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

Man, Jeremiah chapter number 30, the Bible reads in verse number 1, The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book. For lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord, and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. The first thing I want to point out is there in verse number 2, when he said, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book. This is a great verse on where we get the Bible, and there are lots of other verses like it in various books of the Old Testament and in the New Testament as well that explain to us exactly how we got the Bible. God tells him to write a book containing all the words that God has spoken unto him, and that's exactly what the book of Jeremiah is. And so, to sit there and say, Well, the book is inspired in the sense that, you know, Shakespeare is inspired, or a painter is inspired. He sees something beautiful, and then he makes a painting, or someone gets inspired to do something is a twisting of scripture. When the Bible says that the Word of God is inspired, it means that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. It means that God spake all these words. That's what the inspiration of the Bible actually means. You have to be careful because a lot of times people will take terms and twist them to mean something else. Oh, yeah, I believe the Bible is inspired, meaning it's inspired in the sense that, Well, these guys were inspired by God. You know, they had a relationship with God, and that kind of inspired them to write things, and they were right about a lot of things, but, you know, there's a little bit of their own private interpretation mixed in, and it kind of reflects their own personality where they'll kind of adjust things to their culture. This is false. God spoke exact words, and Jeremiah wrote those words down in a book. And what we have in the Bible here is exactly what God said. Exactly, okay? Obviously, it's translated into English, but it says the exact same thing in English that it says in Hebrew and Greek. And so we have God's exact word today. A lot of people don't want to believe that because they don't want to come to grips with what the Bible says. There's a part of the Bible that they don't like, so they say, Well, it's translated wrong. Well, you know, it's inspired by God, but these guys kind of put their own... No, the Bible says that no scripture is of any private interpretation, but that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. In fact, when Jesus and the apostles quote scripture in the New Testament, they often say it this way, Well spake the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David the prophet, or the Holy Ghost said by the mouth of Isaiah the prophet. Now, another interesting thing is that when Jeremiah writes all these words in a book, later on in the book of Jeremiah, that book is actually destroyed. He writes it all down and his servant brings it before the king and reads it in front of him, and he gets so angry when he hears the word of God that he cuts it up with a knife and throws it in the fire. And then God tells Jeremiah to get another book and write it all down again, write down the same words again, and then add even more chapters, even more judgments on these people. So the bottom line is that God's word is inspired by God, which means that it's God-breathed or spoken by God. The word inspiration comes from the same root word as respiration, which means to breathe, right? Inspired means that it's God-breathed, meaning that it was spoken by God. These words came out of the mouth of God. And not only that, but God's word is preserved, and it doesn't matter whether you chop up the original and make a new copy of it, it's still just as much God's word in the second copy as it was in the first copy. And here we are in 2016 reading a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy, but we believe that God's word is preserved. He said, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. It's easier for one jot or one tittle. He said it's easier for heaven and earth to pass than for one jot or one tittle to pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. The Bible says the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in the furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. God's word will stand forever. God's word endureth forever. He said man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And he's not saying that we don't have that. He's saying we do have that. That's how we live day by day by every word of God. And we have an every word Bible in English. Thank God the King James Bible. And so whenever you hear anybody trying to tell you, Oh, where's this translation? Or, Oh, well, you know, it's just not verbal inspiration. All they're doing is just saying, I don't like something God said. So I'm going to pretend he didn't say it. That's what it comes down to. It's people trying to twist scripture or negate scripture. And of course that's what the Mormons do. The Mormons sit there and say, Oh, we believe the Bible. So long as it's translated correctly. And it just happens to be translated incorrectly in thousands of places, wherever it contradicts us. You know, and, and the, and the pervert who started our religion, Joseph Smith. And then the Muslims will say, Oh yeah, we believe the Bible is a Holy scripture, except it's been translated wrong everywhere. It contradicts our illiterate pedophile of a false prophet. Mohammed look at Jeremiah chapter 30. It says in verse two, thus speak at the Lord God of Israel saying, write the, all the words that I've spoken under the, in a book for lo the day. So don't tell me that Jeremiah was written hundreds of years later. Some Bibles would say, Oh, this is written in, you know, 400 BC or 200 BC. You know, they, they try to say it's written like, no, no, no. Jeremiah wrote it in his lifetime. That's why it gets destroyed and rewritten in his lifetime. So the Bible is written at the time of the events for lo, the days come, say at the Lord verse three, that I will bring again the captivity of my people, Israel and Judah say at the Lord. And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers and they shall possess it. Now, Jeremiah chapters 30 and 31 are two of the most abused chapters in the whole book of Jeremiah. They're constantly taken out of context. Now I know a lot of you have been with us for the last 29 weeks going through chapters one through 29 other people, this might be your first, you know, Bible study with us in Jeremiah. So you need to get up to speed, but let me just say this. It's been extremely repetitive in the book of Jeremiah. Just this hammering of the fact that the children of Judah have disobeyed the Lord. And as a result, they're going to go into captivity. Nebuchadnezzar is going to come in with the Babylonians and destroy their nation, destroy the temple, destroy the city and take them captive. And in chapter 29, the chapter that we just read, the Bible made it very clear last week, last Wednesday, that that captivity would last for 70 years. He said, you will be captive for 70 years. So he said, sit down and stay a while because it's going to be a long captivity. 70 years from now, you're coming back. So we've been getting that literally in virtually every chapter for the last 29 chapters. That fact has brought out how the Babylonians are coming. You're going into captivity. It's a punishment for your sins. It's going to last 70 years. That's been hammered. All of a sudden, when we get to chapters 30 and 31, that didn't all change. That didn't all go out the window. We're still talking about that same subject. And this is what we would call reading the Bible in context, meaning that chapter 30 follows the other 29 chapters and it's on the same subject. But all of a sudden, people will want to just isolate scriptures from chapters 30 and 31, take them out of context and give them an end times Bible prophecy application for the 21st century, negating the clear teachings of the New Testament by pulling an Old Testament scripture completely out of its context. Now, Jeremiah talks a lot about them going off into captivity. Well, he also talks a lot about them coming back from captivity and repossessing the land precisely 70 years later. That's what he just finished telling us in chapter 29. But look at chapter 30 here. He says in verse three, for lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people, Israel and Judah. Now stop right there. If you were actually reading the book of Jeremiah cover to cover, you already know and is already hammered into you that you know when those days are coming. 70 years later, he just finished telling us that for the umpteenth time that they're coming back from captivity. So he says the days will come that I will bring again the captivity of my people, Israel and Judah, saith the Lord. And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave their fathers and they shall possess it. But people will rip this out and say, Oh, this is talking about in the end times God's going to bring the Jews back to Israel in the end times. Totally out of context of what the book is saying. But let me go a little further. It says in verse four, and these are the words that the Lord spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah for thus say at the Lord, we've heard a voice of trembling of fear and not of peace. Ask you now and see whether a man to travel with child. Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins as a woman in travail and all faces are turned into paleness. Alas, for that day is great so that none is like it. It is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. And it should come to pass in that day, say at the Lord of hosts that I will break his yoke from off thy neck and will burst thy bonds and strangers shall no more serve themselves of it. So not only do people turn to Jeremiah 30 and 31 where God's talking about them returning from the Babylonian captivity, which already happened before Christ, five, 600 years before Christ already happened. Okay. They'll try to apply that to the end times, but then they'll take verse seven. Okay. Little old verse seven there, and they will build an entire doctrine on this one verse, verse seven. Now this is not an obscure thing I'm talking about tonight. I'm telling you that if you were to look at the statement of faith of independent Baptist churches across America, fundamental Baptist churches, hundreds of them, hundreds, maybe even thousands, but for sure, hundreds will say in their statement of faith itself, we believe in a seven year tribulation period known as the time of Jacob's trouble. And they'll use this term time of Jacob's trouble about the tribulation. They'll claim it lasts for seven years and it'll even be a part of their statement of faith. They're hanging so much on this verse. Now let's just be reasonable people here tonight. I mean, we're all, we're all hopefully saved here tonight. I mean, I know 90 some percent of us I'm sure are saved and have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. So we should be able to read the Bible and understand it with the help of the Holy Spirit. And we're all reasonable people here, right? Can we just look at this verse and see what it says? Look at verse number seven, alas, for that day is great so that none is like it. It is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. Now stop right there. According to that verse, if we actually just read it and throw out all the statement of faith and the, the Ruckman books and the Larkin books and the John Nelson Darby and the C.I. Schofield. What if we just actually just read that verse? What is the time of Jacob's trouble according to that verse? And by the way, this is the only verse in the whole Bible that ever uses the term time of Jacob's trouble. What is it according to this verse that day? Now, let me ask you this. Does it say seven years or does it say that day? So how in the world can anybody say, oh, the seven year period of the end times is no the time of Jacob's trouble? How are you getting that from the scripture at all? First of all, we're not even talking about the end times. We're talking about them coming home from the Babylonian captivity. And second of all, this isn't talking about a seven year period. This isn't talking about any length of time. This is talking about a day. And the day is called, he said, that day is great so that none is like it. It is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it for it shall come to pass in that day. Say at the Lord of hosts, then I will break his yoke from off thy neck and will burst thy bonds and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him. Now someone may say, well, yeah, but the day is like a thousand years with the Lord, but hold on. Is a day like seven years with the Lord? Where is that in the Bible? Where is any such teaching in the Bible that one day equals seven years? Doesn't exist. And then another person would say, well, when the Bible says day there, it just means a period of time. Like for example, if I'm talking to my grandson and I said back in my day, in my day, we walked two miles in the snow to school every day, you know, and it was uphill both ways. So, you know, people would say, that's what it means by in that day. It just means in that time period. Okay. So here's how these people are interpreting scripture. They make these just logical leaps where they go, well, the day is just a time period. And that time periods in the end times, and it just happens to be the tribulation. And it just happens to be seven years long. Where are they getting all that information though? Nowhere. It's not in the chapter. So people can get up and say a lot of convincing things and spin your head by drawing a chart and saying, oh, well, you know, if you turn to Jeremiah 37, it says right there, you know, that day is great. There's nothing like it. The time of Jacob trouble. So the Bible calls the seven year tribulation, the time of Jacob trouble right there. Okay. So you ready for the next logical leap? Are you warmed up? I don't want you to pull anything doing these mental acrobatics. I don't want something to break in your, in your brain. Cause this, this is some pretty wild maneuvers. We're about to do a triple axle here. Okay. So the, you know, we've already established, I mean, are you looking, I mean, it is verse seven, there's your seven years right there, you know? So it's like, okay. So, so basically we we've already kind of added a lot to this verse that isn't there. It's it's the end times. It's the tribulation. It's seven years long. Okay. So now that we've established all those clear facts from this verse, I mean, it's right there folks. Well, since it's the time of Jacob's trouble, that means that the Christians can't be there because it's the time of Jacob's trouble, not my trouble, not your trouble, not any Christian. No, it's Jacob's trouble. I have literally shown people crystal clear scripture in Matthew 24. Let's all go look at it together again. Shall we keep your finger in Jeremiah 20 or Jeremiah 30 there. I've literally shown people this crystal clear scripture in Matthew 24 and there's a lot more scripture. There's a whole movie about it on the shelf, right? After the tribulation, it has 91 verses in it about this. But in Matthew chapter 24 verse 29, it says immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the star shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken and then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven. And then show all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. So here we have a very clear timing of Christ coming in the clouds, sounding the trumpet and gathering the elect, which are the saved in the new Testament. The elect are those who are saved. We'll find the same thing in Mark chapter 13, the same chronology. We'll find the same thing in Luke 21. And if we go to first Thessalonians four and five, we see the day of the Lord tied in again with the rapture being when the sun and moon are darkened, it all is consistent. Whether you're in Thessalonians, whether you're in the four gospels, whether you're looking at it in the book of Revelation, this stuff all fits perfectly. And it's a clear scripture. There's nothing vague about this. After the tribulation, sun and moon are darkened. Christ comes in the cloud with a sound of a trumpet and gathers the elect. I mean, look, folks, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. That's the rapture trumpet sounds Christ in the clouds. Elect gathered Mark 13, Luke 21. It's all fitting perfectly with Thessalonians. Okay. I've literally shown people that clear scripture and this is their response. Well, how could the church be here for the tribulation when the tribulation is called the time of Jacob's trouble? So basically Jeremiah 30 verse 7 is trumping this clear statement out of Jesus' mouth, talking about a trumpet and clouds and Christ gathering the elect. No, no, no, no, you're missing. No, no, the time of Jacob's trouble. How could we be here? We're not Jacob. And then they build a whole teaching on this where they say that the tribulation is not for believers, it's not for Christians, it's nothing we're going to be here for. This is what they say. The tribulation is for Israel. I mean, have you not heard this? It's everywhere. The tribulation is for Israel. The tribulation is all about the Jews. It's where God, they say, is going to go back to dealing with the Jews. This is what they teach. It's called dispensationalism. Here it is in a nutshell. In the Old Testament, God was dealing with the Jews. Then he kind of put them on the shelf for a while and he turned away from them. And we have this little interlude known as the age of grace, the church age. And then there's going to be a pre-trib rapture. And then he goes back to dealing with the Jews again. And so the tribulation is all about the Jews. It's all about Israel. Okay, here's my question then. If the tribulation is all about the Jews, I mean, it's all about the Jews, right? Well, what's the book of the Bible that talks a lot about the tribulation? I mean, is there chapters about the tribulation by anybody's definition? Revelation, right? So if the tribulation is all about the Jews, because after all, it's the time of Jacob's trouble, as we saw very clearly in Jeremiah 30, verse 7, there's a 7 right in front of it right there. Okay, well, basically, wouldn't you expect then that Revelation would talk a lot about the Jews? It was all about them? Okay, well, did you know that the word Jews, the word Jew or Jews or Jewish is only mentioned twice in the book of Revelation? And both times is to tell you that it's the synagogue of Satan. Both times, look it up. Look up. References in the book of Revelation, the main Bible prophecy book, I mean, the number one source for New Testament Bible prophecy, the book of Revelation, see where Jew or Jewish is mentioned. It's only mentioned twice. Revelation 2 and Revelation 3, before we get anywhere near even talking about the tribulation, and both times is to say, well, they say they're Jews and they're not. They're the synagogue of Satan. No man can be a Jew. And they're not. They're the synagogue of Satan. No mention of Jews anywhere else. Well, if it's such a big deal, why wouldn't he mention it? Because it isn't because it's not real. Okay. And then not only that, then people will say, well, it doesn't say Jew, but it says Israel because it says that, you know, the 144,000, right? Okay. Well, that's a whole subject in and of itself that I've already preached on. I've already covered, but the 144,000 are from 12 specific tribes. It isn't just 100, but you'll hear these dispensationalists and these people who teach this junk constantly say 144,000 Jews. That's how they'll misquote it. The 144,000 Jews. What about, but here's the thing. It never says 144,000 Jews. It says 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. And those are not Jews. The word Jew is never used until second Kings chapter 16. If you start reading the Bible in Genesis, you won't get to the word Jew until second Kings 16, after the kingdom has long been divided into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah and Jews is only referring to those of the Southern kingdom. Those are the Jews Southern kingdom of Judah, not Northern kingdom of Israel. And if you look up the scripture in second Kings 16 and you read it carefully, you'll find that the first mention of Jews, the Jews are fighting against Israel. So how can they be the same? Cause it's the Southern kingdom fighting against the Northern kingdom. That's the first time that the word Jews is used. And God didn't do that by accident. God's trying to show you what that word means. A lot of times when a new word is introduced in the Bible, God puts it in a place where you can see what it means. And so when you get to Jews and second Kings 16, if you're reading carefully, you'll, you'll see, Oh, he's differentiating between those of the Northern kingdom of Israel partnered up with Syria against the Jews. The Jews are fighting against that coalition. So equating the all 12 tribes with just the term Jews is, is not correct. Okay. And the 144,000 is not a major, major thing in the book of revelation. They have a certain role to play. And that role is played by the way, after the tribulation, because the 144,000 doesn't even come into play until after the sun and moon are darkened, which is after the tribulation. That's the first mention of the 144,000 there after the tribulation, when God's pouring out his wrath mentioned for the first time in revelation seven. And they're mentioned barely touched upon in chapter number nine. And then they're talked about again in chapter number 14. And so you can see how people can take one verse, go back to Jeremiah 30, if you would how people can just take one verse and really run with it. Can't you? I mean, look, if we treated every verse in the Bible, the way they treated Jeremiah 30 verse seven, we could pretty much make the Bible say whatever we want to say. If you're just going to make things up, if you're just going to look at a verse that says, Oh, that day, that's a great day. The time of Jacob's trouble and just say, Oh, that's a seven year period known as the tribulation. If you're going to make those kinds of logical leaps. I mean, I guess you might as well, when you read Genesis and God created stuff on that day, you could say that day is billions of years with that kind of a logical leap. I mean, you can pretty much make the Bible say whatever you want it to say. If you're going to make those kinds of jumps, we should not base what we believe on vague scripture. We should always base what we believe on a clear scripture, especially on important subjects like the second coming of Christ. You better find a clear scripture to hang your hat on and it better not be Jeremiah 30 verse seven, which has nothing to do with the tribulation. He says the time of Jacob's trouble. What is that day? He shall be saved out of it for it shall come to pass in that day. Say at the Lord of hosts that I will break his yoke from off thy neck and will burst thy bonds and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him. Now whose bond is he going to break off his neck? Whose? Well, here's the thing. He's going to break Nebuchadnezzar's bond off his neck. He's going to break the bond of the Babylonians off his neck. And you'd know that if you read chapters 28 and 29. If you read the first 29 chapters, we're still in that same context. That's why he just says he, because it's a reference back to what we've been talking about in this book. Look at verse number nine. It says, but they shall serve the Lord, their God and David, the King whom I will raise up unto them. Now who is David, the King that God will raise up unto them after the 70 year Babylonian captivity that we're reading about? That is a man by the name of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel is the son of David who reigned over the children of Judah after they come back from the Babylonian captivity. Jump down if you would to verse number 20 of chapter 30. It says their children also shall be as a four time and their congregation shall be established before me and I will punish all that oppress them. Referring again to the Babylonians and the coalition of nations with them. Verse 21 and their nobles shall be of themselves and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them. And I will cause him to draw near and he shall approach unto me for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me, saith the Lord and you shall be my people and I will be your God. Now this man that the Bible calls their governor, it says shall proceed of themselves. What that means is they're no longer going to be ruled over by a foreigner, right? They're not going to have a foreign power like the Babylonians coming in and ruling them. Their leaders are going to proceed from themselves and their governor is going to be one of them. That governor who the Bible calls governor is the rubable, the son of David who is in the lineage of Jesus in Matthew chapter one. And he's a descendant of David. He rules over them and governs them when they return from the Babylonian captivity. And he's a man who the Bible says had engaged his heart to approach unto God. He's a godly man. And as a result, the people will be God's people and he'll be their God because their leader is going to rally them back to the Lord. Okay, so let's jump back to verse nine where we were, but they shall serve the Lord, their God and David, their King whom I will raise up unto them. That man is the descendant of David. It's a rubable who's raised up. Verse number 10. Therefore, fear that now know my servant Jacob, saith the Lord, neither be dismayed, O Israel, for lo, I will save thee from afar and I seed from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return and shall be in rest and be quiet and none shall make him afraid. Fry him with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee, though I make a full end of all nations whither I've scattered thee. Yet will I not make a full end of thee, but I will correct thee in measure and will not leave thee altogether unpunished. So again, talking about they're going to come back, they're going to dwell safely in the land after 70 years, they're returning and so on and so forth. He says in verse 12, for thus saith the Lord, thy bruise is incurable and thy wound is grievous. There is none to plead thy cause that thou mayest be bound up. Thou hast no healing medicines. All thy lovers have forgotten thee. They seek thee not for I've wounded thee with the wound of an enemy with the chastisement of a cruel one for the multitude of thine iniquity, because thy sins were increased. Okay. What's he saying here? He's saying, look, for 70 years, there's punishment, there's chastisement. Then he's going to heal them and bring them back to the land. But notice what God says to them that he had wounded them verse 14 with the wound of an enemy. Why? Because when Israel turned away from the Lord and worshiped other gods, they became enemies with God. They were at enmity with God. And the Bible's real clear on this throughout the Bible, that it's possible for us as human beings to become the enemies of God. God has enemies and they're human beings on this earth. In fact, the Bible even says in James chapter four, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God, whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God, is the enemy of God. Whosoever therefore will be, meaning wants to be, because will be is referring to desire there will, whosoever therefore will be the friend of the world is the enemy of God. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. James chapter four, verse four, New Testament, crystal clear scripture, that when you have a desire to be everybody's buddy and you want to be buddy buddy with the wickedness of this world, with the ungodly filth and adulterers and adulteresses of this world. The Bible says you're putting yourself at enmity with God. Churches that seek to yoke up with the world and have friendship with the world and get along great with the world are losing the friendship of God. And they're actually making themselves the enemy of God. Now, most people don't believe that. And you can preach that and it just goes over their head. Let it sink in. The adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God whosoever, whosoever, what's whosoever mean? Anybody? Whosoever, I don't care if you're saved, if you're not saved, whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. That's what the Bible says. It's pretty clear, isn't it? And so we see churches all over America and all over the world that seek to get along with everybody. That's their goal. And they think that they can stay right with God and still preach the truth and get along with everybody. But you know what? That's not true. David said, I'm for peace, but when I speak, they're for war. And we see the apostles were constantly persecuted. They were hated. They were thrown in jail. They were attacked. They were stoned. They were sawn asunder. The Bible says they were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They wandered about in deserts and in mountains being destitute, afflicted, tormented. I mean, look, people who preach the word of God are going to have enemies. They're not going to be everybody's friend. And if you have a desire in your heart that says, I want to have friendship with the world. I want to pastor at church. And I know there's a lot of young men here who desire to pastor one day. You want to be a pastor and you want to be friends with the mayor and the police chief and the governor, and you want to be friends with the city council and you want to be friends with the pillars of the community. You want to be friends with the world. You want to get along with everybody. You want to be in good standing in that sense. You know what? You're basically setting yourself up as the enemy of God, because you cannot be friends with the world without being enemy with God. You see, when you start preaching what God wants you to preach, you won't be friends with the world anymore. It's just that simple. I mean, I learned this lesson as a 17 year old boy. Now I got saved when I was six years old, but I didn't really get serious about living for the Lord until I was 17. And I started reading the Bible cover to cover and I got into a soul winning church that really just turned my life around. And I'm telling you, I didn't have to get rid of my worldly friends because they all got rid of me. Because when you get in church and you start cleaning up your life and you start talking about Jesus and you start talking about the Bible and you want to go soul winning and you're giving them a Bible and showing them where to start reading, all of a sudden they're busy. The worldly ones. Now some of them you'll win to Christ. Praise God. That was the best case scenario. You win them to the Lord or if they're already saved, you get them fired up with you. You know, I assumed that my Christian friends would all get on board because I loved Regency Baptist Church and I loved soul winning. I loved the hard preaching. I assumed these people have just never heard of it because I was thinking, I've been looking for this. I've never found this anywhere. And I figured they'd all be excited to find it as I was, but they weren't. They had no interest. And so they forsake you. Okay. And look, when you start preaching the word of God, government officials are going to be the first ones to forsake you because they're the most wicked people that there are. Look, politicians are wicked. Do you really need me to tell you that? And you say, well, what about this one that's not wicked? Well, you know what? The exception proves the rule. Very rare that you'll find a politician that's not just rotten to the core because politics is just like a magnet for the scum of the earth to get involved. Just the most wicked scummy people. They gravitate toward politics. Why? Because the way that you get ahead in politics is by being a cheat and a liar. And when you're not kissing babies, you're stealing their sucker. That's what it means to be a politician. So you don't get ahead in politics by having core beliefs and speaking the truth. No, you change. I mean, look at, look how many of these guys just changed from Democrat to Republican and back. Why they have no core. They have no values. It's just kind of, you know, do I have a better shot as a Democrat or Republican? Their priority number one is get elected. Priority number two, get elected. Priority number three is to get elected. Remain elected. And anything else on that list is so far below it that it doesn't even register. It's just about power. It's just about money. And you know, they'll also, you know, commune with Satan and help him with his agenda, admittedly, in addition to just wanting to get elected. Look, everywhere we go in this world, we run into wicked government, always on our case, never a friend of the gospel. They're all, I mean, and look, it's getting worse because we're getting into end times. We're getting into the, you know, we don't know the day or the hour, but we see the day approaching as the Bible said that we would see the day approaching in the end times. And look, we, you know, here in Tempe, the government hates us here. Our congressmen that's supposed to represent us stood outside the church and held a press conference. We got to do something about this guy. We got to stop this guy. That's literally what he did. Shapiro or whatever is, is, you know, you can guess isn't that, you know, what he's, what his background is. Shapiro's out there talking smack. I'm sure that the mayor hates our guts. They all, they don't like us here. They don't, they don't support us here. They don't back us up here. And you know, we went to Botswana, everybody loved us everywhere we went. Everybody was friendly. Everybody loved it. But the government, look, the government of Botswana hates us so much. You don't even know. First of all, I've never been to a place where I was better received where people, I mean, right. People loved us. They were so friendly. They were so receptive to the gospel. Best soul winning ever. Everybody loved the preaching. Everybody loved us when we went there. But man, the government hates us so much. Not only did they do what they did to us, where they threw us out and, and, and, and all that whole situation. But now I just found out yesterday. The government is trying to shut down the radio station that interviewed me. For playing obscene content over the air. My preaching. Offensive or obscene content. And they literally wrote a letter to this radio station saying that they're in danger of being shut down. And the radio station posted to their Facebook saying, Hey, we had pastor Steven Anderson on two days later, we got this letter and they're coming after us. They're trying to shut us down. And they were pasting in the texts from the government, trying to shut down the radio station just for interviewing me. And the interviewer didn't even say, Hey, I agree with you. He just talked to me about it. And the government wants to shut him. Look, government officials went back to the school where Garrett preached and wanted to repossess the flash drives that we handed out there. They told the students that they need to give back the flash drives and the students are like, no, we're not going to. And you know, it's funny cause I, I facetiously said, Hey, if they want to kick me out of Africa, they're going to have to gather up all the thousands of flash drives that we handed out. And you know, they're actually were dumb enough to actually take that literally and be like, all right, well, let's start at that school we're handed about. Yeah. I don't think they got any of them back. And if they did, they could probably hold them all in one hand, what they were able to repo of the DVDs. And you know what? I'm still shipping boxes of them over there every week. I'm sipping a box at the post office to Botswana, to South Africa, to all those countries and little electronic Steven Anderson's are just wreaking havoc, but to sit there. I mean, look, you really hate God's word. You really hate the gospel when not only do you throw out the missionaries and the soul winners, but then you go after the radio station that even had them on the show for a couple hours and try to shut down that radio station. And then they told the radio station, they said, well, here's what you need to do right away to try to make this right. They told the radio host, he needs to come on the radio and make an apology publicly for even talking to me, for even having me on the show, but he's not allowed to make any comment about me. No comment about the situation. And him and his co-host are not allowed to discuss amongst themselves on the air, anything about it. They have to just say, we're totally sorry. We never should have had him on and just move on to another subject. That's what the radio station is being instructed to do. And they're in danger of being shut down. Oh, well that's free. That's a free press. That's free speech. Huh? I mean that go, and then they're going to the school trying to repo flash. I mean, these people hate the word of God. They hate the Lord. And you think they're the only government that's like that because they're not, you know, some, some, some wicked person in the Malawi governments already said, Oh, he's not going to be well-received here. Oh, we don't want this kind of hateful preaching. The gospel, the word of God. Well, that's kind of funny because we're getting an email every day from a different pastor in Malawi. Literally every day pastors in Malawi are contacting us saying, we want you here. Be our guest. We've received multiple letters of invitation saying, come preach for us. Come preach here. Come be here with us. And we're going there in April, God willing. And we're going to tear it up. We're going to preach the word of God. We're going to, we're going to hopefully God willing reach thousands of people. But you know what? The government is not the friend of the gospel here, there, anywhere. And all these governments in Africa are under the wicked influence of the United States government, which is just hell bent on promoting sodomy and filth all over that continent. And they know it. And we know it, but that just goes to show you, you know, being a friend of the world, trying to get along with everybody and preaching the word of God just aren't compatible. Show me in the book of Acts where they got along with the world. Right? I mean, have you read the book of Acts? There's 28 chapters of getting arrested, 28 chapters of getting persecuted. And notice the people who persecuted them in one city, follow them to another city. They literally take trips and go there to try to harass. And that's exactly what we're seeing happen where it's like, Oh, you know, South Africa throws you out. Oh, we'll follow you into Botswana. We'll follow you into Malawi. Well, you know what? Eventually you can follow us into one of these African countries where they put homos to death. We'll see how that works out for you. You know, cause we're just going to keep up in the ante. We're not done in Africa. Oh no. My goal is to preach in every country in that continent. We're just doing it like a checklist. We're just going down the checklist. We're going down there and you know what? God willing, we're going to establish a church in Malawi, a permanent church set up there. And God willing, we're going to eventually return to Botswana when God is done judging this president of Botswana and done judging that government. You know, when, when God brings in a president who actually, you know, has a shred of decency, then yeah, then we'll be back. We'll triumphantly return to Botswana, God willing. And by the way, God's not blessing Botswana at all. What's Botswana's unemployment right now. It's like 20, 30% and rising their unemployment. They've been in a drought in South Africa and Botswana for what, three years or something. Yeah. That's the blessing of God right there. When God sends a drought and the cattle's dying and then missionaries come preaching the word of God and you throw them out, God's wrath is being brought on these countries because of the wicked government. You know, the people need leaders that are godly and if they have these wicked leaders, eventually the wicked leaders are going to turn the whole country wicked. Eventually the, all the people, cause right now the people are still nice people and they still want to hear the gospel. But over time, the wicked leaders, they shut down all opposition. They shut down this radio station or shut down that TV. You know what that does when they send that threatening letter? Even if they don't shut down that radio station, you know what they're doing is they're sending a message to the radio. Hey, you better be careful not to say anything biblical about sodomy. That's what they're saying. It has a chilling effect. It's called chilling the media. When you intimidate the media into saying, hey, don't bring a pastor on that's going to tell the truth, bring on that little sissy bridges Lutheran pastor and let him talk. But don't you dare bring on a hair legged man of God to rebuke your nation. Pretty soon, the only thing on the radio and the only thing on TV is wickedness because they scare them. We'll shut down your whole company if you have pastor Anderson on there. You think that radio station wants to have me on for a second interview right now? You think if I called them up right now and said, Hey, I can do a phone interview. What do you think they're going to say? Well, you know what they would, they would actually love a phone interview because they were trying, Hey, call us, give us the update. But not when they get that letter. See how the government corrupts the media and then the media brainwashes everybody with only one viewpoint. One viewpoint is allowed. Don't try to be a friend of the world. Go to Jeremiah chapter 30, where we were. We got to understand that all that will live godly in Christ. Jesus shall suffer persecution. God said to a wicked nation, the nation of Judah, a nation that had turned away from the Lord, a nation that is worshiping false gods and living in sin. He says to that nation, I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy. Verse 14, with the chastisement of a cruel one. He's saying, I didn't just chastise you. I didn't just give you a spanking. I gave you a cruel spanking. Why? For the multitude of thine iniquity, because thy sins were increased. Why cryest thou for thine affliction? Verse 15, thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity because thy sins were increased. I've done these things unto thee. See, he's talking them present tense. They're in judgment. They're in captivity right now for many years to come. So that's why he's talking about you're in sin. You're being judged. Often the future he's going to bless them and bring them back when they turn to him 70 years later. That's prophetic. Look at verse number 16. Therefore, all they that devour thee shall be devoured and all thine adversaries, every one of them shall go into captivity. Meaning they're going to eventually suffer the same thing because they're also sinful as you are. And they that spoil thee shall be a spoil and all that pray upon thee will I give for a pray. For I will restore health unto thee. Again, looking forward to when eventually the captivity ends and he brings them back and I will heal thee of thy wounds. Who caused the wounds? God did. God said, I've wounded you. But he says, you know, when they get right with him, he's going to heal their wounds, say it the Lord, because they called thee an outcast, saying, this is Zion, whom no man seeketh after. Thus sayeth the Lord, build. I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents and have mercy on his dwelling places in the city shall be built upon her own heat and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof and out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make Mary and I will multiply them and they shall not be few. I will also glorify them and they shall not be small. Their children also shall be as a four time and their congregation shall be established before me and I will punish all the depressed them and their nobles. We talked about this shall be of themselves and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them. You know, meaning that basically they're not going to have a president that was born in Kenya or something. You know, they're going to have a guy who's, who's from their kind, you know, he's born in their country, right? And I will cause him to draw near and he shall approach unto me for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me say at the Lord and you shall be my people and I will be your God. Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goes forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind. It shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked. The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return until he have done it and until you perform the intense of his heart. In the latter days you shall consider it. So the Bible is saying here, God has fierce anger toward the wicked. He punishes the wicked, but then he refers to people who draw near unto him. He mentioned it multiple times in this chapter, the idea of approaching to God or drawing near to God. And the Bible tells us in the new Testament, draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh unto you. That's often quoted, isn't it? Draw nigh to God and he'll draw nigh unto you. But here's the latter part of the verse. It says in James, draw nigh unto God and he'll draw nigh unto you. Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts you double minded. See, that's what it means to draw nigh to God. A lot of people quote that, hey, draw nigh to God will draw nigh to you. But then they don't get to the part where he tells you how to draw nigh to God. Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts you double minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. See, James in that same chapter is telling you, hey, don't be a friend of the world. That's enmity with God. Draw nigh unto me. You take a step toward me, I'll take a step toward you is what God's saying. If you want to have fellowship with God, if you want God to be on your side, if you want God to bless you, you've got to be willing to take a step toward him. And if you draw nigh to God, he'll draw nigh to you. You know, and for some people, that step is just the step of going to church. Maybe they haven't been in church in a long time, going to church. They're drawing nigh to God, right? Or maybe they've never been out soul winning, right? So they show up for soul winning and they're ready to do the Lord's work. Hey, that's taking a step toward God right there. And then God's going to take a step toward them. And when they get a sin out of their life and cleanse their hands and purify their hearts and they get some sin out of their life, they're taking a step toward God. They're showing God, look, I want to approach you, God. I want to come closer to you. And when God sees that, he'll come closer to you. But on the other hand, when you do wickedly and you want to get along with all the wickedness of this world, and you want to be everybody's buddy, everybody's friend, and you want to just, you know, indulge in whatever the sin, then basically you're taking a step away from God. God may get angry and punish you with fierce anger, chastisement, punishment. Okay. So again, it's very clear that when it comes to being saved, when it comes to going to heaven, the only thing we have to do to be saved, the only thing we have to do to get to heaven is just believe on Jesus Christ. That's it. The Bible says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. Okay. But here's the thing. Getting saved is only step one. Think about your whole life, right? How much of your life was spent being born? Just a few moments, right? So you live on this earth for 70 years, but how much of that time did you spend being born? You know, just a few moments. Okay. But then there's a whole lifetime of living, right? A whole life to live. And you learn all kinds of things and you do all kinds of things. Well, it's the same thing with the Christian life. Getting saved is just one thing. It's just the beginning. Getting saved is the beginning. Okay. After that, there's a whole Christian life to live. And so the Bible right here, it doesn't just tell us how to be saved. It actually tells us everything we need to know to live our whole life, the Christian life. Okay. So that's why I don't just get up and preach about being saved every service. You need to be saved. You need to be saved because most people here are already saved. So sure, believing in Christ gets you saved. Okay. Now you're going to heaven. Now you're saved from the punishment of hell. Okay. But then the question is, what do I do for the rest of my life? And if you spend the rest of your life drawing nigh to God, he's going to draw nigh to you. You're going to be blessed. You're going to have all kinds of great, you know, adventures and all kinds of great experiences. And you're going to serve God and experience great things for the Lord and earn rewards, et cetera. But if you decide to live a life of sin and wickedness and ungodliness and compromise, you're still going to heaven, but you're going to have that chastisement, that punishment on this earth. You're going to be disciplined by the Lord and he could have fierce anger toward you. And he could even be at enmity with you. If you try to be the friend of the world. So that's what we're not talking about salvation. We're not talking about going to heaven because going to heaven is all by faith. But what about the rest of our lives? You know, are we going to live for God or are we going to live according to the fashion of this world? That's going to determine God's attitude toward us. It's sort of like, if my children obey me, I'm going to have a good attitude toward them and I'm going to treat them better. If my children are disobedient, rebellious, obnoxious, I'm going to treat them poorly. Well, you should just have unconditional love and just treat them all the same. No, that doesn't make any sense. Why would I reward them for disobedience? No, the Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. But no matter what they do, they're still my children. And once we're saved and we have eternal life, no matter what we do, we're still God's children. But the question is, are we a good child that's in good standing with the Father and being blessed by the Father? Or are we the black sheep of the family that's constantly getting our hide tanned because we're obnoxious or rebellious or disobedient or whatever. That's what we're talking about in this chapter. And this chapter just hammers that in once again. Which side of God do you want to be on? You want to be on the angry side or do you want to be on the blessing side? And the path to God's blessing is through that door of obedience. The path to heaven is through the door of just faith. But when it comes to blessings and a godly life, you got to obey. You got to keep the commandments. You got to follow him if you want blessings. Not to get into heaven, but to be blessed. Just like my children don't have to earn the right to remain in my family, we don't have to earn the right to remain in God's family. We're still saved no matter what. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Right? We're sealed unto the day of redemption. But, but you know what? I don't know about you, but I don't want to just be saved and be the worst child ever. Worst child of God ever. You know, I want to make God happy. I want to be a son in whom he's well pleased. And that should be all of our goal. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, Lord. And it's, it's a chapter that's often taken out of context and people miss the point. But Lord, help us to get it in its proper context and realize that we're dealing with the nation of Judah at a time when they were in disobedience. And God's talking about the, the judgment that he's in the process of bringing and will continue to bring. And he's talking about the return and the restoration 70 years later, Lord. And help us to apply these principles to our own life of how to get blessings from you, Lord, by, by drawing nigh unto you and approaching you as the rubable did as the children of Judah later would do. And in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.