All right, here we are, Jeremiah chapter 11. I don't know about you, but I love the expository preaching. I like studying it out. This is my favorite Wednesday night, my favorite service as far as the preaching goes. Normally on Sundays, we get a lot of topical sermons, and it's really interesting to see what the Bible says about specific topics. You're kind of jumping around all over the place, but I love just going through and studying out chapter by chapter here. There's a lot to learn, but anyways, let's dig into chapter 11, verse number one. The Bible reads, the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord. And again, this seems to be starting a newer thought, not exactly 100% completely new. It's still in the same vein of everything we've been seeing in general, but we're seeing some new subject matters come up here. the word that came Jeremiah from the Lord saying hear ye the words of this covenant and Speak unto the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and say thou unto them thus saith the Lord God of Israel Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant Which I commanded your fathers In the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt from the iron furnace saying, Obey my voice and do them according to all which I command you. So shall ye be my people, and I will be your God, that I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers to give them a land flowing with milk and honey as it is this day. Then answered I and said, So be it, O Lord. We've got to remember, too, as we're reading through this book, Jeremiah is receiving this instruction, this instruction to preach. God is speaking to him and saying, this is what I want you to preach. And then he goes and does it. So we hear him receiving what God says, and then Jeremiah goes and does it. And we don't get all of the in-between with everything that we're reading. Clearly we're seeing here and what's interesting about this too. So just to put everything in perspective, God is bringing up now the covenant. This is the Old Covenant. This would be what we might call the Old Testament, the Old Covenant. It's the era of the Mosaic law because he references when they were brought out of Egypt and of course who led them out of Egypt? Moses led them out of Egypt, right? And then it says here, and turn to Exodus chapter 19, we're gonna look at this reference, this quote, because the Lord is bringing up a quote from Exodus chapter 19 that he wants Jeremiah to remind the people about. So after he leads them out of Egypt, And notice Exodus 19. What's in Exodus 20? Who knows what's in Exodus 20? It starts off with 10 commandments, right? So we start off just here, and then you continue to hear more of the law and things like that. Exodus 19 marks when the children of Israel are just out of Egypt completely. So even after the parting of the Red Sea, they're still just not completely out. They're safe, they're no longer being followed by Pharaoh and his army and stuff, but they're still traveling to finally get out of just the land or the realm of Egypt. So when they get to this point, Exodus 19, God is bringing up and reminding them about the covenant. And remember, he's going all the way back basically to what you could consider the beginning of this nation. This is the founding of this people, this group of people becoming a nation because God is bringing them into a land. They're gonna have a place where they can go and establish themselves and grow into a nation. And as is mentioned here, that he could fulfill that promise. He made an oath, he made a promise to Abraham, to Isaac, to Abraham and to Jacob so that they would be this people and have this place and have this land. He has to bring them. This is near the end. Of course, Jeremiah is preaching. is real close to when they're taken captivity, right? Where they're finally kicked out of their land. And all throughout this whole history, you've got the time of the judges, you got the time of the kings, right? And this is nearing the end of the time of the kings of Judah, right before they're taken captive. So this is just kind of a high level overview of what we're looking at here. And Jeremiah is being commanded to remind them about this covenant. Look at verse number one in Exodus 19. The Bible says, in the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. For they were departed from Rephidim and were come to the desert of Sinai and had pitched in the wilderness. And there Israel camped before the mount. And Moses went up unto God and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain saying, thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, you have seen what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bear you on eagle's wings and brought you unto myself. He says, you saw how I saved you. You saw my strong arm. You saw what I did to Egypt. You saw the plagues. You saw what happened to them. They saw the protection of God. They saw all the chariots drown in the Red Sea when they crossed over on dry land. They saw, they witnessed all of this stuff. And he's saying, and I brought you, like on eagle's wings, you know, just real safe and brought them out. And he says, I brought you unto myself. So I'm bringing you to me, verse five. Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. So just before we even keep reading here, the whole earth is God's. God made all mankind, everything and everyone essentially belongs to God. But he's saying, if you're gonna be a people though, that's gonna obey my voice. You're gonna listen to what I say. You're gonna put into practice the things that I say. Then if you listen to me, you keep my covenant, then you will definitely be a peculiar people. You're gonna be different. You're gonna be special because you're gonna be a people that's not like the rest of the world. You'll be a people that's actually following me. And just as then, so is now. You know, any group of people, any nation that is going to make the Lord their God will be a peculiar people unto the Lord. You're gonna be different, you're gonna be separate from the world, and God will bless you for that. He's saying, look, if you obey my voice, indeed, you keep my covenant. Look at verse number six. and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and in holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And what is it that God is using to define them as being this peculiar people, as being special unto him, as being this nation? It's not their lineage. It's not their race, it's their adherence to wanting to follow Him, to hearing Him. He's saying, look, if you do all this, you will be a peculiar people. I'm going to bless you and everything else. Now, of course, the promise came to Abraham and to his seed, and Christ was going to come through there. I'm not going to get into all of that. He's referencing here this covenant, and what does he want? He wants their obedience. He wants them listening to him. And what's happening in the days of Jeremiah? Not that, right? They're not obeying him, they're not listening to him. Now, they may be saying they're worshiping the Lord, they may give lip service to the Lord, but they are clearly far from following the word of God in that nation as a whole. Verse number seven. And Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. Moses is faithful. What's Moses doing? He's just saying what God said. And every good man of God, every good prophet here is gonna do the same exact thing. Oh, God told me this, so I'm just gonna say the same exact thing. I'm gonna repeat exactly what God said to you. Not change it, not alter it, not hold back, just here's everything that God said and here you go. Verse eight, and all the people answered together and said, all that the Lord hath spoken, we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord. So that's when they are assenting to being God's people. They are giving their consent and saying, yes, we're gonna join in covenant with you. We want you to be our God. We want to be your people. We'll listen to what you have to say. And they're all for it. Right? We're ready to be a peculiar people. Let's go back to Jeremiah chapter 11. So this is what Jeremiah, the very first message, those first five verses is what he's being told essentially, right? That the reference here is what he's referring to, but he's going in and the Lord's commanding him saying, hey, tell them about this covenant. Remind them about this covenant. You need to go out and preach this covenant and remind them about our covenant that we made. Verse six, Jeremiah 11. Then the Lord said unto me, proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem saying, hear ye the words of this covenant and do them. So he's going around telling people, look, you gotta get right with God. You gotta follow God's law. Like, get back into the word of God. Get back to that covenant that he made. And this is what he's going around and preaching in the cities and the streets. And verse seven, for I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, obey my voice. This is what God wants. This is what, it's real simple. Right? Now we make it difficult. It might be difficult for us. We have a sinful flesh. We have a sinful nature that makes it harder for us to comply with obeying his voice. But this is what God's want. This is what God's saying. Hey, obey my voice. Obey my voice. He says, I have been protesting unto this people from the very day I brought you out. He says, all the way unto this day. So I've just, you know, I've been sending my people, I've been sending my prophets, rising up early and sending them. And the message hasn't changed, has it? Obey my voice. Obey my voice. And you know, some people want to get all excited about the sacrifices they make. But God just wants their obedience. God's not as interested in the sacrifice that you can make as he is in you just obeying him, being in compliance with what he says. That really makes God pleased, right? Now, it's not wrong to offer sacrifices and stuff. There's a time and a place to do that. And what's more appropriate to be giving your sacrifices when you're already being in compliance with the Lord, when you're already listening to him, you're reading the Bible, you're hearing from his word, you're not just hearing it, but you're actually putting it into practice in your life. You're making the changes necessary to be in agreement with the word of God. where he can be, yes, you are obeying my voice, right? And then when you get to that point, absolutely, go ahead and give away and make more sacrifices, and that would just be even more pleasing, but that's not primarily what God is looking for. He just wants you to obey. The Bible says when Samuel was confronted, Saul, to obey is better than sacrifice. Saul was always worried. He was worried about, oh no, we got to make the sacrifice. We got to make the sacrifice. But then he took it on himself to do the sacrifice, which wasn't his job. He was of the tribe of Benjamin. He was not a Levite. He shouldn't be making the offerings unto the Lord, but he did it anyways. And he took that into his own lap. And he's like, but we have to make the sacrifice. He's like, look, God just wants you to obey. That's not your job to do the sacrifice. You just should have been obedient and not doing that. And then God would have blessed you if you would have just followed and done things his way. Verse number eight, yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked everyone in the imagination of their evil heart. Therefore, I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did them not. Now turn, if you would, to Deuteronomy chapter 27. Deuteronomy chapter 27. In the giving of the covenant, in God's giving the law, he specifies what is going to happen. Say, okay, You know, here's the law, you got a choice. You could follow this and you'll be blessed. And he gives how they're gonna be blessed. Or you could disobey and disregard and not listen to what I have to say and not be obedient and you'll be cursed and here's what's gonna happen. So we're gonna read through just a little bit of that because I believe that this would be some of the things that Jeremiah would be preaching. Obviously he's preaching exactly what God said. But when he's bringing up the covenant, he's gonna be like, hey, and don't forget, God said, Deuteronomy 27, right? This is the blessings and the cursings on Mount Gerizim and on Ebal. Verse number one of 27, we're gonna try to read through this real quickly. And Moses, with the elders of Israel, commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you this day. And it shall be on the day when ye shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaster them with plaster. And thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, a land that floweth with milk and honey, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee. Therefore it shall be, when ye be gone over Jordan, that ye shall set up these stones which I command you this day in Mount Ebal. And thou shalt plaster them with plaster. And there shalt thou build an altar unto the Lord thy God, an altar of stones. Thou shalt not lift up any iron tools upon them. Thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God of whole stones. And thou shalt offer burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord thy God. And thou shalt offer peace offerings. and shalt eat there and rejoice before the Lord thy God. And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly. God doesn't want there to be any confusion. And he's just saying, hey, write it in stone. That's what the Ten Commandments were given to Moses, in stone. It's harder to make changes to the law when it's written in stone. We even use that phrase now, like, well, it's not like it's written in stone or something. Because when it's written in stone, what does that imply? It's not changing. You're writing it in stone. You're not getting the eraser out and going like, hold on a second. I don't really like the way that's worded. Let's change it up. No, it's written in stone. It's established. It's foundational, right? And he's saying, look, when you get into that land, you're going to set up this altar and you're going to write the law on these stones. We're going to make sure that my law is known. It's very plain. It's very clear. Anyone could go up to it and see it. He's not trying to obscure anything. He's just very clear with his people. Verse 9, And Moses and the priests, the Levites, spake unto all Israel, saying, Take heed and hearken, O Israel, this day thou art become the people of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt therefore obey the voice of the Lord thy God, and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee to say. And by the way, similarly, for those of you that are saved, once you put your trust in Jesus Christ to save your soul, Right? Hey, you're God's people. You're born again. You're a child of God. Well, guess what? As a child of God, he's got commandments for you to follow. He's got things that he wants you to do. He has, you know, his word applies to you. So let's take that seriously. As the people of God, you're become the people of the Lord thy God. Hey, thou shalt therefore obey the voice of the Lord thy God. Do his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day verse 11 and Moses charged the people the same day saying These shall stand upon Mount Gerizim to bless the people when you are come over Jordan Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Joseph and Benjamin and these shall stand upon Mount Ebal to curse Reuben Gad and Asher and Zebulun Dan and Naphtali and the Levite shall speak and say unto all the men of Israel the loud voice of Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen." And this is no coincidence. And notice, what's the first thing he's bringing up? Like, idolatry. And what is Israel guilty of at the time of Jeremiah? Idolatry. And what's the biggest thing that's getting God so angry and to the point of just saying you're getting kicked out of the land? The idolatry. Now, there's a lot of other things that are going on in conjunction with that, but the number one thing, oh, you know, the 10 commandments, the first two commandments, you've got not to have any other gods before God and not to make idols. Here, the blessings and the cursings, talking about the cursings, the very first thing is idolatry. So it's really important that you're not putting anything up that you would consider God that's not God. Verse 16, let's keep reading. Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother, and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's landmark, and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way, and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless and widow, and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife, because he uncovered his father's skirt, And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast, and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother, and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that lieth with his mother-in-law, and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that smiteth his neighbor secretly, and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person, and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen. Jeremiah is going and preaching. He needs to remind the people of the covenant that they made. It would make sense to go back here, since there's all these other references going back to the law, to remind the people, look, I'm not saying he literally said this exact thing, but this is applicable to the point he's making to the children of Judah. Specifically, he's going out and preaching to when God is telling them, hey, tell them about the covenant, right? Tell them these things. That is what they needed to be reminded of. Cursed be the man that does all of these things. And notice, if you notice how similar that list is to Leviticus chapter 20, that's also very similar to what's found as the capital crimes, the most of them that are listed in Leviticus chapter 20. And it's also important because Leviticus 20 is a chapter that says that all the people that were in the land before the children of Israel had done all of those things, and that's why God brought judgment on him. And if you're ever wondering, and if people ever try to tell you, oh, God of the Old Testament, he's so mean and he was so, you know, like atheists will mock God or try to be more righteous or loving than God and will paint God out to be some really bad, horrible God because he had all the Canaanites destroyed when the children of Israel came in. And if you don't understand the situation at all, It's like, well, why did God just wipe out these people? Yeah, I mean, why did he? It's a good question. Why would God do that? Because God is a loving God. So what is it that would be so bad that would cause God to just say, I'm just going to wipe these people out? Well, we know that it is in God's nature to do such things. We know that he flooded the whole world at one point and only saved Noah and his family on the ark. Everyone else on the earth died as a result of God's destruction on the earth, his judgment. We know that God destroyed entire cities with Sodom and Gomorrah and raining fire and brimstone down upon them and left them uninhabitable. We know that there's plenty of judgments of God that have come down on people. So why would God tell the people, tell the children of Israel when they come into land to utterly destroy everything? It's because they did some of the most wicked and vile things that you could imagine. All the things that we're seeing there in Exodus 19, or excuse me, not in Exodus, Deuteronomy 27, as well as the stuff that's in Leviticus chapter 20. And when the people get to that point, he's chucking them out, he's casting them out. And the children of Israel were also, they were really wicked at that point, then by the time God is ready to cast them out of the land. So he's reminding them of all this. This is their fair warning, right? Hey, you've got, you make covenant with the Lord. You can't just treat it like it's nothing. Let's keep reading in Jeremiah 11. Go back to Jeremiah 11, verse number nine. And the Lord said unto me, a conspiracy is found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers. which refused to hear my words. And they went after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant, which I made with their fathers. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape. I'm bringing judgment, I'm bringing punishment. There's no escaping that. And if there's a reason to fear, like fear God, God's the one that can bring the punishment that you can't escape, right? Like if a man's gonna do something to you, if there's anyone in this world, maybe there's an opportunity for you to escape. You could get out, you could run away, you could flee. You can't run away from God. He's just like, I'm just going to bring my punishment. It doesn't matter where you go. And we see this, we'll see this later in Jeremiah two, like, Oh, you think you're going to run into Egypt? Well, guess what? The sword is going to follow you into Egypt and devour you there. It doesn't matter where you go. If God's gonna bring his judgment on you, there's no place to hide. So the best thing to do is to get right with God. Just face it. Verse 11, again, therefore, thus said the Lord, behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape. And though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them. And again, not a place where you want to be, where God does and can get to a point where if you are calling out, he won't answer. Don't think that that could never happen, and it doesn't matter what happens in this life, and God will always be there to listen to me. No, he won't. Seek him while he may be found. Read Proverbs chapter one. Hey, I called, you refused. I reached out my hand to you, but you didn't regard it. Therefore, I'm gonna laugh when your calamity comes. And he's saying, they're gonna call on me and I won't answer. You need to seek God while I may be found. Clearly right here is the warning. Hey, they're gonna I'm gonna bring evil upon them I'm gonna bring the judgment upon them. They can't escape from it. And at that point it's too late I'm bringing the judgment now. Oh, but wait got it. You know, I'm sorry too late Too late you pushed it too far Verse 12 then shall the cities of Judah and in heavens of Jerusalem go and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense and They shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble. Of course not, why not? Because they're not gods. They're nothing. They're vanity. Verse 13, for according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah. This is just, obviously, you know, it's, you know, it's not giving specific numbers, but it's just, it's being illustrative. of just how bad the idolatry was. Because it just says, hey, according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah. And he says, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem, have you set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal. So what does that say? It was rampant. I mean, it was everywhere. It was just idolatry, false god, like just this Baal worship all over the place. It was just through and through, essentially, throughout the city and throughout the country. Verse 14, another interesting statement here. Therefore, pray not thou for this people. Because of this, there's some things where he says, hey, because of this, don't pray for this people. I thought I'm always supposed to be able to pray for everyone all the time. No, no, not always. There is a sin unto death. I do not say that you should pray for that. I preached on that recently. Go check out that sermon if you were interested in that subject. He says in verse 14, again, therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble. Hey, we all should want to know who God is. and not just believe a lie, okay? And the lies always sound really good, right? The lie is that it doesn't matter what, anytime at all, God just, if you just, you know, call God, God will just always hear you. And no, he won't. Hey, it sounds great. Sounds really good. It would be nice for us, but hey, let's, you know what? I'd rather just know what's reality. And if the Bible's saying, hey, don't pray for this people, then guess what? There's a people that Jeremiah is being told not to pray for. And interestingly enough, who are the people? It's the people of Judah, the Jews. And I'm not trying to make a joke or anything, I'm being serious. This is who the people are that are in trouble with God, God's own people, and being told not to pray for them. And I bring this up because there are some people who, some Christians, that exalt physical Jews above everyone else in the world. And when I say physical, I mean like a nation, like the people who might physically, possibly be physically descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as if that matters. Now, it's one thing, I just want to be clear about this too, because there's all kinds of people who do all kinds of different things. If there's people who believe that God is gonna do something special with physical descendants of Abraham, but, you know, that's where that, the extent of that is, I don't care. Like what your view of how things will end up in the end times, that's not even what I'm talking about now. It's the people who want to lift up Israel and just say, well, you have to be praying for Israel. You have to be supporting Israel. You have to bless Israel. And when they say Israel, they're meaning The physical nation in the Middle East right now that's occupying that land, that's at war all the time with everyone around them. And they'll bring up verses like Psalm 122. You don't even have to turn there. You could stay, turn if you would to 2 Chronicles chapter 19. Psalm 122, six is pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love thee. Now, first of all, just, you know, they usually cut it off just for pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Say, yeah, we gotta pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Well, when you read the Psalm in context, There's reasons to pray for the peace of Jerusalem because, like the rest of that verse says, they shall prosper that love thee. Now, is Jerusalem today loving the Lord? No. I mean, if you're rejecting Christ, how could you be loving the Lord? It's impossible. It's not even possible. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions sake, I will now say, peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good. Well, the house of the Lord our God is not there either. I mean, we're New Testament believers. There's no house of the Lord our God in Jerusalem right now. So don't come to me saying, well, see, look, because of Psalm 122, you need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Well, what about when God told Jeremiah not to pray for this people who are in Jerusalem? Don't pray for them. Don't pray for their good, because I'm not going to hear them. Or what about in 2 Chronicles 19, Verse number one, the Bible says in Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, and he was a righteous king. He was a godly king. He was someone that went down as a good king of Judah. Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem. And this is right after he went to war with the wicked king, Ahab, who was a king of Israel. Two kingdoms, right? You could say one, there are two nations, but it was one people, right? All descended from Israel, but the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, After that split Jehoshaphat was a righteous king of Judah Ahab was a wicked king in northern kingdom of Israel. And now we're gonna see Jehoshaphat get rebuked By God From a man of God that had a message from God in verse 2 and Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hates the Lord and Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. So obviously he's talking about loving them here, he's talking about supporting them, supporting their military, going forth and fighting their enemies for them, right, and yoking up with them, and fighting these fights. What business do you have doing that? You have no business. Not when they're wicked, not when they're against the Lord, not when they're against Christ, you know, like now they're against Christ. What should we do? How should we deal with them? Like anyone else that's unsaved. We're gonna try to preach the gospel, try to bring them to Christ, try to, but no different than anyone else. not any special treatment, and not any worse treatment. Just, they are people, they are heathen, they need to learn and get saved like anyone else. They don't have a special ticket to heaven because, oh, they're a Jew, so they're, you know, they're special, they're lucky, they're one of God's people. We're not gonna bring a Jew in here today and just be like, oh, can you just teach us stuff from, you know, like, they don't understand the word of God, they're not saved. And I'm talking about religious Jews. Because the ethnicity doesn't matter. Just like John the Baptist said to the Pharisees, hey, think not to say within yourselves that we have Abraham to our father. And Christians today are like, oh, they have Abraham to their father. They're the ones doing it for them. Oh, they have Abraham to their father. Oh, they're so special. Think not to say that I have Abraham to my father, for God is able of these stones to raise up seed unto Abraham. It doesn't matter. There's nothing special about that. And, you know, when you got a group of people that are super wicked, you know, and doing these wicked things, and especially people who are supposed to be God's people that have turned on him, hey, look, don't be praying for their good. And I'll be, you know, I'm not gonna get in depth. I did that in that other sermon I preached on all of the criteria that you should be thinking about and looking to. My point is, just a broader point, that the false teaching out there, just like it's, you know, just always pray good for people all the time, or God's always gonna hear you, is just simply not true. Just simply isn't true, not according to the word of God. Going back to Jeremiah chapter 11. Let's keep going here, verse number 15. What hath my beloved to do in mine house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many? and the holy flesh has passed from thee. When thou doest evil, then thou rejoicest. They're happy about doing evil. Over and over again throughout these chapters, we see the word of the Lord coming to Jeremiah. We see the condition of the people that he's preaching to. And it's not a good condition. And I highlight this over and over again, because these are all things that are going on before God brings his judgment. And God doesn't change. And this nation would be a nation that would call the Lord their God. Out of all the nations in the world, I would say the United States of America has probably the biggest or best nation at serving the Lord historically. But when God's people are doing all of these things and we see what he did to the nation previously, to the nation that called the Lord their God, And when all this stuff happens, guess what? Judgment's coming. It's coming. And people ought to hear and fear. Because then when you fear, you could actually get right with God. But you know what? They rejoice to do evil. Verse 16, the Lord called thy name, a green olive tree, fair and of goodly fruit. With the noise of a great tumult, he hath kindled fire upon it. and the branches of it are broken. And I'm not gonna get into all of this right now. I just, it's kind of an interesting picture being represented here. which I would say in the New Testament is showing the branches being broken off of the natural tree with the others being grafted in, which is the people who are not naturally of the nation of Israel and God then replacing that nation from being the nation that was going to bring forth his word and then moving on to other people. I'll let you study that out and think about that all on your own later on, just throwing out there how similar that is to what we see in the New Testament after all of this stuff that they're doing and just completely forsaking God's covenant and being rebellious and stubborn and disobedient. Verse number 17. For the Lord of hosts that planted thee hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger, and offering incense unto Baal. And the Lord hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it. Then thou showest me their doings. But I was like a lamb, or an ox that is brought to the slaughter. And I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered. And you can't help but think as a prophecy of Jesus Christ because of Isaiah 53. And in fact, if you want to turn to Isaiah 53 real quick, we'll look at that, at the similar wording being used here in Jeremiah 11, 19, as what we see in Isaiah 53. But it makes sense that the judgment of God, wanting to cut them off, comes at the same time that they would cut the son of God off and cut him down, right? When that's in their heart, when they hate God so much that they're out to destroy the son of God, like they did in the New Testament, that God is there at the same time saying, no, you're getting cut off. I'm taking you away. Isaiah 53, look at verse number five. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb. So he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people was he stricken. And you know, that's a whole sermon itself, just in those four verses, Isaiah, great prophecy of Jesus Christ to come. But The similarity in the wording there, I think, is worthy of review and looking at, considering everything that's happening, considering the state of the people, how much they're into other things than godly things, right? I mean, even the Pharisees were these children of the devil that Jesus called out in Matthew 23. He's like, you know, How, you know, how can you escape the damnation of hell? You know, you, you, you serpents and vipers and children of the devil, and they hated the things of God so much. They hated the son of God and crucified him. But obviously it was all part of God's plan. But we see now a similar thing with the state of, of Israel and Jeremiah's day and the message that's being brought forth. But, um, You know, there, and let's look at Jeremiah 11, 19 again. But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter. And I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered. I think that very easily describes the thought of the people that were trying to cut off Jesus Christ out of the land of the living. And they didn't, cause they hated the fact that he even had a following. They hated the fact that he had, you know, like all of this movement going on and they just wanted him to be gone and destroyed and just no one ever talk about him again. Right? I mean, even that's what Satan wanted. And the Bible talks about Revelation when, you know, the woman gives birth and the dragon was there trying to devour the child as soon as it was born. But, well, that's a whole nother, we're not gonna, don't worry, we're not gonna turn into that and go that way tonight. But it's the spirit of Antichrist, it's the spirit of the devil. It's Baal, and they were worshiping Baal. I mean, that is what you get when you just go after the devil. But just keep this in mind, though, we know Bale is the devil, and Bale is the devil, and the devil is bad, obviously. Don't have to teach that, but be mindful that the devil isn't always gonna look like the red guy with horns and a pitchfork. It's not always so obvious. It's the subtlety. It's gonna look a lot like it did here. It could look a lot like the true religion. It could look a lot like you're serving the Lord. They could have altars. They could use the same feast days even. They could have a lot of the same things that they're doing to make it look like real similar. But then they've perverted it, and they've perverted it enough to just be a wicked as hell. And they set up these other altars, and they're like, oh yeah, this is just, I mean, going all the way back to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, right, what did he do? Oh, we're not gonna go down to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. You don't have to go all the way down there, because he's worried about losing his power and losing the kingdom and everything else. So he's like, he has set up these idols, and oh, you're gonna worship the Lord here. And I gave you two options. And he sets up idols. And that's what gets wrong. But what is he saying? Worship the Lord. But that's not the Lord. That's idolatry. And he sets up the lowest of the people to be the priests and stuff because the Levites are all getting out of there going, we don't want any part of this. Because that's not where we worship the Lord. Anyways. Let's go back to Jeremiah 11. We're almost done here. Verse number 20. But O Lord of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them, for unto thee have I revealed my cause. Therefore thus saith the Lord of the men of Anathoth, that seek thy life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the Lord, that thou die not by our hand. Before I continue any further, this ties into verses 18 and 19. Just like so many prophecies in the Old Testament especially do, you'll have the service application, like literally Jeremiah saying, hey, I was like a lamb or an ox. He's saying this stuff. Okay, we can look at this and see the application of how that applies to Jesus Christ. But don't forget, this is still Jeremiah saying like, hey, I was like this lamb, and they're devising devices against me. And this is pretty cool. And this is one of the reasons why I love the Bible studies. So if you notice here, when God's been instructing them and tell them to go and preach in Jerusalem and all this stuff, right? Let's go back to verse 17 again, or verse 18, excuse me. And the Lord hath given me knowledge of it. So God given Jeremiah, like the information, like the knowledge of what they're actually doing. In the idolatry we're showing you all this other stuff, all this wicked things they're doing, like God gave him that knowledge. He says, and I know it. Then thou showest me their doings. He says, but I was like a lamb or an ox is brought before. So he's like, I didn't know anything. I didn't know the devising devices against me saying, let us destroy him. You know, like, like they're, they're seeking evil against Jeremiah. And he's like, he, he doesn't know it. And then it says this. But O Lord of hosts, and again, there's the duality here with Jesus, but also with what's happening in Jeremiah. You know, let me see my vengeance on them for unto thee have I revealed my cause. And then verse 21, therefore, thus saith the Lord of the men of Anathoth that seek thy life. Who's he talking to? He's talking to Jeremiah, right? Thus saith the Lord of the men of Anathoth that seek thy life saying, prophesy not in the name of the Lord that thou die not by our hand. So the men of Anathoth were saying to Jeremiah, don't prophesy in the name of the Lord or else we'll kill you. Right? Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, behold, I will punish them. The young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine, and there shall be no remnant of them, for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth even the year of their visitation. Multiple things going on here. One, look at how God protects his guy, his servant, his minister, right? Jeremiah's being faithful. People want to kill him. God says, yeah, you know what? I'm going to bring vengeance on them. I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen. I'm going to stop them, and this is what's going to happen. Two, and this is pretty heavy too, Anathoth. Why is he just bringing up Anathoth now? Anathoth isn't found a whole lot in the Bible. It's definitely there. It's referenced. It's a city in Benjamin. Okay, it's a suburb of Benjamin, and if you go back to where they were divvying up the land, Anathoth was one of the cities that was given to the Levites. as one of their places to stay. Remember, they carved out all the land and then all the tribes were giving out certain cities for the Levites to dwell in because they were supposed to be doing the service of the Lord. And they didn't have an inheritance, so they all kind of had to give them places where they could stay. Anathoth was one of those cities, okay? It's a suburb of Benjamin, it was for the Levites. Go back to Jeremiah chapter one, verse number one. The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin. That's his hometown. Jeremiah is of the priests in Anathoth. They wanted to kill him. They were plotting against him. These are his people. These are the Levites, these are priests that are living in Anathoth, that are commanding him not to preach in the name of the Lord, or they'll kill him. Now, I say that, consider the boldness of Jeremiah to continue. And whenever you go through hard times and you think that, oh man, but my family might get really, look, Father could be divided against the children, the children against the father, the mother-in-law against the daughter-in-law, the daughter against the mother-in-law. There's gonna be a lot of families getting split over the word of God and over the Bible, right? And people that make the stand on the word of God, even people that might be really close to you, people you've known a long time. But look at how sharply it came down on Jeremiah. You know, we get upset when people just don't talk to you anymore, right? You know, some family or friends or whatever will separate from you because they don't like now that you're believing the word of God. But it wasn't even just that they separate from, they didn't like him. They're threatening to kill him if he keeps on saying what he's saying. They're threatening to kill him. People have his own place, his own city. So, thank God for Jeremiah. Thank God for using Jeremiah. I think this is one of the reasons why he chose Jeremiah to be the vessel to give his word, because he knew his heart. He knew he would still go through with it in spite of his own personal threats. And I preached on strong leadership on Sunday. Jeremiah, good example. Someone who's willing to just say, okay, maybe if they're come for me, he's saying like, I didn't even know. God showed me that this was happening. He's like, wow. But you know what God does? He says, I got you, right? I got your back. I'm gonna protect you. I am gonna bring my vengeance on them. And the people that are seeking evil, you know, so like when God made the promise to Abraham, hey, I'm gonna bless them that bless thee and curse him that curses thee. He was talking to Abraham because Abraham was a man of God. And that literally played out in Abraham's life. He wasn't giving that promise to every single possible descendant that would ever come out of the loins of Abraham. Because Ishmael came out of the loins of Abraham. How about that? Think about that for a while, right? No. It's the, him, personally. when Abraham was wandering about, and he's just going off of the word of the Lord, whatever God said to go is where he's going, and he's going into strange lands, and he's going to Shechem, and he's going to other places, and he doesn't know what they're gonna do. I don't know. I got a beautiful wife. I don't know what they're gonna try to do. Well, God was looking out for him, and God was protecting him, and God was making sure no one was gonna do anything to him. And similar to what I was preaching on Sunday, hey, if you're going to do what's right, you're going to make a stand for the Lord. You're going to preach his word. You're going to stand boldly and do that. At that point, you know, you could say whatever happens is the will of the Lord. And I'm not going to be fearful. Now, no matter what happens, I just won't be fearful. You think about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, God could very well have decided to not intervene and let them die in that burning fiery furnace. But they had a strong testimony either way. And they knew that that was a possibility, but they trusted, hey, God's able to save us even from that. So we're not gonna fear you. We're definitely not gonna bow down because you're trying to threaten us. We're just gonna say no. No, we believe in the Lord and we are not gonna bow down to any idol. no matter what you threaten me with, and Jeremiah is saying, I don't care how you threaten me, don't preach the word of the Lord here, we're gonna kill you, like, I don't care what you say. I'm gonna preach the word of the Lord. Do what you gotta do. Nehemiah, I mean, this is why we get to read about these people and God chooses these people because they're willing, they're in it, their heart's in it. And I pray that everyone here, that all of us, our heart is in it and that we will stand and we'll stand firm and don't fear no matter how dark things get, no matter how, if we ever see laws, if we ever see real, true persecution against believers. And I mean, like if it really does start to ramp up in our lifetime, it's going to ramp up before Jesus comes back, absolutely 100%. How much so in our lifetime? Don't know. Don't fear. Don't be afraid of it. You keep doing what's right because God will protect you through it all.