Thank you, Lexi. We're going to go ahead and open our Bibles to Jeremiah chapter one. And many of you have been traveling and thankful that you're back here today. Also thankful for those that visit from time to time. We have George and Darlene Matsko here with us. We know the Matsko's from Trinity Bible Church in South Carolina, but they actually go to Pastor and Jenny's church right now, Cornerstone Baptist Church in, where is that? Is it in, it's in Greenville. And Dr. Reimers is the pastor there, a teacher that I had when I was at Bob Jones. So I'm very thankful that they're here, and I hope you get to meet them today. Jeremiah chapter 1. And our last series in the Gospel of Mark advanced verse by verse, chapter by chapter, until we went through the whole book, hopefully leaving no stone unturned. But that's not the only way to preach. Now many, many would call what we went through in Mark expository preaching and Some a new generation of preachers coming up would say this is the only way you can preach God's Word Well, I don't agree with that I think there are many ways to preach the Word of God and many ways that are profitable to preach the Word of God and Dr. Robert Bell in the biblical viewpoint stated that a good way to approach the book of Jeremiah might be to approach it with the idea of biblical theology in mind. You say, well, what does that mean? It means I find a topic in the Bible and then I trace that topic through the entire scripture. And then I synthesize the information that I get and then use it for my profit or present it to other people. That's what we're going to do in Jeremiah eventually. Today we're going to go through chapter one but we're going to chase down themes that are in the book of Jeremiah and then study those themes exhaustively and then present those as messages for our betterment as we go through the book. And there are several themes that are in the book of Jeremiah, themes like the people in God's covenant or judgment, of course. If we went through, by the way, the book of Jeremiah chapter by chapter, there'd be a lot of sermons on judgment. Is that what you want? Yeah. It'd be kind of anti-Osteen in here. It would be the complete opposite. And so, We're going to be careful not to do something like that, but it will be magnificent to look at some of the positive themes that are in the book of Jeremiah 2, themes like the sovereignty of God or the hope and the comfort that God gives to us. And we see that within the core of Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 30 to chapter 33. And that's where we garner our theme for the new year located on the banner behind me, great and mighty things from a great and mighty God. And those of you that are familiar with our church know that Jeremiah 33 3 is a very important verse to our church. That verse says, call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know. Great and mighty things. The word mighty there actually means inaccessible. So what do you mean? Well, these are things that are inaccessible to us. Apart from the grace of God, we could not access these things, but God has made them available to us as his children. Now, knowing that, we are going to pray as we approach this book and ask God constantly as we go through the new year, Lord, show me these great and mighty things. Show me these things that I need. and that I can't have apart from your grace. And I believe that as individuals, as families, as a church, we will see God do great and mighty things. And I'm looking forward to that. You say, now, when did Jeremiah live, Pastor O? He lived roughly between the years 640 BC and 580 BC. So that would have made him about 60 years old when he died. He grew up in a small village, according to chapter one, northeast of Jerusalem by the name of Anathoth. And it's interesting the location of that village because that's the route by which the Babylonian army under Nebuchadnezzar is going to come to wipe out Jerusalem. So even the place where Jeremiah was born, the place where priests were, his father was a priest named Hilkiah. Even from that direction, the judgment will come and that becomes a symbol as well. He was a prophet that ministered under the southern kingdom of Judah. You remember after Solomon, right? The kingdoms, the kingdom rather of Israel divided into two. You've got the kingdom to the north and the kingdom to the south. The kingdom to the south was known as Judah, and the kingdom to the north was known as Israel. And they've already been taken away into captivity, the northern kingdom of Israel. That happened in 722 BC, and that happened at the hands of the Assyrians, who were located in that same northeastern area. And so now, you would think that Judah learned the lesson by watching what happened to northern kingdom, but they didn't. And we'll see that over and over again as we study the book. I believe that Jeremiah was around 14 when he received his call from God that we read about here in chapter one. And as he ministers during these last days of the southern kingdom, he is going to be called by God to confront Kings. And so that's what we have in our notes today. We have some kings that are mentioned that will kind of give us an opportunity to pin some historical background to what we're going to learn in chapter one. The first king that's mentioned in your notes is Hezekiah. And you say, well, Hezekiah didn't live at the time of Jeremiah, did he? No, but he's instrumental in understanding the book because he's a king that purged idolatry from the land of Judah. But the evil was so entrenched in Judah that he was not able to get rid of it altogether. And so God mercifully extends the life of Hezekiah, we read about in the scripture, 15 years. And Hezekiah uses at least some of that time to do something very foolish that the Bible records. There were some Babylonian envoys that came to him And he decided in a very proud way that he was going to boast of all of the riches that were in his palace and all of the riches that were in the temple. Now God sent another prophet, his name was Isaiah, to come and confront Hezekiah about his pride. Isaiah told Hezekiah basically, you're going to suffer from doing something like this. You realize that this nation will come back and they will remove all of the wealth and all the riches from the temple and from the palace, and they'll carry that back to them to Babylon. Not only that, but they're going to take your sons and they're going to make them eunuchs in the palace of the Babylonian king. And you would think, well, Hezekiah, certainly he was horrified by all of this. And it was something that would shook him to his core. Well, I would think that that would be his reaction. But, you know, as far as I get from the verse here in 2 Kings 20 and verse 16, I see a grateful sigh of relief and Hezekiah saying this, will there not be peace and truth, at least in my days? Wow. That's not exactly the reaction that I would expect from Hezekiah, but at least things would be well with him. Terrible things are going to happen to my posterity, but things will be great with me. And so that's Hezekiah. Now Hezekiah dies and his son Manasseh reigns in his place. Manasseh is not a good man. Manasseh wipes out any inkling of reform or revival that we see under Hezekiah. He drove the nation into darkness and idolatry once again. As a matter of fact, Second Kings 21.9 says that Manasseh seduced Judah to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. Now, what nations were those? the Canaanites, right? And their iniquity was full. And God, under the general Joshua, the great Israeli general, came in and he completely obliterated that land and gave it to his people. And now we've got Manasseh bringing Israel to a state where they are worse than those people that inhabited that land. What is God going to do? Well, he's going to judge this man, of course, and that's exactly what he does. He takes this man into captivity to Babylon of all places, kind of a portent of what is to come, and he restores the kingdom to him eventually. You say, well, what happened? In prison, Manasseh decided to repent and turn back to God. I would imagine that while he was in prison, he never thought that God would restore his kingdom to him. But that's exactly what happened. And so what did Manasseh do with the rest of his time? Well, he learned his lesson. He drove idolatry out of the land, he strengthened the military might of Judah, and he commanded that Judah serve the Lord. Well, you'd have to command them to do that because they were gravitating toward idolatry all that time. And so, again, he's not able to get the evil root out of the land. Manasseh dies then. And his son, Ammon, who is mentioned here in Jeremiah chapter one, replaces him. Say, what did Ammon do? He brought back idolatry into the land. And he was assassinated and his eight year old son reigned in his place. And his name was Josiah. And Josiah was a great revival king in the history of Israel. As a matter of fact, it's Theodore Leitch, a Lutheran scholar who has an excellent commentary on the book of Jeremiah. Theodore Leitch said this, he said, in the morass of idolatry and immorality and wickedness at the royal court, a beautiful branch, a real tree of righteousness had sprouted by the power of divine grace out of the seemingly hopeless, corrupt root of David. And indeed, that's exactly what took place. Josiah found the book of the law during his reign. And the Bible tells us that he reinstated the Passover. There was spiritual reformation within the land of Judah. He desired complete renewal, and he pressed for that renewal. But Judah was too far gone. God said in 2 Kings 21 verse 13, I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. Now, Josiah, mercifully for him, wouldn't have to see this judgment before Jerusalem. He went into battle against Egypt, who was basically using, you know, the land of Judah as a doormat in her campaigns against the North. This Pharaoh, Niko that is mentioned in scripture, comes against Josiah and Josiah is killed during this battle, this battle called Karchemesh. Now, Jeremiah lamented for Josiah. He grieved for him and the Bible also tells us that the whole nation did so in 2 Chronicles 35 and verse 25. Josiah had three sons. And all three of those sons would reign as kings as well. The first son was actually the second son. The first son to reign was the second son of Josiah. He's also called Shalem in the Bible, but we know him as Jehoahaz. He was a ruler that Neco would not have chosen. And so Neco was upset over this, this Pharaoh, and he sent Jehoahaz off to exile in Egypt. and that's where Jehoi has died. He also imposed a very heavy tribute or taxation upon Judah, just kind of as a kick in the teeth for the people there. Then Necho decided to put Josiah's first son upon the throne, and his name was Eliakim, but again, the name was changed to make it all very confusing, to Jehoiakim. Jeremiah revealed the evil in this particular king, this first son of Josiah, by saying this about him. He said that his eyes and heart were for nothing but covetousness, murder of the innocent, oppression, and violence. Jeremiah 22 and verse 17. He wiped out, of course, all the reforms of his father, Josiah. And he lived when Neco actually was defeated by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. So now Babylon is the dominant country vying for that strategic middle location of Palestine. And Egypt is pushed back to her borders in the south. Okay, so hopefully we all have the picture now. So now you have a king that is reigning. His name is Jehoiachin. And his only noteworthy deed, this is the third son of Josiah, his only noteworthy deed is stirring up the nation to rebellion against Babylon and making Babylon come against that nation. First of all, by inciting other nations around her to harass her and then by coming with his army and plundering the palace and the temple and fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah that was made so long ago to Hezekiah, and even taking the elite of Judean society into captivity. And so all that was left were the lower classes of society. Now finally, we have the last son of Josiah ruling and his name is Mattaniah. We know him better as Zedekiah. And his reign was filled with rebellion against Babylon as well. You say, well, you know, maybe he should have rebelled against Babylon. But God revealed to him through the prophet Jeremiah, and we see this over and over again in the book of Jeremiah, revealed to him that he should not rebel against the Babylonian king. He should not do it. And yet he disobeyed, of course. And the Bible is very specific about this in Jeremiah 39, 2. In the 11th year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, Jerusalem was penetrated. That is the year 586 BC. That's when all of this really ended with the destruction of Jerusalem. It was a staged captivity and exile. And we're kind of jumping to the last stage. when the people are completely removed from Jerusalem. You say, what happened to Zedekiah? Well, it's a terrible story. Zedekiah tried to flee when Babylon came against Jerusalem. And the Babylonian army caught up with him and brought him back to Nebuchadnezzar. And they took his two sons, the sons of Zedekiah, and they murdered him before their father, Zedekiah. And then they took hot pokers and put out this man's eyes. So the very last thing that Zedekiah saw was the fruit of his rebellion, the murder of his two sons. He should have listened to the Lord. But it's a very difficult thing to read in the pages of scripture. Then Babylon gave Jeremiah the freedom to stay in Babylon with the people that were left, the survivors of the conflict with Babylon, or to go back to Babylon and to be With the Babylonians with when you know, he would have lived a very comfortable life had that had happened He would have found favor with them but God told Jeremiah you stay you stay with the survivors. So Jeremiah obeyed the Lord and and the Lord prophesied through Jeremiah to the survivors. We need to stay here in the land and So what did they do? No, we're not going to stay here. We're going to go down to Egypt and find comfort in Egypt and get away from all of this conflict. But that's not what they found at all. And they took Jeremiah with them to boot. And Jeremiah continued to prophesy to this rebellion hard-hearted people, rebellious hard-hearted people in Egypt. And we're told that through tradition that Jeremiah was stoned to death by those exiles that were in Egypt. And that's how his life ended. Now that brings us to the beginning of our study this morning. The best place to start in Jeremiah's chapter one because really it is an introduction to the whole book and a gateway to the whole book. First of all this morning I want you to notice that the word of God compels. The word of God compels. It compels us to win the victory over our enemies. Look at verse one. It says the words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the 13th year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the 11th year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month. Now, we don't have much to do with these first verses because we've already gone through the history of these kings that are mentioned here in these verses. But notice what it says. It says, these are the words of Jeremiah, but they are also the word of the Lord. That's significant for us. Jeremiah, his name means to fling or to throw down. And that certainly was his ministry. He was going to foretell of the doom of Judah, how they would be flung down and how God was going to work against them. Notice that we are studying the words of Jeremiah by whom the word of the Lord came. The word of the Lord came through the prophet Jeremiah. It came to him and he prophesied to the people. He was God's mouth in that sense. Now it's very important for us to point this out because the word of the Lord came, the verb here carries along with the idea of compelling him to do what God called him to do. The word of the Lord came and it took hold of Jeremiah and it placed him under an obligation. And as God reveals in Jeremiah 23, 29, is not my word like a fire? Is not my word like a hammer that breaks the rock to pieces? And that is exactly the ministry of the prophet Jeremiah. And we struggle in life, and we're tempted to grow very bitter due to the circumstances that are in our lives. But remember the circumstances that I just shared with you in the 60-year lifespan of Jeremiah. Is it as bad as all that? Now think about this, we even envy the seemingly calm lives of other people. We look at them and we say, oh, if I just had it like them, then my life would be great. We battle with our real enemies and our imagined enemies, the people that we perceive that are against us, but are actually for us. We battle against our flesh and our old nature, which rises up within us constantly in rebellion to God. We are like Judah. We wrestle with the will of God in our lives daily. And we ask ourselves the question, how will we win the victory in our lives? And the answer comes back to us in these first verses of Jeremiah. We will win the victory by allowing the word of God to possess us. and to place us under obligation. It's the Word of God in the sense of not only informing our lives, we need the information, we need the facts, we need the background, we need all of these things, but it's just not for information. It's for transformation. Our lives need to change. In short, it places an obligation upon us that we tend not shake. We cannot let go of the Word of God. It's a fire and a hammer to us. It's a fire in the sense that it embraces us and it melts our resolve against God. It's a hammer in the sense that it bangs up against the rock of our souls. It breaks us so that we are in submission to God. The Word of God must possess you and hold on to you in order to keep you strong in the life that God has chosen for you. It compels us, providing strength and endurance, patience, faithfulness, all of these things we need to win the victory. Number two, the call of God liberates. The word of God compels and the call of God liberates, liberates us to do what we could not otherwise do. And it does this by providing us with three different things. It provides us with a plan. It provides us with a promise, and it provides us with power. First of all, providing a plan for us. Verse four says, Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified you. I ordained you a prophet to the nations. Then said I, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth. Jeremiah's awareness of God's call upon his life comes to him when he is still relatively a very young man. Now I think that's significant. It would be very much against the grain of the culture of Jeremiah's day for a 14 year old boy to get up and to prophesy against his elders. That's exactly what God is calling Jeremiah to do for his whole life up to the point where he is 60 in Egypt. Now think about that. God called him to do this. You can understand that the fear would be there inside of Jeremiah. He was afraid of what might happen should he obey God. Yet God says to him, even in your formation, which is a word that denotes the idea of progress in the womb, which has lots of implications as we think about sanctity of human life this month, right? Before I formed you in the womb, he says, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctify you. Now, I think this is important because before he was born, God set Jeremiah apart, sanctified him for a special purpose, sanctified, separated him to cut, separated him from the world to be a prophet only in Judah? No. But in all the nations, we're told in the scripture here. Jeremiah, the text says, was ordained a prophet. This is something that God called him to do. This was something that he had to do. This was God's will for his life. And this is something that God had planned for him. Do you want to do what God has called you to do? Do you want to accomplish your own plans for life or do you want to accomplish the plan that God has for you in your life? Anyone who understands the responsibility placed upon Jeremiah understands the weight of responsibility that is placed upon the Christian today. It's placed upon us because we are told to go out and to proclaim the words of God to a country that is very much like Judah. A country in rebellion to God. that has grown away from God. Times of revival, yes, but then backsliding into deeper and deeper sin. We are approaching the latter days in this nation. And so we have a responsibility that is very much akin to Jeremiah's responsibility. It's good for us to remember how weak we are and yet how firm we can be, how we can have the resolve that we can have because we're obeying the call of God upon our lives. We know what God's plan is for us, and we are willing to work that plan. It's good to empathize with the frailties of others and to display compassion for them. I think all of us should do that. We should love people the way God commands us to love them, sacrificially. But at the same time, we are also called to temper that mercy that we have toward people with calls to holiness. We call our nation, we call our people, we call one another to holiness, to separate ourselves from the world, to live lives that are useful to God, to live out his plan, not our own plan. That's what God has called us to do. We need strength to do this. We need wisdom to do this. We need grace to do this. We can't do what God has planned for us to do in our own strength. That's the idea. God unlocks that which is inaccessible to us, right? Jeremiah 33, 3. But God not only provides a plan for us, he provides a promise for us as well. Verse 7 says, But the Lord said to me, Do not say I am a youth, for you shall go to all to whom I send you. And whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord. You say, what is the promise here? Well, God ordained Jeremiah to do a job for him. He cannot give some kind of feeble excuse. You know, I'm a youth, Lord, I can't do this job. Whatever God commands, Jeremiah must do. And so God calls him to do it. That strikes, and then God says, you know, your problem is not that you're young. Your problem is you're afraid. He goes really to the root of Jeremiah's excuse here. And then he provides a solution for that excuse. He says, Jeremiah, you're not going alone, but I am going to be with you. God provides this presence for Jeremiah. I will be with you. And what does he say? I'm not only going to be with you, I'm going to be with you to deliver you. I'm going to deliver you through this life that I've called you to. We often feel like we're in over our heads. I'll tell you, I feel like that all the time. At times people come to me and they ask me questions and they say things to me that are very difficult for me to hear. I don't know how to respond or what to say. I'm in over my head and I call upon God to help me and he is always there to deliver me, to help me, to strengthen me. And so we can't ignore the fact that even though we can't, God can and he will in and through us. That's the idea. That's the kind of life we need to live. God provides a promise. We still serve Emmanuel, right? God with us, the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't need to be filled with worry or anxiety because we have a great and mighty God who will show us great and mighty things by providing his presence. Not only that, know this, that as a Christian, we have the Holy Spirit of God indwelling us, igniting the words of God and compelling us to live out the words of God. As a matter of fact, the only kind of Christian living that's useful is Christian living that is under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit. We need God compelling us, calling us. But he also provides for us power to enable us. Look at verse nine. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant. Now, what's important here is the act of the Lord touching Jeremiah's mouth. It's reminiscent of what happened to Isaiah at the inauguration of his ministry, only an angel did this, in Isaiah chapter 6. There we read, Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, This has touched your lips, your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged. Isaiah 6 verses 6 and 7. Now, what's important here is God sent Jeremiah over nations, over kingdoms of the earth, and God told Jeremiah, you will speak my words to these nations for the twofold purpose of destruction and construction. But what is emphasized in Jeremiah's ministry is destruction, right? four terms of destruction to two terms of construction, we read in our passage here. God had empowered Jeremiah to root out, to pull down, to destroy, to throw down, but he also called Jeremiah to build and to plant. The emphasis though was to root out, the rot, to prepare for the future. Even the new covenant that was yet to come outlined in Jeremiah chapter 31. Now, You think about this, we may be called to a very messy life. It may not be something that we would choose. We would like to just write books that are entitled, Your Best Life Now. We would love to do that and only talk about very positive, glowing things, never the negative things. Let's not talk about sin. Okay, let's not talk about judgment. Let's just talk about heaven. Let's just talk about the glory of having your best life now. Let's give me five easy steps to really get my finances under control, Pastor O. That's your job. No, that's not my job. That's not what God called me to do. He called me to preach the Bible, right? And so the Bible is very balanced in the way that it presents truth. And so we need to stick with the Bible. You say, I know, but it's hard, especially in the world that we live in now. And yet the next right step may mean a ministry of prepping the soil. It may mean a ministry of just pulling out the weeds and ridding things of rot. I can remember when I was roofing, that's what we would do. We'd go up on the roof, we'd tear out all the rot, and sometimes it was very expensive, and we'd keep going and going until we got down to good wood. And then we'd bring in new wood and we would replace all of that rot. And then we would put on a new roof of the house. What I liked about roofing was the fact that I saw everything from start to finish. And I could look at my job and I could say, wow, that is beautiful. It's all solid now. Everything is waterproof. But sometimes we're called to a ministry by God where we don't see the end. We live confidently expecting that what God has said will happen and will come to pass. But we struggle with it because we don't see the completed project. Right. And so we have to constantly trust that, yes, God, I know that what you have revealed will come to pass and that you're working in and through me, even though I'm called to a very negative task in a very difficult world. And then notice number three, this morning, the charge of God confirms. The word of God compels us. It compels us to keep doing what God has called us to do. And then we've got the call of God. The call of God provides a plan for us. It provides a promise for us and it provides power. But here we're looking at something altogether different, this confirmation. this command, this charge from God, that his plan for us, we need the confidence instilled within us to carry it out. That's the idea. Look at verse 11. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying, Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, I see a branch of an almond tree. Then the Lord said to me, you have seen well, for I am ready to perform my work. First thing that we notice here in this text is God confirms the importance of his plan in his word to us. When God asked Jeremiah, Jeremiah, what do you see? It confirmed to him the importance of what God had already revealed to him. He gave him a vision or maybe an actual almond tree, we're not sure which, but he gave him this as an object lesson. Jeremiah, what do you see before you? And Jeremiah told him what he saw. And God said, basically, I am ready to perform what I said I would perform in you. Jeremiah, my word is there. It's like the almond tree that really begins to bud in January with his pink flowers and provides fruit in March. I am there. I am ready to provide for you. I am watchful and I am alert over my word. We, too, have the word of God confirming the importance of the plan of God in our lives. God is saying to us, just like he said to Jeremiah, I am here, I am ready, and my word will not return to me void, empty. My word will go out and it will accomplish what I please, right? It will do what I wanted to do, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. This is Isaiah 55, 11. God sends out his word through us as his instruments, and we preach and proclaim the word of God. And then he tells us, I am accomplishing my will through what you're doing. Can there be anything better in life than that? I don't think so. There is nothing better in life than that. And this will always be true. So any doubts that linger in our lives ought to be dispelled by the plan of God found in the word of God, ignited by the spirit of God in our lives. But what God reveals isn't always something we want to see. And so we have a second vision. Look at verse 13 here. And the word of the Lord came to me the second time saying, what do you see? And I said, I see a boiling pot and it's facing away from the north. Then the Lord said to me, out of the north calamity shall break forth on all the inhabitants of the land. For behold, I am calling all the families of the kingdom of the north, says the Lord. They shall come and each one set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem against all its walls all around and against all the cities of Jerusalem. I will utter my judgments against them concerning all their wickedness. because they have forsaken me, burned incense to other gods, and worship the works of their own hands. Again, God asks this question of Jeremiah, Jeremiah, what do you see? And the almond tree would have served as an encouragement. And so now, wow, I can't wait to see what he's going to show me next. And all of a sudden, it's this bubbling cauldron. And it is boiling and it is tipping away from the north. That is toward the south where Judah was. And the flame is violently heating up this mess and it's going to spew out in destruction over all the land, God says. Not exactly something I'd want to hear. And so we have this destruction for people that are forsaking God. And that is the cause of Jeremiah's lament. That is why he is known as the weeping prophet, because he knows what's going to happen to his people. He knows it from day one. And he tries to shake them from their lethargy and their apathy and their lackluster approach to God. He tries to do everything that he can possibly do, but they won't hear him. And so God's judgment is going to come in like a flood. The greatest grief in our lives and the lives of those around us may be summed up in the fact that we do not love our creator. We love the things that he created more than we love him. That's a great grief. We trust in our own works, in our own self-righteous actions, in the works of our hands rather than trusting in God. We fail to see our need for repentance. We don't even see people preaching the doctrine of repentance anymore. People are not turning away from the from themselves and from their own work to put their trust in the finished work of Christ. Christians are not turning from their sins and realizing that they can have a life that is far more satisfying than going after other things, creaturely comforts of this world. We just don't understand this. And so we wither in the face of coming judgment, even as the people in Jeremiah's day wither. And in order to be delivered, we need to understand our need of salvation in the first place. So how are we going to understand that if we don't rise up and say, this is what God is going to do. This is how he's going to chasten us if we don't turn from our sin. The problem that we face in our nation today is not getting the right person in as a president. The problem is Christians doing what they should be doing, being salt and light in the world around us. People need to be saved. Their lives need to be transformed. And then all the other things will take care of themselves. We forsake our own way and we trust in the ever faithful plan that God has for our lives. And then we, like Jeremiah, prepare and we go forward in the power and presence of God. We prepare, verse 17, we prepare to accomplish the plan of God for our lives. Therefore, prepare yourself and arise and speak to them all that I command you. Do not be dismayed before their faces, lest I dismay you before them. Wow. Think about that verse. What's happening here? Preparation means immediate activity, Jeremiah. And for Jeremiah, what did that mean? It meant speaking, saying the hard things. He will try not speaking. You realize that? But then God's word will become a burning fire in his heart and he will not be able to contain it or hold it back. He will grow He will grow tired of doing that, and he will work hard, grow tired, strain every nerve, and he will go against the people that oppose him, and he will speak because that's what God told him to do. He will suffer insult, persecution. He will struggle with this over and over again until he really becomes very discouraged. You say, what will happen if he says, no, I'm not going to do this. I'm going to turn away from all this, just like Jonah. And I'm going to go the opposite direction that God has for me. Well, then if he is dismayed before the people, then God will break him down completely. That's the idea here. You want to become dismayed and break down and not do what I've called you to do? I'll break you down completely. That's the idea. So Jeremiah needs to prepare and he needs to realize that God will supply for all his needs as he enters a life of ministry for God. And then we need to work that plan with confidence. Verse 18, confidence in the power of God. For behold, I have made you this day a fortified city and an iron pillar and bronze walls. Notice the plural there. against the whole land, against the king of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land. The imagery is one of a fortified city, an iron pillar and bronze wall after bronze wall after bronze wall. And all of this signifies the power of God in this culture. As God makes accessible his plan for Jeremiah, he also confounds those who tried to come against Jeremiah. And he says, it's not going to be possible for you to overthrow the man of God, because I have put him in this place. And I have made him and before him an impregnable bronze wall and then another one and then another one several feet thick and there's no way that the enemy is going to break through to him. That's great. That's great encouragement as Jeremiah faces all these people that are noticed that are mentioned here in this verse. All the wicked kings, all the sycophant princes, all of the corrupt religious leaders, and then all the people that follow them. That's what Jeremiah is facing, and God's power keeps him secure. Confidence in the power of God. And then finally, confidence in the presence of God, verse 19. They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you. There it is. They will fight, and they are going to fight with tenacity. As we read the book, we'll find that out right away. But they will not prevail. God will be with Jeremiah for the purpose of delivering Jeremiah. So what do we say to all of this finally this morning? We say prepare. We say we need to get ready. We need to gird up our loins and fight the fight that God has for us. We go forward in the power and the presence of God. And as we learn of him, we speak of him. We prepare for action, not for self-satisfaction. We don't withdraw from society, but we march forward. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against a marching church. That's a responsibility that we have now. And so let the Word of God consume you as we enter into studying Jeremiah together. Understand that he has the ability to protect you from the world, from the flesh, and from the devil. God can do this. He can show us great and mighty things because he is a great and mighty God. You may be hard pressed on every side, but you're not perplexed. You may be persecuted, but you're not forsaken. You may be struck down, but you will not be destroyed. Second Corinthians 4, 8 and 9. God has made you inaccessible. He has made you indestructible. I like that saying, I am indestructible until God is done with me. And then when he's done with me, I don't want to be on this earth one second longer. Isn't that true? That is true. Jesus is our Emmanuel. He is God with us. And in the world we face tribulation, but Jesus, be of good cheer, Jesus has overcome the world. And so his word is ever present, informing us of his perfect plan, and his will is not concealed. He's made it very clear. The will of God is not a mystery. He's in our hearts working and convincing us and working in and through us to convince the world of judgment to come. A great and mighty God, showing us great and mighty things. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. Thank you again for the new year and for the good attention this morning. We pray that you would continue to show us more of yourself in the coming days through this book. We ask, Lord, that you continue to use us to reach the people around us, our Jerusalem, our Judah. And Lord, help us to obey this great commission. and to fulfill the great commandments. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, we're going to go ahead and open our hymnals to Springs of Liberty.