Jeremiah chapter 1 is where we're going to begin this morning, and this is going to be an overview of the book of Jeremiah which led up to Lamentations. Now, the prophet Jeremiah was the human instrument who wrote both Jeremiah and Lamentations. Now among Bible scholars, of which I am not among, but there is a difference of opinion, but I am convinced from reading, studying, comparing scripture with scripture, that yes, Jeremiah wrote this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Jeremiah is one of nine men named Jeremiah or Jeremias or Jeremy in the Old Testament. He is often referred to as the reluctant prophet. We'll get to that in just a moment, but he is also known as the weeping prophet who wept over the unrepentant people of Judah and Jerusalem. Now, Jeremiah preached some 40 years. under six different kings, beginning with King Josiah, which there is evidence that Josiah and Jeremiah knew each other, may have even been friends. When Jeremiah finished his ministry in the year 587 BC, And I had a conversation with a fellow pastor this week and he brought this up. He said, there is no evidence in the Bible that Jeremiah ever saw one person come to faith during his 40 years of ministry. Now, we would see that, wouldn't we, as failure. What if you had a pastor that had been at a church 40 years and the baptistry was never full? But beloved, I want you to understand something. Sometimes God sends his word and it hardens people's hearts. And that's exactly what happened here. You can sit in church for 50 years and hear the gospel every single Sunday and not be saved. happened here. He preached to them again and again and I can just only imagine over that 40 year period maybe husband and wife went home and turned on maybe not Fox News but maybe CNN and said, you know that old man he's just so rough and he's just always talking about hell and judgment and all that. I'm tired of hearing that. Let's get rid of him. Jeremiah preached a series of prophetic warnings to Judah and its capital city, Jerusalem. He implored them to abandon the idolatry and the apostasy that the people had embraced and to repent and to believe God's Word. Otherwise, God's judgment would come, and it did, resulting in the 70-year captivity in Babylon, which was an idolatrous, pagan, unsaved people. You know, that's one of the reasons, whether we want to admit it or not, why there's false teachers out there. God is giving people what they want. Many times people don't want what they really need, they want what they think they want. Now, even though there was no results, no visible evidence Jeremiah preached on. He was sorely persecuted. He was hated, even by his own family. Listen to this, Jeremiah, God speaks to him, And he says this in Jeremiah chapter 12, if you have run with a footman and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace in which you trusted, they wearied you, how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan? For even your brothers, the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you. Yes, they have called a multitude after you. Do not believe them, even though they speak smooth words to you. And yet, in addition to the prophecies of God's coming judgment on the people, Jeremiah also proclaimed God's promises. We'll get to that here in a few minutes. And by the way, Jeremiah is one reason why I am a premillennialist. I believe as Jesus is coming back for His church before the Tribulation, there'll be seven years of Tribulation Armageddon, which will involve all the armies of the world surrounding Jerusalem. They want to wipe out the Jews. Jesus will come back with his church and destroy those armies. And we saw that last week in Matthew chapter 25. He will judge the nations before the thousand-year millennium here on earth. Now, again, this morning's study is going to be an overview of the book of Jeremiah and an introduction to the book of Lamentations because I felt compelled to lay out the context and the circumstances in which the book of Lamentations was written. Since Lamentations is a sequel or an appendix to the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah, for all intents and purposes, is a book of warning. And Lamentations is a book of mourning, weeping, wailing. And my hope and prayer is, dear church, that God will cause us to see the relevance of the warnings of Jeremiah to the church today. And to wake up and to rise up and to know and serve the Lord before it is too late. So Jeremiah chapter one, verse four. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, and I think this verse is relevant on Mother's Day, okay? Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I, God, sanctified you. I ordained you a prophet to the nations. Beloved, that reveals to us that life, human life, begins at conception. God says, I formed you in the womb. I knew you before I formed you in the womb. Before you were born, I sanctified you. I set you apart. I had a purpose for you. I ordained you a prophet to the nations." That reminds me of a verse in the New Testament, Romans 8, 29. For those whom he foreknew, he predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son. I had a conversation with a young lady this week and I asked her, I said, what do you think is going to happen when you die? Now this is a young lady that was raised in church. She doesn't believe the Bible. She doesn't believe in God. And her answer when I asked her that was, she said, I think I'm going to come back as a house cat. I said, really? And I said, she doesn't believe in God. I said, where did everything come from? And she didn't say anything. And I said, look over there at that building for just a minute. Where do you think that building came from? Did that building just all of a sudden appear? Or did somebody build it? And she said, well, I guess somebody built it. I said, OK. God made everything that exists from nothing. And I left the door open. We're going to talk some more. Jeremiah was the reluctant prophet. Notice verse 6 of chapter 1, Then said I, Ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth. But the Lord said to me, Do not say, I am a youth, for you shall go to all 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. One of the problems with young pastors, which I was a long time ago, is we tend to want to be people pleasers. We don't want to offend anybody. We don't want to upset anybody. We want to keep everybody liking us. But verse nine, then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth and the Lord said to me, see this day I set you over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant. Then verse 16. God says, I will utter my judgments against them concerning all their wickedness because they have forsaken me, burned incense to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands. That could have been written, beloved, yesterday about today, about our culture. Right? God is going to preserve Jeremiah. He's going to keep him. Turn to chapter 2, verse 1. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Go and cry in the hearing of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord. I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal, when you went after me in the wilderness and a land not sown." He's talking about the exodus from Egypt. God said, I'll bring you out of slavery, and I'll take you to the promised land, and I will bless you. Notice what it says there. Verse three, Israel was holiness to the Lord, the first fruits of his increase. All that devour him will offend, disaster will come upon them, says the Lord. Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord, what injustice have your fathers found in me that they have gone far from me, have fouled idols, and have become idolaters? Neither did they say, where is the Lord who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, through a land of drought and the shadow of death, through a land that no one crossed and where no one dwelt. God says, I brought you, verse seven, into a bountiful country to eat its fruit and its goodness. But when you entered, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. The priests did not say, where is the Lord? And those who handle the law did not know me. The rulers have transgressed against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and walked after things that do not profit. Verse 10, for past beyond the coasts of Cyprus, and see, send a key door and consider diligently, and see if there has been such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods, which are not gods? But my people have changed their glory for what does not profit. Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid. God is crying out to creation. Be very desolate, saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns or wells, broken wells that can hold no water. You ever have anybody say to you, well, that won't hold any water? God's saying, you've gone after false gods. You have established a false religion. Notice again in verse 17 of chapter 2, Have you not brought this on yourself, in that you have forsaken the Lord your God when He led you in the way? And now why take the road to Egypt to drink the waters of Sihur? Or why take the road to Assyria to drink the waters of the river? Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backslidings will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that you have forsaken the Lord your God, Now notice this, verse 19, and the fear of me is not in you says the Lord of hosts. Verse 20, for of old I've broken your yoke and burst your bonds and you said I will not transgress when on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down playing the harlot. Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine? For though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me, says the Lord God. Verse 26, pay attention. As the thief is ashamed when he is found out, so is the house of Israel ashamed, they and their kings and their princes and their priests and their prophets, and I'm going to add a paraphrase, and their politicians. Verse 27, saying to a tree, you are my father. and to a stone you gave birth to me." Can I ask a real question? What is the difference between a boy saying, I want to be a girl, and a girl saying, I want to be a boy? I don't want to identify as a boy, I want to identify as a girl. Or, I don't want to identify as a girl, I want to identify as a boy. And ladies and gentlemen, that is exactly what some of your children are being taught in school. They don't open the Bible in the morning and read from the Bible and the teacher lead the class in prayer. They teach this nonsense, and when they get into college, they are completely indoctrinated. And it's because, and I, your pastor, failed in this to disciple our children. I depended on Christian school and Sunday school and youth group. I did that. I failed. But that's where we are in our world. Notice what it says there in the last part of that verse. For they have turned their back to me and not their face. But isn't this human nature? They will say in the time of their trouble, they will say, arise and save us. And God will say, where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise if they can save you in the time of your trouble. For according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah. That is a very serious indictment. Chapter 3, notice verse 6, the Lord also said to me in the days of Josiah the king, have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree and there played the harlot. And I said, this is the Lord speaking, after she had done all these things, return to me. Return to me. Do you see the mercy of God? God's mercy is undeserved, but God provides mercy. But they did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she went and played the harlot also. And so it came to pass through her casual harlotry, excuse me, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. And yet for all this, her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, says the Lord. Then the Lord said to me, backsliding Israel, who has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah, go and proclaim these words towards the north and say, return, backsliding Israel, said the Lord. I will not cause my anger to fall on you, for I am merciful, says the Lord. I will not remain angry forever. Only acknowledge your iniquity that you have transgressed against the Lord your God. One of the things, beloved, that I think we fail to realize is that when God forgives sin, He forgets it, doesn't He? Don't we tend to think about the past and about things that we've done or things that we've said or things that we shouldn't have done? But if you're a child of God, your Father forgives you because of the blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you understand that you are perfect guiltless before the Father because of the blood of Jesus Christ, because of what he did on the cross. What did Jesus say when he died on the cross? Do you remember? Did he say, it's almost finished? No, he said, it is finished. The debt is paid, over, done, forever. Now, that does not give us a license to sin, but it provides us with assurance that when we do sin, and we will, won't we? Oh yeah. And so, notice verse 14 of chapter three. Return, O backsliding children, says the Lord, for I am married to you. I will take you, one, from a city and two, from a family. I will bring you to Zion's and I will give you shepherds according to my heart. who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. But then notice verse 20. Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel. was heard, verse 21, on the desolate heights, weeping in supplications of the children of Israel, for they have perverted their way, they have forgotten the Lord their God. Return you backsliding children and I will heal your backsliding. And beloved, may I please say this, everybody, I don't care if you are a Democrat, I don't care if you are a Republican, it doesn't make any difference to me. I don't care how you vote. I But if you're a Christian, I believe that your Christian convictions will drive your political views and your social views. Does that make sense? And the only thing that is going to save this country is not patriotism, it is revival. If the churches don't wake up, If we don't experience a true heaven-sent, spirit-wrought revival, there's not a politician living or yet to be born that can save this country. Only the Lord can. And what really concerns me is, in some nations of the world, people will walk for hours through the rain and the cold and the heat. to sit under a tree for hours on end and they don't have a whole Bible they've got just a few pages and they will sit there for hours on end to hear the Word of God and we cannot get people to come to church on the Lord's Day in an air-conditioned and heated building with all the amenities and hot coffee and they still won't come. Somebody please explain to me what the problem is. It's not the environment, it's this right here, the human heart. There's an idol on every corner. Well, chapter four. Now in verse 22 of chapter 3, the Lord promises, return you backsliding children and I will heal your black side. This goes on over, and over, and over again. Chapter 4 verse 1, if you will return O Israel says the Lord, return to me and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight then you shall not be moved and you shall swear the Lord lives in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness. The nations shall bless themselves in Him and in Him they shall glory. Chapter six, verse 10. Now, let me just read to you, you turn to chapter six and hold your place there, but I wanna read to you the closing verses of chapter five. An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power, and my people love to have it that way. But what will you do in the end? So chapter six, verse 10, to whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Indeed, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot give heed. It is entirely possible, and I've been challenged on this point, but it is entirely possible to sit and listen and not hear. Truth can enter the mind and never get to the heart. Truth can get to the mind through the ears and never get to the heart. But may I say this? Truth will never get to the heart unless it comes to the mind. That's the way God designed it. Doesn't the Bible say, with a heart man believeth under righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation? Someone who truly believes the word of God in their heart, they're gonna confess Christ with their mouth and their life. But he says, their ear is uncircumcised. They cannot give heed. Behold, the word of the Lord is a reproach to them. They have no delight in it. Verse 13 of that chapter 6, because from the least of them, even to the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness, and from the prophet, even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. They have healed the hurt of my people slightly, saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. I was asked the question this week, They said, I was asked, do you believe in once saved, always saved? And I said, well, I prefer to say once saved, truly saved. Because when you say once saved, always saved, people have this idea if you walk in a church aisle and you shake the preacher's hand and you sign a card and you pray a prayer that you can go out and live your life any way you want to. That's not salvation. And there are literally millions of people walking around today right here in this country that have done that. They go to church, they're CEO Christians. You know what a CEO Christian is? Christmas and Easter only. Now, beloved, that's not a judgment call. Do you understand it's not about the numbers, it's about the souls. The New Testament never, ever, ever talks about church numbers or size. It talks about church purity. verse 16 of chapter 6, Thus saith the Lord, Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths where the good way is, and walk in it, then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk in it. Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Listen to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not listen. Therefore hear, you nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. earth, behold, I will certainly bring calamity on this people, the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not heeded my words, nor my law, but they," what? What's that word? Rejected it. Chapter 7, verse 1, the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, go stand out at the racetrack. It's not what it says. Stand in the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim there this word and say, hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your doings and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Do not trust in these lying words saying the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord of these. Because you see, Judah was trusting in the temple. Well, we've got the temple here. That's true. Here's something that I'm struggling with right now, and I want to ask you all's thoughts on it. Why does Columbus, Mississippi have all this crime? Why do we have all this domestic violence, all these drug arrests, all these police officers being assaulted, resisting arrest, and yet we've got a church on practically every street corner in Columbus, Mississippi? Please explain that to me. I need to know. They've not listened, they've rejected. Now listen to this, this is scary. Verse 16 of chapter seven. Therefore, when you find the word therefore inscription, you need to find out what it's there for. Therefore, do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to me. This is God speaking. For I will not hear you. Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah? and in the streets of Jerusalem the children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven, and they pour out drink offerings to other gods that they may provoke me to anger. Do they provoke me to anger, says the Lord? Do they not provoke themselves to the shame of their own faces? But yet God is still merciful. Look at verse 23 of chapter seven, but this is what I commanded them, saying, obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people, and walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you. Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but they followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts. How many times have I heard it said, well, just follow your heart? Jeremiah 17, 9 says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it. Yeah, you're going to follow your heart. You can do what you want to do. Verse 25. Since the day your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I've even sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. Yet they did not obey me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers." So he says this to Jeremiah, therefore, You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you. Chapter nine. Verse 23. Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, exercising loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these I delight, says the Lord. Then verse 10, excuse me, chapter 10, verse 10. But the Lord is the true God, He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth will tremble, and the nations will not be able to endure His indignation. Verse 11, Thus you shall say to them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens. He, God, has made the earth by His power. He has established the world by His wisdom. He has stretched out the heavens at His discretion. When He utters His voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings the wind out of His treasuries. When I was talking to this person this week, I asked him, I said, do you believe in creation? No. I said, do you believe in science? Oh yeah, I believe in science. I said, okay. I said, have you ever read the first book, the first verse of the first book of the Bible? Book of Genesis? No, tell me. I said, it says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. So science is about time, energy, motion, space, and matter, right? So here you have, in the beginning, time, God, energy, created, motion, The heavens, space, and the earth matter. Any questions? Folks, if we don't know what we believe and why we believe it, the churches are going to be overwhelmed with false doctrine. And I'm going to tell you something. The majority of people out here, they like false doctrine. They do. Because when you start telling people the truth, it makes them very unhappy. That's exactly what Jeremiah is doing. That's exactly, why did they kill Jesus? They killed Jesus not because of the miracles he did, not because of the food that he provided, not because of the lives that he brought back from the dead. They killed him for what he said. He spoke God's truth. Listen to chapter 11, verse, 2. Verse 1 says, the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant, which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do according to all I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God, that I may establish the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them a land flowing to milk and honey. And then verse 8, yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone followed the dictates of his evil heart. Therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant which I commanded them to do, but which they have not done. verse 10 of chapter 11, they have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers who refused to hear my words and they have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers. Verse 14, God says it again, do not pray for this people or lift up a cry or prayer for them for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to me because of their trouble. Chapter 13, verse 10. And we're just passing over, just trying to give a context. Chapter 13, verse 10, this evil people who refuse to hear my words, who follow the dictates of their hearts and walk after other gods to serve them and worship them shall be just like this sash. Now the sash that he's speaking of, go back to verse 1 of chapter 13. Thus the Lord said to me, go and get yourself a linen sash or a belt and put it around your waist, but do not put it in water. So I got a sash according to the word of the Lord and put it around my waist. And the word of the Lord came to me the second time, saying, Take the sash that you acquired, which is around your waist, go to the Euphrates River, hide it there in a hole in the rock. So I went and hid it in the Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me. Now it came to pass, after many days, that the Lord said to me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, take from there the sash, which I commanded you to hide there. Then I went to the Euphrates, I dug and took the sash from the place, where I had hidden it, and there was the sash ruined. It was profitable for nothing. Verse 8, Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Thus saith the LORD, In this manner I will ruin the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people who refuse to hear my words, who follow the dictates of their hearts, and walk after other gods to serve them, and worship them shall be just like this sash, which is profitable for nothing. For as the sash clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to me, says the Lord, that they may become my people for renown, for praise, and for glory, but they would not hear." Very sad. Chapter 14, verse 13, could this be true of the United States of America? Verse 13, then I said, ah, Lord God, behold, the prophets say to them, you shall not see the sword, nor you shall have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place. Your best life now. God has a wonderful plan for your life. Verse 14, And the Lord said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them. They prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name. whom I did not send, and who say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land. By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed, and the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword. They will have no one to bury them, them nor their wives, their sons or their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness upon them." Chapter 15, this is the testimony of Jeremiah verse 16, your words were found and I ate them. Do you eat the Bible? Do you eat the Word of God when you come to church? One of the things that we are working on starting this morning is to eliminate as much distraction and conversations as we can. We are coming to worship the Lord. can have fellowship. Tell me what time you want to have fellowship. I'll provide the donuts. Bruce will make the coffee. We'll have fellowship and conversation and all of that. But beloved when we come to this house on the Lord's Day we are here to worship and honor and glorify God. Yes, we have fellowship. We see each other. We love each other. But He says, Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord God of hosts." But then he says, I didn't sit in the assembly of the mockers, nor did I rejoice. I sat alone because of your hand, for you have filled me with indignation. Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable? which refuses to be healed, will you surely be to me like an unreliable stream, like waters that fail?" Well, I'm going to skip over some verses for the sake of time. Chapter 17, verse 19. Thus the Lord said to me, Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, and say to them, Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. Thus saith the Lord. Take heed to yourselves, bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it by the gates of Jerusalem, nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work but hallow the Sabbath day as I commanded your fathers. But they did not obey, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instructions. Chapter 20, Jeremiah's ready to quit. He has been very unpopular from all sides. He was being mocked. He was being ridiculed. He was being threatened. He was being persecuted. And I can identify with this. pastor. Notice in verse 7 of chapter 20, Oh Lord you induced me and I was persuaded. You know early on in the ministry I used to meet with guys all the time and they would say, you know God was calling me to preach and I didn't want to do that and I ran and I fought and blah, blah, blah and I fought. That wasn't my experience. I just had this hunger and this desire and this passion and this He said, notice, I am in derision daily. Everyone mocks me, for when I spoke, I cried out, I shouted violence and plunder because the word of the Lord was made to me a reproach and a derision daily. Then I said, I will not make mention of him nor speak any more in his name. I was ready to quit, but, His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones. I was weary of holding it back and I could not. Chapter 23, we're almost done. This is a prophecy and a prophetic promise. Chapter 23. Verse one, woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, says the Lord. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people, you have scattered my flock, driven them away and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doing, saith the Lord, but I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries where I've driven them and bring them back to their folds and they shall be fruitful and increase. I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking, says the Lord." Now here's the promise. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will raise to David a, capital B, branch, that's speaking of Christ, of righteousness. A king shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell safely. Now this is his name by which he will be called the Lord of Righteousness. And again, He repeats that in chapter 33, verse 14 through 16. That's a promise. He says in Jeremiah chapter 23, in verse 28, the prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream. He that has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. Where is the chaff to the wheat? Is not my word like a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? Yes, it is. And then we're going to close with chapter 25 verses 8 through 11 where God predicts or prophesies the 70 year captivity in Babylon. Notice in verse 8, therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, because you have not heard my words, Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant." You see how God uses evil sometimes for His purposes? God does not sin. He's not the author of sin, but sometimes God uses evil to accomplish His purposes. Case in point, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, who was a pagan, and you can read about that in the book of Daniel. He said, I will destroy them. I'll make them an astonishment, a hissing and perpetual desolations. Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, the voice of the bride, the sound of millstones and the light of the land. And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment. And these nations shall serve the King of Babylon 70 years. We're gonna close with a promise. That's a prophetic warning. Here's a prophetic promise, chapter 29. Now maybe you're going through a trial right now and you can't see the end and you think, how am I gonna get through this? Rest in the promises of God. Jesus said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. God has a purpose for the trials. which His children go through. He's a loving Father. He will never abandon His children. The Lord will never abandon His true church. So in chapter 29, verse 10, for thus says the Lord, after 70 years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you and cause you to return to this place. Now read the rest of this. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me and I will listen to you. and read this last verse, verse 13, and you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. Will you search for the Lord this morning with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength? Isn't that what the Bible tells us to do? Isn't that what Jesus said? What is the greatest commandment of all? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. And so if you're here this morning and you've never truly committed your life to Christ by faith, never truly repented of sin, Would you do that today before it's too late? Dear Christian man, I won't mention his name because this sermon will be posted here in a little while. He's a veterinarian right down the street. Tuesday, he was at his practice seeing patients. I'd often told him if he would see me, he could be my doctor. He's a very good veterinarian. Tuesday, he went out for lunch with another doctor friend. They had a wonderful lunch together, came back, was smiling, happy, went home Tuesday night, was back in the back of the house ironing a shirt, and he collapsed with a major stroke. And the doctor said they didn't see much hope. He woke up Tuesday morning never thinking that could happen to any of us. My friend, if you're not a Christian, You're going to face God on His terms. Today is the day of salvation. Now is the time. Listen and act on what you hear before it's too late. Patricia, will you come as we close the service with prayer?