WWUTT 2369 Peace Peace When There is No Peace (Jeremiah 8:4-17)

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The people of Judah proclaimed peace when there was no peace. They thought that everything was fine, nothing is going to come upon us, but because they continued after sin, they faced judgment.

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When We Understand the Text. This is

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When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature

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New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

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Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Jeremiah, we come back to chapter 8.

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And as we saw in chapter 7, Judah has a heart that is not for God.

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And what we're going to see here in a description of their treachery is that they do not keep

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God's law because their heart is not after God or His Word. So let me begin reading here in verse 4, and I'll go through verse 17.

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Hear the word of the Lord. You shall say to them, Thus says the

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Lord, When men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return?

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Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit.

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They refuse to return. I have paid attention and listened, but they have not spoken rightly.

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No man relents of his evil, saying, What have I done? Everyone returns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle.

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Even the stork in the heavens knows her times, and the turtledoves swallow and crane, keep the time of their coming.

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But my people know not the rules of the Lord. How can you say we are wise, and the law of the

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Lord is with us? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie.

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The wise men shall be put to shame, they shall be dismayed and taken. Behold they have rejected the word of the

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Lord, so what wisdom is in them? Therefore I will give their wives to others, and their fields to conquerors.

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Because from the least to the greatest, everyone is greedy for unjust gain.

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From prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying,

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Peace, peace, when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?

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No, they were not at all ashamed, they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among the fallen when

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I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the Lord. When I would gather them, declares the

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Lord, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, even the leaves are withered, and what

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I gave them has passed away from them. Why do we sit still? Gather together, let us go into the fortified cities and perish there.

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And the Lord our God has doomed us to perish, and has given us poison water to drink, because we have sinned against the

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Lord. We looked for peace, but no good came, for a time of healing, but behold terror.

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The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan, at the sound of the neighing of their stallions, the whole land quakes.

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They come and devour the land and all that fills it, the city and those who dwell in it.

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For behold, I am sending among you serpents, adders, that cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you, declares the

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Lord. And then from here, to finish off this chapter, going to chapter 9,

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Jeremiah grieves for his people because they will not turn back to the Lord. Now you'll notice here that we heard, first of all, an instruction from the

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Lord, or a warning that came from God, as it was delivered by the prophet Jeremiah, and then prophetically, we heard the voice of the people crying out, because they did not turn back to God, and so here's the disaster that comes upon them.

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So this word that God has given to Jeremiah to speak to the people, contains both voices, the voice of God, warning the people, and the voice of the people.

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Here is what you're going to be saying on that day, because you did not turn back to the Lord, you will be calling out, why do we sit still?

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Let us go into the fortified cities and perish there, for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish.

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So we come back to verse 4 here, God again saying to Jeremiah, you shall say to them, thus says the

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Lord, when men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return?

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Through general revelation, God is showing Judah, when a person messes up, they do something about it.

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They don't continue to fall, you can't just keep on falling, if you fall, you get back up again.

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But these people, as you see in verse 5, they turned away in perpetual backsliding.

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It's like they fell and they fell and they fell. They hit the side of the mountain and they just kept right on going down, they did not even try to stop themselves and pull themselves back up.

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By their rebellion against God and their insistence upon sin, they just fall further and further away.

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And this is the will of their hearts, but it is also God giving them over to the will of their hearts.

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So God has cut them off and taken away their footing so that they are in this place of perpetual backsliding.

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They hold fast to deceit, God says, and they refuse to return.

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Verse 6, I have paid attention and listened, but they have not spoken rightly. No man relents of his evil, saying, what have

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I done? Everyone turns to his own course like a horse plunging headlong into battle.

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So even though punishment has come upon this people and warning has been given to this people and an example has been given to this people, because as it was said previously, look at Israel, look what happened to them, the

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Northern Kingdom, go up to Shiloh, go up to Samaria and see there what was left behind.

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And just as what happened to that people by the Assyrians, so is what is going to happen to you by the

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Babylonians because of your rebellion, because of your insistence to continue to go after sin.

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And yet though they have been given these warnings and these signs, yet no man relents of his evil saying, what have

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I done? Again, it's as if he looks at it and he doesn't even realize that he's doing wickedly.

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He doesn't see anything wrong with it anymore. He continues to go after this way that is pleasing to his flesh, but displeasing to God.

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Verse 7, even the stork in the heavens knows her times and the turtle dove swallow and crane keep the time of their coming.

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But my people know not the rules of the Lord. Again, general revelation, look at these animals.

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They know instinctively what it is that they are supposed to do. They understand the laws of physics.

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They understand the seasons. They understand their own very nature. But this people does not know the rules of the

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Lord. Though the rules of God have been given to this people, yet they do not know them. They do not walk in them.

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And so verse 8, how can you say we are wise and the law of the Lord is with us?

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And this is most likely some sort of confession that was being made by the people, particularly the scribes, because that's what comes up next in the verse.

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But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie. So this is something that they've written and repeated.

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We are wise and the law of the Lord is with us. Maybe it was some sort of signature at the end of letters that would be sent to other kingdoms.

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They would proclaim the name of Yahweh. But in their lives and in their behavior, they did not demonstrate a love for God or for his word.

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So they are saying the law of the Lord is with us. But they say these things in vain.

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They say it blasphemously to serve themselves rather than being an actual obedience to God.

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It's kind of like in the United States of America, the way we have in God we trust on our currency.

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Or we say in the Pledge of Allegiance, one nation under God. But you look around at this nation and you don't see that.

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And it doesn't matter that the president of the United States now is not as bad as the previous guy.

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He's not as far left as the other guy was. It doesn't mean we're a nation under God. There's still lots of rebellion that goes on.

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Of course, speaking I'm speaking in the context of the United States, the very character of Americans filled with all kinds of greed, filled with adultery and sensuality, filled with bloodshed, with the fact that there are still over 3 ,000 children a day in America dying by abortion.

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Not that much has changed. We might feel a little bit more comfortable in our freedoms than we did a couple of years ago, but there's nothing about our condition or even our pursuit of righteousness that's changed as a nation, as a country.

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There's not been any sense of repentance. These same things could be said of us.

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Nobody is relenting of his evil. Nobody looks at his hands and says, what have

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I done? The greatest moral evils in this country continue in the way that they have done.

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Maybe some of those things have slowed down a little bit. I'm not saying things are exactly the same as they were before, but there has not been a change in the condition of the hearts of this people.

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You see it all over the country. There are many churches that may follow suit as well. How many churches are actually leading their people in repentance to turn from their sin to the

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Lord Jesus Christ and be saved? That's where it has to begin. It's got to be in the pulpits being proclaimed from there and even going out from those churches into the world and saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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But instead, we've got our own slogans. We've got our own things that we jot down and we act like they're good luck charms just like Israel did, just like Judah did.

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Whereas we read previously in chapter seven, do not trust in these deceptive words. This is the temple of the

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Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. They thought because they had the temple, they were fine.

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Not realizing that because their hearts were turned toward evil, that God's heart was turned to destroy them.

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And so how can you say we are wise and the law of the Lord is with us?

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Verse nine, the wise men shall be put to shame. They shall be dismayed and taken. Behold, they have rejected the word of the

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Lord. So what wisdom is in them? And now that's something you can say of many churches across the

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United States as well. They have rejected the word of the Lord. Made a comment on social media earlier this week where I said that the majority of black churches in America, that which we would call a black church, primarily black pastors, black, it has a certain culture about it.

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You understand what I mean? A majority of those churches are prosperity churches. There were people that got really upset at me for saying that because that sounded racist, they said.

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And I responded, well, to be fair, most churches in America, most evangelical churches are not doctrinally sound.

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But it still goes without saying that that the prosperity theology is very rampant in the black church.

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And I showed statistical information that affirmed exactly that they have rejected the word of God.

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They have twisted the word of God to talk about earthly prosperity. And I bring that up, though.

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I bring that up to say once again that the majority of churches in America are like this prosperity theology, very big in the

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United States of America because we are a very prosperous nation. People like Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, T .D.

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Jakes, Paula White, who is a spiritual advisor to the president of the United States.

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By the way, his theology, very prosperity theology. He was influenced by Norman Vincent Peale.

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So you have this very popular, common theology in the U .S., prosperity theology.

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It hasn't gone away. It's still out there. And there's also prosperity light. Some of these huge churches may not be prosperity theology on the surface, but they'll still teach things like God wants to make you prosperous.

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Just have to believe that he wants that for you. Have to ask for it. You have to pray for it. They'll still believe or still teach things like that.

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You don't have because you don't ask. So you need to ask for more and then God will give it to you.

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They reject the word of the Lord. They've twisted the word of the Lord into something that is more profitable for me, or they will soften.

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Talk about hell. They will soften any sense of judgment because that's not friendly.

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That doesn't attract people. You've got these K -love like churches all over the place. Just be positive and encouraging.

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And so to bring people in the doors and fill these giant seats and make more money.

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But they're not really teaching the word of God. They have rejected the word of the Lord. So what wisdom is in them, even though the

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United States of America may have some of the wealthiest churches in the world, that is not immediately a sign that God is with them.

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If they have rejected the word of the Lord, what wisdom is in them? Therefore, this is

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God speaking to Judah again. We're speaking of Judah. Therefore, I will give their wives to others and their fields to conquerors.

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Everything that they have is going to belong to someone else because they have not given thanks and praise to God for all of their wonderful bounty.

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Because from the least to the greatest, everyone is greedy for unjust gain from profit to priest.

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Everyone deals falsely. We see that even within the church in America, pastors who line their pockets instead of warning the people of the judgment that is to come and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, which saves from the least to the greatest, everyone greedy for unjust gain.

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When the older generation is gone, the younger generation is going to come up and they're just going to continue the same pattern because we don't see a real sense and understanding for repentance.

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To turn from sin to Christ and be saved. Verse 11, they have healed the wound of my people lightly saying peace, peace when there is no peace.

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Again, that's kind of the way that I felt too when after this last election happened and things started to go in a more conservative direction.

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At least it was just not on the downward slope that it was on under the previous administration.

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But even though things might turn in a more favorable direction for those who are conservative, yet you see many people saying peace, peace when there is no peace.

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There's not been any sense of repentance or turning to the Lord Christ. Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?

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God asks. No, they were not at all ashamed. They did not know how to blush.

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Therefore, they shall fall among the fallen when I punish them and they shall be overthrown, says the

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Lord. Many churches out there too are showing themselves in line with some of our nation's greatest abominations.

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There are churches that are outright and openly pro LGBTQ, but then there are also churches that we're just not going to say anything about it at all.

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They give approval to those who practice them, to those who practice such things instead of warning about such evils and telling people to repent.

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Going on to verse 13, when I would gather them, declares the Lord, there are no grapes on the vine, no figs on the fig tree.

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Even the leaves are withered. There's no fruit. They're not producing any fruit. And what

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I gave them has passed away from them. And now we shift here to the voice of the people when they respond to the judgment that God is sending upon them.

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And again, this is prophetic. This is what the people are going to end up saying in response to what the

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Lord has said through the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah. Verse 14.

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Why do we sit still? Gather together. Let us go into the fortified cities and perish there for the

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Lord. Our God has doomed us to perish and has given us poison water to drink because we have sinned against the

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Lord. We looked for peace, but no good came for a time of healing.

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But behold, terror. And the same thing can happen within our own country.

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If the people do not repent and turn to the Lord Christ. And now apply these things personally as well.

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Apply these things to your life. Are you one who is saying peace, peace when there is no peace?

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You're saying peace. But in the meantime, you're going after sin that you are keeping hidden. Nobody knows about it.

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And as long as there's not these repercussions or as long as I'm not hurting anybody, then what really is the harm of this?

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Well, it will be the very thing that you will be judged for on the day of judgment, because it could be demonstrated in your life that you were not really for Christ.

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You were actually for your sin and just paying lip service to Christ, just like the Jews are doing here.

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These are fearful things that you must consider. As it says in Hebrews, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living

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God. We look for peace, but no good came and for a time of healing.

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But behold, terror. Because they didn't turn to the Lord. Verse 16, the snorting of their horses is heard from Dan.

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In other words, here they come. Our judgment is right on top of us. At the sound of the neighing of their stallions, the whole land quakes.

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They come and devour the land and all that fills it, the city and those who dwell in it.

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For behold, I am sending among you serpents, adders that cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you, declares the

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Lord. And here's the voice of God coming back to them again. They have these serpents that are coming to devour them.

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You can't charm them. It also seems to call back to the bronze serpent on the pole, right?

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Remember when the serpents were sent into the camp in the book of Numbers and they were biting the people and they were dying from the serpents?

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This was God's judgment upon them because they were grumbling against God. But Moses put a bronze serpent on a standard and raised it up.

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And if a person looked at the bronze serpent, then they would be healed and they would not die.

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And in John chapter three, Jesus tied that to himself because the son of man would be lifted up and whoever looks at him will not die.

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We live in a land that is full of devouring serpents. A lot of times we put ourselves in a position to be bitten by those serpents.

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They would destroy us with the poison, the venom that we are being injected with because we are deciding to align ourselves with the world.

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But those who turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, if you look upon him who died on the cross for our sins, you will not perish with the rest of this world.

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But even your snake bites will be healed and you will have everlasting life with God.

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We're going to stop there. The next part, of course, is Jeremiah grieving for his people, which we'll come back to next week.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read and I pray that you would guide us in your truth and may we listen to the conviction of your spirit.

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If we have sinned, may we turn from our sin to Christ, ask for forgiveness and it will be given to us as promised in 1

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John 1 9. Let us not walk in the ways of this people, but let us hold out the word of life, telling them judgment's coming.

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Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and you will live. Thank you for your mercy and your grace upon us.

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It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.