We are coming to the last of the kings first and second kings and just a really the end of Judah before they go into captivity and They had lost their wealth. They're leading the people. They lost their city. They lost their temple. They lost their hope and Jeremiah has a message to the remnant in three parts and In verses 7-12 of Jeremiah 42, it came to pass after 10 days that the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah. Then called he Johanan, the son of Korea, and all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest. And said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication before him. If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down. So God here first gives a promise that he's going to protect and provide Israel And he says, I want you to stay in the land. Yes, the Babylonian army's coming to capture. Yes, they're coming, and they will. There'll be great damage, but I don't want you to fear. Now, if you know your country or lands are gonna be taken over, the first thought in our minds many times are to fear and to fret, or maybe to fight. But if I fight or I fear and God's not with me in my fighting or my fearing, then I am going to have an issue because I do not have God on my side. He would give him another promise here in verse 13. But if ye say, we will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of the Lord your God, saying, no, but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread, and there will we dwell. Now, therefore, hear the word of the Lord, ye remnant of Judah. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. If ye holy, set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there. Then it shall come to pass that the sword which ye feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine whereof you were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt, and there ye shall die. So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there. They shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them. Do you ever get in your mind, I need to do something? I've got to do it. It has to be right. God says, don't flee. Don't run. Don't leave this place. Don't abandon your post. This is where I planted you. This is where I'll protect you. This is where I'll keep you. Don't leave. You can go to Egypt for temporary residence. The idea in scripture many times of going to Egypt is a symbol or a picture in scripture of going to the world and going to the world systems for answers and not going to God. If they go to Egypt, they're seeking the protection of a world. And I wanna tell you, the world is no match when God is against you. When God gets a hold of you, you cannot resist him. He can chase you down. It's kind of like a parent saying, you may run, but you can't hide. Maybe you're running from a parent or something else going on. If there's only a temporary residence in Egypt, then God says the sword that you fear, the death that you fear, it's gonna come upon you if you run. You see, Christians, if we live our lives in fear or in fighting, we will face the judgment of God. Because in this passage of Scripture, Jeremiah is over and over and over and over again, and I can say that many more times over. But we cannot leave the very place where we know God wants us to be. Our fear can say, run to here, go here, do this. But God has said, I've got you here for a reason. In verse 19, as we come to the third part of Jeremiah's message, The Lord has said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah, go ye not into Egypt, no, certainly, that I have admonished you this day. For ye dissembled in your hearts, right, they're unsettled. When you sent me into the Lord your God, saying, pray for us, and the Lord our God, and according to all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it. Now I have this day declared it to you, but ye have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, nor anything for the which he has sent me unto you. Now, therefore, no, certainly, The only reason why these leaders had come to Jeremiah is they wanted him to confirm what they already had set their mind to do. Have you ever had someone said, I'm going to do this, I know it's God's will, okay. And you're like, there's a lot of problems with that decision. And they come to you because they want you to say, oh, yes, praise the Lord. I'm so glad that's God's will for you. But you're saying, there's some real problems with that decision. It flies in the face of some biblical principles. And you're like, I don't think that's right. But you've got your mind made up. I can't change your mind because you're set on what you're going to do. I want you to know, if we persist in that direction and we want to go, and in fact, what we'll end up seeing, what will come about is they're gonna say, Jeremiah, keep your mouth shut. Oh, by the way, we're gonna take you to Egypt with us, because maybe you'll be a good luck charm and help us get out of this trouble that we're already in because we've run from God's place. Jeremiah dealt with a lot of garbage. I mean, in Jeremiah chapter 43, let's read verses one through seven. And it came to pass that when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking to all the people all the words of the Lord their God, for which the Lord their God had sent him to them, even all these words, then spake Azariah the son of Hoshiah and Johanan the son of Koriah and all the proud men saying unto Jeremiah, thou speak as falsely. Lord our God hath not sent thee to say, go not into Egypt to sojourn there. So now they're totally rebuking God's word. That's not God's word. This is God's word, right? But Baruch, the son of Nehariah, saideth thee on against us, for to deliver us in the hand of the Chaldeans, that they might put us to death and carry us away captives into Babylon. So they think Jeremiah's put up by Baruch, his servant. Baruch is a helper of Jeremiah. And they say, oh, Jeremiah, you're trying to kill us. You know, if someone wants to be popular, you're not going to tell people what they don't want to hear. If you want to be popular, I'm going to agree with you. I'm going to go along with what's good. That's what gets the crowds, right, in this case, in this particular instance. So Johanan the son of Korea and all the captains of the forces and all the people obeyed not the voice of the Lord to dwell in the land of Judah, but Johanan the son of Korea and all the captains of the forces took all the remnant of Judah that were returned from all nations, whether they had been driven, to dwell in the land of Judah, even men and women and children and the king's daughters. What a terrible record. What a terrible note for Judah. once prominent nation, one of the leading nations, most powerful, most mighty, most wealthy nations in all the world, is now at the bottom as slaves. Zedekiah would end up going into the very presence of Nebuchadnezzar, who would bring him to set him before his face. Now, lest we think that the biblical record here in Babylon ends on a bleak note, I'd like you to look with me at 2 Chronicles 36. 2 Chronicles 1, 2 Samuel, 1, 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 36. Right after 2 Chronicles is Ezra. God does something amazing. God ends up using a king who's a pagan to bless Israel. 2 Chronicles 36, verse 22. Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me. He has charged me to build him in house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah Who is there among you of all his people the Lord his God be with him and let him go up You know what God does he says, all right Cyrus takes over right Babylon Falls to Persia the Medes and the Persians Babylon Falls God allows Israel after 70 years to go back in the land and he sets up a king a pagan king a you know a non-believing king and he says oh, yeah, you can go back and build your temple and The decree was issued in 538 when Cyrus defeated Babylon and established the Persian Empire. The Babylonians began their assault on Judah in about the year 606, 605 BC. Deported prisoners among them were Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, as the Babylonians would rename them. But in Jeremiah, look at Jeremiah chapter 25. Going back to Jeremiah, a couple chapters here. God told them, you're going to be in Babylon for 70 years. They were Jeremiah 25. Now, if God gives you some order, he says, you're going to be in Babylon 70 years, you're like, I don't want to be in Babylon. I want to be in Judah. God, I don't like it here. God, I hate it here. God, it's a horrible place. It's an awful place. God, I don't want to die here. Lord, get me out of here. God says no, 70 years, 70 years it is. God says settle down, get you a house, marry, have kids, serve me. This is what's gonna happen. Now we like to think many times when God gives us direction in our lives that I can somehow circumvent or get around what God is doing. I remember a few times in the military, you know, you try to assert your will and do some things and they have a way of having a stronger will. Saying, no, it's not gonna be that way. Jeremiah chapter 25, in this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment. This is verse 11 of Jeremiah 25. And these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years and shall come to pass when 70 years are accomplished that I will punish the king of Babylon. That nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity in the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. And chapter 29, verse 10, very similar. For thus saith the Lord, that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word towards you in causing you to return to this place. That was Jeremiah 29, 10, you can look at. And you know, the wonderful thing about this, and you think about all this, the judgment that God is giving to Israel and Judah. Number one, God gave warning of sin in the lives of the land. Then he gave an impending, like judgment is just around the corner. They still didn't listen. Then when they were at their footsteps, judgment is here. They still had an opportunity to repent. They still didn't. Israel was taken into captivity. Many lives were lost. Then you have Judah. I mean, many years before, they saw Israel fall and they think, well, we're Judah. We're the Lion of the tribe of Judah. We are the chosen people of God and we could never fall because David was our king. It doesn't matter who your forefathers are. It doesn't matter who your grandpa is. It doesn't matter. You've got to do right for you and your generation. And God even told Judah, 70 years it's gonna be. You know what I wanna say? In every step of the way, of all the devastation that was coming, God was always speaking and had men through whom he spoke. In every step of the judgment, there was always a message from God through the prophets to the people. And in your life, every time, every step, if you are in a backslidden state from the Lord, God's gonna continue to speak to you. He's going to get your attention one way or the other. I'd sure like it before the Babylonians come than I would after they've come. But after they come, God says, hey, you're going to have to live with the decisions. There's consequences. But I'll be with you. I'll preserve you. I'll protect you. I'll help you. OK. The Jewish leaders live scheming instead of trusting the promises of God. And as Christians, you know, in Jeremiah 29.11, if you're there in Jeremiah, look with me at Jeremiah 29.11. Sin always has scars, but it doesn't mean I need to live outside. I don't need to live through those scars. I can live in the protection and the preservation of God. Jeremiah 29, 11, for I know the thoughts that I think towards you, sayeth the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. You see, God knows what to expect for your end. but you gotta listen. God also gave hope and a promise that, listen, I'm gonna do something. You know what happened? The leaders, they lost all hope. They lost all hope. They said, we've gotta run to Egypt. Maybe Egypt will protect us. Maybe Egypt will be a place where we can have a sanctuary of peace and rest and prosperity. And Christian, you'll never have you're desiring unless you're in the will of God. Right? How tragic that the faithful prophet Jeremiah would suffer so much for the people and he would be buried in some forgotten place in Egypt. They didn't listen. Can you imagine how heartbreaking it is when you begin to tell people and they're on a path of destruction and they won't listen? As we come to the close of this very tragic decline and destruction of a once powerful, great, and I would say a blessed nation, here's some lessons to take to heart. No nation rises higher than its worship of God. You look in various parts of this world, the abject poverty, the deplorable conditions, Then you look at the very things they worship, and you'll understand. It's not a knowledge of God. It is a relationship with God. You look in the Muslim world today, and women are treated horribly. Children are treated, many times, horribly. You look in other various parts of the world, and I wanna tell you Christianity gives a value to every man, woman, boy, and girl. It is unparalleled by anything else. Christianity will raise people up. Where there's Christianity, you're gonna have greater hygiene. I'm talking where people biblically are living. I'm not just saying they talk about Jesus, but I'm saying they're living for Jesus. They're gonna have a desire for cleanliness. They're gonna have a desire, and I know it's all different for all of us, but it's going to raise our desire because God leads us. I mean, in Israel, God gave hygiene standards for the protection of his people, to elevate them for their own health, so pestilence, diseases didn't come across them. The nation of Israel was torn into two kingdoms because of the sins of Solomon, who turned to idols in order to please his pagan wives, and for political gain. When you try to make peace treaties or covenants or something else with this world, and you neglect going to God, you will always reap, you'll always get the short end of the stick. Israel would worship and forsake God. The northern kingdom of Israel was taken and captured by Assyria. It didn't take long for them to succumb and eventually be captured by Babylon. I'd like you to look with me at Psalm 115.8. The very people who make idols. The Bible tells us something about these idol makers. Can I tell you? If you go look at the Ten Commandments that are listed at the Catholic Church over there, the one commandment they change is thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. That is not on that Ten Commandments over there. What they do with the Ten Commandments, thou shalt not covet, they make the Ninth Commandment, thou shalt not covet thy wife, and then I think the Ten Commandments, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's stuff or something like that, I can't remember exactly how it goes. Go look at it, you won't find thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, because all over that building there's graven images. Statues all over that building You can look at you can take my word, I mean you can go look at it if you want at your own time I promise you it's there. I've looked at it Because they're okay with idolatry Worshiping the Saints worshiping the Pope but not worshiping Jesus. In fact, the Pope is called the Vicar of Christ, which means in place of Christ That's not of God Psalm 115 8 They that make them, so this is talking about idol makers, Psalm 115, they that make them, that's idols, are likened to them, so is everyone that trusteth in them. You know what, you become like the idol you make. If your idol is money, your idol is material possessions, you're gonna become like that. And that's gonna consume your life, and when that idol is removed out of your life, you will crumble. Because that idol hasn't proven the strength that you put into it, right? You put your trust in money or comfort or whatever, some deity, and when tragedy happens and you go to that deity for the comfort, you can't get what you're actually truly looking for. The people who led Israel and Judah astray were conformers, weak people who followed the crowd and pleased the people. They wanted to be like the world. God warned them of the folly of raising up men and women who were distinctly different and sought to please God. As I mentioned several weeks ago in my sermon, as we're looking at this idea of false prophets, and we're gonna deviate a little bit tonight on that incredible message, but anyways, we were talking about holiness. God's people shouldn't look like a lost person, shouldn't talk like a lost person. If you're a Christian and you name the name of Christ, our speech, our actions, our reactions, our discussions ought to be different. I'm not talking we're different like weird different, right? Just like odd, right? I'm not saying that. There ought to be something different about us. The cynical playwright George Bernard Shaw defined martyrdom as the only way in which a man become famous without ability. And, you know, at many of these faithful witnesses of Jeremiah and others, they would die a martyr's death. Ignored, you know, Jeremiah was ignored, he was abused. Some of the prophets were even killed. Now, Persecution has a way of purging, if I would say this, cleansing churches of false professors with true professors. Because if Jesus is real, it doesn't matter, persecution. You said, hey, if you kill me, I'm gonna be with Jesus. It's all the better, right? Now, that's not what I desire. There's people who have suffered and died for the faith that had the God given, you know, and they trusted God. And they didn't go with popularity. You know what God's looking for today is men and women, dedicated, distinctive people who are godly, not cookie cutter, carbon copy Christians. He wants us different. The Bible, look with me at 1 John, chapter, let's look actually at James chapter four, verse four. We'll then look at 1 John. And I will finish By God's grace, I've got just less than a page left. Been an interesting study looking at 1st and 2nd Kings. But James, excuse me, Hebrews, James, 1st, 2nd, Peter, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John. James chapter 4, verse 4, James 4, 4. The Bible tells us, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth the envy? And verse four, but as you think in verse four, whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Solomon was a friend of the world. Saul was a friend of the world. Ahab was a friend of the world. Countless kings were friends of the world and great damage was happened to Israel and Judah. Let's look at 1 John 2. In the world, we have friends who are non-believers, and the desire is that they come to know Christ. If I begin to hang around him a lot and I'm noticing my spiritual decline, a lack of fervor for God, then I am allowing that relationship to pull me away from the Lord. And I have a buddy of mine from high school, he doesn't know the Lord. I still talk with him and I still pray for his salvation. We've been friends since I was grade nine. I'm still praying for his salvation. He's a little older, he's about a year older than me, but we went to school together, same grade. And, man, but I noticed when I was in high school, there were times I'd be with him and I could tell I was being pulled away into compromising things with the world. or television and other things we can watch so much and begin to see a decline in our fervor for God. 1 John 2, verse 15, the Bible says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. You know what, what is God saying here? Christians, your actions, speech, your talk, your living, ought to be holy, pure, and right. And you're not doing it for yourself. You're doing it because you want to show whom you belong to. You know if someone's a part of, correct me if I'm wrong on this, but if someone's a part of a military, they dress, and there's certain speech that the military speaks like. If someone's a part of a gang, I would imagine there's certain things you say and don't say, and there's certain fashions and things you wear to distinguish you as a member of that particular group. As a Christian, there ought to be a way in which we dress and talk and live that distinguishes us as a child of God. Living sacrifices. Romans chapter 12, one and two, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies, your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy. That word holy is separate unto God, acceptable unto God, right? Our desire is to please God. which is your reasonable service. Why is it reasonable? Because we're bought with a price. I got freedom that I didn't deserve. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Let's look at Matthew 5.14. Israel lost its distinction as God's people when they entered into idolatry. And God's presence left them. Yes, the Abrahamic promise is still with them. Yes, you as a Christian, if you backslide and you go away from God, yes, you'll still go to heaven. But you won't be pleasing to God. You'll lose rewards in heaven. You're not losing heaven, you'll lose pleasing God in heaven. He can either say, well done, or he can say, you wasted your time for yourself. In Matthew 5, 14, ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. If you're a light for Jesus, it ought to shine, and people ought to notice there's a difference in you. You know, faith is living without scheming. Now, here's scheming. I really want to do this. I don't know if this is what God wants me to do, but I'll work out all the details, then it'll work out for me, and then I'll say God did it. That's not faith, right? You're doing all the work to try to make something happen, and then you say, oh, it's my faith. No, there was no faith there. You are orchestrating everything, and you try to give it to God in glory, but God wasn't involved in it. Because you're the one doing it. Faith is, you know, when the Lord called my family up here, at that time, where I was at on staff at a church, I was like, you know, we stepped out and we had to go, you know, and step on the, if you would, the deputation trail. I didn't know how it was going to all work. I was like, I don't know, I'm gonna pay my bills, I'll just trust God and it'll happen. When I went to the first church I left, after I left training for the ministry, the church was gonna pay me less than my bills were. I said, well, okay, we'll go and we'll see what God will do. And within a very short time, God provided. I didn't scheme, I just said I knew this is what God wanted and we went. We can't, you know, we must, you know, we have to start, you know, someone may start to explain away clear teachings of the Bible about obedience to the Lord and separation from sin, and, you know, what happens is as you start to explain away these things or try to justify actions that are wrong, you'll soon find yourself gradually out of the light and into the shadows, into the darkness, and eventually ending in shame and defeat. 1 John 2, 17, and then I'm done. The world passeth away, and the lusts thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. You see, the will of God is not some mysterious secret plan of God. God wants his will to be known to you. Number one, he wants everyone to be saved. Number two, baptized, join a church. That's the general will of God for everyone. Your specific will of God is like, who should I marry? What job should I work at? What church do I go to? Those are specific will of God. And how do you want me to spend my finances? That's different for everyone, because we all have different financial levels. But what you need to do is seek, is you get to know Him in this book. Israel failed, as we mentioned, even Josiah. They said, oh, we found the book. How can you find the Bible if it's hidden away? Well, it's not being used. God's desire and word is to be used for you. Let's close in a word of prayer, and we'll be dismissed. We'll come to the 11 o'clock service, and we'll talk about the gift of authority then. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for being our gracious Savior. We yield today to thee. Thank you for what you've done. Thank you for the blessings. Father, I just yield all of this to you. And I pray, Father, that you would help us to be a distinct people. I love you. Thank you for your grace and mercy. In Jesus' precious name I pray, amen. you