I went back in my files to figure out, okay, let me make sure I know where we left off here. And I thought it was chapter 26 we finished, and it was, but I had to keep going back in my files, and I realized the last time we were in Jeremiah was in March. Wow, it was that long ago. Of course, I remembered why it's been so long, because around that time, we started for other reasons, not associated with Jeremiah, but we started to get into the book of Jude. And there's a lot that Jude shares in common with Jeremiah. Both books are talking about the backslidden condition of God's people, the enemy within, and the nature of the rebellion and God's impending judgment. It's a tough message to hear. It's not one that if necessarily that you think of as being uplifting, it makes me happy. It's bad news. But it does reveal, though bad news, Christians today say, I don't want sermons like that. I don't want to hear this bad stuff. And the thing is, this bad stuff is part of what God has done. And it reveals to us the mind of God, and the ways of God, and the thinking of God. And all those things reveal the goodness of God, whether people can understand that or not. But the truth of the matter is, it's pretty rough. Jeremiah was in a tough time. He had a very, very difficult ministry. And it's just hard to bear a consistent diet of it because it's just so miserable. And Jude is pretty much the same way. So I said, well, I'll take a break from Jeremiah. And I thought I'd get through Jude and a couple sermons. And of course, Jude extended for quite some time, not that we went through it every week. Now that we're finished with the book of Jude, my first thought was, well, we need to get back to Jeremiah. So Jeremiah is where we are at. Jeremiah 27, the last time we went through 26, a very important chapter. I'm not going to take any time to review it now, but I want to read the first three verses of chapter 27 here, because this is where we left off. This is where we want to pick up. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Thus saith the Lord to me, Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck, and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah, king of Judah. And as I read chapter 27, I thought, well, chapter 27 is somewhat repetitive. The first half, God says, look, do this and tell them that. And the second half is Jeremiah does this and tells them that. So it's a little bit repetitive. I thought, okay, maybe I should connect chapter 27 to 28. And we'll cover two chapters in a sermon, sort of an overview. And it's pretty easy to do with this 27th chapter because it is somewhat repetitive because of what I just described to you. And so I thought, well, that's what I guess I'll do. But I got to tell you, brethren, I got stuck at verse 1. I got stuck at verse 1. And I wasn't expecting to get stuck at verse 1. And you say, verse 1? Yeah, I got stuck at verse 1, and I'm going to emphasize verse 1. We're going to go beyond verse 1. I'd like to cover the first 11 verses, but verse 1 is going to occupy a little bit of our time this morning, and I think properly so. Because in this verse, A controversy has cropped up and it now rages amongst a large people. Although I don't think it rages really in one sense at all because people aren't concerned with it. But there is a controversy here. The controversy is this. Is verse 1 a mistake? Is verse one a mistake in the Bible? Is the Bible an error? That's what crops up, and that's what caught my attention. Of course, Jeremiah didn't write verse one with the idea that we would argue about whether or not this belongs in the word of God, or there's an error here. So it's not part of Jeremiah's intent for us to learn this quick little lesson that we'll learn from verse one, but it's the hardcore reality of the situation as we've inherited it. There is a controversy in verse one. In verse 1, Jeremiah makes a very plain statement. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word unto Jeremiah from the Lord. So in verse one, Jeremiah is told, and then in verse two and three, he's told to make yokes and bonds, and Jeremiah is to put a yoke upon his neck. And Jeremiah is told to do this, according to verse one, in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah. The problem is, Verse 3, so he makes these yokes and then he should deliver them to these other kings and at the end of verse 3, by the hand of messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah. Well, who's the king of Judah? According to verse 1, it's Jehoiakim. According to verse 3, it's Zedekiah. So now we have a problem. The Bible appears to be contradicting itself. What are we going to do? Throw up our hands in dismay and say, oh no. And so this is the controversy that rages. He's told in verse 1 to then you go and make these things and you put it on your neck. And then he says you go and distribute these and you're going to distribute it to the King of Judah. Which in verse 3 is Zedekiah. Now Zedekiah is 11 years later. From the position of the early reign of Jehoiakim, you're talking, you've got to go forward 11 years just to reach Zedekiah. So what's going on here is the question. Now the Bible critics, I discovered, I wasn't aware of this until I went to study this, but the Bible critics say, well, this is a copious error. and they say that verse one is wrong and they tell us that these instructions were not given as verse one says at the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim but it must be an error and what should have been said is that these instructions were given at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah. And then it would make sense to say, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word to Jeremiah. Make these bonds, put them on your neck, you're going to give them to these other fellows, and make sure you deliver them to the king of Judah, who is Zedekiah. And that would flow very perfectly, resolve all problems, and thus the case is closed. So this is verse 1 is a copy of Sarah. And they would add to their argument, to bolster it, that verse 1 of chapter 27 is probably just an eye, pen, human error. He's rewriting verse 1 of chapter 26 in 27. Look at chapter 26 verse 1. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word from the Lord, saying, Now see here in verse 1, At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word from the LORD, saying, Then you look at verse 1, chapter 27, At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, So the idea is that, well, He just wrote down the first verse of chapter 26, didn't realize it, and then he continued, maybe took a break, he went and fed the sparrows in the backyard and walked in the sunshine and came back and started writing verse two of chapter 27, didn't realize he put verse one, and it's as easy as that, see? Now, that may seem like pretty impressive, but if you follow the first verses of several chapters, you see they oftentimes repeat themselves. It's just giving you a chronological context and the words will be repeated. So was this that or was it just a copy of Sarah? Well, they're saying it's a copy of Sarah because this doesn't make sense. We've got two different kings of Judah, so that's what's going on. And then they also bolster their argument by saying that the Syriac and Arabic translations of the Bible use the word Zedekiah in verse 1 of chapter 27. And so in those translations, those two translations, They have that at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah. And so we need to make the Bible conform to the truth of the matter as it is plainly seen and thus that is their argument. Well, I will not, I'll give you my reply. I will not assume there's an error here in verse one as they do. I don't want to assume that. And I don't believe I should assume that. Jeremiah was giving, in my opinion, I'm going to believe verse 1. And I'm saying that Jeremiah received these instructions at the beginning of the reign of King Jehoiakim, just as the Bible says. And he would make these yokes just as he was commanded by the Lord. He would put one on just as he was commanded by the Lord. But when he delivered the yoke to the king of Judah, it was 11 years later when Zedekiah was ruling. So in a sense, a part of this commandment given to Jeremiah was put on hold and was to be implemented at the appointed time, according to God's wisdom, when Zedekiah would be the king of Judah. And I would judge that Jeremiah made the yoke for himself. And we read in verse two, thus saith the Lord to me, make thee bonds and yokes and put them upon thy neck. And that Jeremiah no doubt did that. And send them to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and the king of Tyrus, and the king of Zidon. But he should do it at a very particular time. He's not using UPS and sending yokes out to these different men all to their kingdoms. He's doing it at a very specific time. Now he's going to send these yokes to all these kings and to the king of Zidon by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah." All these men were coming together for a conference in Jerusalem when King Zedekiah was reigning. He was to deliver these yokes at the time they came together in Jerusalem in this conference. And that would happen during the reign of King Zedekiah 11 years later, so that Jeremiah got the instruction during the early years of the reign of King Jehoiakim, but he knew that he was to distribute these yokes at the time they came in conference in Jerusalem, which he maybe waited. He didn't maybe know exactly when that would happen. And, you know, even talking about a future king, too. And he would have to wait for the time to unfold to very meticulously fulfill the word of God. And Zedekiah ended up becoming the king of Judah. And then these men came down to form a league. with Zedekiah and Judah to form a league of nations to defend themselves against the threat of the Babylonians. So they're going to, and as they come for this little powwow and they're going to meet at the UN of the Middle East, Jerusalem at the time, even now too, but there they are meeting just like God said, now's the time to make this delivery. And he does. I don't see why we can't just believe it as it's said, instead of questioning what the Bible tells us. Now here's the thing. This is their criticism. And so I curiously went to the modern Bibles. And lo and behold, if you read the ESV, which is supposedly, well, it's the foundation for the Reformation Study Bible. And in the ESV, it does not read like it reads in your King James. In the ESV, it reads, and I wrote down exactly what it says, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah. What was that? I looked at the NIV. It was the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah. Wait a minute. It says Jehoiakim in verse one. Yeah, I know. But when you read those modern Bibles, it doesn't say Jehoiakim, it says Zedekiah. Now, this is important to know. For instance, this ESV Reformation Study Bible, they tell us that they based their Old Testament translation on the Masoretic Text, which is the text used by the King James translators as well. Now there's no question, there's no debate You go to the Masoretic Text and look at the Hebrew. It isn't saying Zedekiah. That's a completely different name. You can look up the Hebrew names and you'll see for yourself without knowing a lick of Hebrew. Zedekiah is not Jehoiakim and Jehoiakim is not Zedekiah. And the Masoretic Text tells us in verse 1, it was at the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim. But when the ESV translators translate their Bible, and when the NIV translators translate their Bible, they don't translate their Bible. They changed it. They put it right into the text. They don't even do this. They don't even say, in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, put a footnote, and then down below say, well, it really should read Zedekiah. They just put the word Zedekiah there. They have changed the text. These modern Bibles are more than translations. This is their interpretation. They say, this doesn't make sense to us. We can't accept that as it is, so we'll just change it. And if you don't know that, and you're reading one of these modern Bibles, you say, well, it says Zedekiah. There's no question about it. I'll read the introduction, I got the ESV with me right here. So let me read to you what it says. In the introduction, on page 12. Textual basis of the ESV, in the introduction before Genesis. The ESV is based on the Masoretic Texts of the Hebrew Bible, as found in Biblia, Hebraica, blah blah blah blah, The currently renewed respect among Old Testament scholars for the Masoretic Text is reflected in the ESV's attempt, wherever possible, to translate difficult Hebrew passages as they stand in the Masoretic Text, rather than resorting to emendations or to finding an alternative reading in the ancient version. So this sounds like, well, they're going to be true to the Masoretic Text. That text, as it's been examined, they say it's more faithful and more faithful than we thought. So we want to stick to what's given there and not change. This is what they're telling us. Ah, but the next sentence, see. In exceptional difficult cases. Now, you know, in other words, maybe the Hebrew wording doesn't make sense in the Hebrew. And maybe you're looking at it like, we don't even know what that means. Is there, was there a word left out or was it a, and so they have to figure, I understand having to work that out. But there was nothing complicated about the name of Jehoiakim. It was clearly spelled out. All the letters were there. There was no question as to what it said. But we're told, in exceptional difficult cases, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Septuagint, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Syriac Peshitta, The Latin Vulgate and other sources were consulted to shed possible light on the text, or if necessary, to support a divergence from the Masoretic text, which is what they did. But rather than giving you Jehoiakim and giving a footnote saying, well, we think it's Zedekiah, they changed the word. That's, to me, dishonest. They're not Bible translators. They're Bible changers. It's not the job of a translator to do that. And they're not alone. Like I said, these other modern versions, they all seem to do the same thing. It's not a translation. but they have lower criticism, I guess in this case, lower criticism built into the translation and you don't know it. If they have a criticism to make, they don't put it in a footnote in this instance, this is just one instance, they just change the text and you're never going to be the wiser. I wanted to find two comments on this text from men who had a stronger view of the belief of the preservation of scripture. For instance, here's John Calvin commenting on Jeremiah 27.1. Jeremiah prefaces this prediction by saying that it was delivered to him at the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign. But this beginning, as we have said, extended to the whole of his reign while it was prosperous and entire. While, then, Jehoiakim enjoyed a quiet possession of the kingdom, Jeremiah was bidden to make known what had been committed to him. not to Jehoiakim himself, but as we learn from the third verse, to Zedekiah, who had not immediately succeeded him, but became the last king after various changes. God then committed this prophecy to his servant, but did not design it to be immediately promulgated. See, Calvin's saying, I believe both verses, not chucking out verse one, that both are true. It's meant to be implemented in the future during the reign of Zedekiah. And then he says later, God's design was to communicate this to his prophet himself, that he might see afar off what no one, as I have just said, had thought could ever come to pass. This is the reason, as I think, why this prophecy was not immediately published, but was like a treasure deposited in the prophet's bosom until the ripened time came." Okay, so he believes both verses. Matthew Henry quotes Dr. Lightfoot concerning this portion. I'm not reading these because we're going to believe them because these men say so. I just wanted to see if I could find what men in days gone by who had a stronger view of the inspiration of scriptures, how they approach this. And they were saying the same thing. They're approaching it with the same simplicity that I naturally approach it with. Well, it has to be true. And then just ask yourself, how could it be true? How could both be true? And lo and behold, you say, And so Dr. Lightfoot says this, in the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign, Jeremiah is to make these bonds and yokes and to put them upon his own neck in token of Judah's subjection to the king of Babylon, which began at that time. But he is to send them to the neighboring kings afterwards in the reign of Zedekiah. of whose succession to Jehoiakim and the ambassadors sent to him mention is made by way of prediction." So again, Dr. Lightfoot says both verses are true. So this is the way we used to believe the Bible. Now you look at modern Bible versions and you understand things are not the same. They pretend they are, they're not. Again, Jeremiah had no intention of us having to learn this lesson from the first sentence of the 27th chapter, but it's the day we're living in. So I took some time to underscore it. If you think we're just blowing smoke about saying, you know, we ought to be careful of these modern versions, we can trust the King James, not because it improved upon the original Greek and Hebrew, but because God's Word has been preserved in the majority text and the Masoretic text. Otherwise, there has been no preservation of the Word of God. This should be our assumption. This should be our assumption. So Jeremiah, now get back to the message that Jeremiah has. I had to take the time to do that. Jeremiah himself would have to wear one of these yokes. They're made of wood. We find that out in the next chapter. So I don't know how big they were, but they were wooden yokes. And apparently he did that. We find that very plainly spelled out in the next chapter. Jeremiah literally walked around with this yoke on his neck because God told him to. Now God told Jeremiah to make these yokes in verse 2, right? Thus saith the Lord to me, make thee bonds and yokes and put them upon thy neck. and in chapter 28 one it becomes clear that Jeremiah was still wearing that yoke in the fourth reign of Zedekiah's kingship look at verse one of chapter 28 and it came to pass the same year chapter 28 verse one it came to pass in the same year in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year which means in the fourth year of Zedekiah's reign in the fifth month that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet which was of Gibeon spake unto me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and all the people saying okay now here's my point and if you go through chapter 28 you'll find later on that yes Jeremiah is still wearing this yoke. He's wearing it in the fourth reign of Zedekiah. So let's do the math. The beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, Zedekiah would not become the king by everybody's reckoning. There's no debate on this. And Zedekiah wasn't the next king. But Zedekiah would come to rule 11 years after the beginning of Jehoiakim's rule. But chapter 28 takes place in the fourth year of Zedekiah's reign. Now the last math I knew how to do was 11 plus 4, well that would make 15, which tells us this, my point in pointing this out is, Jeremiah wore that yoke for 15 years. 15 years, he wore that wooden yoke on his neck. I do not know if he wore it 24-7 or he wore it on and off throughout those years. I'm sure he would have to take a bath at times and take the yoke off. Maybe he didn't have to wear it to bed. I don't know the details. The details aren't given. But he wore it in some way or fashion all those years. 15 years. 15 years, Jeremiah wore that yoke. And that yoke would remind the people, because they'd say, Jeremiah, what's up with this yoke you're wearing? It's the yoke you're going to wear when God judges you for your sin and your rebellion against Him, as I've been telling you all these years. And the yoke of Babylon is going to be put in your necks, and you're going into Babylon in captivity, and this nation is going to be destroyed. So Jeremiah was wearing a sermon around his neck. You know, you ladies, you get to wear a head covering. When you wear a head covering, you get to preach. You're preaching a message. There's a message attached to the head covering. You say, well, you get to do that. See, us men, we have to open our traps to communicate something. You ladies, you don't have to say a thing. And you're sending volumes of information out to the world by wearing a head covering. Well, Jeremiah had his own covering. It was a yoke. And he was telling them all, God's going to judge you, and you're going to be under the yoke of Babylon. Now, that means for 15 years, his countrymen saw that. So I imagined to myself, let me try and imagine what that would be like. So you have two Hebrew men, Mr. Goldman and Mr. Silverman. And Mr. Goldman and Silverman, they're going to meet at the cafe. Allison told a joke once. She said, how does Moses make such good coffee? And the answer is, he brews it. I like that joke. I don't know. People might think it's stupid. I like he bruise it. So I'm imagining Mr. Goldman and Mr. Silverman meeting at Jerusalem's he bruise it cafe. And they go to the cafe, Jerusalem's he bruise it cafe. And they order two vanilla lattes. And they drink out on the veranda of the little cafe. And maybe they would have a potato stuffed or a cheese stuffed knish with their vanilla lattes on the veranda of Hebruset Cafe in Jerusalem. So they're enjoying themselves out on the veranda on the Sabbath morning, drinking their vanilla lattes, and so Mr. Goldman Says to Mr. Silverman, have you seen Norm Finkelstein lately? I don't know if there's any Norm Finkelsteins then, but that's the only name that came to mind. Have you seen a Norm Finkelstein lately? Yes, says Mr. Silverman. I mean, the size of his phylacteries, have you seen them? I have always known him to be a holy man. Mr. Goldman says, yes, yes, I've noticed the same. He goes, and to tell you the truth, I've been thinking of enlarging the borders of my own garments. And Mr. Silverman says, no, really? Your borders are already 4 inches, aren't they? He says, oh, they're 5. He goes, but I've been thinking to myself, I may enlarge them to 5 and 3 quarters, or maybe even 6 inches. Mr. Silverman says, I always knew you were a pious man yourself. So as Mr. Goldman and Mr. Silverman are congratulating each other on their righteousness in the borders of their garments, or whatever it is they're talking about, that pleasant, sunny morning on the veranda of Hebruset Cafe, with their vanilla lattes. Guess who shows up on the scene? Here comes Jeremiah, see? So Jeremiah's coming for his cup of morning joe, and Mr. Goldman says, look, there he is. There he is. Watch him. He comes here every morning to get his coffee. And so Jeremiah doesn't sit in the veranda. He goes to the takeout window. He's not so sure about sitting with his crowd. So he goes to the takeout window. There he is. He says to Mr. Sullivan, see that? There's Jeremiah. He comes here every morning for his coffee. Do you know what he orders? He doesn't order a vanilla latte, forget it. He gets a cup of black coffee. And Silverman says, yeah, I've noticed, no cream and no sugar at all. That figures. He's a bitter mean man. And you know, Mr. Goldman says, you know what, he also has that wooden yoke. He's always wearing that yoke. You know what he means by that, don't you? Yeah, I know what he means. Now this is my stupid story about a conversation that I don't think ever happened. If it did, it would be very amazing. But I'm trying to illustrate the mindset of Jeremiah's compatriots back in the day. Jeremiah would wear that yoke and people would see it. You've got to remember they hate Jeremiah. They don't like his message. And now it's even worse because he's wearing this yoke. And he's got it on, he's had it on for 15 years. What do you think they thought about him? You remember in chapter 26 they tried to kill him. So in their minds, Jeremiah is an extremely negative preacher. Always rebuking, always warning, always prophesying of Judah's demise and the elevation of this heathen king over the people of God of all things. Always wearing that wooden yoke. Reminding them of their doom according to him and they would look at him and say he's an unpatriotic son. He never has anything good to say about us. In fact, he says that the king of Babylon is God's servant. He's negative. I don't get any joy out of his ministry. They hated him. They wanted more joy. Okay, so the imagery is clear that we're being given here. Jeremiah, according to the commandment of God, is to wear this yoke to remind them all, God's going to destroy you. I've been telling you that for years. And the Babylonians are going to conquer you and you're going to be the one wearing the yokes. And Jeremiah wouldn't even have to say a word and just seeing him, you know, they would see that message. If they wouldn't listen to his words, they'd have to see his neck. And they hated him for it, no doubt. Jeremiah did not form any small evangelical discussion groups that were designed to make everybody feel good and useful. That's not what he did. He didn't encourage them that, well, God loves you and it's all going to be okay. That wasn't his message. He didn't have any potluck suppers at his house. Jeremiah had a consistent message. It's a hard message to be giving all the time. It's what God told him, repent or perish. You say, but that's not the whole counsel of God. That's the counsel they needed in that generation because of where they were at. You can't treat every generation as if they're all the same. They're not. There are other things that they should have known and learned, but this was the most important. This was the most pressing. There's no need to go to the finer points of the law and of God's grace without first and foremost getting them to repent of their rebellion against God. Repent or perish. There's nothing else to say. There's many more things that should be said, but they can't be said because the people aren't in the spiritual state of mind to even begin to receive them. And Jeremiah would be hated for having that discernment and obeying God's commandments. So in verse 3, And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem, unto Zedekiah king of Judah. So this message of subjection and doom was not for Israel alone, as we see. But Jeremiah was to deliver it to the surrounding nations as well. These nations were the surrounding nations, which at times gave Israel a lot of grief. And they were involved in their own sins, and the time was coming for God to judge them too, just like he would judge the inhabitants of Canaan. And the children of Israel could not move into Canaan until they had filled up the measure of their own sins. Because God's a righteous God and he's holy and kind even to the pagans who don't deserve it. But when their sins demand action on God's pot, God will move. So the message had to go to these other nations as well. And it appears that these surrounding nations, as I indicated, were meeting at Jerusalem because he told, you're going to give them these yokes to the messengers. Now notice it's messengers. He's not giving it directly to the kings. The kings are sending ambassadors to Jerusalem. Look at verse 3, and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and the king of Tyrus. And how is he to send them to these kings? How are they to get these yokes? By the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah. So these men came as ambassadors of their respective kingdoms to meet in Jerusalem to have a powwow with King Zedekiah. And no doubt this powwow had to do with, oh, you know, Nebuchadnezzar, boy, the Babylonians are getting strong. They're conquering everybody. They're going to be coming after us. We need to form a league of nations. And so we need to form a UN. The UN was going to be in Jerusalem, like the Supreme Court in Jerusalem. And so it was they came together and when those messengers would return after making their league with King Zedekiah to go home, then Jeremiah could deliver these yokes. Now once these men, now think about what they're doing. They're making a league. They don't feel safe. Babylonian Empire, you know, we hear Jeremiah talk about it, but we hate him for it, and that can't happen, we're God's people, but, you know, maybe we should join a confederacy with these other nations around us. And the other nations said, well, maybe we should even do it with the Jews too, because we're a little bit nervous about this. And so they got together, they formed this this league to, they hope, prevent any encroachments on the part of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, on their own respective kingdoms. And after they've completed their pact in Jerusalem, they are to return to their nations with the very happy message of safety and security. We've got a bond of brotherhood of a group of nations, and now don't you worry, don't you worry, Nebuchadnezzar is not going to penetrate us, we are brothers arm and arm. See, Barack Obama was getting everybody together so we could go fight ISIS, and we're gonna be a league, and this is what they were doing, see? And so right when they're feeling good about themselves, they finally got this league, they've signed the dotted line, we've got the UN going, these bad guys aren't gonna come and get us anymore, so we're safe. And guess who shows up as they're leaving the meeting with their briefcases? Saying, yep, everything's going to be okay. We've got all this. And as they're leaving, this happy time, now we feel secure. Guess who shows up? Jeremiah shows up. And Jeremiah shows up and he says, here, here are some yokes to give to your kings when you return. You got to think about the timing of that. Just like Jeremiah. I don't know what they thought. This is just like Jeremiah. You know, he's going to ruin a good day. You may say, Jeremiah, what does this mean? It means you're going to go under the yoke of Babylon, as I've been telling you. Your league is not going to work. God's will shall be done no matter what league you enter into as men. God's will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven. Your nations will be destroyed, and Nebuchadnezzar will take control, and you will be under his yoke. Remember what I said in chapter 26? Look at verse 8 of chapter 26. We covered this back in March, but look at verse 8. Now it came to pass when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the Lord had commanded him, to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die. This is back in chapter 26. This is a little while ago. Look at verse 10, When the princes of Judah heard these sayings, then they came up from the king's house unto the house of the Lord, and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the Lord's house. Then spake the priests, this is the religious establishment of the day. This is the National Association of Evangelicals of the day. Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes, and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die, for he hath prophesied against this city, Jerusalem. as ye have heard with your ears." They wanted to kill him. Now after this experience, and I don't want to recount the whole chapter, there was another prophet who began to prophesy like Jeremiah. And when you get to the end of chapter 26, you find out he ran away because he thought they were going to kill him. They killed him. But somehow, Jeremiah's life got spared providentially. It's a really scary time, and at that moment, then God says, okay, now that the other man's been killed, and you've gotten by by the skin of your teeth, and they tried to kill you before, now I want you to make these jokes. I want you to deliver the, he, do you really want his job? Do you really want, you know, people say, I want to go into the ministry. I'll be a man of the cloth, respected in the community. Well, those are the other prophets. They were men of the cloth, respecting the community. It wasn't that way with Jeremiah. They wanted to kill him. And so here comes Jeremiah with his yoke. Now, Jeremiah stood alone. He was rejected. He was hated. They wouldn't listen. And a sermon was to be delivered upon the deliverance of these yokes. And of course, he's going to hand out these yokes as they're walking out of the UN in Jerusalem, all safe and secure in their new league. He says, guess what? It isn't going to work. Here, take this yoke and bring it back to your king. And by the way, I get a little sermon for you to deliver to him to go along with this yoke. See, I'm exaggerating. I'm not exaggerating. It's what the scripture says. Just, you know. saying it my way, I guess. But there's a sermon that Jeremiah is to deliver to these kings along with the yokes. So in verse 3 he's told, deliver these yokes as they're leaving Jerusalem after making league. And then verse 4, and command them to say unto their masters. In other words, he's given the yokes to the messengers. The messengers are going back to their lands, these surrounding heathen nations, and they're supposed to give these yokes that Jeremiah just gave them, give them to your masters, the king, and give the king this message along with the yoke, see? So there's a little sermon attached that they are to deliver on Jeremiah's behalf. And verse 4, And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. Just to be clear where this message comes from. Thus shall ye say unto your masters, I have made the earth, the man, and the beast that are upon the ground by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me." God in essence has said to them, now you tell them this, You tell them God said, I made the world and I made everything in it. I have the power to do that and I have the authority to control everything that happens in the world. And I can give the world and the rule of the world to those whom I see fit to give it to according to my own sovereign will. Let them know that first of all. Because I already know, Jeremiah, they're not believing you. But I want you to tell them, give them the message, I have the authority to do what I want. They may console themselves saying, we're the people of God, we're the nation of God, we're the descendants of Abraham. This can't happen to us. He's given us this land forever. You tell them, I can do what I want with my own creation. That's number one, point one in God's sermon to these nations. And notice in verse 5, And I have made the earth, the man, the beast, that upon the ground my great power, and by my outstretched arm I have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. Then verse 6, And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and the beast of the field have I given him also to serve him. And in this sermon God wants these messengers to describe Nebuchadnezzar the pagan as Jehovah's servant who was about to destroy not only these pagan nations but Judah as well. Nebuchadnezzar is my servant. Now this is, you know, I can see, if you had the popularity meter, as this message comes from Jeremiah, it's going down and down and down. You know, they do those things in the political commentaries. So the politician is talking, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and as the lies come out of his mouth, you know, some people are happy with the lies and some people are not happy with the lies. They track them. Well, you could track, Jeremiah's message is straight downhill. Straight downhill. Here's a yoke. God's going to destroy you. And guess what? That pagan who's going to destroy you is God's servant. You know, if you were Jeremiah and you were a modern evangelical, OK, maybe I have to say that, but couldn't you find other wording? No, God wanted to be crystal clear. My servant. But I want to remind you of something that struck me, thinking about that. Obviously, Nebuchadnezzar is not God's servant because he's a holy man, and he believes in Jehovah, and he's obedient to the will of God. Nebuchadnezzar doesn't know what's going on. He's a heathen. God will sometimes appoint the basis of men to rule over the kingdoms of this world. We learn that in Daniel. And Nebuchadnezzar fits the description there. Nebuchadnezzar is not God's servant because he pleases God. He's God's servant because he has a purpose to fulfill in God's will. By the way, which he probably knows nothing of, and there's no credit that goes to his account for obeying God and attacking these nations. He's just doing that, you know, out of the flesh. But he will do the will of God, whether he knows it or not. And in that sense, he is God's servant. But remember who Nebuchadnezzar is. Think about it. He is the king of Babylon, the world power that is on the verge of persecuting God's people and the other people of the world, at least surrounding nations. And as such, Nebuchadnezzar, as the king of Babylon, the world power that persecutes God's people, is not King Nebuchadnezzar, does he not prefigure Antichrist, right? Mystery Babylon? Is Antichrist God's servant? Yes. In the biblical sense, in every way, yes. Not because God is pleased with Antichrist, but he will use Antichrist to achieve his will because of where the world was at and is at. And his will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven. And no man can stay his hand and say, what doest thou? Even the arch enemy of God, Antichrist himself, even he has to be the servant of a living God. Whether he knows it or not, just like Nebuchadnezzar, Well, look at verse 7. And all nations shall serve him, that is Nebuchadnezzar, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come. So we know that Nebuchadnezzar will reign supreme according to this prophecy given to Jeremiah, that he is to deliver to these other nations at the time they're leaving the League of Nations in Jerusalem. And Nebuchadnezzar will reign, and not only Nebuchadnezzar, but his son will reign, and then his grandson will reign. Just so you know, there's going to be a little sticktuitive to this. Now, he doesn't spell it out here, but what he's basically saying is, he's going to reign for about 70 years. Because that was the appointed time of Israel's captivity, according to the prophet, elsewhere. And so during the reign of his, the last reign of the Babylonians will be by the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar. And then sure enough, the Medes and the Persians would conquer the Babylonians and Cyrus, the king would reign and rule. And by the way, Cyrus, as the new Persian king is going to say to the children of Israel, not in these so many words, but well, the 70 years, like the prophet said is up. You can go back to Jerusalem now. And by the way, Cyrus, if you remember when we were going through the book of Nehemiah, Cyrus was also the servant of the Lord, pagan Cyrus. So verse eight, and it shall come to pass that the nation and kingdom which shall not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the Lord, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand." So the message is in this sermon that is to be delivered to the Messengers and then to the kings coming from Jeremiah is you tell them you better knuckle under when Nebuchadnezzar comes knocking on the door. You stick your arms out. You give up. You yield to his authority. And it shall come to pass, verse 8, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation he will punish by various means, and they're going to pay the price for not doing what Jeremiah told them to do. But I want you to notice something here. He says, those nations that will not put their neck under the yoke of king of Babylon, I will destroy. God is vindicating the ministry of Jeremiah. You will put your neck under that yoke that Jeremiah made, that portrayed Nebuchadnezzar's rule. You will, if you don't believe me now, you will believe me then. And if you try and rebel, when you see the yoke coming on the horizon through the Babylonian army, if you won't put that yoke on then, then I will kill you. You give up, yeah, you'll be under a yoke, but you'll live. And for the children of Judah, you will come back. He promises they can come back in time. If you don't yield then, that's it. Verse 9, Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon, Don't listen to your feel-good preachers and prophets, which say, oh, the gloom and doom of the prophet of God, Jeremiah. Oh, he's always got something negative to say. We have an uplifting message. say we we've we've sold our little synagogue and we bought a basketball stadium that's what Joel Osteen did we fill it up with a message that's positive and everybody walks out smiling we are something else we can have a patriotic day and wave flags they were all great God is on our side and on and on and on and on but the message this is part of God's sermon don't listen to these men that tell you, no, that's all negative. That's Jeremiah, there's something wrong with him. Don't you listen to those liars, is what God is saying to them. And then verse 10, for the prophecy, for they prophesy a lie unto you. See, I didn't call them liars. God did. For they prophesy a lie unto you. I wonder how many times that happens nowadays. they prophesy a lion to you to remove you far from your land see they're not helping when they do this and that I should drive you out and you should perish you listen to listen to them you'll die in your sin but the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon those who say I give up and serve him the king of Babylon those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the Lord, and they shall till it and dwell therein." They may be under the domination of Babylon, but it really won't be so bad for those who do not resist and yield if Jeremiah have told them to. Don't listen to your feel-good preachers, who you heap to yourself, having itching ears. And actually, we're going to illustrate that some tonight by talking about the backslidden nature of evangelicalism as it deals with the idea of doctrine itself. So in the end, let me say this, just one observation because we've got to close. If the message of the man of God then, who is Jeremiah, The message of the man of God was negative and hard to hear back then, and Jeremiah is warning them of 70 years of Babylonian captivity, which, if they do what God says in spite of their sins, he'll let them even stay in their own land until their own ground still. The Lord will make it livable. They don't deserve this break, I can tell you. They don't, but God gives it to them. So Jeremiah is prophesying a Babylonian captivity that can be very livable and manageable, and that a small handful of nations, the ones mentioned earlier on, would also come under the yoke of Babylon. If Jeremiah's nation comes across as negative, too strong and hard to hear then about a 70-year captivity living in their own land till in their own ground but everything is not what it was if it's too negative with that thing hanging over their heads then what should the men of God sound like who live in the generation preceding the coming of Christ where there will be a universal conflagration on the earth in the eternal damnation of souls Do you know what that generation demands of the ministers of that generation? Prophesy unto us smooth things. Prophesy unto us deceits. My point is, Jeremiah had it hard. His message was very strong, and it was unrelenting. But that only dealt with a local, temporary Babylonian captivity for a handful of nations. What should ministry sound like now in the presence of our current sins and the wrath of God that now awaits this generation? Business as usual? Ozzie and Harriet it'll all work out in the end Jesus loves us this I know for the Bible tells me so Jesus does love us his people this I know and the Bible does tell us so but there's a message for each and every generation and a remnant will receive it and most won't Solomon's not wrong there's nothing new under the Sun nothing bow heads in prayer Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for Your manifold blessings, even the patience and the mercy that Thou has shown in these texts that we look at, which may be hard, and they deal with apostasy and rebellion and judgment. The truth is, we also, even in these texts, see Your mercy. They would not hear the man of God. They rebelled. They sought to kill him. And they did kill the other prophets. But the Lord, even in that last hour, said, if you will at least yield to those whom I send to be your judge, I will spare your lives. And as hard as this message may be to hear for the modern mindset, there's still the portrait of the mercy and the indescribable kindness and grace of God that is available to men. And in this we take great solace. We pray that thou would teach us to warn and to rebuke and to be faithful as Jeremiah was, for we fear we live in similar times or worse. But at the same time, may we always remember that thou art merciful and thou art gracious. And if men will repent of their sins and turn to God, thou wilt forgive and heal them and secure them. And they will be thy people and thou wilt be thy God. May we be weeping prophets, but at the same time ministers of the Good News. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.