't really take a strong stand, didn't have a strong testimony for the Lord, okay. And I'll tell you what, I can think of a lot of times being mocked and made fun of during that time. Being made fun, like being at public school and being made fun of for being a Christian. I remember one time all the kids gathered around me and were chanting, Christian brother, Christian brother. They're calling me that as a derogatory term, Christian brother. You know how kids are. This is when I was 11, okay. Still hurts. No, it doesn't hurt. But anyway, you know, they just, you know, kind of make fun of you. And I can remember even at Christian school, you know, because you think of Christian school like, oh, everybody's Christian. Yeah, think again. I remember one time being mocked and ridiculed at Christian school for reading my Bible. This kid made fun of me because I showed up to a Bible class and I didn't have my Bible with me. And they're like, it's like, where's your Bible? You know, I said, oh, you know, I left it at home and this kid's like, what were you reading it? What'd you, oh, you brought it home so you could read your Bible. I mean, it's literally what he, this is a Christian school. You're being mocked and ridiculed because you took your Bible home to actually read it. You know, so I can remember being mocked and ridiculed different times, but you know what? I honestly noticed that when I actually got really serious for the Lord, really fired up, people stopped making fun of me and they did, you know, they had more respect for you because at least you're consistent. I mean, at least you're all the way in. At least you're dedicated to what you believe. Even if they didn't agree with it, even if they're an atheist, they would look at you and say, well, at least this guy is all in, you know, and they, they, they, they had more respect for that than at times in my life where I took a compromise stand or times in my life where I backed down. You know, that's where you get ridiculed and mocked the most, honestly. And even to this day, I get attacked a lot. I get attacked a lot, you know, as far as just verbally, you know, not physically, thank God. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me. And you know, so I've been attacked a lot, but you know, I'm, I, I don't feel like I'm ridiculed very often. People don't make fun of me very often, you know, cause I'm serious about what I believe. So here's the thing. Quit being so afraid of somebody making fun of you. So what if somebody makes fun of you? They made fun of Jesus. They mocked him. They ridiculed him. Why don't we bear in his shame? Why don't we bear his reproach with him outside the camp? The Bible says, let us therefore go unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. But number two, the things that you fear usually don't even end up happening. I mean if I think back to all the things that I've feared in my life, 99% of them didn't end up happening. Things that I dreaded and lay awake at night. One time I got, I got audited by the IRS. That's a scary thing, right? I mean that's scary. Would you, would you like to get that in the mail today? You're being audited by the IRS. That's scary. You could go to prison, you know, you could, you could owe some huge amount of money. I remember just being stressed and fearful and just months of nail biting and agony. And you know how that ended up? I didn't end up owing a dime. They gave me money. No wonder they're going out of business, right? No wonder they're billions of dollars and trillions of dollars. How many trillions is it now? Somebody knows. 19 trillion, give or take a few zeros. Yeah, 19, no wonder they're 19 trillion dollars in debt. They spend months auditing you and then they give you money. But think about how foolish it was for me to be stressed and worried and scared when everything was fine. You know, people threaten me, you get worried. Everything's fine. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but out of them all, the Lord delivers him. You know, God can protect us. God can keep us safe. There's nothing to fear. There's nothing to worry about. Oh, I'm going to get made fun of. You might not even get made fun of. They might respect you. Oh, I'm afraid I'm going to lose my job. You might not even lose your job. And you know what? And look, I'm not saying to do something stupid to lose your job. Like, you know, go to, you don't just go to your job and start preaching and, you know, obviously when you go there to work, you're supposed to shut up and do your job. But I've known people who lost their job just because of what church they went to. That literally has happened. There was a guy just last year who went to Verity Baptist and lost his job just because somebody saw him on the news going to that church, he was fired for going to that church. That's a badge of honor. That's rewards in heaven. Rejoice and be exceeding glad. There's plenty of jobs out there and you know what, God's probably got something better for you. But you know what? There are probably 10 other people who are afraid, well, I'm going to lose my job too. But did they lose it? But did you lose your job though? No. And so people are just afraid of their own shadow. They're afraid of phantoms. They're afraid of things that aren't even going to happen because God is going to protect us and take care of us. We just need to obey God. We're always going to be better off if we obey. We're always going to be better off if we do what he told us to do than if we lean on our own understanding and say, oh, I'm scared to do what God said. I better just look out for myself here. You know, I better just make sure. And that's what Zedekiah did and everything he feared came upon him. Let's finish up here. Look at verse number 24. Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah, let no man know of these words and thou shalt not die. But if the prince is here that I've talked with thee and they come unto thee and say unto thee, declare unto us now what thou has said unto the king, hide it not from us and we will not put thee to death. Also what the king said unto thee, then thou shalt say unto them, I presented my supplication before the king that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan's house to die there. Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah and asked him and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him for the matter was not perceived. So basically when the princes see that Jeremiah talked to Zedekiah, they all want to know what did you talk about? What did you talk about? And Zedekiah coaches Jeremiah and says, don't bring any of this up. You know, the spiritual part, just, just say that you and treated me not to put you in the dungeon and leave you there to die. So he says, okay. You know, and the princes come to him and say, what did he say? What did he say? And, and that's all Jeremiah does. You know, Jeremiah just said, yep. I said, I didn't want him to kill me. I didn't want to die, which is, you know, that, that part is true. He just left out the rest of it. Okay. And it says they left off speaking with them. They didn't have any interest in talking to Jeremiah any longer because the thing was not perceived. They didn't understand that there was more to it than that. So Jeremiah abode in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken and he was there when Jerusalem take. So he's in prison all the way up until Jerusalem is taken. But when Jerusalem's taken, guess what happens to him? He's free. He gets money. He gets his freedom and he gets to live the rest of his life in prosperity. Zedekiah gets his eyes poked out, sees his children killed and sees his, his job as King be a total failure. The city's burned. Jerusalem's taken. Look, you got to decide, are you going to be a Jeremiah kind of a leader or a Zedekiah kind of a guy? What kind of a father are you going to be? What kind of a husband are you going to be? What kind of a man are you going to be? What kind of a person are you going to be? Are you going to be a Jeremiah or a Zedekiah? Here's what a Jeremiah does. A Jeremiah sticks with God's word and if it sends him to prison, so be it. If I got to go to the dungeon, so be it. I'm going to stand on the truth of God's word. And by the way, he didn't just have some quiet ministry. He's preaching it from the housetops and he's taken it to all the cities and he's, he's traveling to Benjamin, he's going to Jerusalem. He's preaching it to anybody who will listen. He'll preach it right to the King's own face and to the princes and everybody else. Or you can be like Zedekiah who's weak, indecisive. He can't make up his mind. He doesn't know which side, you know, is he, is he with Jeremiah or is he with the princes? He doesn't even know because fear has paralyzed him for making that decision. Why don't you just decide to get all the way on board with the Lord, with the word of God. Just get on the Lord's side and say, you know what, I'm not going to worry about what people think. What am I, 12? You know, I'm not going to worry about impressing people. I'm not in a popularity contest. This isn't junior high. This isn't high school. You know, I'm just going to do what's right. I'm going to take a stand and I'm not going to let fear make my decisions for me. I'm not going to be indecisive. I'm going to be bold and do what's right. And then you'll end up like Jeremiah blessed. I mean, look, Jeremiah has a position of honor since he was one who penned down this great book of the Bible. He's one of the few people in the scheme of things that actually got to pen down a book of the Bible. That's pretty amazing. He's a household name. He's well known. He's well loved. He's respected Zedekiah. Not so much. That's not as popular of a name as Jeremiah. There are a lot more Jeremy's than Zed's in this world. Okay. And if I were to walk down the street asking people to tell me something, tell me something about Zedekiah, they don't, they wouldn't have a clue who that is. Well, Oh, here's who he was. He's a guy who destroyed his whole family, destroyed his children, destroyed his wives, destroyed his town, destroyed his city, and destroyed a whole nation because he was scared and a weakling and indecisive. Put that in the baby name, but no, I'm just kidding. But anyway, I hope there's nobody here named Zedekiah. Not trying to offend you. Anyway, it's a great name, but, but the point, but, but, but Jeremiah, if we ask people, who's Jeremiah? Oh, he's, you know, the main, one of the major prophets, great man of God, book of the Bible, you know, all kinds of, of great scriptures and famous verses that we could quote from Jeremiah. So don't let fear destroy your life. Beware of fear. It's our enemy. It's not of God. Only fear the Lord and fear what he thinks. Not anyone else. Let's probably have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, Lord, where we could look at the example of two men, one fearless, bold preacher, Jeremiah, and another cowardly weakling, Zedekiah, who can't decide what he wants to do. He doesn't know whose side he's going to be on because he's just so scared. Lord, please just help our church to be a church of, of, of bold Christians and, and, and people with courage, Lord. The wicked flee when no man pursue it, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. Help that to be our motto around here, Lord. And please, Lord, do a work in the hearts of, of, of all of the fellow, of all of my fellow preachers, Lord. Many of them are bold. Many of them are courageous, Lord, but, but there's a huge number of Baptist preachers today, Lord, that, that are scared of their own shadow, Lord. I pray that you would just give them boldness, Lord. Just give them courage to, to make the stands needed and to preach against the false doctrines that are out there, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.