This evening, before we have our time of singing hymns together and our fellowship meal, I would like to make a few remarks on a passage found in the book of Jeremiah, starting with chapter 38. Yes, 38. Before we look at an event that took place hundreds of years ago, let us now pray and ask the Lord to give us grace to profit from this study. So let us pray together. Our Lord God, you have revealed to us that all Scripture is profitable. And this evening, as we look at events that took place long ago, we are dealing with Your Word. And as we consider those who disobeyed Your Word and the results, may we give heed to the warning, and may we consider how important it is to render to our God obedience. So, please take our study tonight and equip us to better serve him who loved us and gave himself for us, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. You've got to know how to beat the system. You've got to know how to beat the system. Everyone does it. Those words were recently addressed to me as regards government and VA benefits. The context of the conversation had to do with the death of my father and talking about what possible benefits my mother might be entitled to. And so this gentleman told me, he says, well, you've got to know how to beat the system. And so he went on to tell me about how he and his wife, They beat the system in order for a mother-in-law to get certain benefits that she was not lawfully entitled to. You've got to work the system. You've got to beat the system. Everybody does it. But as a Christian whose responsibility is to honor God in all things, I cannot beat the system. For in order to beat the system, you've got to lie. and you've got to break the law. And that is not something that a believer in Jesus Christ is permitted to do, nor does he want to do it. But nonetheless, it is true that there are thousands who work the system and they benefit and it seems that they really profit. At the same time, there are multitudes who break God's law. And it appears for a while they profit in doing so. But most often, that word overcomes them. As the law says, he who sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. And add to that, if we do not see the judgments fall in this life, we must always remember that there is a judgment to come. Well, tonight we look at some people, we look especially at a king who thought he could ignore God's law. In fact, he thought he could break it and he could get by with it. But he learned, the people learned, as we shall see, that that disobedience to God's law always brings trouble. It always brings severe consequences. And so, we'll pick it up this evening at the last part of chapter 38, and I'll read the first ten verses of chapter 39. Now, Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken. And he was there when Jerusalem was taken. In the ninth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the tenth month Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army came against Jerusalem and besieged it. In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month of the ninth day of the month, the city was penetrated, and all the princes of the king of Babylon came and sat in the middle gate. Nergal Sharizer, Samgar Nebo, Sarichim, Rab Saris, Nergal Shazizer, Rab Mag, with the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon. So it was when Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and all the men of war saw them, that they fled and went out of the city by night by way of the king's garden, by the gate between the two walls, and he went out by way of the plain. But the Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And when they had captured him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to Riblah, in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced judgment on him. Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes in Riblah. The king of Babylon also killed all the nobles of Judah. Moreover, he put out Zedekiah's eyes and bound him with bronze fetters to carry him off to Babylon. The Chaldeans burned the king's house and the houses of the people with a fire and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. Then Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, carried away captive to Babylon the remnant of the people who remained in the city and those who defected to him with the rest of the people who remained. But Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, left in the land of Judah the poor people who had nothing and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time. Amen. No one wants to go to prison. Prisons can be terrible places. And even those who are fairly nice, still, who wants to be confined in one particular area 24-7? But on the other hand, you know, a prison might be a very good place in which to stay. And for Jeremiah, prison was a very good place. When we left Jeremiah, he was in prison. My, is that the way God treats His prophets? Leaves them in prison? But yet that was a good place because you see mention is made when the Chaldeans took Jerusalem. When they flooded into that city and they were killing and they were raping and they were plundering, they didn't worry about the prisoners. They knew the prisoners were confined. They wouldn't go anyplace. Besides, what does a prisoner have? What do you want from him? He has nothing. And so God in His providence had put Jeremiah in prison. He was there in a safe place. Well, as we look at what took place here, we'll think first of all about the downfall of a city. The downfall of a very great city. It's a downfall that came about because of disobedience to the Word of God. And so in the ninth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, all his army came against Jerusalem and besieged in the eleventh year of Zedekiah. In the fourth month, on the ninth day, the city was penetrated. And so perhaps you remember previous to this, the Chaldean army had pulled away from Jerusalem for just a little bit because they heard that Pharaoh and his army were coming up. And so there was just a brief span of time here, maybe a month, maybe even less, in which Jerusalem was not under siege. And so it gave the people an opportunity, maybe to get some fresh supplies, because the siege went on for about a year and a half. And of course they shouted, the prophets were right, the Chaldeans would leave. But God warned through the prophet Jeremiah, they'll be back. That Chaldean army will be back. And indeed they came back. For a year and a half the city is under siege. And so here you have Zedekiah. He can go out and he can see things. And what does he see in that city? He sees starvation. The food is gone. People are starving. And you have read other accounts in the book of Kings and Chronicles how mothers would eat their own babies they were so hungry. People are dying of disease. And they even have to burn the dead, something the Jews detested to do, but they couldn't go outside the city walls to bury them. And then finally you notice the wall is penetrated, that is those battering rams finally made a crack in the wall. And some of those Chaldean soldiers come running in and undoubtedly, first of all, they head for the gates and they open the gates and then the armies swarm in. And as I said, there is this killing, there is this raping, there is this plundering of the city. The downfall of a city. Why? Because you have people, especially you have a king who disobeyed the Word of God. For you go back and you look in that 38th chapter, Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, if you surely surrender to the king of Babylon's princes, then your soul shall live. The city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live. But if you do not surrender to the king of Babylon's princes, then the city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans. They shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape from their hand. And so here is a king who says, I can defy that word. That word is not going to be fulfilled on me. And so in disobedience you see this city falls. And if you think about it, it's by means of disobedience to God that so many things fall. Individual men fall. Families fall. Cities fall. Nations fall because of disobedience and the wrath of God. Individuals fall. You remember a few years back in the realm of televangelists, there was one man that was on top of the mountain, Jimmy Swigert. He was making millions and he fell. And the fall was great. Who is he now? Where is he? He's fallen. That happens to individuals. Families fall. Families are ruined. Why? Disobedience. Churches fall. Why? Disobedience. And so there's the possibility that you're flirting around with a particular temptation or temptations. Maybe you've yielded and you're involved in disobedience. And you think you're getting by with it. Well, here is a king. Here is a nation. For many years they got by with their disobedience. God was very patient. He kept calling them back to repentance. No! And now this beautiful city, it falls. It's overrun. And so it says to us, beware of that disobedience. Disobedience has consequences. And if you're flirting around in a particular area of disobedience, do you not hear the call to repent? Here are these people, all that they're going through. It's really a miserable city. Yes, there's some beautiful structures there, but oh, the misery that is there. And the Chaldeans come and take it over. And we can reflect back in history back in the 40s when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. What kind of an area did they bomb? Well, it was a beautiful place, a very peaceful place. A very prosperous paradise. And so the Japanese, they determined, we'll do it on Sunday morning. After all, you know the Americans, they'll be out Saturday night drinking and dancing, and they'll sleep in late with a big hangover. And they were pretty much right. But the place they bombed, they attacked was a very beautiful place, a peaceful, prosperous place. Here, it's a place of devastation. It's a place of ruin, you see. but disobedience brings greater ruin upon them. As the wise man said, the way of a transgressor's heart is a very difficult way. In Psalm 32, many sorrows belong to the wicked. Here are people full of sorrow. It came about from disobedience. A warning to us, a warning to us. As the psalmist said, I thought upon my ways and turned my feet into their testimonies. I hasten to keep thy commandments. And so here the downfall of a city. But in the second place, along the same line of thought, we have this defiance. This defiance by the king, as I already said, the word was given to him, you need to go out and you need surrender. If you don't, you'll be taken and the city will be destroyed. But you notice when we pick it up in verse 4, So it was when Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, that is, these men in the gates, that they fled and went out of the city by night, by way of the king's garden, by the gate between the two walls, and he went out by way of the plain. But the Chaldean army overtook them and captured them. Evidently, what Nebuchadnezzar had done, he was not involved in the siege, but he had set up his camp at Riblah, about 200 miles north of Jerusalem. And so they captured Zedekiah. They captured the nobles of the city. And they take them all up to Riblah. And there, Nebuchadnezzar pronounces judgment. Well, what was involved in the judgment? Well, you look at verse 6. Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Now, Zedekiah was a man probably in his early 30's. And he had a number of wives, we don't know how many. And he had a number of children, most likely very young, maybe some infants. And he watches as they are slaughtered before his very eyes. And then add to that the nobles, those who were the big shots in the city along with him. He watches them be put to death. Well then, why didn't Nebuchadnezzar just kill Zedekiah? I think he wanted Zedekiah to kind of die a slow death. After all, Nebuchadnezzar had set Zedekiah up. He had made him king of Jerusalem, of Judea there, and put him under tribute. And Zedekiah rebels against him. And evidently that greatly angered Nebuchadnezzar. And so he determines that Zedekiah is going to die a slow death. And what does he do? He has his eyes gouged out, or usually they say they, just this hot iron and they would put there and put out his eyes. And so he spends the rest of his life in misery. And the last thing he saw with those eyes, the last thing he saw was the death of his children. That's what would be there in his mind. And so here you see, you see what defiance brings. You see what a man reaps when he defies the Word of God, when he somehow thinks, I can beat this predicted Word of God. You cannot beat God's Word! God's Word will be accomplished. His promise is fulfilled. His threats will be fulfilled. And so here is Zedekiah. He's physically blind. But that's a picture of his soul. Before this, he was spiritually blind. And all those nobles with him and the majority of the people, they were blind and they were hardened against the Word of the Lord. Now for the rest of his life he'll reap that defiance. And so again it says to us, obedience, the Lord requires obedience. By the grace of God, grant me grace to obey. But then in the third place there is this destruction. There is this destruction that comes upon that great city. And so you have Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard. He takes away captives. And so try to picture in your mind, you'd have this long line of captives. It was probably in the wintertime, and so it wasn't very comfortable. And so you have this long line of former citizens, and they're going to be marched off to Babylon. They've got a long journey ahead of them. And as they wait to march out, they look up at the city. They look at their homes. They look at the walls of that city they've seen so often. They're leaving it all behind. All behind. And as they march out and they leave the city, they can hear perhaps the battering rams. The houses being destroyed. The wall is being destroyed and they can see the smoke going up. This city, this beautiful city of God, as it was referred to, is being destroyed. Why? Disobedience. Yes, you have the nobles, you have the princes, they were involved, even the people. But chiefly one man, Zedekiah, he was the king, a cowardly little king. But he should have stood up like a man and said, we're going to do the will of God. But he did not. And so one man, we could say, in essence, is responsible for the destruction of this city and all this death. One man. And isn't it true that one man can bring terrible destruction upon many? The world of sorrow in which we live. Why? One man, Adam. And it's one man that can ruin a family. One man that can ruin a business. One man can ruin a church. One disobedient man. So here, this disobedience brings about the destruction of the city. He was warned. But then it's interesting what we see in the providence of God. We had Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive to Babylon the remnant of the people who remained in the city and those who defected to him with the rest of the people who remained. But Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, left in the land of Judah the poor people who had nothing. and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time. The providence of God. He takes down the rich and the mighty and He lifts up the poor. Here are those being marched out. My vineyard, my place, in the hands of that poor guy. That's the way of the Lord. He takes down one and he lifts up another. And the people as they're being marched away, they look back and that city is becoming nothing but ruins. And as far as they're concerned, they'll never see it again, that beautiful city. It is in ruins. There's no way it will ever be built again. But that's not true. For you remember what God said sometime back It'll be destroyed, but I'll rebuild it. It'll be destroyed, but I'll rebuild it. And he did. You see, that's God. He can take something that's destroyed. He can take something that's ruined, and he can rebuild it. And he can make it beautiful. And that's what God does with lives. Some of you sitting here, you could give a quick testimony, couldn't you? Your life was ruined. It was in ruins. But God took hold of you. And God renewed you. And God is continually building you up. And God is making something out of you. That's what God does with us. He finds us in ruins. And He renews us. And He remakes us. But you could be sitting here, and as it is right now, yeah, you're a Christian, but you're flirting around with sin. And if you follow it, you'll be ruined. Why ruin yourself? But rather call upon the God of grace. Call upon the God of mercy. Help me, Lord. I don't want to ruin myself. I don't want to destroy the testimony I've built up over the years. Oh, Lord God, help me. The God who restores. Let us pray together. Our blessed Lord God, we thank you for your faithful word. Indeed, all of us here have experienced how faithful and how true your word is. Lord God, help us to be men and women who likewise give forth a faithful testimony, give forth a faithful word. And we thank you for restoring our lives, for renewing us. For indeed, Lord God, we were ruined sinners by nature. We thank you for great mercy. And Lord, have dealings with all who are here this night. We pray through Christ, Amen.