The Prophet Jeremiah Part 21

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The Prophet Jeremiah Part 22

The Prophet Jeremiah Part 22

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Let's pray. Lord Jesus, again, as we open up your word, we ask, through your Holy Spirit, the
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Holy Spirit that you sent on Pentecost, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, that you would help us to rightly understand your words.
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Because, as you have said, the one who loves you keeps and guards your word. And so, Lord, we desire to be attentive, so help us to rightly understand what you have revealed there, so that we may rightly believe, that we may confess and walk according to your word.
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We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, let me do this.
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Put this over here. Okay, we are going to continue our walk through the book of Jeremiah.
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And this is kind of a fun little bit. Remember, Jeremiah is a real prophet.
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And, what was that? That was, yeah.
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So, no, Jeremiah is not a bullfrog. Thanks for asking, Sarah. I appreciate that.
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But, I shouldn't roll my eyes, because I've said that exact joke just a few weeks ago.
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And it's okay when I do it. But, all that being said, Jeremiah is a legitimate prophet of God.
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And you'll know, every one of his prophecies come true. That is, by the way, like one of the major ways you know you're dealing with a true prophet, is because none of their words fall to the ground.
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And the children of Judah, actually, not the children of Israel, Judah goes into exile for 70 years, just like Jeremiah said, because Jeremiah got that prophecy from God himself.
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But, here's where it gets really interesting. So, have you ever had that experience where you thought, you know, the
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Bible is saying something way different than this really popular, well -known pastor or preacher?
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You know, it may have been somebody that you were, you know, who was your pastor when you were attending church. And you had this like sinking feeling, like, well, who am
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I to say that this person is wrong, and that they're not preaching the truth?
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I mean, after all, they're a pastor, right? By the way, we pastors don't get a pass.
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And just being a pastor doesn't mean that you somehow have some magical dispensation from the
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Holy Spirit so that you're never wrong. Now, the only time I'm ever never wrong is when it comes to, you know, like, stuff that I've, in my marriage.
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I'm always right when I'm, you know. All right, and you'll note that God didn't strike me down.
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But all of that being said here, Jeremiah is about to receive a bona fide death threat.
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And who he is receiving the death threat death threat from is important.
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And it kind of plays into this idea that in the great apostasy that is prefigured here in the book of Jeremiah, in the great apostasy, you're going to have well -known pastors and preachers and people who should know better, who are supposed to be preaching the word, holding the line, speaking the truth, that they're going to go off into error so badly that when truth shows up, they will react violently against it.
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I think of a very close pastor friend of mine who is formerly now of the
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LCA, Lutheran Church of Australia. And he was formally disciplined by the
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Lutheran Church of Australia for telling a heretic that he was a heretic. Gasp, okay.
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Legitimately, he was ordered to apologize for telling this fellow that he was teaching heresy.
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But the guy was legitimately teaching heresy. So note then, you know, this is one of those things where we must come to grips with a reality.
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And the reality is that we human beings, even if we're in the pulpit or are ordained, we can even be in error, gravely so.
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So here's what it says, in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, the word came from Yahweh.
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Thus says Yahweh, stand in the court of Yahweh's house. So let the geography sink in.
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We're going to go into the court of the temple. This is the place where God has caused his name to dwell.
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I want you to speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the Lord. All the words that I command you to speak to them, do not hold back a word.
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It may be that they will listen. So you're going to know, God, his hope is that they will listen to his words, that they will repent and everyone turn from his evil way, so that I may relent of the disaster that I intend to do to them because of their evil deeds.
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Again, note, God will act in judgment, but usually when God acts in judgment, it is after a long and arduous amount of time where God has allowed himself to be provoked and to be provoked and to be provoked and to be provoked.
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But all that time when people have continued to go deeper and deeper into sin, God is sending prophets and preachers and those who preach the word to turn them from their evil.
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You'll note, God, his desire for them is not that they become the subject and the objects of his judgment, but that they receive from him mercy and grace.
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So you shall say to them, thus says Yahweh, if you will not listen to me to walk in my law that I have set before you and to listen to the words of my servants, the prophets whom
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I send to you urgently, though you have not listened, then I will make this house like Shiloh and I will make the city a curse for all the nations of the earth.
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Now, what's the reference here to Shiloh? Shiloh used to be the place where the tabernacle was, right?
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And at this point, you know, it's an abandoned city. It used to be an important place.
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You think of the times of Samuel the prophet, Shiloh was the place where the tabernacle was, right?
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And so God is saying, just like the tabernacle ain't at Shiloh anymore, guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to do the same thing here.
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And I'm going to take this temple and just wreck it. And I'm going to make this city, the city of Jerusalem a curse for all the nations.
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The priests and, I wish they had air quotes in Hebrew, and the prophets, okay, the priests and the prophets, all the people heard
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Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of Yahweh. And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that Yahweh had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid a hold of him saying, you shall die.
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They're accusing him of blaspheming, of giving a false prophecy, but he's not.
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So why have you prophesied in the name of Yahweh saying this house shall be like Shiloh and this city shall be a desolate without inhabitant.
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And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of Yahweh.
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You know, this kind of reminds me, it reminds me of what happened to the
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Apostle Paul. You know, you think about the Apostle Paul, let me, let me pull that up.
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Let's see here, let's just kind of drop into the middle of the book of Acts. Let me go backwards just a little bit,
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I think. All right, so Paul's giving his defense in chapter 22.
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Paul speaks to the people. All right, yeah, here we go. So when seven days were almost complete, the
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Jews from Asia seeing Paul in the temple stirred up a whole crowd, laid hands on him, crying out, men of Israel, help!
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This is the man who's teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place.
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Similar charge, right? And so note here, this is the big irony.
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This is the big, what's going on here? You have people who have the
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Bible. Now granted, at the time that this occurred, they had the
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Old Testament and by the time Paul is arrested, then you're going to have a few epistles and you're going to have a few of the gospels at this point, at least two.
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Luke and you're going to have the gospel of Mark. But these Jews have rejected
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Christ and so there they are. Paul, he's not even preaching in the temple.
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He's there to basically pay the fee for some fellows who were going to break their
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Nazarite vow and they see Paul in the temple and they're crying out, moreover, he brought
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Greeks into the temple. He's defiled this holy place. For they had previously seen Trompheus, the
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Ephesian, with him in the city and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. And all the city was stirred up.
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The people ran together. They seized Paul, dragged him out of the temple and at once the gates were shut and as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all
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Jerusalem was in confusion. And so with the rest of Paul, you sit there and go, you'll note there seems to be a common theme here.
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We human beings do not want to hear
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God's words. We are very annoyed when people tell us that Jesus is the
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Christ and salvation is only in him and we need to repent, turn from our evil and be forgiven.
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People get really annoyed by this and oddly enough, they get annoyed by it in the church.
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It's weird. Just, you know, just weird. So coming back to poor
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Jeremiah, so the people gather around Jeremiah in the house of Yahweh. When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king's house to the house of Yahweh and took their seat in the entry of the new gate of the house of Yahweh.
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Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, this man deserves the sentence of death because he has prophesied against the city as you have heard with your own ears.
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Who's leading this charge here? The people who should know better, but they don't.
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So Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and the people saying, Yahweh sent me to prophesy against this house and the city, all the words that you've heard.
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Now therefore, mend your ways and your deeds and obey the voice of Yahweh your God and Yahweh will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you.
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But as for me, behold, I'm in your hands. You do with me as seems good and right to do. You want to kill me? You go right ahead.
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I'd finally be out of this bad job. Hang on a second.
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I have an idea. I was just thinking about this. I could use my iPad as like a second screen and I could move the questions in the video over to that.
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Hang on a second here. I'm going to see if it'll let, no, it probably won't let me do that, will it? Yeah, it might allow that.
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Hang on a second here. Yeah, no,
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I'll figure this out maybe next week. Yeah, or in a couple of weeks. I'm just trying to figure out how to keep my screen real estate.
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There we go. All right. So coming back. All right. So kill me if you want.
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Do with me as seems right to you. Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you're going to bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon the city, its inhabitants.
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For in truth, Yahweh sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears. So then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, well, this man does not deserve the sentence of death for he has spoken to us in the name of Yahweh, our
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God. So note some of them here have changed their tune. All right. And they're heeding this and watch where they go with this.
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So a certain of the elders of the land arose and spoke to all the assembled people saying
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Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and said to all the people of Judah, thus says
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Yahweh of armies, Zion shall be plowed as a field, Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins and the mountain of the house of the wooded height.
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And did Hezekiah, the king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Did he not fear Yahweh and entreat the favor of Yahweh and did not
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Yahweh relent of that of the disaster that he had pronounced against them? But we are about to bring great disaster upon ourselves.
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All of a sudden, God's word kind of comes to life in the memory of some of these guys. Oh yeah, there was a prophet and he said this.
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Ah, there's consistency here, right? So there was another man who prophesied in the name of Yahweh, Uriah, the son of Shemiah from Kiriath and Jerim.
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And he prophesied against the city and against this land in words like those of Jeremiah. And when
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King Jehoiakim with all of his warriors and all the officials heard his words, the king sought to put him to death.
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But when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt. Then King Jehoiakim sent to Egypt certain men,
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El Nethan, the son of Achbor and others with him. And they took Uriah from Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim who struck him down with a sword and dumped his dead body in the burial place of the common people.
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But the hand of Ahacham, the son of Shaphan, was with Jeremiah so that he was not given over to the people to be put to death.
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So you'll note that God raises up a second witness who is prophesying the same things.
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This fellow by the name of Uriah, the son of Shemiah. And Jehoiakim succeeded in having him killed.
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He fled to Egypt, but that didn't matter. The king gave him a very inglorious burial, basically burying him in a potter's field among the common folk, people who can't even afford a grave.
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But Jeremiah himself is spared, but not poor
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Uriah. And you'll note that's kind of the fate of those who preach, teach, confess, and proclaim the truth.
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If you think you're going to get through this life without any kind of persecution, or somehow you can just kind of skate through all this unscathed, and that you can just preach
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Jesus and the gospel and tell everyone there's salvation in him, without you having to suffer anything for it, you are gravely mistaken.
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But you'll note that we're preaching the same message. God has chosen a day when he is going to judge the earth by the one whom he has chosen,
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Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ, the fact that he has risen bodily from the grave is proof that he is the one who's to judge the living and the dead, and all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him.
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And on that day of judgment, Christ has made it clear how that's going to go down. Disaster for those who will not hear the words of God, who persist in sin and unbelief, will not relent of the evil that they are engaging in, but there is mercy, forgiveness, and peace for all who call on the name of Christ and pray for his forgiveness and his mercy and repent.
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God relents of that disaster. And so when God acts in judgment in the
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Old Testament, these are like little mini versions of what's coming at the end.
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So now we continue on. This just gets more interesting. So in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh.
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Thus says Yahweh, the Yahweh said to me, make yourself straps and yoke bars, put them on your neck, send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the sons of Ammon, the king of Tyre, the king of Sidon, by the hand of the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and give them this charge for their masters.
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Thus says Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, this is what you shall say to your masters.
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Is it I who by my great power and my outstretched arm, it is I who by my great power and outstretched arm have made the earth with the men and the animals that are on the earth, and I give to it whomever it seems right to me.
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Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant. So no, not only is
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Judah going to be conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, everybody is going to be.
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And so envoys have come into Jerusalem and they're going to be going out and Jeremiah is to strategically place himself where he can announce to them so they can go and tell their different monarchs, oh yeah, y 'all are going to be defeated by Nebuchadnezzar.
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You know that I'm sure that's just a joy to hear. So Nebuchadnezzar, my servant,
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I've given him also the beasts of the field to serve him. All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the time of his own land comes.
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Then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave. But if any nation or kingdom will not serve this
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Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, note that even
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Jeremiah has a prop here to kind of help with his teaching. He's wearing a yoke around his neck while saying these words, which
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I'm sure got the attention of a few people. Who's the guy with the yoke? If anyone will not serve
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Nebuchadnezzar, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine, with pestilence, declares Yahweh, until I have consumed it by his hand.
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So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your fortune tellers, or your sorcerers who are saying to you, you shall not serve the king of Babylon, for it's a lie that they're prophesying to you.
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With the result that you will be removed far from your land, I will drive you out and you will perish.
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But any nation that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave on its own land to work it and to dwell there, declares
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Yahweh. Yes, sir. Yeah, he was at first.
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Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was absolutely a slap. And you're going to note that Nebuchadnezzar ends well, by the way.
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Well, I can talk about that in a second. But before I do, Mango Passionfruit is going to do some exegesis for us,
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I think. Yeah, what came to my mind was, okay, some
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Christians or some believers would see punishment coming their way, or persecution, and jump ship, right, and jump on the other side.
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And I remember you preaching on a text when it says, when Jesus said to just stay, with all the darks and all the trials and tribulations, just stay, right?
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And it seems that we are kind of assuming that, okay, it's better on that side, but it could be a case where the saints are being martyred as judgment for the unbeliever, right?
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Yeah, I think you're right, because it is absolutely possible for somebody to, for God to have his saints martyred as a judgment against people, because when you martyred the saints, what disappears?
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The gospel. Yeah, right. God's Word disappears when you martyr saints.
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Yep, yeah, absolutely. That's absolutely true. You're bringing judgment on yourself.
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So, good point. Now, I'm going to do a little excursus here for a second. So, Michael Rose had rightly pointed out that this has got to be absolutely galling for these
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Jews to hear that they're going to have to be under the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, because Nebuchadnezzar, he's a pagan, all right?
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And the book of Daniel bears this out really well, that Nebuchadnezzar is legitimately a pagan, and that being the case,
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I would note that God ends up having mercy on Nebuchadnezzar, and he starts off very poorly, but ends well.
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In fact, there is an epistle. Nebuchadnezzar is one of the authors of Scripture, and I know that sounds weird, but it's true.
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There's an epistle recorded for us in the book of Daniel written by King Nebuchadnezzar.
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And so, you'll note that although he's going to be God's, you know, one who judges, and God's going to put all this dominion and authority under Nebuchadnezzar over kingdoms and lands and animals,
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Nebuchadnezzar got a little high on his own ego. And so,
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Nebuchadnezzar has written for us this epistle, and it's written to you, by the way, you're in the people who are supposed to be listening to this.
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King Nebuchadnezzar, this is Daniel chapter four, to all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth.
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Do you fit into that category? Yeah, that's you, that's me, right? So, peace be multiplied to you.
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It has seemed good to me to show the signs and the wonders that the Most High God has done for me. How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders.
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His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. His dominion, it endures from generation to generation.
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I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace.
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I saw a dream that made me afraid as I lay in the bed. The fancies and the visions of my head alarmed me.
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So, I made a decree that all the wise men of Babylon should be brought before me and that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream.
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Then the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, the astrologers, they came in, and I told them the dream, but they could not make known to me its interpretation.
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At last, Daniel came in before me, he who was named Belshazzar, after the name of my
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God. And you're going to note here, he's not saying that that was his God at the end of his life, but at the time that this occurred, that was who
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Nebuchadnezzar was worshiping. And poor Daniel, this exile from Judea, gets to be named after a pagan deity.
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This is just awful, right? So, after the name of my God, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods,
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I told him the dream, saying, O Belshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and that no mystery is too difficult for you, tell me the vision of my dream that I saw and their interpretation.
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The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these. I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great.
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The tree grew and became strong, its top reached to the heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth.
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Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.
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I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven.
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He proclaimed aloud and said thus, Chop down the tree, lop off its branches, strip it of its leaves, scatter its fruit, let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches, but leave the stump of its roots in the earth bound with a band of iron and bronze amid the tender grass of the field.
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Let him be wet with the dew of heaven, let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth, and let his mind be changed from a man's, and let a beast's mind be given to him, and let seven periods of time pass over him.
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The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the
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Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he will, and sets over it the lowliest of men."
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That's a prophecy of Jesus right there. And this dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, I saw.
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And you, O Belshazzar, tell me the interpretation, because all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.
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Barf, right? Okay, he's still a pagan. So Daniel, whose name was
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Belshazzar, was dismayed for a while and his thoughts alarmed him.
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The king answered and said, Belshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation alarm you. Belshazzar answered and said, my lord, may the dream be for those who hate you and its interpretation for your enemies.
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The tree you saw, which grew and became strong so that its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth, whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, under which beasts of the field found shade, and whose branches the birds of heavens lived.
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It is you, O king, you have grown and become strong. Your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven, and your dominion to the ends of the earth.
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And because the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, chop down the tree, destroy it, but leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, it in the tender grass of the field, let him be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven periods of time pass over him.
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This is the interpretation, O king. It is a decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king, that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field.
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You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, till you know that the
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Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will. And as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be confirmed for you from the time that you know that heaven rules.
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Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you. Break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.
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Repent. Note that Nebuchadnezzar gets the same treatment that Judah gets.
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Turn from your evil. God has threatened Nebuchadnezzar with disaster, and he gets the same message that we all get.
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Repent. Turn from your evil. Be forgiven. So all this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar.
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At the end of 12 months, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. A whole year passes by, and he hasn't repented yet.
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And the king answered and said, is not this great Babylon which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence, and for the glory of my majesty?
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Right, you can see his teeth just going ding. And while the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven.
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O king Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken. The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field.
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And you shall be made to eat the grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you until you know the most high rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he will.
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Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men, ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair grew as long as eagle's feathers, and his nails were like bird's claws.
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Yes, God, yeah, yes, that's, you'll note that God did not expect
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Nebuchadnezzar's free will to somehow be sovereign over God's will, right? So God acts in judgment here, and I make this aside.
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Within the charismatic movement, there is a belief that there was this great outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Toronto, called the
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Toronto Blessing, right? And as part of the Toronto Blessing, there were people in charismatic churches, plural, who were, well, claiming that God the
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Holy Spirit had fallen on them so strongly that they got down on all fours and were barking like dogs.
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When God takes a human being and gives them the mind of a beast, that's in judgment. It's judgment, right?
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So at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven.
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My reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion.
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His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will.
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There it is, Josh, right there. Look at that. God does according to his will. And among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, none can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done?
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At the same time, my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me.
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My counselors and my Lord sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me.
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Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, I praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all of his works are right.
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His ways are just. Those who walk in pride, he is able to humble.
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Yeah, those who walk in pride, he's able to humble. That is the epistle of Nebuchadnezzar, recorded for us in the book of Daniel, written to you, to me.
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And so you'll note, Nebuchadnezzar, although pagan, unbeliever, starts off very poorly, by God sending the exiles of Judah into Babylon, they brought with them the word of God.
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And God brought Nebuchadnezzar to real penitent faith in the one true
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God. And he relented of the disaster too. You know, he let him have a foretaste of disaster, but the guy repented and relented.
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So you'll note, Nebuchadnezzar acts more wise than the people of Judah at the time of Jeremiah.
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Right, that's also further condemnation, right? Because on the day of judgment, Nebuchadnezzar is, he's going to stand with the sheep.
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And you can just hear some people screaming right now. In fact, let me do this, all right?
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You'll note that those people who call themselves believers in the one true God, who really care nothing about God's word, who think it's all about their righteousness, their achievements, their piety, and all the things that they do, there is an interesting text.
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And let me just do a quick word search, Nineveh. All right, Nineveh.
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And I'm going to look in the Gospels for this, because Jesus says something very interesting in this regard.
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Because you remember those Ninevites? They were, Ninevites were so cruel in their warfare, they make the
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Nazis look like schoolgirls, like for real, okay? Jesus, so this is the text,
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Matthew 12, some of the scribes and the Pharisees answered Jesus saying, we wish to see a sign from you.
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We wish to see a sign. And no, Jesus has been performing signs aplenty, right?
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And so he said, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except for the sign of the prophet
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Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
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Talking about his death and his resurrection. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation, and they will condemn it.
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For they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
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The queen of the south will arise up at the judgment with this generation, and condemn it.
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For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Behold, something greater than Solomon is here. So you're going to note here, you can add to this list.
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Nebuchadnezzar is going to rise up, and he's going to condemn the generations of men who rejected
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Christ. Because at signs and wonders and dreams, and the interpretation by the prophet
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Daniel, because Daniel was a prophet, Nebuchadnezzar repented. So you're going to note something here.
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We all are being called to do the same thing.
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Generations and generations and generations of human beings, whether they live in the
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Middle East, or in Africa, or in Asia, or in the Americas, or wherever they are from, whatever the time or the period, we're all getting the same exact message.
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It is the message of repent, turn from our evil, call upon God for mercy and forgiveness.
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He will pardon, and He will relent. You begin to feel like there's some kind of uniformity here, because you should.
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People in our day, they're just done hearing it. Stop telling me I need to repent. Stop telling me my deeds are wicked and evil.
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I just need to do me. I need to be me, and I got to be my authentic self, whatever that is.
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All right, so here's a question. Did one of the prayers this morning say we join with angels and archangels, not dark angels?
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So Karen, it's angels and archangels. Okay, A -R -C -H, arch, you know,
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I should probably pronounce it archangels, that might help a little bit. We do not join with dark angels anywhere.
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Okay, therefore with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we law to magnify your glorious name, evermore praising you and saying, right, that's how that goes.
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All right, Victor says, so therefore with angels and archangels. Good, thank you, Victor, for saving my bacon here.
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Glad you know liturgy well enough. Okay, Naya says, I always thought he's a pastor.
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He knows more than I do. Even what they said was off. I thought it was, I was the one who was wrong for thinking they were wrong.
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That's an easy thing to do, and that's part of the experience, if you would.
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As you grow in your understanding of God's Word, and you can clearly see, holy smokes, that church
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I was going to, they weren't telling the truth. Okay, it is a normal and not a bad thing to sit there and go, man, who am
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I, right? That's a good gut check, but at the end of the day, you come back to the
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Word, and you go, well, the Word says, and they're not rightly handling
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God's Word. That's the scary bit, and so the question now, who are you going to trust, earthly authority or the
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Word of God? And you'll know, God is no respecter of persons, so when
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Rome claims that that it's impossible for Rome to fall into apostasy, that's just false.
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That's just absolutely false. I mean, and even the church fathers would beg to differ. I think it was
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Augustine who said it. If it was not Augustine, it was somebody who was a contemporary of his. He said that the road to hell is paved with the skulls of priests, and that with mile markers being the skulls of bishops.
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Has anything changed? No, nothing's changed, okay?
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All right, Nia says, I always thought I was being prideful. No, we humbly bow before what God's Word says, all right?
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All right, so the Jennings, so we have to jump off here for now. Please keep us in prayer for this coming few weeks.
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We have multiple trips with two to three hour drives when actually tomorrow. All right, so we pray for travel mercies for the
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Jennings family. May God have mercy on them as they travel. May God have mercy on my wife and I as we travel too. In Jesus name, amen.
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All right, let's see here. Okay, so all right, so let's come back then.
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How are we doing on time? Not too bad, not too bad. I'm not used to properly managing my time in class, so when it happens, it's kind of, so it's like finding a $20 bill in your pocket.
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You know, it's like, whoa, $20, man, I'm rich, and then you realize, wait a second, that was my money.
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It'd be better if it was my mom's, but oh well. All right, so coming back then.
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God correcting the so -called prophets of Jeremiah's time. Do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your fortune tellers, your sorcerers, they're all who are all saying to you, you shall not serve the king of Babylon.
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It's a lie that they're prophesying to you. With the result that you will be removed far from your land,
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I will drive you out and you will perish, but any nation that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon will serve him.
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So you're going to know, I've said this before, I'm going to re -emphasize this. God is going to act in judgment and he has left an escape route.
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All you have to do is trust his words and act on what he said to do.
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Who are you going to trust? You're and this Jeremiah guy who's running around with a yoke around his neck, or are you going to trust these other prophets who are saying,
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I feel that the Lord is saying right now that Nebuchadnezzar is going to suddenly disappear.
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Who are you going to listen to? And anybody who trusts in the words of God, the real words, they will not perish.
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They will live. So no, even now, all right, the world that we live in, it's a dark place and it's getting darker by the minute.
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I feel like 2020 couldn't have gotten worse. Then 2021 came around. 2022, this is a year to write home about, man.
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Holy smokes, right? It's only getting worse and God will eventually act in judgment.
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But when Jesus shows up, it's too late. But in the meantime, it's not his will that any should perish.
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So we continue to preach the mercy, the forgiveness, the grace, the reconciliation that is in Christ, calling people to repent so that they do not perish.
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Now to King Zedekiah, the king of Judah, I spoke in like manner. Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon.
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I'm sure the king was really keen on those words, right? Serve him and his people and you'll live.
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Why will you and your people die by sword, by famine, by pestilence as Yahweh has spoken concerning any nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?
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Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are saying to you, you shall not serve the king of Babylon for it's a lie that they are prophesying to you.
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So you get a note. God told Jeremiah, you give them these words, don't hold anything back.
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And guess who he got to deliver the message to? To the king himself. And did he hold anything back?
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Oh no. Okay. So Jeremiah says about those false prophets,
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God says, I haven't sent them, declares Yahweh, but they're prophesying falsely in my name with the result that I will drive you out.
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I will punish you and the prophets who are prophesying to you. And this should cause every
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YouTube prophet to take pause. Because when you're speaking words that God has not given you to speak,
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God has promised he's going to act in judgment. Second commandment is in play. You shall not misuse the name of the
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Lord your God in vain. And the scripture also says, God will not hold him guiltless who takes his name into vanity, into falsity, right?
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So those false prophets, they're going to perish. So then I spoke to the priests. Why is he having to talk to the priest?
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Because they're corrupt too. Okay. Is there anybody in authority who isn't gone?
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You'll note that Jeremiah is, he's a true prophet, but he's never been to their schools.
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Okay. They haven't ordained him. He's speaking the truth, but he's doing so as an outsider and the guys who are on the inside to a person, they're completely gone.
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So then I spoke to the priests and to all the people saying, thus says Yahweh, do not listen to the words of your prophets who are prophesying to you saying, behold, the vessels of Yahweh's house will now shortly be brought back from Babylon.
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For it's a lie that they're prophesying to you. Do not listen to them. Serve the King of Babylon and live.
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Why should the city become a desolation if they are prophets? And if the word of Yahweh is with them, then let them intercede with Yahweh of armies so that the vessels that are left in the house of Yahweh in the house of the
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King of Judah and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon. For thus says the Lord of armies concerning the pillars, the sea, the stand, the rest of the vessels that are left in this city, which
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Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon did not take away when he took into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the
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King of Judah and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem. Thus says Yahweh of armies, the
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God of Israel concerning the vessels that are left in the house of Yahweh in the house of the King of Judah and in Jerusalem, they shall be carried to Babylon and remain there until the day when
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I visit them, declares Yahweh, and then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.
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So you get a feeling for what the false prophets were saying. Oh, the house, the utensils of the house of the
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Lord, they're all coming back. They'll be here next Wednesday. Here's your tracking number. They're coming via UPS, right?
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They're lying to their teeth, right? And well, who was justified?
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Who was vindicated in all of this? Jeremiah. But now we get to Hananiah.
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I don't even know if I could do this guy justice in 10 minutes, but Hananiah, boy, this guy's a piece of work.
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So in that same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, the King of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year,
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Hananiah, the son of Azar, the prophet from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of Yahweh.
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So there's a showdown in the temple in the presence of the priests and all the people saying, thus says
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Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, I have broken the yoke of the King of Babylon.
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Within two years, I will bring back to this place all the vessels of Yahweh's house, which
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Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, took away from this place and carried to Babylon. I will also bring back to this place
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Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the King of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, declares
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Yahweh, for I will break the yoke of the King of Babylon. That, my friends, is a false prophecy, okay?
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Thus saith the Lord, right? This guy has no fear of God. So then the prophet
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Jeremiah spoke to Hananiah, the prophet, in the presence of the priests and all the people who are standing in the house of Yahweh, and the prophet
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Jeremiah said, Amen, Amen. May Yahweh do so. May Yahweh make the words that you have prophesied come true and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of Yahweh and all the exiles.
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Yet, hear now this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times, they all prophesied war and famine and pestilence against many countries and against great kingdoms.
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And you're going to note here, war, famine, pestilence. This should sound like the book of Revelation because it's supposed to, okay?
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As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that Yahweh has truly sent the prophet.
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This is a good text because what does this basically assume regarding a prophecy?
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If the prophet's a true prophet, it will come to pass. If the person's a false prophet, it will not come to pass.
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I will note that we are into June of 2022, but back at the end of May of 2021, we had to take on a false prophet on YouTube who prophesied in March of 2021 that God was going to send an epic storm to Anchorage, Alaska, okay?
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In the month of May of 2021, and that polar bears would be wandering through Anchorage, Alaska during that time of the year.
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And well, in May of 2021, Anchorage had some beautiful weather. Beautiful, beautiful, just stunning.
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And Josh and I, we captured some webcam footage throughout the month. Thankfully, the city of Anchorage posts on the internet and on YouTube that you can go back and look at the beautiful, beautiful weather that they had.
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And Troy Black was the name of this false prophet, right? And his words did not come to pass.
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He's a false prophet. True prophets get it right 100 % of the time. So then the prophet
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Hananiah, not exactly thrilled with... I think
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Hananiah, I think he's going to be experiencing a micro aggression here. I think this is how this is going down.
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So the prophet Hananiah, he took the yoke bars from the neck of Jeremiah, broke them.
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I don't know how you pull that off, but he managed to find a way to have those yoke bars broken.
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Then Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people saying, thus says Yahweh, even so will
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I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. I'm sure when he broke it, he said, basta, right?
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Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, thus says
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Yahweh, even so I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within two years.
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But Jeremiah, the prophet went his way. Jeremiah has already spoken his peace at this point, but God's not done yet.
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So sometime after that, the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke bars from off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet.
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The word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, you go tell Hananiah, thus says Yahweh, you've broken wooden bars, but you've made in their place bars of iron.
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For thus says Yahweh of armies. And here's the note here, by prophesying falsely in the name of Yahweh and contradicting
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Yahweh's real prophet, Hananiah is guilty of speaking rebellion and sedition against the one true
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God. And to be giving false words and claiming that they are true words and having people act on those words and in rebellion against the true words that God has given.
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So God's at this point, he knows Hananiah by name and now he gets his own prophecy.
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Thus says the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, I have put upon the neck of all these nations an iron yoke to serve
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Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. It would start off as wood is now iron, it's going to get worse. They shall serve him for I've given to him even the beasts of the field.
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And Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet Hananiah, listen, Hananiah, Yahweh hasn't sent you and you've made this people trust in a lie.
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Therefore, thus says Yahweh, behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die because you've uttered rebellion against Yahweh.
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In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died and they lived happily ever after.
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Okay, all right. So no, God does act in judgment against these false prophets and when a false prophet arises, he's causing people to trust in lies and by doing so they are rebelling against God.
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That's ultimately what false prophets do, so. All right, this is where we're going to end off and we're going to need like a dustpan or something.
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All right, peace to you brothers and sisters. Lord willing, we'll see you next time.