(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Jeremiah 24 is a pretty short chapter, and Jeremiah 23 was a pretty long chapter. And since I only got about halfway through Jeremiah 23 last week, I'm going to start out by covering some things in the latter half of Jeremiah chapter 23. Then I'm going to get into Jeremiah chapter 24. So let's go ahead and back up to Jeremiah chapter 23, verse number 18. And the Bible reads, This verse kind of reminds me of Isaiah chapter 53 when it says, you know, Lord, who has believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Of course, that's quoted in the New Testament as well. But here he's asking this question, who has stood in the counsel of the Lord and has perceived and heard his word, who had marked his word and heard it? Verse 19, Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind. It shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. Now, fury, of course, is related to the word that we use all the time, furious. If we wanted to talk about somebody being extremely angry, we'd say they were furious, very angry. God is angry in this verse, and he's bringing a whirlwind that's going to come down and grievously fall upon the head of the wicked. Now, there's a famous verse in the book of Hosea where he talks about how you've sown the wind and you're going to reap the whirlwind. And that whirlwind represents God's wrath that is very deserved of wicked people. The judgment that they've been earning is finally going to come down upon them like a ton of bricks, like a whirlwind. It says in verse 20, the anger of the Lord, again, back to that fury, shall not return until he have executed, until he have performed the thoughts of his heart. In the latter days, ye shall consider it perfectly. Now, the word perfectly in the Bible means completely. It means all the way, the whole thing. The Bible says that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. So the word perfect, it doesn't mean in the Bible usually what we think of as perfect meaning without flaw. Usually the word perfect means complete. It's all there. So when he says in the latter days you shall consider it perfectly, he's saying in the latter days you will have a complete understanding of this concept of God bringing down his wrath on the wicked, his fury in a whirlwind. Now that makes perfect sense when you consider the fact that in the latter days God is going to pour out his wrath on this earth in a way that is unparalleled in human history. The Bible talks about the fact that there are going to be earthquakes unlike any earthquake that has ever taken place on this earth. The Bible talks about all the cataclysmic judgments of the seven trumpets and the seven vials of the wrath of the lamb that are going to be poured out upon this earth. God is going to bring plagues on this earth similar to the plagues that he brought in the days of Moses on the land of Egypt instead of just being on one wicked nation. He's going to bring those plagues upon the entire world. He's going to turn one third of the water in the world into wormwood and people are going to be dying from drinking the poisonous waters of wormwood. I mean all those horrible judgments, we don't have time to go through it, but if you read the book of Revelation, you know that God is going to be turning water into blood. He's turning water poisonous. He's raining fire and brimstone and all kinds of horrible judgments upon this earth. That's the wrath of God and we know the famous verse in Revelation 6 where the great men and the chief men, the rich men, the chief captains, the mighty men, every bond men and every free men hid themselves in the dens and rocks of the mountains and said to the rocks and mountains, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath has come and who shall be able to stand. And when you think of the animal, a lamb, you don't really think of it being a scary beast, a lamb. If you refer to a person as being a little lamb, you would probably mean that that person is gentle, that person is non-threatening and so a lamb doesn't really evoke fear and terror as would say a lion, right? The Bible calls Jesus Christ the lamb of God because of the fact that he went as a sheep to the slaughter, as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he openeth not his mouth and he was sacrificed as that sacrificial lamb behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. But that lamb of God, that sinless son of God that offered his life for us on the cross, you know, if he is rejected, if he is scorned, then the Bible teaches that he will come back in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. So the lamb of God, Jesus Christ is coming back with great wrath, the wrath of the lamb, the wrath of him that sitteth on the throne, God the Father, the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand. That's in the latter days. That's when people are going to be able to perfectly consider the fact that God is bringing judgment upon the wicked and that he's not going to return. It says in verse 20, the anger of the Lord shall not return until he have executed, until he have performed the thoughts of his heart, until he has brought that whirlwind of his wrath down upon the head of the wicked. Now the thing that we can learn from this when he says in the latter days you shall consider it perfectly, we need to understand that God has not lightened up. God has not softened and he was this wrathful God in the Old Testament and that in the New Testament somehow he has changed his character. God's character never changes. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. God said I am the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. There is no shadow of turning in him, not even a shadow of turning, not even the slightest bit of a change in who he is. Now sometimes God will change his attitude toward people or a group of people but that's based on what those people do. You know that could change his attitude or he'll change his course of action where he was going to do one thing like he was going to destroy Nineveh but because the people repented in sackcloth and ashes he ended up repenting of the evil that he said he would do. He changed his course of action but his character, who he is, never changes. His core values of what he considers right and what he considers wrong and his love doesn't change. Anger doesn't change. I mean his wrath doesn't change. His judgment, his righteousness, his fairness, his equity, none of his attributes ever change. And so just as the anger of the Lord was kindled in the Old Testament, we see the anger of the Lord kindled in the New Testament and we see God's wrath most perfectly carried out in the latter days in the book of Revelation. So that should show you right there that God hasn't softened up when the most radical judgments in the entire Bible are found in the final book of the Bible and that's still future. So we're living in a day where God has not yet really shown the fullness or completion of his fury and his wrath and his vengeance. It's still coming in the future. It may even come in our lifetime. We may begin to see these things carried out. Obviously we're not going to be here for the trumpets and vials. We will be here for the tribulation, but not for the wrath of God. We'll be delivered from that, but we will see if it happens in our lifetime, some of the early stages with the earthquakes and so forth, and then we'll know that the day is nigh at hand. So look down at your Bible there in verse 21 of chapter 23. I have not sent these prophets, and remember the previous part of the chapter was talking about these bad preachers, these bad pastors that scatter the flock. They're not soul winning. They're not preaching hard on sin. They're actually strengthening the hand of evildoers by telling evildoers that God's going to bless them and everything's going to be fine and they're going to have peace and so forth. So God, referring back to those false prophets who have two major problems. Number one, they're not winning people unto the Lord. They're not preaching the true gospel. And even if they know the right gospel, they're not going out and taking it to the highways and hedges. And then number two, their other problem is that they're soft on sin. And those two things go hand in hand. That's what the sermon was about last week. He says, I've not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned from their evil way and from the evil of their doings. Now, I believe that the they there is referring to the people, okay? Because he says in verse 22, if they had stood in my counsel, meaning the preachers. If the prophets, the preachers, the pastors would have stood in my counsel, if they would have stood in the counsel of the Lord, and if they would have caused God's people to hear God's word, right, because it's God that's talking, then they, meaning the people, should have turned from their evil way and from the evil of their doings. What's it saying? If preachers would preach the word of God like they're supposed to preach it, then people will get right with God. I mean, if the pastors of a nation are going to faithfully preach the word of God, then the people of that nation are going to get right with God. Why? Because preaching works. Biblical preaching works. It gets the job done. When a pastor gets up and he preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ, he preaches a clear plan of salvation by faith alone. He preaches eternal life through believing in Christ. People get saved. When the gospel is preached, people get saved. There's no question about that. That's why I always say if people aren't being saved in a church or in an area, either the gospel is not being preached or the gospel has lost its power, and we know that the gospel will never lose its power. And so we see here that preaching works. If a guy gets up and preaches a clear gospel, a clear plan of salvation, and he faithfully is preaching that from the pulpit and he's knocking doors and preaching it, people are going to be saved. If you, oh church member, man, woman, boy, girl, go out and preach the gospel, you're going to get people saved. I'm not saying you're going to get people saved the first hour that you do it, but if you go out for 10, 15, 20 hours, you know, you're going to eventually get people saved. You will get people saved on soul winning. Soul winning works, period. Anybody who says it doesn't work, they're the one who doesn't work because it works if you'll do it. You sometimes will hit a dry spell where you could go a long time without seeing anybody saved. That's okay. Sometimes you're just in an unreceptive area. You shake the dust off your feet, you go to the next area. But even in an unreceptive area, usually somebody will get saved. Even when we take the Wednesday soul winning group over to Mesa and we're in kind of a rough area, at least there'll be one person usually saved. We bring 15 people and spend an hour out soul winning, 15 soul winners, one hour. At least one person will get saved. Today we were in an area that was pretty unreceptive. But yet there were four people who got saved in that neighborhood. Okay. Now I've gone as long as say I've gone soul winning for as long as, and I'm not saying in one day, but a stretch of soul winning for maybe 15 hours without having anybody saved. It happens. Sometimes you just, you get into a patch where nobody's listening, nobody cares, you're in a rough area, but eventually you'll always end up getting somebody saved if you keep at it. And then other times you get people saved more often. I heard Pastor Roger Jimenez preach and he said something like, when he talks to the people in his church that are faithful soul winners, effective soul winners, that they seem to average somebody saved about every other week if they just go out, if they only go out for an hour, maybe every two hours they average one person saved. For two hours of soul winning, one person saved. And that's about right. Sometimes you'll get a couple people saved in one hour. Other times you'll go hours with nobody. Sometimes you'll talk to three people at once and get all three of them saved. So but it seems to average out, you know, and of course it's going to vary by area and a lot of factors. But just a rule of thumb, I mean, if you spend two hours out soul winning, usually you get about one person saved. You spend four hours, you get two people saved, you know. Those are just some numbers to throw out there just to show you that it works if you put in some time. Okay. Hard preaching against sin works because these are the two problems with these guys. These are the two things they're not doing. Preaching the gospel and preaching hard on sin. Hard preaching against sin causes people to clean up their life. When I've preached some of the hardest, most foaming at the mouth sermons against, for example, drinking, I get all kinds of people coming to me saying, you know what, I was still drinking a little bit in my life. I'm not going to drink ever again after hearing that sermon. Or hey, remember that sermon you did a few months ago on alcohol? I quit drinking as a result of hearing that sermon. I'm telling you, by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. And listen, when I was a young person and I was growing up in church and, you know, going through my experiences of school and church and life growing up, you know, there were times when I was pretty backslidden and pretty worldly and not really spending time in the Bible like I should have, but, you know, there were certain things that I just didn't do. There were a lot of sins that I was just afraid to do because that fire-breathing preaching that I grew up under had put the fear of God in me to where even if I was going out and doing things I shouldn't have done, you know, I knew, hey, fornication is just something that you don't do. That's a big sin. You know, you might do something else, but you don't commit fornication. You don't drink. You know, these big things that I knew from the hard preaching because it puts the fear of God into you. And when people are in church and they're living in sin and a hard sermon is preached, it causes you to get that sin out of your life. It's caused me, I can't even think how many times I've sat in a service and the pastor started hitting on something and you feel that prick like, oh, man, I'm guilty of that. And it causes you to get that sin out of your life. And let me tell you something. Churches where there's not hard preaching on sin, excuse me, the church is filled with sin. Filled with sin. If you go to a church where fornication is not preached against, and when we say fornication we're talking about going to bed with somebody that you're not married to, churches where that's not preached have fornication going on in the church. The church is filled with fornication. And if there's no sermon against alcohol, people in the church are going to drink. If there's no sermon against whatever the sin, that sin will abound in the church. You have to have hard preaching against it. I've noticed, even in being a pastor of this church, which preaches hard on sin, that sometimes all go through a phase where I don't hit on a certain sin and maybe I get into a phase where I'm teaching a lot of doctrine and I'm just kind of on a different kick and maybe I won't talk about fornication for all. I'm not talking about drinking for all. I'm not talking about stuff like that. I'm not really preaching those hard sermons against sin just because I'm covering other subjects. I'll see things start to creep in and feel like, whoa, I need to get back on that. I need to jump back on that. Why? Because these things are constantly trying to creep into our lives and into our church and we need the pastor, the preacher, to be like with a hammer. Whack-a-mole preaching is what we're talking about. You start seeing that fornication creep up, you know, and then the drinking starts to creep, you know, false doctrine, you know. And if you don't, it all just takes over. You know, and some, you know, that's the way. And look, it's funny that we bring that up because look at verse 29, is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces. So the Bible says God's word is like a hammer, okay? So the pastor's got that hammer in his hand, right? And when he sees sin start to creep in, he just, but you know, if you've ever played whack-a-mole, sometimes, you know, even before the mole has its head above the hole, you know he's coming because, you know, this one hasn't come up in a while. And sometimes you just hit it again for good measure just to make sure it stays down because, you know what, I'd rather preventatively just kind of hit that thing on the head even before, you know, sometimes you hit one that's not even coming up. But it's just like, well, better safe than sorry, you know, nothing's popping up. You just start hitting stuff, you know? And that's our job as a preacher, you know, is to just keep hitting on things with a hammer. And a hammer should be hard hitting, right? And preaching should be hard hitting. God's word is like a hammer. But a lot of these pastors that are out there, they're not preaching like a hammer. They're not preaching with fire. I mean, they have like a little feather duster. And they're sort of like twinkling around and they're like, no, no, you know. And then they basically, you know, when the fornication comes in, they're just like, dink, dink. And the mole is just like, really, you know? What we want to do is get a big hammer and just ah! Keep that thing down for a while. You know, I think the harder you hit that mole, the longer it's going to stay down. In fact, I'd just as soon just break the machine. You know what I mean? Because this isn't a game, folks. This isn't Chuck E. Cheese. I'm not trying to earn tickets. I want to beat that thing down so hard that it never comes up again. Or that it doesn't come up again for years. Just beat it down like a hammer. But you know, obviously hitting things with a hammer can seem a little abrasive. But God's word can be abrasive sometimes. God's word is compared unto soap, fire, a hammer. And these things can sometimes be abrasive. You know, maybe if God's word were compared to soap, it would be more like a gojo kind of soap. Not a soft soap. Not a grainy soap that has little pumice granules in it or sand in it that will really scrub and exfoliate the junk out of our lives. And so we need hard preaching. We need the hammer to be brought down on sin as it comes in because it really will work. It really will keep our lives cleaned up. And you know what? One of the reasons why you come to church is to keep sin out of your life. Because hearing the preaching will remind you how bad things are and you'll stay away from those things. And you know what always blows my mind? Is when parents get offended by hard preaching because it steps on their toes a little bit. And then they'll pull their kids out of a church like this and take their kids to a liberal church. I'm thinking to myself, hello, it's 2016. I mean it's pretty tough to raise godly kids in an environment where sin is everywhere, fornication is everywhere, all the advertising is everywhere. And what's the advertising promoting? It's promoting drinking, it's promoting gambling, it's promoting smoking, it's promoting fornication. Everywhere you look it's just these scantily clad babes and you know everywhere you look. And yet you want to raise your son to be pure. You want to raise your daughter to be pure. You know what? You're an idiot. If you take your teenager to a church that doesn't preach hard on fornication and drinking, you're an idiot. Why don't you just kiss them goodbye? Because what chance do they have in this evil and perverse generation, they already have so many things stacked against them, so many things are working against them, whether that be the education system, the advertising, the media, the TV, the movies, everything's geared toward corrupting them. You need somebody that's going to go to bat for you, that's going to tell your kids what you want them to hear, which is not to fornicate. And sometimes they need to hear it from somebody other than just their mom and dad. Sometimes it needs to come from an outsider than just family. Because sometimes children, it's wicked, but they could tune out what their parents are telling them. Oh, this is mom and dad. That's wicked because they should listen to their parents. But sometimes when the pastor says it, it could have a different impact. And I believe it should come from both. You know, they should be hearing it from the parents. They should be hearing it from the pastor. But to take your kids to some church that's literally just filling time. They're just filling time for 20 minutes, 25 minutes, just because they have to preach a sermon. It's really all about the music. It's really all about the show. It's about the worship band. It's about the experience. It's about the fellowship. It's not even really preaching oriented. But I mean, come on, we got to have a sermon, right? So he gets up and fills 20 to 25 minutes with stories about people's lives that he didn't even live those stories. He got them from a book of stories, 101 sermon illustrations. He wasn't the guy walking down the beach throwing starfish into the ocean. That wasn't really him. He's recycling that for the 500th time. So the point is, you don't want to take your kids to a church that's just filling time where it says, oh, we're just preaching a sermon about the Bible. Oh, that was a nice little thought. That was a nice little poem. That was a nice story. That made me feel kind of close to God. No, you need them to be like, hey, teenagers, sit down and listen to a sermon that says no to fornication, no to drinking, no to gambling, no to smoking, no to destroying your life, no to stealing, no to shoplifting, no to murder, no to abortion, no to adultery. Amen. You say, well, what teenager would commit adultery? Oh, there are lots, lots of 17, 18, 19, 20-year-old girls that take up with a married man. It's wicked as hell. Listen to me, if you girls are ever flirting with a married man and you're taking up and dating a married man, you're wicked as hell. I don't care if he's in the process of separating from his wife, divorcing his wife. Look, I'm telling you, I've known people personally, independent, fundamental Baptist church members who, teenagers, 18, 19, 20, 21, dating a married man, wicked, committing adultery. That's adultery. Even if you're single, if they're married, it's adultery. It's not, you don't have to be married to commit adultery, folks. If you're a single, you're committing adultery with somebody else's wife, somebody else's husband, that's wicked. You need your teenagers to hear this kind of preaching. So why don't you just get a little thicker skin? If I step on your toes a little bit, oh, the pastor offended me. So what? Why don't you just get over it because at least your teenagers are hearing some hard preaching that they're not going to hear anywhere else. Why don't you just get over the fact that I offended you a little bit because I mentioned your TV show or I mentioned some sinful habit that you have or whatever. Why don't you just get over it and just realize, well, hey, at least my children are hearing this. Why don't you just plug your ears if you're so wimpy that you can't handle hard preaching and at least your kids are hearing it because you don't want, no parent in their right mind wants their kids to grow up and be a drunk or a whore or a whoremonger. Nobody wants that. Who wants that for your kids? Even when you're worldly and sinful as a teenager in your twenties, maybe even in your thirties, you know, when your kids are teenagers, all of a sudden you start believing in purity. All of a sudden you're into, you know, being sober, right? You are. I mean, good night. I got to hurry up though and actually get to the chapter that I'm supposed to be preaching on tonight. He's saying, I didn't send these prophets. If they would have stood in my counsel, I just love this verse. You know what this verse tells me? There's hope. There's hope for us to help people and to get people saved and to get people to get the junk out of their lives. There's hope. Now, I'm not saying that we're going to get everybody saved or turn this whole country around or make America great again, but you know what? We can make this church great again and we can make Christians' families that are actually, you know, joining these type of churches across America great again. We can make the independent Baptist movement great again. But to sit there and hold back on the preaching is just, it's wicked because if you would have done it right, he says, people will change. People will get saved. People will get right with God. I mean, preaching works. If they would have caused my people to hear my words, verse 22, then they should have turned from their evil way and from the evil of their doings. The word should there would be our modern word of would because of the fact that this is an older form of the language, sort of like in John 3.16, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, it means that they would not perish because they had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Often when you find the word should in the Bible, in our modern vernacular, we would use would. For example, if all the things that Jesus Christ had done in his lifetime were written, I suppose that the world itself could not even contain the books that should be written, meaning that would be written in that situation, just to help you with the vernacular there. He says in verse 23, am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him, saith the Lord? Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord? I've heard what the prophet said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have a dream. No, I'm just kidding. They say, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams, which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal. The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream. And he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord? Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words every one from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues and say, he say, They're prophesying out of their own heart, and they're saying, oh, this is what God said. Thus saith the Lord, and then it's stuff that they just made up. They just made things up, and they're claiming, oh, he said it, God said it. Behold, I am against them, verse 32, that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness. You know, what does he mean by their lightness? How do they cause people to err? They cause people to make mistakes, to go the wrong way, to mess up their lives by their lightness. Well, what's the opposite of being light? Heavy, right? And you know what I like to call? I like to call the other kind of independent fundamental Baptist churches, the ones that have all softened up and watered down and are trying to emulate the non-denominational crowd. I don't even like to be in the same grouping with them, so independent fundamental Baptist is what I am, which the acronym for that would be IFB, right? That's what we are. We're an independent fundamental Baptist church. Okay, why are we Baptist? Because we don't want people to have to guess what we believe. At least Baptist lets them know that the Bible is our authority, that we dunk people after they're saved and that we believe in the eternal security of the believer because that's something that all Baptists virtually believe, those four things. We're independent because we're not part of any denomination and we're fundamentalist, meaning that we actually go back to the original intent and meaning, the foundation of the Word of God. We're not liberal. We're not progressive. Okay? We're fundamentalists. But you know what I call the other brand, the so-called independent fundamental Baptists that are going soft and emulating the new evangelical non-denominational crowd? I call them IFB Light. That's what they are. Sort of like, what are some products that have a light version? Well Bud Light, okay. I mean like some godly product. Yeah. Yeah, don't drink Bud Light. Drink the real Bud. No, no, no. Don't drink it all, folks. All right? We don't want to use that example. Come on. Give me something that's not beer. Whipped cream. Whipped cream? Light? Who said yogurt? Okay. Help me out, people. Give me a better example. Heavy cream and light cream. Heavy whipping cream? Light cream. Come on, people. I need more help than this. What? What in the world? I don't think you understand the question that I just asked. I'm saying like the food and drink that's light. I want a better example. Milk is not called light. That's called non-fat milk. That's called skim milk. I've never... Zuzia, help me up here. I'm drowning. What? Yeah, we don't do... Yeah, you heard what she said. We don't do anything light, so we don't know. Butter? There's no butter light. Help me out with something that's light. It just keeps coming back to that. Just Bud Light. That's it. Look, we're not leaving until we get this resolved. What? Lemonade. Light lemonade. Lemonade? How about this? Okay, alright. You know what? You know what? Beggars can't be choosers at this point. Crystal light. Huh? Crystal light. Yeah, well, so what's the good example? The hard lemonade? That's alcohol again, alright, people? Yeah, you know, sometimes, you know, you preach a sermon. It just doesn't go the way that you expected it to go. Sour cream. Light sour cream. Is that true? Yeah. There's got to be something better out there, folks. Light dressing. Okay, well, here's the thing. You know, this light, oh, it's crystal light. It's the light sour cream, the light whatever, okay? You know, I think I just bought something that was light the other day because it was like they were out of the real stuff. Wasn't it the cream cheese? Didn't I accidentally buy the light cream cheese? Then the jalapeno poppers weren't as good as they usually are because we did light cream cheese. You know, the point is that what does it mean to be light, right? It's got, you're getting less, okay? It's less calories. There's less fuel, less flavor, less, you know, this independent fundamental Baptist light, it goes down smooth, right? And it's devoid of as much nutrition. There's not as much packed in per serving. Now for some people, they think this is a good thing that they're only getting 60 calories or something, consuming a whole serving of food. For those of us that are actually doing something for the Lord, those that are actually out burning some spiritual calories, burning up the streets on soul winning and by actually, you know, say having children and reproducing physically, reproducing spiritually, preaching the word of God, studying the word of God, doing things for God, you know, we need more than 60 calories. We're running a caloric deficit because we're out there working hard all day and so when we show up to church, we want to be fed and don't come at us with the skim milk and the non-fat and the sugar free and the light, the crystal, I don't want crystal light. I want real lemonade. I want a fresh squeezed sour lemon. I want to taste that, that sour flavor. You know, I want to drink a ginger ale that's the extra ginger. Feel the burn. I want some light version of, oh, this is the light, independent fundamental Baptist light for those who are so sedentary in their lifestyle spiritually that they want to take in as few calories as possible because that's all they can handle because they're not going to burn it off because they don't do anything for the Lord. So they want that 60 calorie drink. Give me a big thick glass of 5% whole milk spiritually, raw, raw milk, not homogenized, not pasteurized, just the full, the more calories the better. I mean I want to look at the label, this doesn't have enough calories. Now I'm not recommending that necessarily in your physical life. I'm saying spiritually, this church is too low calorie, it's too light. One Bible verse per sermon? Four Bible verses in the whole sermon? No, that's not enough calories, I need more than that. I need total grams of fat less than one? Skip that. You know, I want to be up around 10 grams of fat or, you know, then we'll talk about whether I'll purchase that item. So the point is, you know, these light, soft churches, what was the point? I F B Light. Behold I'm against them that prophesy false dreams saith the Lord and do tell them and cause my people to err by their lies and by their lightness. Now I think that what it means when it says lightness there, it actually has nothing to do with food or drink, but listen to this. What he means when he says lightness is a couple of things. Number one, lightness is when you're not taking things seriously, right? Lightness means that you're taking it lightly. Have you heard that expression? Hey, I think you're taking this a little lightly, like it's not that serious to you. That's what lightness means. Okay. Also, I think that it could be referring to the fact that they're going light, they're going light on the listener, meaning, hey, we don't want to offend anybody. We're kind of treading lightly, kind of tiptoeing through the tulips when we preach the sermon because we don't want to offend anybody. So we're not really that serious or intense about the preaching and we're kind of doing it lightly. You know, let's just preach lightly as opposed to what's the opposite of light in that use of the word hard, right? Hard preaching. Light preaching, hard preaching, right? Lightness, seriousness, gravity, taking it seriously. So it's not just the lies, and this is what I want to point out and then we're going to jump straight into chapter 24, but it's not just the lies that are causing people to err. It's the lies and the lightness, okay? So what he's saying here is you could even have a preacher that's not telling outright lies, but he's just preaching too light, meaning he's not taking his job seriously. He's not preaching hard enough. He's giving you a little fake lemonade. There's no lemon juice in that lemonade. It's some little powder, some little synthetic powder of crystal light, artificial and, you know, I don't know all the details of the label on crystal light, but, you know, based on the way crystal light tastes, I don't think, I think there's some artificial flavor going on there. That doesn't taste like a lemon. This kind of just synthetic, artificial, and you drink a whole big glass of it and you get a whopping 60 calories or something, right? Because it's so, it's so watered down and there's little artificial sweeteners put in. And this is how a lot of sermons are, little, little artificial sweetness added and God's like, whoa, that's not real sweetness. That's artificial because that part of the Bible wasn't necessarily a sweet part of the Bible. Why are you sweetening it synthetically, fakely, okay? So we need to be aware of lies. We also need to be aware of just light preaching and beware of independent fundamental baptism light. It's lean on calories. It's lean on content. It goes down smooth. There's no burn. It's not sour. It's just all sweet. And you know what? After a while, if you only eat that which is sweet, it makes you sick. Have you ever eaten so much sweetness that you started to get sick of it? And the Bible talks about people who eat too much honey and they would vomit, right? And I know that sometimes if I've eaten a lot of sweet things, I'm just like, even some of your favorite candies, you kind of just dread the thought of anything sweet. And you're saying, you know, give me something hearty. I mean, I don't know about you. I love chocolate. I love chocolate peanut butter cups. I like sweets and things of that nature, but there have been times when I, when I'd had a lot of sweets, where I literally just craved vegetables or, or broth or meat because you just, it's just like, ah, I've just had too much of this sweetness. Like I need something hearty. I need some savory. And you know what? That's how I feel when the sermons are just sweet sermon after sweet sermon after sweet sermon, right? You're like, give me something bitter, right? I mean some things that are bitter you enjoy, right? I mean people drink what? Coffee. I'm not, that's bitter. I don't like it, but I like other bitter things, okay? But sometimes you want something that bites a little bit. You want something a little spicy, something kind of hot, something that burns a little bit, right? You want to drink that ginger ale and it's like, ah, feel that burn. It says on the bottle, stronger ginger bite. That's the one I'll purchase, right? Not the, ooh, it's light. It's not going to burn you. Let's go to chapter 24. All right, so now the clock starts for the hour of preaching. No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding. All right. So I wanted to cover that stuff from chapter 23 just because I ran out of time. Okay, verse number one of chapter 24, the Lord showed me and behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the Lord after the Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah and the princes of Judah with the carpenters and smiths from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon. One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe and the other basket had very naughty figs. Now let me help you understand the word naughty here. Take the Y off the end and you're left with the word not and that is a synonym of our word nothing. Not means nothing when it's spelled n-a-u-g-h-t. So these naughty figs are basically, there's nothing there of value. They're devoid of any real value. They're naughty. Which could not be eaten, they were so bad. Then said the Lord unto me, what seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, figs, the good figs, very good and the evil, very evil that cannot be eaten, they're so evil. Again the word of the Lord, and by the way, the word evil usually in the Bible means harmful. So these figs, they're so bad, they're so rotten that they're just harmful and they're good for nothing. They have no value for nutrition, they can't be eaten. Again the word of the Lord came unto me saying, verse 5, thus saith the Lord the God of Israel, like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place, into the land of the Chaldeans, for their good. For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land, and I will build them, and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, for they shall return unto me with their whole hearts. Let me point out a few things here. The figs here represent people. The good figs represent good people, and the bad figs represent bad people. Now God often uses fruit to represent people. When the Bible talks about bringing forth fruit, some 30, some 60, some 100 fold, he's talking about reproducing spiritually by winning someone to Christ, okay, bringing forth fruit unto God. The fruit of marriage is children. A husband and wife come together physically. What's the fruit of that union? Another person. Person and person come together, they produce a new life, a new person. Well when we go out and preach the Gospel, the Bible says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. So when we win souls unto Christ, we're bringing forth fruit, the fruit of the righteous. Our fruit is a tree of life, because we can win somebody to the Lord, and then they can produce fruit. We can win someone to the Lord, and so forth. And so everything brings forth after its own kind. The orange brings forth oranges, the apple brings forth apples, the Christian brings forth more Christians, the human brings forth more humans. So people are often referred to as fruit. The Bible talks about bringing forth good fruit, or bringing forth bad fruit. Okay, these people here, the good figs are the good fruit, and the bad figs are the bad fruit. And he says here that the children of Israel, after Nebuchadnezzar comes in and they're taken captive into Babylon and other places, are basically divided into two categories. The people that are good people that are going to be a blessing in the land where they dwell in captivity, and these are the people that are eventually going to get right with God, and they're going to come back 70 years later and repossess the promised land. But then there's another group of people represented by the bad figs, the bad fruit, and it's really too late for these people. Just like these figs, they can't be salvaged. It's too late, they're junk. They need to go in the trash. I mean, if you saw these baskets of figs, you would look at the one rotten basket of evil, naughty, bad figs, you would just discard them. And in fact, you would want to separate them from the good figs because you wouldn't want that corruption to actually infest the good figs at that point, right? You'd want to get rid of these bad figs and cast them aside, discard them. God is saying that some of the children of Israel, some of the people of Judah, fall into that category where they're like these evil figs. He says in verse 8, as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they're so evil, surely thus saith the Lord, so will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah and his princes and the residue of Jerusalem that remain in this land, and then that dwell in the land of Egypt, and I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach, to be a proverb. What does it mean to be a reproach and a proverb? Where people would ridicule them and use them as a bad example. A taunt and a curse in all places where I shall drive them. What does it mean to be a taunt? What does it mean to taunt someone? What does it mean? Yeah, like taunting someone is trying to provoke them, trying to basically get them, get a rise out of somebody. Like where you're making fun of somebody or attacking someone where you're trying to get them to punch you or you're trying to get them worked up so that they'll maybe say something that could get them in trouble or attack them. You're trying to poke them and provoke them, right? He's saying you're going to be a taunt, meaning that people will enrage other people by comparing them to you. You're going to be a reproach. You're going to be a proverb, like don't be like those people. You're going to be a taunt, like oh yeah, you're like those people from Judah. That's how lame you are. So they're going to be a bad example, okay, whither they go. And they're going to be a curse, meaning people would actually use it as a curse, like oh yeah, well I hope you end up like those Jews ended up. That's what a curse would mean, right? Where you're wishing evil on someone. They're going to be a curse, meaning, you know, oh yeah, may you be like unto the cities that God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. That's a curse that's used throughout the Bible, right? Or the Lord do so unto you, you know, as he would do unto all of his enemies or whatever. He says you'll be a curse and I'll send the sword, verse 10, the famine and the pestilence among them till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers. Now, who are the good figs and who are the bad figs? The good figs were the ones that obeyed the voice of the Lord when he said go out to the king of Babylon, basically surrender and go into captivity. That's what Jeremiah had preached was the word of the Lord. The people that heard Jeremiah's preaching believed the word of God. They surrendered to the king of Babylon and God promised them if you surrender to the king of Babylon, he'll treat you well, God's going to bless you, etc. Those are the good figs. The evil figs are the people who rejected God's word, stayed behind in Jerusalem or went down into Egypt and God says that he's going to come after them in Egypt. He's going to come after them in Jerusalem. They're going to be scattered, but they're not going to be blessed and they're not coming back. Now this goes to show you that whether or not the Jews are blessed or cursed is not based on just the fact that they're Jews. Just being Jews doesn't make them blessed because the evil figs in this story are Jews and the good figs are Jews, right? The good figs were the Jews that are obeying the word of God. The bad figs, the bad fruit, the evil fruit are the Jews that are disobeying the word of God, disregarding his word. He says, the good figs, I'm going to bless them. I'm going to do good to them. I'm going to build them. I'm going to plant them. I'm going to bring them back to inherit this land 70 years from now. The bad figs, on the other hand, I'm actually going to come after them with the sword, verse 10, the famine, the pestilence. Famine means they're starving. Fines means disease among them until they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers. So today it's the same thing. The Jews today that disregard the word of God, and frankly, that means the Jews who don't believe in Jesus because God has commanded all men everywhere to repent. God has commanded all men everywhere to be saved by the name of Jesus. So the Jews who resist that word of God and don't believe in Jesus are just like these Jews that wouldn't believe the Bible. They're like these evil figs, these naughty figs, this bad fruit. And that's why they are a reproach, a proverb, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where God drove them. That's why the Jews have been hated throughout history. I mean, it's not natural how much the Jews have been hated. I mean, sure, people often have antipathy toward foreigners or that, you know, they don't like foreigners or they don't like certain, you know, they have this nationalistic pride or whatever. But here's the thing. With the Jews, it's to a whole new level. I mean, the Jews have been some of the most hated people over the last 2,000 years everywhere they went, persecuted, hated, taunted, you know, used as a taunt. People will call you a Jew. Don't be a Jew. What do they mean by that? They're saying, hey, don't be cheap or don't try to rip me off financially. Don't try to charge me usury, right? Hey, I got Jewed. People will say that. Who's heard somebody say something like that? Hey, I got Jewed. Don't Jew me. Don't be a Jew, right? And they'll say, that guy is such a Jew and they'll use it as a bad. And they'll be like, oh man, you know, but here's the thing. That's what God said would happen. He said, you know, if you disobey my word, you're going to be used as a bad example. You're going to be used as a taunt, a proverb and a reproach. You're going to be a curse in the land where you go to dwell. You're not going to be a blessing. You're going to be a curse. Throughout history, the Jews, and when I say the Jews, I'm not talking about an ethnic thing because you know, the Jews who believe the Bible are good figs. Now in the New Testament, if they believe the Bible, we wouldn't really refer to them as Jews anymore. We would just refer to them as a Christian at that point because we understand as New Testament believing Christians that there is no Jew or Gentile in God's eyes. We're all one in Christ Jesus, right? So when we talk about the Jews throughout history, meaning in the New Testament, in the year of our Lord, AD, we're talking about the Christ rejecting Jews. We're talking about the religion of Judaism that rejects the Bible, that rejects Jesus. And by rejecting Jesus, you rejected the word. Jesus is the word. That's why they've been so hated. That's why they've been a reproach. That's why they've been a taunt. That's why they've been a proverb. That's why they've been persecuted. I mean, just between about 1000 AD, about 1000 AD, approaching the 20th century, they were kicked out of 47 different places. There were 47 different times where a government said, we're expelling all Jews. You either have to stop being a Jew or you have to leave the country. They could convert to a different religion or they have to leave. They could convert to some form of Christianity, whether true Christianity or a fake Roman Catholicism or whatever. But they were told, you can't be a Jew. You either have to stop being a Jew or you have to leave. That happened to them at least 47 times they've been documented. The most famous was when they were kicked out of Spain in 1492, when all the Jews were expelled from Spain. But there was a time when all the Jews were expelled from England. There were times when the Jews were expelled from pretty much every country in Europe at one time or another, kicked out the Jews, expelled the Jews. Now why is that? Is that just a coincidence? Some people would say, oh, they're hated because they're God's people. They're not God's people because they don't believe in Jesus. If you don't have the father, you know, if you don't have the son, you don't have the father. No, the reason that they were hated is because God said that they would be hated because they're naughty, because they were evil, because they were bad, because they were practicing luxury, predatory lending, blasphemy toward Christ, blasphemy toward the God of the Bible, unwillingness to work and honest living and whatever. And I'm not saying that they were all necessarily like that, but as a nation, as people, as different pockets of this religion, that's what they were like. That's why they were thrown out. That's why they've been hated. That's why. A lot of people just act like, oh, it was just Germany, but you know, it wasn't just Germany. It was all over Europe. It was everywhere that, because God said that everywhere they went, they'd be a proverb and a reproach and a taunt and a cursing. And I'm not saying that what was done unto them in these various places was necessarily right. Okay. I'm not saying that it's right for innocent people to be slain, but what is God saying here? If you disregard my word, a foreign army is going to come in and slay innocent people, even men, women, and children. I'm not saying it's right, but it's the wrath of God. God will allow bad things to happen to you when you disregard his word. And so this passage in Jeremiah 24 is just another great example of the fact that God doesn't really care about your ethnicity. You don't just get an automatic blessing for being a Jew. You don't get an automatic cursing for being of Jewish lineage because you could always change that and believe on Jesus anytime you want and stop being a Jew, meaning a Christ rejecting follower of the religion of Judaism. And God doesn't care about our nationality. God doesn't care about our ethnicity. He just wants us to obey his word and if we obey his word, we're going to be a blessing. He'll give us a heart to follow him. And if we reject his word, we'll become basically trash at that point, you know, a dirty piece of fruit that should be thrown away, you know, there's nothing he can do for it. So anyway, this just goes to show you once again that it's not the ethnicity, it's our actions, you know, and, and, and I don't care what ethnicity you're of. I don't care if you're red, yellow, black, white, and I don't care if your ancestors were wicked or if your ancestors were godly. It's up to you what you're going to do with your life. Which basket do you want to be in? You want to be in the basket of good fruit or are you going to be in the basket of bad fruit? It has nothing to do with your family. It has to do with your personal decision. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and thank you that preaching does work, Lord. And thank you that the gospel still has saving power, Lord, and we can still get people saved in 2016 and people are still turning from sin in their lives and living clean lives, Lord. And they're actually good fruit, Lord, that does the right things, Lord. Thank you that preaching still works, Lord, and help us to take heed unto that preaching and to follow your word so that we can be looked down upon by you as being good fruit, not as being somebody that needs judgment, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.