Turn with me, if you will, in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 25. Jeremiah chapter 25, and we're picking this up. That's on page 1214. Jeremiah chapter 25, page 1214, beginning at verse 1. The word came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon." Now, this is an important statement because what it illustrates is exactly what's going on. When did the Babylonian captivity begin and when did it end? I submit to you that the Babylonian captivity, or the captivity of Judah, began when Josiah, the last godly king, in fact the godliest king that Judah ever had, when he disobeyed the Lord and got involved in politics, Wait, no, that's not what it says. No, he disobeyed the Lord and went out and got involved to try to stop Pharaoh of Egypt from interfering with the northern kingdoms. If he had not done that, he would have remained alive. But God kept His promise to Josiah. and Josiah did not see the horrible things that would happen to his children and grandchildren and to Jerusalem itself and the destruction of the temple. So I submit to you that Judah's captivity in one way begins in 609 BC because that's when Judah ceased to be an independent nation. Now there's a second starting point for 70 years and that's 586 BC because that's when Nebuchadnezzar's army destroyed the city of Jerusalem and destroyed the temple of God in Jerusalem so that not a stone is left standing on another. And strangely, in 536 B.C., it was on the exact same day of the exact same Hebrew month that the Romans destroyed the temple in A.D. 70. So the second 70-year period goes from the destruction of the temple of God in 586 until it is rebuilt and consecrated to God in 516. So add them up. You've got two 70 year periods. You've got Judah ceasing to be an independent nation. 609 to 539, and you've got the temple destroyed 586 to 516. Now let's notice here, this is something interesting. This is in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. son of Josiah, king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. And so look what we find further. This gives us a date. That date is 605 B.C. Now, listen to what Jeremiah says in verse 2. So Jeremiah the prophet said to all the people of Judah, and to all those living in Jerusalem, look at this, verse 3, for 23 years, from the 13th year of Josiah, son of Ammon, king of Judah, until this very day. Do you know dates are important? Why are dates important? Because the Bible is not an abstract book. of philosophical concepts and moral instruction. The Bible is an actual history. It records the mighty acts of God. That's what we need to remember. The Bible is a history book. But it's not a history book. It uses history to proclaim the message of God to us. It's not a history book, say, the way that Herodotus wrote a history book. It is a book that takes real, actual, historical events and marshals them together in such a way that you and I are gripped with truth and we say, wow! God intervened in history at that point in time. So we look at this history and Jeremiah is saying for 23 years from the 13th year of Josiah, What is that telling us? It's telling us the date that He gave this prophecy. It's 629 B.C. Now, why is this important? Because the Northern Kingdom has fallen. The Northern Kingdom, throughout the whole book of Jeremiah, we're dealing with two nations. The nation of Israel, what in the New Testament is called Samaria, and the nation of Judah. Israel went into captivity under the kings of the Northern Empire. We call it Assyria. But Assyria and Babylon were on one big stretch of land where different kings ruled. And so, Jeremiah has preached after the fall of the Northern Kingdom in 722. Now, he talks about two women, Israel to the north, she's already been divorced from God, she got her certificate of divorce, that's what we were looking at in Jeremiah 3, 6 and 7. She got her certificate of divorce, she went into captivity. And now Judah is on the threshold of going into captivity because of what? Because of their disobedience. Look at what he says after that dash. The word of the Lord has come to me and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened. I've spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened. So let me throw out a theme to you. Do you know that Jeremiah was a priest? He was a priest. Do you know there was another priest who was a prophet? And the priest who was a prophet was the prophet Ezekiel, who was also a priest. But Ezekiel was in captivity when he began to prophesy. So we have two Priests who are prophets. Both are major prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. And both of them have a very similar theme. It's a theme that was picked up by Hosea. Hosea is an interesting book. He was a prophet to the northern kingdom before the northern kingdom was taken into exile. And Hosea was told to go out and marry a woman who would be unfaithful to him. Wow. Wow. Wow. Her name was Gomer. She prostituted herself. God wanted Hosea the prophet to understand Emotionally the message that he had to preach and the only way who would ever understand that message Emotionally would be his own wife's betrayal and then of course what happens when people betray things They end up in great difficulty and one day in chapter 3 of Hosea Hosea sees Gomer and she's being auctioned off as a slave and he buys her back. And that is the story of Hosea and Gomer, and it illustrates God's love for his people. God loved Israel even when she betrayed him, and even when he finally sent her into captivity, having written her that certificate of divorce. Now that theme is picked up by Jeremiah, and Jeremiah is saying, your sister Israel, that is the Northern Kingdom, I gave her a certificate of divorce and I sent her away. And now Judah, you're about to get divorced too. And that's the theme there in Jeremiah. And so what you find then is this theme, Israel and Judah, the two leading portions of Jacob's children, They both have betrayed the Lord. They've broken His covenant, and they've allied themselves with foreign gods. Now notice what he says in verse 4. Jeremiah 25, verse 4. And though the Lord has sent all His servants the prophets. Do you ever think about a prophet as God's slave? That's what they are. The word servant is a little mild. Servant implies, you know, hired help. Slave is somebody that's pressed into service and can't get out of it. So being a prophet, was not a voluntary thing. It was a calling on a man's life to be something, become something, and do something. And that calling is spelled out here. Verse 4, Jeremiah 25, 4. And though the Lord has sent all his servants, all his slaves, the prophets to you again and again, you have not listened or paid attention. Here's what they said. Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and your evil practices, and you can stay in the land the Lord gave to you and your fathers forever and ever. Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them. Do not provoke me to anger with what your hands have made, then I will not harm you." So what is God saying through his slaves, the prophets? Don't go following other gods. Don't make images in the likeness of man or beast. Don't worship me in the form of your imagination with pictures and with statues. Don't do that. And he says, In verse six, do not follow other gods to serve and worship them. Do not provoke me to anger with what your hands have made, then I will not harm you. Think about it for a moment. Does God get angry? You ever gotten angry? You ever lost your temper? Anybody here never lost your temper? I'd like to know. I need to talk to you and find out how. People lose their tempers. People lose their tempers when their goals are frustrated. That's what makes you lose your temper. Your goal is frustrated. You want to go here and something's in your way. And it blocks you. When your goal is blocked, it makes you mad. And anger is a normal reaction to blocked goals. But losing your temper, boy, I'm going to ask you a question. Do you think God ever, in a certain sense, lost his temper? Well, I'll say this. What do you call the terrible things he did to the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom, but something that's like, notice I said like, something that's similar to you and me losing our tempers? Now, God never loses control. God is always in control of himself, absolutely. God never sins. I'm simply speaking of an analogy here. It's similar to when you and I lose our temper. And when we lose our temper, bad things happen. And notice what he says there. Do not provoke me to anger with what your hands have made, then I will not harm you. So Israel and Judah had provoked God to anger. They provoked him. They provoked him. They provoked him just like somebody provoking you to anger and you respond. And he says, then I will not harm you. What's he saying? He's saying, if you continue to provoke me to anger, if you continue to upset me, if you continue to defy me, I'm gonna hurt you. And I'm gonna hurt you really bad. He would inflict on them much pain. And what you call these captivities, but much pain. People died. Children died. Terrible things happened. And so that's what he's saying. Now look at verse 7. But you did not listen to me, declares the Lord, and you have provoked me with what your hands have made. You have brought harm to yourselves." So if you got to realize this, that when you disobey God and I disobey God and we do it with a high hand, what does it mean to sin with a high hand? It means to sin defiantly. I don't care what God said, I'm going to do it anyhow. Remember Frank Sinatra? I did it my way. What happens when you do it your way? You're going to get yourself in a big pile of trouble. And so he says there, he says, you have provoked me. You've brought harm on yourselves. Now look at verse 8. This is very striking. Therefore the Lord Almighty says this, because you have not listened to my words, I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, declares of the Lord, And I will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, against all the surrounding nations. And we're going to skip down here to verse 11. This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Notice that 70 years. Now this is going to take us God willing next week to the book of Daniel to try to understand these 70 years. He's saying they're going to serve my slave. Nebuchadnezzar. Who are the prophets? The prophets are God's slaves and he sent them to his people, pressing them, begging them, pleading with them. Turn from your wicked ways and seek my face. Seek my mercy and I'll hear you. I'll forgive you. I'll wipe it out. I'll blot out all your sins. He sent his slaves, the prophets. But they wouldn't hear his slaves, the prophets. So now he sends another slave. Who was Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon? He was God's slave. He did exactly what God told him to do. Wow. Nebuchadnezzar was worse than Hitler. Nebuchadnezzar was worse than Mao Zedong. Nebuchadnezzar was worse than Mussolini. Nebuchadnezzar was a horrible, terrible, vile, wicked man, but he was God's slave, he was God's servant to do his bidding. He said, you wouldn't listen to my servants, the prophets, my slaves, the prophets, so now I'm going to send you a different kind of slave, a different kind of servant. Now, I want you with that in mind, and then God says he's going to take care of the king of Babylon at the end of that time, and that is what he did. In 539, the Babylonian Empire collapsed when a different people group, see the Babylonians and the Assyrians are all one group of people, but a different group of people came. They were the Medes. And they united with the Persians and they conquered the city of Babylon by having an army corps of engineers. Did you know that? They were able to divert the water that would go through the city, and they were able to walk into the city of Babylon, the Medes and Persians, and conquer it in 539 BC. Now, turning over to Jeremiah 29, I want to see something else here. Jeremiah chapter 29, and that's page 1221. Jeremiah 29, page 1221. Now, this all goes back to, let's look at verse 10. This is what the Lord says, when 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. Now look at verse 11. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Now let me see if I can put this together. God is communicating to his people in exile in the Assyrian Babylonian empires. He's communicating to them some basic truth. Don't believe the liars. Many false prophets are telling you, you don't unpack your bags, you're just staying in the motel for a couple of nights and you're coming back here to Texarkana. In a sense, that's what the false prophets were saying. Said, look, everything's gonna be okay. Everything's gonna be okay. And Jeremiah has a word from the Lord. Those prophets who were saying that got struck down. Because look at what God says. Look at verse 4, Jeremiah 29, 4. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says to all those. Notice who carried them away into captivity. I, that's the Lord speaking. I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Notice what God says. He says, build houses and settle down, plant gardens and eat what they produce, marry and have sons and daughters, find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters, increase in number there and do not decrease. Verse seven, also seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you, Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. Let me see if I can sum this up. Why did Israel, the northern kingdom, go into exile? God divorced her. He gave her a certificate of divorce. And therefore, she went away. And what did God do to the southern kingdom of Judah? He divorced her too and sent her away. So we have the two basic nations that were comprised of the sons of Jacob, and both of them had been sent away into captivity. False prophets rose up and said, you don't need to worry. This isn't going to happen. God isn't going to destroy our city. God isn't going to destroy our country. Don't unpack your bags. Settle down there. And what is God's message through Jeremiah? Because I believe it's the same message God has for Texarkana, and Trinity Presbyterian Church, and for every cluster of Christians in the world today. How do we live under a hostile government that does not love God, does not do right, that threatens constantly with persecution? How do we respond to it? Notice what he says. He said, you're in captivity. You're the blessed ones. You're the protected ones because those that have been left in Jerusalem and Judah are going to be wiped out and destroyed in horrible, horrible, horrible ways. He says, you've gone into captivity. He said, this is your response to your hostile government. He says, what? He says, in verse seven. Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper. What does that mean for us living today in 2022? I see things when I go to gas pumps. I really look at gas pumps these days. I see some fella has put stickers on them. And those stickers say, I did that. Has anybody ever seen one of those at a gas pump? And usually it's about the person they didn't vote for. So I look at that as the numbers get up in the $70 range filling up my tank when it's bone dry. Wow, I did that. Well, you know what? God did that. God did that. God did that. Do you understand who rigged the election in 2016 and who rigged the election in 2020? God did that. God did that. So what is our response? Whether we are pro-Trump or pro-Biden or pro-liberty or pro-whatever. What's our response? We are Israel in exile. Our true home is not here. Our home is over Jordan, the heavenly Jordan. Our home is in heaven. We're citizens of a better empire and a better place. So how do we deal with governments we don't like? How do we deal with them? He says what? Verse seven, seek the peace and prosperity. What does that mean? Peace and prosperity. That's when we say a benediction at the end and I expand on the word shalom, peace, harmony, wholeness, health physically and mentally and spiritually, health and relationships, health financially. He said, pray for that. So here you are in Texarkana, whether you live in Arkansas or Texas, Whether you live outside the city limits in Nash or somewhere else, Ashdown, whether you're out in the great trade area that goes down as far as Shreveport, near Shreveport, pray. Pray for your government. Pray for President Biden. Speak respectfully of him. If he's a Nebuchadnezzar, God put him on the throne. And don't speak railing accusations against Mr. Trump. God put him on the throne. And pray for the peace and prosperity of Texarkana, of Texas, of Arkansas, of Oklahoma, and Louisiana, particularly Louisiana. Because I live there. Pray for him. Ask God to bless the politicians. You got a crooked congressman? Pray for him. Pray for him. Pray for Nebuchadnezzar. Pray for Babylon. Look at verse 7. Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Because Nebuchadnezzar was my slave. He was my servant. He did what I commanded him to do, though he was never aware of it. He was my unwitting servant. The difference between the politicians, like Nebuchadnezzar, and the prophets is that the prophets knew what God was doing, knew what He was calling them to do, and knew they were going to suffer for being faithful to God and His message as they prophesied. The politicians don't know that. Politicians don't know it. Does Miss Pelosi upset you? Pray for her. Pray for her. Pray for both parties. Both parties are essentially alike. Sorry to tell you that. They really are. Huey Long said it best. He was Louisiana's best governor and Louisiana's worst governor. He compared the two parties to a snake oil salesman. selling high papalorum and low papaharum. He said the one was from the bark of the tree, skinned up the bark of the tree, and the other was skinning down the bark of the tree. High papalorum, low papaharum. And he said, I've learned that both parties are like that. The one skins you from the bottom up and the other one skins you from the top down. Huey was a very smart man. And who killed him? I don't know. But the docent at the Louisiana Capitol told my boy scout troop that Franklin Roosevelt was behind it and standard oil. Me, I don't know. You know who killed him? God killed him. God removed John Kennedy. Who was involved in it? I don't know. I don't know. The books haven't been opened yet. You know, I'm going to be amazed when I get to glory, when I go to heaven and I see the books open, I'm going to understand who actually shot Bobby Kennedy? And who actually shot John Kennedy? And who actually shot Martin Luther King? All these things that happened in the 60s. Wow, when our country went through much upheaval. I don't know. The point is this, dear ones, not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from God. Not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from God. And the very hairs of your head are numbered. I now have one less." You say, well, that leads to fatalism. No, it doesn't. See, there's a mystery about divine providence and the means to achieving providence. That's why he says in verse 7, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper. You know, I'm amazed that political parties sometimes deliberately help destroy our nation so that the other party will be blamed for the problem. I've read a lot of things like that. Well, at least if this happens, we won't be blamed for it. And they do their best to make the other party fail. So what do you do? The Bible doesn't teach fatalism. The Bible teaches that God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, yet so is that God is not the author of sin, nor is the will of the creature violated, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes destroyed, but rather established. You know what'll happen if you don't pray? It gonna get worse. It's gonna get worse. Do you mean there are times that are better and times that are worse because God's people humble themselves and pray? Yes. Yes. Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper. And what is our attitude in all of that? If God put Donald Trump on the throne and God put Joe Biden on the throne, what is our attitude in all that? Let's be humble. Let's be humble. Let's try to obey God and let's be cheerful about it. Hallelujah anyhow. My party lost. My party won. Pray. And notice what he says in verse 10. Going back to it. When 70 years are completed for Babylon, I'll come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. Verse 11, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. So here you are today. You may be like Israel, the first to get the certificate of divorce. Or you may be like Judah, who got her divorce certificate a little later. And you're looking at yourself, and you're looking at your family, and you're saying, why me? Why is all this always happening to me? Why is everybody always picking on me? Why is it that about the time I'm really walking with Jesus, the devil comes along like a dog and bites me on the calf? Why is it? Why do I have trouble? Why do I have trouble in life? You know why I've got trouble in life? Because God loves you. So what? You have trouble in life because God loves you. Because He has good plans for you. You've got to remember this, beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ. God loves you. God loves me. He wants to bless you. What are the conditions of blessing? Pray. American churches, this is what I have said over and over again as I visit churches. Down to the Mexican border, I'm responsible for these churches in Texas. Everything east of a line where Oklahoma and Texas panhandles connect, everything east of there, I'm responsible for. What do I learn when I visit churches? You know what I discover? People don't pray anymore. People don't pray anymore. I'm talking about really heartfelt prayer. Do you know the the last time we met on Monday night? Here at the church, we prayed with the greatest earnestness I have seen in the entire time I've been coming to Trinity since mid-August 2019. I mean, there was earnest praying. There was earnest pleading. There was crying out to God. And you know what? God hears and answers prayer. But the American church doesn't need God. We got everything we need. That's what we think. So long as I can put gas in the car, as long as the solar panel can charge up my, what's that, muscar? Anyhow, muscatel? No, anyhow. You know they've got the electric chargers behind Olive Garden? Wow. What happens when the electricity goes down? What about Texas where you have an isolated power grid? Well, that's good. Then California won't be stealing our electricity. Well, dear ones, what am I saying? I'm saying you and I, this nation, what's going on in Eastern Europe, all of this is according to a divine plan, but it is never, never, never fatalism. God has designed history in such a way that he would save people. When people come to the end of their rope and say, Lord, I don't know what to do. At that point, God will always send a rescue. If people will humble themselves and pray and plead with God, Oh God, help me. Oh God, show me what to do. Oh God, provide for my needs. I've been young. I'm now old, but I've never seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread in the streets. He is always generous and gives money away. So remember this as we close the service. If you're a believer, if you know Jesus, Stand your ground on what you know from the Bible to be true. God's will for you is to prosper you. Does that mean you'll never have trouble? Of course not. It's to give you a future. It's to give you a hope. It's to give you encouragement. Till the Lord Jesus Christ returns, there's going to be trouble. But in the middle of the trouble and the storms of life, my anchor holds because the God that sent my aunt and my mother away to the northern places to live and divorce, as it were, that God wants to bless me. God wants to bless you. God wants to provide for you. God wants to surprise you with something. I had asked for prayer for a man when I was here last time. about praying for the man not to have cancer. Y'all got a text about 10 days ago when they went to MD Anderson. No cancer. No cancer. Does God want to heal people today? Yes! The trouble with the American church, where the church is in the northern hemisphere, not the southern hemisphere. Revivals breaking out in Ethiopia, where we sent EPC pastors just this past week. Revival. Muslims coming to Christ. People being healed. People being raised from the dead. Because people are desperate. So here's the last question. God sent us His servants, the prophets, His slaves, the prophets. Will we respond to God's Holy Word inscripturated to us? Or will we say, well, that was for then. It's not for now. And no longer pray with expectation. We don't pray with expectation. Guess what? We don't receive. God wants. for you and me to get so desperate with God that we've gotta have it, oh God, and we humble ourselves and then we believe and claim the promises of God because God says to you, I know the plans I have for you to prosper you, to bless you, to give you a future and a hope. Let's pray. Lord, we pray that you would give us to walk in the truth that even in exile, even with Nebuchadnezzar being our king, Lord, you're gonna take care of us. You're gonna bless us. But Lord, it isn't fatalism, it's praying. It's taking the promises of God as the foundation of our pleading with you to fulfill and answer your word. May it be so here, may it be so throughout the world. In Jesus' name, amen.