Take your Bibles and turn to Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 7. Jeremiah chapter 7. And I want to bring a sermon today titled, You Better Listen. You better listen. You know, oftentimes a parent will tell a child, you better listen. Well, a child's standing right there in their presence and they're listening. You know, why are you saying you better listen? I'm here, I'm listening, you know? And what the parent means is this, is that yes, you're hearing what I say, but you're not doing what I'm telling you. You better listen. And so usually what that means is that if you don't grasp what I'm telling you to do, consequences that you won't like will follow. And the of the punishment will be greater than any pleasure you had doing wrong." By the way, that's a good child rearing policy to have, make the pain of the punishment greater than the pleasure of doing wrong. Always do that. Well, let's go to our text. We're going to read the first 10 verses here of chapter 7 from the book of Jeremiah. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord. Now, it's important that we understand this is from the Lord saying, stand in the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim there this word and say, hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. By the way, when you go to the house of the Lord, that's what it's for, to worship God. It's not about our entertainment. It's about worshiping God. Okay. Thus said the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your doings. And I will cause you to dwell in this place. Now, again, he's saying this to people at church, trust you not in lying words, saying the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these. For if he throughly amend your ways and your doings, if he throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if he oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt. God is anti-ecumenical, okay? Doesn't matter if it's denomination, doesn't matter if it's religious music, Doesn't matter if it's some kind of a teen activity. God is anti-ecumenical. Then will I cause you to dwell in this place in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will you still murder and commit adultery and swear falsely and burn incense and to bail and walk after other gods whom you know not? Come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name and say We are delivered to do all these abominations In other words, we have liberty to do these things today We're not in the law well these folks were but they were even saying it back then and so God will answer them, they better listen and we better listen as well. Let's go to Lord in prayer. Father, you've got something that you wanted those people to hear. And yet you've said in first Corinthians that this was written for our admonition as well. We must learn from it. Lord, I come today as only a messenger. It's your message. I'm not worthy to even carry the message yet. Probably don't know who would be outside of Christ. Lord, help us to deliver the message, not to withhold from it, not to add to it, not to water it down, but speak the truth in love, but preach the gospel as it is to men as they are today in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. We live in the day of the local church and it's different than the law with its sacrifices and the offerings that they had, but there are truths in every age and generation since the fall of man. Crews that stand as identifying marks of right. and wrong in man's relationship with God. So it's very important that we listen to what he has to say to us today. In verses one through three of our text, we see the preaching, the words and warnings of God. In verse one, we're told this is from the Lord. Make no mistake about it. It's from the Lord and it's to Jeremiah to deliver to God's people. Jeremiah is the one God has appointed to do this. Every generation, God has a message and he calls messengers who will have the faith and the spirit of God to proclaim an unpopular message with his people. I mean, even with his people. This is whom Jeremiah is speaking to are the people of God, the people of church, but it's God's message. And he's told to preach to them. Preached my first sermon in February of 1970 in a church building into a group of people. One thing I've heard throughout my entire preaching history is that you can't preach like that anymore. And when I die, I probably won't. But you know what? You've got to give what God gives you. You have to give what God gives you, and the way he gives it to you. Now, I think of Isaiah. He got a look at God's holiness. He said, Lord, I'm a man of unclean lips. Jeremiah gets a look at God, the one we're talking about today, Jeremiah, and he says, Lord, I'm just a youth. I can't do this. And I like those two guys saying that. Because it's not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. That's the only way anybody does it, is by the Spirit of God. Now say this, it's a scandal in heaven when a man is called of God and refuses to preach the message God has given him to preach, or he waters it down, doesn't preach it as it is to men as they are, when he changes the message. Years ago, I worked for a swimming pool company, and I was doing a motel pool. And the maintenance director of the motel come up to me and said, does it need chemicals? I says, well, it's going to need chlorine and acid, but please don't put any in it right now. I've got to go back to the pump room later. And so I went ahead and did the cleaning and the things that were involved. I went back to the pump room, and that was the day I had scheduled to also backwash their pump. Now, in a big motel like that, it's a little bit of a different thing. So I started, and all of a sudden, it was like, boom, somebody hit me in the chest. I had a knot in my chest, could hardly breathe. I staggered out of the room there, the pump room, and the door had been closed. So I opened the door, got out, grabbed all the stuff that I would use, put it in the back of the van, drove home, and stayed in bed a day or two, hardly able to breathe. Now, what happened? Somebody did not heed the message that I had given them. And I got hit pretty hard. Now, I was told that you could die from something like that. Then I just about died when I heard that. But you see, if you do not deliver the message, people get hurt. And people who will not heed the message will also get hurt. Now, verse 2, it lets us know there, it says, Stand at the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim there this word and say, Hear the word of the Lord. By the way, anytime you go in God's house, that's what you should hear. The word of the Lord, that's what it's about. That's the most important thing in God's house. Everything else is secondary. Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. Judgment begins at the house of God. We need to understand that. So the house of God is where sin must first be addressed. Judah is being told here to hear the Word of the Lord, especially since they are there to worship God. Now, I want to share with you one Old Testament passage and another New Testament passage and show you the way that God is addressing this. In Isaiah chapter 30, verse 9 and 10, it says that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord, which say to the seers, see not. and to the prophets, prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits. God is letting us know that the people of Israel in that day and the people in the last days are going to say, hey, we want positive only. Hey, just keep it positive. Make it user friendly. Give people what they want. Find out what they want to hear makes them feel good. See, this is not new today that you're going through. The Bible said it was going to happen, but it happened back in the day of Isaiah back there a long time ago. I mean, we're talking about 2,600 years ago, 2,700 years ago with Isaiah. So it's not new today. If you think it's brand new, no. If you think we have to rethink today and you come up with something old like that that they were coming up with then, no. It was filthy then, it's filthy today. Okay, don't have to rethink the Bible. Don't have to rethink God's way. Do God's will, God's way. Always, always, it's the right way to do it. In the New Testament, it says preach the word when in season, out of season. Okay, that's at all times. Okay, so preach the word in season, out of season. How do you preach it? Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering in doctrine. How does the Bible tell the preacher to preach? Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering in doctrine. When preachers don't do that, they're going against God's command. They can actually stand in the pulpit and sin because they don't preach the Word the way God tells them to preach the Word. Then he goes on to say, For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. In other words, they would have a day when they just want to feel good. Hey, I like that. That appeals to me. See, the aim of worshiping the Lord is not to satisfy our flesh or to charge up our feelings. That's not it. Okay, it's to be holy and acceptable unto God. So verse 3 says there, he says, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. and be in your ways and doings. That's repentance. Isn't it interesting that this is the third time in the first three verses that he has said, Thus saith the Lord, that this is from God, this is God's Word, that is being stressed. Must be pretty important. You see, the Word of God is our authority. The Word of God is our authority. It's always our authority. And he says, amend your ways, the manner of how you live and worship. But not only that, he goes on to say, in your doings, those things that you're doing that's abominable, that's offensive to the holiness of God, especially in your worship. This generation thinks that it gets away with sin. You compare TV to 50 years ago. You compare morality in its openness to 50 years ago. And you compare this in-your-face attitude to respect of 50 years ago. In just a couple short generations, This country has gone from being good to calling evil good and good evil. You say, what do you mean like that? Let me use an example, modern day example. Let's imagine that a professional NFL football player has a news conference that I've got a big announcement. I want everybody here. They all show up. All the media's there. They're all gathered around. He said, and he said something like this. I've gathered you here today because you believe that when someone tells of their sexual orientation that they are brave. I'm a heterosexual and I believe one man for one woman only for life. And I know you think I'm brave for saying that. Hell no. You know how the media would respond to that? Oh, they'd be angry. The NFL would fine the guy for saying it. But a guy could come out and say, I'm a homosexual, kiss his boyfriend on national TV, and that's great. And anybody that says anything against it did get fined. See, that's an example of calling that which is abominable to God, good, and calling what is good, standing and speaking against it, evil. That's the day we live in. But no, you've got to be positive. Don't say things like that. Well, hey, listen, you will please the majority. That is the majority of people. But not the real majority, because God is the majority. And that is abominable to him to take the other side, especially if you name his name. Verses 4 through 6 shows God changeth not in each generation. Hebrews 13, 8 says, Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forevermore. Jesus Christ is the same. My friend, generations change, but God does not change. And usually as generations change, it's for the worse, not for the better. In verse 4, three times they mentioned the temple of the Lord. Why is that? It's kind of like an incantation. This protects ourselves. Hey, we're in church. The buildings became the object of their trust and their worship. You remember Jesus Christ following the disciples around the temple in Matthew 24? Oh, behold, all these buildings, Lord, what do you think about it? He says, well, within a generation, every stone here is going to be tossed down. He let him know that it's not the outside, it's what's in the heart. The heart's right, the outside will be right. But you can have a right outside and a terrible inside. And that's what happened. And so things were worse and they continue to grow worse. God looketh at the heart. Now verse five, we see a two fold instruction. He says, for if he thirdly, throughly amend your ways and your doings, if you, if he throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor. Now for a second time, he's mentioned to amend your ways and your doings, but he has added throughly to it this time. must be very important to God. And he also adds that we are to do the things right in relationship to others. Good Christianity does not do things behind the back of those that are preaching the Word and those that are taking a stand for the Lord among the lay people and so forth, that are witnessing and taking a good stand. Not working behind the back is not of God on that. However, trying to bring those that are wrong to repentance is good. It's good. Verse three said it was important to amend your ways and your doings, but the importance of it is being stressed by God here. And there's the idea of executing judgment. That is justice, ethics, the law of kindness. All are in the thought with your neighbors, those that are near, those that are far, those that are affected by your daily life. You see, service for God invariably means service to others. It's an other oriented thing. Your relationship to God is personal. Your service for God is others oriented. But if it is of God, it will always, always, always be holy. And it will not include the flesh. It will always include the gospel. And so in verse six, it says, if you oppress, not the stranger, the fatherless and the widow and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt. So now it's seeing things on both a personal and a national level. Oppressing in the name of God. They were sacrificing babies. Now today, we murder babies in the womb. You say, don't call that murder. Well, what is it? Isn't it murder when you kill somebody against their own will? I don't think that that human life inside the mother said, oh yeah, go ahead and let me have it. You see, that's murder. Recall what it is. Justice between people, no favorites that pads the pocket. See, there are a lot of preachers today, a lot of people involved in ministry. that if you're putting the money and you're padding the money in there, you'll let their kids get away with things, but you come down hard on the other kids that they're not padding the pocket. That is evil. That is wrong. Should not happen. Fortunately, I don't believe that that is happening here. He also said, no other gods. I'm reminded of Hosea 2, 16. And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi, and shalt call me no more Bali. He is saying, my people will now call me Ishi, which means my husband. By the way, those who say that the church has replaced Israel, here's Israel in the future. They've been told they're going to call him my husband. We didn't replace Israel. Okay, so understand that. And he says, but they will not call me by the name Bali, which refers to the God of Baal. You know, we call God by his name. We don't call him Allah. We don't call him Buddha or any other name. We call him our God. He's Jehovah God. You see, ecumenicalism is born in hell. We don't translate the Bible and change God's name to another name, saying, well, look, they worship the same God. They just call him by a different name. No. Let me just use an example of that. The name John. Some places, some countries, it's Johan. Others, it may be Juan. Okay, but what they have done is they've transliterated it to their name. Okay, they haven't changed the name. It's just been transliterated to their language. But if you call John Linda Isis, you haven't transliterated it. You have changed the name. If you say Maria, you have changed the name. Look, we're not gonna change. Jehovah is not Allah. Our Jehovah God is the only God. And we need to understand that. In verse seven, he lets us know, if you do verses four through six, he says, then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. So here we have the contrast in these next few verses seven through nine of obedience and rebellion before our God. If you obey, then God will cause you to dwell in this place. But it is a faith. As things look bleak, faith is taking God at his word. Although things look bleak, you always do right regardless of the cost. Do right. Jesus said that he was a divider even in homes. Mother gets a daughter, father gets a son. My kids will tell you, there's always been a rule in my home. You live in my house, you go to my church. And during church time, you're in church. Well, I'm a little bit more open. I allow my kids to choose their own church. Good, let them choose their own house. Let them pay their own bills. Now I say that, but understand, that child is under your roof. God still holds you responsible. But they're an adult. Okay. Then put them out the house. Well, they can't make it. Then they're still a child. Okay. In other words, what I'm trying to say is that you are there to be the father or the mother, and you don't compromise God. And people say, God first, then family, and then my job. But when you do that, you're putting family ahead of God. I know people don't like that, but truth is truth. I'm just a messenger, just a messenger. He says there as we look at it, then, that word then shows the reward comes after, not before, not during. However, in the during, he gives us his strength and he does sustain us. His promise is everlasting. You ever pay a contractor ahead of time and you found out good luck on the rest of the work? And you've learned that you wait till they do what they're supposed to do, then you give the money. We know God does that with us. You do this and here's the, it's already laid up, it's there for you. But not till this is done. Verse 8 is a warning against what they are trusting. He says there, Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. Lying words come from prophets and leaders who appeal to the flesh, and they lead you to leave the paths of righteousness, but they seek to justify everything with religious sounding words. Let me give an example. Colossians 1.14 says, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. You know, most, every new translation now takes through his blood out of that. The ones that keep it in, put it into brackets and say, it's not in the best manuscripts. Some scholars who studied this said, you know, we have over 5,400 manuscripts, said it was left out of two manuscripts. Two. And they said, nothing was left out that was important. I've always thought the blood of Jesus was important. I always thought it secured our forgiveness when we turned to Him in faith. Verse nine, he says, Will you still murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense under Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye knew not, and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, we are delivered to do all these abominations? Will you still? How often have you heard men on religious TV say, tithing's not for today. But they do want you to send your money to them instead of your church. That ought to open up a thing in your mind. What about murder today and abortion? What about adultery? The consequences seem to be absent today from God's house. What about swear falsely? Promising to follow God's call and do his will only to leave it when the way gets hard. What about to burn incense unto Baal? That's the ecumenical, that's the contemporary. Can we really justify the many contemporary music people today that are out there justifying homosexual marriage, that are getting together with Catholic and Mormons and everybody else and say that is good in God's sight? I'd rather you know the difference now than when you get to heaven. You see, those things are a terror in God's sight. They're terrible. But the ultimate blasphemy is when you go to God's house claiming liberty to do these things, then my friend, you have rebelled against God. And it seems like anytime preachers preach against this thing, all people can say is, you're legalists. I wish they'd come up with new things. They've been saying that. I've been lied. None of your business, but I've been alive long enough to know since the 50s and 60s. I've known since then that people have been calling us legalists. It's probably before my time. I wish they'd just come up with a new word. Anytime they want to go to the way of the flesh, you stay with the way that God has always laid out. They're upset with it. They don't like it. We need to follow what God will give Jeremiah in chapter six. He calls us back to the old paths. They said, no, we don't want to go that way. But Jeremiah doesn't quit on his preaching. He doesn't quit on his stand, no matter if it is rejected. And he was rejected by everybody. But he kept on preaching. He just kept on preaching. And that's blasphemy in God's sight. But do you realize that there's a greater blasphemy than that? That is to come to God's house, hear the way of salvation, be given an opportunity to be saved, and not accept it. In John 14, 6, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes unto the Father but by me. That lays it out. Jesus says, I'm the only way. There's not many roads to heaven. I know there are a lot of people, the majority say that today. There are not many roads to heaven, only Jesus Christ. In Acts 4.12, there's none other name given among men whereby you must be saved. To say that there are many roads to heaven is to call this book an error, and to call this book an error is to call God a liar. You don't want that when you appear before him on you. Let me close with this passage from Nahum. Nahum, another Old Testament passage, chapter one. Verse two, beginning from verse two, it says, God is jealous and the Lord revengeth. The Lord revenges and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. See, God's not, well, I just overlook it. Just gotta forgive him, let him go on. No, there's gotta be repentance and faith. It goes on to say, the Lord is slow to anger and great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked. There's got to be somebody, you've got to turn to Christ totally. The Lord has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm and in the clouds are the dust of his feet. The mountains quake at him and the hills melt. The earth is burned at his presence. Yea, the world and all that dwell therein, who can stand before his indignation? Who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him. God is omnipotent. He's all powerful. He's also omniscient. You're not going to get before him and talk your way out of it. And then it says, the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. And he knoweth them that trust in him. So my friend, you better listen. Jesus is the only way of salvation. And if you're not sure if you died today that heaven's your home, you need to come to him. You know, that's the great thing about our Lord. He loves you. Tells you the truth. You know, I've delivered you his message today. And it seems hard to some folks. But it's the truth. You say, because it's truth, it puts me a sinner. That's the point. I'm a sinner. We're all sinners. But if we come to Jesus Christ, he'll save us. The difference between me and some guy on death row that's committed mass murders, you know what the difference is? I'm a sinner saved by grace. So I don't believe that. God lets me know that if I don't repent and believe the gospel, I too shall go to hell. My friend, if you're not sure if you died today, please come to Him because He wants to save you. He loves you, but you must come to Him. Won't you do that today? Let's bow our heads, please. Father, I pray as we sing in 371, have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way. I pray, Father, for the ones who raise their hand and say, I'm not sure I'm saved. I pray that they might leave their seat and walk down here and let us open the Bible and show them how to be saved. I pray for Christians. Lord, it's a hard decision. It's a right decision. It's a decision for which there is a crown if we abide by the decision, a crown to be able to place at the feet of Jesus. But Lord, I pray that that crown, whether it's an incorruptible crown of righteousness, I pray that people would come today to say, Lord, I'm going to listen, and I'm going to obey. Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth. In Jesus Christ's name, amen.