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Jeremiah chapter 52, we finally made it to the last chapter in this book. It's been a long series. It's taken well over a year just because of special Wednesday nights and things, but we're finally here at the very end. Now what's interesting about Jeremiah chapter 52 is that if you look at the last verse of 51, so if you just go back to chapter 51 verse 64, it says, and thou shalt say, thus shall Babylon sink, it shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her, and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. So the Bible is telling us here that that's the end of Jeremiah speaking. So chapter 52 is an epilogue that's tagged on at the end. It's not anything that Jeremiah is saying or doing or preaching. It's just the historical ending events of the kingdom of Judah being finally wiped out by Nebuchadnezzar. And I've heard some people say that Jeremiah was the author of first and second Kings. And the thing that they would point to is that if you look at the last chapter of second Kings, second Kings 25, it reads almost identical to Jeremiah 52. It's very similar. It's almost the same thing. It covers the exact same material. And then they would point to that as, well, maybe Jeremiah is the author of the books of the Kings, but since Jeremiah didn't even write this chapter, then why would that mean that he wrote the book of the Kings? Obviously it would just point to whoever wrote this chapter might have written the same thing over in second Kings. But the point is that it doesn't really matter who wrote this chapter. In fact, there are many books of the Bible that we don't know who the author is, but the point is that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy ghost. God is the author. We know it's God's word, but we don't know exactly what human instrument was used. And it's really not that important. When God wants us to know who wrote it, He tells us. And when it's not important or relevant, He doesn't tell us. So this chapter is the epilogue because the book of Jeremiah starts out in chapter one and it goes chronological all the way up through chapter 44. Then chapters 45 through 51 are just kind of miscellaneous prophecies that Jeremiah preached that are tagged on to the end. And then at the very end is this epilogue giving great detail about the destruction of Jerusalem. Now back in Jeremiah chapter 39, this same event is covered, but in chapter 52, a lot more detail is given about how things ended. Now look at verse number one of Jeremiah chapter 52. Zedekiah was one in 20 years old or 21 years old when he began to reign. And he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim, who was a previous king, had done. For through the anger of the Lord, it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, till he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. So I want to point out there that it was through the anger of the Lord that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. Because by rebelling against the king of Babylon, he's dooming himself and his people. And the Bible says he did that through the anger of the Lord. What does that mean? God was angry with him. God was angry with the people of Judah. And so he at this point, hardened his heart, or gave him this delusion of thinking that there was some way out that he could escape. And so he rebelled against the king of Babylon, ends up fleeing in the middle of the night and getting caught. Now look at the next verse, verse four. Came to pass in the ninth year of his reign in the 10th month. In the 10th day of the month, the Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came. He and all his army against Jerusalem had pitched against it and built forts against it roundabout. So the city was besieged unto the 11th year of king Zedekiah. So they surround the city in the ninth year and they besiege it until the 11th year. And if you look at the months that are mentioned there, the 10th month of the ninth year, the fourth month of the 11th year, that means it was a year and a half that they were surrounded. So imagine if the city of Phoenix, and obviously the city of Phoenix is a lot bigger than Jerusalem and doesn't have a wall around it. But if the city that we live in, or Trump will take care of that, right? But anyway, let's say the city of Tempe even. Let's just say the city of Tempe had a wall around it and it was surrounded by an army. No one can go in, no one can go out. Well, what's gonna happen after a year and a half? There's gonna be no food left. I mean, how many of you have a year and a half of food? Don't answer that question, cause then if the apocalypse comes, they're all gonna come to your house and then. But the point is that, the average person has a week or two of food in their house. Some people might have more than that. People can stretch things out. They can start eating pets or eating birds or eating plants and just whatever they can find to eat. But eventually there's just nothing left to eat. And so what they would do is they would besiege the city and eventually just starve them out. It was just kind of a waiting game just to see whether the army would have to leave first because they got called away to fight some other battle or they ran out of supplies or whether Jerusalem is gonna cave in and the people are gonna just open the doors and say, all right, we give up, we don't have any food. So after a year and a half of besieging the city, nothing going in, nothing going out, then finally they give in and the people of the city just mutiny and Zedekiah can see which way things are going. So he sneaks out with the princes in the middle of the night and he flees and the Babylonians chase after him. They overtake him, they catch him and they pass judgment upon him. It says in verse number 10, and the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. That's a pretty terrible thing to have happen for that to happen right in front of you. He slew also all the princes of Judah and Reba, then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah. So that was the last thing that he ever saw. And the king of Babylon bound him in chains and carried him to Babylon and put him in prison till the day of his death. Now, all of this came to pass through the anger of the Lord. And so the moral of the story is don't make God mad. Don't anger the Lord. When God is angry, he punishes severely and he gave them many, many chances to get right. And this is just the culmination of just years and years and years of ignoring the preaching of God's word, ignoring his commandments and hardening their hearts. Now go to 2 Chronicles 36. This event is actually recorded in a lot of different scriptures. Like I told you before, 2 Kings 25 is almost exactly the parallel of this chapter. Also, this event was covered back in Jeremiah 39, but it was more from Jeremiah's perspective. It didn't give us all the details. It just focused on Jeremiah's role in the situation. But 2 Chronicles 36 is yet another angle of this story. So you can look at four different passages and there are even more than that in the Bible to talk about this event. But four passages that just really directly cover this using almost the same wording. But look at 2 Chronicles 36, 11, because 2 Chronicles goes into a little more detail about why God was so mad. It says in verse number 11, Zedekiah was one and 20 years old when he began to reign and reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the Lord. And he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by God, but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel. So what we see here a few things is that first of all, number one, he did not humble himself before the preaching of Jeremiah. You see, when we hear the preaching of God's word, we're to humble ourselves. And what does that mean? To admit that we don't know everything. We're not right about everything. And the preacher who's preaching God's word, he might be telling us what's right, and maybe we're wrong about something and we need to change. Many people today when they hear the preaching of God's word and it contradicts what they believe or how they live their life, they stiffen their neck, they harden their heart, they bristle at that, and basically arrogantly say, I'm not gonna change. This is what I've always believed and I'm not gonna change. Or this is the way I've always lived my life. Or this is what I've always done and I'm not gonna change. That's pride. Humility says, well, you know what? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I am wrong about that. Let's see what the Bible says. And then you look at the Bible. Sure enough, I'm wrong. I made a mistake. I'm sorry. Let's fix it. Let's go forth. This is what a lot of preachers are unwilling to do today. A lot of preachers have gotten sucked into the error of the pre-trib rapture. And it's not because they're just evil or bad people or anything like that. It's just because they grew up with that teaching. It's been crammed down our throat. In every Bible college all across America, TV preachers are pushing it and Hollywood's promoting it. The left behind movie, book, board game, video game, whatever, action figure. So basically that stuff's all being pushed. And so they got caught up in that and they weren't trying to teach lies, but they just got confused or they just got caught up in that. And they just took it for granted. They never even examined it. They never even said, is it true? It was just kind of, oh, of course it's true. And we all grew up with things that were just kind of a course it's true type of thing. And then later we read our Bible and said, whoa, actually that's not true. But the difference is the humility to at that point admit, okay, it wasn't true. This is what the Bible says. A lot of these preachers though, they actually hate me personally. As if I'm the one who is behind this teaching of a rapture after the tribulation, which is foolish because that teaching was around before I was even born. Okay, that teaching and preachers have taught that and believe I've run into preachers who are old gray headed men. They've taught it their whole lives, their whole denominations that have always rejected the pre-trib rapture. And you could go back hundreds of years ago and find Baptist preachers that are teaching a post-tribulation rapture, pre-wrath rapture, even the songs in the hymnal, as long as they're from before the 20th century, they will point to a post-tribulation pre-wrath rapture. Like even it is well with my soul says, Lord hates the day when the faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll, the Trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend even so it is well with my soul. That song is pointing to when the heaven departs as a scroll, when it's rolled together, that's Revelation six. That's the sun and moon darkened. That's the sixth seal. Exactly what our film after the tribulation teaches. But here's the thing, because that film has been so huge and has had a big impact, now all of a sudden it's like, oh, you don't accept the preacher rapture, you must be following Stephen Anderson now, which is not true. First of all, look, and I can honestly say this, that back when I was a teenager, when I was a teenager and I did not believe in the preacher rapture, cause I figured this out when I was about 12 years old. And when I was a teenager, I would be willing to be, and I'd never preached this to anyone. I was a teen, never preached a sermon in my life. I believed at that time that there were people in every church who had this subject right, because I would run into them all the time. Even back then, one time the deacon of the church kind of cornered me on the pre-trib rapture. Because listen, when I went to Regency Baptist Church in Orangeville, California, I didn't go around saying the preacher rapture is false, because I believed that it wasn't my place to speak against the doctrine of the church, to argue with the pastor, to basically be rebellious and try to stir people up and whatever. I just kept my mouth shut. I just sat down and shut up and went soul winning and brought people to church and participated in the program of the church. And I didn't go around trying to tell people, hey, the pastor's wrong and this is what's really going on. Because I was a youth, that wasn't my place. And so during that time, a deacon, when I was a young adult, kind of cornered me because he's telling me, he's talking about the pre-trib rapture and I'm just kind of like, ah. But then he kind of cornered me like, right, right? And at that point, I had to say something because he's pinning me down. And I said, well, actually, I don't believe in the pre-trib rapture. And I said, here's why. And I gave him a few verses and I expected him to kind of jump down my throat because the preacher had always been like, if you don't believe in the pre-trib rapture, you're calling Jesus a liar. And the fact that they had to yell about it so much shows that there were people who believed right about it back then, or they wouldn't have been yelling about it so much. If you don't believe it. So I expected this deacon to just go off on me. But you know what the deacon said? He said, oh, that's interesting. Here's another point why it's probably not pre-trib. I don't know if he was just testing me because he literally then turned around and showed me another point in the Bible that I hadn't even thought of. He's like, well, here's another reason why the pre-trib rapture doesn't really add up. And I was like, oh, that was painless. I thought this guy's gonna get mad. So the point is, there have always been people who just read the Bible and said, hey, this pre-trib rapture is not adding up. But basically, to a lot of people, and I'm not saying to everybody, but to a lot of people amongst independent fundamental Baptists, I'm like the poster child of the pre-trib rapture. Or I'm sorry, excuse me, of the post-trib rapture. I'm like the poster child of it. So basically, I'm kind of the face of it to a certain segment. And then here's what happens. Even though it's shown them in scripture point blank, it's after the tribulation, instead of making the issue about scripture, they try to make it about me. And it's not about me. You can hate me and want nothing to do with me and still believe that it's not pre-trib, right? It's not this package deal. It's like, oh, we're throwing out the pre-trib rapture. It's poster pre-wrath. Hello, Steven Anderson. No, no, no. You don't ever have to talk to me or like me or come to this church, but that's what they think. And here's the thing. Most independent fundamental Baptist pastors, they, if they watch that movie, if they hear it, they know that the pre-trib rapture doesn't add up. They can't defend it. And a lot of your just small town pastors or just younger pastors that are not up on a real high pedestal or up on a real high horse, they're coming around on this issue. They're emailing us all the time and telling us that they've seen the light on this and that they believe like us on it. But you know who won't come around is the old timers and the big Bible college, big name president. And here's why, it's pride. It's pride because of the fact that they hate me personally. So they're just like, well, we can't let Steven Anderson prove us wrong. Cause then we're gonna look like idiots if Steven Anderson proves, cause then they're gonna wonder if we're wrong on the sodomites. Then they're gonna wonder if we're wrong about the Jews. Then they're gonna wonder if we're wrong about the nursery or whatever. So all the different things. So the bottom line is that pride causes people to just dig in. We're not gonna listen to this guy. Now here's the thing, it wasn't really about Jeremiah personally, was it? Was it Jeremiah's personality that was the problem? Was it just, no, the issue was God's word. The issue is always about the doctrine. It's not about me, it's not about you, it's not about any personality, it's about the doctrine. Look, right is right and wrong is wrong because it's the word of the Lord. Doesn't matter who's saying it. And so Jeremiah preaches to these people and they hated Jeremiah. They didn't like his style, he's too rough, whatever they didn't like about him, they're constantly angry at him, they want him in prison and so forth. And so the Bible says that Zedekiah in verse 12 there, humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet. Now look, you say, well, he just didn't humble himself before Jeremiah, but look at the next words, speaking from the mouth of the Lord. So that's the real issue. It's not about who's older, who's younger, who's a greater pastor, greater man of God. No, no, it's about the fact that's from the mouth of the Lord after the tribulation or whatever other doctrine, that's what Jesus said. And it doesn't matter if I say it used, I don't care if a five-year-old says it, it's still the truth, if it came from the mouth of the Lord. But pride causes people to say, well, I'm not gonna listen to him because of X, Y, and Z that I don't like about him personally, or I'm not gonna listen to him because my preacher over here, I'm just gonna trust whatever he says. And look, Zedekiah had a lot of preachers that he listened to. He was surrounded by these priests and prophets that were a bunch of lying phonies. And Jeremiah is calling these guys out. In fact, Jeremiah even pronounced one guy that you're gonna die by the end of this year. That was one of Zedekiah's favorite preachers. And the guy died within one year. So Zedekiah had his preachers and he would not humble himself and admit, okay, my pastor's wrong, my church is wrong, this is the word of God, I need to humble myself and believe this. But it also says he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, verse 13. And you say, well, what's wrong with rebelling against King Nebuchadnezzar? I mean, what's wrong with him wanting freedom for his nation? Well, here's what's wrong. It says, who made him swear by God. See, what you have to understand is that Zedekiah became king for one reason. He did not just become king because he was next in line for the throne and he was the child of the king and the king died and he assumed throne. No, no, he was a king for one reason. Zedekiah was made king by Nebuchadnezzar. See, Nebuchadnezzar took captive Jehoiakim and then he took captive Jehoiakim with an N, both of those, it gets a little confusing because they have very similar names. Jehoiakim and Jehoiakim and then he takes this guy, Mattathiah, he changes his name to Zedekiah and he makes him the king. So basically everything that Zedekiah had was handed to him by Nebuchadnezzar. He was put in this position. Why was he put in that position? Because he was forced to swear an oath of loyalty to Nebuchadnezzar. Well, if you swear an oath, you're supposed to keep that oath. That's what the Bible teaches. And this is why in the New Testament, we're admonished not to swear at all. Don't swear at all. He said, but above all things, my brethren, swear not. And he's not talking about you using profanity. He's saying, don't swear by the earth, don't swear by heaven, don't swear by the hairs of your head. He's saying, don't swear. Just let your yay be yay and your nay be nay. And it says this both in Matthew chapter five and in James. And both places teach that we should not swear. We should not make oaths. That's why even when you do legal documents, it says oath or affirmation. Because our country was started on Christian principles. And many of the people who founded our country did not want to swear any oath. So they would not go into court and say, I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. Because the Bible says, swear not at all. So they would say, I affirm that I will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. They're just saying, I will do it. I'm gonna let my yay be yay. I'm gonna let my nay be nay. Because an oath in the Bible is a very serious thing. And because people are so careless about making oaths and breaking them, that's why in the New Testament you just said, just swear not at all. Just don't even swear. Because there's such a tendency to break that vow, to break that oath. So you shouldn't make vows and oaths and swear, but if you do, or if you have, you're supposed to keep those oaths. Well, he swore by God to Nebuchadnezzar, I will obey you, I will follow you. And then he breaks that vow. Well, that made God angry. It said that he made him swear by God, and then it says, thirdly, number one, he didn't humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet. You know, he had some problem with Jeremiah where he won't humble himself to him. You know, he has a personal problem with him or whatever. Number two, he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, who'd made him swear by God, so he's breaking his vow. And number three, he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel. So this is kind of similar to the story where Pharaoh hardened his heart, but then later it says that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart but it's careful to tell us at the first that he hardened his own heart. So what happens a lot of time is that we're faced with the decision and we harden our heart, we resist the truth, we resist the preaching of God's word, we make the wrong decision and we harden our heart. That's our choice, can't blame that on God. But what then happens is that sometimes when a person hardens their heart, hardens their heart, hardens their heart, it gets to a point where God gets angry with that person. God's angry that they've hardened their heart and stiffened their neck, so what he'll do is he'll harden their heart. Now you say, well, what in the world sense does that make? He's mad at them for hardening their heart, so then he turns around and hardens it? That's exactly what he did to Pharaoh and that's what he did here, but let me tell you why it makes sense. Because any person with a brain in their head, even if they didn't have a spiritual bone in their whole body, when they saw those plagues of Egypt, eventually is gonna say, okay, let's let the people go. That's why all the people around Pharaoh, his advisors, that's what they're telling him. They're telling him, let the people go. Knowest thou not that Egypt is destroyed? And it's like, why don't you see it? He didn't see it because God hardened his heart and here's why. Because God, after hearing the blasphemy of Pharaoh and the hardening of his heart again and again, didn't want him to get off the hook that easy. So he basically looked down and said, okay, if it's gonna be this way, then I'm gonna really make an example out of you. So I'm gonna harden your heart to the point where you keep saying no and I destroy this place just to the point of ridiculousness, just to send a huge message to the whole world. And the whole world at that time, they did hear about the plagues of Egypt. The fame thereof went abroad into all lands. So God wanted to make it dramatic. Same thing in the story with Eli and his sons. See, Eli's sons were wicked men. They fornicated and they even used church as a place to troll for fornication. I mean, that's pretty bad. They're lying with the women who assemble at the door of the tabernacle. That's where they go to chat up women and use their spiritual position, use their position as an assistant pastor or a deacon or Sunday school teacher or this director, that director. They use that position to have the clout. And basically, the Bible says that they were heavy men. They were overweight men, they were gluttons, they were eating a lot of just fatty flesh and they were riotous eaters of flesh. They were indulging the flesh, but yet they got all the girls because they're using this position that they had. And look, that's wicked. I mean, look, fornication is always wicked. Adultery is always wicked. But even the world out there, listen to me now, the world out there that will tell you that fornication is okay, your average person in America that thinks it's okay to fornicate, even they are disgusted when someone uses a position of authority to fornicate. When Bill Clinton is using his position as president to fornicate with some woman that's 20 some years younger or whatever, or whenever they're using that authority as a boss at work and they're fornicating with their worker or a school teacher is fornicating with their female students and harassing them and so forth. Look, even the world looks at that and says, that's criminal. I mean, when you're a pastor and you abuse that authority, even the fornicating world would say that that's disgusting and wicked to use your position as a pastor, a doctor, a lawyer, a prosecutor, a judge, to try to prey on people, like a lawyer who's defending a client. He's not supposed to have relations with that client or a judge in a courtroom. He's not supposed to be having a relationship with the defendant or a prosecutor praying. Look, it's all out there. I've read of cases of all these things. And I remember, I've even seen it in the workplace. Some undesirable dude that's a supervisor gets a big long hug from every young beautiful girl that works there because they wanna get put in the right positions and climb the ladder and so forth. And it's wicked. And even the world is disgusted by, it's even criminal in the world. It's even considered criminal. It's even considered a crime. Even by our sinful world, let alone amongst God's people. And so when you see a pastor who's committing adultery with his church member or you see a doctor who's committing adultery with their patient, I mean, this is wicked. Well, that's what Eli's sons are pretty much doing because they're the sons of the top spiritual leader in the land. Eli is the judge. He's the prophet of God. He's the main preacher for the whole nation. They're his sons. And they're using that celebrity status to lie with the women that are trying to go worship the Lord. They're scum, right? Okay, well, here's what happened. Eli tries to correct his sons. And the Bible says his sons were sons of Belial, meaning they're children of the devil. And when Eli preaches to them that they need to repent, here's what it says, that they would not hearken unto him because the Lord would destroy them. God wanted to destroy them because he was fed up with what they've done. So here's where Calvinists get this wrong. Calvinists get this idea of, oh, God just always wanted to destroy those guys just for no reason, because he just doomed them from the foundation of the world. Or, well, God just hardened Pharaoh's heart because God just always planned to just doom Pharaoh because he picks one for heaven and he picks another for hell. No, that's a lie. Whosoever will may come. And I'm gonna be preaching about that next Wednesday night because I'm preaching on Ephesians chapter one next Wednesday night. And that's kind of a go-to passage that the Calvinists will really twist the predestination chapter. I'm gonna show you clearly that Calvinism is a fraud and that Ephesians one teaches something completely different. But a little preview, tune in next time. So same place folks, same time, same place next week. Next week. And brother Garrett hopefully should be back from Malawi at that time. So you get a lot of good stories from him as well. So that's what the Calvinists will say like, oh, they're just doomed. But no, no, no, this is what happens. People make these choices to stiffen their neck, harden their heart, commit wickedness, commit. And then God gets fed up. And then through the anger of the Lord, they seal their own fate. They doom themselves further. They dig themselves in even deeper because God says, you know, I don't want this person at this point to get off the hook that easy. I'm through with this person. Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God will give them over to a reprobate mind to do those things that are not convenient and just dig themselves in even deeper and ruin their own lives. So that's what happened here. Look down at your Bible there in second Chronicles 36. He stiffened his neck halfway through verse 13 and hardened his heart from turning on the Lord God of Israel. That's why through the anger of the Lord, he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar because God was mad at him. So God caused him to make that foolhardy decision. Look at verse, and look, you say, well, can God manipulate people's decisions? Yeah, the Bible says that the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord and as the rivers of water and he turneth it whithersoever he will. God can put things in people's heart and make them make foolish decisions or confound them if he's displeased with them. That's one of the punishments that God will send sometimes is confusion or causing people to make foolish decisions. You know, look at the story with Abimelech and Gael in Judges 19 where God causes the men of Shechem to rebel against Abimelech. Why? Because he's mad at Abimelech. And so he sends a spirit of discontent to those people. God can make those type of interventions and he does make those type of interventions in the Bible. So it says in verse 14 of second Chronicles 36, moreover, all the chief of the priests and the people is explaining why Jerusalem's wiped out in Jeremiah 52. And they have transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen. And look, the heathen have some pretty bad abominations. The Bible says they did all of them. And polluted the house of the Lord, which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent them by his messengers, rising up at times and sending because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his prophets, including Jeremiah, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy. And that's what the Bible says. He that being often reproved, hardened at his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy, no hope, no second chance doomed. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, that's Nebuchadnezzar, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man or him that stooped for age. He gave them all into his hand and all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God and break down the wall of Jerusalem and so on and so forth. Jump down to verse 21. To fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths, for as long as she laid desolate, she kept her Sabbath to fulfill three score and 10 years. So the children of Israel were supposed to rest the land every seven years. See the Sabbath was not just a day of the week, it was also a year. So they would work six days, rest on the seventh day, but they would also plant crops for six years. The seventh year, they weren't supposed to plant any crops. They were supposed to let the land rest and just kind of go wild for one year. And if they were to ask, well, what do we eat the seventh year? God was supposed to bless them in the sixth year and give them triple what they needed. And then they'd have enough to get them through the seventh year and enough to even go beyond that, because God would bless them so much in the sixth year, if they followed his program. Well, they didn't follow his program. They just planted the crops every year, every year, every year. And even a farmer knows that, you know, in modern times that you have to do crop rotation and rest the land, let it go wild, let it build up the nutrients and so on, and not just drain everything out of it. Well, the Bible says that they had skipped 70 Sabbaths. So think about that. That means they hadn't been doing it right for almost 500 years. Think about that, like 490 years, cause that's how long it would take to build up 70 of these Sabbaths. So God said, okay, well, if you're not gonna rest the land, I will. Let's take you out of it and it'll rest for a full 70 years. Then I'll bring you back. That's what the Bible says here that Jeremiah preached. And then Daniel, in the book of Daniel, it says that he read in Jeremiah, he read that scripture and he understood when they were gonna go back and when the captivity was gonna be over in the book of Daniel. So go back if you would to Jeremiah 52 then. So that gives us a little bit of an understanding of why it was that God was so angry and why God put it into the heart of Zedekiah to rebel against the king of Babylon, even though it was such a stupid decision. It was because Zedekiah had already made God so mad by not listening to Jeremiah, not obeying the voice of the Lord and continually allowing all these abominations to take place. Now here's what's interesting though. We've already seen a lot of this when we studied Jeremiah 39 and when we just saw it over in Chronicles about the destruction of Jerusalem, the death of his sons, the death of the princes, his eyes being put out and him being in prison until the day of his death as a blind man in a foreign country. How would you like to finish your life like that? But here's an interesting thing. After it just goes through this whole rundown in this chapter where he goes through all the things that were taken and he explains how all the precious metals are taken, all the golden vessels, all the silver vessels and even the brass, giant brass pillars. The Bible says one of these pillars was 18 cubits tall or 27 feet. That's pretty high. It was a 27 foot high pillar. And the Bible does tell us it was hollow. It was like four fingers breadth thick but they took all that just to recycle it. I mean, the Babylonians were into recycling. I mean, they recycled all this stuff. They took all, they separated out the gold, the silver, the brass and they took it back to Babylon for recycling. Okay, these guys were green. They were environmentally friendly because they reduced Jerusalem to nothing. They reused the stuff when they got, they reduced, reuse, recycle was their motto. So anyway, this covers all the different, it goes through a whole inventory of all the shovels, the snuffers, the bowls, the spoons, the vessels. It just goes through a lot of detail that we already read at the beginning of the sermon about what they took with them. But here's what's pretty interesting. And then it also gives a rundown of how many people were carried captive in this final captivity. Cause there were other times when captives were taken. But then it has this interesting part at the end that just kind of seems random. Why does this just pop up in verse 31? Look at this. I mean, what a way to end a book. I mean, we've just read 52 chapters of Jeremiah. This is the ending. And you know what? 2nd Kings ends the same way. 25 chapters of 2nd Kings. And this is the story that we end on. And it's kind of just out of nowhere. Look what it says. And it came to pass in the 7th and 30th year of the captivity of Jehoiachin. And that's a guy that we haven't talked about in a long time. It's been a while since we've heard about him. Jehoiachin king of Judah in the 12th month, in the 5th and 20th day of the month, that evil Merodach, and this is a guy that you don't read anything about in the Bible, that evil Merodach, king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison. Now stop and think about this. The Bible says in the 7th and 30th year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, king of Judah. So here's a guy, Jehoiachin, king of Judah. He goes into captivity, and he's in prison for 37 years. That's a long time. After 37 years, a new king in the first year of his reign, this new guy becomes king, and his name's evil Merodach. That's all we know about. Merodach is a false god of the Babylonians. So that's what he's named after. So this is a guy that's between Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar. There's somebody in between there, okay? Well, this guy just decides to take him out of prison, lift him up, give him a place of honor, and the Bible says in verse 32, and spake kindly unto him. And he did continually eat bread before him all the days of his life. So this guy just decides, I like Jehoiachin. I like this guy. I want this guy to be my buddy. So he just pulls him out of prison, gives him an honorable position, has him eat at his table every single day. He's like a member of the family. He's like a member of the king's court. He gets this position of honor, becomes his buddy. And for his diet, verse 34, there was a continual diet given him of the king of Babylon every day, a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life. So basically, he has a certain portion of food that he's just fed, he's just taken care of. He just doesn't have to worry about anything, okay? Who is this guy? All right, let's go back to second Kings 24 is where we're gonna find this story. Second Kings 24. I had to think there for a sec. I don't have any, I never have any notes on Wednesday night. I try to do it all from memory. I try to learn the material here so that I can speak from the heart. Second Kings 24 is where we find this story about Jehoiachin. The Bible says in verse eight, Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he began to reign. Now that's pretty young to be put in charge of a whole kingdom. So that's a great responsibility. He's only 18 years old. And he reigned in Jerusalem three months. And his mother's name was Nahushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father had done. At that time, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon came up against Jerusalem and the city was besieged. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon came against the city and his servants to besiege it. And Jehoiachin, the King of Judah went out to the King of Babylon, meaning he surrendered. This guy surrendered. He went out to him and said, okay, buddy, I surrender. And his mother and his servants and his princes and his officers and the King of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign. So let's do some math here. He's 18 years old when he begins to reign. How long did he reign? Three months, right? Then he goes into captivity. And then the Bible told us in Jeremiah that in the seventh and 30th year of the captivity of Jehoiachin. So basically, he's like 55 years old. When he gets, I mean, he's in prison from the time he's 18 to the time that he's about 55. And then he's pulled out and he's eating good food and he's hanging out with the king and king speaking kindly to him and they're getting along great for the rest of his life. So let me just break this down to you quickly here. First, there was a king called Jehoiachin, okay? That came before Jehoiachin, all right? So there was Jehoiachin and then there's Jehoiachin. Jehoiachin did evil in the sight of the Lord. Jehoiachin did evil in the sight of the Lord, but he only did it for three months and he's only 18 years old, okay? And then look down at verse 17. After those three months and he goes captive, this is what I was talking about earlier in the sermon. And the king of Babylon made Madaniah, his father's brother, king in his stead and changed his name to Zedekiah. That's what I was saying. Nebuchadnezzar made Zedekiah king, he even gave him the name Zedekiah because his real name was Madaniah. And basically this guy Zedekiah was the father's brother of Jehoiachin, meaning that he's his uncle, right? He's the uncle of Jehoiachin. So basically this guy that gets lifted up in the 37th year of captivity is Zedekiah's nephew, okay? So I think that what God's trying to show us, because it seems a little random, doesn't it? To just tell us that. And if you look at chapter 25, verse 27 of 2 Kings, where you are, you'll see the same thing is given. Came to pass in the 7th and 30th year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, in the 12th month on the 7th and 20th day of the month that evil Merodach, king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, did lift up the head of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, out of prison. And he spake kindly to him and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon. So this is a little different detail than what we saw in Jeremiah 52. It goes a little further in 2 Kings 25, and says, you know, there were other kings that Nebuchadnezzar had taken captive, because he took over that whole region. But Jehoiachin was preferred above them all, and treated better, and changed his prison garments, and he did eat bread continually before him all the days of his life, and his allowance, this is the same word that was diet over, you know, it's not the same word, it's a different word, but it's in place of the word diet. And his allowance was a continual allowance given him of the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life. So I think what we see here, because God makes such a big deal about the fact that Zedekiah was doomed without remedy, doomed, no hope for him, it's too late for him, I think this is the contrast of a guy who it was not too late for. So it's like God's putting these things side by side. Here are two kings, they did evil on the side of the Lord, but the difference between these two men is that one of them had already heard a ton of preaching, he'd already rejected Jeremiah for years, and years, and years, nine years into his reign is when he made the stupid decision to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar, and during that nine years, he's hearing a ton of preaching from Jeremiah, and there were even times when he had a one-on-one where he's sitting down with Jeremiah, everybody else has sent out, it's just the two of them secretly, sort of like Nicodemus with Jesus by night, he's secretly talking to Jeremiah, hey, I don't want anybody to know that I'm talking to you, but what is the word of the Lord? And Jeremiah is preaching to him and preaching to him, and then it's too late for him. Whereas this guy, I think it's a blessing from God that he's lifted up after all his years, because otherwise, why would God even bring it up? And he put it in two books, same story. I think what God's trying to show us is an example of a guy for whom it was not too late. Why? Because he was young, I mean, this other guy's his uncle, so he's older, he should know better, he's heard way more preaching, he's had a one-on-one with Jeremiah multiple times, that's why there's no remedy for this guy. Whereas the 18-year-old punk who screwed up the kingdom in three months, he might not have been just rotten to the core. You know, I mean, his parents were wicked, and so he just followed into that. Something happened while he's over there in prison. I believe he probably had some kind of a change of heart over there for God to look down on him and bless him, and to show favor unto him. And so what that shows us is that unto whom much is given, of him shall much be required. Now, you might read stories in the Bible about God being merciful to people, giving people a second chance, and think to yourself, oh, God is just really merciful and compassionate, and he is slow to anger and of great mercy. Oh, praise the Lord, for he's good, for his mercy endureth forever. But what we wanna be careful is to realize that everybody in this room is not a Jehoiachin, you're a Zedekiah. And what I mean by that, I'm not saying you're a bad person like Zedekiah, what I mean by that is that you've heard the amount of preaching that Zedekiah heard, not the amount of preaching that Jehoiachin had heard. So don't think to yourself, well, there's always a second chance. Look at a guy like Jehoiachin, look at these other people in the Bible who got their second chance. Well, but the difference is how much preaching did they hear? The more preaching you've heard, the more Bible you've read, the more you know about the things of God, the godlier your parents are, the godlier your wife or your husband or your brother is, the godlier your pastor is or your fellow church members or just the more preaching you've heard, the more Bible you've heard, the godlier the nation you live in is. God is gonna hold you more accountable and he's likely to just be done with you at some point if you harden your heart and stiffen your neck and don't listen. Because of whom much, to whom much is given, of him shall much be required. So we need to understand that the young people who are growing up in a Baptist church hearing the King James Bible, hearing hard preaching are gonna be held to a higher standard than just the kids down at the public school and the parents are in agnostic and the other parents are Buddhist and the mom's Catholic and dad's Jewish. Those people are not gonna be held to the same standard. If they fornicate or if a Christian young person fornicates, hey, there's gonna be a different consequence. If they never go to church or if young people who grew up in this church never go to church, there's gonna be a different consequence. They might never go to church just because they never went to church. But when you grow up in church and then you forsake God's house, you forsake the Lord, you forsake the teachings of your youth, you forsake what mom and dad taught you, you forsake reading the Bible, you forsake soul winning, God is gonna be angered by that. And he's gonna chastise you. He's gonna punish you. He's gonna scourge you. If you're saved, you'll be scourged. You'll be disciplined. You will be punished. But sometimes you can even be destroyed even without remedy. I mean, I believe that King Saul was saved and yet he pushed God to a point where he was destroyed without remedy, where the prophet of God said unto him, tomorrow, shalt thou and thy sons be with me. And the next day, Saul and his sons died in battle as a punishment, as a punishment. And look, did he believe in the Lord? Yeah. Is he saved? Yeah. But still as a punishment, God said, you're done. You're doomed. Now he's in heaven. But here's the thing. Just because we're going to heaven doesn't mean that we wanna take the next train. Amen. I mean, we're all, you know, we know we're going to heaven. It doesn't mean we wanna go right now. It doesn't mean we wanna go tomorrow. You know what? We wanna see our children's children under the third and fourth generation, loving and serving God. That's what we wanna see. That's what we wanna do with our lives. And look, I haven't finished the work that God gave me to do on this earth. You know, there's a work that God has given for me. There's a work that God has given for you. The Bible says we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God had before ordained that we should walk in them. And so there's a path laid out for me and for you, works that need to be done to reach Phoenix, to reach Arizona, to reach the world with the gospel. There are all kinds of deeds and works that I wanna do. And if I fulfill the task, if I fulfill the mission, if I'm faithful unto the end, then I'm going to be greatly rewarded for the work that I did. And if you stay with the mission and you stay on task and you keep serving God, you're gonna receive a great reward someday for the works that you do. Now, if our life is cut short, we're not gonna finish the mission. We're not gonna earn the rewards that we would have earned. And not only that, there are gonna be people who are in hell that we could have pulled out of the fire. We could have made a difference. We could have been that person. And maybe they heard the gospel from somebody else, but if they would have heard it from us, they would have listened to us. Cause you know, there are certain people that won't listen to you, but they'll listen to me. And then there are certain people who won't listen to me, but they'll listen to you. You know, and we all need to be out there preaching the gospel in our own personal capacity, whatever God has planned for us, the gifts he's given us, the ability he's given us, the personality he's given us, works that only we can do. I don't believe that I'm expendable. I don't believe that you're expendable. I don't believe that any Christian is expendable. I think that we all have works that God has before Dane that we should walk in them. And in many cases, if we don't get it done, no one will. You say, well, why God will always get it. Oh, really? Then how can we stop for a man? And he found none. I sought for a man to make up the hedge and stand in the gap that I should not destroy them, but I found none and he destroyed them. So God seeks for a man and he finds none, it gets destroyed. Well, if that man would have stood up, things would have been different. We can make a difference. Don't buy into this Calvinist garbage. Oh, it's all gonna happen anyway. It's all whatever God's will. Oh, really? God's not willing that any should perish. God will have all men to be saved. Is that what happens? No. Hey, this is the will of God that you abstain from fornication. Does every Christian abstain from fornication? Well, it's God's will, it must automatically happen. Wrong. There's God's will, but we have free will ourselves. And if we choose to harden our heart, stiffen our neck, quit on God, get lazy, get sinful, get backslidden, then the work doesn't get done, and then God might get so fed up, he might send the car accident. He might send the catastrophe. And even in the worst situations, he might even just cut short your life prematurely. And you will be disappointed then when you get to heaven, all the things you could have done, all the things you could have had, all the blessings. So the point is that God's gonna hold Zedekiah more accountable than a Jehoiachin, because Zedekiah was older, right? Like David said, hey, you know, forgive me. He said, remember not the sins of my youth, Lord, right? Because you know, young people are foolish. And, but here's the thing, young people who grew up in this church have no excuse. Think about the kids that are growing up in Japan in a Christless culture. Think about the kids that are growing up in some Muslim country, praying to Allah, and you know, memorizing the Quran in a language they don't even understand. Think about the kids today that are growing up in the home of some atheist, or some Hindu, or Buddhist, and you're living in the home of a Christian family that takes you to Faithful Word Baptist Church, where you get a lot of Bible, lot of teaching, lot of doctrine. Oh, well, God will give me a second chance. Well, I sure hope so. I sure hope so. But you know what? God's not gonna give you as many chances as the people out there. He'll give them more chances. Because you're gonna be held accountable for every sermon that you've ever heard, every chapter of the Bible you've ever read. He said, well, I better read less. That, the thought of foolishness is sin. Man, I'm gonna switch to Sunday morning only. I didn't know I'm responsible for all this. Yeah, but here's the thing about it, though. Without this teaching, you'll screw up your life anyway. Plus, God will look down and say, well, the Bible was available to you. You should have been reading those chapters. You should have been attending those services. I mean, look, if you lay out on Sunday night and Wednesday night, you might miss key teachings that could have helped you in your life, or helped your family, or helped your teenager. You never know which sermon's gonna click with your teenager. You know what I'm saying? I mean, I just want my kids to hear all the preachers, and hear all the preaching. And, you know, at the camping trip, to hear four different preachers, and to be in church, and just, because you don't know when that Bible verse, or that truth is gonna resonate with them, that could be life-changing. You know, the more you get, the better. And so we need to understand that God deals with people on an individual basis. He doesn't treat everybody the same. One guy, he says, you're doomed. Your eyes are poked out. You're never gonna see again. You're gonna rot in jail. Another guy, he does his time, admittedly 37 years. Lot of time, best years of his life. But you know what? Would you rather die there, or would you rather be pulled out at age 55, and be set above all the other kings that have been conquered, and eat like a king, and be an important person for the rest of your life? Get a few verses in the Bible about your redemption, you know, and you're being pulled out of prison, and everything like that. So anyway, that's the choice right there of what kind of person you're gonna be. You know, are you gonna be a person who takes what you've learned, and you're prideful, you're stiff-necked, you just blow it off? Or are you gonna be a person who humbles himself, and listens to the Word of God? Because the Jehoiachin route is not an option for you. You're a Zedekiah. You can either be a righteous Zedekiah, who obeys Jeremiah, and does right, and lives for God, or you can be a wicked Zedekiah, and be doomed like Zedekiah. You say, well, we're going to heaven no matter what, we can't lose our salvation, amen. But you know what? I don't wanna have my eyes poked out, and be put in jail. Well, I'm going to heaven, praise the Lord. Yeah, but do I wanna go to jail with no eyesight for many years, and then die there? No, I don't. So there are a lot of punishments that could come upon us in this life, even though we know, thank God, that through Jesus Christ, we'll never see hell. We'll never be in hell. We'll never spend five seconds in hell. But our life on this earth can be damaged, beyond repair in many cases. When your eyes are poked out, they're not coming back. You know, I mean, it's just, you're doomed at that point, physically. Let's bow our heads and have a word of praise.