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Alright, if you look at Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse number 14, Jeremiah chapter 3 verse number 14, it begins by saying, Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord. The title for the sermon this morning is Turn, O backsliding children. Now this is a term that gets thrown around quite a lot in churches. What does it mean to be backslidden? Very simply, you know, when you are saved, when you're a child of God, when you know that you're on your way to heaven because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God then calls on us to follow after him. You know, Jesus wants us to be his disciples, he wants us to be his followers, he wants us to be fishers of men, he wants us to follow the steps that Christ has laid out for us. And so normally when you start in the Christian life, you get really excited, you know, you understand what salvation is, you realize it's a free gift, there's nothing more that you need to do except believe and trust what Christ has done for you. And then it's like, well, what else does the Bible have to say? It's a big book, right? I mean, surely not every page in the Bible is about salvation, of course it's not. It's about Christian living, it's how we can conduct ourselves in the Christian life. And so normally when you're a young believer, you get excited, you've learned the truth, you think everybody in your family wants to know, and you think all your friends want to know, eventually you find out as you share it, oh, they reject it. In fact, they're angry at me for sharing this information, you know, it's kind of a bit of a surprise because, you know, maybe you're so ready and excited to hear it, well, that's just the reality of the life and, you know, for some people it takes time to understand the message of salvation. But then you start learning the Bible and you get excited and, you know, when you're a new Christian, you think, you know, I'm going to just run this race, you know, I'm never going to deny Christ, I'm just going to serve Him all the days of my life and you kind of take the, like the Apostle Peter, right? When the Apostle Peter said, look, I'll never deny you, you know? If all men turn their backs against you, I'll never turn my back against you. And Jesus Christ said, hey, you know, even before the cock crows, you're going to deny me thrice, you know? And so, you know, you eventually find out that Christian life is not a life that you can just, maybe you can sprint sometimes, maybe you can run fast sometimes, but that is not something that is sustainable in the long term. You know, the Christian life is something that takes your entire life and it's more, it's not a sprint, but it's a marathon, okay? And so what's important is, it's not necessarily how fast you're running, that's important, but what's important is that you're moving forward, that you're taking steps as a Christian, you're growing, you're being more like Christ, you're picking up your Bible, you're praying, you're learning, you're going to church, you're doing all these things. All these things are important for you to move forward for the Lord, and then we have this idea of backsliding, okay, backsliding. And the idea of backsliding is that, well, instead of moving forward, I'm actually moving back, I'm sliding away from the Lord, I'm going back to my old sinful habits, I'm going back, I'm not picking up the Bible anymore, I've lost the love for church, I'm not really interested as much in the Bible, I didn't realize that I was going to face persecution and resistance from people that I love, and maybe I'm just not going to pick up the Bible anymore. And that's the backsliding state. Listen, you can't stand still in the Christian life, you're either moving forward or you're going backwards. Okay, and so the call here is for us not to be backsliding children. And of course, the context of Jeremiah chapter 3 is the nation of Judah, but also Israel, which is the northern kingdom, and these nations had become backsliding nations to the Lord God. Now, Jeremiah chapter 3 is a very important chapter, okay? On Friday I had a bit of a Bible study discussion on how we study the Bible, how we understand and interpret the Bible, and there is something that you just must understand, and we have in this chapter a great picture of marriage, a great picture between husband and wife, and God uses that analogy, He uses that illustration to describe what Israel has done against the Lord, right? And so when we see an illustration, we shouldn't create doctrines based on that illustration. If you have a parable, if you have a typology type, things that picture Christ's illustrations, these are not things to build your doctrine on, but these are things to help establish or help illustrate already established clear in the Bible doctrines. And the reason I say this is because people use Jeremiah chapter 3 to say that God is okay with divorce, and listen, God is not okay with divorce. His plan for marriage was one man, one wife for life, okay? In fact, that was against the Australian law once to be divorced. I mean, in the past it was difficult to get divorced, but today, you know, divorce is just common practice, isn't it? And so we see this and people use Jeremiah chapter 3 to say, well, God's fine with divorce or even to say that God himself is divorced, and I'm going to show you just how foolish that is when you take this from what is supposed to be an illustration. So let's start in verse number 1, Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse number 1. The Bible reads, they say, if a man put away his wife, and the Bible speaks this term put away his wife, it's speaking about divorce, okay? Bible uses divorce or put away as the same thing, right? If a man put away his wife or get divorced and she go from him and become another man, so she marries another man, shall he return unto her again? Can they get reunited? Can they get remarried? The question is, the answer is no. This is one of the laws of God. Let's just keep going. It says, shall not the land be greatly polluted? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again to me, saith the Lord. Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lying with, in the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness, and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness. So the Lord's continuing the same harsh language that he used in chapter number 2, and he describes the nation of Israel and Judah as prostitutes, as harlots, as these women that are unfaithful toward their husband, right? They're going after many lovers. And what we understood from chapter 2, what that meant was, not obviously physically doing this, but spiritually they were doing this, right? They had turned against the Lord God of the Bible, and they had started to follow gods that were stone and wood. They had started to follow false gods. And God uses the harsh language of an unfaithful wife, like a harlot's wife or a whorish wife, to describe how this nation had treated the Lord God. Now can you please keep your finger there in Jeremiah? Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 24. Deuteronomy chapter 24. Because it did say that, you know, if you put away your wife, if you get divorced and she marries another man, you can't get remarried. Like even if a new husband passes away, you know, the law of God was that they couldn't be reunited if marriage already took place, okay? Now if you got divorced in the Bible, and neither of you got remarried, you were permitted to be reunited. But if either party got remarried, they could never be reunited. In fact, this would pollute the land. So God had certain standards. He had a moral code so, you know, people would not be completely loose with their sexuality. They wouldn't just, you know, defame what marriage is, and to keep certain standards in place, okay, to prevent the nation from being polluted. And let me just say to you, Australia is a polluted nation. I mean, you know, this nation is full of fornication. It's full of adultery. You know, it's almost like expected that one day your spouse will commit adultery. I mean, that's just how it is in this nation. And God would say, you know, that kind of lifestyle is a polluted lifestyle. And so he says it's polluted in Judah, and it's also polluted in Australia as well, okay? But let's look at Deuteronomy chapter 24. Let's get the, so we have the illustration, because was God literally married to the nation? Was there actually a marriage ceremony? You know, did Israel walk down the aisle and get married to God, or is this an illustration? It's an illustration, right? So what we're going to do now is actually turn to the law, the law of Moses, the command on marriage and divorce, and it's here in Deuteronomy chapter 24 verse 1, let's have a look at it. It says, when a man have taken a wife and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, now, this is not saying like, if you just stop loving her, now you can get divorced. You have a look at this soon. It says here, no favor in his eyes, because he have found some uncleanness in her, then let him write her a bill of divorcements, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife. If the latter husband hates her, and write a bill of divorcements, and giveth her in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house, or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife, the former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife. After that she is defiled, for that is abomination before the Lord, and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. So there we have the commandments, right? That if you find an uncleanness in the woman that you marry, you're permitted to give her a bill of divorcements, and she can go out and get remarried. But if she gets remarried, you can't take her back as your wife. Now the question becomes, well, what does it mean to find uncleanness in her? Oh man, you know, she's put on weight. Is that what, can I divorce her now? Right? You know, what are the excuses you may come up with, right? She's had a couple of children, her body's not in the same shape it used to be, I think that's unclean, and I'm going to divorce my wife. That's not what it's talking about, right? We need to understand, you know, the Bible is consistent. The Bible is the word of God. There are no contradictions in the Bible. I know people want to tell you there are contradictions, but there are none. There are no proven contradictions. From the Old Testament to the New Testament, we have 40 different authors that God used to pen down the Bible, to write about God, to write about Jesus Christ, and it's consistent. You know, God used kings, God used his fishermen, God used a tax collector, God used all kinds of people to pen down the Bible. Now let me tell you, if all of us, you know, there's less than 40 of us here, if we all wrote about religion, do you think there's going to be inconsistencies? Absolutely. I mean, we wouldn't, you know, you wouldn't, if you wrote one chapter, I wrote one chapter, I wrote one chapter, and look, we all live together. What if you lived hundreds of years apart? What if you lived thousands of years apart? Do you think there's going to be consistency? No, it's going to be inconsistent, right? And this is what makes the Bible amazing. We've got 40 different authors, you know, across thousands of years, penning down the words of God, and we have this beautiful consistency, because it's not the word of man, it's the word of God. That's why. It's God's word. And God used man to pen down these words, you know. The Bible is an amazing book, it is the best selling book of all time, right? Now let's go to the book of Matthew, let's go to Matthew chapter 19, because we want to understand what this uncleanness is, that allows you to divorce your wife. What is the uncleanness, okay? Matthew 19 verse 3, please. Matthew chapter 19, verse number 3, and we're going to Jesus Christ, okay? Now we saw Deuteronomy, that's the word of God, who's Jesus Christ? He's God manifest in the flesh, the Son of God. And so do you think Jesus is going to contradict what he wrote in Deuteronomy? What he wanted penned down in the book of Deuteronomy? Of course not, right? Matthew 19 verse 3, Jesus Christ gives us a greater clarity of what was written. Matthew 19 and verse number 3, it says here, the Pharisees, now the Pharisees were religious leaders, they were ungodly, the Pharisees also came unto him, came unto Jesus, that is, tempting him and saying unto him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? Hey, is it okay for us to just get divorced for any reason? Hey, but that's Australia now, Australia 2020, is you can get divorced for any reason. There's a no fault divorce, just whatever, you just decide not to live together anymore, you just had enough of each other, you can get divorced. That's what's been asked. There's nothing new under the sun, brethren. There's nothing new, okay? Whatever situation we're in in the world, whatever's going on, even coronavirus, whatever it is, there's always something in the Bible to tell us how we ought to behave as believers. I mean, it's always there. Mankind does not change, okay? We still have the same foolish thoughts, the same sinful flesh. Look at verse number four. And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female? He's referring to the book of Genesis. In the book of Genesis, God created Adam and Eve, right? And he says, look, this is what he did. He created male and female, so Jesus is teaching us about marriage. Jesus is teaching us about marriage. Most people, even if they reject the Old Testament, they still think Jesus was a decent guy. Okay, now Jesus is saying these words. Male and female, verse number five, and said for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they twain, twain is two, okay, it's not three, it's not four, it's not polygamy, they twain, twain two, shall be one flesh. So marriage is a union between one man, one wife, okay? Not two men, not two ladies, okay? Not a man and an animal. I think in Japan men are marrying their online computer, I don't know. It's weird, right? People are trying to get married to objects and to animals. Listen, this is coming to Australia. It's happening around the world. It's going to come. People are changing what it means to be married, okay? We learn that it's one man, one wife, one flesh. One flesh. You can understand this, okay? Marriage is a union of the flesh, okay? Now this is important because we're going to take these principles, what Jesus Christ is telling us, and go back to Jeremiah chapter three and understand it. Let's keep going. Verse number six, wherefore they are no more twain, no more two, but one flesh, what therefore God have joined together, let not man put asunder. Hey, no divorce, Jesus says. Listen, if you're married today, divorce should be out of the question. Don't even think about it. Don't even talk about it. Hey, men, if you have an argument with your wife, you get upset, you get angry, don't let the word divorce come out of your mouth. Don't let it come out, okay? You say, what's the secret of keeping a marriage for so long? How long have you been married? 56 years. 56 years. I'll tell you what the secret is. No divorce, okay? Divorce is not an option, meaning so when there's problems, you've got to sort it out. When there's problems, you've got to talk about it and come to an agreement, all right? And just lower yourself, you know, stop being so prideful and understand this is the woman that I'm going to spend the rest of my life with and for a wife, this is a man I'm going to spend the rest of my life with and so I want to have a happy life and we're just going to have to sort out our problems instead of going, listen, divorce just creates more problems. That's all it does. It doesn't fix the situation, just creates more problems. Let's keep going, verse number seven. And they said unto him, why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and to put her away? So they're referring back to Deuteronomy, which is what we read. So they're asking, why did Moses then allow divorce? Well, now we understand, remember, if there's some uncleanness in her, you could get divorced. Well, Jesus now explains that, right? Verse number eight. He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you, that's what allowed you, to put away your wives, but from the beginning, it was not so. And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, or put away his divorce, right, his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committed for adultery, whosoever marrieth her, which is put away, doth commit adultery. So what did we learn there? There is one reason, the uncleanness that we read about in Deuteronomy is if she had committed fornication. So what is fornication? Okay, is that adultery? It's not adultery. Look at the verse again. Verse number nine. And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committed adultery. There's adultery, there's fornication. Let's keep going, whosoever marrieth her, which is put away, doth commit adultery. There's adultery, and there's fornication. What's the difference? Adultery is that if one married spouse is unfaithful to their husband or wife, right, that would be adultery. Fornication, you know, sexual sins before marriage. Before marriage, okay, before the two have become one flesh, before that marriage has been consummated, that is fornication, okay. But in a marriage that has been consummated between husband and wife, if a spouse is unfaithful, that is now adultery, okay. So if your spouse commits adultery, is that grounds for divorce? No, because that's not fornication, okay. If she's committed, you know, if he or she has committed adultery, you should still try to fix that. Now, I'm sorry if that's happened. Unfortunately, that's what happens in this world. You know, God, in God's commandments, you know, if you committed adultery with another man's wife, it was a death penalty. That's what God thinks about it, okay. If that person was put to death, hey, or the marriage is, you know, is no longer there, you could be free to get remarried. Hey, listen, these are the commandments of God, you know, I'm not like this bloodthirsty preacher that just wants to put people to death, you know, God just tells us adultery is a crime. It's not just a sin. It's a crime that's worthy of death, okay. But look, I know that our nation does not carry this through. And so, you know, husbands and wives that have been hurt by adultery, you know, unfortunately, because we have a government that does not uphold God's laws, you're gonna have to see it through. You're gonna have to just work out, you know, the differences between husband and wife. So let's understand this now. Let's go to Matthew chapter 1, okay. Because when you read your Bible, you don't just start reading Matthew chapter 19, right. I mean, people create doctrines in Matthew chapter 19, and they go and teach some crazy things. Well, here's the thing. Before you got to Matthew chapter 19, you should have at least read Matthew chapter 1, all right. And then 2, then 3, then 4 all the way to 19. And so the Bible's written in a way to help you understand, you know, when you get to things that might be challenging in doctrine, God's already given you, you know, many foundations that you can build from. Matthew chapter 1. So let's have a look at this. Let's have a look. What does it mean for you to be allowed to get divorced over fornication? Very quickly, let me explain this to you just quickly because I know in South America, Chile, and I was born in Australia, so, you know, I've not experienced this, but I got cousins and stuff like that. When they get married, they cannot come, they cannot have a religious ceremony, you know, you cannot just go to a church and to a pastor and get married, okay. What you first have to do is go to the government, and it is the role of the government in marriage by the way, it's the law of Moses, okay. It is the role. And they get a marriage, like a civil marriage union, like documents, they are married, right. And so they might be married, let's say on the 1st of July, let's just random dates, okay. Then they're getting their, you know, wedding and ceremony all organized, you know, that they're not living together, they're just legally married. Then at some point in time later, might be several months later, once everything's organized, then they go to the church or whatever it is, wherever place they're getting married at, you know, and they have a religious ceremony. I know there are some European countries that are similar like this as well, okay. So you're legally married, but you haven't had the ceremony, and the union has not been consummated, okay. You're not living together, you're still separate, and then after the marriage, the marriage is consummated. I know in Australia, we don't have this tradition, we don't have this practice in Australia. And so understanding what we're about to read can be a little difficult. But when you understand that other nations in the world do this practice, then you understand this was also happening in the land of Israel. And this is where, if someone, after the legal documentation and marriage takes place, if there's an unfaithfulness from that time to the consummation, that is considered fornication. And that is the time, that is the uncleanness. You found out this person that you're about to become one flesh with has been unfaithful and unclean, that is the grounds for divorce. And I'm not making this up, because let's look at Matthew chapter one. Matthew chapter one, verse 18. Matthew chapter one, verse 18. We're learning now about the birth of Jesus Christ. And of course, Mary was a virgin, a miracle took place, and God allowed Mary to fall pregnant with the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, but Mary was legally married, she wasn't engaged, she was legally married to Joseph. So let's have a look at this, Matthew chapter one, verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, what's a spouse? Husband and wife, right? She's espoused to Joseph before they came together. So before they consummated the marriage, right? She was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Now look at verse number 19. So could you imagine if you're legally married, you haven't consummated the marriage, and you find out that the woman you're about to get married to in that ceremony sense has fallen pregnant. What are you going to think? You're going to think, well, she's definitely been unfaithful, right? And if you know the laws of Moses, you're permitted to divorce her. Because that's fornication, not adultery, that's fornication, okay? Let's keep going, verse number 19. Then Joseph, her husband, listen, her husband, okay, again, they were legally married, but they hadn't come together, okay? Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man, what does it mean to be just? What he's about to do is right, it's just. He's following the laws of Moses, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example was minded to put her away privily. So he said, look, I'm going to divorce her. And by taking this action, it's saying that he was just in doing so. He's following the commandments that we have in the Bible. Verse number 20. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, okay, that's his wife already, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. Okay, so they don't get divorced, okay? But Joseph being a just man, he had grounds for divorce, because his wife, Mary, had been unfaithful, well, he thought had been unfaithful, right? He thought there was an uncleanness in her, I'm going to divorce her, I'm going to put her away, because we have not yet consummated the marriage. If they had consummated the marriage, that would now be adultery, okay? So what do we learn here, brethren? This is important as we keep going through Jeremiah chapter three. The only grounds for divorce, the only biblical grounds for divorce, I should say, okay? The only biblical God-given grounds for divorce is fornication, okay? If the person you're about to marry, you found out that they were unfaithful towards you, that would be grounds of divorce if you had already had a legal civil, you know, union, but not the actual proper consummation of the marriage. Okay, let's go back to Jeremiah chapter three now. Jeremiah chapter three and verse number three. Jeremiah chapter three and verse number three. The Bible reads, therefore the showers have been withholden, that's the rains, and there have been no latter rain, and thou hath a whore's forehead, thou refuses to be ashamed. So God is punishing the nation by hurting their farming and economic growth. He's withholding the rains as their punishment for being an unfaithful nation, by being this woman or, you know, as it were in his eyes, this unfaithful wife. Verse number four. Will thou not from this time cry unto me, my father, thou art the guide of my youth. So not only does God use the illustration of marriage in Jeremiah chapter three, he also uses the relationship between father and child, father and children. So here it is, they're crying to God, my father, thou art the guide of my youth. So in the past, in their youth, you know, just like little children, the one to guide children should be their parents, should be their father. And so there was a time like that, right, a time in their youth when they would look at God as their father, hey, and God's saying, look, aren't you going to cry to me like you did before when you were children and I was your father? So listen, in this chapter, there's a mix of illustration of marriage and divorce, and it's a mix, also illustration of father and children. Verse number five, let's keep going. Will he reserve his anger forever? Will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou has spoken and done evil things as thou couldest. So God is saying, look, you know, am I going to hold back my anger forever? You know, God is long suffering. In Psalm 145, verse eight, it says, the Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy. And so look, this nation has gotten themselves into great weakness. God has withheld his anger, but he's not going to withhold it forever. At some point, his anger is going to come down and great judgments going to fall upon this nation again. It comes with the Babylonian captivity. That is God's judgment upon these wicked nations. Let's keep going. Verse number six. The Lord said also unto me, in the days of Josiah the king, hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? She has gone up upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. So again, very harsh language about what a backsliding Israel hath done. Now before we read verse number seven, let's just remind ourselves, this is a time when the nation of Israel is divided into two nations, two kingdoms, right? So when God is speaking about Israel here, he's not speaking about the entire nation, he's speaking about the northern kingdom, because now he's going to refer to the southern kingdom in verse number seven. And by the way, verse number six is the first time in this chapter that we see this term backsliding. The term backsliding appears seven times in this chapter alone, and fourteen times over the entire book of Jeremiah. So half the time it's actually in this chapter, so you can see that backsliding is the major theme in this chapter. Let's keep going. Verse number seven. And I said, after she had done all these things, turn thou unto me, but she return not. That's Israel. She did not return back to God. God's saying, look, come back to me! But she return not, and her treacherous sister Judah, so that's the southern kingdom, saw it. So the younger sister Judah, the southern kingdom, looked at Israel and saw how she had turned her back against God, as it were, like an unfaithful wife. Verse number eight. What I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery, now look at this, I had put her away. What's that? God is saying I divorced her, right? Look at this. I put her away, and given her a bill of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. So this is where people get the teaching that it's okay to get divorced over adultery. Why? Look at verse number eight again. Let's break it down. And I saw when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel commiteth, what do they commit? Fornication? Commiteth adultery. I had put her away, okay, and given her a bill of divorce. They say, see, you can get divorced because of adultery. Wait a minute. Is that consistent with what we already saw in Deuteronomy, the words of Jesus Christ, and what we saw Joseph and Mary do? Is that consistent? No. What happened in those situations was putting someone away because of fornication. And so this is where it becomes important when you study your Bible, are you going to build your doctrine on the clear statements, on the clear commandments of God in Deuteronomy and the clear words of Jesus Christ, or do you take an illustration and build your doctrine from that? Was God literally married to Israel? What did we learn about marriage? One man, one woman, right, twain, one flesh, okay? Marriage is not God and a nation, okay? And it's one flesh. The Bible says God is a spirit, okay? God is a spirit. Marriage is a union between two flesh that become one flesh, okay? A man and a woman. Marriage is not God and a nation. Genesis chapter 6, some people believe fallen angels married, you know, it's crazy teaching that fallen, that devils basically got married to women. The Bible uses the term they took wives. Listen, marriage is not between a devil and a human being. That's not marriage. Marriage is between a man and a woman, okay? So when you see these kinds of thoughts, you need to understand is God literally married or is God using the illustration, the picture of marriage to help us understand how hurt He was by the unfaithfulness of Israel? Because brethren, if my wife committed adultery, if my wife was unfaithful, it would break my heart. I don't think there could be any greater pain that I could feel if that took place. You know, if that happened, I don't think I could feel anything greater. Any greater sorrow, any greater hurts, right? Any greater pain. So God is using that illustration to show us just how hurt He was when Israel, you know, went after other gods, okay? And so this adultery is not literal adultery. It's a spiritual adultery. God is using this illustration and we have to be careful about how we use this, okay? Let's keep going. Let's keep going. Verse number 9. And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, speaking about Judah, okay, the sister of Israel in this illustration, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. So the stones are, you know, and the stocks, stocks is wood, talking about the idols, the idols that they set up. And so the adultery is that they've gone and worshipped other false gods. But what do we learn there? That the sister Judah also committed adultery. You know, Judah also committed adultery against God. So listen, think about this. If you were to take this literally and say God is teaching us about divorce here, well then guess what? You have to take it literally that God was married to two women at once. He was married to Israel and He was also married to the sister Judah. Is that what the Bible teaches? One man, two wives? No, we saw that twain, two, become one flesh. And so listen, if you take this literally that divorce is okay for adultery, then you got to take it literally that you think God's okay with polygamy, that God's okay with you having two wives or three wives or four wives. Who knows? Listen, that is not what the Bible teaches. The commandments of God are very clear that marriage is between one man, one woman for life. Not between God and a nation, not between one man and multiple women. That's not marriage, okay? That's not biblical marriage. And so you can't take these things literally or you're going to find yourselves in a lot of problems. You're going to start teaching that polygamy is okay. Taking on two wives is okay because God was married to two wives. God got divorced, so why can't I get divorced? God had two wives, why can't I have two wives? Because this is an illustration. It's a picture. It's just showing us how bad these nations have become in the eyes of God. So you can't build doctrine on marriage and divorce from a picture, right? This is what I've been telling the men on Friday. You have to be careful or you're going to get yourself in false doctrine. You're going to find yourself contradicting the clear commandments of God. Let's keep going. Verse 10, and yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah have not turned unto me with her whole heart, but faintly saith the Lord, so they fake a love for God, and the Lord said unto me, the backsliding Israel have justified herself more than treacherous Judah. So listen, Israel was the first nation to turn their back against God. Judah was quite a godly nation for a lot of the time, Israel, the northern kingdom was mainly the wicked one. But God is saying, listen, Judah has become worse than Israel, you know, they've gone after gods more than what the northern nation did. Now listen, keep your finger there, let's go to James chapter four, please. Let's go to James chapter four. Because you might say, well, you know, how does that apply to us today, Pastor Kevin? You know, I don't worship gods of stone and of wood, you know, I don't set up these statues. Is it possible for us today to be an adulterous people? You know, are we able to be adulterous spiritually against the God of the Bible? And yes, because any of us can become backslidden, any of us can stop picking up the Bibles, any of us could stop going to church and praying to the Lord, any of us could stop living after the commandments of God and go back to living a life without God, without the fear of God. And look at James chapter four, verse number three. James chapter four and verse number three. The Bible says, ye ask and receive not. Now listen, you can pray to God and God says, I'm not going to give it to you. Why? Because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Now we should go to God in prayer and ask him for our needs, but there are things that might just be your own personal lusts that aren't godly. God's not going to give them to you. Let's keep going, verse number four. Can we be adulterers and adulteresses? Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Enmity means that it's an enemy to God, right? Whoso therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. You say, can we be adulterers and adulteresses? You say that right? Yes we can, we can be, okay? This is reading the New Testament to believers. We can be if we make the world our friend. Because listen, the world system, the way the world thinks, the philosophies of the world, you know, just get divorced, just who cares, why do you have to be unfaithful to one woman? If you live after that way, why do you have to get married? Just commit fornication. Try before you buy. Any kind of sexual immorality, any kind of perverted behavior, that's what the nation thinks. The nation thinks that's okay, all right? Why get married? Just see how you go first before you get married. Listen, this is not the biblical way. This is not what God teaches us. And if we as Christians think that's okay, you know, if my children come up to me and say, Dad, you know, I don't want to get married just yet, I like this girl, but we're going to live together instead. You know, someone who's grown up in a Christian family, someone who's grown up in church, who's heard the preaching of God's word, you know what God would say about that person? You've committed adultery against me. Because you've fallen off the world. And listen, brethren, whenever you love the world, when you love the world more than you love God, you are committing spiritual adultery. This is what it means to be backslidden. You start going back to the world. You start living how this world dictates for you to live rather than living the way that God tells us to live according to his word. So listen, we can look at the nations and Israel and Judah and they got into wicked behavior and it's easy to point fingers at them, but we also have to remember how this applies to us. If you love the world, you're behaving like Israel and Judah. Okay, let's go back to Jeremiah chapter 3. Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 12. God says to Jeremiah, go and proclaim these words toward the north. So that's to Israel, the northern kingdom, right? And say, return thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you, for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever. And so listen, you know, if you want to take this lesson for your marriage, alright, he's saying look, Israel, you've committed adultery against me, and even then, God says, well you know what, I want you back. Come back. And so look, if you've been hurt because your spouse, I hope this hasn't happened, but if your spouse has committed adultery and that's been a great pain to you, you can see the example of God here that he wants to be reconciled with that woman, okay? And so you need to please, you know, if you've gone through that trauma, that hardship of someone committing adultery on you, what God does, and the example that we see here, is that we need to try to keep that marriage together. Don't let it fall apart, okay? And try your best to move forward with the help of God. Let's keep going, verse number 13. How is it that we can stop backsliding? What is the first step? Verse number 13. So the first step to, if you find yourself backsliding, brethren, if you find yourself not reading your Bible anymore, you know, just going back to the world, the first thing you need to do is just acknowledge your iniquity, acknowledge your sin, acknowledge that you've done wrong. You know, be humble enough to say, you know what, God, I'm not living the way you want me to live, I've gone back my old ways, I'm really sorry about this. That's step number one, you know, acknowledge your iniquity, that thou has transgressed against the Lord thy God, and has scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord. And so I think during this coronavirus pandemic, I think, you know, because there are some churches, you know, like us, we're limited how many we could have, we could be limited in what we could do. And I know some churches in Australia that are still not open, you know, I talked to many pastors, many of my friends of other churches, and you know, a lot of them are still not even meeting, they're just only life services and things like that, okay. And so what happens is that when people aren't around their fellow believers, you know, fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord, you know, when people aren't attending church, and you know, that habit of just being in church every week, you know, when people aren't doing this, it's easy to go back to your old ways, it's easy to stop picking up your Bible, you know, it's easy to stop praying. It's easy during this pandemic to get into a backslidden state. Now, brethren, if you are ready to admit and say, you know what, I got back, you know, you don't have to confess this to me, it's your own thoughts, but if you can just say, look, yeah, during this pandemic, during this time, when we weren't able to have church or whatever, you know, or meet together as often as we do, and you think I definitely got into a backslidden state, well, let that be a wake up call for you, okay. Because more important than just being at church and more important than just being around fellow believers is your own personal walk with God. You know, if your own personal walk with God is strong, you know, if you just have the habit of picking up your Bible and praying to the Lord, if you have a time where you just, you know, maybe first thing in the morning, you set time with the Lord, you know, if you had that personal walk with God, you wouldn't get backslidden, okay. You know, church is good, it's to help you, but that's not your, that shouldn't be your walk with God only, you know, you know, being around and fellowshiping with other believers, that's good, but that shouldn't be the only thing that's causing you to love God, you know, you should have your own personal walk with God. And if you have your own personal walk with God, you're not going to get in a backslidden state, no matter what, you know, problems may come, well, no matter what restrictions may come. So it's so important, you remain faithful yourself to God, you know, God cares about the individual. And as we keep going through this chapter, you'll notice how important just the individual is, you know, God speaking about the nation in general, but you'll soon see that God cares about the individual within the nation, all right. So let's go to verse number 14. It says here, Turn, O backsliding children, sayeth the Lord, for I am married unto you, and I will take you one of a city, or actually, here it is, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. Now some might say, Ah, Pastor Kevin, can't you see, I am married unto you. God was married to these nations. God did have two wives. God did divorce over adultery. Can't you see that he's married? Is he literally married, or is this figurative? Well, if you take that literally, who is he married to in that verse? Let's keep going. Look at verse number 14. Turn, O backsliding children, sayeth the Lord, for I am married unto you. Does the Bible teach you that you can marry your own children? No way. No way. Okay. That is an abomination. Are we to take this literally, and say, Well, God was married to his own children. That's not marriage. God is against that. God is against, even our nation is against that behavior. So man, you take this literally, you're going to fall apart. You're going to have all kinds of weird doctrines. You're going to believe in polygamy. You're going to believe it's okay to marry your own children. You're going to believe it's okay to have more than one wives. So what am I telling you, brethren, that when pastors, preachers, when they turn to Jeremiah chapter three, and try to justify divorce, they've got a wicked heart. They've got a wicked mind. They don't know the Word of God. They don't love God. They don't understand what it is to, you know, they don't understand what is literal and what is figurative. You know, some things are just clearly figurative. You just got to understand God has given us pictures. You know, God, Jesus, when Jesus Christ came, he came teaching in parables, telling us stories, so we can relate, you know, we can understand, okay, yeah, that's what, you know, that's what you're teaching us, Jesus Christ. But you can only take parables as far as Jesus Christ took parables. You can only take illustrations as far as God is taking illustrations. You can't build your doctrines and commandments and instructions of life just on illustrations alone. Or you're going to have problems, okay. And this is what the wicked world, you know, says, oh, here's the contradictions. It's not a contradiction. It's an illustration. It's a story, okay, to help us understand how wicked these nations have become, help us understand when we're backslidden, we are breaking God's heart, okay. It's like we've committed spiritual adultery to God when we no longer walk in his ways. Please keep your finger there. Let's go to Luke 15. I told you that this chapter has the illustration of husband and wife, but it also has the illustration of father and children. We just saw that, right? Children come back to the father. Children come back like, you know, when your father led you in your youth before you became an adult. God is asking them, come back in the same way. Let's go to Luke 15, verse 11. Let's go to another illustration. Let's go to another story. Let's go to a parable. You know, one of the most famous parables in the Bible, Luke 15, verse 11. Luke 15, verse 11. This is the parable of the prodigal son, Luke 15, verse 11. And he said, this is what Jesus is teaching, a certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the portion of goods that fall off to me, and he divided unto them his living. So this younger son says, Dad, can I have my inheritance now? I don't want to wait. I want it now, right? So the father obliges, verse number 13. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with righteous living. So this son takes the hard work of his father and he wastes it in righteous living, right? He just lives a wicked life and spends all his money, spends all his possessions on living a wicked life. Verse number 14. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in the land, and he began to be once. Now what do we notice when Israel or Judah had backslidden against God, he said, I held back the rains. Remember that? I held back the showers. What do we have in this story? A drought. Okay? Again, the rains have been held back. There's a punishment that's fallen upon this son. And then it says here, verse number 15. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine, to feed pigs. And when he came to himself, he said, when he wakes up to himself and he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father's have bred enough and to spare? And I perish with hunger. So listen, his dad's got servants, his dad has riches, his dad has possessions, and now he finds himself having wasted all his substance, and now he's feeding pigs. That's his job. Feeding pigs. All right? And of course, in the nation of Israel, the swine was an unclean animal. So he's not even feeding, he's not even looking after clean animals, right? He's gotten to himself to a point of despair, you know, he's far away from the father, he's wasted the blessings of his father. He says, man, he was so much better with my father. Even the servants, not just his sons, even the servants, you know, a fool, and I'm hungry, and I'm his son, right? Verse number 18, I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. Hey, what was the commandment that God gave to backslide in Israel? First thing, acknowledge your iniquity. What does the prodigal son do? He acknowledges I've sinned against you, Father, I've done wrong. That's how you fix your backslidden state. What am I up to? 19. And am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Now, brethren, I don't know where you are spiritually. I know you're in church today, it doesn't mean you're walking with the Lord, though. Just because I'm preaching a sermon doesn't mean I'm walking with the Lord. We don't know our own personal spiritual lives, do we? Only you know that. And you might be far from God. And God is saying, look, if you just acknowledge your sin, God's going to go running and he wants you back, he wants you to be in fellowship with him, he wants you to walk with him, he's going to come run and kiss you and embrace you. Just the way he was asking Israel and Judah to come back, he would receive them even after they had committed spiritual adultery. Verse number 22. But the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to be merry. So this parable is not teaching us the gospel. This parable is not teaching us how one is saved. Now those that want to teach you, you've got to repent of your sins to be saved, will turn to this parable. They're building doctrine on a parable and say, we'll see this prodigal son, he found himself in a state of sin, he repented from that and came to the father and got saved. That's not what it's teaching. He already started as a son of the father. The picture is he's already a saved man. And he got himself in the world, he became a spiritual adulterer against the father, acknowledged his sin, came back, this is a picture of a backslidden Christian who's come back to be in fellowship with the Lord God. That's the teaching of this parable. Which again is consistent with what we're reading in Jeremiah chapter 3. So let's go back to Jeremiah chapter 3, verse number 15. So point number 1, if you're backslidden, acknowledge your iniquity and tell God you want to come back. Now what else is important if you're backslidden? Verse number 15. Because listen, most times when you're backslidden, you're going to get out of church. It's like the first thing that happens. You get far from God, you're like, I'm not going to go to church. And look, I'm not going to chase you up. If you don't want to be in church, I'll probably ring you once, see if you're going okay. If you say I don't want to be there, I'm not going to force you. You know, I might have authority in the church, I don't have authority in your personal lives though. It's your call, it's your decision. And actually before we read verse number 15, can we just look back at verse number 14 just very quickly? And I said to you that God cares about the individual, right? So he's saying to the nation, you know, come back to me, but then he says at the end of verse number 14, after he says, I am married unto you, and I will take you one of a city. He says, look, even if it's just one of you in the whole city that comes back to me, I'll take you in, all right? And two of a family. If it's just two of you in the whole family that wants to come back to me, I will take you in, okay? And I will bring you to Zion, and I'll bring you back to where I am, back in fellowship with me, okay? So God cares about the individual. Just because your family might be far from God, you can still make the decision, I'm going to be the one that follows God. I'm going to be the one that, you know, comes back to the Lord. I'm not going to remain in a backslidden state. And listen, just because we live in a wicked city of Sydney, okay, where wickedness abounds, you know, you could be the person that says, you know what, I'm not going to follow this nation, I'm not going to follow the wickedness of this city, I'm going to be the one that stands there, I'm going to be walking close to God. God cares about the individual. Verse number 15, it says, and I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. I told you the first thing you do when you get back to the news is you get out of church. God's saying, get back in church. Get back under the pastor. Get back, what's the job of the pastor? To feed you. To feed you what? Bread, and give you breakfast, am I here to cook for you, brethren, cook your lunch? No. To feed you with knowledge and understanding. You know, if you're in church, you know, your pastor ought to be feeding you. When you leave the service, you ought to say, man, I was fed with the word of God today. That's the job of a pastor, to feed you, not his wisdom, not jokes, and I don't mind joking around sometimes, but listen, that's not what feeds you, joking around, you know, telling, you know, funny stories, telling you about your adventures, you know, giving your wisdom, giving your advice. That's not what you feed people with. You feed people the knowledge and the understanding of the word of God. That's the job of the pastor. And I don't know, I don't know what churches you've been at in the past, but I know I've been in church where I've said, man, I'm not being fed here. Well, if you're not being fed there, you've got to find the pastor, you've got to find the church where you are being fed, where you are receiving the word of God, where you are learning some new things, okay? And that's my job. My job as a pastor is to see this, wow, I've got to feed people the word of God. Therefore, I can't just work out a sermon 10 minutes before service and just preach some watered down sermon that everybody already knows, you know, it's the work of the pastor to give due diligence to study so they can then feed people God's knowledge, all right? Let's keep going. Verse number 16. And it shall come to pass. And by the way, so you acknowledge sin and get back in church, all right? Get back in church. That's what we need to do to get out of your back certain states. Verse number 16. And it shall come to pass when ye be multiplied and increased in the land in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, neither shall it come to mind, neither shall they remember it, neither shall they visit it, neither shall that be done anymore. God is saying there's come a time when we're not even going to be thinking about the Ark of the Covenant anymore. Very quickly, Old Testament, if you know the Old Testament, I haven't got time to go through all this, but they would offer up animal sacrifices, right? And on the Ark of the Covenant, they had, well, inside the Ark, inside the box were the Ten Commandments and it was, was it Moses' rod or Aaron's rod? Aaron's rod, that's right. Aaron's rod that was in the Ark, but the cover, the cover of the Ark was the mercy seat, okay? And once a year in the Holy of Holies, the high priest would come in with a sacrifice and sprinkle the blood of a sacrifice onto that mercy seat, okay? So the Ark of the Covenant was important when it came to sacrifices. God is saying there's come a time when you're not going to remember those practices. When does that happen? Of course, that's when Jesus Christ came. That's when Jesus Christ came and established the New Covenant, the New Testament in His blood. And so we no longer have to, you know, the people there, they no longer have to do animal sacrifices, again, which was a picture of what Christ would ultimately do. So God is saying those days are coming, those days are coming when, you know, you're going to forget that that's not important anymore, the Ark of the Covenant, okay? So it's a future event. Let's keep going, verse number 17. At that time, shall they call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord? Wow, that's interesting. And all the nations shall be gathered unto it. What time do you think this is about? Do all the nations today gather Jerusalem? Is that where God's throne is? No, not now, right? Definitely not now. Let's keep going. And neither shall they walk anymore after the imagination of the evil heart. In those days, the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, so there's a United Kingdom that they're together, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers. So this is speaking about the millennial reign of Christ. Jesus Christ is coming back one day, and he's going to establish his kingdom, his nation in Israel. He's going to be ruling and reigning for 1,000 years, and that's when the people, the nations will come. That's where the throne of God is, because that's where Jesus Christ will be ruling from. So that's about the millennial reign of Christ. So we have the new covenant that Christ brings in, and that's picturing, of course, the future kingdom to come. Verse number 19. But I said, how shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a daily heritage of the host of nations? And I said, thou shalt call me my father, and shall not turn away from me. So God is saying, you're going to call me my father. Again, there's that relationship between father and son, father and the children. Now let's look at verse number 19, the beginning of it. But I said, how shall I put thee, when he's saying thee, he's speaking about the nation of Israel, and Judah, of course, right, among the children. So does God have, in the Old Testament, we're talking about the physical nation of Israel. He says, I'm going to put you amongst the other children. Who do you think the other children are? It's the New Testament believers. It's the believers in Australia, it's the believers in the US, it's the believers in China, it's the believers in New Zealand, it's the believers in Chile, it's the believers all across the world. These are God's children, because yes, even though God was dealing with a physical nation of Israel, in the New Testament, God is still dealing with a nation of Israel, but it is not the physical nation, it is a spiritual nation made up of all people, not just Israelites, not just Jews, but people of all nations. And so one day, all God's children, all the believers are going to be together with the Lord God. Please keep your finger there. Let's go to Galatians chapter 6. I'm almost done, I'd better hurry up. Galatians chapter 6. I always try to preach under an hour, so let's get through this, right. Galatians chapter 6, please, Galatians chapter 6, verse number 15. Because some people take this to say, well see, the nation in the Middle East right now, that's still God's people, you know, God's promise to bring them in. Not if they're not believers, they've got to be believers in Jesus Christ. God has replaced the physical nation of Israel with a spiritual nation, okay. Galatians chapter 6, verse number 15. It says, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision, that's the Jews, avail of anything, nor on circumcision, that's the Gentiles, but a new creature. Whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, that's not important in Jesus Christ. What's important is the new creature. When you're saved, you're born again, you're given a new man, the new creature, that's what's important to God. Verse number 16, and as many as walk according to this rule, you say, what rule? Well the rule about being in Christ Jesus, what we just read in verse 15. Peace be upon them and mercy and upon the Israel of God. Hey, there's an Israel of God today. What's the Israel of God? Those that are in Christ Jesus. Those that are the new creature, born again in Jesus Christ. It's not a physical circumcision, okay. It's not a physical DNA that makes you a child of God or physical descendant of Abraham. That's not what makes you a child of God. What makes you a child of God is if you're in Jesus Christ, if you've believed on him as your savior. And if you're that person, whether you're Jew or Greek, whether you're Jew or Gentile, whatever it is, brethren, you make up this nation, okay. And so the millennial promise to Israel is for all believers, okay, all believers. Old Testament believers and New Testament believers. Let's keep going. Verse number 20. Jeremiah chapter three, sorry, Jeremiah chapter three, verse 20. Surely as a wife, treacherously departed from her husband. Now again, is this literal or is it figurative? Well God says, as our wife departs from her husband, okay. So he's not saying Israel is literally his wife. In the same way as a wife departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me or house of Israel, saith the Lord. Verse number 21. A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel, for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the Lord their God. Return ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God. And so when we want to turn, when we want to heal our backslidings, we go back to God, God's going to help us, and we come back to the Lord our God. Look at verse number 23. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains. Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. Brethren, where do we find salvation? Only in the Lord our God. He says, look, verse 23, truly in vain, empty, is salvation hoped for from the hills. You're not going to find salvation in the hills, you say, what's the hills? The high places. You know, when Israel were worshipping false gods, they would set up these idols in the high places, okay? So there's no salvation in these false gods. There's no salvation in this world besides our Lord God. God is the salvation of Israel. Verse number 24. For shame hath devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flock and their herds, their sons and their daughters. And so what we see here is that being backslidden will cause you to lose the blessings of the past, the labor of your fathers, just like we saw in the prodigal son. He took the labors of his father, the blessings of his father, and he wasted it. In his backslidden state, he lost them all. And Israel, at this point in time, lost the blessings of God, and they made ashamed the labors of their fathers. Let's keep going to verse number 25. We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us. For we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God. So you can see here that certain people, it's not the entire nation because they still get judged by God in Babylon, but there are certain individuals that do turn from the backsliding, they do turn from God, and they decide well now moving forward we're going to obey the voice of the Lord our God. So you can see from the preaching of Jeremiah, there are some individuals that did indeed turn back to God. Now let's go to 1 John chapter 1, we're almost done. We're going to finish up on 1 John chapter 1, almost done here, 1 John chapter 1 verse number 8. 1 John chapter 1 verse number 8, brethren I want nothing more than for you to be walking with God, and if you are backsliding today, if you're not walking for God, if you're not obeying God today, then hey fix it, go and confess it to God. Go and live after his ways, alright. 1 John chapter 1 verse 8 says, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Brethren you'll never get to a point where you stop sinning, I've turned from my sins, I repented from my sins, liar, the truth is not in you if you say that, you're going to sin till the day you die. Now you should sin less, if you're obeying God you should be sinning less than you did before in the old days, hey but you're going to deceive yourself if you claim to have no sin, but then it says here in verse number 9, when you do sin, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So let me end on this brethren, if you are backslidden today, okay, or you've been backslidden recently, all you need to do is press the reset button, it's not hard, it's not hard, press the reset button, acknowledge your iniquity, your sin, say God I've sinned against you, I'm sorry, I've not been walking after your ways, turn back to God, God will heal your backslidings, okay, he'll forgive you of your sins, and you can be back in fellowship, back in walk, you know, with the Lord God, you don't have to be ashamed, you should be ashamed for what you've done, but listen, once you press that reset button, once you go and confess this to the Lord, you don't need to be ashamed anymore, you continue on the path that you were walking in the past. Okay, let's pray. Heavenly Father, I just want to thank you for the great truths in Jeremiah, Lord, there's so much to teach here Lord, and I just pray you give me the wisdom to teach it Lord, within a timeframe that's reasonable, as we keep going through this chapter, because Lord, you have so many great truths here, and Lord, I just pray for anybody that might find themselves backslidden today, Lord, I pray that we would seek to be reunited with you, help us to walk in your ways Lord, and Lord, when we do sin against you, Lord, I pray that we would have a short account, that we would confess those sins quickly to you, so we can maintain a clean walk with you Lord, thank you so much for loving us, thank you for never letting us go, but always Lord, being welcoming like the parable of the prodigal son, Lord, that you will always welcome your children back when we turn back to you, we pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen. Alright, take your hymn books now, and let's turn to hymn number 45, thank you for your patience, I did go over now a little bit, hymn number 45, we'll finish up on when I can read my title clear, hymn number 45, when I can read my title clear, hymn number 45, when I can read my title clear to mansions in the skies, I'll bid farewell to every fear, and wipe my weeping eyes, and wipe my weeping eyes, and wipe my weeping eyes, I'll bid farewell to every fear, and wipe my weeping eyes, should a fight against my soul engage, and fiery darts behold, then I can smile at Satan's rage, and face a frowning woe, and face a frowning woe, and face a frowning woe, then I can smile at Satan's rage, and face a frowning woe, let cares like a wild deluge, storms of sorrow fall, my God, my heaven, my all, my God, my heaven, my all, I but safely reach my home, my God, my heaven, my all, there shall...