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Sunshine Coast. But if you look at Jeremiah chapter 27 and verse number 2. Jeremiah chapter 27 verse number 2. Thus saith the Lord to me, Make thee bonds and yokes. The title for the sermon this morning is bonds and yokes. Okay, bonds and yokes. What was the thought that you get there when you think of bonds? Your thought is, you know, you're being arrested, right? You're being taken away from, your freedoms are being removed. Or when you think of the word yokes, okay, that's often used. I was going to ask brother Dave if you could bring your yoke, but I didn't know if he still had it. But, you know, when he came and he had his illustration of his yokes that brother Dave had. You know, the yoke, the idea is that piece of wood that you would put on the necks of animals, beasts of burden, so they would labor. They would be able to be used with instruments. And you'd be able to use them to plow the ground, these kinds of things. So, you know, it's about putting burdens, the idea of burdens, of being arrested, bonds and yokes. And that's the idea of the chapter that we're looking at here in Jeremiah chapter number 27. Look at verse number 1, Jeremiah 27 verse number 1. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah king of Judah, came this word unto Jeremiah from the Lord saying. Now, I want you to just notice that Jehoiakim, we've looked at king Jehoiakim a few times already, but this prophecy is during the reign of Jehoiakim. Now, you may remember Jehoiakim is the third last king in Judah before the captivity. So, you had Jehoiakim, then his son Jehoiakim, who only reigned, I think it was three months or something, anyway, it was a very short period of time, and then Zedekiah. And then with king Zedekiah, that's when the nation was taken into captivity. Now, this is important for us to think about later on because I did mention in the past that when Babylon did come, it wasn't just one captivity, there were two major phases in the period of taking people into the land, into Babylon, and basically taking things that, you know, precious things, you know, precious resources from Judah. Okay, so this happened through many years and it happened two major times of this captivity period. But look at verse number two. Thus saith the Lord to me, make thee bonds and yokes, look at this, and put them upon thy neck. So, God is telling Jeremiah, alright, next time when you go and preach, get a yoke, just like brother David had a yoke, but this time preach with it on your neck. Okay, instead of just using it as an illustration, this time you need to put it on your neck. You need to look like you're somebody that is under bondage, okay. And so, you know, sometimes God, you know, likes the illustrations. We see this, we've really seen that when God sent Jeremiah to preach to the other nations in one of the previous chapters, that he got him to carry a cup around, right, the cup of God's wrath upon the nations. Well, this time Jeremiah is carrying this yoke upon his shoulders, upon his neck. And look at verse number three. And send them, that's the yoke, to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers, which come to Jerusalem, unto Zedekiah, king of Judah. Alright, so what do we see here? Notice that Zedekiah, king of Judah, is mentioned. I just told you the order. Okay, Jeremiah is preaching this to Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim is ruling right now. And God has already revealed to Jeremiah that Zedekiah is going to be ruling at some point in time. At some point Zedekiah is going to take the throne. But there was still Jehoiakim between these two kings. So again, we just see the power of God's word. We see the power of prophecy here. We see that God is revealing to Jeremiah future events to come. That's number one. But number two, you notice that when he mentions all these kings from these different nations, Moab, Ammonites, Tyrus, Zidon, that these kings have sent messengers to Jerusalem. Okay? And so as Jeremiah is preaching, he's not just preaching to Judah, he's preaching to all these nations. And so all these messengers that are coming from these other nations, I guess you may think of them as ambassadors, or people that are coming, whatever, to agree to trade deals, or maybe they're coming together to agree, how do we overcome this might of Babylon? We don't know. But these kings are sending these messengers, and Jeremiah is there preaching with this yoke on his shoulders, and he says, look, make sure you send these yokes with these messengers back to the king. So Jeremiah is preaching to, not just Judah, but remember he's a prophet to the nations. He's preaching to all the nations. And what's the illustration there? The illustration there is God's judgment is coming, and the Babylonian kingdom is going to put a yoke upon your neck. Not just Judah, but to the other nations. That's a pretty unpopular sermon. That's a sermon that people are not going to enjoy, I'm sure. To say that your nation will be taken into captivity by the Babylonians. The Babylonians are going to come and put yokes and bonds upon you. So it's a very negative sermon. Look at verse number four. And command them, that's the messengers to the kings, command them to say unto their masters, again the masters of the kings there, the God of Israel, thus shall you say unto your masters, I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground. Now, we obviously know that our God, the God of the Bible, is the creator of all things. The creator of the earth, the creator of men, and the creator of beasts, or animals, right? That are upon the ground. Then God says this. By my great power, and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom I seem to meet unto me. The word meet there means to be, it's like your wife, you know, when Adam had a wife, God said that she would be a help meet for him. The idea of meet there is this is suitable, this is appropriate. And so God is saying, look, this is my world, this is my earth, man is my creation, the animals are my creation, and I'm going to decide to see who it's suitable for to give this earth to. And of course we know he's talking about King Nebuchadnezzar. He's talking about the Babylonian empire. He's saying, look, I'm the one that's giving them the power to take over the earth, okay? Now look at verse number six. And now I have given all these lands, not just Judah but those other nations, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. So think about Jeremiah for a moment, right? I'm sure he's an embarrassment to the king, to the king Jehoiakim, right? I mean, you know, you've got these messengers from these other nations, you're trying to, I guess, entertain them, you're trying to keep good relations with these neighboring nations, and then you've got a prophet of God just walking around with this yoke on his neck, right? And saying, listen, God's going to cause King Nebuchadnezzar to take over all these lands. You know, it's up to God to decide, you know, who's in power. It's up to God to decide who is going to put in charge. So could you imagine, you know, just a prophet of God walking around Australia, you know, and saying, you know what, Australia is done for. This land is going to be taken over by the Chinese or something, right? I mean, isn't that the fear of a lot of Australians? Oh, the Chinese are buying up all the land and all the property. Well, you know what, if God's given them the power to do that, there's nothing you can do to stop it. I'm sorry to say that to you, okay? You know, Jeremiah is not very patriotic. Who was I talking to recently? I was talking to Brother Ash, you know, and he was explaining to me that, you know, there was a pastor that he was speaking to in his office, and behind the pastor's office, he had a flag, the American flag and the Israeli flag. You know, all these nations, you know, I think he was from America possibly, right? And then you've got Jeremiah saying, you know what, it's up to God to decide. You know what, if America is going to be taken over, if Israel is going to be taken over, if some other nation is going to be taken over by some power, it's up to God, right? I mean, it's an unpopular sermon. It's an unpatriotic sermon to say that your nations and my nations are going to be taken over by another power, you know, by the Babylonian empire. You know, we speak about the spirit of Babylon sometimes when we talk about this day that we live in, where we're seeing, you know, our freedoms being removed and all these kinds of things, and, you know, COVID-19 being used as a method to do these kinds of things, to take away, you know, freedoms and take away privacy and all these kinds of things. Well, there's a power coming. There's nothing you can do. I'm sorry to tell you that. There's nothing you can do. Like, if we're going to learn anything from Jeremiah, learn this. Again, I know it's unpopular, you know, but Jeremiah was unpopular, okay? There's nothing you can do except go to the Lord and ask the Lord that we can live quiet and peaceable lives. You know, for the nation, just these powers that be, whoever they are, Lord, just cause them to leave your people alone, okay? That's the best we can do. All right. Now, have a look at verse number seven. Verse number seven. And all the nations shall serve him, that's King Nebuchadnezzar, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come, and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. All right. So, Jeremiah's saying, look, you're going to be in captivity by the Babylonians, not just by Nebuchadnezzar, but by his son and his son's son, his grandson. And then the kingdom of Babylon is going to be the ones that are serving, okay? And then we know that later on, King Darius comes and takes over Babylon. But that's, anyway, that's a future event. But I do want you to just keep your finger there and turn to Daniel chapter four for me, please. Turn to Daniel chapter four, because once again, Jeremiah is prophesying of future things. Who is Nebuchadnezzar's, you know, son and grandson? Who is Jeremiah referring to here? Who is God referring to here? We do have the name of the grandson, at least, in the book of Daniel. So, please go to Daniel chapter four, Daniel chapter four and verse number 37. Daniel chapter four and verse number 37. King Nebuchadnezzar, by the way, was a wicked king, okay? But I do believe what we see here in verse number 37 is once God has humbled King Nebuchadnezzar, that he becomes a believer, that he actually gets saved, okay? But look at Daniel chapter four, verse number 37. It says, He's saying that himself. He was once proud and God abased him. God lowered him, right? Now he's recognizing the true God of heaven. That's the end of Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel. Now, if you look at chapter five, the next verse, Daniel chapter five, verse number one, we have this jump of king. It says here, So, Belshazzar here is actually King Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, all right? So, you know, what's great about this, the reason I'm bringing this forward is just, again, just to see the power of prophecy. You know, things that were still yet to happen in the future, how God knows the beginning from the end, and then Jeremiah knows because he knows the Lord's word and he's preaching God's word. And even, you know, you're looking at secular history. If you don't even look at the Bible, you just go to secular history, they recognize that Belshazzar was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. One of Nebuchadnezzar's daughters married a high-ranking man and that Belshazzar was a product of that. Now, the Bible doesn't mention Nebuchadnezzar's son. I was trying to look this up in secular history as well. It's a little bit confusing, but it looks like once Nebuchadnezzar was off the scene, his son ruled, but for a very short period of time. He was then eventually murdered, okay? So, he only ruled for a very short period of time. But anyway, I just wanted to show you how, you know, the Bible is accurate. The Bible is true. You know, you can trust it. You can trust, and we've even got secular history confirming that the Bible is true. It's not like the Book of Mormon where they have this crazy history of Latin America, you know, of the Americas and the Indians, and there's no archaeology, there's no evidence, there's no history of those things even being slightly true. In fact, they find it to be completely a contradictive of what is found in the Book of Mormon. And you know, straight away, by looking at the Book of Mormon, Mormonism, you know, the Latter-day Saints, that's a false religion. It's a religion from the devil, but when it comes to the word of God, it is accurate, it is true, even archaeology and history confirms that it is true. But anyway, back to Jeremiah 27, verse number 8. Jeremiah 27, verse number 8. And it shall come to pass that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar. Alright, so Jeremiah sent me this message. You're going to serve Nebuchadnezzar. But if you decide that, you know what, nah, we're going to fight it. We're not going to serve Nebuchadnezzar. We're not going to serve this wicked empire. What's the outcome? Which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon. So if you're not going to put the yoke on, now listen, think about the idea of a yoke. If I put a yoke on your neck right now and got you to plow my ground or something, right? I mean, that's pretty bad. That's not a good feeling. Nobody likes that, right? But Jeremiah is saying, look, you better put it on. Because if you don't, what happens if you don't? It says, that nation will I punish, saith the Lord, with the sword and with the famine, with the pestilence, until I've consumed them by his hand. So the nations, the kings here, basically have a choice. You can have it bad, with the yoke on your neck, or you can have it worse, where you're wiped out. So this is not a problem. Others are like, no, no, no, we're going to fight this. We don't want bad or worse. We want to make sure that we're comfortable. We want to make sure that we're not at inconvenience. We want to make sure that our nation prospers and continues. But sometimes God's offer is bad or worse. You better listen to God's word and say, I better take the bad. Because I don't want to be wiped out. So you can see here that there comes a time when God expects yokes to be put upon the nation and the people of the nation. When I mention nations, don't think of just like government. And that's part of it, but nations is the people. It's all the people that make up, that's including you. You're part of the nation of Australia. But at the same time, you also have citizenship in heaven. So we've got this dual citizenship, and of course, we're ambassadors of heaven as well. But put yourself in this position, especially as you're seeing your freedoms being removed. There's a yoke being put upon your necks, very slowly. But it's being put on there. And you can choose bad or do I choose worse? This is what we learn here from Jeremiah. Let's keep going. Verse number nine. Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, so there are other prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon. For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish. Say, Pastor Kevin, why aren't you the kind of pastor that just wants to fight the COVID-19 restrictions? Why don't you just want to stand and just be like, you know what, we've got to fight this foreign power that's on this land, or these foreign controls, and we've got to fight these regulations and these restrictions. Why? Because I don't want to be one of these prophets. I don't want to be one of these dreamers. I don't want to just give you my opinion, my thoughts, and my imagination of how I think things should be, because if I do that, in verse number 10 it says that I should drive you out and ye should perish. I don't want God's people to perish. I don't want to perish. I don't want my family to perish. Okay? So I've got to choose. As a pastor, you know, when we've had these kinds of restrictions, do I choose bad or do I choose worse? Do I choose a yoke upon our necks, or do I choose destruction? Do I choose destruction? And those of you that are saying, no, we've got to fight this, and hey, let's choose, you know, let's fight. You know, you're actually leading people to perish. Unpopular sermon. Unpopular sermon. You know, think about Jeremiah once again, the yoke on his neck. You know, he's not saying, you know, that I'm not, you know, associated with this. By him having the yoke upon his neck, he's acknowledging this is upon me as well. I'm part of this nation. Even as I'm a child of God, I'm a prophet of God, I'm part of this judgment that is coming by the hands of the Babylonians. Okay? And again, we're dealing today with a spiritual Babylon, a bit of a hidden Babylon, you know, that's out there. But, you know, you can definitely see the nations of this world bound down to this power. Okay? Now, we also know that ultimately the devil, you know, he's in high places. You know, we're not warring against flesh and blood, okay, but against principalities, you know, against powers. And so, we need to remember that our battle as Christians is a spiritual one. Okay? You know what? Even if you have a yoke on your neck, you can still fight the spiritual battle. Okay? You might not fight the physical battle, because you've got a yoke on your neck. You can still fight the spiritual one. You can still speak of Jesus. You can still preach of Jesus. Okay? You can still give the gospel to people. The choice is simple, bad or worse, bad or worse. Now, what am I up to? Verse 11, but the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon. So, if you just, you know, surrender, say, all right, God says, this is, you know, the best scenario is bad. Okay? You put your neck under the king of Babylon and serve him. Those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the Lord, and they shall till it and dwell therein. Okay? So, this is to the heathen nations. Remember, he speaks to the others. He says, look, if you just surrender to the king of Babylon, he's going to keep you on the land, and you'll be able to continue just working on the land. Okay? He'll basically leave you alone, but I guess you'll be paying taxes. You'll be, you know, there'll be certain restrictions, because now you're under a different kingdom. Verse number 12. I spake also to Zedekiah, king of Judah, according to all these words, saying, bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people and live. So, the same message that Jeremiah is telling the other nations, he's also telling the same message to the people of God, to the Israel, okay, of God here, the physical nation of Israel, that you also need to bring your necks under the yoke of king of Babylon. So, one thing that you notice in this chapter, we started with king Jehoiakim, but now Jeremiah is saying, he said, spoke the same words to Zedekiah. So, you have parts of prophecies and visions and words that God has given Jeremiah, and he's kind of putting this into one chapter. Remember, the book of Jeremiah is not in chronological order, not in perfect chronological order. It kind of generally is. It kind of starts early on, and then it ends with the Babylonian captivity, but not every chapter is in chronological order, but it's the same message to the Jews. You better, you know, lower yourself. You better allow the yoke, that yoke, that burden, to be put upon you by the king of Babylon, and you'll live. Serve him and his people and live, and live. Verse number 13. Why will you die, thou and thy people, by the sword and by the famine, by the pestilence, as the Lord have spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? Jeremiah is saying, look, why, why, just take the bad, just take the yoke. Can't you just listen to God's word and act upon God's word instead of your dreamers, instead of the other prophets that are telling you to do otherwise? And so what I want to pause here for a moment and talk about yokes. Now, you know, we don't live in the time of Babylon. I'm not a preacher with a yoke on my neck, okay? But there are yokes that are spoken about in the Bible, and we need to know what kind of yokes that we need to remove off ourselves, or what kind of yokes that we need to put on. So we're going to temporarily move away from Jeremiah, but can you please turn to Acts chapter 15. Acts chapter 15, keep your finger there in Jeremiah, but turn to Acts chapter 15. We're first going to be looking at yokes to be removed, okay? Yokes that we need to remove off our necks. Acts chapter 15 and verse number 10. Now, we're going to be looking at the law of Moses, especially circumcision, because as the New Testament came into effect, you know, the Jews were kind of struggling with this idea. Well, we were circumcised. Do people still need to be circumcised? And some people are starting to say, yeah, you know, new believers, they need to be circumcised, and they're trying to bring people under the law, okay? And yet Christ was the fulfillment of the law. He fulfilled the law. And so we pick this up here in Acts chapter 15, verse number 10. Acts 15, verse number 10, which says, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear. So we have some people rising up and saying, yeah, you know, New Testament Christianity, we need to put them back under the law. They need to start circumcising themselves. And the question is, why are you going to put this yoke upon the neck? Hey, even our forefathers, even our spiritual fathers weren't able to keep all these laws, okay? Why did God bring in all these laws, all these commandments in the Old Testament is that it will be a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. So we would recognize, boy, we can't keep all God's commands. We're a sinner. We need a Savior. Who's the Savior? Oh, it's Jesus. Okay? So that's the whole point of the law. Now, if you keep going there, look at verse number 11. But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. All right. So what do we learn there? That some people are going to try to bring the law of Moses as your way of salvation. So look, are the Ten Commandments important? Of course they are. You know, we should try to live by those things, right? But that is not your way of salvation. Anyone that says to you that in order for you to be saved, you have to keep the Ten Commandments, you have to keep the law of Moses, okay, it's impossible. That's an impossible way of salvation. All you have to do is put a yoke upon your neck, which nobody could bear, not even the spiritual forefathers in the Old Testament could bear such a thing. Okay? Now, look, it says very clearly in verse number 11, but we believe that through the grace, hey, how are we saved? We are saved by grace through faith. It says there, believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. That's how we got saved. Oh, but in the Old Testament, they got saved by the laws. No. Even as they, even the Old Testament saints, were saved by grace. Okay? They weren't saved by the law. You start putting the law as a method of salvation, what you're doing is you're adding a yoke upon the necks of people and they can't bear it. Okay? If you today believe, if you're under that yoke today, and you're, I don't know if I'm saved. I don't know what I have to do to be saved. You're trying to keep the commandments of God and you have doubts because you've messed up and you keep messing up. Okay? What you've got on your neck right now is a yoke that God never expected any man to bear. Okay? That yoke needs to be removed. Salvation is by the grace of Jesus Christ. Amen. Another passage, well, I'll quickly read to you Galatians 5.1 says, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ have made us free and be not entangled again, look at this, with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. You say, oh Pastor Kevin, I got circumcised. Does that mean I can't be saved? No, no. It's those that are trusting their physical circumcision, Christ profits them nothing. Okay? Again, once again, Paul is referring to this as being entangled with the yoke of bondage. Anyone that's trying to get you saved by the commandments, keep the Ten Commandments, turn from your sins and keep the laws of God, they're putting a yoke on your neck. Okay? They're stopping you from entering heaven. You know, that person is a false prophet. Amen. Okay? Salvation is, if you want Christ to profit you everything, then you take the burden of that yoke, the works off you, and you trust Christ alone. Can you please turn to Matthew chapter 11? Matthew chapter 11. Actually, before you do that, can you please turn to Matthew 23? Matthew 23. Matthew 23. You know, there are some people you just have to stay away from. Okay? There are some people that want to put heavy burdens on your back, heavy burdens on your neck. Alright? Now, again, I'm going to preach hard. I'm not going to compromise on God's word. I'll preach God's word the way it's meant to be preached. Okay? But I'm not coming to your house and putting some burden around your neck. Okay? You need to hear God's word and you take on, you know, it's between you and God at that point in time. You know, in your home, in your family, it's between you and God. It's not between you and me. Alright? Because there are some people that actually do want to be kind of rulers and lords over your house, over your life. Okay? And if you look at Matthew 23 verse number 1, Then spake Jesus to the multitude and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do, But do not ye after their works, for they say and do not. Now notice verse number 4. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, And lay them on man's shoulders, But they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. There are some preachers that, honestly, they want to control your life. They want to put great burdens upon your life. Again, you know, the number one way of doing this is a works-based gospel. Okay? Or they want to control your life and, you know, and I know there are some organizations, I don't even want to call them churches, organizations that look at your life and they literally want to tell you who to marry. Okay? Oh, you're dating that person. Oh, you break up with that person. I've got this other person for you in the church. And they try to control people's lives. These are the worst people, I'm telling you. Okay? What are they? They're hypocrites. They put great burdens on the shoulders of others, but they themselves will not even touch it. They won't even with their little finger move that burden. You know, some people just, you know, they come and try to preach from God's word. They can't truly preach from God's word and they just like to control people. They like to control the lives of other people. I'm not that way, brethren. I'm not that way. You know, I teach something. You disagree with it. You don't want to do it. You go home. It's between you and God. It's not, you know, I don't care. I do care. I do care. Okay? I pray for you, but really, you know what? At the end of the day, I'm still going to love you. You're still my brother in the Lord and I still want you to just, you know, prosper and do well for the Lord. Okay? And you need to be careful. Some people, honestly, they put burdens on you. They say, this is what you should do. This is how you should live your life. And then you look at their life and they're doing the complete opposite. That's hypocrisy. That's like the, like if you want to really get under my skin, that's what you need to do. Tell me to do something that you yourself don't do. Okay? That is one sure way to get under my skin. I'll tell you that. Okay? But anyway, go back to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11, because there is a yoke that we are commanded to bear. Okay? There is a yoke that we are commanded to bear. Okay? Matthew chapter 11, verse number 28, the words of Jesus Christ. Matthew 11, 28. Jesus says, come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Boy, do you have a yoke on your neck that's too heavy to bear? You know, are you struggling with the thought of salvation? You know, are you struggling with some burdens and some cares in this life? Jesus Christ, you know what? Come to me, I will give you rest. I will give you rest. Now, verse number 29 sounds like it contradicts verse number 28. Because Christ is saying, look, I don't want you to work. I want you to rest. Now, of course, that has to do with salvation. Salvation is not by works. It's by resting on Christ's finished work. But then when we look at 29, this is Christ now asking us to do some work. Oh, man, it must be so hard to work for Christ. Verse number 29, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Okay, so if you want to learn of Christ, right now you're learning of God, you're learning of Christ, you're learning of his word. Right now, being in church, you've taken this yoke upon you. Is it really heavy to bear right now? Is it so hard to come to church and listen to the preaching? No, learn of me. I am me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. And ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Okay, so Jesus Christ does want us to work. He's going to put a yoke upon you, but it's very light. It's very easy. What is it? Learn of Christ. Learn of his ways. You know, live after the Lord. This is the Christian life. You know what, the Christian life is not complicated. You know, just know God's word, learn of him, and live after him. That's it. Alright, and guess what, even when you stuff up, when you mess up, you're still going to heaven. Because Christ has given you rest. We already saw that there in verse number 28. Can you please turn to 1 Timothy chapter 6. 1 Timothy chapter 6. There is another yoke that we are asked to bear in 1 Timothy chapter 6. And I will be covering a little bit of what I covered on Thursday. I didn't mean to do this. It's just the way it's worked out. But on Thursday I preached about being meek and lowly. And, you know, the importance of respecting the authority that God has put over you. You know, as an employee working hard for the Lord, not to be a man pleaser. But we see here in 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse number 1. It says, So this is for the employees. You go to work, guess what it is? It's a yoke. You've got a yoke on your neck. You've got to go and labor. You've got to go and work in the employer's field. Whatever it is, right? Whatever it is that you're doing. And what is it that you're meant to do as you carry this yoke? Complain and murmur. Oh, it's heavy. I've got to go to work. I've got to get up. No. It says, look, count your own masters worthy of all order. You know, respect the authorities that God has put over your life. Verse number 2. And they that have believing masters, maybe your employer is saved. Maybe you have an employee and your employee is saved. Maybe he's a brother in church. You know? It says, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved partakers of the benefit these things teach and exhort. So this is the idea that maybe, maybe one day, maybe it already is, I don't know, where one of your bosses is at church. It's a brother in church. And, you know, at church you're on equal footing, right? Just because he's your boss at work doesn't mean he's your boss at church, right? And, you know, I once, before I became a pastor, I had a pastor under my authority at work, okay? But if I went to his church, guess what, I was under his authority at church. And so sometimes you've got to work on this authority. Anyway, the idea here is, well, just because he's your brother in the Lord at church doesn't mean you disrespect him at work, okay? At work he's still the master, okay? He's still the boss. You've still got to listen to him and respect the authority even if it's a believing brother, even if it's just a brother in the Lord. Verse number 3. Now look at this. This is about authority. This is about taking on the yoke. Again, what is Jeremiah preaching? Take the yoke of Babylon, okay? Don't rebel against this authority that God has put to judge a nation, okay? Now look at this. If any man teach otherwise. So if anyone comes to you and says, you know what, we need to rebel against authority, okay? We need to rebel against the employer. We're going to go on strike. It's time to strike. We've got to rebel against our bosses. If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud knowing nothing. Oh man, I thought he was so strong because he's trying to stand up against the authorities. He's trying to stand up against the powers. No. He's proud. He's full of pride. He knows nothing. He's got no knowledge. There's nothing you can learn from that individual. But doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisions, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself. Boy, you know what? If one day you have a brother in the church try to rise up against the pastor, and I'm not just saying because I'm the pastor, but if someone wants to rise up against authority, if you want something in some other church, and they say, you know what? I don't like the pastor anymore. Let's take him down. Let's kick him out of the church. Not because he's done something worthy of being kicked out of church, just because they think gain is godliness. They want to be the one in charge. They want to have the preeminence. Brethren, what's the command here? From such withdraw thyself. They're full of pride. They know nothing. Okay? They are not being sent by God. They do not have the wisdom of God. They are acting out of their own flesh. They're acting out of their own pride, their own lusts. Okay? It's fine to have yokes. Okay? The yoke of Jesus. To live a godly Christian life. To go to work and have the yoke of the employee over you. Well, guess what? There's a wicked government. There's a wicked power in the time of Jeremiah, and they're putting yokes upon the nation, and God says put on the yoke. Put on the yoke and serve them. Give honor to the authorities that God has put over you. Okay? That's honestly my message to this church. You know, again, I'm going to be gone in six months. I don't know how things may develop. Again, things might go worse. Okay? I want you to remember this. You know, it's not like there's good, bad, and worse. Sometimes it's just bad and worse. Okay? Choose bad. Choose the yoke to serve the authority and recognize that God has put them in place for his reason, for his purposes. Okay? Back to Jeremiah, chapter 27. Jeremiah 27, verse 14. Jeremiah 27, verse 14. Just like Paul was telling Timothy to withdraw yourself from those that teach otherwise. Jeremiah says the same thing here in verse 14. Therefore, hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, You shall not serve the king of Babylon, for they prophesy a lie unto you. They're liars. Verse number 15. For I have not sent them, I have not sent those preachers, I have not sent those prophets, God says, save the Lord, yet they prophesy a lie in my name that I might drive you out and that ye might perish, ye and the prophets that prophesy unto you. Also, I spake to the priests and to all these people, saying, Thus saith the Lord, hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the Lord's house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon, for they prophesy a lie unto you. What are these people preaching? Okay? Now, what's going on in verse number 16? Remember that in the time of King Jehoiakim, there was a captivity that took place. Okay? And what happened was, the Babylonian Empire, they went into the temple of God. They went into the house of God. Again, we want to relate this to us. What is the house of God in the New Testament? The local church. Okay? And they took, you know, the vessels were made of gold and precious things. Some of these things were made of brass. And so, you know, the things that are in the house of God were very valuable. Okay? And the Babylonians came, said, Wow, this is nice. We're going to take it for ourselves. So they took a whole bunch of things for themselves. Now, these false prophets that were not sent by God, they're saying, look at the end of verse number 16, saying, Behold, the vessels of the Lord's house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon. They're saying, look, they're going to come back. God's house is going to be restored, you know, soon. And God says, no, they prophesy a lie unto you. They prophesy a lie unto you. You know, sometimes the powers that be, you know, and again, God allows these powers. God puts them in place for His purposes. They may come and affect the house of God. Okay? They can come and put heavy burdens even upon the house of God. But God allows them. Now, there are going to be some that say, well, no. You know what? We're going to have the glory of God's house forever. You know, we're always going to have the local church and we're always, you know, we shouldn't be affected by what is going on in this world. Well, say that to the house of God here. You know, no, the house of God is being affected by the Babylonian captivity as well, by the Babylonian takeover. They've come into the house of God and they've taken whatever they want from it. Okay? The ones that are prophesying lies are the ones saying, no, it's all going to be back to normal. It's all going to be fine. It's all going to be good. Can you please keep your finger there and go to 2 Chronicles 36. 2 Chronicles 36. I just want to show you this in one of these books of history, in 2 Chronicles 36, verse number 5. 2 Chronicles 36 and verse number 5. Remember I told you, you know, in verse number 1, just keep in mind that Jeremiah is preaching this to Jehoiakim. Okay? Well, look at 2 Chronicles 36, verse number 5. It says, Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. Now look at verse number 6. Against him came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon. So it actually happened. Jeremiah's walking around with this yoke and the bonds. Well, Jehoiakim ended up being bound in fetters and carried into Babylon. He was taken into captivity. Now that's the authority of the land. That's the politicians. That's the powers that be are being taken over. Now look at verse number 7. Nebuchadnezzar also carried off the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon and put them in his temple at Babylon. So what else does God allow? Not only for the authorities in the nation to be trampled upon, God also allows King Nebuchadnezzar to trample upon the house of the Lord. This is what God allows with the powers that be. Look at verse number 8. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and his abominations which he did and that which was found in him behold they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah and Jehoiakim, his son, reigned in his stead. Jehoiakim was eight years old when he began to reign and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. And when the year was expired, King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon with the goodly vessels again this is now the second time goodly vessels of the house of the Lord and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem. So the first prophets are saying hey, you know, King Nebuchadnezzar he's got no power over the house of God all those vessels he took the first time they're coming back but what really took place? King Nebuchadnezzar did come back with the Babylonian empire, with the Babylonian empires they took more from the house of the Lord they took more privileges away from the house of the Lord so who's prophesying the truth and who's prophesying lies? Listen, whether you like it or not we need to hark into the words of God here and understand that the house of God the New Testament church can be affected and has been affected by foreign powers by spiritual Babylon if that's what you want to call it okay? Again, what do we choose? Bad or worse? What do we choose bad? Okay? And put the yoke upon your neck and just serve. Unpopular. Unpopular sermon. Okay? Jeremiah 27 I can't, you know, I didn't come up with this idea this is Jeremiah's preaching, alright? I'm just preaching Jeremiah 27 alright? Jeremiah 27 verse number 17 please Jeremiah 27 verse number 17 If you get upset with anyone get upset with Jeremiah not me. Jeremiah 27 verse number 17 It says harken not unto them serve the king of Babylon and live wherefore should this city be laid waste? So that's a very clear message alright? Just take on the yoke just serve the king of Babylon just allow him to take what he wants from the house of the Lord okay? Just let it, let it be live verse number 18 but if they be prophets so if they are true prophets that tell you that you know, King Nebuchadnezzar is not going to be a prophet and King Nebuchadnezzar is not going to affect the house of the Lord and if the word of the Lord be with them let them now make intercession to the Lord of hosts that the vessels which are left in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah and at Jerusalem go not to Babylon so he's saying look if these are true prophets then let them pray and preach and speak to God and ask God please don't take any more from the house of the Lord we know again in history eventually not only were the vessels taken out of the house of the Lord the whole place was burnt down the whole place was destroyed this is why they eventually had to make a new temple okay but anyway verse number 19 for thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the pillars and concerning the sea now I want you to notice these next things so in the house of the Lord there are pillars in the temple okay and concerning the sea we'll talk about the sea soon and concerning the bases so these are three items the pillars the sea and the bases and concerning the residue of the vessels that remain in this city which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon Babylonian sorry Babylon took not when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem yea thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem they shall be carried to Babylon and there shall they be until the day that I visit them saith the Lord then will I bring them up and restore them to this place alright so the prophets so the prophets are like well you know they didn't take everything from the house of God at least we still have the pillars at least we still have the sea we have the bases right Jeremiah said yea when Babylon when he comes again he's going to take it all it's all going it's all going right until then I will bring them up and restore them to this place the 70 year captivity then the Lord's going to return those items back to the house of the Lord alright now can you please keep your finger there and go to 1 Kings chapter 7 1 Kings chapter 7 1 Kings Chapter 7 I'll be right back 1 Kings Chapter 7 and verse number 21 we're going back in time when Solomon was building the temple Solomon's temple Solomon's temple, and I want you to notice here in 1 Kings 7 verse 21, 1 Kings 7 verse 21 reads And he set up the pillars, that's the pillars that were taken by King Nebuchadnezzar, of the temple And he set up the right pillar and called the name thereof Jacob, and he set up the left pillar and called the name thereof Boaz Why did Solomon give these names to these pillars? Well Jacob means established, okay? So kind of the idea of unmovable, this is fixed, this is established Boaz means strength, okay? So these pillars represent the strength and the establishment of God's house The idea that it's unmovable, sounds good What's happening? Nebuchadnezzar is going to come and take away those pillars So the first prophets are saying, there's nothing that can affect God's house It's going to be established, it's going to be unmovable And God says, you know what, I'm going to let my servant Nebuchadnezzar come and take that away That which you thought made yourself so mighty and strong, these pillars that what he represented You know what, I'm going to take that strength away from the house of the Lord Look at verse number 23, drop down to verse number 23 The next thing that was mentioned was a C, remember that? Well it says here in verse number 23, and he made a molten sea Ten cubits from the one brim to the other, it was round all about and his height was five cubits And a line of thirty cubits did come past it round about Very quickly, actually drop down to verse number 25 I'll just explain all this to you very soon, verse number 25 And it stood, talking about the molten sea, so think about this large basin basically This large basin that contains water It stood upon twelve oxen Three looking toward the north and three looking toward the west And three looking toward the south and three looking toward the east And the sea was set above upon them and all their hinder parts were inward So I don't believe it's hard to understand that the twelve oxen here represents the twelve troubles of Israel Okay, in the house of the Lord Now drop down to verse number 27 So we've seen the pillars, we've seen the sea Now let's look at the bases in 1 Kings 7, verse number 27 And he made ten bases of brass Four cubits was the length of one base and four cubits the breadth thereof and three cubits the height of it Alright, so the sea that contained water And, you know, we don't have a lot of detail here, I was trying to learn a little bit about it But it looks like it contained a lot of water which was used for the washing ceremonies You might know in the Old Testament temple the priest would have to wash You know, symbolizing Christ, you know, perfect body and without sin And these bases would basically be where the water may flow from that large basin Which seated upon the twelve oxen representing the twelve troubles of Israel So again, what would this symbolize? Well, if the waters were used to wash, to cleanse, to represent, you know, sinless You know, the sinlessness of Christ And the twelve oxen represented the twelve tribes What all this represented was basically that in the sight of the Lord, this nation, these twelve tribes were washed They were clean, you know, and ultimately we understand representing the blood of Jesus Christ You know, being washed of their sins because they were God's people Okay, they were God's people And so this represented that they're a clean, pure nation unto God Well, what's going to happen now? The king of Babylon is going to take all of that away So that which represented a clean, washed nation, now that's taken away And what does it represent now? That they're dirty, you know, that they're defiled, right? God's taken all these away, all these things that had great symbolism to the house of God And to the entire nation And King Babylon came and took all of that away Now, I'm near the end here Actually, I am at the end here, okay So I want you to think about again, this day and age Okay, we're not just learning what took place in Jeremiah But how do we apply this in our day and age? Okay, because I've had the question asked of me You know, yes, I understand there are COVID restrictions I understand there are mandates and all this stuff that goes on And listen, Australia is barely affected I mean, when you hear about other nations I mean, they're under a lot more yokes, the heavier yokes I mean, under a lot more bondage than what Australia is, right? And the question that has been brought to me Should that affect the house of God, though? Should that affect the church? Well, yes Yes I mean, if we're going to learn anything from Jeremiah It's going to affect the house of God And those of you that are saying, you know, no You know, it shouldn't affect us Well, I don't want to line myself up with the false prophets That prophesied a lie, right? I mean, I don't want to line up with the people that said You know what, you know, we're not going to allow King Nebuchadnezzar to come here Or the other nations that said You know what, we're not going to take this servitude We're not going to take this yoke Let's fight King Nebuchadnezzar and then get destroyed We need to make decisions Sometimes a decision is a bad one But hey, if it's what the Lord's asking you to do If it's authority that God has put in place Affecting the whole nation, affecting the house of God You know what, I mean, are we going to be so prideful To detach ourselves from the word of God? I mean, these things are written here for us For our learning, for our admonition That we can learn and grow thereby And listen, we all need to grow and learn thereby You know, the thoughts, the ideas that I have right now That I'm preaching to you That's coming from Jeremiah chapter 27 I did not have those same thoughts and ideas pre-COVID Sometimes you need a situation to come about And then it's like, well, what do we do, Lord? You know, do I come up with my own crazy plan and idea Or do I turn to your word and see what I can learn from it, Lord? What is it that we can learn from God's word? And again, you know, I'm excited about COVID-19 I'm excited about all the restrictions I love it I love it, you know why I love it? Because the Lord's allowed it And the Lord's going to use it to teach us Many things in His word The Lord's going to use it to change And to take down our pride To be humble and to be lowly You know, the Lord's already used it in my life To be detached from the things of this world I'm more excited for heaven than I've ever been Like, I'm more excited for the coming of Christ Than I've ever been I'm more excited about souls getting saved Than I ever have been before Okay, because I'm losing my attachment to this world I'm seeing just how corrupt this world is And I'm seeing how God is using, you know, several factors to judge this world Again, I'm not saying that we're in the end times I still believe that's a long way away I could change my mind on that if things develop in a certain way But for now I think it's a long way away But there are still lessons that we need to learn today Okay, don't pass up this opportunity when things are strange and weird And we do live in strange days It's kind of exciting because then you can think Well, Lord, what is it that you want me to learn today? What is it that you're trying to teach your house? What is it that you're trying to teach your people? And Lord, if I have to choose bad instead of worse And Lord, if I have to put a yoke upon my neck Well, I can see here that I'm going to live I can see here that I'm still going to be productive for you That I can still be used for you, Lord Help me to make the decision to choose that which is bad Okay, let's pray