I've mentioned that our family enjoys... With our family devotions, we do family devotions twice a day. We have devotions in the morning where we read the Bible. Together right now, we're reading the book of Luke and praying together. And then in the evenings, we listen to an audiobook and so listen to a lot of different missionary biographies and things. They actually are ones that I would recommend to you, adults and kids alike. because they're excellent, and they're great to hear how God has worked. I mean, nowadays you can get books, and that's what they are. This is a book, Darling Diver Rose, entitled Evidence Not Seen. And I mentioned she was a missionary in Papua New Guinea, and the war took place with Japan in World War II, and she was taken as a prisoner of war. She and her husband in separate camps. I mentioned already, her husband died. And she's gone through great hardship in the four and a half years that they were in prison. But at the point that we are in the story, Japan has surrendered. In fact, I think it took several months, actually, after Japan surrendered for them to release them. They were some of the last. that were released. But anyway, as that took place, what it was was the Potsdam Declaration. On July 26, 1945, the United States and the Allies sat down. And so it was the British Empire, China, and the United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces and the alternative being prompt and utter destruction. And if ever Hirohito sat on that opportunity to come to terms of surrender, he sat on it. And what happened on August 6, 1945 at 8.15 in the morning, the United States detonated an atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. 16 hours later, American President Harry S. Truman called again for Japan's surrender, warning them to expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth. And again, he could have come to the terms of surrender, but he didn't. And so on August 9, 1945, the second atomic bomb fell on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. On the 15th of August, Hirohito gave a recorded address announcing the surrender of Japan to the Allies, accepting the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. You know, war is horrible. On either side, the war is awful. There are millions of men and women that died in World War II. But I rejoice today that because of the terms of surrender were agreed upon, that there is peace today with Japan. There's peace today with the other military powers on that side, the Allies, that there is a major peace established by coming to sign the terms of surrender. Did you know that man, before he's reconciled to God, is a sworn enemy of God. A lot of women speak in Sunday school about self-righteousness. A lot of self-righteous people, they think, I'm on God's side. In reality, they are not on God's side. Religion does not make somebody on the side of God. A belief in God doesn't put somebody on the side of God. A belief in the cross and the crucifixion of Jesus doesn't put anybody on the side of God. They are against God until they sign the terms of surrender that God has set down. in his word. They're the enemies of God. James speaks about it in James 4 verse 4. It says, The adulterer and adulterer says, Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. And at some point in our life, we've got to come to the conviction that God is right. Man has to come to the point of waving the white flag. I guess that actually is quite an old thing. It used to be they'd raise their shields and surrender. But as early as 109 AD, a historian says that in the Roman Empire, they began to do that white flag. And we have to, at some point, raise that white flag to God and say, God, it is unconditional, except for your conditions, surrender on my part, I yield. And as I preach this message this morning, I want a believer and unbeliever to think about it alike. Whether you're saved or whether you're unsaved, God still is the one that is setting the rules. He's still the one saying, this is what it is. has to be done, that we have to, in our heart, come to a point of saying, God, I agree with that. And so we see it pictured in this story, in the stories of Judah, the tribe of Judah, King Zedekiah, and a full prophet, Jeremiah. that is proclaiming to the Kingdom of Judah, God has sent the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, God has sent them in judgment upon this nation and upon this city. Jerusalem is not going to be kept. Jerusalem is going to fall. Your only hope is to accept the terms that God gives, and that is to lay down your arms, walk out to the King of Babylon, and surrender. And if you don't, you're going to be destroyed. And God gives them that message through the prophet Jeremiah. And with that little bit of historical background, let's ask God today, help us to surrender to God. We must be surrendered to God, and so have we come to terms with Him. Let's pray and ask God to bless. Father, I praise you for the grace that you give. I thank you for the help that you give. I thank you, Lord, that we get a look at this story. And Father, I pray, may you be glorified in our hearts. Father, if everybody in this room surrendered today, if everybody today said, I'm done fighting God. I'm done being against God. There's something God wants me to do. I've refused to do it. By the grace of God, I'm laying down my arms of resistance. And finally what a blessed status would be. Everybody would be saved. Everybody would be baptized. Everybody would be surrendered to ministry. Everybody would be evangelistic. Everybody would have their devotions. Everybody would turn off their telly and get rid of filth and be holy and be pure and we would be glorifying God. And so I pray, Father, that the Spirit of God would help us as we come to the Word of God today. Father, give us grace to see the truth as set forth so clearly in this story about what you expect when it comes to surrender. Thank you for your help now. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. To come to terms with God for surrender, you must sincerely seek God's terms. There has to be in the heart of man a real desire to go to God and say, OK, God, let me know what it's about. And that's why last week we talked about that idea. If you seek me, you shall find me. If you search with all your heart, that there is an idea that if I'll say to God, God, have your way, just show me your way. That God is going to do that. That God wants to do that. In times of war, opposing sides sit down at the negotiating table. If they don't sit down, there will be no peace. I mean, it'll never work out. There has to be that coming together and meeting together. You know, I often speak with people that admit they're going to go to hell. But they're not at the negotiating table. They're not in the Bible. They're not in a good church. They're not seeking God. There's no sense of coming to God. They're just against God on going to hell. If somebody wants to come to terms, they've got to sincerely seek the terms and come to the table and seek God. Isaiah 118, God said, come now and let us reason together, said the Lord. Though your sins be as carbon, they shall be as white as stone. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as gold. And it's God reaching out and saying, hey, I want to meet with you. I want to help you. I want to be a blessing to you. Let's just sit down right here and let's talk about it. God is more than desirous today with all of us that whatever in our lives is against God, God would desire us to deal with that and He wants to help us deal with it. And so we need to sincerely seek God's terms. How do I do that? Well, seek them from a man of God. Verse 14 says, Then Zedekiah the king sent and took Jeremiah the prophet. Jeremiah was in prison. and brought him unto him into the third entry that's in that house of the Lord. Now let me point out at the beginning that Zedekiah is a bad example of what we're going to talk about. But there's some things that he does right. I mean, it is right that he is seeking answers from a man of God. He is going to exactly the right place to get a message from God. Last week, we looked at, and that's the story of the Ethiopian man, Epiphilo. And that man seeking God, what did God do? God brought him to the man of God. Why? So that man of God could sit down with him and say, these are the terms. This is what it is. It's Christ and Christ crucified and risen again. And by faith in Him, you can be forgiven of your sin. He preached unto him, Jesus, and the man got saved. Why? Because the man of God came to him. Cornelius, he's seeking God. He's a sincere man. He's come to the table. He desires righteousness. He desires God to be glorified in his house. And God says, send for Peter. Send for the man of God. He sends. Peter comes. And Peter, again, preaches unto them Jesus. And in this case, Cornelius has his family there. Cornelius has his friends there. And they come to terms of peace with God. Paul, in the Macedonian vision that he had, God brought Paul and his group to Lydia and others in the city of Macedonia, Acts 16, 10. And after he had seen the vision, immediately he endeavored to go into Macedonia and assured the gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. And God again, He brings the man of God, and they go to the waterfront there, and lay this there, and other people are sincerely seeking terms with God, and they preach Jesus, and they get saved, and they're baptized. God brings the man of God. You know, I'll preach this right now. Sometimes I need to preach a little bit beyond the audience that God's given us here in the hope that there's others that are listening in on Sunday morning to messages that we preach online. But it would be something like this. There are people that are uncomfortable coming to church. They're uncomfortable sitting in the house of God. They're uncomfortable maybe in a Baptist church, maybe with an American pastor, maybe with an authoritarian teaching of the truth of the word of God. And I would say this to them in regard to terms of peace with God, no matter how uncomfortable you are, no matter how hard it is for you to hold your heart and go to the man of God and say, I need to understand God's truth, that it would be in the best interest of that person to seek out the man of God. Why? So that they could come to the terms that God has. Sincerely, see. You know, if you're, like, Nick Dean was. And I mentioned last week William Wilberforce got saved, but that he went to John Newton in secret because the dissenters were despised. This man was an MP. Listen, our modern Christianity, biblical Christianity, is as despised as it has always been. But men that understand that that's where the truth is still ought to go and seek it out. Just like Nicodemus, if need be, go by night, but somehow go and seek the truth. Seek them from the man of God. Seek them in their entirety. And the king said unto Jeremiah, I will ask thee a thing, hide nothing from me. That's good. I mean, again, Zedekiah's getting it. I mean, and by the way, with regard to Jeremiah, Jeremiah always spoke forth the Word of God. That's why he's in prison, out of prison, in prison, out of prison, in prison, out of prison. Read the book of Jeremiah and be amazed at how many times this man finds himself again behind bars or in pit prison. He says, tell me the truth. Hide nothing from me. You know, do you want the truth in its entirety this morning? Is it your hope in coming and sitting in church that you just desire God to open His Word? Or are you like a lot of people today that have itching ears, that desire a pastor to reach out and tickle their ears and make them feel good about their sin, and make them feel good about their unbelief, and make them feel good about the fact that everybody's on the same path to the same God, to the same heaven, regardless of religion? Or do you want today a man of God to stand up with the Word of God and to say, Thus saith the Lord? See, Jeremiah's day was kind of the same. Jeremiah's a right prophet. He's preaching truth. You know what? There were hundreds of other men preaching falsehood. There are other men saying, ah, don't listen to Jeremiah. And they would act things out a lot of times, the prophets would. And Jeremiah had a wooden yoke on his neck. And this false prophet came up, and he breaks it. And God says, go get a yoke of iron, because that's Babylon. It represented Babylon. And they say, ah, Babylon's not coming. And Jeremiah asks the question, when Babylon does come, where are those false prophets now? Jeremiah 23, 16, and following verses. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you. They make you vain. They speak a vision of their own heart and not of the mouth of the Lord. I have heard what the prophets say, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed thy dream. How long shall this be? In the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies, Yea, they are prophets of deceit of their own heart. Verse 30. Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words, every one from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongue and say, he said. But I'm against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord. And you tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies and by their likeness. Yet I sent them not. nor commanded them, therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord." By their lies and their lightness, does that not represent the modern church? Hey, it's all a party, it's all just a good time. God doesn't really care. God isn't an angry God. God thinks it's okay. Right? Their lies and their lightness. And we have a world that is this voice. You know, if you say that God said it, I believe you. If it's false, then I like it. But if you say, God said it, and I don't like it, I don't believe it. And I certainly don't believe in the absolute authority of this book. And what are ungodly false teachers have done? Somebody's starting to devour this book like, oh man, God hates sin, God is against sin, God is serious about hell, God is serious about the crucifixion of Christ, about Jesus' day, that he's the only way. They're starting to eat the word of God, and these ungodly false prophets come and yank it out of their mouth. And God's upset. I mean, you look at what's taking place there, in this story, and what could have been. Babylon, if I'm not mistaken, would have been destroyed, never to rise again. Do you know Babylon is in the Word of God, straight through to Revelation? Why? It goes back to this story, and what's taking place here. If you want to sincerely come to God's terms, you've got to sit down at the table and you've got to desire truth. You've got to have the appetite for it. And say, as confident as it is for me to stomach that, I'm going to stomach that, because that's what I need. I need to understand, I need to know God's terms. Seek them without animosity. Verse 15, Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death? If I tell you the truth, you're going to kill me. I mean, you've already put me in prison, out of prison, in prison, out of prison. If I tell you the truth, you're going to kill me. My parents in their garage, when I was growing up, there was a sign. My dad is a gifted pianist. My mom plays piano as well. She's also very good. And the sign was, don't shoot the piano player. They're doing the best they can. All right? And I imagine it was a saloon sign out west or somewhere. You have six guns. And they're doing their best, right? Hey, listen, don't shoot the messenger of God. He's telling the message of God. See, he's telling forth the Word of God. What is it about our world that is so foolish as to take men that declare the truth of the Word of God and treat them as if they are the enemy? when all they are is the mouthpiece of God speaking forth the truth about God. Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 37, 18, unto Zedekiah, What if I offended against thee, or against thy servants, or against this people that ye have put me in prison? Have I hurt you somehow? Have I harmed you somehow? Have I done anything that has caused a problem for you in reality? All I've done is say that God said this is going to happen, and it has happened just like God said. Have I offended you? Elijah, remember Elijah? I mean, Mount Carmel, fire from heaven comes down. Do you think that the world would stop, look, and listen, and say, you know, I think God's got his back? But Jezebel, as they killed the prophets, she sends out a death threat against the man of God, and said, so let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. It's saying, why do your life's worthless? Why? Because he's a messenger for God. He spoke forth the truth of God, and she didn't like him. So what? You're my enemy. For what? For what? Because I stand with the Holy God and I warn the nation and I say repent because judgment is coming. You gotta get right with God and you hate me for that. That's what Paul said in Galatians 4.16. Am I therefore become your enemy? Because I tell you the truth. Does it really bother your heart this morning that a man of God would stand up with the truth of the Word of God and say to you compassionately and forcefully, look, you've got to get right with God? Are they your enemy? Because they say that? See, if you want to come to God's term, you've got to sincerely state, not with animosity, Not with animosity, not with that idea that if I don't like them, I hate them, I despise them. It's what we talked about in Sunday school, about self-righteous religion. You speak the truth to them in love in their contentions. Why? Because they don't like the message, so they hate the messenger. Seek it sincerely. And seek them to fully obey them. Seek them to fully obey them. It says, and if I give thee counsel, Will thou not hearken unto me? Alright, now two things he said. One, if I tell you the truth, you're going to kill me. And if I tell you, are you really going to obey? Is it really going to be boots on the ground, rubber meet the road? Is it really going to be traction? Is it really going to be what David said, I think we mentioned last week, I will run the way by condemnation without shutting large my heart? Are you going to obey? Listen to what Zedekiah says, he only goes halfway. Verse 16. So Zedekiah the king swears secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, As the Lord liveth that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy land. Jeremiah, I'll spare you. I promise I'm not going to kill you. But notice, he does not say, Jeremiah, whatever God says to do, that is what I am going to do. Are you prepared to go all the way with God? Let me ask you this. If you knew the future, would it change your present? If you knew what would be, would you be wise enough to say, hey, if that's the truth, and that's what God has done, then by God's grace right now, it's going to change my life. Because that's true. See, Zedekiah is going to get a boatload of truth. And he's going to know the future. What impact does it have on our life? The King of Babylon, by the way, is kind of an interesting story. So on one hand, Babylon is God's judgment against Judah. But on the other hand, and realize contemporary, we have Babylon and prophets going into Babylon like Daniel, three Hebrew children, other prophets, Jeremiah becomes a prophet to Babylon as well. But Babylon had an opportunity actually to, in a sense, honor God, and God would bless them, in a sense, for those 70 years that they're over Israel. And you read the stories, read the book of Daniel, and you'll see what's happening in that kingdom. And you get to Daniel chapter 4, and King Nebuchadnezzar is told by Daniel about a dream that the dream means that he's going to become like an ox and he's going to eat grass and his hair is going to grow and he's going to have eagle's claws and for seven years the dew of the earth is going to fall on him and he's going to be a wild man, a man on his mind. And Daniel says to him, He said, break off thy sins by righteousness, and thy iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility. He said, King, please, please, I've told you what God said, yield. And the Bible says that the king spake and said, is not this great Babylon, verse 30, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty? The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar And he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen. And his body was wet with the dew of heaven, so the hairs were grown like eagle's feathers, and his nail like bird's claws. And at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked with mine eyes into heaven, and my understanding returned unto me. And I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation." These stories are not fairy stories. That's an amazing story. Seven years, the man was out of his mind because God judged him. It's not a fairy story. It is a true story from the Word of God showing us that I don't deal with what God chose me in His Word, that there's consequences to my indecision. Are you wholly following the Lord based upon what you know? Listen, we know about the Tribulation. It's coming. We know about hell. It's coming. We know about the great white throne judgment where God is going to stand in judgment upon mankind for every idle word that they have spoken, every deed that they have ever done. They're going to give an account. We know about heaven and hell. We know about the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Has that knowledge change you. And if today, as we speak about the terms of God, sincerely seek the terms of God, come with a desire to say to God, hey God, if you reveal to me anything, by the grace of God I'll do it. No matter what it is, no matter how hard it is for me to humble myself. Listen, pride is taking a lot of people to hell. Pride is also keeping a lot of people in disobedience to God when they should be in obedience to God. And so, you must sincerely seek the terms. And then secondly, you cannot negotiate the terms. Romans chapter 9 verse 20 says this, Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Think about the pride of the heart of man. Why hast thou? God, why hast thou? Hey, listen, I have no right to say to God, why hast thou? I may not understand, I may not get it, but one thing I know, God is love, God is gracious, God is good, and God is in control, and God's way is best, and I am what I am by the grace of God, and when I look in the mirror, I don't need to be somebody else, I don't need to be a different gender, I don't need to be a different skill level, I don't need anything else because I am what I am by God's grace. And so I cannot say to God, God, why? Why hast thou? God is all-knowing, and when it comes to what God is doing, especially in terms of what we're speaking about, surrender, it's non-negotiable. It's not something that I dictate to God and I say, God, here's the terms. God says to me, here's the terms. And I sit at that table with God. It's not to come and dicker with God. It's not to come and make an exception with God. It's not to do anything except to look at it and say, what are the terms that God gives me for surrender? What are his terms? And so let's begin with, you can't negotiate the terms of God's blessing. Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts. the God of Israel. Notice how he prefaces what he's going to say. Thus says Jehovah, thus says the King of the armies of heaven, the Lord of hosts. Thus saith the God of Israel, the God that is of theocracy, the God that is over this people, thus saith that God. God's blessing is conditional, King, upon obedience. The phrase says, if thou would assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes. If. If. See, God had sent the king of Babylon. The king of Babylon would be victorious, irregardless of anything that Zedekiah and his men could think of. They're thinking strategy. They're thinking, how can we defeat this? And they're thinking logically. And a lot of people think this about heaven, too. And they think this about hell. I can somehow get out of it. I can somehow avoid it. I can somehow get away from it. And God says, not so. God says, if you go forth. It's conditional upon your obedience, if. And so, God said, in Jeremiah chapter 37 verse 9, Thus saith the Lord, Deceive not yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us, for they shall not depart. For though ye had sent in the whole army of the Chaldeans to fight against you, there remained but wounded men among them. Yet they should rise up, every man in his tent, and burn the city with fire." Very picturesque. Say, O King Zedekiah, you went out, you mustered a troop, you fought, and you wounded every single soldier among them. They would rise up in their tents, and they would burn the city with fire. Why? Because God is behind them. Notice in Revelation, mankind is so rebellious against God that when they know it's God, they blaspheme God, and then they marshal the armies. And this is ridiculous to me, that the armies of the earth, led by Satan, are going to go fight against the Lord Jesus Christ, thinking in their heads, as they must, somehow we're going to win this battle, and they're going to lose. And you can think in your heart today, there must be some other way. I don't really have to surrender. I can figure it out. But listen, God says the blessing is contingent upon your obedience. You'll never blame God if you go to hell. Why? Because if you had obeyed, you could have had God's blessing. You ought to surrender. And then secondly, God's blessing is consequential after obedience. If, then it says, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire, and thou shalt live in thy house. See, the blessing wouldn't come until they obey. As soon as Zedekiah went out and surrendered, okay, and he gets over here, king of Babylon, I surrender. Then his soul lives. I don't know what measure of freedom he would have had, but he would have had a good measure of freedom that God would have allowed. The city would have been spared. It wouldn't have been destroyed. All the blessing conditional upon obedience. But once obedience took place, then consequentially, the blessing would come. You might be here today and you think, but I want the blessing. I want the blessing. Well, it's consequential to obedience. You might feel today like, I'm really burdened. If God would just take this burden away, of course I'd believe in God. If God would just take this problem out of my life, of course I'd believe in God. God, take it away, and then... No. See, in God's mercy, let me say this. If God leaves that burden, it's God's mercy to leave that burden until you come to a place of obedience. Why? Because Pharaoh had the burden taken away. What did he do? Pharaoh, oh God, I'm burdened. Oh, okay, okay, I'll come to terms with you. God takes the burden away, he hardens his heart. Then burden comes. Oh God, if you'll take it away, if you'll take it away, I'll yield. And as soon as God takes it away, he hardens his heart. And you might be here today and say, what? Hey, God's being really mean to me, I just feel so burdened. I know how to obey God, but God is against me. No, look, God is for you. Why? Because that burden's what's gonna take you to God. How many people have gotten saved that also began to be crushed by the load of their sin, and to realize how depraved they were in the sight of a holy God, and the fact that their damnation, the fact of everything they were, was against God? But as that burden pushed down on them, it took them to God, and consequentially, after they obeyed God, they stepped into a blessing of God. That's where it's at. But it doesn't come. You're not going to taste and see that the Lord is good until you accept God's terms and pass over to the point of His blessing. You can't negotiate it. And then, you can't negotiate the terms of God's judgment. There's only one choice which is right. Verse 18. But it will not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes. How many choices does Zedekiah have? One. Zedekiah, it's your choice, okay, it is your choice, but there's one right choice. How many choices does man have with regard to God? One right choice. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Listen, it's not Islam. It's not the Kingdom Hall. It's not Mormonism. It's not self-righteous Catholicism. It is Christ and Christ alone. It's not baptism. It's not church membership. Christ. You know, you don't have, today, a lot of choices. If you don't accept Christ, you reject Christ, and you're in disobedience to God. God's way is the only way that is right. I was listening to an interesting Sky News conversation with the leader of UKIP. I don't even know his name. I knew Nigel Farage, his name, who he is. But this is their new guy, and their party is so shrunk. It was very interesting. He spoke at a rally where he said about Islam that the ideology of Islam allows for perverse slavery, is what he said. And it's a very interesting discussion. It's actually a black woman, and I have no idea if she's a Muslim or not, that's interviewing him. And she's trying to deal with him with regard to racism and that sort of thing. It's very interesting because he is actually very cool and she is very upset. But he said this at the end, because she said, what about the Catholic Church? Why aren't you against the Catholic Church? And what he pointed out was the Catholic Church, in their ideology, does not condone sexual perversion, where Islam does. It was a great statement. But what he said that concerned me was this. He is against totalitarian ideology. Why does that concern me? Because it's like saying I'm against anything that claims absolute authority, like this book. God alone has that. He does possess that. And it is the authority of this book. If you don't agree with that, if you have a problem with totalitarian truth, and I don't know that he does with regard to Christianity. I don't want to misquote him. It was in the context of what he was talking about. But it's this. If you don't believe in absolute truth, you cannot get saved. Because you don't believe those are the only terms of surrender. You don't really believe it's disobedience to sit them down. And let me say this, when you reject it, there is collateral damage. Just like in this story. See, our disobedience to God doesn't just affect us. What's that word of God say? You reject it, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape of their hand. See, others were disobedient. Let me say that about Zedekiah. It's not just him. He surrounded himself with a bunch of people that are hard-hearted against God. They're the guys, also, that keep putting Jeremiah in prison and keep rejecting the word of the Lord. It's not just Zedekiah, OK? But Zedekiah as king, he could have led it in obedience to God. See, he could have taken a stand as leader of Judah and said, we are going to surrender. Because I believe God. Because He did it. That city is going to be destroyed, and it's going to be burned with fire. Collateral damage. You know, I want to just speak to you real quick about this idea. If you don't obey God, and you refuse to yield to God, that your disobedience against God affects others. See, what about your family? What about your friends? What about your neighbors? What about others that look up to you, that the decisions that you make impact them? There's collateral damage. Listen, you ought to feel the sincerity with which this is said. You'll have impact on people in hell if you disobey God. There's collateral damage to not accepting God's terms. And so you can't negotiate that. You've just got to accept what God says. You know what? Third, you're not going to receive popular terms from God. See, with Brexit, everyone wants the best slice of the pie. And if you've been following the Brexit debate at all, and you see all the different Discussions take place, Europe, Britain, labor, and Tories, and all the discussions take place. Everyone wants the best, and they want something popular. Theresa May would love to come back and say, we've got this, and she'd love it if it was popular. I hope she's interested in the best for our nation. I really do. But aside from that, there are many politicians, they don't really care about what's best for the nation. They care about what's popular. They care about what people say. That's Zedekiah. Zedekiah doesn't care about the nation. Zedekiah isn't in his heart thinking, oh, what will happen if this? All he's concerned about is the fear of being a respected person. What are they going to say about him if he accepts God's terms? Verse 19. Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I'm afraid of the Jews that are following to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their camp, and they mock me. Zedekiah, what about the city being burned with fire? Zedekiah, what about the collateral damage of what's going to take place in your disobedience? I'm afraid about those Jews. They're in the camp of the Babylonians. I'm going to come out there. If I surrender, they're going to mock me. See, I'll just let it be known, and I think everyone here understands this, this isn't a popular book. It's not a popular message. It's not something that I will ever be able to walk down the streets of Longhead unless, and I'll talk about that in just a second, something takes place. But unless something takes place, I cannot walk down the streets of this city with this book held up and saying it is the absolute authority of the Word of God, Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Light, and the Man coming down from the Father by my hand, that hell is real, heaven is real, God wants you to get saved, and it's not going to be popular. I'm going to be mocked. I'm going to be cursed. People are going to think I'm a fool. Because I stand with this book. Why? Because this message, God's terms, will never, will never be something that the world accepts. Will never be something that the world agrees to. But listen, is it worth going to hell because it's not popular? The fear of man brings the snare. Proverbs 29.25. The fear of man brings the sin. See, again, I'll say this, there's people not in this church today because they're scared to come back to church. There's people not here because they're scared of authority and a message from the Word of God. There's people not in heaven because they cared more about what so-and-so would say if they ever humbled their heart, walked into that Baptist church, accepted Christ, and were biblically baptized, not christened, not doing something unbiblical that the world accepts, and the world adores, and the world bows down to you and says, hey, that's great, they got christened. Who cares? It's fake. It's fake. Biblical baptism by immersion that we saw last week, that's real. And that's humbling. And it's not popular, but that's what God expects. Francis Crosby said in the song, tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. And I want to stop right there, and I don't need to go through the rest of the song. You might know the song. Sweetest that ever was heard. And you say, Pastor, you said it wasn't popular. It's not popular with the world, but it's popular with believers. When you get saved, all of a sudden it's popular, it's the best terms in the world, and you bow your face before God and say, oh God, I didn't understand before I got saved. Those are great terms. Praise your name. To think that your son, Jesus, died for me. That he paid the price for my sin. That by faith in him, I could have God's gift of everlasting life. God, that is the best, most wonderful plan I have ever heard in my life. But before he got saved, it's the foolish, most stupidest thing that you could ever think of. Why? Because what God says is not popular. You have every reason to trust God's terms. Verse 20, but Jeremiah said, they shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord, which I speak unto thee, so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live. And he's just saying to them, look, it's good. I promise it's good. I promise. God promise. That story about the prisoner of war camp and Darlene Duggar Rose, at the end of the war, the Allies did a food drop for them. They needed some things. And so they planned an area where it would be dropped, and planes would fly over Lowell, and they'd release those canisters of food. Well, when that happened, They had let people know, but they had forgotten about the little kids. And when the little kids saw those planes coming in low, one in particular, one child, and saw that food drop, it terrified them. And there was one canister that the lid didn't pop off of. Most of them didn't pop off of, and contents came out. One had not. And this little boy's mom, running out there to that canister, going to open it up. And he's screaming, and he's crying, and he's, mommy, mommy, no, no, it hasn't exploded yet. And he's panicking. And they didn't like that. Because this kid had seen more. They comforted him. They come to him and say, no, no, it's okay, it's okay. They brought him some of the things that had come out of cancer. He said, no, it's good, it's good. We promise it's not a bomb. And when they brought him to faith, then they showed him. They turned him to trust. Listen, if there was a way today to plead with you and say, look, it's good, it's good. It's not going to hurt you. It's not awful. It's not the end of the world. It's not the stupidest thing in the world. It's the best thing in the world. We've got to trust God. We've got to come to terms with God and agree with God and say, listen, no matter what, I'm going to obey God. That's why Jeremiah wonderfully does. I mean, I love this verse. I thought I'd just preach on this verse. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord, so it shall be well with thee, and thy soul shall live. See, if you're here today, and you're refusing to obey God, you don't know what it's all about. You're still on the side of doubt and unbelief about God, and God's saying, it's there for you, and you're resisting God, and the judgment's coming, and the punishment is real. And God says, just come to my turn. Two more things really quickly. And the first is that you're making a decision when you reject God's terms. You're making a decision when you reject God's terms. It's not that, like somebody said, well, I won't make that decision to trust Christ today. It's that they've made a decision today to say no to God's terms. And that's Zedekiah, verse 21. But if thou refuse to go forth, This is the word that the Lord has shown me. See, if you refuse, you say God no. The Babylonian army comes, surrounds the city, the Bible says, in the 9th year of Zedekiah, King Judah. And they besieged it. And in the 11th year of Zedekiah, in the 4th month, the 9th day of the month, the city was broken up. For two and a half years, the Babylonians surrounded that city. For two and a half years, King Zedekiah looked out his window, and he saw that what Jeremiah said was true, and he could have thought to himself, look, I need to do something about this. But in two and a half years, when that took place, it was too late. See, hell is coming, death is coming, return of Christ is coming, and tribulation is coming. See, and today, the Spirit of God might be wrestling with somebody's heart and say, look, accept God's terms, accept God's terms, accept God's terms. But listen, there comes a day where it's too late. They're going to keep people in hell that thought and put it off for too long. Why do you tear it? Why do you wait? Why don't you run to Christ? Why don't you run to obey God? Why don't you run to please God? Zedekiah could have. But like Judas Iscariot, it was too late. Satan entered into him, and Jesus said, what thou doest do quickly? Refuse. And then lastly, you secure God's judgment by refusing the terms of His mercy. You secure God's judgment by refusing the terms of His mercy. Verse point two. He's told this. And behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah's house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes, and those women shall say to Mox and Caiaphas, thy friends have set thee on, and have prevailed against thee. Thy feet are sunk in the mire, and they are turned away back. So they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon, and thou shalt cause this city to be burned with fire. Whose fault? Zadkine. Thou shalt cause this city to be burned. So what happens? Chapter 39, verse 4. And it came to pass that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls, and he went out the way of the plain. But the Chaldeans army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to Riblah, in the land of Haman. where he gave judgment upon him. Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah and Riblah before his eyes. Also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah. Moreover, he put out Zedekiah's eyes and bound him with chains to carry him to Babylon and the Chalteans burned the king's house and the houses of the people with fire and break down the walls of Jerusalem. The last thing the eyes of Zedekiah saw as he went into blindness was his sons pleading for their lives. And if they knew to say it, they would have said, oh, daddy, daddy, why didn't you repent? But he didn't, and so they perished. When you think about it, the last thing people will see as they're cast into hell is the loving face of the Lord Jesus Christ. His hands, His death for them, what He did. And for all eternity, it's going to haunt them that they rejected the opportunity to obey the Gospel and come to terms of surrender. Just like Japan was against the Allies. And just like that king, or that Hirohito, he could have saved Nagasaki. He could have saved Hiroshima. But he refused to accept the terms of surrender. And just like that, we're against God today. And God in His mercy... I've emphasized the seriousness of our decision against God, but I want to emphasize the possibility of our loving acceptance of God. I'm speaking about what's going to take place, but let me speak about what could take place. You could get saved, you could get baptized, you could go on serving God, pleasing God, living a victorious life in obedience to God. And God offers that. And so, let's think about it real quick as we close here. Are you sincerely seeking those terms? Is it in your heart today, did you come to church with that heart, say, here God, anything you say, by the grace of God, I want to know what you want. Whatever it is, God, whatever the terms are, I agree with you, God, you're right. And I want to surrender. You can't negotiate. Don't come thinking, well, I'll take that, but I don't like that. I'll take that, but I don't like that. You've got to come and say, God, you set the terms. God's your way, not my way. They're not going to be popular terms. They're not going to be things that you think, well, the world doesn't like that. Why should I submit to that? Because, listen, the world doesn't like God's terms. And neither will you. You just got to accept the fact that you don't like it, but you're going to submit to it because God's right and you're wrong. And see the blessing that comes from obeying God. You can trust God's terms. Jeremiah would plead with you. Please, get saved. Get the blessing. Get in that obedience to God. And I emphasize again, you're making a decision right now. The Spirit of God is going to be in your heart. And you know in your heart, you're going to say no. You said no. Unless you're going to say yes. And so don't think, oh I'm not making a decision yet. You're making a decision. You're making a decision to put off the terms of God's mercy. You're making a decision to reject. The chance of you getting saved is slim because why would you do tomorrow what you won't do today? What does God have to do to convince your heart it's true? And you secure God's judgment when you refuse mercy. Let's bow our heads together this morning. Let me just ask a few questions as we have our heads down, okay? Let me ask this first. Is there anybody here that has not come to terms of surrender with God regarding salvation? Alright, you say, in my heart right now, the Spirit of God has convicted me. I haven't agreed with God about salvation. I've never accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. I've put Him off again and again and again. But I'm going to raise my hand as testimony that I'm going to surrender today. I'm going to let God have his way today. Is that you today? Does the Spirit of God speak in your heart about that? I want to give you the opportunity just to raise your hand and acknowledge that to me. As pastor, stand up here. I'm going to pray for you generically, not specifically. Anybody like that today that needs to get saved? The second question I want to ask this, have you ever been biblically baptized? If you've been saved and trusted Christ your Savior, God commands you to be baptized. He commands the church to baptize you. Go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature, baptizing them. If you haven't followed the Lord and believers, baptism, you're in disobedience to God. And God is holding out the terms of surrender to you today, saying, hey, why would you tarry? Why would you wait? I died naked on a cross for your sin and your shame. I was baptized in the hell of the cross for you. Why won't you be baptized in water for me? Let me ask you, if that's you today and the Spirit of God is speaking to your heart about it, would you just raise your hand and acknowledge that, that you'd like to be biblically baptized? We'd love to do that as a church. It's not a burden to us, it's a blessing. We'd love to see people going in obedience to God. Anybody here today, let me just ask a more generic statement, and that's this, okay? And I want to ask this because I think it's important for you to deal with God. Is there anything that the Spirit of God has put His finger on in your heart and your life that you have not surrendered to God? And the Spirit of God is speaking to your heart about dealing with that, whether sin or opportunity or whatever it is, that God's dealing with you about something regarding surrender. If that's you today, would you raise your hand? Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Father, I pray that the Spirit of God would give us grace to let you lead, let you guide, let you work in our hearts. Lord, there's no way to win over the will of man except by submission. Man has to surrender. You don't force surrender. Lord, you don't come to the table and say, you've got to surrender. The fact is, the consequences are there. It's either a blessing or a curse, depending on man's choice. I said before you today, a blessing or a curse. A blessing if you obey God, but a curse if you disobey God. Oh, you're not being mean, Lord. You're just telling us the result of our decision. We can have it today if we want it. And so I pray, Lord, have your way even as we stand and sing a hymn of surrender. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Let's stand and sing, I Surrender All, 390.