Jeremiah chapter 5, look at verse
30 with me. A wonderful and horrible thing
is committed in the land. Now the word wonderful here does
not mean delightful or pleasurable. It does not mean marvelous or
magnificent. It does mean astonishing, but
in the worst way. The original Hebrew word means
consternation or feelings of anxiety, distress, and amazement. If you have a marginal Bible,
you may notice that the word means filthiness, filthiness,
and a horrible thing is committed in the land. The Hebrew word
here for wonderful is shamal, and it comes from a word that
means ruin. It means to stun, to devastate, to destroy. A devastating and horrible thing
was committed in the land. Was it an earthquake? Earthquakes
can be devastating and horrible. Was it a F5 tornado? A tornado can certainly cause
ruin and devastation. Was it war? Well, war can be
disastrous and cause great calamity and great destruction. But that
wasn't it. Was it a virus? Was it a germ
that wreaked havoc and caused anxiety and distress and astonishment
even to the people of God? What was this devastating and
horrible thing that caused such distress and ruin in the land?
Was it a famine? Was it a plague? Well, verse
31 tells us what this devastating and horrible thing was. Look
at it with me. The prophets prophesy falsely
and the priest bear, or there again, if you have a marginal
Bible, they take in their hands, rule by their means, And my people
love to have it so." Now, there were false prophets here in Jeremiah's
day who were lying on God. They were not telling the truth
about who God is. They were not being true to God's
Word. And the most tragic thing, the
most devastating and horrible thing of all was that the people
loved it. Whatever was being preached,
whatever was being prophesied, the people loved it, but it wasn't
the truth. They were prophesying falsely. These folks loved the lies that
they were being told. And God, through the prophet
Jeremiah, asked here a very solemn and sobering question at the
end of verse 31. Look at it with me. God says,
and what will you do in the end thereof? In other words, what
will these evil things bring for you? what will become of
you in the end to believe these things. It's the same in our
day. Men along with women are standing
in pulpits on nearly every corner who are not preaching the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ. Trust me, there is
a famine in the land, but not a famine of bread nor of thirst
for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Amos 8
11. Brother David, is this gonna
be a message on what the gospel is not? No, it's not. This is first and foremost, a
warning with a declaration of what the gospel is. It's a warning
of a devastating and horrible thing that's being committed
in our land. And it's a serious warning to
any who love it. As I listened to what is being
preached by the masses today, One thing that is very obvious
to me is the fact that those who hear these things absolutely
love what they're hearing. They're raising their hands in
approval. They're voicing and shouting
their acceptance, saying, praise the Lord, glory to God. Thank
you, Jesus. And God says that these so-called
prophets and priests and preachers are prophesying. That word means
preaching. They're prophesying falsely.
They're taking rule by means of their own hands and by their
own means, they're doing their own thing and not the will of
God. And God says, my people love
to have it so. Now, let me clarify for just
a moment that this reference here of my people was not referring
to God's elect. I acknowledge that this is where
many of God's elect once were. I myself once loved this false
message, especially the message of man's free will and man's
worth and man's work and way, but not anymore. What this is
telling us is that everyone and everything belongs to God. In
the sense of God being God, all people are His. Everything belongs
to Him. He's their creator. He's their
sovereign ruler. Whether they bow to Him or not,
He's still their Lord. He's still their God. Even God's
enemies are, in one sense of the word, His people. Not in
a loving, saving way, but by means of possession. They belong
to Him. The Lord Jesus said, is it not
lawful for me to do what I will with my own? It all belongs to
Him, the whole shooting match. Everyone and everything is His.
Now, in the very next verse of chapter six, God begins to declare
judgment against the enemies of Judah and God's prophet, Jeremiah,
laments the judgments of God. There's no true minister of God
that finds pleasure or joy in folks perishing. Even God himself
doesn't delight in the wicked being lost forever. But here,
God proclaims wrath upon those who love these false teachings. And God says, blow the trumpet
of warning like the torches of fire sending a sign to all in
the land that evil appears out of the north and great destruction. What is this evil and great destruction? Well, we see it's false preaching.
It's the prophets prophesying falsely. It's the priests by
their own hands ruling with their agenda and not God's. And it's
the same exact evil and destruction that we have in the land today.
Look down at verse 10 here of Jeremiah 6. To whom shall I speak
and give warning that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised. Their ears are stopped up with
the filth of sin, and they cannot hearken. Behold, the word of
the Lord is unto them a reproach, meaning it provokes their disproval. They have no delight in it. Verse
11, therefore, I am full of the fury of the Lord. I am weary
with holding in. "'I'll pour it out upon the children
abroad "'and upon the assembly of young men together, "'for
even the husband with the wife shall be taken, "'the aged with
him that is full of days. "'And their houses shall be turned
into others "'with their fields and their wives together, "'for
I will stretch out my hand "'upon the inhabitants of the land,
saith the Lord.'" You know, it's no light thing to lie on God. It's a devastating and a horrible
thing. Now hold your place here and
turn over a few pages to Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah chapter
23, verse one. Here we read in verse one, woe
be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture,
saith the Lord. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people. And this
reference is speaking of the elect of God. He says, you have
scattered my flock. You've scattered my sheep and
driven them away and have not visited them. Behold, I will
visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord. You know,
the Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter seven, he said, beware
of false prophets. This isn't just preaching against
religion. This is a warning. The Lord did a lot of that. Beware
of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they are ravening wolves. Let me show you what Peter said.
Turn with me to 2 Peter 2, if you would. I won't turn you to
any more scriptures except back to Jeremiah, but look at this
one with me. 2 Peter 2, verse one. Here Peter says, but there were
false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be
false teachers among you, who privilege shall bring in damnable
heresies. This isn't just disagreeing on
a small issue. These are damnable heresies. Even denying the Lord that bought
them. You see that? and they bring
upon themselves swift destruction." Now, listen to me on this. The
freewill message that we hear today, the freewill that's being
preached today denies the Lord Jesus that bought His people.
You think about that. To say that you have to lend
God your cooperation, that you have to lend God your will, your
decision, you have to let God have His way, is to deny the
Lord that bought you. It's to deny Him. It's to deny
that the blood of Christ and His death on the cross was enough
to accomplish the salvation of God's people. I mean, let's just
call it what it is. It denies that God's purpose
of sending his son into the world to save his people from their
sins was effectual, that God was able to accomplish redemption
for his people. And it's to deny God and it declares
him and his son to be failures. That's just how serious it is.
And that's exactly what it is. Look at verse two here. And many
shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way
of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness
shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you. Now
back in our text in Jeremiah six, I want you to look at verse
13. Verse 13, Jeremiah six, for from the least of them, even
unto the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness. Talking
about these false prophets. And from the prophet, even unto
the priest, everyone dealeth falsely." So we see that Jeremiah
and Peter both say the same thing. These false prophets, priests,
preachers, religious leaders, are given to covetousness. They
make merchandise out of you. They treat you as a merchant
treats his merchandise, and they're out to make a profit off of you.
That's simply what that means. Their interest in you is to make
interest on you. Jeremiah charges these false
prophets with three particular crimes. First, they're given
to covetousness. We just read that in Peter and
here in Jeremiah. Well, what do they covet? Well,
first, they covet the praises of men. In John chapter 12, speaking
of the chief rulers of the Jews, we're told that many of them
believed on Christ, but they did not publicly confess that
they did. And the reason was this, that
they loved the praises of men more than the praise of God.
By confessing Christ, they knew that they would risk losing their
place of honor, and their position, and their authority, and more
importantly, that they'd lose their paycheck. And the Apostle
Paul said, if I seek to please men, I should not be the servant
of God. You see, false preachers and
teachers covet the praise of men. Secondly, they covet money. They covet possessions. They're
interested in money. They're interested in possessions
of this world. Have you ever seen how some of
these faith healers, as they call themselves, have you ever
seen how they live? In 1 Peter 5, verse 2, Peter
said, feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the
oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy
lucre. That's talking about money, but
of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but
being in samples or examples to the flock. God's ministers
don't lord over folks. They don't put the people of
God in a financial burden. Do you remember what our Lord
said? He said, whosoever shall be chief among you, let him be
your servant. Now there's your example. Even
as the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. If anyone should have been ministered
unto is the Lord of glory. But he didn't come for that reason.
He came to minister to those in need and to give his life
a ransom for many, Matthew chapter 20. God's servants don't lord
over God's heritage. They look to Christ as their
example, and they themselves become examples to others. These
millionaire preachers today teach that God prospers people who
give. You just give. God will give
you 30, 60, 100 foe. And the reason they preach that
is because they want you to give to them. Now, I was born at night,
but it wasn't last night. And they tell you that they want
you to have the same. They want you to be millionaires
too. And that's only to justify their own wealth. But it takes
only a glance, only a glimpse, only a look to Christ's life
to see that that's not so. Well, the Lord was born a poor
carpenter in a despised town. He had no financial support in
His ministry. He had no place to lay His head.
He never took, but He always gave. Now, that's our example
as ministers and as believers. And thirdly, these false prophets,
these preachers, they covet titles and they covet honor. Again,
Matthew chapter 23, the Lord Jesus speaking of these religious
Pharisees who did all they did, the scripture says, to be seen
of men. Everything they did, they wore
their fancy phylacteries and they stuffed their robe full
of prayers to make them look more religious and holy. And
the Lord said, they love the uttermost rooms at feast and
the chief seats in the synagogues. They love to be greeted in the
markets. They love to be called a man, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi, for
one is your master, even Christ. And all ye are brethren. Men
like to be called reverend. Anytime I am asked to preach
at a funeral and they call me and say, OK, is this how you
spell your name? And I always say, please, whatever
you do, do not put Reverend David Edmondson. See, there's nothing
reverend about me. My Lord is to be revered, but
I'm just a man. Paul said Paul, a servant of
Jesus Christ. He didn't say Reverend Paul or
Dr. Paul or Deacon Paul or Bishop
Paul or whatever. He just said Paul. David Edmondson,
that's my name. Oh, men like to have titles. The religiously educated love
to be called doctor. Dr. Joe, Dr. Tim, Dr. Bob, doctors of doom is what
most of them are. Some even like to be referred
to as pastor. Men want titles. They want the
uppermost seats. But friends, there's only one. There's only one who's to be
reverenced and honored and worshiped and praised. And that's Christ. He's our message. What He's done
for sinners is the message. And He gets all the glory and
the honor. For it was He alone that saved you from your sin.
He's the one who fulfilled the law of God in your room instead. He's the one who satisfied God's
holy justice for you. What has any man, any religious
leader ever done that makes them worthy of the honor that's due
Christ alone? The Lord went on to say, and
call no man your father upon the earth. And yet there is a
religion, I won't mention the name, you know what it is, where
you're asked to call a man father. The Lord said, don't do that.
Call no man your father upon the earth, for one is your father,
which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters,
for one is your master, even Christ. But he that is greatest
among you shall be your servant. Got this backwards. Any man or
woman that knows anything about the Bible knows that God will
not share his glory with another. Isaiah 42, eight. And that brings
me to the second thing again. Look at verse 13 here in Jeremiah
6. God charges these men with dealing
falsely with the people. God says they're given up to
covetousness, and every one of them deals falsely. When a man
tells you that you have a say in the matter of redemption,
that you must give Jesus your heart or let God have His way. We've all heard these things.
That's dealing falsely with sinners. How so? Because it's not true.
It leads sinners to think that they, in one way or another,
contribute to their salvation when God clearly proclaims from
the Scriptures that salvation is of the Lord. How does God
deal with His people? He deals with them in and by
and through this Word. That's it. We talked about that
some in the first hour. The psalmist said, wherewithal
shall a young man cleanse his way? And then he answers by taking
heed thereunto according to thy word. Peter said, desire the
sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. That's
talking about the Word of God. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God. Profitable for doctrine, for
teaching, for reproof, conviction, for correction. Profitable for
instruction in righteousness. What does that mean? You ever
thought about that? What is instruction in righteousness? It means that
this book teaches men and women where the perfect righteousness
that God requires comes from. It comes from Christ. I bet that
doesn't surprise you, does it? Everything comes back to him.
Comes from Christ and nowhere else. God deals with men and
women according to the scriptures, according to his word. Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. Matthew 4, 4. Paul said, I've
kept back nothing from you, but I've showed you and taught you
the word of God. Paul told Timothy, preach the
Word. Preach the Word. Not your philosophies,
not your ideology, not even your theology. Preach the Word. Preach Christ and Him crucified. Preach who Christ is and what
He's done. I never get tired of hearing
that. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God.
What did Jesus Christ do? He came to this world and He
died for my sin. He shed His blood to wash away
every sin, past, present, and future. Now, that's something
of interest to me. That's the gospel. Preach the
gospel. Preach the word. We benefit from
only what God says in this book. And then we come to the third
thing that these men did. Look at verse 14. They have healed
also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying
peace, peace, when there is no peace. That's what false religion
and its prophets do. They heal the hurt. I thought
about that quite a bit this week. It's a temporary healing. They
have healed slightly, it says. Did you notice that word in the
verse? The Hebrew word for slightly means swiftly and easily. What
the Lord is saying here is they swiftly and easily heal the hurt
by saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. You know,
it's kind of like giving Novocain when a man is in pain. It's kind
of like giving a woman birthing a child an epidural during delivery. You're not doing a thing about
the source of the pain. You're just attempting to make
them comfortable by covering the pain. This is talking about
giving false assurance. You make someone comfortable
for a while, but you don't remove the source of the pain. Only
God can heal the leprosy of sin. Only God can do away with the
source of our pain and our sorrow and our grief. And that's exactly
what Adam attempted to do when he sewed together fig leaves
and covered himself. When a sinner discovers they're
naked, they make an apron out of their own good deeds and their
own good works and their morality, and they hide behind their so-called
righteousness. And if God's Word ever convicts
a religious lost person, you can be religious and still be
lost. But if God ever truly convicts
a man or a woman, I don't care how religious they are, if He
truly chose them something of their sin, they'll be troubled. Boy, I tell you, I was religious
when the Lord saved me and the Lord greatly troubled me. I remember
sitting there as the preacher was preaching, saying, God's
gonna kill me. And He'd be right in doing so.
I'd never thought that before. I thought I was a pretty good
boy. And I told folks that I was. But when I heard the truth, I
mean really heard it, I knew I was lost. I knew that I had believed a
lie. I knew that I was trusting in a false Christ. I knew I was
serving a little impotent little G God and my sin bothered me. My sin troubled me. My sin grieved
me. And for the first time in my
life, I saw that sin, singular, S-I-N, was what I was. And sins, plural, came from being
what I was. Sin is what I am. And I sin because
I'm a sinner. But what false religion endeavors
to do is to heal the hurt. to pour oil on troubled water. They'll try to convince the sinner
that he's not lost, just troubled. He's just troubled. He's not
lost. He just backslid. They try to
instill peace where there is no peace. They try to establish
peace where there is no peace. They heal the hurt. And one thing
that I've learned and know to be true is that if a sinner is
troubled over their sin, they're gonna seek peace one place or
another, either God or man, but they're gonna seek peace from
their trouble. And if it was, and if it is God
that sent them the trouble, trouble of soul over their sin, that's
what I'm talking about, that kind of trouble. They'll see
that only God can give them the peace that they must have. Only
God can give it. Only the Holy Spirit can give
you that real peace. The preacher can't give it. And
a true preacher won't try. I believe it was Brother Montgomery. I'm not sure. Someone was troubled
one time. He said, just leave him alone.
Don't try to console him. Just leave him alone. Let the
Lord deal with him. He's able. Our Lord said, my peace I give
unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Our Lord said,
let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. He's
the one that gives peace. Our Lord said, come unto me,
all you that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you what?
Rest. I'll give you peace. What is
someone in trouble laboring over? What are they heavy laden about?
They're sin. The world's religion will put
you under a heavy yoke and they'll never bring true peace to your
heart. You know who has true rest for
their souls? Those that have peace. If you're
not at peace, you can't find any rest. The law of God demands
perfection. You know this. Perfect obedience
from the center. The law says, cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things that are written in the law to
do them. You and I can't do them. The law declares that whosoever
shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, that
that person is guilty of the whole law. Have you ever been
where the Lord brought David? Have you ever truly seen your
wicked heart? Have you ever been made to truly
and honestly grieve over your sin, mourn over your sin and
your sins? David said, I acknowledge my
transgressions and my sin is ever before me. David couldn't
get his sin off his mind. Have you ever been there? Have
you ever been to where Job was when Job said and cried, I abhor
myself? I hate myself. Have you ever
been there? I hate myself. I hate how I am. I hate what I am. Have you ever
been there? Have you ever been where Isaiah
was when he said and cried, woe is me, I'm a man of unclean lips. For out of the abundance of our
hearts, our lips, our mouths speak. And my lips are unclean
because my heart is unclean. Have you ever been there? Have
you ever seen where Paul was when he cried, oh, wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this dam?
That's what God shows his elect from the beginning of this very
book. Genesis 1, 1, we're told that the earth was without form
and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Well, that's
a picture of mine and your dark, void, and lifeless souls. That's
exactly what that is. From the very first words, God
shows us what we are. And unless God speaks to our
souls and says, let there be light, there'll be no light.
Unless God's spirit moves upon our spiritually dead hearts and
souls, there'll never be life. And that's exactly what Paul
was talking about in 2 Corinthians 4. He said, in whom the God of
this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. There's that again. And then
it says this, for God. who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, dark, void, formless,
lifeless. And he's given the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
If God doesn't do that, we'll never live. We'll never have
life eternal. God must say, let there be light
if there's ever to be light. False religion and its spokesmen
will say, you're not lost, you're just disturbed. You're not lost,
you're just backslidden. You're not lost, you're just
confused. You're not lost, you're just
going through a tough time. And the only person that will
ever try to convince a lost man that he's saved is another lost
man. The only person that'll ever
cry peace, peace to a sinner that God has shown to be in trouble
and under the conviction of the Holy Spirit is one that does
not have peace themselves. They cry peace, peace when there
is no peace. There's no mercy except for the
guilty. No strength but for those who
are without strength. Christ died for the ungodly.
Why did Christ come into the world? He came into this world
to save sinners. He came to give peace where there
was no peace. But there's a peace that you
can't understand. You can't understand it with
the natural mind. There's a peace that Paul said passes all understanding. But you don't have to understand
it because that peace that God gives shall keep your hearts
and your minds through Christ Jesus. Now, that's what you have
to know. It's all through Christ. We're
right back to that. before man can have peace in
his heart, he's got to savingly lay hold of the Lord Jesus Christ,
for Jesus Christ is the sinner's only righteousness. And he says,
come unto me and I'll give you what? Rest, peace. The rest is provided. As many
as received Him, Jesus Christ, to them gave He the power to
become the sons of God. Knowing that I'm a child of God
gives me great peace. because I know he's out to do
me good. Friends, there's a filthiness. Listen to me in closing. There's
a filthiness, a devastating and a horrible, horrible thing being
committed in the land today. These so-called prophets, preachers,
priests are preaching falsely and by their own hands and means
they're ruling this religious world. And there are many that
love it. They love it. Well, preacher,
what makes you think that you and your church are right? And
I've been asked that several times. I just got one answer,
the word of God, God's word. That's what and why. This book's
the final say, it's the final authority. And our Lord praying
to his father in John chapter 17 that we're studying now in
the Sunday school hour said, sanctified them, how? Through
thy truth, thy word is true. That's out. That's the only proof
I need. And the only way a sinner can
escape this devastating and horrible famine that we have in this land
is to eat of the bread of life and to drink from the fountain
of the water of life freely. That's Christ. The question is
this, will you eat? Will you drink? Do you remember
what God's question was through Jeremiah's prophet? He said,
what will you do in the end thereof? That's the real question when
it's all said and done. What will you do in the end thereof?
Our Lord said, take and eat. This is my body, which is broken
for you. Our Lord said, this cup is the
New Testament in my blood. This do ye as often as you drink
in remembrance of me. So what will you do? If you eat
and drink of Christ, you'll have peace, real peace, true peace. And if you don't, you'll die
in your sin. The Lord will give strength unto his people. The
Lord will bless his people with peace. Psalm 29 11. And to that,
I say amen.