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But look at verse number eight there, Jeremiah 21, verse number eight. It says, And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord, behold, I set before you the way of life. The title for the sermon this evening is The Way of Life. So what we're going to see when we get to verse number eight is that God is offering them the way of life or the way of death. God is presenting an option. God has given the people what do you want? Do you want to live or do you want to die? And you know what? This is something that we're all confronted with in our lives. We're all confronted with this question and we're going to be looking at what kind of truths that we can get out of this. If you'll pay attention there in this chapter, it's not a very good chapter for the Jews. Not a very good chapter at all. Let's pick it up there in verse number one. It says, The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent unto him, Pasha the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maasiah the priest, Sain. Now you may think that this Pasha that is coming to Jeremiah that King Zedekiah is sending, you may think it's the same Pasha from the previous chapter. You may remember that there was a Pasha that smelt Jeremiah on his face, you know, and put him into stocks and made him a public reproach. It's not the same guy. You know, I remember I used to read this as a kid and I thought, oh man, you know, finally this guy, you know, I thought it was the same guy, you know, until you pay attention you can see that this Pasha it says here is Pasha the son of Melchiah, and if you just go in the previous chapter, Jeremiah chapter 20 verse number one, it says now Pasha the son of Imah the priest. So you can see that the fathers are different. So it's a different Pasha that's coming to Jeremiah, but just very quickly, you may recall that Jeremiah 20 ended in a very dark place for Jeremiah. He was very distraught. He was very heartbroken. You know, he wished that he was never born, you may remember that, okay, and what I like about Jeremiah 21 is now, you know, he got to this place of sadness and just cast down, but now the king of Judah is sending his people to go and ask Jeremiah, Jeremiah, what is the Lord saying? I mean, all this time, right, from Jeremiah chapter one to Jeremiah chapter 20, they're ignoring Jeremiah, they're mocking Jeremiah, Jeremiah, you're crazy, you're insane, you're an idiot, you're not preaching God's word the way you ought to, but we come to Jeremiah 21 and now the king wants to know, go to Jeremiah, ask him what's going on, what does the Lord have to say? And so, you know, never give up, you know, as people that stand on the word of God, never give up on the word of God, you know, if you're a preacher, never give up preaching God's word even though you may face some difficulties, you know, there will come times when your own enemies will turn around and say, I need to hear what you have to say, I realize that you are a true man of God, I realize you are a preacher that's preaching the truth, I need to start paying attention instead of mocking what you have to say, those situations will turn around on you, you know, I've had situations where, you know, it's no secret that as a church we believe in a post-tribulation pre-Raph rapture and I had people mock me, I had people laugh at me, I had people, you know, think that I'm insane for believing such things. Many of those same people now believe in a post-trib pre-Raph rapture, okay, many of those people realize, oh man, what was being said by Kevin at that time was true, they've gone back, they look at God's word and say, well, this lines up with what God was saying and so you're going to see situations like this, it's a great thing when those that laugh at you actually now, you know, change, they realize, man, you are speaking God's truth and I need to hear what you have to say. Verse number 2, inquire I pray thee of the Lord for us, they go to Jeremiah, Jeremiah tell us what does God have to say, for Nebuchadreza king of Babylon maketh war against us, if so be that the Lord will deal with us accordingly with all his wondrous works that he may go up from us, so you can see here that king Nebuchadreza has already started his war against Judah, he's already started the war, okay, and I'm going to give you a bit of a historical context here, so we know it's king Zedekiah, okay, we know king Zedekiah knows that Jeremiah is a true prophet of God, right, so let's learn who king Zedekiah is, keep your finger there and go to 2 Kings for me, go to 2 Kings 24, 2 Kings 24 because I want to show you that God's judgment has already started to fall, it's already fallen, okay, and this is why now they realise what Jeremiah was saying is true, you know all the other prophets of the land were saying no it's going to be just fine, we're going to be at peace, it's all good, God's not going to judge us and now you see the Babylonians are coming, they are making war, they are causing havoc for the people of Judah, you're turning to 2 Kings 24, look at verse number 1, 2 Kings 24 verse number 1, it says in his days Nebuchadreza king of Babylon came up and Jehoiakim became his servant 3 years, then he turned and rebelled against him, so you can see here that king Jehoiakim is the one that's ruling, not Zedekiah yet, Jehoiakim is ruling in Judah during this time and you can see the king of Babylon has already come, okay, and now this king, king Jehoiakim is servant to king Nebuchadreza for 3 years, so king Nebuchadreza is slowly grabbing power from Judah, this was a long drawn process, this wasn't some 6 month war or something like this, he came, he showed power, he tried to take over Judah but he left the king there, if you as a king will serve me, fine you can continue serving me but you're under my authority is what's happening right, Judah's already under the authority of the Babylonians here, but you can see here 3 years later the king Jehoiakim rebels, he goes enough, I'm tired of having this power over me, I'm sick and tired of this foreign power, you know here shouldn't be a place, I'm the king of Judah and so he rebels, well you know you may think that's a good thing to do, right, I mean because king Nebuchadreza is a wicked king, Babylon is a wicked empire, it's a wicked power, it might seem logical let's rebel and fight against them but what happens in verse number 2, it says and the Lord sent against him, that's against king Jehoiakim, bands of the Chaldees and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the children of Ammon, listen none of these nations, none of these people are good people, ok, and sent them against Judah to destroy it according to the word of the Lord which is spake by his servants the prophets, of course Jeremiah being one of those prophets that's telling them, right, so you can see here that Babylon is truly an empire, it's truly a world power that it has the Chaldeans, the Syrians, the Moabites, the children of Ammon all under their authority, right, and they've got their own armies and you know Nebuchadnezzar is using these armies to go up against Judah because they rebelled against him but notice verse number 2, and the Lord sent against him, the Lord is allowing this to happen, the Lord is giving Nebuchadnezzar the power to be a hostile, to bring forth this hostile takeover, it's part of God's judgment, now the reason I bring this up is because I want to show you there that this truly is a world power, you have multiple nations right, under the authority of one man and you know when we look at Australia today, when we look at the world today, we look at the situation we're in, you know I'm kind of sick and tired of talking about it but you know I keep saying this but I've got to bring it up right, with COVID and all this and you notice that every nation, just about every nation you know is in compliance with what to do, like as soon as this disease or this virus, whatever you want to call it right, has come into play, basically you know the nation of Australia, the United States, many, a lot of European nations, they've all done the same thing, the restrictions, the lockdowns, the masks, now all these nations are trying to roll out the vaccines, why is it that every nation just seems to be doing the same thing, I mean if every nation was truly sovereign, don't you think different nations would come up with different ideas, of how to handle this, why is it that everybody's doing the same thing, because it's an empire okay, it's not as obvious as a Babylonian empire but there's a hidden empire, there are powers that are dictating to you know our politicians, to those that are in power over nations with how to deal with this current situation, you know the entire world is doing the same thing but you know there are some rare countries that are doing kind of different things right, I don't know if you've heard of Sweden, Sweden have basically said you know what we're not going to have any restrictions, we're going to allow COVID-19 to just run rampant in our nation and sure there was a surge but now they're saying, I think toward the end of last year they're saying that the people have a natural herd immunity against COVID because they just allowed it to go through the nation and just allowed people to fight it, you know just the God-given immune system that we have to allow that to fight, yes they lost people, they lost lives but hey that's one nation that did things a little differently, another nation that is doing things a little bit differently but not so much but one person that I see rebelling is the Brazilian president, I don't know if you've paid attention to the Brazilian president okay, even though apparently there's many people in his nation that are losing their lives over this but he's saying like he's really contrary to what's going on, like he speaks out against all these restrictions and things like that, I don't know how long he's going to stay in power, you know people that rebel like King Jehoi came here, they don't rebel for very long when you've got this power over the nations all right and so you know again when we go to Jeremiah you know I believe the Lord's put this in my heart because there are a lot of similarities, there's a lot of similarities in the world that we live in right now okay, now as I said there's a united front you know to bring in these strict measures and we see this united front from people that are natural enemies, the Syrians, Moabites, Calvaries, Ammon, they're all going against Judah and against King Jehoiachim because they've rebelled in this situation now let's drop down to verse number six, let's see what happens to Jehoiachim, verse number six it says so Jehoiachim slept with his fathers, so that means he died okay, this guy tries to rebel, he dies, he wasn't a match to King Nebuchadnezzar okay and then it says and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead, so now his son becomes the king right, now drop down to verse number 11, it says and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city and his servants did besiege it and he carried away, sorry drop down to verse number 15 now, so you can see that King Nebuchadnezzar once again goes up against the city because the son doesn't obey what King Nebuchadnezzar wants okay, you can look at this in your own time and then look at verse number 15 and he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon and the king's mother and the king's wives and his officers and the mighty of the land, those carried here into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon and all the men of might, even seven thousand and craftsmen and smiths a thousand, all that was strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon and the king of Babylon made, now look at that, actually before I read verse number 17, so I want you to notice that this time King Jehoiachin, okay he did not lose his life but you know he was taken into captivity and not just himself but his family, you know those that are in authority within his kingdom, those mighty men that were powerful warriors, they were all taken into captivity by the Babylonian king and again you might say well you know yes it's good to rise up against his power but you notice they're losing, no matter what king it is, they're losing this battle and so King Nebuchadnezzar does something slightly different now if you look at verse number 17, so instead of allowing Judah to choose their own king, he steps in now verse number 17 and the king of Babylon made Mataniah, now notice that name Mataniah, his father's brother, that's the father's brother so that's Jehoiachin's brother, king in his stead and changed his name to Zedekiah, so when we see Jeremiah and Zedekiah sending his servants to speak to Jeremiah, his real name is Mataniah, okay and the reason he's in power is because the king of Babylon put him in power, okay this wasn't a natural succession of the family, you know King Nebuchadnezzar felt well maybe this Mataniah is going to obey me, maybe he's going to you know allow me to just have power over this land and so and he not just puts him into power but he changes his name to Zedekiah, right so basically showing that he owns him, you know I'm in charge, I can call you what I want, you're called Zedekiah, okay and so this is his name going forward, you know King Zedekiah and so that's what leads us to Jeremiah chapter 21, hope that kind of makes sense, gives you a bit of a historical context, okay so you can definitely see Nebuchadnezzar, the armies of Babylon, they're already there in the land, they're already there causing havoc, okay and the reason I want to bring this up Brethren is because you know in light of our current days you need to be careful of what battles you fight, you have to be careful what battles you fight, you know some battles seem very righteous to fight but they may not be the Lord's battles, you know this situation, COVID-19, whatever you think about it Brethren, you know I've had time to think about this and meditate on this, you know my personal opinion you know and you can disagree with me but my personal opinion is we are seeing the judgment of God on the world, okay we are seeing the judgment of God, now when we look at Nebuchadnezzar and the king of Babylon is that a godly kingdom, is that a godly empire, they're wicked alright and they're oppressing the Jews, they're oppressing the people right and they're putting their plans in charge and you know what I see is an oppression of the people in this world, you know what I see is a judgment of God and I'm just wondering you know we have to consider, we have to be very wise about the decisions we fight because we may fight against this judgment if it's a judgment of God, you may lose your life like King Jehoiakim okay or you may choose like the next king to fight and then you have your family taken into captivity, you know they're in a worse place fighting against his power than just you know except in the reality of the situation right and now you have King Zedekiah you know and he's going to Jeremiah, Jeremiah you know what is God saying about this situation, you know is God going to deliver us, so we need to be careful what kind of you know what battles we fight in this current world, we're living in a real scenario that demands a lot of questions you know demands a lot of answers, you know we have different opinions with how to manage things and you've got to consider what do I have to risk, could I risk my life, could I risk my family, are you willing to risk that, you know when I talk to like the young single men generally speaking, I'm not having a go at you if that's you right but it's like you know what I'm going to fight till the day I die, you know they can take my life and I'm just going to fight it all, I mean that's that's great, you speak about that because you don't have much to lose but then when you talk about to a family man, a man who's got a wife and kids and they know that hey my family can be taken into captivity if I'm not careful, you know they've got something greater to risk, you talk to a church pastor myself, not only do I have a family but I've got a church here in Sydney and church up there in New York Baptist Church, there are families that obviously love the church, a part of the church and sometimes they look at me for leadership and so of course the decisions I make will have a great risk, you know the more you have under you, the greater the risk is in your decisions, in your opinions of how you fight, so you need a lot of wisdom, you need a lot of wisdom, you know I wished, you know there was just this Jeremiah, hey Jeremiah tell us what to do, right, now look here's what we have though, we have the Word of God, you know it's a Word of God that would come upon Jeremiah and he would preach some such things, we also have the Word of God and so when we decide to fight, we need to look at what does the Word of God have to say, is this a fight worth fighting, is this a battle worth fighting, is this a battle God wants us to fight or is it not, is it the judgment of God potentially and you know and natural reaction is but they're ungodly, they're wicked, you know these people that are trying to bring in the vaccinations and and they're trying to put on, you know force the masks and and all these things, sure these people are wicked, surely they're worth fighting but if it's the judgment of God you're going to lose, like you have to consider these things, you have to weigh these things up, you know do we have the Word of God to fight these things or do we not and I'm not telling you that I have the answer to everything, obviously I did not think when we started 2019 that we're going to end up in this situation, I did not think that in 2020 I was going to be down here in Sydney right, everything's different, everything's changed, everything's changed and for the Jews everything changed, you've got the Babylonians there breathing down their necks, putting their own people in power okay and Zedekiah is caught between these you know a rock and a hard place, he wants to know what Jeremiah has to say but at the same time he's got King Nebuchadnezzar on his back and he's already seen what King Nebuchadnezzar has done to the past two kings so he's trying to be careful, what do we do? Back to Jeremiah 21 verse number three and look I'm not here trying to give you every answer here, I just want you to think about the situation, think about what we read here, think about 2020 and 2021, how we are in this current situation and you know pray for wisdom, you know for fathers pray for wisdom, you know you're leading your families, you know pray for your pastor, you know I'm leading two churches, I need the wisdom of God, I need the word of God to make the best decisions, yeah you know the right decisions even though it may seem like sometimes hey this is something we don't fight you know and if you see that from me you need to understand you know it's not that it's a fear thing or it's a given up thing, you know the title for the sermon this evening was the way of life, you know I want to choose the way of life okay, we'll soon see how this plays out in this chapter, look at verse number three, then said Jeremiah answer them, thus shall you say to Zedekiah, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, behold I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, hold on that's not what we want Jeremiah, we want God to turn the weapons of war in the hands of the Babylonians, God is saying you know what you think you're going to fight with your these weapons, I'm going to take these weapons away from you, you're not going to be able to fight with these weapons okay, verse number four says wherewith you fight against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans which besiege you without the walls and I will assemble them into the midst of this city, God is saying you know what you think I'm going to fight for you, no I'm going to help the Babylonians, I'm going to assemble the armies of the Babylonians and they're going to come into the midst of your city, you know it's been okay, they've been breathing down your necks okay, but now I'm going to allow them to come in the midst of your city, I'm going to send them exactly where you don't want them, you know King Zedekiah is hoping right, what are you saying verse number two it says if so be that the Lord will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, you know King Zedekiah is hoping hey Jeremiah ask God will he do a miracle, is he going to save us from King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, we want to see the wondrous works of God and God says yeah I'm going to show you my wondrous works, I'm going to fight against you, I'm sending the Babylonians, you know these are these are hard chapters you know to sort of think about and apply, you know these are challenging things, God will turn their weapons against them, verse number five, look at this, these are the words of God and I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm even in anger and in fury and in great wrath, you know I don't know if you've ever seen like war films maybe you know some of those old war films where you have soldiers with swords and spears and quite often you'll have like a troop of soldiers and before they go to war they get pumped up maybe they bang some drums or something right getting them pumped up for the fight and then when they charge it's like ah and they go charging right yelling you know showing their anger showing their wrath you know and you know the thing about that is the person that's running at you screaming and yelling may not even be the most powerful warrior but just the anger and the wrath that they're showing can cause the enemy to you know maybe retreat be worried you know lose confidence you know and that's that's the point of showing the anger and the wrath and God saying look I'm gonna come the same way I'm gonna come yelling and screaming showing you my wrath showing me you my my fury and so this is what's we have to be aware that you know God can fight even his own people it's hard you know it's hard to understand sometimes you know but we live in a wicked world we live in a wicked nation you know I'm kind of in a way you know I've seen I've seen it out our nation our world's just just I don't know it's just going to the toilet it's just every every day just seems like something new right mr. potato head you guys know about that toy my kids don't have mr. potato head but now they wanted to remove the mr. you know because it's you know that I don't want they don't want to offend the LGBTQI whatever and you can get a family mr. potato head where normally you get mr. potato head mrs. potato head and a child well now there's enough things to make it into two men if you want or two women and a child if you want so they want to they want to promote you know this this and these ungodly families they're not in families these ungodly unions to our children and that's the least of it just recently you've had dr. Seuss books being canceled in the US because they're too racist several books means it's I don't know what is going on all right what is going on you know on Facebook I was on Facebook today and it's on the New South Wales government website they've colored all these streets in the rainbow colors and not the rainbow colors of the Lord but in the homosexual rainbow colors right and I just replied with just an emoji you know what emoji is just a little face that's just thrown up and I've had some people support me right just respond back and but a lot of them are mocking like they've gone to my profile they seen me with my or my photo had 10 kids not 11 yet right and they're mocking our family they're mocking how many kids we have you know I mean the world has gone upside down I mean what what it's supposed to be a normal family a husband that loves his wife who's got a bunch of kids that is considered unusual and evil right now you know I mean the world is going crazy but you know part of part of me is frustrated yes but no part of me is kind of like this is actually helping me because any attachments that I have to this world it's slowly just coming off it's almost like I just almost like you know what let the word go to the toilet then yeah I mean where sometimes you're kind of like no no I want to stop it well you know I'm still gonna preach to God I'm just gonna do what God wants me to do right I'm gonna fight the battles that God wants me to fight you know just being married just having kids it's a battle now that's the fight that's the fight right now just just living a natural normal life just coming to church is the battle I mean just doing normal things that were normal five years ago has become the battle but these are battles that I know God wants us to fight it's just it's deciding what are the battles to fight and what are the battles not to fight and we have to be thinking about these things you know and I realize that we're not always going to see eye to eye and that's fine you know but I just pray that God gives us the wisdom to make the right decisions to fight the right battles understand this world is this is why I truly believe he's the judgment of God I mean how bad does this world have to get before God judges his world I think we're there I mean again we've gone for Jeremiah how many times does it look like Australia if God was willing to judge the nation of Judah there then surely he's judging our nation today that's my opinion okay I realized I can't above doesn't say here thus say if the Lord God is judging Australia like I'm giving you my opinion based on what we see here in this in the scriptures okay you need to form your opinions as well what verse am I up to brethren sorry got a bit off target there verse number six and I will smite the inhabitants of the city both man and beast they shall die of a great pestilence I don't know I saw that sort of a COVID-19 and again you know people have different opinions you know is it legit is it all a hoax is it just the flu is it just a you know a redesigned flu virus that was something like that right that's more contagious this is why I've never had an opinion on the virus itself you know you asked me what do you think about it okay III actually believe I'm gonna go to my grave never knowing the truth of this there's a lot of things that I realize I'm just not going to know because yes you can get data okay yes there's information out there and you know people base their opinions on the information but many times that information or that data itself is corrupt I mean just recently others this I forget his name because I there's a mayor in New York does anyone know his name has been in news lately anyway last year he was being praised by the media that he that he you know put restrictions in place in New York and you know New York is a very dense population so a lot of people died of the virus and you know apparently by his actions by his quick actions by his restrictions you know he he stopped you know who knows how many people that was supposed to die and he was being praised as a hero well it was found out just recently just in the last few months the last few weeks that he's been doctoring the stats that he's actually been doing he's been he's been sending people that were contagious the virus to places like nursing homes where there are older people and there's been deaths that that happened that weren't being recorded he was doing all he was he was fudging the numbers he was fudging the stats okay and now there are calls for this guy I think it's como como something like that to step down and to resign from his position hey he was being a he was a hero last year I think they gave him one of these like like one of those Hollywood Awards like like an Emmy or something whatever Emmy or what's the other one they the Grammys I don't know he gave they gave him one of these awards like Hollywood you're such a hero now they're saying sack this guy because he doctor the look you know the reason I know that a lot of these stats are just corrupt and messed up is because you know I worked in in the business world and you know when you're in business and you're in sales and you know you present how well your department's doing and how well the sales are going how well customer feedback is and how well customer return is and you're trying to feed this information to people that are interested you can take the same data that may show you to be a very bad performer and the way you present it can cause you to look like you're doing so well you know you know it's all in the hands of the person that's presenting the information okay and this is why I just I just realized look I'm just I'm not gonna know and I don't care you know I'm not gonna know and and you know when it came to Kings that a car he did not know you know this judgment that was coming by the Babylonians is it from God or is it not from God do we fight is God gonna fight for us and the question was no God's gonna fight against you right and there are some times that there are the situations that you know you don't really know necessarily you know and I'm not gonna get caught up on that but you just have to deal with the reality of the situation you find yourself in you know that that we have a power a very wicked you know a very hidden power a very hidden Empire breathing down the necks of the world you know the citizens of the world and that's just the reality that we're in and and this is something we have to deal with you have to face you know King Zedekiah had to face the reality that the Babylonians are on his back okay now verse number seven it says an afterwards safe Lord I will deliver Zedekiah King of Judah and his servants and the people and such are as left in this city from the pestilence from the sword and from the famine into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar King of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those that seek their life and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword he shall not spare them neither have pity nor have mercy so God is saying look if you happen to escape the pestilence if you happen to live through the sword if you happen to live through the famine well then you're gonna be taken into captivity and then you're gonna die there okay so there's no positive outcome here this is the reality of the situation now how are they gonna deal with it now obviously not all died that went into captivity because it had to be generations that lived through that would eventually return during that 70 year captivity back to Judah but look at verse number eight it says an answer this people thou shalt say thus saith the Lord behold I set before you the way of life and the way of death you have those options which one do you want life or death okay now before we keep reading before we go into the context of this chapter you know God is basically giving people a decision to make do you want life do you want death can you please keep your finger then go to Romans chapter 6 for me Romans chapter 6 and these are obviously very common passages if you're a soul winner you know this passage very well and if you're in church today I trust that you have made the decision of the way of life okay because we want to draw some spiritual lessons here right there is an option in Romans 6 23 the Bible reads for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord so if we want to take this just a spiritual lesson for salvation God offers us life or death okay God does not force you to choose life Calvinism is a false doctrine where they teach basically God forces you you know it's just you know God draws you it's too hard to resist and you're just you're gonna be regenerated and then you're gonna believe the gospel somehow okay no that's not God's giving you an option do you want life or do you want death when we knock on someone's door and go so do you want life or do you want death if they choose death what is death we move on okay hopefully we've planted some seeds hopefully they choose life eventually they still have time to choose the life okay but that's ultimately what we're doing when we go don't we do you want life or do you want death it's up to you we're not gonna force you it's up it's up to you it's your choice okay now go to Romans 8 6 please Romans 8 6 and I did preach on this just recently when I went through the fruits of the Spirit on the topic of peace but now that we are saved now that we have chosen eternal life and not eternal death we still have choices in our Christian life to make okay in Romans 8 6 it says for to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace so you see even as a Christian you have a choice do I you know my mind do I put it on spiritual matters you know do I allow myself to have a spiritual mind thinking about eternal matters thinking about eternal rewards in heaven my home in heaven or do I think about this carnal earth that that's here in this place which one am I going to be focused on you know which battles am I going to fight the spiritual ones or the carnal ones you know Bob was telling us here that carnally minded is death I want to choose life this is why it's so important that we are mindful about the decisions we make that the battles that we fight are they ones to life are they ones to death okay we have to make a decision even our Christian walk you know life or death now of course that's not salvation but that's just you know how well I guess you enjoy this life that God has given you you can destroy your life you know you're safe person you just be kindly minded for the rest of his life destroy his life with sin maybe end his life early potentially just destroy his life he's still going to heaven okay but he didn't do much for the Lord in his lifetime okay so we have these decisions God is asking us do you want the carnal mind you want the spiritual mind do you want life or do you want death and so you know life should always be chosen over death you know I've already preached about abortion as we've been going for Jeremiah you know that's why I'm pro-life pro-life choose life not death every time a woman goes into those abortion clinics they're choosing death okay it's killing their babies and potentially even damaging their womb from having children in the future okay I really preach about abortion but I wanted to look at euthanasia you guys know what euthanasia is I think maybe the kids don't know but basically this is assisted suicide assisted suicide so you know people take their own lives that they kill themselves for whatever reason okay but you know it's been pushed hard especially in Australia to legalize euthanasia legalize assisted suicide or what I would call legal murder okay allowing people to to die to choose death now I was surprised by by this the short research that I did but you know there's only one state at the moment that has legalized euthanasia assisted suicide does anyone want to guess what that state is in Australia in Australia Victoria bingo guess where COVID-19 has hit the hardest now when was it made when did COVID-19 hit our shores yeah probably early 2020 right started to hit our shores well you know euthanasia was made legal in Victoria in June 2019 June 2019 okay now I'm not saying that's why they got hit the hardest with COVID I'm just throwing you I'm asking the question all right I mean kind of it just makes sense to me makes sense to me and now also Western Australia is looking to make it legal at the middle of this year as well okay mid 2021 Western Australia is looking at making euthanasia legal watch Western Australia watch Western Australia all right so I'm just throwing that out there okay our Australian states are starting to choose death they've really chosen death of abortion now they want to increase the death they want more death so God send them death if that's what you want okay you get to choose death or you get to choose life okay and don't forget I know we're believers I don't wear contrary to these things but we still live in this nation okay so when God's judgment falls on a nation it still affects the people of God remember that okay it's still affected God's people okay those that were saved you know we have the great story of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and Daniel these are great men of God that went into captivity into Babylon they were affected by the judgment of God okay they lost their homes they lost their families you know so you know don't think that you know we just escape God's judgment no you know yes God's gonna deal with us as his children you know but we're still gonna feel the effects you know if God is judging this nation and I truly believe we are feeling these effects now back to the context when we saw when God is offering that nation choose the way of life or choose the way of death verse number nine it says he that abideth in this city shall die by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence now let's stop there so what is death if they try to hide if they try to escape the judgment God is saying look you're gonna die you're gonna die okay you try to abide in the city the city was obviously the main fortress for Judah the safest place if you try to hide there you try to avoid the sword the famine pestilence you're gonna sorry you are gonna die by those measures right then this is this but he that goeth out so you you leave the protections of the city and fall off to the Chaldeans that besiege you you surrender this is unpopular okay he shall live and his life shall be unto him for a prey so when the offer was made choose life or death what was the way of life in the context of this chapter the context was going surrender it's God's judgment it's the reality you're not gonna fight it you're not gonna win you try to fight it you're gonna lose your life okay so you know be patient with decisions that we have in 2021 you know it's it's not a coincidence that the Lord's put Jeremiah fifth you know Jeremiah on my heart to preach because every way just way too many similarities way too much okay be careful you know when you're angered and I get angry and you're frustrated I get frustrated you know when you're upset and you realize the new normals around the corner or where it in the new normal or whatever well this was a new normal for Judah this is the way it was going to be right and the best thing to do is well just accept this is the way it's going to be it's God's judgment now in the new normal work out how it is that you're going to be able to serve the Lord at your fullest you know I want us to turn out like a Daniel like the Shadrach Meshach and Abednego that's what I want us to be you know when a new normal hits when when you see a power take over you know the freedoms and the liberties that we have as a nation if you want to fight you can fight I'll be praying for you you know I hope you succeed I hope you find the Babylonian King and stab him and they run away it's about you know the likelihood of that happening is very very small but there's one that fights for us that's the Lord God okay the Lord God might be fighting against Australia he might be fighting against the world's systems you know and he's using wicked people you know God was using wicked Babylon okay and I actually we will look at this soon we'll look at that soon I'm skipping ahead skipping ahead verse number 10 it says for I have set my face against this city for evil and not for good save the Lord so if God is judging Australia why is it because he has set his face against this nation or the city for evil not for good say if the Lord it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon and he shall burn it with fire it shall be given it's gonna happen you can't stop it okay now again don't misunderstand Babylon is a wicked Empire it's a wicked Empire there are wicked people okay and this is where the battle lines are become a little bit blurry because we know we know the world system the authorities we know how wicked they are we know that they want to stop people producing they're not happy that I have 11 kids I tell you that okay they don't want people to reproduce they certainly do not want Christians to reproduce they're fine with the Muslims reproducing but certainly not the Christians all right there's a there's a wicked nation there and and so it may seem right to fight and you got to figure out when when it is to fight and when it is not it's just you know pray about it think about it okay let's talk about it you know and understand that people have different opinions okay we all have something different a different measure of risk to take okay when it comes to God's judgment but if you can please keep your finger then go to Jeremiah chapter 50 Jeremiah chapter 50 because like you I want the powers of this world to be destroyed okay I think we all want that right we want our liberties and our peace we want that I really want that okay so that's why I want to read Jeremiah chapter 52 you look at verse number 17 just so you don't lose focus of the big picture here it says here Israel is a scattered sheep the lions have driven him away first the king of Assyria had devoured him and last is Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon have broken his bones so you can see that God is using these two nations Assyria and and Babylon to judge the nation of Judah and Israel okay the northern kingdom by the Assyrians the southern kingdom by the Babylonians verse number 18 therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel behold I will punish the king of Babylon and his land as I have punished the king of Assyria the reason I want to read that to you brethren is because if you choose life and you realize by choosing life you're gonna have to give up some of your liberties okay and that's hard to swallow well the reason I want to read that to your brethren is this because God's judgment will come on all God's judgment will come at all okay even the same wicked powers that God may allow you know to enter into and control our world and control our society those same wicked powers if God is allowing that to be his judgment will also be judged at the hands of God and this is where the true peace comes whether some old normal some new normal this is a new normal for Judah when you can just rest on the thought that God will judge God would judge me as his as his child as a Christian God is judging our nation because it's a wicked one and God is judging this world and then God will judge the same people that is used in to bring forth judgment on those that he's judging okay God's in control is what I'm trying to say God is on his throne he's in control he knows what's going on he knows okay if this leads us to a one-world government if this leads us to great tribulation I don't know what the journey is if this leads us to war if this leads us to a break up of of what we understood as nations and we developed some other system in this world I don't know I don't know what's around the corner but I know the one that does know that's the Lord God and I want him to judge I want him to judge that's what I'm saying sometimes I look at this world going down the toilet and I'm just like well Lord it's like you're just you're taking my heart whatever pieces of my heart that I still have in this world it's like just pulling my heart away from that and maybe it's for the best because if your judgment falls I want to be able to rejoice in your judgment you know rather than be so attached and say Lord what are you doing no you know be mindful about what decisions you make you know be careful you know understand you have things to risk maybe have families and you have wives and you have children decisions to make for their sake I have decisions to make for this church so we need the Lord we need his word we need his counsel I'm not here pretending I know every answer okay I'm not pretending that okay but you know I'm a pastor of this church and I'm a pastor at New York Church for a reason you know we're here for a reason we're here to support each other we're here to understand God's judgment we're here to think about this world we're here to think about what battles are we fighting right and as I said man just being a normal human being these days you're already better fighting a war just being a normal married man with kids you're fighting a war just being a normal person that reads the Bible and goes to church you're fighting a war already okay and let's just continue with the mindset no we want to choose life you know we need to continue and give in the gospel to people that they may choose eternal life you know we you know that the coming years and I don't want to scare anybody they might be very very hard you know the the enjoyments that we have in our life may be taken away but nothing will take away our eternal life nothing will take away our destination in heaven nothing will take away our love that God has given us the sacrifice of Jesus Christ nothing will take away the treasures that we lay up in heaven this is why we need to be spiritually minded not currently minded okay look at verse number 11 and touching the house of the king of Judah say hear ye the word of the Lord Oh house of David thus saith the Lord execute judgment in the morning and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor lest my fury go out like fire and burn that none can quench it because of the evil of your doings you know God's given them still a last opportunity not from being not destroyed because they're already been destroyed it's really happening but for a last opportunity of complete destruction the the message to the kings that achia tomorrow morning do things right judge correctly walk in my ways follow after my commandments you start doing that kings that achia and you're not going to be utterly destroyed there's still a chance that we know they didn't do it they still got destroyed by the Babylonians and the reason I say I wanted to look at that is because in Proverbs 14 verse 34 just read it it says righteousness exalted for nation but sin is a reproach to any people sin is a reproach to any people Australia is a sinful wicked nation okay if we want this nation to be exalted its righteousness okay so why we got so win we want to have the imputed righteousness of Christ on more people and then as Christians we want to continue walking in righteousness you know don't give up you know keep walking in righteousness new normal old normal we continue walking in righteousness okay if anything's going to save Australia it's God's people okay just trying to turn the tide maybe like this maybe there's still an opportunity okay but I know our politicians aren't going to do it it's got to be us it's got to be us all right we're going to keep preaching God's Word without compromise we're going to keep standing for God no matter what okay and be careful what battles are we fighting are we fighting the battles that God wants us to fight or are we not look at this number 13 behold I am against the old inhabitants of the valley and rock of the plain thus saith the Lord which say who shall come down against us or who shall enter into our habitations but I will punish you according to the fruits of your doings saith the Lord and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof and it shall devour all things round about it why do I believe that we are dealing with God's judgment you know why well like we see here in verse number 14 God says I will punish you according to the fruits of your doings what is the fruit of the doings of Australia they're choosing death they're not choosing the way of life this is why I think it's God's judgment you know if our nation was anti abortion if that was illegal if our nation wasn't trying to bring in euthanasia you know if our nation you know still had a fear of God and and wanted to know like King Zedekiah Jeremiah tells the truth and then we have like over 19 then I just say it's just a pestilence it's just another thing that's that's going through the world you know that it's just there's been unusual days in the past it's just unusual days again but when I look at the corruption in this world when I look at the forces of weakness how they're trying to destroy families they're trying to destroy churches they're trying to destroy the Bible okay they're trying to destroy the distinctions between what is light and dark between what is good and rights they're calling what is good evil and they call what's evil good I just look at the situation and I say wow Jeremiah this is Australia you're preaching against Australia remember Jeremiah was called the prophet to the nations I think Jeremiah has a word to say about Australia today okay let's pray Heavenly Father Lord we want to thank