Anyone? All right, let's go to the book of Jeremiah tonight. Jeremiah chapter 14, I'll read the entire chapter 14 in one verse of chapter 15. You remember that the originals wasn't written in verses and chapters, it was written in paragraphs, and so I want to read one verse of chapter 15, even though probably the paragraph would even go further than that, but it helps us to put it together with what we want to deal with tonight in chapter 14, and pray that the Lord will just speak to our hearts and just help us tonight. Jeremiah chapter 14 verse 1 through chapter 5 verse 1 as we read tonight. Jeremiah chapter 14 verse number 1, the word of the Lord that came from to Jeremiah concerning the dearth, Judith mourneth and the gates are of languish. black unto the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up, and their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters. They came to the pits, and found no water. They returned with their vessels empty. They were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads, because the ground is chapped, for there was no rain in the earth. The plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads, and the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass. The wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons, their eyes did fail, because there was no grass. O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake. For our backslidings are many, we have sinned against thee. O the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof, in the time in time of trouble? Why shouldst thou be a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turnest aside to tarry for a night? Why shouldst thou be a man astounded, as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name. Leave us not. Thus saith the Lord unto this people. Thus have they loved to they have not refrained their feet. Therefore the Lord doth not accept them. He will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins. Then said the Lord unto me, Pray not for this people for their good. When that they fast, I will hear, I will not hear their cry. And when they offer burnt offerings, and an oblation, I will not accept them, but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence. Then said I, Ah, Lord God, behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place. That's the preacher, tell them everything's going to be all right, that's what it's saying. Then the Lord said unto me, These prophets the prophets prophesy lies in my name. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them. They prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of naught, and the deceit of their hearts. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name. And I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land. shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, because of the famine and the sword, and they shall not, they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters. For I will pour their wickedness upon them. Therefore thou shalt say this word unto them, Let mine eyes run down with tears, night and day, and let my tongue speak the truth, and let my tongue speak the truth. and let them not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow. If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with a sword. And if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine. Yea, both the prophets and the priests go about into a land that they know not. Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? Why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? We look for peace, and there is no good, and for the time of healing, and behold, trouble. We acknowledge, O God, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against thee. Do not abhor us for thy name's sake. Do not disgrace the throne of thy glory. Remember, break not thy covenant with us. Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are not thou he, O Lord our God? Therefore we will wait upon thee, for thou hast made all these things. Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. That reading is, if you heard what was read, it's a pretty sound, a pretty awful judgment upon Judah, the southern kingdom. So I'm dealing with thoughts from Jeremiah again tonight, as far as the thoughts, but this is, we're dealing in chapter 14 with the dearth of a nation. I said a dearth, I didn't say death of a nation, even though a dearth can lead to a death, amen, of a nation, and did in this case, but I'm talking about the dearth of a nation. As he said in verse number one, there he said the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth. Now the word dearth means want, scarcity, need. barrenness, famine, restraint of rain. In other words, there was a famine on because the rain was helped back from the land and it caused them to want, be in this necessity and scarcity of food, grain and what not was there in the nation of Judah. Jeremiah is prophesying to the nation of Judah. The time's about 602, 600, we don't know exactly where it's at in there, but BC. And realize something here, as we think about the dearth of a nation, I want to see the condition of this nation. We just read about it. But I want to kind of look at it and recap it a little bit or summarize it a little bit. Verse number two, he said, Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish. They are blackened to the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. What was the condition of the nation? Well, the people were mourning. Well, you say that's good for people to mourn. That's true, but they were mourning in one sense over their life. In other words, their motive wasn't necessarily mourning for God. They were mourning because they were hurting, they were hungry, and they were crying. In fact, the word mourning and cry in this verse is a word which means to cry out in a shrill voice, a loud bewail is what the word is. They used to use it for the funeral possessions. They would harb the wailers. that would go along and cry and weep and make loud noises. In other words, it would be heard all over the town in that sense. Why? The dirt caused them to be hungry. and they were crying out. It also said there in verse number two that in essence it talked about the gates there that it said the gates are there of languish, languish. In other words, that means the markets were bare. At the gates is where they had the markets. Right inside the gate they would have the sheep market and whatnot and they would come together with those there but there was nothing there. The markets, other, we call them grocery stores here. We're so used to having that but I remember being in Nigeria You'd go into what they call the open-air markets. They'd have a certain section where they had the meat, where they'd bring them in, and they'd drive the longhorn big old cows down through there, and you could count every rib on it. And then they'd kill them right there. I didn't see them kill any of them, but they'd kill them right there. And they'd eat everything of that animal before it was over and left only the bones in the middle for the buzzards to pick. And up there on the top of the house was the buzzards waiting. They didn't have enough energy to fly away. They were waiting to pick what they could off. And they're as poor as Job's turkey, as the expression is. It's about the way they were at that time. And if you had a pig, they'd eat everything, including the squeal. Amen? They'd get it all. Amen? Because they didn't leave nothing undone. Well, I think about those markets. But this market in Jerusalem was desolate. It languished. It means it was empty. The gates, there was nothing there. And they were barren of food to sell and also it was barren, deserted of the people. They wasn't even there. Bad situation to be in. There wasn't nothing to buy. Hungry. The famine had been so long upon the land at that time. that was in that shape. Verse number 3 says, And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters. And they came to the pits, and found no water. They returned with their vessels empty. They were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads. Their vessels was empty, because the wells were dry. Not only the wells were dry, but the creeks had dried up. I remember being in Nigeria, and they had to go three miles. We were there, it was a dry time. And they had to go three miles to get the water. And they went down and got your drinking water and put it in my bottle right inside there. And you know what? The cows drunk out of that same place. And the people took baths in that same place and went swimming in that same place, amen. No wonder we got sick, amen, because I woke up one morning and Wiggletails was in my bottle of water. They didn't boil it. They didn't boil it. They were supposed to, but they didn't. But that's the kind of situation they were in. They even got sick. I mean, they ought to have been toughened to it, you would think. But they had to go a long way. But here, there was no water to even get. You know, we take so much for granted, amen? So much for granted around here. You can get a drink of water about anywhere. Somebody asked me one time, is the water downstairs fit to drink? Of course, they was used to being in the places where you couldn't drink out of the sink or something. I mean, you better not in Mexico. You'd come up with all them, that amoeba, that thing will get you. They said, don't even brush your teeth. with that water when we was down there, and it was a bad, bad thing to get that amoeba. I think that's the reason he eats so much hot sauce. It probably burns that amoeba up. I wouldn't doubt it a bit, amen? Well, I couldn't handle the hot sauce down there, but more water. You think about it. If we didn't have water, what would you do? Well, some people would say, I like it. I wouldn't have to take a bath. I'm talking about the drink now, amen? But the thing about it, their vessels was empty because the wells was dry, the creeks had dried up. And also the shame and confusion, they covered their heads. There's a shame when they come back and say, Daddy, I couldn't find any water. We don't have enough to even drink ourselves. Well, it also says there in verse number 4, it said, Because the ground is chapped, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed. They covered their head. In other words, they couldn't even plow. The ground was so hard because of the dryness that was there. And in other words, the plowmen gazed in despair on the hard, barren ground. Nothing grew, couldn't break up the fallow ground. As Brother Richard read about the other night, verse 5 said, He said, yea, the hind also calved in the field and forsook it because there was no grass. Represents a doe that left her fawn after she gave birth to her fawn, but there wasn't enough grass to feed her fawn. In fact, she took care of herself and just let the fawn die. It's what it amounts to. It's basically what she wanted to save her own life and yet that life also was in danger. And then verse 6 says, And the wild asses did stand in the high places. They snuffed up the wind like dragons. Their eyes did fail because there was no grass. In other words, it said, what it's saying, the donkeys, they widened their nostrils, hoping that they'd look up and hoping God would send a little rain down and they would get watered through their nose and in the inside. Well, it was in bad shape. In other words, they were vainly awaiting rain. That's the condition of the nation at the time that Jeremiah sent this. Now, what's the cause of this condition? Well, you say, is it the earth and the land? There's a famine. Yeah, but what caused the famine? I want to tell you, God withheld the rain. You see, the real cause, verse number 7, he said, O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake, for our backslidings are many. We have sinned against thee. We have sinned against God. It's what it said. The nation had sinned against God. Now who makes up the nation? We're the people are a nation. Well, we look at the government sometime and talk about them as their nation. I won't tell you. We're part of that nation too. Amen. people are part of the nation. But he said, we've sinned, we've sinned. And really, what's happening here, the condition of the nation, because of the dearth here, it's just a fulfillment of what God told Moses in Deuteronomy. He also told him basically this in Leviticus, but he's re-rehearsing it to the people again when he made what's called the Palestinian covenant about the land of Canaan, where they were going And he said in chapter 28 of Deuteronomy verses 1 and 2, And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee. And he lists a bunch of blessings that they're going to have. There, in other words, you'll be blessed, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. You're gonna have all those blessings. But, he says, and he lists a lot of them, but then he said in verse number 15 of Deuteronomy chapter 28, but it shall come to pass. If thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe, to do all his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee. And he lists a lot of curses, but one thing he does say, in verse number 23, And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. Did you hear that? That's a physical thing he's talking about, but I don't tell you how many times have people said, oh, it seems like heaven's a brass. And I can't get through. And you know what? The hearts, the soil is hard. Amen. Heaven's a brass. Why is it? Because of our sin, sin of our forefathers, the sin of our nation. If you play butt, I'll get to that application in a minute. But he said that heavens over thy head shall be brass and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust from heaven shall it come down upon thee until thou be destroyed. Not talking about the rain coming on them, but just be like powder and dust. a dearth, dearth in the land. In other words, dearth of a nation, the dearth of a nation. Now that same thing had already occurred with the nation, really the nation of Israel as a whole, or at least the northern kingdom affected in it. Probably the southern kingdom was affected as well, because you remember the story about Elijah, how he prayed it wouldn't rain for three and a half About 250 years before Jeremiah wrote this, there was a time when Jeremiah and Elijah prayed in Ahab's day, it'll not rain. And it got bad. It got so bad then that the raven had to feed Elijah. And it got so bad that God took and produced meal and oil to make bread with his house. took care of Elijah, but listen, the people of the land, three and a half years with no rain, their granaries got empty. The people got in the meadow. Well, what was, why was that there? God was sending it on a nation so that they might take heed and repent and get right. It's what it amounts to. And so he's speaking to that both in Israel and Judah. And you know what? Even though they seemingly repented, they didn't fully repent. or at least it wasn't long lasting repentance as far as the nation is concerned because what happened later he allowed the Syrians to come upon the northern kingdom and overrun them and take them into captivity and that was about I don't know how many years now but I'd say roughly 150 years after the Elijah famine was concerned I'm just rounding it off there, but that happened then. Now, you realize something, that Judah was in the south. Judah ought to have, ought to have all been a solemn warning to Judah. Well, the famine in Ahab's day was also, Judah was involved. The whole nation, God speaking, God tells them, said, hey, you better straighten up, you better get right. And then he, when he, and they didn't do it in the northern kingdom, still worship idolatry, evil king, after evil king, after evil king, and God sent Assyria over and carried them all off in captivity and scattered those ten tribes to where you don't even have a good identity of them today, from what I understand. Amen? Well, the thing about it, you know, Judah and the South ought to have took note of that. You know, you know what we learned from history? Nothing. We should learn from history. We ought to stop and take record and look. Why, if that happened to them, that can happen to us. The same God who reigns on Samaria reigns on Jerusalem. And if that, if he allowed Syria to come on them, he might allow somebody to come on us. And even though God had delivered the southern kingdom time and time again, we find it, you remember we studied about Hezekiah and all the Psalms we've been dealing about, and how that God sent an angel to kill 185,000 Assyrians. And what happened, you realize something? All at once here we come to a place to where you say, well, it looked like they learned from all that. But they took their apathy. It was apathetic, that's what it was. That means they were unconcerned and just sort of floated on off into oblivion is what it amounts to, and got so bad that God had to send another dearth in the land, another famine in the land. Why? Why was this year we said it's because of sin? But where does it, where does the sin lie? At whose feet does it lie? Well, I know it lies at everybody's feet in a sense, but you know God put it on one man. Where it really lie, as far as the dirt, as far as what he was dealing with. You say, what do you mean? Well, the book of 2 Kings chapter 21, 2 Kings chapter 21, verse number 16, this is what he says here, let me find it here a moment. 2 Kings 21, verse number, 15 listen to what he said moreover Manasseh and Manasseh was the son I think of Hezekiah if I'm correct he but he was an evil man and he reigned several years a long had a long reign and and he shed Bible says here verse 16 moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another. Besides his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. In other words, he made the people to sin, he filled the nation with the innocent blood being shed. very much. He put his own children in the arms of the idol God, Molech, and burnt them in the fire, made their children pass through the fire, shed innocent blood very much. And that's a king who caused much hurt to the nation of Judah. And that's the one where really a lot of it lay at their feet. In fact, the business we find We find a little later in chapter 24, verse number 1, because Judah didn't listen, because they didn't take heed, because they didn't follow God's commandments. As God said in the Palestinian covenant, verse 1 of 2 Kings chapter 24 says, In his days, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up. and Jehoiakim became his servant three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him." Now, what it amounts to is that, of course, Assyria lost their bid for the world power because of the 185,000 men dying, but it come a time that Babylon began to move to be a world power and did become a world power and was going to overrun the southern kingdom, which was Judah, and yet they made a deal. We'll pay tribute. That means we'll come under your domain and we'll give you money." Well, that lasted for about three years and then he rebelled. He said, it's costing me too much. We're going to rebel. And then you know what Nebuchadnezzar done? He come down. And he overrun the nation, in a sense, and made what's called the first deportation of the captivity. Now, the captivity of the Judah started when he made tribute with Jehoiakim. And that captivity was going to last how many years? 70 years. In other words, God said, you're not going to get out until 70 years be fulfilled. So what did they do? They come down and try to overrun the nation there. And as a result, Daniel tells us about what happened. He said in Daniel 1, 1, in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem and besieged it. That's because he quit paying him tribute. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar, house of his God, and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his God. And the king spake to Aspenetz, the master of these eunuchs, that he would bring certain of the kings, the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes. And those were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that we have listed, plus others. These were royal descendants of the Judah they were ones that was going to be somewhere, they could have been on the king's throne somewhere along the way. I mean, they could have, what I'm saying, they were of the descendants of Judah. They were the princes, they were the rulers, and he put them there. In other words, put them in captivity, and they had to suffer. In fact, they were made eunuchs is what it amounts to, and he put them there. And so then, then after a few years after that, now you get the picture, God is just a little bit, but a little bit, putting his hooks in Judah, who didn't heed the warning of the dearth in Ahab's day, didn't heed the warning of Assyria coming over the northern kingdom, so he caused them to be in tribute, and they didn't want to pay tribute. In other words, that'd be like you trying to say, I've got a piece of land, but I'm going to have to pay somebody to farm it. Well, I guess we do in some sense, don't we? But you know what I'm saying? In other words, you wouldn't want to pay some big company so much to let you farm your own land. Well, they were having to pay the other king of the other country, so he rebelled. God sent down and they got some of the people. Now, a small number, but it was captivity. It was a captivity. They even got some of the vessels out of the house of God, some of them, and carried them all back to Babylon. And so as a result, I mean, the nation was in a bad shape. But then, after a few years, God sends this dearth that Jeremiah is talking about. So that's the setting. Jeremiah here in verse chapter 14, when he's talking about dearth in the nation and the famine that's there, he's talking about maybe five, six years after Daniel had already been carried into captivity. People hadn't listened to what God said. They'd had time and time and time again to hear, but they hadn't responded to it. They hadn't followed the Palestinian covenant. They hadn't met the conditions of it. Therefore, God's having to send the chastisement, the cursings upon them, and dearth is one of them here, as he's talking about this here. And so, therefore, the dearth was caused by the sin of the people of Judah. That dearth was. Now, let me ask you a question. Is there hope for the nation of Judah here? Is there hope? Well, the Lord had given a formula for healing of any land. He said in 2 Chronicles 7, 14, If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive them of their sin, and heal their land. That was years before even Ahab's, the dearth in Ahab's day. That was in Solomon's day when he built the temple. The power of God was there. And he said, if you ever lose this power, if ever comes a time that God withholds the rain and sends a dearth in your land, this is what you do to get the land healed. Pray, turn, and repent. In other words, my people, which are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn. Then I'll hear, and I'll forgive, and I'll heal. So now then, what's Jeremiah doing as he comes to this place? Is there hope for the nation? Well, Jeremiah begins to pray. He's praying in what we read to you a while ago. In verse number 7 through 9, we see confession and appeal there as he begins to pray. Verse number 7, he said, O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, Do thou yet, for thy name's sake, for our backslidings are many, and we have sinned against thee? O the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof, in time of trouble! Why shouldst thou be a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Why shouldst thou be as a man astounded, as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet thou, O Lord, are in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name, leave us not." In other words, he prayed, and then, do it for thy name's sake, verse 7 said. In other words, he said, why is, in verse 8 he said, why should your behavior be toward us like a wayfaring man that's just coming and abiding, staying the night whenever we need you as our companion and helper? Where are you at, God? The heavens are brass. The land's chapped. It's hard. And there he was. He's saying, Lord, it looks like you just visited us every once in a while and spend the night with us instead of being with us every night. You just come in spasmodically. Sound familiar? Sound familiar in the spiritual sense? Where's God? That's what they asked in Gideon's day. Where's God? Well, that's what he had to, he said, he said, don't just come a little every once in a while, come and spend a night with us every night and be here for on and on in a sense, is what he's saying. And more confession and appeal is also in verse number 20 through 22. when he said, We acknowledge, O God, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers. For we have sinned against thee. Do not abhor us for thy name's sake. Do not disgrace the throne of thy glory. Remember, break not thy covenant with us. And that's a Palestinian covenant. And are there any among the bandages of the Gentiles that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? He's saying there's nobody else but you, Lord. He's giving credit to where credit's due. And he's talking about the all-mightiness of God here. He said, Art thou not He, O Lord, our God? Therefore we will wait upon thee. Nobody else can do it. For thou hast made all these things. You're the great Creator. You're the great I Am. We can't go anywhere else. Well, I'm talking about praying. That's what he was doing. He's confessing, and he's making a confession. He's making an appeal, and he's giving God glory. You say, well, that's meeting the condition of 2 Chronicles 7, 14. Well, it is for this one man. That's true. But what about the nation? Well, the Lord answers his prayer. Somebody said, well, the Lord didn't answer my prayer. Somebody else said, he always answers your prayer. Sometimes he says no. Sometimes he says yes. And sometimes he just don't say anything. It means to wait. Amen? So you think about that. I mean, he's got a purpose in what he does. But he answered his prayer, and he said in verse number 10, he said, Thus saith the Lord unto his people, thus how they love to wander. They have not refrained their feet. Therefore the Lord doth not accept them. He will not remember their iniquity, and he will now remember their iniquity and visit their sin. Then said the Lord unto me, Pray not for the people for their good. Get up off your knees and quit praying for them. They've gone too far. It's too far. Then also he said in chapter 15 verse number 1, Jeremiah, it's too late. You can't pray. They've already crossed the deadline and the dearth is upon this nation and it's going to bring the death of a nation in that sense. Well, he answered, but you notice something as he says this. In other words, the doom of Israel was there. It was already sealed. 70 years of captivity is going to be carried out. Now, why is that captivity there? I mean, why is it there? Well, II Kings 24, verse 3 and 4 said, Surely, as at the commandment of the LORD came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did, and also for the innocent blood that he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the LORD will not pardon. Did you hear what God said? He said, and listen, by the way, did you know Manasseh was probably wound up being saved in the last of his ministry? It shows he repented, but he said, nevertheless, because of what you've done in those years of your ministry as king, the doom of Judah is sealed. And he said, Jeremiah, get up, too late. The captivity's already started. It's too late. In other words, even though Jeremiah was, and by the way, he's about the only one crying out, amen, the rest of them were just going along. They were caught up in everything at that time. You see, Manasseh shed innocent blood, as I said a while ago, had his children pass through the fire and caused the doom of the nation. And the Lord said, even if Moses and Samuel stood before me, I'll still have to doom this nation. The dearth of the nation will bring forth a death of the nation. I've got to do it. Now, what does he mean by that, Samuel or Moses? Well, Samuel was one. Over in the book of II Samuel chapter 7, that was a time right after that they'd lost the, I Samuel chapter 7 verse number 9. That's right after they'd lost the ark to the Philistines. The Philistines were a very strong enemy of, in essence, they were in a type of captivity at that time. And the Philistines was overrunning them. It had been 20 years since they had a place where to meet God. No heart, no meeting with God. And they got in bad shape. I'm talking about even at that time there it talked about. And what happened was the Philistines began to move toward them. And it looked like they were going to be a defeated nation completely, wiped out. But Samuel, it said in verse 9 of chapter 7 of 1 Samuel, took a suckling lamb and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord. In other words, he's an intercessor. He's one that stands between the nation and God. And God could have said, I'm going to let the nation go. They've done wickedly, they've done wrong. but Samuel stood between God and the nation, and, and offered as a priest, offered the sacrifices, and Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistine drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on the, on that day upon the Philistine, and disconfited them, and they were smitten before Israel. In other words, God took care of the enemy. because Samuel stood between God and the destruction of a nation. But he said, oh, Jeremiah, get up. I'm not going to hear now. The doom is settled because of Manasseh's sin, and I will not heal this nation, even if Samuel stood up, who delivered the nation before. Well, Moses, what about him? When did you see him? Well, the Bible says about Moses in the book of Exodus, chapter 32, when he's up in the mountain, and he'd been there 40 days, and you know the story. I hope you know it. But they're 40 days away from the children of Israel and you know what they've done? In 40 days they got together and got to Aaron to build a golden calf. And they formed a golden calf and they began to dance nude around the golden calf. Sensuality was involved in idolatrous worship and all kind of sin and God said, oh I hear a noise of war in the camp. And he's talking with Moses and giving him the law up in the mountain. And yet what happened was, verse 8 says, They turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it. They have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. He's talking to Moses. He's telling about what happened. And then about that time, verse number 9, he said of chapter 32, And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it's a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone. God's telling Moses, leave me alone. What he amounts to is Moses begins to cry out to God to spare that people. And God said, leave me alone. He goes on to say in verse 10, let my wrath wax hot against them that I may consume them and I'll make of thee a great nation. I'll raise you up another nation. We'll kill every one of them. I'll kill every one of them out there because they've gone into idolatry. And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why dost thou wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them with the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and hast set us unto them. I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken, and I will give you your seed, and they shall inherit it forever. Moses is standing up to God and calling God to remembrance of what God said. And you know what God did? The Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. Now, what he's saying here to Jeremiah, but it don't matter if Moses stands. It doesn't matter if Samuel, all of them stood. The doom is sealed because of sin, especially of Manasseh, how he taught them to sin. And the doom is sealed. It's no longer that. So he tells Jeremiah, even if Moses and Samuel prayed, I'll still send judgment on the nation of Israel. Well, what about the nation? Can they be saved? No, they're going to go down. In other words, the dearth of the nation is going to be a death of that nation. But, but, God, God said, I'm gonna bring a remnant through. He didn't say it right there, but that's what happened. God's always had a remnant. No matter how, listen, folks, the nation, it doesn't matter where the nations go, God has always had a remnant in the midst of that remnant. You remember the, I remember Mom, she used to go to Paris and they had what was called a remnant house. Y'all remember that? Oh, if they had a sale and women lined up there and it was awful, they'd just fuss and get in there and buy stuff they never did use. We burned piles of it, amen? The rats got in it, the mice did, put hickory nuts out of the woods inside that cloth. Rimmel, that's just pieces of material left over off of a bolt. Sometimes it was enough to make a dress, sometimes it wasn't. But they'd make quilt pieces out of it. But it was so cheap, they just couldn't save all that money on them sales. Huh? Some of these men do the same thing, but in different ways. But the thing about it is, remnant means a very small piece. And God has always had a few who stood through all those times. In other words, now they suffered, the remnant suffered with the dearth of the nation. and even the death of the nation, the captivity, but such as, I mean, such as Jeremiah and Daniel, if you please, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Ezekiel, we know them by name, there's Ezra, there's some others that was involved in that, and we have many others, but still it's a small number compared to the millions of Jews that was there. But God's buried a remnant. Even though the nation went down the tubes and God said, I'll not answer your prayer. They've gone too far. He said, I'm still going to work through my people. And it's a small remnant. God's always had it. Now the application of this. That's the nation. But what about America? Applications to America. Where are we at? I'm talking about what's the condition of our nation? And I ain't got time to tell you all that, but don't have to. Don't think. If you'll just stop and think. The dirt, there's dirt in the land, not physical dirt, if you please. We don't have the famine. I know some places where they've not had rain like that, but it's not a nationwide thing, all right? I mean, I mean, bunker crops, amen? They're making more corn today than they did When I was a boy, I guarantee you, and when Daddy was a boy, he'd talk about how the stalk here and the stalk here, you know? And they'd done good to them. How much was it? Five barrels to acres? Does that sound about right sometimes? Because they didn't fertilize it too much. But they'd go out there and plow that hard and make five barrels to the acre. I mean, that's just 25 bushels to the acre and thought they was doing pretty good sometimes, you know? Boy, when we got up to 100, we thought we was doing good, and now they're making 200 bushels on some poor land. Or so you're having to pump stuff into it, I know. But the thing about it is, we don't have a famine. We don't have the dearth in the land physically, but folks, we've got a dearth spiritually. We've got a famine spiritually. Amos said there's a, be a famine of hearing the word and they'll go from sea to sea and can't find it. And it's one thing it's not preached much anywhere. Amen. Another thing, we've not got ears to hear. I don't know all that could mean, but we've got a dearth in the land. It's, it's, it's, it's not a famine of lack of water physically, but spiritually. In other words, empty vessels suggest the time of spiritual drought when God's refreshing and reviving spirit is withheld. The heavens is brash and the soil is hard, if you please. Like he talked about over there a while ago that he'd make it. spiritually speaking, talking about the heart, so the work of God is languishing in the churches today when the servants, in other words, present empty vessels to thirsty, thirsty households, if you please, or, in other words, it's not good enough. It's just not going, good enough. No wonder there's so much shame and confusion today across this country. because there's dearth in the land spiritually. Now, what's the cause of that condition? Our condition, because of our sin and our iniquity. We've shed innocent blood, folks, amen? We may not have put them in the arms of Molech God in that sense, but we've still shed innocent blood. Millions have been aborted in the last 35 years since the Roe versus Wade, and I know they've always been abortion going on. I understand that, but I'll tell you it's a sad day. It's a sad day whenever the children under 18 years old can get an abortion and cannot even tell their daddy and mom about it. Don't even have to sign for it, but you can't even get your ears pierced at Walmart without getting them to sign for it. Lord, help us, amen. We're in a mess. We're in a mess, right? I mean, abortion, that's shedding innocent blood. God's laws have been trampled underfoot. I mean, the courts, they're in such a, I don't know, man, you hear so much today, and it just makes you sick to your stomach. Trying to kill the woman down in Florida, pull the feeding tube out of her, and judges are letting them happen, euthanasia, and all those things. Listen, there's been an open rebellion. Sin is rampant on every side. Spiritually, we're a barren desert, if you please, in this nation I'm talking about, and the dew of His refreshing Spirit does not fall upon a barren desert. We need Him to fall upon us, say, if you please, but it's not going to do it on a barren desert, and because, and that's the shape we're in. Well, you say, is there hope for this nation? As far as the nation is concerned, well, we may have a reprieve, like even though Manasseh had committed sin, as far as Judah was concerned and God said, I'm going to destroy it, come along. And there was his grandson, I think it was, with Josiah, two kings later. And Josiah was a man who sought God because he had some godly influence. And God said, I'll not destroy it in Josiah's day. And he reconstructed some things. Revival broke out in a sense. But it was just king, sovereign king. force revival. I mean, it wasn't in the heart because when he got off the scene, evil, evil, evil, right down to the destruction of the nation. Amen. Well, we've got a reprieve. I do. The last four years, I believe we had a little bit of reprieve. But Josiah, ministry, we got it this time. And I'm not saying Bush has done all that's right and won't do all that's right because he's a human being. But I believe we got a little reprieve, a little breath of fresh air in the midst of all that. But I don't know what it's going to be when this is over with. Evil, evil, evil. Right back, we could go to. I don't know what God's going to do. I'm not a prophet in that sense. But listen, for Manasseh's sin, he had to wind up and destroy the nation because they'd gone too far. When Josiah got off the scene, listen, they had to destroy him. But our only hope is still II Chronicles 7.14. If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. We've still got to claim that and go on. Even for a nation, we still need to stand up as long as we can. I don't know whether we've committed the unpardonable, if you please, and cross God's deadline as far as the nation is concerned. But I want to tell you what we need to do. We need to pray. We need to pray and ask God to do something in our nation, in our hearts, in our churches, if you please. We need to be awakened to the fact of God's almightiness to deliver and to the infinite depth of His compassion for His people. We need to be awakened for that. you, but you say, listen, it'll not do us any good to say like, like Jer-, Jeremiah did in a sense, and in chapter 9 it said, yep, thou, O LORD, art in the midst of us, and we're, we're, we're called by thy name, leave us not. Well, it'll not do us any good to call that out unless we reframe our feet. as he said in verse 10. In other words, they have not reframed their feet in verse 10, but we must reframe our feet from the paths and error of unbelief if we ever expect God to visit us from on high. Amen? It'll not do us any good unless we're willing to pay that price. Now, no matter what happens to this nation, the Lord's still looking for a remnant that will seek Him, that will stand for what's right and be salty in America. and that salt will preserve. Amen? It'll do that. But listen, we need to be salty in the midst of a crooked and a perverse generation, and we're in that today. We ought to stand. We may and we will suffer for the cause of Christ in America. I mean, we're going to do that. We'll suffer if the dearth of this nation brings death to America, the spiritual dearth, if it brings death, we'll suffer with it. I'm talking about the remnant, amen. We'll suffer with it, but it'll be worth it all if just to be a part of the remnant of the Lord Jesus Christ, because the Lord will carry you through. And you see, I don't know about you, but I hope I want to be a part of that remnant. And you know something? I want you to be a part of that remnant, amen. I want you to be a part of that remnant. I want to see God do something for you, bring you through victoriously for God's glory in the days to come. May God help us, help us in America as an individual. Stand where we need to stand, be what we need to be, even if America goes down, stay true to Him. Continue down that path and say, I may suffer. Yeah, we will. But the remnant will go through victoriously. Amen. The remnant will go through. I want to be a part of that remnant tonight. I pray that you want to be a part of it. for God's glory. Father, I pray that we'll take heed to your warnings to the dryness, the drought, the dearth, if you please. Realize that it's here because of our sin. We're, we're, we, as, as Isaiah said, woe, woe am I. I'm a, I'm a sinner in the midst of sinful Nehemiah said, Lord, I've sinned and our people have sinned. He confessed his own first. Help us to confess our sins, to acknowledge that, to meet the requirements of 2 Chronicles 7, 14 and stand for a healing of the land. Now I know we may not see it in America as far as that, but yet you've told us to do it and we need to stand there, and if America goes down the tube, as far as the dearth in this nation brings death to this nation, then we still can stand victoriously, even though we suffer and we hurt, we can stand victoriously, because we're the remnant that's in Christ, and all in Christ will go through safe and victorious. Lord, we'll thank You. That's what I want for these people here today. Oh, that You'd just bring us all in the fold. and make it complete in you, and help us, Lord, help us, and we'll thank you for what you do, for we ask it all in Jesus' name, for His sake we pray. Heads bowed, eyes closed, altars opened, will you mind the Lord as He plays?