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Jeremiah, chapter 6, beginning in verse number 1, the Bible reads, O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Beth-Hacharim, for evil appearth out of the north, and great destruction. Now of course, in keeping with the theme of the book of Jeremiah and in the context of chapter 6 here, this book is predominantly a warning unto the children of Judah, unto the Jews living in the southern kingdom about the coming destruction where Babylon is going to come and invade and destroy them and take them captive. And so Jeremiah is of course preaching to these people that they would get right with God so that that would not happen. But he keeps telling them that judgment's coming and he's faced with a lot of false prophets who preach a lot of lies about how everything's going to be okay and God's not really upset and there's going to be peace in the land. And so Jeremiah is preaching a negative message that's not very popular. People want to hear that the king of Babylon's not going to come to Jerusalem. But Jeremiah just over and over again is sounding the trumpet warning that judgment's coming. And here he's saying to the children of Benjamin, flee out of Jerusalem because there's going to be an enemy coming from the north, referring to Babylon, that's going to come in and destroy. Now the reason he's talking to the children of Benjamin is because if you study the Bible, the geography of the city of Jerusalem is that it is right on the border basically of Benjamin and Judah. If you remember when God lined out the different inheritances for the children of Israel in the book of Joshua and he divided the tribes into different geographic areas, Jerusalem is basically right on the boundary between Benjamin and Judah. And that was a strategic place to put the capital to since David is the one who put it there. And although obviously it was the place that God had chosen, he uses human events to bring about his will. And if you remember, the tribe of Benjamin were the ones that were the least likely to want to accept David as their king because of the fact that he was of the tribe of Judah and their king was King Saul of the tribe of Benjamin. They kind of stuck with his descendants for a while even when the children of Judah were already following David. So the capital was sort of strategically located right there on the border of Benjamin and Judah. Sort of like in the United States, we have Washington DC right on the border between the north and the south basically to try to unite those two different factions. So it was the same type of thing in the land of Israel. That's why Jerusalem was located there. And if you remember, the southern kingdom of Judah was predominantly made up of three tribes. Judah, Benjamin, and Levi. The rest of the tribes were part of that northern kingdom which would be called Israel and later Samaria that had already been attacked by the Assyrians before this and decimated. So let's keep reading here. It says in verse 2, I've likened the daughter of Zion. And Zion is just a spiritual term for Jerusalem. It's synonymous with Jerusalem. I've likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman. The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her. They shall pitch their tents against her roundabout. They shall feed everyone in his place. Prepare ye war against her. Arise and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us for the day goeth away. For the shadows of the evening are stretched down. Arise and let us go by night and let us destroy her palaces. For thus that the Lord of hosts said, Hue ye down trees and cast a mount against Jerusalem. This is the city to be visited. She has holy oppression in the midst of her. So God likens her unto a comely, delicate woman. Not exactly the picture of a strong city that's ready to defend itself against the enemy, but rather just a sitting duck that's ready to be wiped out. And he's saying, hue down the cedars. Make great big battering rams. We're gonna destroy this city. It's gonna be wiped out. Why? Because the Bible said that she's going to be visited, verse six, because she has holy oppression in the midst of her, at the end of verse six there. When God talks about visiting or visitation, usually what he's talking about is coming and punishing someone because of the fact that they've done wrong. He's gonna visit. Sort of like where it says, the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation. Visited in the Bible or the visitation of the Lord has to do with God's wrath, God's judgment, God's punishment. And one of the sins that he's bringing up is oppression. He says, she is holy oppression in the midst of her. And if you remember a few chapters back, we talked about the fact that there was a lot of unrighteous gain going on. There was a class of rulers and a class of elites, priests, and also just governors and judges that were basically abusing their power and making a lot of money off of the poor people. That's what they mean by oppression. Sort of like we have going on in the United States today where we have members of the Congress and Senate that are virtually, all of them, millionaires. And it's all dishonest because their salary doesn't pay them millions. So you have to ask yourself, if your salary is X, then why do you have $20 million? Why do you have an, oh, they're just really smart with their investments. No, what they're doing is they're doing insider trading with their investments because insider trading is illegal for every person in the United States except members of Congress. And they have all kinds of inside information. So they play the stock market. They make money on the way up. They make money on the way down. And whenever one person is winning in the stock market, other people are losing. Other people's retirement fund is being raided by these people who are doing something dishonest. Look, insider trading is dishonest. The system is rigged in their favor and they pass laws like that because they can. And they make millions and millions of dollars in the process. So there's nothing new under the sun. The Christians are corrupt now and a lot of the leadership in the land of Judah was corrupt back then and there was a lot of oppression going on where people are being taxed heavily and they're taking money away from the poor people by charging them exorbitant rents and fees and usury and everything else, money lending and things of that nature. So let's keep reading. It says in verse seven, as a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness, violence and spoil is heard in her. Before me continually is grief and wounds. Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem. Let my soul depart from thee, lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited. Now what kind of violence do you think he's talking about there when he says violence and spoil is heard in her, before me continually is grief and wounds? Well obviously that has to do with just a basic robbery where someone would steal from someone else, rob someone else and take a spoil out of their house. That word spoil has to do with either conquering someone in battle and taking their stuff or if you think about Proverbs chapter one where they would basically rob houses that they marked out secretly in the daytime, I'm mixing a few proverbs, but he says we're going to get a lot of spoil by robbing people in Proverbs chapter one, use that word. So it's obviously just talking about crime, high crime. That's one thing. But another type of violence that we know was going on in the land of Judah at this time from other scripture is that there were people who were actually killing their own children, basically practicing infanticide. Today we have abortion, it's the same exact thing. It doesn't matter whether you kill it right before it's born or whether you kill it right after it's born, it's the same exact thing. And the Bible talks about how people at this time in the southern kingdom of Judah would make their children pass through the fire. They would basically burn their children. I mean can you imagine how sick you'd have to be, how evil you'd have to be to murder your own child, to actually give birth to a child and then cause it to pass through the fire onto Molech. You know they had a religious connotation to it, but all it was was infanticide, murder of children. And let me tell you something, this has gone on in all kinds of societies all over the world for time immemorial. All throughout the Bible we read about it, in history books you read about it, it took place in Polynesian culture and certain islands, it took place in ancient Greece and Athens and Sparta, it took place in Bible times, and it is taking place right now in the United States in the form of abortion. It's the same exact thing. There is nothing new under the sun, and it's always been murder, and it's murder right now, and anybody who participates in it is a murderer. It's that simple. You can try to sugarcoat it, oh well you know it's a terminating the pregnancy. No you're murdering your own child. You're murdering your baby. You're murdering an innocent life. Imagine if they found a single-celled organism on Mars, they would say we found life on Mars. If they found a single-celled organism on the moon, they'd say we found life on the moon, but you find a very complex organism inside of a mother that they would call a blastocyst or a fetus, and they'll say well that's not alive, but any of these people would say if it was alive it was found on Mars, or if it was found on the moon, because that's part of their atheistic cult of we must find life on other planets to prove that you know that there's no God and that the Bible's not true because the big bang spewed all these universes and there's got to be life somewhere else, you know, and we're going to go where no man has gone before, and we're going to find all this life and everything, you know, but when it comes to what's right in front of their face, they won't admit it because these scientists, you know, they have an agenda, and these liberals with their death worship and their pro, it's not pro-choice, it's pro-death, pro-murder, pro-murder. Any woman who is pro-choice, I'll declare her a whore. What's wrong with you, you whore? Why do you believe in murdering your own children? Why do you believe in other women murdering their own children? If you're not pro-life, you're probably a whore. And I'll just consider you a whore. If you believe that it's okay for women to murder their own child, you probably just want to sleep around with a bunch of dudes and make yourself filthy with your fornication, you filthy whore. And you know what, this is the language that the Bible uses. I'm only preaching exactly what the Bible teaches. Now the Bible says here, there's violence and spoil in her. He said, before me continually is grief and wounds. Be thou instructed, O America, lest my soul depart from thee, lest I make thee desolate a land not inhabited. See, we could just substitute America for Jerusalem because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He said, I'm the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. And so over and over again, we see the same pattern where a nation forgets God, a nation that was once godly turns away from the laws of God, a nation becomes filled with crime, filled with violence, filled with abortion and infanticide, and God's anger and wrath is kindled and he brings in the heathen hordes to punish them. It's a pattern that goes on over and over again in the Bible. But we think that we're special in America. American exceptionalism. No, God's not going to make an exception on this one. You shed innocent blood, you reap the whirlwind. That's what the Bible teaches. Let's keep reading. It says in verse nine, thus saith the Lord of hosts. And you say, oh, how dare you call them whores. Here's the thing, though. Every woman should be ashamed to open her mouth and say, I'm pro-choice. You know, I hope that no woman would ever have the guts to be a member of this church and make such a wicked statement. I hope that she would never even think that it's okay to be in this church and just spout off with that kind of garbage. Good night. I mean, what else? What are we going to condone next? I mean, Obama already said that that's fine. Remember the Born Alive Act? He voted against it. Where if they mess up the abortion and it's born alive, that they would have to give it medical care instead of just letting it languish and die a slow, painful death unattended. That's what happens today. And Obama, when he was a senator, he vetoed that. He said, no, let it die. Let it die slow. That's what he voted. That's our so-called president today in this country. Verse number nine, the Bible says, thus saith the Lord of hosts, they shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine. Turn back thine hand as a great gatherer into the baskets. To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Hey, I want to warn somebody. I want to preach the word of God tonight so that someone would repent and get right with God and live their life in a way that's honor and glorified in him so that he would basically bless them and not curse them. Hey, I'm looking for somebody to preach to. I'm looking for someone to give a warning to from God tonight. And that's what Jeremiah is saying. Who can I warn? Who can I talk to? Who's listening? But, he said, behold, their ear is uncircumcised that they cannot hearken. The word of the Lord is unto them a reproach. They have no delight in it. Now, what does it mean that the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach? You know what a reproach is? It's something that you're embarrassed about. That's what it is. A reproach is something that you're ashamed of, something that you're embarrassed about. It's something that you don't want people to bring up because it makes you look stupid. If you study the word reproach in the Bible, you'll see that that's what it means. What the Bible is saying here is that the word of God is something that the children of Judah are ashamed of at this time. It's an embarrassment to them. They, oh, don't talk about that. Don't talk about Jehovah God. Don't talk about the law of Moses. That's something that we're trying to distance ourselves from. It's a reproach unto them. They don't want to hear Bible preaching. They're ashamed of Bible preaching. They're ashamed to go to church. They're ashamed to be a Christian. And it's a sad thing when people in America today would be ashamed to be identified with the word of God or hard preaching. Isn't that terrible that people would be embarrassed? Oh, well, you know, I'm a Christian or, well, yeah, I'm a fundamental Baptist or, you know, yeah, I go to Faithful Word Baptist Church or, you know, yeah, I'm King James Bible preaching guy. You know, that shouldn't be something that we're embarrassed about. And you know what Jesus said, whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and my words. He said, well, I'd never be ashamed of Jesus. Yeah, but are you ashamed of his words? And by the way, that's all of it. Not just the red letters. All right. But you know, he said, whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this wicked and adulterous generation, it says of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed. When he comes with his Father, you know, in power and glory. Because if you think about it, it's the adulterers that ought to be ashamed. It's the wicked that ought to be ashamed. How sad when we're the ones that are embarrassed that we live a clean life. I mean, listen to me, young teenagers. Shame on you if you're embarrassed to tell your buddies, hey, I don't drink. There's no shame in not drinking. What? You don't drink? What are you, some kind of a nerdy little dweeb or something? You can't handle it? Listen, anybody can handle alcohol. It's not that cool, folks. Yeah, I can really, I can really hold my liquor, you know. That's not a, that's not a badge of honor. That's stupid. Yeah. I mean, every fool, every derelict, every ghetto welfare recipient who's never worked a day in their life knows how to drink. Every uneducated, illiterate buffoon can drink. I don't care if you're the weakest, skinniest dude who's never picked up a dumbbell in your life, you can drink. You can be an idiot. Anybody can. There's no, there's no might or strength required to, I mean, look, all you gotta do is be able to lift 12 ounces. You know what I mean? It's not, you know, if you can lift 12 fluid ounces, you can be an idiot tonight. And there's no glory in that. There's no shame in that. You know who ought to be embarrassed are the drunks of this world, the winos of this world, the beer pong, you know, experts of this world. They ought to be embarrassed and God's people ought to be proud to say, of course I don't drink. Amen. Because wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging and whosoever deceive thereby is not wise. Go ahead and drink your bud dumber, but you know, I'm smarter than that. There's no shame in being godly. And by the way, young man, young lady, there's no shame in being a virgin if you're not married. You know what? That's actually something that you ought to be proud of. And the one who ought to be ashamed is the one who has been a whoremonger or a whore. That's what the Bible teaches. We ought not be ashamed. It's a sad day when the word of the Lord is a reproach in America, where it's an embarrassment or people are trying to hide it or not willing to stand tall for what they believe. You know what? There are lots of people who believe just like we do. And there are lots of pastors who believe just like I do. And you say, no, that's not true. Yes, it is true. There are lots of pastors who believe just like I do. But the sad thing is, some of what they believe is a reproach unto them. So they don't want to talk about it as much as I want to talk about it or as loud as I want to talk about it. But the bottom line is though, there are plenty of people, see the devil, he wants to always get us to feel like we're by ourself. Sort of like Elijah, where Elijah said, man, I'm the only one. And God says, no, you're not the only one. There are 7,000 men who haven't bowed the knee to Baal. No, you're not the only one. There are other people out there who are still standing true. But the devil wants us to feel like we're all alone. As a pastor where we feel like, oh, I'm the only one, or as a church member where you feel like, man, we're the only ones or I'm the only one, it's not true. You know what? A lot of people agree with us on a lot of things, way more than you think. It's just that a lot of people aren't willing to speak up. And honestly, you know, this whole issue of the homos, and I'm going to do a whole sermon on it this Sunday night. You know, I'm doing a whole sermon on it because the homo parade is coming to town this Sunday. So I'm doing a sermon about it on Sunday night. But you know what? On the issue of the homos, look, more than half the people in this country, I promise you think that it's disgusting. I promise you that. I don't have any doubt about it. I have no doubt about that. But yet, if you say it's disgusting, it's woo! But honestly, virtually everybody that you meet agrees with you. I mean, you know, you look at the poll that was done. It was either the Washington Post or the New York Times where they stated how many sodomites there are in the United States. They did a poll of who is straight and who is crooked, you know, who is straight and who is a sodomite, queer, homo. They separated it out into those who are bi and those who are homo. But honestly, it's all the same. They all go both ways. The Bible says if a man also lie with mankind as he lies with a woman, they've committed abomination. So they said it was 2.3% of the U.S. population. This was a major poll by the Washington Post, I believe. But they said, and it was recent, it was in the last couple years, they said 2.3%. You know what that means? That means that more than 95% of people in this country are not a sodomite. Now if you watch TV, you'd think it's like 20%, 10%, 30%. I mean, I went to community college and I quote that statistic and they said, oh, there's no way. It's like 10 or 20%, they said, when I was at the community college. I'm like, no, this is the study, you know, and I cited the exact study. And they said, what, do you live in a bubble, man? Did you ever go outside much? Because he just thinks homos are everywhere. That's because you're on a college campus. That's because you're hanging out at bars and stuff. You're hanging out in weird places. Because honestly, who here, well, I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands because I already know the answer, but let me just ask you to think about this, okay? Those of you who go soul winning, which is more than half of the people here, praise God. Those of you who go soul winning, who go door knocking, how often do you knock on the door of a sodomite? Is it all the time or is it pretty rare? Pretty rare, yeah. You know, Matt says one in 50, I'd say it's less than that. But you know, even, you know, it's at least, it's one in 50 or less. But okay, now ask yourself this question. How often do you knock on the door of someone who claims to be a Christian? It's like 80% of the doors. Okay, how many times do you knock on the door of someone who's actually saved? I mean, a lot. Way more than you'd run into a sodomite. I mean, virtually every time I go soul winning, usually I run into one person who's already saved. You know what? That just tells me that there's way more of us than there are of them. But we're all scared. You know, and they march up and down the street with their pride parade, and then we have like a reproach parade where we're all just kind of like. It's backwards, isn't it? But look what the Bible says. The word Lord at the end of verse 10, is unto them a reproach, they have no delight in it. You know, God doesn't, not only does he want us to not consider his word a shame or a reproach, he wants us to like it. He wants us to delight in it. And not only just to delight in that which is positive, but to delight in the warning. Delight in hard preaching. Delight in all parts of scripture and all preaching of scripture that's biblical. We should delight in all of it. It says in verse 11, therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord. I wonder how many preachers today would make that statement. We need some preachers to get behind their pulpit this Sunday and say, I'm full of the fury of the Lord. I mean this country would be a different place. Think about that. I'm full of the fury of the Lord. I'm sick of holding it in. Right? He said, I'm weary with holding in. Sick of it. I'm going to pour it out upon the children abroad and upon the assembly of young men together. These bunch of young people that think they need some special service in another building where it's all going to be contemporary and watered down and liberal and made for teenagers. No, I'm ready to pour out the fury of the Lord and hard preaching on the youth of our church. They all need to hear it. This young generation needs it more than anybody. For even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days. That's part of the warning about what's going to happen. Their houses shall be turned unto others and their fields and wives together. For I'll stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, sayeth the Lord. Again, just warning about the judgment that's coming and how Babylon's coming to destroy. Verse 13, for from the least of them, even unto the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness. One of the great problems with Judah at this time was the love of money, the love of possessions. That's what covetousness is usually referring to because the word covetousness means desiring that which does not belong to you. That often refers to money and possessions. It can also refer to, of course, coveting thy neighbor's wife. That's another issue that comes up with covetousness. When he talks about everybody least to greatest being afflicted with covetousness, I believe he's talking about the love of money here. Just materialism. And isn't that indicative of the country that we live in today where there's a lot of covetousness where people are really excited, not about church, not about the things of God necessarily, but they're very excited about a new car, a new house, making money. It's amazing how people have moved across the country just to come to our church. They've moved their whole family across the country just because we want to attend Faith for Baptist Church. And people think they're crazy. People think like, whoa, you did that? But here's the thing. They wouldn't even bat an eye if you said, I'm moving across the country for a job opportunity because they're just paying that much. And I mean, okay, well, how much are you getting paid? And if you named a high enough number, any member of your family would just be like, oh, just go for it. I mean, if you went high enough with it, right? I mean, they're going to pay me $250,000 a year at that job in Phoenix. Well, you'd be a fool to pass that up. I mean, go for it. I mean, what's holding you here? Just go, just do it. But then you say, oh, I'm moving for church. It's like, what are you doing? Are you in a cult? What are you doing? Are you nuts? Because it just shows you where people's priority is and where their heart is. Covetousness is a language they can understand. You start talking about soul winning and preaching and what? They glaze over at that. From the least of them, even under the grace of them, everyone's given to covetousness. And from the prophet, even under the priest, everyone dealeth falsely. So not only were the people the problem, but the religious leaders, the prophets, which are the preachers, and then the priests, which are the Levitical priesthood, they're all dealing falsely. They're all a bunch of liars and cheats and frauds, et cetera. And the Bible says this, if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? You know, when the spiritual leaders are dealing falsely, think about what the common man's going to do when the pastor isn't even close to being on track. You know, it's a sad state of affairs. The Bible says in verse 14, of the prophets and priests, they have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying peace, peace, when there is no peace. Now slightly there means that they're doing it deceitfully. By slight means by craft or, you know, you think of Ephesians 4 where it talks about how the cunning craftiness whereby false teachers lay in wait to deceive. And it says with their slight of hand. Slight of hand tricks. Have you ever heard of that? That's where a magician will, you know, see, remove my thumb from my hand right here. You know, so slight of hand, I know that wasn't very impressive. But you know, there are a few toddlers who I had going there for a minute. But slight of hand, slightly, it means they're doing it deceptively. Now they've healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying peace, peace, when there is no peace. It'd be sort of like this. You went to the doctor and he heals you by just telling you, you're fine. You're cured. Yeah, I just need $300. But yeah, you're fine. You're totally cured. Yeah, just go ahead and sign the pin pad there. All right, see you later. Have a good day. And it's, you know, turned out you're filled with disease, but he just gives you a clean bill of health to make you feel good. That's what the pastors were doing at that time. Basically telling people that everything's fine when they're sick, when they're dying. And they're saying peace, peace. Basically they're saying God's not mad at you when he is mad at you. They're telling you you're saved when you're not saved. They're telling you that you're right with God when you're not right with God. They're telling you that God approves of your lifestyle when he doesn't approve of your lifestyle. That's what they're doing. And we have an epidemic of this today in the United States also. Positive preaching. And look, I'm all for positive preaching. But it needs to be balanced with negative preaching. I think preaching should be about two-thirds negative and one-third positive. That's pretty much how the Bible is. If you read the Bible, that's about how it shakes down. Now when I'm out soul winning, when I'm out soul winning, it's like 90% positive, 10% negative. Even the good news, the gospel. So I cover the part about them being a sinner in hell, but then 90% of the message is a really positive message about the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, salvation by faith, eternal security of the believer. That's a real positive message. But God's people need a diet of preaching from the word of God that comes from the whole Bible. And if you study the Bible, you'll find that there's a lot of negative preaching in the Bible, more so than positive preaching. But the false preacher is easy to identify because he always preaches a positive message all the time. Why? Because he basically just wants people to like him. And being positive is going to make you liked of a lot of people. Whereas the real preacher decides what God wants him to preach. And if it's positive, if it's negative, he's going to preach the whole book. I mean, this is what I love about Wednesday nights. Because on Sundays I choose topical sermons. You know, so on Sunday morning, I did the sermon about the resurrection, unto us which are saved. You know, and I just picked that topic. And this coming Sunday I've got some topics picked out and in mind. And you know, what you end up doing as a preacher on Sundays when you pick sermons like that, you end up preaching more often on things that you like and portions of scripture that you like than on the ones that you are not as familiar with or don't care for as much. So on Sundays I pick topics and obviously there are certain things that I like to preach about more than others. I'm probably going to end up focusing more on those things than, you know, I try to be balanced, of course, but you're not going to end up being totally balanced. There are going to be certain favorite scriptures that keep coming out and there's going to be a little bit imbalance toward what you like to talk about. That's just being human. But on Wednesdays we go chapter by chapter through a book of the Bible. Now this forces you to preach on everything in the Bible. That's why I like it, because it forces me to preach on things that I would never preach on. I've often preached on a Wednesday night and thought to myself, I never would have preached on this chapter. I never would have chosen this chapter, now I'm not saying this chapter, because this chapter is a really popular chapter for preaching. But I'm saying there are other times when I come across a chapter and I think to myself, you know, if I were just picking a sermon, I never would have preached on this chapter. This is the last place I would have turned. But I'm glad that I did, because God wants me to preach the whole Bible. And when you get in a book like Jeremiah, you buckle up, because we're going to be in Jeremiah for one year, because Jeremiah is 52 chapters, and we're doing one chapter a week. So it's a year of preaching, and buckle up, because it's pretty negative. It's one of the most negative books in the Bible. So don't... Oh, you're being so negative. No, it's not me. It's the Bible. It's Jeremiah. It's the Word of God that's negative. And you know what? I remember there was a period in the book of Isaiah, when I was preaching through the book of Isaiah. There were several months of doom and gloom on Wednesday, you know, so that on Sunday I'm trying to do more positive, uplifting sermons, kind of balance it out, you know. But I'm telling you, when you preach through the Bible verse by verse, how about this? When you actually read the Bible, you expect negative preaching, because you've been reading your Bible. I mean, think about it. If you read your Bible this morning, chances are you probably read some hard preaching or something negative, if you're reading the whole Bible. So people who are just like, whoa, when they hear hard preaching, it just shows they don't read the Bible, or they're really shocked by negative sermons, it's just because they're not reading. Because if you're doing the reading, you're getting kicked in the pants every morning when you read your Bible, so you're used to it. But anyway, it says, they've healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they'd committed abomination? No, they paraded up and down the street about it. Were they ashamed at all when they committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore shall they fall among them that fall at the time that I visit them, again that word comes up, time I visit them, they shall be cast down, sayeth the Lord. Now here's one of the most famous verses in the whole Bible, if you're a fundamental Baptist. Fundamental Baptists love this verse, all right? It says, thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk therein. In fact, a friend of ours, Brother Manley Perry, is starting a church in San Antonio, Texas in one month, and it's going to be called Old Path Baptist Church. And that's actually a pretty popular name for churches, because of the fact that this verse is such a powerful verse, where God says, stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein. Now why is the old path the good way? Why isn't the new path the good way? Here's why, because the Bible's old, right? The Bible's old, there's nothing new about the Bible. Even the New Testament is 2,000 years old, so there's nothing new about this book. Even the translation that we have in English isn't new, it's from 1611, it's over 400 years old. So the reason that the old path is the good path is because the old path is a biblical path. Anything that's brand new isn't the biblical way, because if it were the biblical way, it would have been around already in some manifestation. Now obviously, you know, the biblical way manifests itself differently in each generation. You know, we're told go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. We're told to be in the highways, and in the hedges, and from house to house. But that looks a little different in 2016 than it did 200 years ago, because now we have cars, and we have airplanes, you know, they can get us a little further so that we can get a little bit more done more efficiently, but in principle we're doing the same thing. You know, we're knocking doors, we're preaching the gospel, we're walking down the street finding every unsafe person we can, and presenting the gospel to them. You know, it might go from knocking a door to ringing a doorbell, or buzzing an intercom, but it's the same principle of just going to the lost, going to their homes, going up and down the street, and just finding people wherever they are, and giving them the gospel. There's nothing new under the sun, and so the old paths are still right. We don't need to be changing with the times in the sense of forsaking biblical doctrine for that which is new and trendy. And people sit there and say that, well, you gotta change on this homo thing, or you have to change on the roles of men and women, because our society has evolved to the point now where men and women have the same exact roles, and there's a gender equality now, and all this. But here's the thing, I'm not going to evolve. I'm stuck. And if that means going extinct, so be it. I'm not going to the next stage of evolution. I'm going to remain homo sapiens. But the point is here that they say, well, we're evolving, but we're going backwards. That's not called evolution, that'd be devolution. Going to the devil is what we're doing. It's devolution. Going backwards. See, it's not evolving to say, oh, now we accept a lifestyle that fills people with disease. You know, that's going backwards. Hey, now we have this great lifestyle that we're embracing. Only one catch, you're 50 times more likely to get AIDS if you do it. But other than that, it's great. Oh, by the way, it's completely filthy and perverted, too, and you're going to be filled with disease. And by the way, your rates of domestic violence are going to go through the roof, and your rates of murder, and your rates of abuse and pedophilia are going to go through the roof. But it's all part of progress. Revolving. No, you're going backwards. That's not evolution. Oh, but we're getting smarter. No, we're getting dumber. As a country, we're becoming more foolish, more uneducated. You see, the King James Bible is written in the language of the common man. It really is. I mean, if you want to know what the educated elite spoke like, then get some elite literature from the 17th century. You know, the King James Bible is written right around the time of Shakespeare, right? But you know what? I guarantee you that the King James Bible is a lot easier to understand for you than Shakespeare. But even beyond, but even Shakespeare is a popular entertainer who's trying to entertain the common man on some level. You know, you could go back and read writings of non-fiction, get yourself some non-fiction from the 17th century, and then tell me how hard the King James Bible is to understand. The bottom line is that the King James Bible is written in the language of the common man at that time. And the Bible itself in its original language, the New Testament, you've heard a million times probably that it's written in Koine Greek. You know what Koine means? Common. That which is common or profane, that which the common average person speaks, that's the language that it is written in. But you say, well no, Pastor Anderson, it's written in a very formal language. No, it's just that we've become so dumb that reading normal language sounds fancy to us. It sounds really just sophisticated when in reality it's really simple. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. Even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. Isn't the Bible just really hard to understand? I mean, it's just so high and lofty in its language. No, it's just that we have degenerated to a texting language where we just can't understand. And here's what's interesting. Language is constantly moving backwards. Any language, pick your language in this world today. If you go back in time, it was more complicated in the past, and it's simpler now. And if you ever study ancient languages from two, three, four thousand years ago, you will find that they were much more complex than the language that we speak. Why is that? Because people are getting so much smarter, you know? It's because people are getting dumbed down. That's why old English is more complicated than middle English, and middle English is more complicated than modern English, and modern English is more complicated than contemporary English. And pick your language. You look at Spanish. The farther you go back in Spanish, the more complicated it is. Farther you go back in Greek, the more complicated it is. The newer, the simpler, the more dumbed down. Why? Because we are going backwards as a society. But if we get on the old paths, we can get back on the right track. See, we're not doomed. I'm not up here saying, we're all doomed. We're dumb, doomed, and deemed unfit to read the Bible. We basically have an opportunity to ditch modernism, and I'm not saying ditch technology. I like using technology to spread the gospel. But why don't we ditch the Rick Warren, Bill Hybels-styled Christianity, the modernistic, rock and roll Christianity, where we get a 20-minute sermonette, you know, with hardly any meat even on the bone, and it's all music, and it's all a worship experience or whatever. You know, why don't we ditch that and get on the old paths? Why don't we get on old-fashioned preaching, an old-fashioned King James Bible? You say, why do you sing the old hymns? Well, one of the reasons is because the new music's just too shallow. And so we need to seek the old paths where is the good way. Now he's not saying just pick the old paths because they're old. No, no, no. Only where in is the good way, because there's some old junk too, because the devil goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. So you can find all the devil's garbage in the past also. So don't just say, well, older is always better, because it's not always better. But we do need to seek the old paths where in is the good way, you know, with that qualifier there. So the Bible says here that, but they didn't want it. He said, they said we will not walk therein, verse 17. And by the way, we will not walk therein means we don't want to walk therein in the King James language. That's so hard to understand. It says in verse 17, also I set watchmen over you saying, harken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, we will not harken. Therefore hear ye nations and know, O congregation, what is among them? Hear O earth, behold I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not harkened to my words nor to my law, but rejected it. That's interesting because he's calling out to the rest of the world. He's preaching to the Gentiles there. He's preaching to everybody in the world saying, hey everybody, see these people right here? These people are blowing it. These people are disobeying God and I'm going to punish them. Take a lesson from what I'm doing to Israel. To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba and the sweet cane from a far country? Think of sugar cane, right? That's a mention of it in the Bible. Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifice is sweet unto me. Therefore thus saith the Lord, behold I will lay stumbling blocks before this people and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them. The neighbor and his friends shall perish. Thus saith the Lord, behold a people coming from the north country and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth. They shall lay hold on bow and spear. They are cruel and have no mercy. Their voice warth like the sea and they ride upon horses set in array as men for war against thee, oh daughter of Zion. You know, I hate to even bring this up, but I just had, it's just funny. You know these flat earthers and they like to take this like super duper literal interpretation of verses to the point where they just make zero sense with their ridiculous thing. You know, how about people coming from the sides of the earth? If it's flat, then how could it have sides? Boom! Anyway, that was for free tonight. But anyway, yes the earth is a sphere, right? Can I get an amen on the earth being a globe? All right. But anyway, it's bizarre. Again, you say, what's that got to do with the price of tea in China? Well, we're talking about people being dumbed down. That's a prime example. But let's keep reading. He said in verse 25, go not forth into the field nor walk by the way for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side. Oh daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth and wallow thyself in ashes. Make thee mourning as for an only son. Most bitter lamentation. For the spoils shall suddenly come upon us. I've set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people that thou mayest know and try their way. That's a great verse right there. I've set thee for a tower and a fortress. I mean that's what we ought to be. We ought to be a tower tonight. We ought to be a fortress. We ought to be a bastion of the truth. We ought to be one that's standing tall and watching out for others and warning others. Think about what a tower is for. For seeing the danger and warning people about it, right? And it's also a place that you go to for a refuge. The Bible says the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it and it's safe. And so the Bible is saying here, you know, I've set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people. We need to be a stronghold of truth. We need to be a stronghold of the old paths that thou mayest know and try their way. They're all grievous revolters walking with slanders. They're brass and iron. They're all corruptors. The bellows are burned. The lead is consumed of the fire. The founder melteth in vain for the wicked are not plucked away. Reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them. So what we get here is a picture of someone working with metals. And they're trying to purify those metals. And by doing so, they're hoping to get that which is pure, pure silver in the end. So what they're doing is they're getting it very hot and they want to separate the silver from the dross. They want to get rid of the metals that are not as precious so that they can have a pure silver. It's interesting that there's a lot of copper that's mined in Arizona. In fact, copper is one of the five C's of Arizona, right? Copper, cotton, climate, cattle, no, John, help me out. It's not cactus, it's citrus, citrus, cattle, cotton, copper, climate. These are the resources, the natural resources of Arizona. So copper is a big one. So I've actually toured a copper mine in Arizona as a field trip with the children. And it was really interesting. But what's interesting about it is that they mine the copper and right there they refine it to 90% purity, okay? Then they send it to somewhere else where it gets refined to 99% purity. Then it goes to a third location to become 99.9. It takes a whole step and a whole facility to go from 99 to 99.9. That's the hardest part. So it goes from 90 over here, 99 over here, 99.9 here. Sadly, a lot of the copper mines are closing in Arizona just because the government regulations and the taxation and the rule, they can't compete anymore. So people are buying their copper from somewhere else where we don't have the government that we have here. So copper is being refined and melted. And you want it to be as pure as possible so you can make whatever you want to make with it, electrical wires or they probably use the really dirty stuff for the pennies. They don't seem very pure. But whatever the application, copper can sometimes be used on rooftops and all manner of sculptures and all manner of uses, electrical wiring being one of the big ones in our homes. But you have to get rid of all this other stuff. You have to get rid of all this junk and it's done by melting. You get it really hot and then you can separate out the components. And so he's talking about the bellows there with the... Think of the word billows. What are billows? See, the Bible is not really that hard to understand because you know what billows are, right? No, you don't. Okay. You know in the hymns like, there are a lot of hymns about the billows. What's the song where the billows roll? Like the sea billows roll, sits Jesus came into my heart. What else? What's another billow song? Okay, sing that part for me. What part? I don't remember that. It's hard to jump into a song in the middle. I could sing the whole hit as well, but I'm trying... Yeah. When sorrows like sea billows roll. Okay. So billows is a similar word to bellows. You know, it's a similar word there, you know. And okay, let's just get off that. Let's just... I don't want to... Do a little research on the word billows and bellows, but anyway, the point is here that, you know, they use air and wind to get the fire really hot. And they want to get it really, really hot so that they can separate out these metals. And basically what the Bible is saying here is that the bellows are burned, the lead is consumed to the fire, the founder melteth in vain for the wicked are not plucked away. So what we see here is a picture of a guy who's a founder, who's working in a foundry, who's trying to purify metal and he's failing to do so. Does everybody kind of see that? It's not working. He can't get the junk out. He's trying to get it hotter and hotter. His equipment is failing and the metal is still not pure. Does everybody get the picture here? He says here, because the wicked are not plucked away, he can't get the junk out. See in verse 28, he says they're all grievous revolters. Okay, basically no matter what God does to these people, he can't fix them. You know, he's trying to purify them, he's trying to work with them, he's turning up the heat in their life and he's trying to purify them and it's just not working. So then he says in verse 30, reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them. So the picture here is, you know, you're working with a batch of metal and you're working with it and you're working with it and you're working with it and you just can't fix it. You just can't make anything usable out of it. You just can't get the junk out of it. So finally you decide, you know what, I'm just going to have to throw it in the trash and start with another batch. This batch is unsalvageable. Does everybody understand? It can't be salvaged. I mean, you know, I'm working with it and it just, it's not working. Therefore it can't be salvaged. Now God is explaining in the scripture that there are people like that. And he's saying these people are reprobate. Now this is the first time the word reprobate's ever used in the Bible. And reprobate is a word that we're not too familiar with in our vernacular in 2016. It's just not a word that we use. And it's not a word that's used a lot in the Bible. And when there are words that are only used a little bit in the Bible and when we're not really familiar with them in our everyday speech, I found that God often does us the great favor of giving us the definition of that word the first time it's mentioned. So whenever you want to know what a word means, sometimes going to the first time it's mentioned in the Bible will give you a definition right there built in. And here we have the definition of reprobate. The word reprobate means rejected. That's what it means. So it says reprobate silver shall men call them. Well why would you call them reprobate? Why would you call them reprobate? Because the Lord has rejected them. Which is why they're called reprobate, okay? Reprobate is that which has been rejected. You know you can even see in the etymology of the word why it would mean that. Because if you think about probate or probation, it's like a testing that's happening. It's that which has been tested repeatedly and has been finally given up on or rejected. Now this word is key because it's found throughout the New Testament. And I believe that the definition of this word is consistent every time it's used in the Bible. I don't think that any of the mentions in the Bible are aberrations where this word means something totally different. You know it's clear that the word reprobate has one meaning, rejected, reject. You could just call it a reject. Now it's one thing to be rejected of man. You know let's say you ask a girl out on a date and she tells you that she's washing her hair. You know it's one thing to be rejected of a person or being rejected. Maybe you go out soul winning and you say hey I'd like to present the gospel to you and you're rejected. When you're rejected of people it's not a big deal is it? You shake it off, you move on to the next girl, the next door, the next whatever. But when you're rejected of the Lord, I mean game over at that point. I mean where do you turn? I mean when my father and mother forsake me then the Lord will take me up. But when the Lord forsakes you, when the Lord rejects you, you're doomed. Now here's the good thing, those of us who are saved, he'll never leave us nor forsake us. He hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake. Can anything separate us from the love of God? No. But the Bible's real clear in that passage he's talking to the saved. In Romans 8 he's talking to the saved when he says nothing can separate us from the love of God. See it's the unsaved that are in danger of becoming reprobate. Now most unsaved people aren't reprobate. The vast majority of unsaved people are not reprobate. God keeps giving them another chance and giving them another chance and they keep hearing the Gospel and they go through life and God loves them and wants to be saved. But there's a type of person that the Bible teaches where they don't want to retain God in their knowledge. They hate the Lord and the Bible says therefore God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. So in the verse that I would consider the key reprobate verse in the New Testament, Romans 1 where he talks about the reprobate, three times in Romans 1 he says this phrase, God gave them up, God gave them over, God gave them up. So you get that idea of being rejected of the Lord which is consistent with Jeremiah 6.30. And so the moral of the story is that we need to go out and reach people with the Gospel while they can be saved because, and again, it's only a minority but some will reach a point where it's too late for them. Now when people die it's too late. But there can be a time before people die where it becomes too late for that person, biblically, where they become reprobate. And this is where there are a lot of discussions of how a person gets to that point. I think some key areas that we see in the Bible of how a person gets to that point, first of all, someone who would add to or subtract from God's word reaches that point according to the Bible. Also during the time of the tribulation a person who takes the mark of the beast will get to that point because the Bible talks about once they receive the mark of the beast they're done. Another way that a person could get to that point is through the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit where they would get to that point. So you know, don't shy away from that doctrine, that's a biblical doctrine. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father we thank you so much for Jeremiah chapter 6, Lord, and I pray that there are people here who have an ear to hear. And not only is hard preaching and warnings from your word, not only is that type of preaching not a reproach unto them, but they actually delight in it, Lord. May that ever be said of our church and of us as individuals. And help us to heed the warnings tonight, Lord, for your people to follow your commandments, Lord. I pray that if there's any unsaved, I pray that they would heed the warning that it's possible for them to become reprobate if they just continue to reject the Lord and his word. And so we thank you, Lord, for our church. Bless us as we go our separate ways and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.