WWUTT 2469 Jeremiah Goes on Trial (Jeremiah 26:1-27:22)

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Jeremiah delivered a word of warning to the people, and the people hated him for it.

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We're going to kill him, but God protected him. Even in this message that Jeremiah delivered, we find an exhortation for us to be faithful servants in the present day when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the

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Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our

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Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Jeremiah, we are up to chapter 26.

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And this is part of a section where Jeremiah has been making various confrontations.

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He opposed kings, even back in chapters 21 and 22.

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Then he opposed false prophets in chapter 23. He came up against the people and warned them of their wicked ways in chapters 24 and 25, which we finished up last week.

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And here, Jeremiah is going to make a confrontation once again with the people and with the false prophets who are misleading them.

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And this will take us all the way through chapter 29. Yeah, that famous chapter of Jeremiah where we have

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Jeremiah 29, 11, one of the most famous verses in the entire Bible. But that message there, even in Jeremiah 29, 11, comes on the heels of Jeremiah having confronted one of the false prophets who claimed to be speaking from Yahweh, but instead was misleading the people to their own destruction.

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So let me begin reading here in Jeremiah 26. I'll go through verse 9. Hear the word of the

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Lord. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the

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Lord. Thus says the Lord, stand in the court of the Lord's house and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the

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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 and everyone will turn from his evil way, that I may relent of the disaster that I intend to do to them because of their evil deeds.

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You shall say to them, thus says the Lord, 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 this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.

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The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the

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Lord. And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him saying, you shall die.

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Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord saying this house shall be like Shiloh in this city shall be desolate without inhabitant.

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And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the

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King's house to the house of the Lord and took their seat in the entry of the new gate of the house of the

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Lord. 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 this city.

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As you have heard with your own ears. So Jeremiah has come with the word of God and the people hate him for it.

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And they even want to put him to death just because Jeremiah did exactly what the

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Lord told him to do. He go, he went into the house of God. He went into the temple and everybody that came in, it was warned of them.

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You must turn from your wicked ways or else God is going to make this place like Shiloh and even

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Jerusalem itself would be a curse for all the nations of the earth. Like they would use it as a byword as though when, when somebody does something wicked or bad or you see an evil place, it would say,

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Oh, there, there's a place that's going to be like Jerusalem. Just like we might speak of Sodom and Gomorrah today, we see all the wickedness and the evil that goes on in our own nations, the love of sexual immorality.

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And we would look at this and say, this place has become like Sodom and Gomorrah. And God is saying, even the name

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Jerusalem will be like this for people on the earth because of the wickedness that they continue to do and not turn from.

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Now because Jeremiah has said this word, then the priests and the prophets get angry.

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They arrest him. They say, you shall die. And they bring him out for judgment. So they take him to the, uh, the, the new gate, the entry of the new gate of the house of the

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Lord. Now remember that gates, the gates of the city were where judgments were held and you would have the elders and the nobles of the city would take seats in those places to listen to a case or a cause, and they would make a determination over that case.

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So continuing on verse 16, then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, this man does not deserve the sentence of death for he has spoken to us in the name of the

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Lord, our God and 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, king of Judah and said to all the people of Judah, thus says the

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Lord of hosts, Zion shall be plowed as a field, Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins and the mountain of the house of a wooded height, sorry, and the mountain of the house, a wooded height, that's referring to Mount Moriah that the temple of God would not be there anymore.

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So there is another prophet who has prophesied these things before. So we didn't put those guys to death.

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Why would we be putting Jeremiah to death? Maybe we should listen to him. If this is in alignment with what other prophets have said, then how can we sit here and say that what

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Jeremiah has said is wrong and put him to death when he's speaking the word of God? You know, what's interesting is they're examining

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Jeremiah in light of what other prophets have said in light of scripture, just like we would test anyone's claim with what scripture says.

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Remember when the apostle Paul came to that city called Berea in Acts chapter 17 and whatever

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Paul said, Paul is an apostle of Jesus Christ. He has come there to proclaim the gospel and whatever he said, the

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Bereans tested with the scriptures. They went to the old Testament scriptures to make sure that whatever it was

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Paul was saying was in agreement with those words that God had said before through the law and the prophets.

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And so here you even have that kind of examination going on in the gate as Jeremiah is on trial.

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Okay. He said he spoke in the word of the Lord. Have we ever heard anything like this before?

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And indeed it had been prophesied back in the days of Hezekiah when he was king of Judah that Zion will be plowed as a field.

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Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins and the mountain of the house, a wooded height.

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Who is this Micah of Moresheth? Well, we already know it's the book of Micah. In fact, what is being quoted here is right out of Micah chapter three.

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So they are testing Jeremiah with scripture. Verse 19, did

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Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death talking about Micah?

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Did he not fear the Lord and entreat the favor of the Lord and did not the Lord relent of the disaster that he had pronounced against them?

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But we are about to bring great disaster upon ourselves. There are some people there who are willing to reason and they recognize we have done wickedly.

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Jeremiah is calling out that wickedness. We have worshiped false gods. They sacrifice children to to Moloch.

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And now God was going to bring judgment against this people, their sexual immorality, their false sacrifices, their empty worship and everything else.

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What worship they did bring to the temple, though they would say it was in the name of Yahweh, it was empty because they were sharing their love with all this, all these other false gods.

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And God had already said in his law that he is a jealous God and he would not share them with any other, that they must worship the

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Lord, their God, and him only should you serve. So these people recognize we're about to bring great disaster upon ourselves, especially if we're going to put to death a prophet of God.

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And so verse 20, there was another man who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah, the son of Shemiah from Kereth -Jerim.

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He prophesied against this city and against this land in words like those of Jeremiah.

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And when King Jehoiakim, with all 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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Elnathan, the son of Akbor and others with him. And they took Uriah from Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, who struck him down with the sword and dumped his dead body into the burial place of the common people.

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But the hand of Ahicham, the son of Shefan was with Jeremiah so that he was not given over to the people to be put to death.

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When Micah had prophesied what he had prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, the people repented.

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Hezekiah and all the people with him repented before God. And God stopped Sennacherib's invasion of Judah, which had happened, this was about a hundred years before.

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So now the elders are saying, we need to obey Jeremiah.

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Because if we obey him, just as Jeremiah said, then God will turn away from this disaster that he is going to bring against us.

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Now there's this other account that's given by Jeremiah. And it doesn't appear as if this is part of that same testimony that's being made there at Jeremiah's trial.

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But it's something that's been written down with regards to this history of what

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Judah has done with their prophets. So there's another guy whose name is Uriah, the son of Shemiah from Kiriath -Jerim.

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He prophesied something. Jehoiakim even sent to Egypt to retrieve this guy who had fled for his life.

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And they bring him back and they kill him. Was Jehoiakim, was he blessed as a result of his rejecting a prophet of God and putting him to death?

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Now the natural response to that would be no. So because Micah's words were heeded,

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God blessed the people and they relented of the disaster that came upon them. Because Uriah's words were not heeded, then there was no blessing that was given to Jehoiakim.

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So this is the consideration. But God had protected Jeremiah. He did not receive the same fate as Uriah.

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And so he was not put to death. So then we get to chapter 27.

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And here's a prophecy that is made in chapter 27. I think I can put chapters 26 and 27 together in next week, 28 and 29.

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So in 27, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the

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Lord. So at the start of chapter 26, we had the reign of Jehoiakim, who is the son of Josiah.

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And now here we have the reign of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah. But remember that of these other sons of Josiah, their reigns were very limited.

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And this is the time in which Nebuchadnezzar comes into Babylon and seizes the people and takes them away into exile.

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So this word comes to Jeremiah from the Lord. Thus the Lord said to me, make yourself straps and yoke bars and put them on your neck.

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Send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab and the king of the sons of Ammon, the king of Tyre and the king of Sidon by the hand of the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah, king of Judah.

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Give them this charge for their masters. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, this is what you shall say to your masters.

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It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth with the men and animals that are on the earth.

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And I give to it whomever it seems right to me. Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him.

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Now let me point out something here. This is not God saying Nebuchadnezzar has done right, so I'm going to give him all of this.

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No, it said that I will give it to whomever it seems right to me.

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Not that Nebuchadnezzar is a righteous man who's deserving of this, but God is giving all of this to Nebuchadnezzar who as a servant of God in the sense that he is a tool in God's hand is going to bring judgment against Jerusalem and all the lands around it.

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Verse seven, all the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the time of his own land comes.

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So there's going to be a time which judgment will come on his own land and then many nations and great kings shall make him or Babylon their slave.

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Verse eight, but if any nation or kingdom will not serve this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine and with pestilence declares the

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Lord until I have consumed it by his hand. 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 is a lie that they are prophesying to you with the result that you will be removed far from your land and 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 and dwell there declares the

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Lord. So we've seen this charge that has been given previously in Jeremiah. If you will submit to the king of Babylon and let yourself be exiled and taken into another land, then

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I'll spare you. But if you try to resist and you try to stay on your own land, then you are going to be destroyed.

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And this message is not just going to the Jews, but recognize again that God is going to send this message through Jeremiah, through the messengers that are going to be sent to various kings,

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Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon. So there are other kingdoms that are going to receive this word.

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Also, these other kingdoms will be conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. So going on to verse 12 to Zedekiah, king of Judah, I spoke in like manner.

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So here's the message specifically for the king of Judah. Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people and live.

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Why will you and your people die by the sword, by famine and by pestilence as the Lord 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 is a lie that they are prophesying to you.

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I have not sent them declares the Lord, but they are prophesying falsely in my name with the result that I will drive you out and you will perish.

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You and the prophets who are prophesying to you. Then I spoke to the priests and to all this people saying, thus says the

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Lord, do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you saying, behold, the vessels of the

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Lord's house will now shortly be brought back from Babylon for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you.

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Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a desolation if they are prophets and if the word of the

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Lord is with them, then let them intercede with the Lord of hosts that the vessels that are left in the house of the

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Lord in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon for thus says the

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Lord of hosts concerning the pillars, the sea, the stands and the rest of the vessels that are left in this city.

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That's talking about those items that are right there in the temple for the purpose of worship. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, did not take those away when he took into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

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Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem. Thus says the

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Lord of hosts, the God of Israel concerning the vessels that are left in the house of the

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Lord 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 the Lord. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.

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So though they had not yet been taken out of Jerusalem, they would. And a sign that God had come back to them and would restore them to the land would be when those vessels were taken out of the hands of the king of Babylon again, and they would return into the land, which happens in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, who are going to end up rebuilding the temple and the walls of Jerusalem, which of course comes much later.

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But right here with this warning that is given to these different kings, this different people understand a warning has been given to the world as it exists now, that judgment is indeed coming and we must be in subjection to Christ the king.

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And if we are not in subjection to Christ, well, then those who were not in subjection will be destroyed.

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We are exiles in the world in which we live presently, and we must be faithful to Christ and grow in holiness is ordinary

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Christian life. Kind of like, as I was talking about yesterday with regard to the parable of the 10 minus,

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I didn't quite make this point, but we pursue just the ordinary Christian life. There are people who will probably be called to greater things.

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Going back to the parable of the 10 minus, some will receive 10 minus and they will be making greater investment and they must serve faithfully with the great things that God has given to them.

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Some will be given five minus sun will, some will be given one. How will you do with the little or much that God gives to you?

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Some will be called to greater things, others not as much, but we still must be faithful with what we have been given so that when the

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Lord returns, he finds us faithful and working servants. We must abstain from sin, but we must pursue righteousness.

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And that's really the way that you abstain from sin. As said in James four, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

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Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. So by drawing near to God, by doing that, which is honoring of God, which

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Christ has commanded us to do, loving one another, fleeing youthful passions and pursuing righteousness, faith, love, and peace along with those who call on the

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Lord from a pure heart. That's in second Timothy two 22. As we do these things, then we are faithfully serving

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Christ who has appointed to us to serve in his name. But the one who does nothing or the one who remains in the world, who goes after the things of this world and the passions of their flesh, they will be destroyed at the return of Christ or at your death, whichever comes first.

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So may the Lord find us faithful and working servants. This is a point that will continue on in chapters 28 and 29, which we'll get to next week.

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And we'll see some parallels, how the same things have been said to us in the new Testament to the church, as said to Israel in the old

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Testament. Let's finish here with prayer. Heavenly father, I pray that we would indeed be faithful, that we would resist the ways of this world that's coming to destruction.

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And instead our minds would be toward a kingdom that will never perish. As said in Matthew 6 33, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all the things that we need will be added to us as well.

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Lord, meet us where we are and convict us of our sin. May we not be caught up in the world and all that is in it, but we turn from our sin to Christ and we pursue him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

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Thank you for your grace and mercy to us. May we continue to show it to one another, even in these present days, as we wait eagerly for the appearing of our savior

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Christ. In his name we pray. Amen. This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes.

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For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt

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.com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com

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and let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word when we understand the text.