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Amen. Amen. Jeremiah, chapter number 49, we're in the part of the book of Jeremiah where we have these different geographies that God is directing his wrath toward and he's sending Jeremiah to preach the word of God to these people about the coming doom and destruction that they're going to face. Jeremiah 1 through 44 are chronological and tell a story, but starting in chapter 45, we're completely out of chronological order. For example, part of this chapter is in the beginning of Zedekiah's reign. These are broken up instead by geography and the geographies that he's preaching against in this chapter are the Ammonites or some of the children of Lot's descendants, also the Edomites, also Syria, other places that are less familiar, Kedar, Hazor, and Elam. These are just basically surrounding nations that surround the nation of Israel, just other small nations in that region, some of which no longer exist today. So in chapter 49, verse 1, the Bible reads, concerning the Ammonites, thus saith the Lord, hath Israel no sons, hath he no heir? Why then doth their king inherit Gad and his people dwell in his cities? So Jeremiah is rebuking the Ammonites for taking over certain cities that should be part of Israel, encroaching upon the land that was supposed to belong to the tribe of Gad, for example, and the Ammonites are coming in and dwelling in those cities, rejoicing in the downfall of Israel. And so the preaching from Jeremiah is that they're going to be destroyed as well. Don't get too excited about taking over the cities of Israel. You've got some judgment coming for yourselves. Now, this is a good question though right here where it says, you know, hath Israel no sons, hath he no heir? Well then why are they inheriting it instead of the legitimate rightful heirs? So the question is, what about in 2017? How do we apply this teaching? There are many preachers that would say, oh, of course Israel hath an heir. Of course Israel hath sons, the Jews. And you know, they're inheriting the promised land after all these years. It's so wonderful. But that's actually not the teaching of the New Testament. Flip over if you want. I'm not going to spend the whole night on this, but go to Romans chapter four. I just want to show you a few key passages on this, on this question of, well, does Israel have any sons? Does Israel today have an heir? Who are the sons of Israel today? And who is the heir of Israel? The heir is the one who inherits that which is passed down. The family heirlooms or the family possessions or the family lands or the family inheritance, whatever it may be. Look if you would at Romans chapter four verse 13, the Bible says, for the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. So this is even beyond an inheritance of just a certain piece of land in the Middle East off the Mediterranean sea. This is a promise that Abraham would be the heir of the world, the entire earth. And it says that this was made not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Look at verse 14, for if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of none effect because the law work at wrath for where no lies, there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that which is only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, watch this, who is the father of us all. Now who is he speaking to? To the Romans, not to the Jews, to the Romans. And he says that Abraham is the father of us all. So to sit there and say, well, the Jews are the children of Abraham and they get the inheritance, wrong, we're all, you remember the song when you were a kid in Sunday school, those that grew up in church, father Abraham had many sons, right, who grew up singing that song? A lot of them. And it says, you know, I'm one of them and so are you, so let's just praise the Lord. I just wish more people would have paid attention to the words of that song because it seems like a lot of Baptists don't believe that anymore. And if you remember, John the Baptist looked at the physical descendants of Abraham and said, think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the access laid under the root of the tree. Therefore every tree would bring it on forth. Good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. And Jesus Christ said, I know that you're Abraham's seed, but you seek to kill me. A man that's told you the truth. This did not Abraham. You do the deeds of your father. Sometimes I thought, well, if Abraham were your father, you would do the works of Abraham. He said, you're of your father, the devil. That's what he said to unbelieving Christ rejecting Israel. He said, you're of your father, the devil, not Abraham, but the devil is your father. That's what he said. It's very clear in John chapter eight, a lot of clear scripture on this, but this is something that people are stuck on. They can't comprehend this because they've heard it just so many times from their pastor who might've got this in Bible college or from a commentary or from the TV preachers of just, oh man, the Jews are God's chosen people. The Jews are the descendants of Abraham. The Jews inherit the promised land. Wrong. We're the descendants of Abraham. We're the chosen people. We inherit the promised land in the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. Not this thing of a carnal, physical nation of Israel by force that rejects Jesus that does not acknowledge Jesus at all and seeks to go straight to the father, bypassing Jesus. Not going to happen. Jesus said, no man cometh to the father, but by me, you can't bypass Jesus Christ and think that you're praying to the same God as Christians wrong. So the Bible is real clear here that the promise to Abraham was actually to inherit the whole world and that it was made not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Now here's another word for the law, the Torah. That's what they call it, right? Because that's just another language for the law. They're just speaking Hebrew. That's all that means. Torah equals law. So they that are of the Torah, they that are saying, well, you know, we don't believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't talk to us about Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts and Romans. We just want to talk about just the Torah. The law where, you know, they tried to say this back when Jesus day, when Jesus had healed a man and this man was trying to tell them about being healed by Jesus. And they said, tell us the story one more time. And the guy got a little smart with them. You remember this in the book of John and he said, well, you know, why do you guys want to hear it again? Do you want to be his disciple? You know, are you guys interested in following Christ? And they, this is what, we're Moses's disciples. That was their response. Abraham's our father. We're the disciples of Moses. We're of the law. We're of the Torah. That's all we want to hear about. Well, if they that are of the law be heirs, faith is made void. What do you need faith for if the law gets you to heaven or being of the law gets you into heaven or following the law? So this shows that the Jews have no salvation and they have no inheritance. Also this could be used for Christians who think that they're going to go to heaven by following the laws of God. There are even those who acknowledge Jesus Christ, but when it comes to their way to heaven, they say, well, it's by keeping the commandments by following the laws of God. Well then faith is made void and the promise is made of none effect. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace. Now what else is by grace through faith being saved? So therefore being saved and inheriting the promises of Abraham, you get there the same way and you're not born into it. You get there by grace through faith according to the New Testament, that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all. Go to Galatians three, Galatians chapter number three, and this doctrine is crystal clear in the New Testament. Once you cut through all the programming, you'll see it as plain as day. Just in the plain reading of the New Testament, it's very clear. Look at Galatians chapter three, verse six. Even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness, know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying in thee shall all nations be blessed. Not that one nation will be blessed in thee, just Israel. No he said in thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed. Tell that also to the black Hebrew Israelite cult that claims, well Christ only came just to redeem Israel and you white people are Esau, we're the real Israel and he only came for us. And that's not true because the Bible says that all nations would be blessed in Abraham. And the reason why was because of the gospel, because Abraham would produce the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham would beget Isaac, beget Jacob, all the way down to Jesus. And so that's why all nations are blessed in Abraham, because of the gospel it says. Not because of some piece of land or some democracy in the Middle East or some ally to the United States. No it's the gospel of Jesus that blesses all nations. Why? Because there are saved people in every nation of the whole world, praise God. Every nation has those who are saved. Look at verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith. Verse 16, now to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made. He sayeth not unto seeds as of many, but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ period. There's one seed and it's Christ. There's not some other seed, not some back door to the promises of God, back door inheritance clause. You know, we get the will and we go into some kind of a probate and we Christians are saying well we inherit everything. Says right here that we're the heirs of the kingdom of God. And then the Jews come in and challenge the will and bring us into probate and say wait a minute, we are going to inherit too. And then the lawyer puts on his glasses and says wait a minute, it says here seed. And it says here that that seed is Jesus. And it says here that the children of the bond woman will not inherit with the children of the free. The bond woman represents Mount Sinai. The bond woman represents the unbelieving Christ rejecting Israel that is putting themselves under the yoke of the law as their righteousness. Isaac represents the children of the promise, the children of the spirit, the children of faith, whether they be Jew or Gentile. You know, I'm going to have to rule 100% of this inheritance goes to Christians. And the children of the kingdom of Israel, the earthly kingdom, shall be cast out into outer darkness and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Case closed. If only all probate hearings were that simple. Look if you would to Galatians 3 verse 28, there is neither Jew, what do people not understand about this? There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female for you're all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ's then are you Abraham's seed and here's the key word heirs and heirs according to the promise. So does Israel have any sons in 2017? Yes, everyone who believes on Jesus Christ. Does Israel have any heirs? Yes, everyone who believes on Jesus Christ by grace through faith. Those are the heirs of the promise. And spiritually speaking, a Jew and a Greek have the same spiritual value. Spiritually speaking, a male and a female have the same spiritual value and they both inherit alike in the kingdom of God. In the millennial reign of Christ and the kingdom of God, there is no marriage. They neither marry nor are given in marriage. So there's no wife submitting to her husband. That's on this earth. But in Christ, when it comes to the inheritance, when it comes to our eternal reward, when it comes to our spiritual value, there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female. We're all one in Christ Jesus. And if we're Christ, we're Abraham's seed and we are heirs according to the promise. Go back if you would to Jeremiah 49. Now what the critics of that doctrine would say, even though it's so clear, here's what they'll say. Oh, well, all those verses are only talking about a spiritual inheritance. That's just a spiritual inheritance. That's just talking about getting into heaven. That's not talking about the land. You know, what really matters is the land. But here's the thing, that just shows how carnally minded you are that you care so much about that land. Who cares about that land? I certainly don't. I live in Arizona and I'm perfectly happy with my little tiny piece of land and my subdivision. That's all I want. That's all I care about. But this carnal attitude, just fighting over land, well, from whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even from your lusts that war in your members? The lust and covetousness of dominating some piece of land, some earthly kingdom, some earthly treasure, it's all going to burn some day. It's all going to turn to dust. Heaven and earth are going to pass away. God's word is not going to pass away. And he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Yeah, but who would hear it? Who cares? I want to know who's going to inherit the kingdom of God. I want to know who's going to inherit the earth in the millennial reign of Christ. I want to know who's going to be the heir of the whole world. That's the meek that shall inherit the earth. That's those who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ that will rule and reign with him for a thousand years. And the reason why we keep showing them verse after verse, oh, that's spiritual, that's spiritual, that's spiritual. That's because that's what the whole New Testament's about. And it has nothing to do with your carnal aspirations for a worldly kingdom in the Middle East before Christ comes. That's why you can't find New Testament scriptures telling us all this weird doctrine about propping up the physical descendants, even though they reject Christ, let's bless them anyway, let's befriend them. Well, you know, we can't have fellowship, Christ and an infidel, right? What part hath he that believeth with an infidel? I thought we're not supposed to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. But all of a sudden the Jews, well, except the Jews. Is that what the Bible is? Don't unequally yoke together with unbelievers unless they're Jews. Is that what it says? No, you just don't yoke with unbelievers. This is a real simple doctrine. I think everything I've explained for the last 10 or 15 minutes has been pretty simple and it's all been backed up by scripture. But yet people don't believe in it because they just, it's like they just don't want to see it. So it's the blind leading the blind, because the Bible says the Jews are blind. It says that even in the reading of the Old Testament, the veil is over their eyes. And then the Christians who follow them, you're following the blind, that's the blind leading the blind, you're going in the ditch. Let's go back to Jeremiah 49. We're going to spend as much time on the next 38 verses as we just did on verse 1. So buckle up, no, I'm just joking. Don't try to extrapolate. You're like, this is going to be a long sermon. Look at verse number 2. Therefore, behold, the days come, sayeth the Lord, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabah of the Ammonites, and it shall be a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire. Then shall Israel be heir unto them that were his heirs, sayeth the Lord. Now let me give you the immediate application of this, okay? This is spoken at a time before the children of Israel have gone into captivity, meaning the southern kingdom of Judah that the whole book of Jeremiah is about, right? Because this is during the reign of Zedekiah, the king, that these prophecies came. So what's going on is the children of Israel are going to go into captivity, and then the Ammonites are going to inherit a lot of their cities and Gad and other places, but then God is going to send an alarm of war to be heard in Rabah. It's going to be a desolate heap, and then the children of Israel are going to return and repossess their land, and they're going to be heirs to those that were his heirs. Does everybody understand that? So basically, the children of Israel are coming back from captivity, the land of Judah specifically. The Jews are coming back after 70 years of captivity back then, okay? This is not something about the end times or anything like that. This is something about the immediate context of the book of Jeremiah, and I've already preached about that so many times. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that right now. So look at verse number 3. It says, Howl, O heshbon, for Ai is spoiled. Cry, ye daughters of Rabah, gird you with sackcloth, lament and run to and fro by the hedges, for their king shall go into captivity, and his priests and his princes together. Therefore glorious thou in the valleys, thy flowing valley, O backsliding daughter, that trusted in her treasures, saying, Who shall come unto me? Behold, I'll bring a fear upon thee, saith the Lord God of hosts, from all those that be about thee, and ye shall be driven out, every man right forth, and none shall gather up him that wandereth. And afterward I will bring again the captivity of the children of Ammon, saith the Lord. So the first thing I want to point out here is that God calls them the backsliding daughter. What does it mean to be backslidden or to backslide? It means that you're not going forward in your life spiritually. You're not getting closer to God. You're not doing more for God, but you're doing less. You see, the spiritual Christian life is an uphill battle. So you're either climbing up to higher heights and learning more and growing more and advancing, or if you just stand still, you can begin to slide backwards. Now what do you think takes more effort, climbing higher or sliding backwards? Obviously, sliding backwards is easy to go downhill fast. And so God uses this term throughout the Bible of those who are backslidden. And in this case, the one who is backslidden is the one who glories in. And what does it mean to glory in something? It means to brag about it, to boast in it, to be really proud of it. They glory in the flowing valley, meaning that they're glorying in the physical prosperity. You know what I mean? The fruitful valley, the flowing valley, and that caused them to trust in their treasures. The fact that they can grow good crops and they can make a lot of money and they're doing well financially, and then they begin to trust in their treasures and they begin to think that they're invincible or untouchable, saying, well, who's going to come unto me? Look down to verse 31. You'll find something similar. Look at verse 31 of the same chapter. Arise, Jeremiah 49, 31, arise, get you up unto the wealthy nation that dwelleth without care, saith the Lord, which have neither gates nor bars, which dwell alone, and their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil, and I will scatter into all winds them that are in the utmost corners, and I'll bring their calamity from all sides thereof, saith the Lord. So what he's talking about here is another nation that's wealthy, and so because of their great riches and prosperity, they think that nothing bad can ever happen to them. So instead of trusting in the Lord for their safety, instead of fearing the Lord every day and making sure that they remain right with God so that he continues to bless them, they get this attitude of I'm prosperous, I'm safe, nobody can ever touch me, I'm just going to eat, drink, and be merry, and I don't need the Lord, I don't want to hear God's word, I don't need church, I'm fine the way I am. Now this could be applied to the United States of America. The U.S. is a very wealthy nation, and many people in our nation don't feel that they need God, and they don't feel like they need to pray for God's protection. And in fact, when they allow our country to go into deep sin and iniquity and wickedness, they don't think God's going to bring any judgment or wrath on that. They just think to themselves, well, we have the most powerful military in the world, we have more money than anybody, we're prosperous, we're safe, we don't need any help from God. But they're sorely mistaken. God can and will bring judgment upon everyone, upon everyone, upon anyone, every nation will eventually be judged for their sins and iniquities. And so that's what we see here, this attitude. And look, that attitude is tied in with being backslidden in verse 4. The backsliding daughter says, well, who's going to come unto me? And trust in her treasures. So what we can learn from this is that a Christian in their life who becomes prosperous, who maybe has a lot of money come to them, or they succeed in business and make a lot of money, there's a danger for people, even as saved Christians, to get backslidden and to start to just trust in themselves and trust in their own money and trust in and glory and brag about and boast about their fruitful valley, as it were, their flowing valley. Maybe that's their business or their fancy car or their fancy house. And they begin to get an attitude that they don't need God. This is exactly what it talks about in Proverbs chapter 30, when Agar, the author of Proverbs 30, he says, give me neither poverty nor riches. He prays unto the Lord. And he says, give me neither poverty nor riches, lest I be full and deny thee and say, who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain. Now think about that. That guy is saved. That's not an unsaved person. That's a saved person who's praying to God and saying, God, don't make me rich, God. I don't want to be rich, Lord, because I'm afraid that if I'm rich, I might get full and deny thee and say, who is the Lord and get to where I don't care about you. I don't rely on you. I don't think I need you. You're not a big part of my life. Give me neither. But how many Christians are there probably praying to get rich in these prosperity, health and wealth type churches? He said, don't make me rich. That's a good prayer. Give me neither poverty nor riches, Lord. I mean, who wants to be poor? We don't want to be poor, do we? But he said, give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me. Lest I be full and deny thee and say, who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain. I don't want to be so poor that I'm tempted to steal or tempted to take things into my own hands to provide my needs and I don't want to be tempted by being rich either. Why? Because when you're very poor or very rich, you could be tempted more easily. They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all evil. Which while some have coveted after, they've erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. So even a saved person can become ensnared by wealth, ensnared by riches, ensnared by prosperity. Now, right now in 2017, there's a lot of prosperity in our country. It seems like the economy's coming back a little bit. People are doing fairly well right now. It's definitely not a very low point. People are doing pretty well financially right now. I'm not saying you are, but I'm saying in general in 2017, things are going pretty well. You know, there's a danger for Christians to become backslidden at this time and begin to just rely on their riches. We should every day fear the Lord. Every day pray to the Lord and every day ask Him to bless us and give us our daily bread and take care of us and just rely on Him. And every day we should tremble before the Lord and realize God can take away everything we have whenever He wants. God can give us more, God can take away, and it's up to Him. And we need to fear and tremble before the Lord and trust Him, rely on Him, not get this pompous, boasting attitude of, well, look at all this wealth. I'd like to see God take all this wealth from me. Well, read the book of Job and see that He can destroy the wealthiest person around. So we don't want to get that backslidden attitude. The Bible says in verse 7, concerning Edom, thus saith the Lord of hosts, is wisdom no more in teeman? Is counsel perished from the prudent? Is their wisdom vanished? Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan, for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I will visit him. If grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave some, gleaning grapes? If thieves by night, they'll destroy till they have enough. He's saying, look, even if you get robbed, they're going to leave something. But he says, I've made Esau bare. He's saying, I'm going to wipe out Esau so bad, there's going to be nothing left. It'd be like if you got robbed and you came home to your house and it's just empty. Can you imagine? Have fun doing that at my house where 11 people live. But can you imagine? Can you imagine just getting, I mean, if you got robbed, you'd expect, oh, the computer's gone. Oh, the jewelry box is gone, whatever. But can you imagine just getting home and your living room's just empty? Bedroom, empty. White walls. Bare floors. Nothing. The dishwasher, gone. Washer and dryer, gone. I mean, it's just stripped bare. He's saying, look, that's what I'm going to do to Esau. Now, if you think about it, Esau isn't really around today. You know, I mean, of course, according to the black Hebrew Israelites, it's us, you know. But anyway, the point is, you know, Edom, the civilization of Edom or the Edomites, it doesn't exist, folks. You know what I mean? That civilization is just gone. It's just become totally wiped out and just absorbed into whatever other cultures or obviously those descendants were intermingled with a lot of people. But as a nation, there's no nation we can point to today and say this is Esau. Now, we could point to Egypt, right, and we could say this is Egypt. We could point to even Iran and say, well, this is Persia. This is the modern Persia right here, right? We could point to other places that the Bible mentions like Syria and Damascus. And we could say, well, Damascus is a place that we could visit. Syria is a place that we could visit. There are people that would identify, I'm a Syrian. But is there anybody who would say I'm an Edomite? I mean, can we book a flight to the land of Edom? Can we book a flight to these places? Can we meet these people? No. Why? Because they've been wiped out. They've been made bare and they've just been assimilated into whoever the surrounding areas were. There's no nation like that anymore of the Edomites. He said I've made a bear. I've uncovered his secret places and he shall not be able to hide himself. His seed is spoiled and his brethren and his neighbors, watch this, and he is not. What does it mean to is not in the Bible? It means you don't exist. The word is there is talking about existence, right? So if I say he is not, it means he does not exist is what that means. So it's just saying he's gone. He is not. Like when they thought that Joseph had died, his father and his younger brother and so forth, they said Joseph is not. He doesn't exist. He's not what? He just isn't. He doesn't exist. So it says he is not. Give the fatherless children, I'll preserve them alive, and let thy widows trust in me. For thus saith the Lord, behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken. And art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? Thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink of it. For I've sworn by myself, saith the Lord, that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse, and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes. I've heard a rumor from the Lord, and an ambassador has sent unto the heathen, saying, Gather ye together and come against her and rise up to the battle. For lo, I will make thee small among the heathen. You see, this isn't going to be a big, powerful, well-known nation. I'll make thee small among the heathen, and despised among men, thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwelleth in the clefts of the rock, thou that holdest the heights of the hill. Though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord. Also Edom shall be a desolation, everyone that goeth by it shall be astonished and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof, as in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighbor cities thereof, saith the Lord. No man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it. So we see here that Edom is going to be brought low, decimated, eventually not even exist anymore, which is where we're at today in 2017. Why? Because of their pride, they're lifted up in their heart, and they say, oh, I'm going to go dwell as high as an eagle's ass, and God says, well, I can bring you down from there. I can bring you down from any height. This is very similar to what he preached to the Ammonites, where he talked about the backsliding daughter that, well, who's going to come and get me? And then Edom says, well, I'm all the way up here, who's going to come and get me? And God is constantly saying, don't be puffed up, don't be prideful, because I can and will bring you down. We must always trust in the Lord, rely on him, and realize that he holds our fate in his hand, and not get all puffed up against the Lord and boast in glory in ourselves, our treasures, or our ethnicity. Oh, I'm black, I'm automatically a Hebrew Israelite, according to this cult that believes that. Or, oh, well, I'm of the Jews. My last name is Kohane, or Goldstein, or Goldsmith, or Goldwater, or Goldblum, so I'm automatically of the chosen. No, no, that's pride. Right? Isn't that pride that would glory in your race, or glory in your ethnicity, or glory in your money, or glory in your military? Hey, let him that glorieth glory in the Lord. That's all that we should boast, and we should boast in the Lord all day long, and that's it. He said, I'm going to make it like Sodom and Gomorrah, I'm going to wipe it out. Edom's going to be destroyed, Edom's going to be demolished. Says in verse 19, behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong, and I will suddenly make him run away from her, and who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her? For who's like me? And who will appoint me the time? And who is that shepherd that will stand before me? He said, I'm coming. I'm going to be like a lion. I'm going to roar out of Zion, and I'm going to destroy the Edomites for their pride and their wickedness. Very similar to other chapters in Jeremiah where he told the same thing to the Moabites, he told the same thing to the Philistines, the Egyptians, et cetera. I really like what he says here, though, in verse 19, where he says, who is like me? That's a great question from the mouth of God. Who's like me? Those who are prideful and arrogant in this world, they try to downgrade the Lord that there are others like him. So throughout the Old Testament, they would try to compare the God of the Bible to other gods, gods of the Philistines, gods of other nationalities. For example, when they come against Hezekiah, Sennacherib and his armies of the Assyrians, they say, well, where are the gods of Arpad? Where are the gods of the cities of Sipharvam? Where are the gods of Hamath? And they just basically tell them, well, your god's not going to be different. So God is confounding the pride of the Edomites here and telling them, no, I will destroy you. And who is like unto me? No one like me, he's saying. Who will appoint me the time? Who is that shepherd that will stand before me? And even today, because all of this chapter, even though this chapter is considered by most people to be all this archaic, this chapter isn't frequently being preached in churches across America. Just so you know, if you go down to Cornerstone or Fun Center, you know, giant church of the, you know, destiny church or, you know, what are they, what do they call the churches now? What are some of the trendy names for some of the churches around here? Crossroads, sandals, no walls, without walls church, you know, the, yeah, just all these different just vague name churches, elevate, there we go. Elevate church. So you go to Celebration Church and Elevate Church and these different churches, you know, this isn't, this isn't on the agenda, this preaching. It's not on the agenda. Jeremiah, are you serious? I remember I spent, because I was born and raised an independent fundamental Baptist, and I'm an independent fundamental Baptist now, but there was a period where we got out of independent Baptist churches from the time I was 12 to 16, and we sort of as a family, we tried the neo-evangelical type churches. Now we didn't go all the way to like Elevate Church or something, but we, I like that, but if I ever start a liberal church, no, I'm just joking, that's a great name, sounds real trendy. I'm sure it is. I'm sure there's probably 10 of them, but anyway, we tried, we didn't go that far, but we did go to like the NIV sort of, you know, rock and roll Baptist churches, the denominational Baptist church. We got out of the independent fundamental Baptist realm, and we got into these kind of liberal churches, and I remember I went to the youth group, and they do a Bible study in the youth group. Everybody's got a different version, you know, total confusion. Everybody's got a weird interpretation. Nobody knows the Bible. Nobody's actually saying, well, here's what it actually means, and making sense. It's just like, well, what about the, maybe this, you know, it's like craziness. But I remember it just, I went into a Bible study, and they said, hey, we want to pick, we're just about to start something new, and we want to pick what we're going to study. And it just, and they said, we can either study, will you study Genesis or Revelation, I think they said. And I raised my hand in the class, and I said, you know, I said, I've been in church my whole life, and at this time, I was going to a lot of Bible studies, because I kind of had a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. I was going to public school at the time, so I went to the public school Bible club. I also went to a youth group that met on Monday night, a youth group that met on Tuesday night, a youth group that met on Thursday night. Then I went to my church on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, and then usually between all those youth groups and churches, there'd be some activities on Friday and Saturday. Usually seven days a week in some kind of a church-related activity, because I just, I was just excited about church and the Bible. But it was all kind of dumb stuff that I was going to. But it was just, you know, I was just trying to find something to feed my spiritual need. You know, so there wasn't a lot of caloric content at these places, so I had to go, you know, eight times a week just to get something out of it. But anyway, so I raised my hand, and this is what I said, I said, you know, I've been in church my whole life. I'm going to all these Bible studies. It's always Genesis, or it's always Revelation. I said, I feel like we're studying the same books over and over again. I said, why don't we study something that we know nothing about? What about Isaiah? What about Jeremiah? What about Ezekiel? Right? I mean, I was just bringing that out as like, instead of just, okay, here we go again, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, the flood. It's very superficial what they teach anyway. They're not going real deep anyway. And so I said, let's learn. I told them, I said, because this is before I'd even read the Bible cover to cover at all. I just said, I don't know anything about the book of Jeremiah. I don't know any, I couldn't tell you hardly anything about Ezekiel. I was just telling this to the teacher. Why don't we study something like that? And he just laughed and scoffed at that and said, oh, you won't even understand that. I mean, you're not going to get anything out of that. What happened to all scriptures given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine. But he just scoffed at that. Oh, you'll never learn anything, Genesis it is. And then we ended up doing Genesis. And then literally we spent like a whole week one time at the Bible study, just arguing about the dumbest things of whether there's fish on the ark. I'm like, what kind of stupidity? The fish are fine. They're swimming in that. Well, but what about the freshwater fish? Was there an aquarium for the freshwater fish? I was like, no. Who's been to these Bible studies where everybody gets to talk? Where everybody gets to talk? I mean, every dumb person who's never read the Bible, who knows nothing. Where you're preaching about, you know, oh, preach the gospel to every creature. Well, excuse me, does creature include animals? No. Avoid foolish questions. Everybody's got a different version. Well, that's what my version says. Oh, you know, maybe there was an aquarium or, you know, did, did, did he gather the insects two by two years? Like, no, but that just goes to show you how Jeremiah is just scoffed at. It's just, it's just like, oh, we don't, what are we going to do with that? You won't even understand it anyway. Well, if you're a good teacher, I will. If you've been here for the last 48 weeks of Jeremiah, I promise you understand the book of Jeremiah. If not, go download them all and you listen to 48 hours of teaching on this book, one hour per chapter and come back and tell me whether you understand it or not. I guarantee you'll understand it or, or you get your money back. Guaranteed. No, I'm just kidding. It's free anyway, so there's no, there's nothing to give back. But here's the thing. This chapter is so relevant. This is a great teaching. Why? Because people are still prideful today. People still get backslidden today. People still trust in their money today. People still think that the United States could never be defeated. It could never be attacked. They think that they're untouchable, invincible, and God still has to keep telling them, no, I can bring you down whenever I want. Fear me. Tremble before me. Love me. Follow me. And he said here, who is like me? And there are still people today who try to compare the Lord Jesus Christ or the Word of God or the Father. They'll try to compare him to some other God like there's any comparison, like there's any comparison. I mean, think about this. Who's like unto me? Well, let's, let's look at the Muslims, right? Is the Muslim Jesus like unto the Jesus of the Bible or is the prophet of Islam like unto the Bible? Well, here's the thing. I thank God that the one that I follow, the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior, I thank God that at least he knew how to read, unlike Mohammed who even Muslims will admit to you was illiterate. He couldn't even read. I mean, at least Jesus, one of the first things he does in Luke chapter four is he gets up in the synagogue and he reads out loud. I mean, at least the prophet that we're following, at least our savior, our Messiah, our Lord was able to read. I mean, look, I know how to read. I don't want to follow a preacher who can't even read. Think about how foolish that would be. You say, well, you know, Islam, what's the difference? I mean, who are you to say that the Bible is better than the Quran? No, who's like unto me, God says. I'll submit to you that Psalm 23, 1 Corinthians 13 and other great chapters of the Bible are filled with so much power. There's nothing in the Quran like that. And the reason they have to hide behind, oh, well, the Quran, you got to get it in the original Arabic. I thank God that the rock of our salvation, the Holy Bible can be translated into any language and it's still powerful. Even in English, it's filled with power. Even in English, Psalm 23, 1 Corinthians 13, Hebrews chapter 11 are considered great, powerful words that stir us. Why? They're written by God. But the Quran, supposedly it sounds cool in some other language. We'll just have to take their word for it. Because it's so weak that when you put it into English, all of a sudden it just falls apart and becomes void. I thank God that this Bible, whether it's in English or Spanish or Greek or any other language in the world, is filled with power in all languages, in all times. There's no book like this book. Trying to compare the Quran. Look, have you ever tried to read the Quran? It's hard to read. You know why it's hard to read? Because it doesn't make any sense. And you know why it doesn't make any sense? Even just from a common sense standpoint, did you know that the Quran is a collection of chapters or surahs that are arranged in order from longest to shortest? Now, who was the genius who came up with that? I mean, thank God the New Testament's not organized that way. Okay, let's take all the chapters in the New Testament, let's jumble them up, and let's organize them from longest to shortest. So that way we can just have no narrative that makes any sense. We can just jump all over. And look, even that would make more sense than the Quran. Because at least then each individual chapter would make sense. I mean, it'd be a little weird jumping around from chapter to, you know, you're reading Psalm 119, you know, if you did the whole Bible, you're reading Psalm 119. Next thing you know, you're in like Luke chapter one, pretty long chapter, right? You're just all over the place, I mean, bouncing around. It'd be really confusing. But even then, at least each chapter makes, I mean, you read the Quran, it's like the guy doesn't even have the attention span to stay on one subject even for one chapter. He's just jumping around, bouncing around, it doesn't make any sense, it's gibberish. It's garbage. No one considers the Quran a great piece of literature except Muslims. Nobody else is reading from it, quoting from it, caring what it says. It's just, it's junk. It's insulting to the Bible to even begin to compare the Quran to the Bible. You say, well, you know, well, the Jesus of the Quran, no, no, the Jesus of the Quran is not the son of God. Jesus of the Quran did not die and was not buried and did not rise again. God faked his death in the Quran. He just made it seem like he died. No resurrection of Christ in the Quran. And you say, well, what about all the other religions in the world? Look, there's not that many religions in this world. People are constantly trying to fool you like, oh, there's just so many religions in the world and who's to say that your God is more powerful than this other God? And then they'll say like, well, what if I just worship the spaghetti monster or whatever? Isn't that what the atheists say? Well, you know, there's no reason why your God is any more believable than the spaghetti monster. But here's the thing about our God is that literally 3.9 billion people on this earth claim to believe in Jesus, but 3.9 billion people don't believe in spaghetti monster God. The King James Bible is the best selling book in the history of mankind. Okay. The spaghetti version or whatever is not. No. I don't even know if it even exists. But isn't that what prideful man will do? He'll try to downgrade God and just act like God's just one of many. Oh, the Bible is just one of many religious texts until you actually go to read those texts. You know, till you open up the Rig Veda and read about the long haired drug smoking ascetic who's, I'm flying, I'm flying. It's like, this is your scripture. You have hymns about people taking drugs and getting high. That's what you sing about? I thank God that we sing about Jesus. We sing about the Lord and his power and his might and his grace and his salvation. We have something better to sing about than growing our hair long and taking drugs and getting high on soma. It's a whole section in the Hindu scriptures on getting high through soma. Whole section. Oh, but what's the difference? You say, well, you know, what about the Sikh, the Sikh religion? And it's, yes, I'm pronouncing that correctly. It's not, people mispronounce it as Sikh. It's actually pronounced sick, Sikhism. These are the ones who wear the turbans, right? The Indian people that they have turbans on their, their, their followers of Sikhism, their prophet that they follow, they call him a guru. His name's Guru Nanak, their prophet Guru Nanak. He washed his feet in water and gave it to his followers to drink his dirty foot water. It's true. Look it up. That's what Sikhism teaches, that their leader Guru Nanak, he had them drink his dirty foot water. Our savior, even though he was God in the flesh, was so humble that he actually washed the disciples feet, right? But oh, what's the difference, right? What's the difference? So the point is, look, there's two point, look, there's Christianity, 2.3 billion people. There's Islam, 1.6 billion people, right? There's Hinduism, 1 billion people. There's Buddhism, 500 million people. After you list those first four religions, you know, just using a very broad brush, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism. After that, the next religion, Sikhism, is down to like 30 million people. And then after that, you get down into the single digits. Are you listening? So there's just tiny religions after that. There's really only five major world religions even in existence. And here's the thing, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism are real similar. They're all just a reincarnation, meditate, you know, sit under the lotus tree type of thing. And then all Islam is is a perversion of Christianity because they claim, oh, we're building on what Jesus taught and, you know, sort of like Mormonism or something, you know, we're adding on another scripture and yada, yada, yada. So the point is, there's pretty much two styles of religion in this world. There's really Christianity as a major religion, right? And it's various perversions and spinoffs, twisting of it. And then there's pretty much Hinduism and all of its twists, twistings, and spinoffs. And if you're not sure whether it's Christianity or Hinduism, grab one of those DVDs on your way out the door, and you'll figure it out real fast. The truth about Hinduism. So the point is, there's no one that's like unto the Lord, and there's no book that's like this book. And it won't take you very long, glancing at a few other religions to realize, whoa, this is so far inferior to Christianity, it can't even be compared. This is the only Word of God. This is the only religious text that has any power, any greatness in it. And Jesus Christ is the only Savior. Jesus Christ, His story is the greatest story ever told. The Lord God is the God of all nations, all tongues, the whole earth, and you cannot liken Him or compare Him to anyone. There's no one like Him. It's a proud man that wants to drag God down by just, oh, He's just one of many. No, no, no, He's the only one. And so who is like unto Him? So the bottom line is about this chapter, it's about the destruction of various geographies. And the one thing that they all seem to have in common is pride. They're boastful, they're lifting themselves up, they're downgrading the Lord, and they think, well, nothing can happen to us. We're untouchable, we're invincible, we're unstoppable, we're unbeatable. Look at the treasures, look at our prosperity. This is going to last forever, but nothing lasts forever except God and His Word and His children. Nothing in this world lasts forever. The things that are seen are temporal. The things that are not seen are eternal. Things that are seen are temporal. Don't glory in the flesh. Don't glory in money, and don't glory in anything other than the Lord.