Psalm 111, we're going to sing a portion from this morning. It's page 107 in the hymnal, Psalm 111. We're going to sing the first four verses, and then verses 7, 8, and 9 at the bottom of that column. So Psalm 111, praise ye the Lord with my whole heart. The Lord's praise I'll declare where the assemblies of the just and congregations are. doings of Jehovah are exceeding great in might, sought out they are of every one that doth therein delight." So Psalm 111 verses 1 to 4, and then verses 7, 8, and 9 of that column, standing as we worship. That's that. do the the the ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Amen. We'll bow together in prayer. Let's wait upon the Lord and seek His face this morning. Our Heavenly Father and our gracious God, we draw near into Thy presence, acknowledging that holy and reverent is Thy name. Lord, Thou art beyond us. We are but creatures that Thou hast made. Thou art Creator God. Thou art Jehovah. And we thank Thee we can rejoice this morning that Thou hast brought redemption to us There is a covenant, a covenant of grace. We thank Thee for what is wrought out through that covenant for us, guilty, poor, hell-deserving sinners. Lord, we could do nothing. The covenant was not made with us, for we were totally without strength, without ability. We cannot seek after Thee. We can do nothing to make ourselves righteous or atone for our sins. we thank Thee that covenant was made with Jesus Christ on our behalf, that He became our representative, and He was able to fulfill all the terms of that covenant, and He has secured full and free redemption for us. We thank Thee today, Lord, for a work that is complete. There is nothing that needs to be added to it in any fashion, We praise Thee for the work that our Savior has accomplished, and redemption has come to us. And we bless Thee today for each one who can say that they have partaken of that redemption. We know, Lord, it's one thing to hear about this redemption. It is another thing to be a partaker of it. And we thank Thee for what it is to have come to know Christ, to have been brought to know Thee. For, Lord, we did not seek Thee of ourselves, but Thou didst come seeking us. Thou art the good shepherd that goes out upon the mountain, looking for the lost sheep and finding them, putting them upon Thy shoulders and carrying them to the fold. And Lord, that is what Thou hast done in the saving of each of our souls, who today can testify that we have indeed come to Christ. Thou hast found us. Thou hast brought us, carried us, we're safely in the fold this day. We thank Thee that we're in the Father's hand, and none can pluck us out of that hand. There's no devil in hell. There's no one on earth that can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. And therefore, we come, Lord, with praise and thanksgiving. We've been singing here of making Thy name known in the congregation of the just. And Lord, it is our desire as we gather publicly that we would exalt Thy name, that we would honor Thee. We take Thy name upon us. O Lord, we unashamedly identify as those that belong to the Lord. We're Thy people, and we pray that Thou will help us to magnify Thy name this day, to exalt Thee here as we gather. We thank Thee for the privilege of being able to come together, for the comforts that we enjoy, Lord, there are many of Thy people across the world today who do not have these privileges and comforts that we have, and yet, Lord, we can come into a building like this and assemble and worship Thy name. We pray, Lord, that Thou would make us conscious of the great debt that we owe Thee, the many privileges that are ours. Lord, to whom much is given, much shall be required. And we pray, Lord, that we might be those that pay our dues in that sense, that we give Thee in return that which is due to Thy holy name. And Lord, we come this morning to worship Thee. That is due to Thy name. Bowered worthy of our worship, great is our God, and greatly to be praised. Help us, Lord, as we do so. Give us hearts that have been prepared of God. Even now, as we draw near to Thee, and we're in the attitude of prayer, and that is part of worship, we pray, Lord, that we'll have hearts prepared of God. Cleanse us from our sins. Purge us, O Lord. Make us clean, we pray, as we come before Thee. We need clean hands and a pure heart. We need fresh cleansing. As Peter was taught in that upper room by the Savior, when the Savior took that towel and basin and washed their feet, and Peter objected, the Savior told him that he needed his hands and his feet clean. Lord, there's a cleansing from sin that we have received by way of salvation, but there is that daily cleansing, that sanctifying cleansing that we need. And Lord, we need that now as we come before Thee. So hear our cry. Remember us for good, all of us who are here. Let us know each need amongst us that gather. Lord, what burdens and cares and concerns there might be physically, spiritually, emotionally. Lord, we pray that thou will draw near and meet the need. There's those who are not with us this morning. They're laid aside. We pray for them, that thou will minister to them. Thou will strengthen them and raise them up, Lord. We miss them from the house of God. Lord, they're faithful in their place, and yet they're laid aside at present. And we pray that, Lord, thou will meet them at the very point of their need today. Encourage them, we pray, and do them good. And may they know the Lord's hand upon them. Remember thy cause, Lord, here at home and overseas to the ends of the earth. All our missionary endeavor, grant thy blessing, Lord. Remember all of our missionary works, even those who are out on missionary trips at the minute, seeking to visit missionary works. We pray that, Lord, you'll remember them and bless them and preserve them and remember them in all their traveling, we pray. And we ask, Lord, thou will do good to thy cause. Advance thy kingdom. Here at home, Lord, do that in this neighborhood, among our families. We pray that souls will be saved. Lord, across the earth, gather in that people for whom Christ has died. We pray that Thou will bless the preaching of Thy Word today to that end. Here in this place and elsewhere, Lord, wherever Thy Word is going forth in faithfulness and in truth, wilt Thou not be pleased to bless? So abide with us now as we continue on before Thee. In Jesus' name, we humbly pray. Amen. Amen. 382 is going to be our offering hymn in a moment. 382, and as you're turning that up, we do bid you welcome in the Savior's name this morning to the house of God. We thank you for being here. Those who are tuning in online, we welcome you also and pray the Lord will indeed will bless. There are some who are unwell, as you know, and have had surgery in recent times and We pray the Lord will touch them and raise them up and bring them back amongst us very shortly as well. Do remember today, this evening, 6.30 is the prayer time. 7 o'clock is our evening gospel meeting. And God willing, we'll be preaching in the evening time at that meeting. And then our midweek meeting, Wednesday night at 8 PM. back to normal format, prayer meeting and Bible study. The offering for Christopher is still open. We appreciate Christopher speaking on Wednesday night at the prayer meeting and giving us a little update on college life as well. So if you want to contribute to that, if you weren't here on Wednesday night and you want to do that, then put it in an envelope, mark it with his name on it, and it will be then counted in as part of that support of him as he continues through college at this particular time. Thursday evening at 8pm is our monthly prayer meeting for the work amongst the children and the young people. Do please remember that. Come and join with us. I've said before, I repeat it, we do need to remember the work among the boys and girls, particularly in prayer. Bible Club, Sunday School are two works that do need the Lord's intervention. And we can only know that by waiting upon Him. So I would encourage you to come. Even though you're not involved in that work, maybe, but you have an interest in praying for it, then come and wait upon the Lord on Thursday evening. Friday night there is the Bible Club, 7 p.m. Do remember that. Do remember the Rota. that is there on the table each week to help with those meetings and the bus. And then next Lord's Day, Sabbath school at 10 a.m. The service is 11.30 and seven. Preceded by the times of prayer, God willing, I'll be preaching at those meetings next Lord's Day. Do continue to remember those who are unwell, those who are elderly in our congregation, those who have been laid aside these recent weeks, that the Lord will put his healing hand upon them and do them good. I'll mention that appeal for Jamaica one more Lord's Day if you want to contribute to that. And there is quite a need out there in Jamaica and the work there in Little London. There was a lot of damage done in that hurricane that went through. So I did send out details. If you need those again, contact me and we'll certainly get them for you if you wish to contribute to that appeal for Jamaica. Thursday week, there is a meeting over in Lisbon for SJT. Reverend Daniel Henderson is preaching at that, if you're interested in attending that. That's Thursday week, the 27th of November. That's all the announcements. They're all in the will of the Lord. 382. No, one final one. Let the Bible speak calendars and wall planners are there. Most of the calendars have already gone, but we are hoping to get some more. So if you want one, maybe you would register your interest with Arlo and then we'll have a better idea of how many exactly we need to ask for. But we are certainly seeking to get some more. I think maybe there was only one was left after Wednesday night and last Lord's Day. So maybe that has already gone by now. So if you want a calendar, there's plenty of wall planners there. As far as I know, they're five pound each, whether it's the calendar or the wall planner. So if you want a calendar, would you please, or more than one, would you please make that known to us? And then that will help us to be very definite in how many that we need. 382, then, is our offering Him. Who can share the heart like Jesus by His presence, all divine, true and tender, pure and precious? Oh, how blessed to call Him mine. 382. We're keeping our seats for the opening verses. do do you Let's stand for verses four and five. so so ♪ Returning this morning to the book of Jeremiah, I'm going to read two portions of Scripture, beginning in chapter 21. This is one of the shorter chapters in Jeremiah. We're going to read this chapter through. So Jeremiah chapter 21. And then we're going to turn over to chapter 38 and read a portion, the latter part of that chapter. So Jeremiah chapter 21. I had mentioned we're going to preach this morning upon God's word to our royal house. thinking of our own royal house, and the state of it, and the state of our nation. So this is what we want to think about. So we're going to read this chapter here, beginning at verse 1, Jeremiah chapter 21, and reading from the opening verse. The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord When King Zedekiah sent unto him Pashur, the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah, the son of Massiah, the priest, saying, Inquire, I pray thee, of the Lord for us. For Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, maketh war against us. If so be that the Lord will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us. Then said Jeremiah unto them, Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city. And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury and in great wrath. And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast, they shall die of a great pestilence. And afterwards, saith the Lord, I will deliver, said Achaia, king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life. And he shall smite them with the edge of the sword, and he shall not spare them, neither have pity nor have mercy. And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence. But he that goeth out and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey. For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, saith the Lord. And it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. And touching the house of the king of Judah say, hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of David. Thus saith the Lord, execute judgment in the morning and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor. Lest my fury go out like fire and burn that none can quench it. because of the evil of your doings. Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley and rock of the plain, saith the Lord, which say, Who shall come down against us, or who shall enter into our habitations? But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, saith the Lord, and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall devour all things round about it. And then if we go over to chapter 38, we're going to take up our reading at verse 14 of this chapter and read to the end of this 38th chapter. So Jeremiah chapter 38, and we're taking up the reading at verse 14. So we're still thinking about the same king, Zedekiah. He was the last king of Judah before they went into final captivity. So Jeremiah 38 verse 14, then, Zedekiah the king sent and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him into the third entry that is in the house of the Lord. And the king said unto Jeremiah, I will ask thee a thing. Hide nothing from me. Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death? And if I give thee counsel, wilt thou not hearken unto me? So Zedekiah the king sware secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, As the Lord liveth that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy life. Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, If thou wilt surely go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire, and thou shalt live in thine house. But if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand. Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me. But Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord, which I speak unto thee, so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live. But if thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that the Lord hath showed me, And behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah's house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes. And those women shall say, thy friends have set thee on and have prevailed against thee. Thy feet are sunk in the mire, and they are turned away back. So they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon. and thou shalt cause this city to be burned with fire. Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah, let no man know of these words, and thou shalt not die. But if the princes hear that I have talked with thee, and they come unto thee, and say unto thee, declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the king, hide it not from us. We will not put thee to death, also what the king said unto thee. Then thou shalt say unto them, I presented my supplication before the king that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan's house to die there. Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah and asked him, and he told them according to all these words that the king hath commanded. So they left off speaking with him, for the matter was not perceived. So Jeremiah abode in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken. And He was there when Jerusalem was taken. Amen. We know the Lord will add His blessing to the reading of His Word to all of our hearts. If there's one verse that I would summarize what I want to say around this morning, it's verse 17 of this 38th chapter. And that verse reads, Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, If I will surely go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire, and thou shalt live, and thine house. We'll bow together in prayer and ask the Lord for His blessing and help this morning as we come to His Word. We pray that Thou will bless the reading of Scripture to our hearts. We pray, Lord, that Thou would give us insight now into these portions that we have been reading, that we might see the parallels with our own times and the lessons that are to be observed and learned. O Lord, have mercy. Have mercy upon this day and generation in which we live. Have mercy upon our royal house. Thou hast taught us, Lord, to pray for kings and queens and all who are in authority, that we might live quiet and peaceable lives. And, Lord, we look to Thee that Thou would have mercy and hear our cry, even in that regard. And, Lord, turn our royal house to Thee. So come and bless us now as we consider these things in the light of Thy Word. We pray that there will be a word and season for each one of us this Sabbath day. we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Jeremiah, when he was called to be a prophet of the Lord, ministered the Word of God during the reign of five different kings of Judah. And it is reckoned that he ministered at least over a period of 40 years. He came, first of all, to the office of a prophet during the reign of King Josiah, the boy king. It was in the 13th year of Josiah's reign that Jeremiah tells us himself that the Lord called him to be a prophet and raised him up to be a witness in the land. Josiah had led a reformation and a return to the Lord when he came to the throne. He had sought the Lord, but whatever took place in the king's heart, it certainly did not take place in the hearts of the people. Because one of the first things that Jeremiah had to say, way back at the beginning of his ministry, if you look up chapter three of Jeremiah in verse 10, and there he rehearses the words of the Lord, and yet for all this, her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but faintly saith the Lord. So there was the Lord's commentary through Jeremiah upon that reformation that took place in the days of Josiah. It may have been genuine and real in the heart of the king and in the heart of some individuals, but by and large, in the country, in the nation, the Lord said, they have not turned with their whole heart. They have only pretended to turn. They have done it but feignedly. And you know the idea of the word feignedly. It is to feign something, to pretend something. And the Lord says, these people have pretended to turn to Me, but they haven't. So it was during the reign of Josiah that Jeremiah first began his ministry as the prophet in the land of Judah. And as I say, he followed on through four other kings thereafter. Some of them had a very short reign. Josiah's son, Jehovah, has only reigned for three months, and then he was taken captive by the Egyptians. In his place was raised up a man by the name of Eliakim. His name was changed to Jehoiakim. He reigned for 11 years. And he is mentioned 20 times in the book of Jeremiah. As you would imagine, if he's going to reign for 11 years, and Jeremiah is the prophet in the land, Jeremiah is going to have certainly something to say to that particular king. And as I say, there's over 20 references. For example, if you look up chapter 26 in verse 1, you'll find there, in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word from the Lord. So, Jeremiah is ministering during that particular king's reign. The next king to follow on, a man, his son, Jehoiachin, he only reigned three months. And then that brings us to the man that we have been reading about this morning, Zedekiah. He was the fifth and the last of these kings of Judah that Jeremiah ministered among. His name was changed as well. It was a way of those who had conquered Judah, whether it was the Egyptians or whether it was the Babylonians, to indicate their superiority in the fact that they had subjugated the land of Judah. But they changed the names of the kings. And this man's name is changed to Zedekiah. And he reigns for eleven years as well in Judah, and he is the king who reigns right up until there is the final overthrow by the Babylonians. The Babylonians came three times against the kingdom of Judah and against Jerusalem. Daniel was taken away at the very first of those times, and there began the 70 years of captivity. But there were two other times when the Babylonians came back because they put in a puppet king on the throne in Judah, and then he got a little above himself and thought that he could rebel against the Babylonians. And he did for a while, and then the Babylonians came back and just subjugated them again. And then finally, as we read there at the close of this 38th chapter, the city was taken, burned with fire. The temple was destroyed. Jeremiah was there in the city when that was taking place. So he ministered right up until that point in time. Now as I've said, I want this morning to speak upon the subject, God's Word to a royal house. And I feel constrained to do that in the light of the conduct and the troubles that have come upon our own royal house. We have witnessed, King Charles, over recent months, both join with Muslim representatives and go and visit the Pope and pray with the Pope. And praying with the Pope, he has done something that has not been done since Reformation times. Monarchs have visited the Pope, but none of them have prayed openly with him. I wouldn't be surprised if they had prayed in private with him. But King Charles broke new territory in that he prayed with him openly and publicly on that last visit. If you go back to March of this year, King Charles had Islamic representatives at Windsor Castle in the great St. George's Hall of Windsor Castle, and they engaged in the Islamic call to prayer. that comes at the end of the month of fasting, Ramadan, among the Muslims. And that was hosted by King Charles. That's equally a blasphemy. If going to visit the Pope and praying with the Pope is wrong, it's equally wrong what he did in joining with the representatives of Islam. That call to prayer as part of the ending of the Feast of Ramadan among the Muslims was organized in collaboration with a project. It was called Ramadan Tent Project, and it was designed to foster interfaith dialogue and community cohesion. King Charles for a long time has wanted to be known as the defender of faith. He wanted to drop the words, the faith. He tried to do that in his coronation and he wasn't permitted to do so. He could not have been crowned if he had not been willing to utter the words. And he didn't mean them one bit when he uttered them in his coronation vow, because he has acted contrary, both before and after his coronation, to those words that he had sworn before God that he would be a defender of the faith. That title goes back to King Henry VIII's time. It was bestowed by the Pope, actually, upon King Henry VIII. And then King Henry VIII kept it when he broke with the Church of Rome and Kings of England since then and Queens have kept that title as well. There has been a long tradition, sadly, in our royal house of fraternizing with the Pope. It ought not to be forgotten that the previous Queen met the Pope, met Popes on five different occasions, on five different occasions. She met, in fact, That's not even accurate. She met five popes, and she met one of them three times. So that's actually eight occasions when she met with them. Going back to when she was a princess, back in 1951 was the very first time that she met Pope Pius XII. And then when she became monarch, she met Pope John XXIII. She met Pope John Paul II on three occasions. She met Pope Benedict XVI, and she met Pope Francis. So that's a total of eight separate occasions when the previous queen went and met with the pope as well. Our royal house has a long tradition, sadly, of fraternizing with Rome. And there's a consequence. You add to that the recent antics of Prince Andrew. Well, he doesn't even have that title any longer. It has been taken off him, and he's now just plain Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. because of the troubles that he has got himself into, not forgetting the severe sickness and illness that has come upon the royal house as well in recent years. Surely there is need to stop and take stock and consider these things in the light of God's Word, and that's what I want to do this morning, simply from these portions that I've read to you, to draw some things to your attention. Because in Jeremiah, we read about a man who had a message for the royal house, And that's really what I want to draw to your attention, this message of Jeremiah to the royal house of his day. The first thing I want you to consider here is that the king and the royal house received a message they did not want to hear. They received a message they did not want to hear. Jeremiah has been in prison prior to the words there that we read in Jeremiah chapter 38. If you go back actually to the beginning of the chapter, we just didn't read back as far as that for sake of time. But I think you can glean that from the verses that we did read. Jeremiah has been imprisoned. He has been put in a pit. And he has been put in a pit because the king of Judah and his ruling princes did not like what Jeremiah had to say to them as the prophet of God in the land. And they come and they complain. They're listed there in verse 1, Jeremiah 38 and verse 1. They're listed there who these ruling princes are. And they've heard what Jeremiah has said to the people in verse 1. then they come to the king, and they start to complain. Verse 4, Therefore the princes said unto the king, We beseech thee, let this man be put to death. For thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in the city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them. For this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but their heart, So Jeremiah was accused of being a traitor. He was accused of treason, of acting contrary to the kingdom of Judah and to their interests, when the very opposite was the case. But the message that he had for the royal house, we read it back in chapter 21. He's now delivering it to the people as well. And those princes, those ruling princes alongside the king, do not want to hear and do not want Jeremiah to be able to proclaim this message. And they come to the king, and they say, we want him put to death. And if you look there at verse 5 of Jeremiah 38, the king gives them license to do with Jeremiah as they please. And they end up putting him into a pit. They cast him into a pit. And they know that that will bring about a slow death. They want to put him to death. Of that, there is no doubt. Even the king acknowledges that to Jeremiah. I'm not going to deliver you, he says, into the hands of those that want to put you to death. So the king knows the purpose and what they had for Jeremiah in putting them into a pit. It wasn't just to silence him so that nobody could listen to what he had to say. They wanted to put him to death. And it tells you there that he was in the court of the prison. Verse 6, it says, they took Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon of Melchiah, the son of Hamilech. That word, Hamilech, is actually the Hebrew for the king. H-A-M is the definite article, and Melech, you recognize Melech as the word for king in the Old Testament, so this is actually a son of the king. And he has a dungeon in the court of his house that acts as a prison. Maybe he well had many an individual cast in there who he didn't like. Well, Jeremiah ends up in that pit, in that dungeon. And there's a man there, Ebed-Melech. There's the name again. That name means servant of the king. And he knows Jeremiah is going to die if he's left there. Verse 9 of Jeremiah 38, he goes to the king and he pleads for Jeremiah's life because he knows if he's left there, he's going to sink down into the mire. He's going to be suffocated. And there's that account of how they drew Jeremiah up with the old cast clouts, rotten rags out of the dungeon, out of the mire that he was sinking down into, because they had left him there with that intention that he was going to die a slow death, because they didn't like what he had to say. But Jeremiah is delivered through the intervention of Ebed Melech. and he's brought up out of the pit, and then the king sends for him. Maybe the king thought that a spell in the pit would change Jeremiah's mind and change his message, but Jeremiah hasn't changed his message at all. He tells the king on this occasion exactly what he had said back in chapter 21. That's why we read that previous chapter, to see there is no difference in Jeremiah's message Even though he has been cast into that pit, and even though he was left there to die, and was only the intervention of that man Ebed-Melech that got him out of there, and ultimately the Lord's mercy, because he hasn't finished with Jeremiah. But Jeremiah hasn't changed his message. He's not going to alter it. He's not going to tone it down in any fashion. He's going to tell the king exactly what he told the king in chapter 21. It's going to be the same message. But it is a message that is not liked. It is not liked. It is not what they want to hear. You see, Jeremiah had foretold that the armies of Nebuchadnezzar would indeed come and gather around Jerusalem. And there was a false prophet who disagreed with Jeremiah. And he said that it wouldn't happen and that Jeremiah was telling lies, preaching something that wasn't true, that he was just scaremongering. Well, the Lord smote Hanani, the false prophet, the next year according to the Word of the Lord, and he died because of what he had said against Jeremiah. But the time did come when the armies were gathered around the city of Jerusalem, the armies of Nebuchadnezzar. What Jeremiah said came to pass. He wasn't scaremongering. He was preaching the truth. He was telling them, unless there is a change in your behavior, you're heading for destruction. You're heading for ruin. That wasn't working against the kingdom of Judah. That was working for them. That was seeking their best interests. And yet, Jeremiah was charged virtually with treason. that he was acting contrary, telling them this message, that he was acting contrary to the interests of the kingdom of Judah when he wasn't. He was doing the very opposite. He was seeking their welfare. If they had listened to Jeremiah, the city would not have been destroyed. The temple would not have been destroyed. The royal house would not have been slain and taken into captivity in the fashion that it was if they had listened to Jeremiah. He had warned that if they continue, this is what's going to happen. And not only that the armies of Nebuchadnezzar were going to gather around the city, but as we noticed there as well in our Bible reading, that the Lord Himself would fight against Israel and Judah. That the Lord would be on the side of the Babylonians. Let's go back there to chapter 21, and It's verses 3 through to 7, where the Lord says, I will turn back the weapons of war in your hands. Jeremiah 21, and we're into verse 4, where the Lord says, I'll turn back the weapons that are in your hand wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon. I will assemble them in the midst of the city. Lord says, I'll bring them into the city. All your defenses will come to naught, and the city will be broken down, and they will come into the very center of the city. Verse 5, I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand. Verse 6, I'll smite the inhabitants of the city. And afterward, verse 7, I'll deliver Zedekiah and his servants and the people into the hand. of the Babylonians, all those who have survived the pestilence and the famine and the sword. So this is the message that Jeremiah has declared to them, and they have not liked it. And the essence of the message is surrender, surrender. Give up resisting, because this is a chastisement from the Lord. And to resist and to fight against the Babylonians is to resist and fight against the Lord. And there in both of those passages that we have read this morning, Jeremiah told them, you are to give in. You are to go out and surrender. Give yourself up to the Babylonians. That's not the message that they want to hear. That seems counter to reason and how they understand the situation. Why would we give in? Why would we surrender? And yet this is the very message that Jeremiah is teaching and preaching, that they are to give in and go out and surrender, and it'll be well with them. I would suggest to you that our royal house and ministers of state as well in this government that God's Word to them is a Word that they don't want to hear, and it's a Word contrary to what they would like to hear. It's contrary to their human reasoning. They don't want to hear that their ways are wicked and contrary to the Lord and sinful. They don't want to hear that there's a price to pay for apostasy and running after false religion, that organization that had that collaboration between the Royal House and the Muslim Project, spoke about an unprecedented gesture of inclusivity. Well, there's a price to pay for such unprecedented gestures of inclusivity. You bring the wrath of God down upon you, upon a nation. You bring His displeasure. And the message that the Word of God has for our royal house today is one that they don't want to hear. The message is, you've departed from the truth. You've departed from the Word of God, and you will bring trouble upon yourself. And not only that, God will see to it that you have trouble. That's the alarming thing. There is a lesson for us all, Christian, in that. Disobey the Lord, go contrary to the Lord, and not only do you bring trouble upon yourself, but the Lord Himself will chasten us. The Lord will send trouble. Turn back over to 1 Kings 11 and the life of Solomon. And Solomon is a pretty well-known individual, and how he came to the throne, the son of David, and how he started off so well. sought the Lord for wisdom, remember, when the Lord told him that He would give him anything, and Solomon didn't ask for wealth, and he didn't ask for the life of his enemies. Rather, he said, give me wisdom to rule this people, and the Lord gave him wisdom and then gave him all those other things as well in addition, but then Solomon turned away from the Lord. And in chapter 11, 1 Kings chapter 11 verse 1, it says, but Solomon loved many strange women. together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Adonians, Hittites, and of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, ye shall not go into them, neither shall they come in unto you. For surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon claimed unto these in love." And if you go down the next few verses there, you will find that's exactly what happened. What the Lord warned against came to pass. Solomon's heart was turned away by these women that he had taken as wives that were from these other ungodly nations. And what God had said came to pass. They turned away Solomon's heart. Well, what did the Lord do? Look at verse 9, and the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice. It provoked the Lord. It grieved the Lord. The Lord didn't stand just as a passive bystander. He observed what was taking place, and it provoked him, especially in the light of all the privileges that had been bestowed upon Solomon. And has our royal house not received privilege? Is there any royal house in all the world that has had the privileges that our royal house has had of knowing the gospel? So much so that even into those coronation vows were written words about the Reformed religion, the Protestant religion, Even that, to this day, although King Charles wanted them removed, but couldn't have them removed. And evidently, he didn't mean a single word of what he said when he vowed in his coronation oaths, because he has acted contrary to those. But what privileges our royal house has had? Do you think God stands by as an uninterested bystander? No. He's going to react in exactly the same way as we read here of reacting to Solomon. And then I want you to go down the chapter a couple of other places here and pick up, well, is that all that happened? Just the Lord was grieved? Look at verse 14. The Lord stirred up an adversary unto Solomon. Hadad, the Edomite, he was off the king's seed in Edom. Now notice that statement there at the beginning of verse 14, the Lord stirred up an adversary unto Solomon. Have I told you that that word adversary is the word Satan? Because the word Satan is a Hebrew word, Hebrew name. It's a name given to the devil, but it means an adversary. That's what Satan is. Satan is the greatest adversary your soul or my soul could ever have. this is the same word, so hopefully it will give you something of the strength of this word when you realize that's what this word is. The word Satan, and the Lord, it says, stirred him up as Satan. The Lord stirred him up an adversary for no other reason than because he had forsaken the things of God, turned his back, had his heart taken away, And not only once did that happen, but if you come down to verse 23, you read about it happening a second time. And God stirred him up, another adversary, resin, the son of Eliadat. So not only once did it happen, but it happened a second time as well. The Lord stirred him up. The Lord can do that in nations. The Lord does that in nations. The Lord stirs up trouble. The troubles of our royal house are not just set in isolation. They are connected. They are connected to their departure from the Lord. They're forsaking of that which they know. They cannot hide behind that excuse that they do not know. Of all the royal houses in the world, our royal house cannot hide behind that excuse. They know the Lord raises up trouble, and the Lord has raised up trouble in our royal house for a long time in various sorts, and even of late, it's increasing. It's increasing. There is a message that a royal house did not want to hear, and so it is today. then, before I go on any further, is that not applicable as well to the unconverted? Is the Lord's message to an unconverted soul not something that they initially do not want to hear? And that message is very similar. Surrender. Give up. Give up your sins. Give up your departure from the Lord and your waywardness following the world and following sin, is that not God's Word to the unconverted today to surrender? Are we not to come and surrender all to Christ? That's a message no unsaved person wants to hear, but that's a necessary message. And those of us who are saved, we may well be able to go back and say, well, when I first heard the gospel, I didn't want to hear it. when I was called upon to repent and believe the gospel, I didn't want to hear that, and I certainly didn't want to obey that." Well, that same spirit that is found here in a national setting is found in the heart of every individual with regards to the gospel. It's a message they don't want to hear. And yet, is there any better message for an individual than to hear the claims of Christ presented and the need to yield to Him and surrender all to Him, give up our sins? Is there any better message? Is that not for our ultimate good, our eternal good? So there is a message here that they did not want to hear. The second thing I want you to notice here is that the king and the royal house were gripped by the fear of man. They were gripped by the fear of man. When Zedekiah had this meeting with Jeremiah, He begins to tell him about his fears. We have it there in verse 19, Jeremiah 38 verse 19. Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand and they mock me. Now, if we think a little bit about the background, Zedekiah had forbidden others upon the severest penalty not to do the very thing that Jeremiah is now telling him to do. namely, to go out and surrender to the Babylonians, because Jeremiah has preached that message for years and told them, this is how you're going to safeguard the city and the temple and even your own lives if you surrender and give in and do what the Lord is telling you to do. Here is how you're going to safeguard these things. So Jeremiah has been preaching that message for a while, and Zedekiah and the royal princes have been dealing with anybody who would in any way show allegiance to Jeremiah, and then ultimately dealing with Jeremiah himself, when they decide they're going to silence him, that he's not going to be able to speak anymore. Now, the king hears the message again directly from Jeremiah once more, and he's caught in this grip of the fear of man. And he says to Jeremiah, if I obey If I do what you're telling me to do, I'm going to face ridicule. I'm going to face worse than ridicule. I'm going to face outright opposition. If I end up in the hands of those individuals that I had told not to do the very thing that now I am doing, it's not going to go well with me." And he's gripped in this fear of man. What will they say? What will they do to me if I do what you tell me to do? How appropriate are those words in Proverbs 29 and verse 25, the fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. If there's words that were designed for Zedekiah, those are words for him. The fear of man bringeth a snare. Yeah, sometimes we just quote that first part. what about the rest of it? "'But whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.'" That's what Jeremiah has been preaching and telling this royal house and telling this king. You do what the Lord tells you, and you'll be safe. And now the king says, well, if I do that, I'll be open to ridicule and mockery and worse. He's in this bind. He's caught here in this Dilemma, what's he going to do? And he's telling Jeremiah about this. I would suggest to you that our royal house is caught in the grip of the fear of man in a similar dilemma. There's nothing new under the sun. Oh, it's dressed up in modern language. But for some years, we have called it political correctness. Now it's called woke. and their supposed alertness to social and political issues, justice, discrimination. What's amazing, there's no awareness or alertness to spiritual and moral decline in the nation. There's no alertness to that. But I would suggest to you that our royal house is caught in a dilemma. What if they did what was right? What if they did what was right? What if they did what God is calling them to do, to obey Him? They would be caught in a dilemma, most certainly, because of who they would be going against and the advice that they would be acting contrary to. But here's the same thing outworked in the days of Jeremiah and Zedekiah. And our nation is gripped in the hold of what was political correctness and now is wokeism. It's caught in the grip of that. It's a fear of man. There's no fear of God, no desire to obey the Lord, believing that the Lord, if we put our trust in Him, we'll be safe. No. I hasten on. There's one thing further here I want to draw to your attention, and that's the cause and the remedy of the troubles of this king and royal house. The cause and the remedy of the troubles. If we go back to chapter 21 again that we were reading there, And look at the last few verses, from 11 down to verse 14, Jeremiah chapter 21. Jeremiah has spoken directly to the royal house. Or maybe I should rephrase that and say, the Lord, through Jeremiah, has spoken directly to the royal house. Because if you look there, it says, and touching the house of the King of Judah, say, hear ye the word of the Lord. So the Lord has sent His Word to Jeremiah very directly. Here is God's Word to this royal house. And if I can remind you of that 17th verse that I drew to your attention there in chapter 8, without going back to it, but there it says, thus saith Jeremiah to Zedekiah, thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel. So the Lord is speaking very directly to this royal house. He has something to say to them. He explains to them. He points out to them what it is that has brought about their troubles. And if you look down there, Jeremiah chapter 21, verse 11 to 14, He has highlighted their failures. They have failed to act properly as administrators of judgment and justice. And as a result, the Lord is against them, he says. They have not obeyed the Lord. They have not followed His Word. It is not a matter of what they profess with their lips. And a monarch can stand wherever, Westminster Abbey or wherever, and take an oath and make promises in a coronation, but it's what they do by their actions that counts. And that's what the Lord is saying here to the royal house of Judah. By your actions, you have acted contrary to me. You have not acted with justice and judgment in the land. It doesn't matter what you profess. You have not acted accordingly. And it doesn't matter what a person professes in a sense. What does their actions suggest? We know that as a general principle. Somebody can take words and utter words and don't mean them at all. What does our actions suggest? What do our words suggest? That's the real picture. That's the real situation. What is it that's actually happening in lives and by their actions and conduct? And it's the same in a royal house. Whatever words they may take at ceremonial occasions and significant occasions, what did they do by their conduct? And here in Judah, they were not acting accordingly. I would suggest to you that that's exactly how it is with our royal house. They have been counseled, they have been warned, and it has been pointed out to them on many occasions. Our King is a defiant adulterer and has been for years. Do you not think that that brings the wrath of God upon us as a nation? His fraternizing with false religion has been something of long duration. It's not something that he has only discovered since he became king. He has always been, as I said that at the beginning, you know that very well. That's a long time ago. Some of you weren't even born. You younger ones when Prince Charles first said that he only wanted to be known as defender of faith. That's a long time ago that he made that statement. that he wanted to be the defender of faith. And that's what he's acting out. He's not acting out his coronation oath to be a sound Protestant and uphold the Reformed religion. That's not what he's acting out. He's acting out what he said a long time ago he would be, and that's a mere defender of faith. And that's the spirit of ecumenism that will bring, that will come to its head at the end time prior to the coming of Christ, one world religion, one world church. That's what Prince Charles or King Charles now, as he is, is contributing to. That's the cause. Is there a remedy? There is a remedy. There is a remedy. And that remedy is back to what we think about the message they didn't want to hear, obeying God's Word, Doing what God says, that applies to any one of us today. Is there a remedy? If God chastens us for something, is there a remedy? Yeah. Obey the Lord. Turn to Him. Seek the Lord. That's the remedy for our nation. And there will be no remedy until that happens. There will be no change in our royal house until that happens, until they seek the Lord. And that's why we ought, indeed, to pray for the royal house, as the Scripture teaches us to do so, that the Lord might have mercy upon them and turn them, and turn them, turn them from their folly. And may God have mercy on our land. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, it is our prayer that Thou would have mercy. O Lord, we see so many reflections in our own times of the life of Jeremiah and the words that are applicable to our own times. And we pray, Lord, that Thou would come out of mercy, preserve a remnant. Lord, it seems to us that the way our royal house is going is just the same way as the royal house of Judah. And they refused to listen to Jeremiah. And even as that chapter concludes that the city was taken, Jeremiah's words came to pass in full, and the king and the royal house did not listen. Lord, have mercy. Have mercy. May we learn the lessons from Thy Word. May there be a turning to the Lord, even today among those that know Thee not. We pray, Lord, that Thou would draw unto Thyself. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to finish with 756. It is a prayer for our nation. 756. should be a familiar tune. If these words aren't all that familiar to us, great King of nations, hear our prayer while at thy feet we fall and humbly with united cry to thee for mercy call. The guilt is ours, but grace is thine. Oh, turn us not away, but hear us from thy lofty throne and help us when we pray. 756. We're going to sing these three verses in closing. They are a prayer and Let them be the earnest prayer of our hearts even today for our nation and in coming days as well. Standing then to sing 756. Let's start. ♪ Make thee malevations hear our prayer ♪ ♪ While at thy feet we fall ♪ ♪ And humbly wave to God in prayer ♪ ♪ To thee, for mercy, Lord ♪ ♪ O give us our true praises ♪ ♪ And honor us, Lord ♪ ♪ How deep the snow I love thee from ♪ ♪ And how the sweat we break ♪ ♪ Our fathers' sins we'll not let fall ♪ ♪ But Thine shall last forevermore ♪ ♪ The rich Lord ♪ ♪ When dangers like the stormy sea ♪ ♪ Is set on country round ♪ ♪ Dearly we weep, dearly we cry ♪ ♪ At that weary man's love ♪ ♪ We thy truths declare ♪ ♪ And more in your confession be ♪ ♪ More with our mourning die ♪ Our Father, we would take those words of that last verse and make them our prayer just now. Correct us with Thy judgments, Lord, and let Thy mercy spare. O Lord, intervene in our land. and in our nation from our royal house downwards, let there be an intervention from God. Part us with thy fear and favour. Grant thy people thy abiding presence now as we go our way, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. ♪ ♪