He's a character. I really think
a lot of him. Here in Jeremiah, let's start
here reading the verse ten verses of Jeremiah. Show how that he
is called to be a prophet. How God has called him and used
him. He was used in a very unusual
way. And when I read through Jeremiah,
and read through it now, I see judgment, judgment, judgment,
judgment, judgment, and just judgment, just judgment, just
judgment. But the words of Jeremiah, the
son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anatoth
in the land of Benjamin. So he's the son of a priest,
to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah. Remember,
Josiah was a young man. He was just eight years old when
he ascended the throne. Then he was about 18 or 20 when
he found the book of God in the temple. And he delivered it to
the priest. And the priest read it and came
to him and said, Oh, this is what God said. And he had reformation
in his day. They found the word of God. The
word of God had been lost. And I would to God that we had
some people today that would find the word of God. dust of
blood, blow the dust off of it, and see what God had to say.
And if they ever do that, if men ever discover and come to
the Word of God and see it as it really is, I'm telling you,
there'll be a reformation. There'll be a revival in our
days if God was to be pleased to cause preachers to see the
Word of God. But to whom the word of the Lord
came in the days of Josiah the son of Amnon, king of Judah,
in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days
of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, unto the end of
the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah,
unto the carrying away of Jerusalem, captive in the fifth month."
And Zedekiah was the one who was the king that was carried
away into Babylon. And the king of Babylon raised
him up, if you remember. But that's how long his ministry
was. From Josiah, when Josiah was thirteen years into his reign,
that would have made him, he was eight, so thirteen years
into his reign, that would have made him twenty-seven, twenty-seven,
and three is twenty-two. He would have been twenty-two
years old. Twenty-four? Well, anyway, here's the other
name. And then his son, then Zedekiah,
And so for 40 years, over 40 years, this man ministered. Started
out as a young man. Then the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, this is what God said to him, Before I formed
thee in the belly, I knew you. And before thou camest forth
out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations. Not just Israel, but unto the
nations. So if a man's going to be a prophet,
going to be a preacher, God ordains him, sets him forth from his
mother's womb, as he does all of his children. He told Paul,
said, God, when you please God, who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me. God's
preachers were set apart. Then said I, oh, Lord God, behold,
I cannot speak. I am a child. But the Lord said
unto me, say not I am a child. For thou shalt go to all that
I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak.
Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver
thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand
and touched my mouth. Oh, may God do that to me and
every other preacher that I know. Put forth his hand and touch
our mouth. And the Lord said unto me, I
have put my words in your mouth. That's what we need. We need
preachers and prophets and God puts his words in their mouth.
Put my words in your mouth. Not opinions, not logic, not
philosophy, not reasoning. My words, I put them in your
mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over
the kingdoms to root out, to pull down, to destroy, to throw
down, to build and to plant. Oh, what a ministry. What a ministry. What a ministry. Well, Jeremiah,
he began preaching as a young, young man. And all the days of
his life, as long as he was able to live and preach, he would
faithfully serve the Lord God all his generation for more than
40 years. And one thing about him, he was
a man that his heart was very heavy, And he had great heaviness because
of the iniquity and rebellion of his people, and the impending
judgment upon God, the nation, upon Israel, the nation that
he loved." Now, Jeremiah, whenever he started preaching, he started
pronouncing judgment right off the bat. Oh my, for the things
that he pronounced, the judgments that he pronounced, the things
that God made him to see and to know, and the things that
God used him. One time, God told him, He said,
take and put a girdle on. A clean girdle. Not a girdle,
just a belt that goes around you. And then after you wear
that, take it down to the river Euphrates and you dig a hole
and you put that under some rocks down there. So he did. Later,
God said, now go down there and get that. He did. And bring it
back up here. And then you put it back on and
you tell Israel that they're just like that girdle. They're
full of filth. And that's what I'm going to
do. I'm going to hide them and put them and destroy them, just
like you hid that thing in the rock. I'm going to bring them
down. Another time he said, look here,
there's a basket of figs here. He says, there's good young figs,
good figs. Looked in another and grabbed
the same basket. There wasn't fifty. He said, what do you see? He said, I see young. Figs, summer
fruit. And I see figs that's full of
rottenness and corruptness, and they're not fit to eat, need
to be thrown away. He said, that's the way Israel was in my hand.
This is the way they're going to be. And I'll tell you, but he never
quit. With all the judgments and the
way he was treated, he was treated very, very badly. And Jeremiah
preached return, told Israel, return unto the Lord, return
unto the Lord, return unto the Lord. And 47 times the word return
is mentioned in the book of Jeremiah. Return, you backsliding, return,
O Israel. Return, you prophets. Return,
you princes. But he never did quit declaring
the Word of God in all the way he was treated. He was imprisoned,
I don't know how many different times. They put him in stocks
one time. And one of the priests said, take him and put him in
stocks. They put him in stocks. And you look at, look with me
in Isaiah 38, excuse me, Jeremiah 38 here, just a moment. I want
to show you, I want to show you something. How this man was treated
by the leaders of his day. And we're living in a day, if
God don't have mercy, there's people that do us this way, if
they had the power and the right to do it, if they could get legally
able to do it. You can be a homosexual and have all the rights in the
world, but if you say something against them, you lose your rights.
You can start standing for family values in our day, like Jeremiah
did. Tell people to return to God,
that people are false worshipers. That our politicians are princes
that ought to turn back to God. But they're not going to do it.
And you tell them that, and if the people have the power today,
and they're working on this, they're working on the power.
If people get the power, and the right people get it in just
a matter of a few years, it'll be against the law. It'll be
against the law to speak against any group on the United States
of America. And they'll come in and shut
you down if you say anything against different groups. No,
regardless of what the scriptures say. We don't care what your
book says. This is what the law says. And
that's where we're headed. I hope it don't happen in my
lifetime, but it is very well made. But look what happened
to Jeremiah here in Jeremiah 38. And names all the people that's
against Jeremiah. And then in Pashur, the son of
Malachi, heard the words, in verse 1, that Jeremiah had spoken
unto all the people, saying, Thus saith the Lord, he that
remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine,
and by the pestilence. But he that goeth forth to the
Chaldeans, when Babylon comes to take him, he shall have his
life for a prey, and shall live. Thus saith the Lord, This city
shall surely be given into the hands of the king of Babylon's
army, which shall take it. Therefore the princess said unto
the king, We beseech thee, let this man be put to death. For
thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in
this city, and the hands of all the people speaking such words
unto them. For this man seeketh not the
welfare of this people, but the hurt." He's hurting people. He's weakening people by telling
them the truth and what God's going to do. Then Zedekiah the
king said, Behold, he is in your hand, for the king is not he
that can do anything against you. You fellas do what you want
to do. I ain't going to stand in your way. They said, Kill
him. Then took they Jeremiah and cast
him into the dungeon of Malchiah, the son of Hamilech, that was
in the court of the prison, that they let Jeremiah down with cords,
And in the dungeon there was no water but mire. So Jeremiah
sunk into the mire. That is one of the times in history. And they mocked him,
stirred up strife against him. He was accused of treason. All
the false prophets opposed him. hated by the religious leaders
of his day, and eventually, against his will, he was carried off
into Egypt. But with all that went on in
his life, with all the enemies and all the things that were
against him, Jeremiah obeyed the Lord, he sought the glory
of God, he delivered God's Word, he served the people from the
day that God called him until he died. And he faithfully exposed
Israel's sin, called them to repentance, warned them continually
of judgment, and declared that God's wrath was coming upon them,
and it would be a just wrath that would come upon them. And
nearly all at the same time turned around and told them about God's
goodness and mercy, if they would just turn. And when he was preaching,
his time of preaching in Israel was a very, very dark, dark time. the people of Israel, they had
just absolutely forsaken all semblance of true worship. They
were offering their sons and daughters, they had idols in
all of their homes, The false prophets were kept saying, there's
peace and peace. Don't listen to Europe. Peace,
peace. There's going to be peace. There
ain't going to be no judgment. There ain't going to be no wrath.
There's just going to be nothing but peace. Everything's going
to be happy. Everything's going to be great.
Everything's going to be glorious. And oh, beloved, it's such an
apostasy. And even Manasseh, when he came
in after Josiah, He started all the idolatry and killing people
and leading them to the awfulest idolatry and started offering
his sons and daughters. And then here they come down
to all this idolatry. I mean idols. I mean, I'm not
talking about folks just having false worship. They actually
set up idols in the place of God. They actually took their
sons and daughters and offered them as sacrifices to false God. And these are the leaders that
were doing this, the priests that were doing this. And so
what did God do? The first thing He done is He
told Jeremiah, He said, I'm going to send the king, and he's going
to come down here and challenge Nebuchadnezzar, and he's going
to take Israel, and he's going to take them captive. He's going
to take them. He's going to cast these people
off. God called Nebuchadnezzar, My servant. He said, in that connection,
I wouldn't know God from nothing. He's the one that set up this
great big statue and said, everybody's going to have to bow and worship
Him. When you hear music, get down! He's the one that had that big
statue, you know, made out of brass and all that, had the clang
of totems. And that means God said, My servant, I'll send Him
down there. God uses wicked men to do His
work to bring judgment upon people. And our beloved, and I'll tell
you, Jeremiah, he told them that He was coming, He was coming,
He was coming. And it's just like Noah. God told Noah, He
said, Noah's going to rain. Noah preached rain for 120 years. Nobody paid any attention to
it. God sent preachers down to Solomon
and Gomorrah. Rain! Judgment's coming! Judgment's
coming! Nobody paid any attention until
it failed. And I'll be loving time and time
again. And God told him, He says, now
listen, those of you that will go into captivity, if you'll
go up to Nebuchadnezzar, go with Nebuchadnezzar. He said, I'll
save your life. I'll bring you back out of captivity.
But if you stay here, You're going to die of pestilence. You're
going to die of famine. You're going to die of the sword.
Your children are going to die. You're going to eat your own
children. He said, I mean to tell you, you've been wicked
enough that I'm going to cast you off like casting off dung. He says, oh, he's upset with
Israel. God's upset with Israel. And
I tell you, when I read these things, I see America. I see
the darkness. Can you see how dark it is in
this country now? It is dark. It's dark. And everybody's saying, peace,
peace. Things are going to get better.
Things are going to get better. Things are going to get better.
And I'm not talking about economics. I'm talking about the social
ills of this country, the religious ills of this country. You know, just because you know
your very right wing, that don't necessarily mean you know God.
Just because you're left wing, that don't mean necessarily,
but I'm telling you, this whole country is laying in darkness. Preachers are telling folks,
oh, listen, you ain't got nothing to worry about. Jesus loves you.
God loves you. Jesus died for you. And if they let them have their
idols, they let them come in. And to whoever would have thought
that we would debate that that would ever be an issue, whether
a homosexual could ever be in a church, that you'd have to
marry them if they wanted to be married, you'd have to marry
them. And that's coming to that. Who would ever have thought that
that would have been a debate, that a homosexual could stand
up and preach in a pulpit? Who'd ever thought that we'd
have that debate in this country? Who'd ever thought that we'd
have the debate that women could have a right to the ministry? That's how far we've gone in
just a very short time. So if we've gone that far in
that short time, how fast is it going to go next? Who would have ever thought that
in the United States of America, well, and I'll read Jeremiah,
that's what I said. Who ever thought in the United
States of America that we would become a state, a nation, that
most people live on welfare and think they got it coming to them
because men have left off the word of God and talked about
entitlement. That God owes you, and if God
owes you, then naturally the government owes you. If God's
in bondage to you and God owes you something, then naturally
everybody else owes you something. If God owes you love, the government
owes you love. If Christ died for you, then
the government's got to meet your needs. Oh, I tell you, it's a dark,
dark time. Oh, it's a dark time. But oh, listen, thank God for
free grace. Oh, listen, I'm grateful that
I know the God who, and that's what Jeremiah, God told him,
what did he say? He said in verse 10 here, chapter
one, I've sent thee this day over the nations and over the
kingdoms to root out and pour down, to destroy, to throw down,
to build, and to plague. And here's the thing about it,
we get what we deserve. That's the sad part about it. And that's what's so scary about
it. But, oh, listen, Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet.
He was called the man of sorrow. He wept all the time. He said
in chapter 9, he said, Oh, that my head were full of waters,
that my tears would run day and night for the slain of my daughters,
my people, for the daughter of Israel. And all of his faithfulness
brought him reproach, brought him sorrow, brought him suffering.
And he was rejected as our Lord was, and our Lord stood and wept
over Jerusalem. And look over here in chapter
11, in verse 19, he compares himself as a lamb led to the
slaughter. In chapter 11, verse 19. I hope
I don't, I don't want to sound too negative, too dark, but I'll
tell you, it's just, oh, God help us. God help us. And I heard a black preacher here just recently
got up and said, Oh, God have mercy on our nation. Whenever
our president and our nation goes to where they're fixing
to put it in their platform and everything else, that gay marriage
is going to be the law of the whole land. And he says, God have mercy on
a nation that goes so against the Word of God. And he's calling for everybody
that's against it, everybody that's against us, and all of
you, get up, pray, and call on God to stop this abomination
in this nation. And not only that, but I mean,
we're living in a day when people don't even bother to get married
anymore. That'll mess up your check if you get married. And then all of a sudden we'll
get married because one of them has to give up the Social Security
check. We both just live together. We both have our Social Security check. You think I'm
making this stuff up? Oh, I tell you, it stirs me up.
It stirs me up. God have mercy on us. But look
what he said here in Jeremiah 11, 19. But I was like a lamb or an ox
that is brought to the slaughter. I knew not that they had devices
against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof,
and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his
name be no more remembered. And that's what they thought
to do to our Lord, just like they thought to do to Jeremiah.
But I tell you what, you can go through this blessed book,
and I'm grateful for this. We see glimpses of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Chapter 2, he's called the fountain
of the living waters. God said that Israel had done
two evils. They forsaken me, the fountain of the living waters,
and you, the Mount Cisterns, that hold no water. And he's
called the great physician. Is there no bomb? Is there no
physician in Gilead? He's called the good shepherd
in chapter 31. He's called the Righteous Branch. Look with me
in Jeremiah 23. You've got to see this. Oh, this
will be a blessing to you. I've preached from this several
times over the years. Look what it says here in verse
6, talking about our Lord Jesus Christ. He's called the Righteous
Branch. Verse 5. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, and this is what happens in the midst of all this judgment.
He gives his people some hope and some strength and some encouragement,
some light in the midst of all this darkness. Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous
branch, and a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute
judgment and justice in the earth. And listen to what he's called
here now. And in his days, Judah shall be saved. and Israel shall
dwell safely. And this is the name whereby
he shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness, Jehovah-Security."
So there's going to be a remnant. God said, I'm going to have a
remnant. I'm going to bring a people back. And not only is he called
the King, as David, the King, and the Lord our Righteousness,
and he's called our Redeemer. And to all beloved in there,
we see that our Lord Jesus Christ is declared to come in His humanity
as that branch, as the Lord Jesus Christ, the God Jehovah, our
righteousness. And then in chapter 31, he talks about the covenant of
grace. And we need to see this. I won't take much on this. Jeremiah
31, the covenant. It's called the covenant. You
know, I meant to use this last Sunday morning. It didn't get
to it. But he speaks about the incarnation
of Christ. Christ comes and says, I'll make
a new thing to see. I'll make a new thing to see
that a woman shall compass a man. But look down here and talk about
this covenant of grace. You're going to establish a covenant
of grace. Look in Jeremiah 31.31. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers the day that I took them by the
hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. That covenant
was a covenant of words, a covenant of law. But I'm going to make
another covenant, a new covenant. I'm going to do away with that.
I'm going to put away the first, and bring in the second, the
last. And I took them, and he said,
which my covenant they break. Although I was a husband unto
them, said the Lord, but this shall be the covenant that I
will make with the house of Israel after those days, said the Lord,
and this is in Hebrews 10 too, and I will put my law in their
inward parts, and write it in their hearts. Now what law is
he talking about? He's not talking about the Ten
Commandments. He's talking about this right here. He's talking
about his blessing word. I'm going to put that in their
hearts. I'm going to make them want that more than anything.
I'm going to put that in their hearts. Wherewithal shall a young
man cleanse his way, by taking heed thereto according to thy
word? Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path.
O God, I have hid thy word in my heart, that I might not sin
against thee. So you see, he said, I'll put
that in their hearts. He'll put the law of faith in
our hearts, the law of repentance in our hearts. the law of righteousness. And then he said, I'll run, and
I'll be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall, now listen to
this, and they shall teach no more than every man his neighbor,
and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For they'll all
know me. Jerry was talking about this
before the service. He was a soul runner. Went up
to Jack Howes and that up in there with some conferences up
there. And here I was a legalist fundamentalist. And he said,
he said, he was probably preaching against me, a soul winner, and
how awful that was. And said, I was preaching against
you and you're charismatic. And here we are sitting now,
brothers. That's why God says, know the
Lord. They all gonna know. All of God's
people gonna know the Lord. We're going to bring them out
of Babylon, but they're going to know the Lord. He's going
to bring them out of the darkness, but they're going to know the
Lord. Ain't that what He said? They shall know Me, listen to this,
from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive
their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. And He calls it a new covenant
here because it's newly revealed. The first time God talks about
it here, then He's talking to Israel. But this is a covenant
that was everlasting covenant of grace made in Christ before
the foundation of the world, as I assure it. As David said,
the Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things, and sure, this is all my salvation. And our
beloved, in this covenant of God's blessed grace, we have
absolute forgiveness. everlasting righteousness, a
complete and perfect salvation. And beloved, God himself says,
For whom he did foreknow, him he also called, him he called,
he also justified, whom he justified, he also glorified, and whom he
glorified, he also justified. What are we going to say to these
things? God be for us, he's going to
be against us. I'll be their God and they're going to be my
people. But oh, beloved, in one of my all-time favorite verses,
One that God used to reveal the gospel to a million, the grace
of God to men. 2 Timothy 1.9, God who hath saved
us, and called us with the Holy God, not according to our works,
but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world ever began. I can drive a nail down there.
That's that nail in that sure place, James. That's that nail
in that sure place. Adore the glory of God's house.
And then, beloved, let me show you there in verse 3 why this
covenant was made. Oh, my. It's called God, chapter
31, verse 3. This is why He made this covenant. The Lord at the period of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee."
And let me show you another one about this covenant in chapter
32, in verse 37. You'll love this. 32, 37. He says, Behold, I will gather
them out of all countries, whether I have driven them in mine anger,
and in mine fury, and in great wrath. I will bring them again
unto this place, and behold, and I will cause them to dwell
safely. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
That's the long and short of God's coming. I'm going to be
their people. He don't say, I'm going to ask them to be my people.
I'm going to try to convince them to be my people. I'm going
to make an effort to make them my people. I'm going to open
the door so that if they walk through, they'll be my people.
He said, what does he say? They shall be my people. And
I will be their God. And I will give them one heart,
one way. Now listen to this. And this
shows us how secure it is. That they may fear me. Oh, bless
His name. He put His fear in us forever.
for the good of them and their children after them, and I will
make an everlasting covenant with them, listen to this now,
that I will not turn away from them to do them good." God said,
I'll never ever turn away from them to do them good. But I will put my fear in their
hearts, and guess what? He says that they'll never depart
from me. As old Henry Mann said, our dear
brother, he said, there's two locks on the door of grace, and
right there they both are. I'll never stop doing them good,
and I'll put my fear in their hearts, and they'll never turn
from me. Yea, I will listen to this. Yea,
I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them
in this land, assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole
soul. That sounds like we're pretty
secure to me. Oh, bless His name. I'm so grateful. Let me just give you a couple
of things about Babylon. God says that he's going to bring
Israel, going to bring Babylon down to bring Israel out. And he declares, you know, that
Babylon is going to come and take Israel. And Babylon, always
in the scriptures. Babylon represents false religion,
worse religion, free will religion. And I tell you, they're going
to fall. And it's going to fall, and God said He'd bring it back
down. And in fact, in Revelations, He talks about how Babylon is
falling, great Babylon, that great heart of it is falling,
it's falling. And that's why in Babylon, the word Babylon
is mentioned 164 times in Jeremiah. You want false religion? I'm
going to have you, let you have it. I'm going to put you in bondage.
You don't want me, I'll just let you go into bondage. And that's why he said in Revelation,
come ye out from among her, my people. Come out from among them.
And O beloved, I tell you, God has not forgotten to be gracious
to His people. And let me give you one last
thing here in Jeremiah 15, verse 20. And I'll close with this.
God has never forsaken His elect. You go over these things on your
own time. I tell you, I just hit the high spots. And Jeremiah
15, verse 20, look what God says to us here. 15, verse 20. This shows us that God Himself,
who charged our sins to His Son, will never, ever charge them
to us. Look what He says here. In those
days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for, and that shall be none. and the sins of
Judah, and they shall not be found. For I will pardon them
whom I have reserved." I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. And you want to read an illustration of God's sovereign
mercy and grace, it is the potter with power over the clay. And
that's what he says in Romans 9. Have not the potter power
over the clay? To make one a vessel of honor,
another a vessel of dishonor, one a vessel of mercy, one a
vessel of wrath. Jeremiah 18. That's where Paul
got that from. Go down to the potter's house.
Jeremiah. What do you want me to do when
I get down there? What's that potter? Stood there
and watched him, and he said, that potter is making something,
and he says, just throw it down and broke it. Got him some more
clay, and he went to make it. Went to make it of all he wanted
to do, and he fashioned something real pretty, beautiful, and all
that. He said, Jeremiah, you understand what you're saying?
He said, yeah, that potter can do whatever he wants to with that clay. He
said, that's the way I am. That's the way I am. Oh, our father. Oh, gracious, gracious
father. Lord, I know we live in dark
days and dark times. As a nation, as a people, A nation
that we love so much and we have these glorious opportunities
to vote and express ourselves at the ballot. And
we thank you for that. Oh, how we thank you. Pray that
you would have mercy upon us, mercy upon our leaders, mercy
upon this nation. And God, if you would spare us, raise us up, this nation, raise
it back up. Raise up righteous people. Raise
up men and women who have a desire to see righteousness, and peace,
and truth, and integrity, without compromise, without... And God
raised up preachers. Lord, You have some preachers,
some faithful men. You have some Jerilites in this
world. You have some Isaiahs. You have some Malachi's. He has
some men that are some Pauls and some Johns and some Simon Peters. Lord, you've
got some men left on this earth. God bless them, God strengthen
them, God encourage them. And help us never to be discouraged
and know and understand that you've got this covenant with
us. And no matter what happens in this world, that you'll preserve
us and you'll keep us. And we may end up in a dungeon,
may end up in the mire. But Lord Jesus, you'll be with
us. As you with Daniel in the den, and the three Hebrew children
in the furnace. You'll be with us no matter what
happens in this world. You told us you would. You'd
never depart from us to do us good. And you'd put your fear
in our hearts and we'd never depart from you. Oh God, help
us to be faithful to you. faithful to your word, faithful
to one another, and put the love of Christ in our hearts, to your
glory and our good. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.