All right, let's look back at
Jeremiah chapter 19. Well, the title of this message
is A Message in a Broken Bottle. A Message in a Broken Bottle.
If you followed along as Brother Aaron read this chapter, it's pretty much a message of
doom. A message of condemnation. And that's always a sad thing
because we know that the Bible as a whole is a book of hope
and a book of salvation, a book of assurance. But it is very,
very clear that that hope and assurance and salvation can only
be found in one person, in one place. that is in the Lord Jesus
Christ, God the Son incarnate, and at the cross of Calvary where
he put away the sins of his people and established the only righteousness
that removes the wrath of God that's being pronounced in this
message in a broken bottle. Again God commands his prophets
to speak of the approaching ruin of Judah and Jerusalem because
of their sin and their unbelief and their idolatry. This is certainly
not a message that's designed to tickle the ear or to play
upon the fancies and whims of emotionalism, but it's simply
the bare truth. Out of the mouthpiece of God,
the prophet Jeremiah, He was sent to preach these messages
of doom in a very public way. A very public way. These weren't
hidden. There's no Bible code here. There's
no hidden code here. It's just truth laid bare. Trying his best to warn sinners
of the coming wrath of God. And as I said, he doesn't leave
them there. continues to point sinners to Christ. Look first
at the message of God's wrath against sin. Look at verse 1.
He says, Thus saith the Lord, Go and get a potter's earthen
bottle. This is God's command to Jeremiah. This is going to be an object
lesson from a potter's clay water bottle. Or a jug or a flask,
but an earthen bottle. It connects this object lesson,
connects this message with chapter 18, the story of the potter and
the clay. God is the sovereign potter,
and Judah and Jerusalem are the clay. And as I said in that message
on chapter 18, the last part of that, how the apostle Paul,
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, applies that to the whole human
race. that God is in control, that
He is sovereign, that He shapes the clay according to His own
purpose and goodness and wisdom, according to His justice, makes
some vessels of mercy, some vessels of wrath. So now, this is the
opportunity to use something in the potter's house here to
bring a message to Judah and Jerusalem. The potter and the
clay. Now Judah is now represented
by this clay bottle, we'll see in just a moment. And so now,
he says, take of the ancients of the people, that's the elders,
and of the ancients of the priests. Now, those are the elders of
the people that lead them in a civil way and in a religious
way. And it represents the whole life
of the country, the whole life of the city of Jerusalem. The
elders, the wise, the respected, the older, the established leadership. So this is going to come from
men of renown and men of reputation, men of respect among the people.
And he says in verse two, he says, go forth unto the valley
of the son of Hinnom, Hinnom. In the New Testament, that valley
of Hinnom, that place called Hinnom here is called Gehenna.
In the New Testament, it's a symbol of death and hell. And it's whenever
Christ spoke of hell, he used the word Gehenna, which is the
New Testament equivalent here. And he says, this valley of the
son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim
there the words that I shall tell thee. Now the way to this
valley was through the east gate, but now the word east there is
a little bit misleading, that translation. You know, normally
when you think of the east gate or the eastern gate, and you
might even have this in your concordance, it's called the
sun gate. And you think of that gate which indicates, symbolizes
the approaching day of the Lord, the sun rising in the east and
Christ coming. And of course, The symbolism
here is appropriate here because, you know, when Christ comes again,
he's coming as the son of glory, not only to gather his people
unto himself, but also to judge the world in righteousness. So
there is the wrath of God associated with that. He's coming to judge
this world. But the literal translation of
this word, the East Gate here, would be the same as Potshard
or Potsherd. In fact, it is often called the
Potsherd Gate. Sometimes it's called the Dung
Gate. And so it's really not the same
gate that you think of when you think of the Eastern Gate. Now,
I don't know why they use the word East here in translation.
I know this, if you looked at a map of ancient Jerusalem, if
you cut the city in half, this certainly would be on the Eastern
side. but it'd be on the southeastern side leading out to the Valley
of Hinnom or Gehenna. And in that valley, the Valley
of Hinnom, that's where all the trash and all the refuse and
all of the broken shards of pottery that were made for the temple
but broken or flawed would be cast out onto that valley, thrown
on what they called the fires of Gehenna. That burning trash
heap, that continually burnt, they kept that burning all the
time. And that's why Christ used it as a symbol of hell and complete
condemnation and separation from God. And so it's through there
that the potters would throw their broken pieces of pottery. So we'll look at it as the potsherd
gate. It's also, we're going to see
later on, called Tophet. That's just another name for
it. Brother Aaron Red, you kept hearing that name, Tophet. Tophet
literally means a place of fire, and that's God's wrath. But the
lesson of this message in a bottle is the same as we read last time
in Isaiah chapter 45 and verse 9. Listen to this, I'll read
it to you. When Isaiah prophesied 100 years before Jeremiah, and
he said, woe unto him that striveth with his maker. Now what is it
to strive with your Maker? It's not to worship God. It's
to reject God. It's to reject His Word and His
truth. And especially to reject His
Christ. To reject His Gospel. That's
striving with your Maker. That's lifting yourself up in
pride. And Isaiah said it. Woe unto
him that striveth with his Maker. The Bible says in Isaiah that
our Maker is our Redeemer. Woe unto him that strives in
unbelief and pride and self-righteousness. And then he says it this way,
let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Broken
pieces of pottery. That's how he symbolizes the
unbelievers who perish in their sins. To whom the preaching of
the cross is foolishness. like a pot shard to be thrown
out in the valley of Hinnom, Tophet, the place of fire. Shall the clay say to him that
fashioneth it, what makest thou or thy work? He hath no hands. That's what Isaiah, to deny Christ
is to play with fire, eternal fire. To die without Christ is
to suffer the eternal wrath of God against sin. That's the message
in a broken bottle right there. But God gets specific here. Beginning at verse three, he
lists the sins of Judah. Listen to what he says here through
Isaiah, or through Jeremiah, Jeremiah 19. Verse three, and
say, hear ye the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, inhabitants
of Jerusalem, all the kings, all the people. Thus saith the
Lord of hosts. Now remember that always refers
to the sovereign God of a great army, And what it means is that
God cannot be defeated. It's the invincible God. Thus
saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. Behold, I will
bring evil, that's catastrophe, punishment upon this place. And
the witch, whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle. This is
gonna be such a great evil, it'll shake you to your bones. Your
ears will tingle when you hear it. And it says, because they
have forsaken me. Back to Jeremiah 2 and verse
13, remember they've forsaken the fountain of living waters
and hewn out cisterns that will not hold water. Broken cisterns. That's appropriate for this message,
isn't it? Broken cisterns, it's like broken pots. They've estranged
this place. That means they made this place,
which is the, this place, this geographical area where the temple
was. where the Shekinah glory of God
dwelt, where there was the priesthood and all the temple or the tabernacle,
the temple, the mercy seat, all of these glorious implements
and instruments that showed forth the glory of God in the salvation
of sinners by grace through Christ. All that was intended for the
blood of the animals. None of that in and of itself
had any power to save, but it pointed sinners to Christ, who
is the power of God unto salvation. And all of those things where
the glory of God dwells, they had turned it into a place of
alienation from God. That's what that means, estranged.
You've estranged this place. Here God's glory was dwelling
in the temple. And now you've turned it into
an alien place. A place that without God, you've
burnt, look at it, verse 4, you've burnt incense unto other gods. That's in the temple. They mixed
and mingled the religion of Jehovah, God Almighty, with the religion
of the Canaanites and the Baalites and all of that. And it's like
today, isn't it? Isn't it? We're all worshipping
the same God, we're just going different ways. That's the same
kind of idea. It's idolatry, it's a rejection,
it's forsaking God. And I'll tell you now, any place
where there is a religious meeting tonight, where Christ is not
preached in the glory of His person, and the power of his
finished work to save his people from their sins, any place where
they're met religiously where that's not preached is a place
that is alienated from God. Am I right? That's alienation. That's an estranged place. They
may be religious. They may be happy. They may be
singing. They may be on their knees. They
may be talking in gibberish. They may be doing, but listen,
it's estranged from God. It's just like these people here.
You know, one of the arguments that they brought against Jeremiah
said, Jeremiah, how can you say these things to us? We're praying
all the time. We're sacrificing all the time. We're coming to the temple all
the time. But it was religion without truth, religion without
grace. It was religion without Christ.
Look at it, verse four. They burned incense unto other
gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings
of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocence.
They murdered the blood of innocence. Now a lot of times in the context
of Scripture, that term innocent refers to a justified sinner. Now none of us in and of ourselves
are innocent, because we're all sinners. But all who are justified
in Christ are free from sin. Christ put away our sins. We're
justified in Christ. But in this context, I'll tell
you who I think he's talking about. And I think, I believe
verse five explains it. It says, look at verse five.
It says, they have built also the high places of Baal. Now
Baal is just a general term for any idolatry. To burn their sons
with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal. which I commanded
not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind. Now you remember
under the wicked king Manasseh, Manasseh, you remember he was
the father of, I can't remember the king, Josiah. And Josiah was a, he was a godly
king who led the people in reformation reforms. according to the law. Manasseh was probably, if not
the, one of the most wicked kings of the southern kingdom, and
he's the one who set up that image of the, I think it was
a Phoenician god called Astaroth, or Molech, it was Molech. I get
all these guys mixed up. Molech, and had his arms stretched
out like that, and they would take their little babies, and
they'd heat that god up in the fires of the Valley of Hinnom,
and take those little babies and lay them on the arms of that
God and then they would beat drums to drown out the screams
of the child as it was consumed. Now what a story. And I believe
that's who he's referred to when he says innocence. But now let
me caution you here. Calling them innocents does not
deny the doctrine of original sin as if we're born innocent
and then we reach some certain age and we make the wrong choice
and then we become sinners. No, we're born in sin. We're
born dead in trespasses and sin. We got that from Adam, didn't
we? We fell in Adam and we're born in sin. And so, but what
he's talking about in this context is that they did this to those
who had no conscious involvement in their idolatry, like little
babies. Those who had not, as Paul, I
believe, describes in Romans 5 and verse 14, who had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam. They had not sinned in that way.
They had no choice in this matter. And I believe that's what begs
for the context there because of what's said later on concerning
their rebellion. Now listen to me. Today we're
appalled when we hear things like that, aren't we? And we
should be. We're appalled that thinking,
moral, religious human beings could come to such a low point
And their depravity is to sacrifice their children. But I want you
to think about something. I'll just leave this with you
to think about. I won't get into it. What about
those who are leading their children in a false gospel? What about those who are teaching
their children to be little Pharisees? That's common. That's man by
nature in religion. That's just the same as placing
them on the arms of the false god Molech and letting them burn.
It's sad, isn't it? And God says here that I didn't
command these things, neither came into my mind. These things
are not the command or the mind of God. If you want to know the
mind of God, read his word. This is the mind of God, his
word. If you want to know the mind
of God, look to Christ. He's the bodily revelation of
the mind and Word of God. He's the Word incarnate. He's
the living Word. The spoken Word and the preached
Word are all about Him, aren't they? If you want to know the
mind of God, Well, look at verse six here. Now we come to the
intensity of God's judgments against them. Look at it, verse
six. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that this
place shall no more be called Topheth, that is, a place of
fire, nor the valley of Hinnom, but it's gonna be the valley
of slaughter, killing. God's gonna bring the slaughter
from. And he said, I will make void the counsel of Judah and
Jerusalem in this place. What was their counsel? You see
their counsel, and you know this word counsel here, or to make
void their counsel is similar to the same word that is used
for an earthen bottle. It means to pour out. In other
words, instead of a fountain of living water springing up
unto everlasting life, what came out of their bottle? Poison,
false doctrine, salvation by works. That's what it was. And he said, I'm going to make
that void. And I'll cause them to fall by the sword before their
enemies, he said, and by the hands of them that seek their
lives and their carcasses will I give to be meat for the fowls
of the heaven and for the beast of the earth. I'll make this
city desolate and in hissing. That's a derision. In other words,
everyone that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss
because of the plagues thereof. And I'll cause them to eat the
flesh of their sons. Now you know what that's talking
about? Exactly what it's talking about, cannibalism. He'd bring
them to such a point in their lives where they were so hungry. And he said, in the flesh of
their daughters and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his
friend in the siege and straightness wherewith their enemies. And
they that seek their lives shall straighten them. In other words,
they're gonna be between a rock and a hard place. That's what
it means to straighten them. They have no place else to go.
They can't get away from it. All of this. Now, the ultimate
fulfillment of everything that he's talking about here didn't
happen until about A.D. 70 and the destruction of Jerusalem
by the Roman Empire. This city was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. And they were taken to battle.
But it wasn't anything like what's described here until about A.D.
70. But in A.D. 70 there were so
many Jews killed that they couldn't even give an accurate count.
So many bodies piled up. And so God did make it a place
of slaughter instead of a place of blessing. A place of cursedness. He made their counsel void. Their
false gospel would be exposed for what it is, a message of
death. You see, Christ is and only Christ has the words of
eternal life. There's no life without Him.
And the people would be left as fodder for the beast, desolation
and derision, and as we read there, even cannibalism. But
now look at verse 10. Now, here's the broken bottle
showing the brokenness of Judah. Here's that message. Verse 10,
then shalt thou break the bottle in the side of the men that go
with thee. Break that water bottle in the side of these ancients.
And what he's talking about, this particular bottle that he's
describing here was a bottle that if you broke it, you couldn't
repair it. You know, a lot of pottery, if you break it, you
can repair it. This could not be repaired. It could not be
repaired. Now listen to what he says, verse
11. He says, and say unto them, thus saith the Lord of hosts,
even so will I break this people and this city as one breaketh
a potter's vessel that cannot be made whole again. Now let me tell you something
right there. What is that describing? That's
man without Christ. He cannot be made whole again. It's an impossibility to save
him. It's an impossibility to justify
him, forgive him. There is no wholeness without
Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete, whole in him. And without him there is nothing
but brokenness and wrath. And it says, they shall bury
them in Tophet till there be no place to bury. They're going
to bury them in the place of fire, the place of burning, until
it's so filled up there's no place left. There's not even
a spot of ground to bury anybody else. Now, God is absolutely sovereign. He's the potter. We're the clay.
Yet he holds men accountable. Listen to what he says. Listen
to verse 12. He says, Thus will I do unto
this place, saith the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof, and
even make this city as Tophet. The whole city will be like a
garbage dump burning. The houses of Jerusalem, the
houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place
of Tophet. Don't run to the palace. Don't
run to the king. He can't help you. He's in the
same boat you're in without Christ. Because of all the houses upon
whose roofs they had burned incense and to all the host of heaven,
that is like worshiping the stars in the heavens, and have poured
out drink offerings unto other gods. And then came Jeremiah
from Topheth. Now Jeremiah comes back from
the valley of Hinnom where he'd taken these fellows. Whither
the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of
the Lord's house and said to all the people, thus saith the
Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring
upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have
pronounced against it. Now underscore these last three
lines. Because they have hardened their necks, that they might
not hear my words. There's the reason. As I said,
God is sovereign. He's the potter, we're the clay.
Yet he holds men accountable. Why? Do men and women perish
in their sins? It's right here. Because they
have hardened their necks. What does that mean? That means
pride. That means self-righteousness.
That means rebellion. Stubbornness. They will not bow. That's what it means to harden
their necks. They're called stiff-necked.
I want you to turn to the book of Acts with me. Acts chapter
7. And look at verse 51, Stephen
the evangelist stood in Jerusalem and preached Christ to the people.
Preached the message of hope and assurance and salvation in
Christ and Him alone. The grace of God through the
glorious person and finished work of Christ. The God-man.
God in human flesh. God with us. The one who shed
his precious blood. and establish righteousness for
his people. And it says in verse 51, look
at it. Stephen said, you stiff-necked,
that's the same thing as you've hardened your necks, and uncircumcised
in heart and ears, that's the absence of the work of the Holy
Spirit in the new birth. That's man by nature. Uncircumcised
heart. What is an uncircumcised heart?
It's a heart that trust in the flesh. That's right. That's a heart that trusts in
the flesh. When the heart is circumcised by the Holy Spirit,
the filth of the flesh is cut away in this sense. We turn to
Christ, rest in Him, and we repent of dead works. We repent of the
flesh. We're like Paul. That all those
things which were gained to me, now I count them all but lost
for Christ. That's what it is. He says, you
stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. That is, remember
what Jeremiah said over here. He said that they might not hear
my words. An uncircumcised heart means
uncircumcised ears. There is no joy for them in the
preaching of Christ. There is no faith. There is no
humility. There is no drinking from the
water of life. They are not thirsty for Christ. They are not hungry for Him,
you see. They don't want to hear it. It's
a message that just grates against their own ideas. And they hate
it. And he says, you do always resist
the Holy Ghost. What's he talking about? He's
talking about the preaching of the Gospel. He's not talking about
the invincible work of the Holy Spirit there in the new birth. That cannot be resisted because
that's a convincing, invincible power. He says, as your fathers
did, so do you. What fathers? Those that we're
reading about in Jeremiah. Those that we read about in Isaiah. He says in verse 52, which of
the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? Next time we're gonna
see Jeremiah really, he's already been persecuted, but he's really
gonna be persecuted in chapter 20. He said it doesn't get any better,
not for him. He says, which of the prophets have not your fathers
persecuted? And they have slain them which
show before of the coming of the just one. These prophets
preach Christ. That's who that is. The just
one. Christ is the just one. He died
the just for the unjust. He died under the burden of our
sins charged, imputed to Him, and yet He Himself remained just. And when He put our sins away,
He arose from the dead because, as you prayed, of our justification. He established righteousness.
Now when we preach salvation only in Christ and not by our
works, justification by His righteousness imputed and not by ours, not
a cooperative, here's what happens. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised
and hardened unless the Holy Spirit does his great work. He
says, of whom you have been now the betrayers and murderers,
that is of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, who have received the
law by the disposition of angels. Messengers have not kept it.
God sent messengers to Israel. He sent Moses. He sent Aaron
and the priest. He sent other prophets down through
the ages for almost 1,500 years from Sinai to the cross. And
He says they would not listen. They would not listen. Why do
sinners perish? Because of unbelief. In the Great
Commission, the Lord told His disciples, you go into all the
world and you preach this gospel and you tell them, he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall
be damned. The Lord told his generation,
John 3, 18, he says, he that believeth on him is not condemned. If you believe on Christ, you're
not condemned because there's no condemnation in him. He says, but he that believeth
not is condemned already. That's the natural state of men
in Adam. Because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God. John 3.36, listen. He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. You can't believe on the Son
without life. And who gives life? The Son gives
life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Now at any given moment in his life he may be in the lap of
luxury. But without Christ still the
wrath of God abides on him. Isn't that right? And that's
what's happening to these people. God calls us to faith in Christ
and repentance of dead works and idolatry. Left to ourselves,
we're like that broken bottle that cannot be made whole again
without Him. Turn to John 16 with me. Unbelief,
unbelief is why God sends sinners to everlasting condemnation.
That's right. And that's why it's so important
that we see this issue of faith in Christ and repentance because
unbelief renders everything we are and everything we do to be
sinful in the eyes of God. What am I saying there? I'm saying
this. Without Christ, all we are and all we do is sin. Nothing
righteous at all. Our only righteousness is in
Him. And we know that by the work of the Holy Spirit within
us. Look at verse 7. of John 16. He says, nevertheless
I tell you the truth, speaking to his disciples, it is expedient
or necessary or needful for you that I go away. Now where is
he going? To the cross. He's going to the cross, he's
going to the grave, he's going to the tomb, he's going to be
raised again, he's going to the Father. And he says, that's necessary
for you, he says. It's not necessary for him, but
it's necessary for you. Who are the you here? His sheep.
The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. He says, for if
I go not away, if I don't do this great work, the Comforter,
that's the Holy Spirit, will not come unto you. Why would
he? There's no life to give if Christ doesn't go away. There's
no righteousness to convict us of. If Christ doesn't do his
great work, there's no forgiveness to apply if Christ doesn't do
his work. He says, but if I depart, I'll
send him unto you. And when he's come, he will reprove
or convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
And look at verse 9. He'll convict you of sin because
they believe not on me. Now, I've dealt with this before,
but some commentators say, well, he'll convict you of the sin
of unbelief. Well, that's true. But it goes
further than just simply saying that I'm an unbeliever. It's
simply saying this, because they believe not on Christ. Without
Christ, all we are is a broken bottle that cannot be made whole. That's all we are. And that's
the best of us and the worst of us. The most religious and
the most irreligious. Without Christ, there's no forgiveness. Without Christ, there's no righteousness. Without Christ, there's nothing
about us to recommend us unto God. Without Christ, there's
nothing. No salvation. No justification. And certainly no glory. There's
nothing but wrath. And then he says, of righteousness
because I go to my father and you see me no more. Righteousness
in him who went and presented himself unto the father as the
redeemer of his people. As the one who died, the just
for the unjust, who was made a curse for us, who was made
sin in order that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. And then verse 11, of judgment because the prince of
this world is judged. Satan can no longer accuse the
people of God. Because Christ took our condemnation.
He took our sins. He took our punishment. And died
for them. One last verse. Turn over to
Hebrews 12. This is where I opened up. Now let me show you the importance
of all this. This message in a broken bottle. They refused to hear the voice
of God as spoken to them by His servant Jeremiah. How much greater
shall the punishment be for those who have refused to hear the
word of God as spoken by his son. God speaks to us by his
son. He said, this is my beloved son
in whom I'm well pleased, hear ye him. Well, look at it. He's talking here about Christ,
the only savior, and how he brings his people to Mount Sinai, into
the church of the living God, through the blood of the Lamb
of God. And he says, we've come to Jesus,
verse 24, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood
of sprinkling. Now don't get me wrong, those
back there in Jeremiah's time, they were rejecting Christ too.
But under that old covenant, and incidentally, you understand
now, that when Nebuchadnezzar brought his army down into Judah
and Jerusalem, that even the remnant of believers that were
there in that time were taken to Babylon. For example, Daniel
was taken in the first wave that went off. Ezekiel was taken in
the second wave. Jeremiah, he fled to Egypt. But
he was an older man. But you see, even the believers
were punished in that temporal way along with the nation because
they were part of that nation under that conditional covenant
that was broken. But their eternal life was secure
in Christ even then. And Daniel, what a testimony
of a child of God, sinner saved by the grace of God in a foreign
land, was the book of Daniel. Remember, we went through it.
What a testimony. Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, they were all three
children of God. They were taken into captivity
too. So there was that temporal punishment, and that's what he's
referring to here. This nation was punished in a
physical way. Well, he says here, In verse
25, he says in verse 24, and to Jesus, the mediator of the
new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speak of better
things than that of Abel. That is that physical lamb that
Abel brought. He says, see that you refuse
not him that speaketh. For if they escape not, who refused
him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we
turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. What's he talking
about? He's talking about the gospel.
of God's grace in Christ, whose voice then shook the earth. I
mean, literally shook it, didn't it? But now hath he promised,
saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also
heaven. I think about Christ on the cross and all the events
that surrounded that crux of redemptive history. And when
he gave up the ghost, how the earth shook and the sky darkened
And many were resurrected from the dead just like Lazarus was.
And the veil in the temple rent into. Verse 27, And this word
yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that
are shaken. That old covenant's over. It's gone. It's abolished
by way of fulfillment. As of things that are made, that
those things which cannot be shaken may remain. That is the
people of God, the assembly of God, the church of God, The blessings
of the covenant, the new covenant, they cannot be taken away. The
righteousness that we have in Christ. Wherefore, we receiving
a kingdom, listen to this, isn't this great? We receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved. We can't be captured and overthrown
and taken to Babylon. I'm talking in a spiritual way
there. I mean, we'd be put in jail,
Paul was in jail. But spiritually and eternally
speaking, we cannot be moved because we stand on the rock
Christ Jesus. Let us have grace whereby we
may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for
our God is a consuming fire. For anybody without Christ, he's
like Tophet. He's like the valley of slaughter.
He's like the valley of Hinnom, a place of burning. All right.