I'd like for you to turn to the book of Jeremiah, the 26th chapter of Jeremiah. There are some people that I've talked to I know that like criminal court cases. are they're intrigued with how court cases work out. I know Sister Helen has told me that and she likes that. I know, I remember talking to a few when, you remember the O.J. Simpson case? You remember when O.J. was in that white Bronco and the media was saying, run O.J., run? And I used to be a big fan of O.J. Simpson when he played for the Buffalo Bills. I didn't realize he had the lifestyle he did, and boy, that was kind of like, wow, it was kind of deflating. But if any of y'all remember that court scene, it was kind of intriguing watching that being televised and everything, and a lot of people were just glued to it. And as you think about that, what we find in chapter 26 of Jeremiah is actually a court case. And it's Jeremiah that's going to court. I'm going to kind of give you a bird's eye view at first, then we'll kind of go over the verses a little bit at a time. In verses 1 through 6, what we find is the charges or the allegations that are against Jeremiah. And then in verses 7 through 9, we find him being arrested. In verses 10 and 11, it shows him being charged. Then in verses 12 through 15, he enters his plea. Then in verses 16 through 23, there's his defense. And in verse 24, there's the verdict rendered. And so, what we want to look at in verse 1, verse 1 actually gives us the time frame when this happened. Now, you remember I've told you this does not happen in chronological order. We looked at that last week, and that means one event doesn't happen right after another event, as the writer is writing here. In verse 1, I want you to notice what the Word of God says. In chapter 26, it says, In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word from the Lord, saying, Now we'll pause there because just within about a three and a half month time span, what had happened, Josiah was killed in battle. He had a successor. That successor was deported down to Egypt. And then there was a puppet king put in place by Babylon. And all that happened within about a three-month period, roughly. Now, that's a lot of transition when you're looking at the head or the leader of your country kind of going through that up and down, up and down, up and down. So this period actually happened roughly around 609 BC. It was around 597, 596 BC when the Babylonians came in and took them into captivity and wiped out many and killed many. sermon that we're going to look at, and it's just a mini-sermon, it's just a little portion of what Jeremiah was preaching. If you want to read the longer version, you can go back to chapter 7 and verses 1 through 15, which is probably where this actually took place, back in chapter 7. Now, there's nothing wrong with a preacher preaching the same thing twice. Some people need to hear the same thing twice. Some people need to hear it more than twice. But Jeremiah, I believe, this is referring back to the time in chapter 7. And I want you to notice what his crime was. In verse 2, the Word of God says, Thus saith the Lord, Stand in the court of the Lord's house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah which come to worship in the Lord's house all the words that I command thee to speak unto them, Diminish not a word. In other words, don't omit one word. I want you to say every word I tell you to. Don't skip nothing. And he says, If so be they will hearken and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil which I purposed to do unto them because of the evil of their doings. Right here, his crime is very simply preaching. That's what Jeremiah is going to be charged for, preaching the Word of God. Now, what Jeremiah preached, he preached the Law. What does the Law do? You know what? We preach the Law also. And when you witness, you need to share the Law of God, because what the Law does, it shows God's standard and how we've fallen short of that, and therefore the Law of God exposes our sin. You remember back in chapter 7, it talked about how they broke all ten of the commandments. And oftentimes, you know, a good way to witness is just to bring up one of those commandments. Have you ever lied before? Well, you know what? If you've lied, that makes you a liar and you've broken one of the Ten Commandments. You can go through every one of the Ten Commandments and you know what? If everybody's honest, not everybody's honest, they'll lie. But if you go through those Ten Commandments, what you'll find is that everybody's broken all Ten Commandments. They've offended a holy and righteous God. But what Jeremiah does, he doesn't just preach the law, he also preaches grace. And there is a balance with that. There is the balance of law, which exposes sin, and grace, which shows how God forgives sin. And there must be a balance with that. Listen to what the Word of God says over in the book of Romans, chapter 5. in Romans, the 5th chapter, in verse 20 and 21. The Word of God says this, Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. In other words, when we hear the law of God, we know we have sinned against God. And it magnifies that sin. And it says, But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Where sin increased, Grace increased all the more. That as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto life, or eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, here is a balance even in the New Testament. There must be the law, and there must be grace. When you're witnessing to a lost person, they must understand the law of God that they've broken, and they must understand the grace of God which is offered to man freely. There is law, there is grace, and where sin abounds, Or as the old preacher used to say, when sin hit the high-water mark, grace flooded the world. Well, you know what? That's God's grace. And that's what people need to hear. There needs to be a balance. Because if you don't get a balance, what you get, if all somebody does is just preaches law, law, law, all you're going to get is legalism. And if somebody just preaches grace, grace, grace, and they don't balance that with the law, what you get is people having a license to sin. They can do whatever they want because of grace, and I can sin, and I can do this. There is a balance with the law and grace. God gave them both, and that's what Jeremiah is preaching. Now, there is a consequence that is given if you do not do what God commands you to do. And the consequences are given in verses 4 through 6. Notice what the Word of God goes on to say. In verse 4, He says, And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord, If you will not hearken to Me, to walk in My law, which I have set before you, to hearken to the words of My servants, the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early and sending them, but you have not hearkened, then will I make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth." Notice here what God says. Everyone needs to turn, according to verse 3, if you will hearken and turn every man from his evil way. Verse 4, it says you need to walk according to my law. Verse 5 says you need to hearken. to the words of my servants, the prophets." So there you need to turn, that's repent, walk, that's follow by faith, and hearken, that's being obedient unto the Word of God. Here, God uses an illustration, and he talks about the place called Shiloh. Now, you remember the Ark of the Covenant was in Shiloh, and then the Philistines came and took the Ark from Shiloh, and Shiloh was destroyed. And it's a picture of God's presence no longer in Shiloh. So this happened back in Joshua chapter 18. And when the Philistines carried it away, that means Shiloh represented where God used to be. So what Jeremiah is saying here, he says that Jerusalem will be like Shiloh. I'm going to make this house like Shiloh." In other words, God used to be here. And you know what? That was basically sounding like a curse to those who heard it. They were offended. It sounded like treason. In other words, what Jeremiah is saying, he's speaking against God's city. He's speaking against God's house. Therefore, what are they going to say to that? You know what? Their first instinct, we've got to kill him. That's blasphemous. That's going against God's house and going against God's city. So notice what the Word of God goes on to say in verse 7. It says, So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah made an end of speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die. In other words, it stirred them up, they wanted to kill him. And they asked, Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, this house shall be like shallow, and this city shall be desolate, without an inhabitant." And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. So here, notice, they are arresting him. They are wanting to kill him. They are wanting to put him to death because he has prophesied against Jerusalem, against the house of the Lord, and he's saying, it's going to be like shallow, it's going to be left desolate, Nothing is going to be left to it. Now, in our day and time, I do believe we're going to experience persecution more and more. You know what? We've been very blessed in the United States of America. And thank God for the freedoms that we've got. And I am thankful I've grown up in the United States of America. You know what? God is the one who caused us to be here. And I'm thankful because we've got freedoms. But you know what? It's nothing if those freedoms are taken away. And if persecution comes, I believe that's going to show true colors of people whether they're really a Christian or not. And here's what Jeremiah is doing. He's speaking the truth and the people want to kill him because he's speaking the truth. May come a day, may not in our time, where people might want to kill us for speaking the truth. I've had somebody get very irate to the point I thought they were going to try to kill me for speaking the truth. I think he was drugged up or something. He was messed up. But boy, the more I spoke about hell, the hotter he got. It was a very serious situation. I had to part company kind of quick with that one. But notice what happens with Jeremiah here. The officials are going to step in and they're going to follow the legal procedures. And that's what it says in verse 10. When the princes of Judah heard these things, Then came they up from the king's house unto the house of the Lord." They heard what Jeremiah was speaking about, and they heard how the people wanted to kill Jeremiah. So here they come. These are the leaders of Jerusalem, or of Judah. And it says, they come unto the house of the Lord. They sat down in the entry of the new gate of the Lord's house. This is kind of like they're about to hold court. In other words, he's going to get a fast trial. Justice is going to be served quickly. But, these leaders want to do what's right. Therefore, they go from the house of the Lord and they go to the new gate of the Lord's house. This is where they hold the court procedures. And here, it's going to happen, like I say, quickly. Notice what it says in verse 11. Then spake the priest and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die. For he hath prophesied against this city, as you heard, with your ears." They're bringing the charges against him, and they're seeking a death penalty without any type of defense or any type of being able to stand up and say, this is why I did this, without any evidence or anything. They're just saying, he needs to be killed because you heard him say these things. Now, the leaders, thankful for Jeremiah's case, they didn't want to just kill someone. As these people seek the death penalty before any charge, why are they seeking that death penalty? It says in verse 12, because he said, the Lord sent me to prophesy against this city, and all the words you've heard against this house. So here, what they're saying, he deserves a capital punishment because this is a capital offense. This sermon that he's preaching is basically treason. And it's speaking against the Lord's house and the Lord's people. Therefore, he needs to be killed. Now, did they not hear the message? You remember what Jeremiah just preached, which we just kind of briefly went over? He preached to them that they needed to repent and that they needed to turn to the Lord and follow Him. Now, you know what? The responsibility, when it's put out there for somebody to do, many people in our day and time like to shun that responsibility. We're living in a time people don't want to be accountable. You know what? This is a reason. A lot of people don't like to join churches because they don't want to be accountable one to another. Here, they are not thinking about what He said that they need to do. They're thinking about what He said was going to happen if they don't do certain things. Therefore, they're taking it all the wrong way. You know what, we can put a lot of things before what God says, don't we? Or can't we? If you think about it, we can put our nation above what God says. We can think in our minds, if only we had a certain president. But you know what, we can't put our trust in any kind of president, in any time, anybody who's elected into office. That's not where our confidence is. I saw a church today. I passed by it, and it had a flag on the outside, and it said, One Nation Under God. Well, you know what? In a sense, I can see that. In a sense, I can't see that. We're a divided nation. You know what? We're a people, a sinful nation. And that ought to burden us. We've got elections coming up, primaries coming up. I encourage you to vote. But don't put your hope in a man. A man's not going to change his country. Because America's greatest need is what Jeremiah was just preaching. It's repentance and the grace of God. If there's one thing this nation needs, it's for people to turn from their sin and put their faith and trust in Christ. It's not some strong leader we need. We need a strong leader. But you know what's greater is a revival, a changing of heart and a changing of mind to where people will see the Lord's face. I want you to notice the plea from Jeremiah. In verses 12 through 15, the Word of God says this, Then spake Jeremiah to the princes and to all the people, saying, The Lord sent me to prophesy, Now, what he's saying here, here's his plea. I'm not guilty on grounds of simply being obedient. Not guilty because I'm obedient unto the Lord. And men ought to rather obey God than man. So he says, the Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you've heard. Therefore now amend your ways and your doings and obey the voice of the Lord God and the Lord will repent of the evil that he hath pronounced against you. As for me, behold, I'm in your hand. Do with me, it seems good and meet unto you. But know you for certain that if you put me to death, you shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city, upon the inhabitants thereof. For of a truth the Lord hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears." Now if you think about it, what Jeremiah was trying to do, he was trying to rescue the people. He's trying to help the people. Because disaster is coming upon the people if they don't repent. And you notice right here in the middle of his plea, what does he do? He turns around and uses that as an opportunity to preach again, doesn't he? He turns around and – listen to that how he's pleading his case. Amend your ways. Now, wow, can you imagine standing before a judge and saying that? That's kind of shocking. But here is a preacher. that is sent from God with a message from God, and he's going to stand no matter if they're willing to kill him. He's not trying to defend himself, what he's doing, he is speaking the truth of God's Word, though the people are against him. So, he's very simply taking a stand. Now, this is kind of interesting, this is kind of a flip-flop on that verse over in the book of Ephesians where it says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood. You know what, these people that were against Jeremiah, look at it from this viewpoint. They're not wrestling against flesh and blood. They're wrestling against God. Let me tell you something, you ain't gonna ever win against God. And here, they're putting up a struggle against God. God is giving them a warning. Jeremiah's telling them they're in danger. Really, their complaints aren't against Jeremiah, are they? And you know what? Whenever you hear somebody complain about somebody who's godly, whether he's a preacher or somebody who's being a faithful witness, they're complaining against that person is against God. If they're taking a stand for truth, they're complaining against God. How often people complain and it's going against God and people don't even know it. I love the way in the middle of this, he preaches to them to amend your ways. He doesn't defend himself, but he takes a stand for what the Lord says. Because notice what he says in verse 14. Verse 14, he basically says, you can do with me whatever you want to. In other words, he knew he might die. That's alright, he's going to take a stand for the Lord. You know what, that's a holy boldness. If you look back over Baptist history, down through the years, what you can see is many martyrs, taking a stand for truth, dying for the sake of truth. You can read in history people who said they were Christians not taking a stand for truth and turning their back on God until peaceful times come again and then they're Christians again. They're fair-weather Christians, so to speak. If persecution were to come into the United States very heavy, You know what? I think it would show who's for real, who's not. Let me ask you a question. If your life was on the line, would it be okay to say that you don't believe in God if you spared your life, if deep down in your heart you really do believe in God, but you just say, well, I'm going to just say this just for a better day to where I can preach more later. I'll just tell them I don't believe in God. That way they'll leave me alone. Would it be okay to do that? As you ponder that thought, I would just ask the question, is it okay to be unfaithful? I want you to notice, we're going to come back to that question in a minute. Here's his defense. As we look in verses 16 through 23, The Word of God says it's the people that came to his defense. It was the leaders. It says, then said the princes, and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets, this man is not worthy to die. Now, why do they say that all of a sudden? Because Jeremiah said, if you kill me, you're bringing innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city, upon all the inhabitants thereof. And you know what? They feared that. Therefore, it says, it goes on to say, this man is not worthy to die, for he hath spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God. Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spake to all the assembly of the people, saying..." Now here, notice this situation. These are just common people, they're older people, but they're taking a stand and they're speaking up in defense for Jeremiah. And what do they say? They quote from one who was a prophet named Micah, and there he comes from the book of Micah. And they actually quote from Micah, so therefore they have memorized the Word of God, and therefore they're able to use the Word of God to defend Jeremiah. Boy, thank God for godly people who commit to memory scripture. Hear what they say, Micah the Moreshvite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord, a host. Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest." Now, that is quoted from Micah chapter 3 and verse 12. Now, here, as you think about that, what Micah's prophesying is that it's all going to be destroyed. This was when Hezekiah was king. When Hezekiah heard it, what happened? Hezekiah repented and the people repented and God spared them. So here these elders are bringing up a prophecy concerning Micah. And they go on to say in verse 19 that Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death. Did he not fear the Lord, and besought the Lord, and the Lord repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure great evil against our souls." What they're doing, they're using a situation. If you were in a court case, and the judge or jury is trying to figure out how to go with the case. Oftentimes what they do, they use cases where judges had judged in the past with similar situations. And they'll use that as a precedent. And they will go by those guidelines to render judgment. So here what these people, these elders are doing, they're using a previous situation just like Jeremiah. He preached and he said judgment was coming. So did Micah. Look at what happened with Micah. They repented, and God spared them. So they're using a situation. Good thing they knew the Word of God. It's the people that are defending Jeremiah with Scripture. But the Word of God uses another example here. And I want you to notice this next example that it uses in verse 20 through 23. It says, There was also a man that prophesied in the name of the Lord. And his name was Uriah the son of Shemaiah, of Kirjath-Jerom, who prophesied against this city, against this land, according to all the words of Jeremiah. And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah heard it, he was afraid, and he fled and went into Egypt. Now here there's a little different situation. Uriah prophesied against the land. The king wants to put him to death. He ain't Hezekiah. He's a bad king. He wants to put him to death. So what does Uriah do? He takes off on a camel down to Egypt. And as he gets down to Egypt, he's hiding because he's scared for his life. Now, you know what? That is a contrast between what Jeremiah's doing, isn't it? He is scared for his life. And you know what? He's not showing a lot of trust in the Lord, is he? Now, you know what? I don't know if I was in that situation. I'd go down to Egypt. I hope I wouldn't. But here, he takes off and he runs away because he lacks courage. Now, what that does, that's showing Jeremiah has courage and faith in the Lord. He's taking a stand. He's saying, do with me whatever you want to. He's going to stand for the truth. Uriah just speaks the truth and then takes off running. You see a vast difference there, don't you? He who saves his life shall lose it, is what the Word of God tells us. Is it okay to say, I don't believe? You know what? Uriah didn't show a lot of faith and trust in the Lord after he delivered his message. So, notice what happens in his life. Verse 22, Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely Elnathan, the son of Ekbor, and certain men with him to Egypt. And they fetched forth Uriah out of Egypt. They brought him in to Jehoiakim the king, who slew him with the sword and cast his dead body in the graves of the common people. Wow! He who saves his life shall lose it. He thought he was doing the right thing by running away. Should we ever deny the Lord just to save our lives? You know what? I don't believe so. We should always remain faithful. So, here comes the verdict in verse 24. Jury's adjourned. The verdict is in verse 24. It says, Nevertheless, the hand of Ahicham, the son of Shaphan, was with Jeremiah. Now, who are these two people? Who are these names? Shaphan was the one who found the Word of God in the days of Josiah. When the Word of God was scarce, he found it, and they started reading the Word of God, and the people repented, and there was great revival in the days of Josiah. Ahicham was Shaphan's son. Therefore he was well respected because of the goodness that his dad had brought because of taking a stand for the Word of God. So because a high chem stood up for Jeremiah, it says that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death. He was basically acquitted or declared not guilty. Jeremiah's life was spared and it was God that intervened. You know what? Jeremiah took a stand. He could have been killed from a human perspective. But you know what? If it ain't your time to go, it ain't your time to go. And it wasn't Jeremiah's time to go. God still had work for him to do. He still had His Word for him to proclaim. If you notice some similarities in this chapter, you notice some similarities with these people coming against Jeremiah. It's very similar like how they came against Christ, isn't it? They were going to kill First, you know, with Christ, they're praising Him. Now they're going to kill Him. Here, they're about to kill Jeremiah. Then they take His side. How fickle-minded people are. Quick to switch. There were false witnesses. Our Lord had false witnesses. There were both wanting the sentence of death. Both were innocent. Our Lord did not defend Himself. Jeremiah didn't defend himself. But Jeff, what we find, when our Lord died for our sins, guilty is everyone, cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. He was guilty, but you know what, if you take back and look a little bit, when He rose again, it's kind of like the Father overturned that case. He died for our sins, took our sins upon Him, but the Lord raised Him and justified Him. Christ died for our sins. But you know what? He's the perfect Son of God. Therefore, He rose again and He reigns on high. And therefore, because of that, whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life. What good news we've got! Are we willing to take a stand for that? In a society, in the culture we live in, where it teaches that we've got to tolerate everybody? You know what? In our culture, We've got kids that are coming up in public schools that are being taught all kinds of garbage. There are, more so than ever before, people with identity crisis. You understand what I'm saying? They don't know who they are. They don't know. because the world is feeding them a lie. And this is so baffling to me, the homosexual issue. There are some that are girls that think they're boys. Now you know what? I cannot fathom that. There are some boys that think they're girls. I can't fathom that. To put it bluntly, look in the mirror. Are you that dumb and blind? I mean, it's just common sense that even the world should be able to understand that. Even if it ain't on a spiritual level, it's baffling. That's what it talks about in Romans 1. They bought the lie. They bought into the lie of Satan. You know what? We've got a very difficult task For we're living in the time we're living in now. But you know what God has placed us for such a time as this? To take a stand when many are too scared to take a stand. Will you be like Uriah? Or will you be like Jeremiah? One took a stand, one took a ran. A ran, not a ran. Iran. No. You know what I'm saying. One took off running. We need to be bold for the Word of God. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, we thank You for Your Word. And Lord, where many people are falling by the wayside and being divided by the untruths, the lies, the falsehoods of this world, Lord, we pray that you'd help us to be able to speak the truth in love. Reach out to people who are lost without you. Help us to love them, though they might be worlds apart and different from us. Help us to love them with the love that you've loved us with. And Lord, if they reject us, help us to love them with the love you loved us with. Lord, help us to be persistent, consistent. Help us to have a passion to live for You, for Christ's sake. Amen. You're dismissed. Oh, I had a little saying I wanted to add to the end of the sermon. I wrote it on a little sheet of paper. Give a man ten dollars and you'll cheer his heart. Give him a drain, you'll challenge his heart, but give him Christ and you'll change his heart. I thought that was a good one.