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Jeremiah chapter number 8, beginning in verse number 1, At that time, sayeth the Lord, They shall bring out the bones of the king of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves. And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped. They shall not be gathered, nor be buried. They shall be fordung upon the face of the earth. Now, in this chapter, we find more pronouncements of doom upon the children of Judah. And the book of Jeremiah is a very negative book. And it was like this one we did Isaiah several years ago, where it says week after week after week, preaching through Isaiah, preaching through Jeremiah. It's just doom and destruction. I believe that Jeremiah is probably one of the most negative books in the Bible, if not the most negative book. Because it's being written at a time when the nation had turned away from God, and God is giving them a lot of really strong warnings about the punishments that are coming. And he's rebuking their sin, he's angry, and he's dealing with his people. Jeremiah is also pretty much the longest book in the Bible. It's right there with the book of Psalms, when you actually look at how many pages it takes up in your Bible. And that should tell you something about the God of the Bible, that he has a lot of negative things to say. I mean, he has a big, giant, long book here, Jeremiah, and it's just a lot of doom, and a lot of rebuke, and a lot of cursing. But yet today, we have a positive only Christianity that ignores about 90% of the Bible. They focus in on about 10% of the Bible that they like, and you say, well Pastor Anderson, I just feel like you're preaching so many negative sermons, but honestly, all I'm doing is just preaching through the Bible. And there's no way to sugarcoat this chapter. I mean, you know, how else do you preach Jeremiah Chapter 8, but to preach that God is angry with the wicked every day, and that God is punishing people. Now, what he mentions here in these first two verses is about the bones of all these different groups of people, the leaders, the preachers, the priests, the prophets, and even just the citizens of Jerusalem being dug up from their graves and being scattered on the ground. Basically, what he's talking about is a desecration of their graves. Now, the reason this is important is because it's considered dishonorable to not receive a proper burial. And this is something that throughout the Bible, God talks about the honor of receiving a proper burial, and how a curse that is placed upon ungodly people is that their body would lie in an open field, or that dogs would eat them, or that they would be just left out to rot, and so forth. But here he talks about their bones being dug up from the graves and being scattered on the earth. And God is also explaining that this is a type of poetic justice because they have worshiped the sun, moon, and stars. And so he says, well, I'm going to scatter your bones in the sight of the sun, moon, and stars that you've worshiped. Well, now your bones are going to bake in that same sun and be exposed to that same light. He says in verse 3, And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, sayeth the Lord of hosts. So he says, the people that die and are buried, those graves are going to be dug up and their bones are going to be scattered and their graves will be desecrated. But then the people who survive God's judgment are going to wish that they had died. Their lives are going to be so miserable and they're going to be so sad that they're going to wish that they had been the people who died. Death would be chosen rather than life, he says, by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family. Now the question is, who is this evil family? I mean, this evil family, they must be the Arabs. They must be of the Palestinians, right? I mean, for them to, I mean, an evil family, I mean, that must be Ishmael, right? I mean, that must be the Ammonites or the Moabites or the Edomites, right? I mean, this evil family, who are we talking about here? No, actually it's the children of Judah, it's the Jews that are called the evil family in this passage, because God's not a respecter person. It doesn't matter what our nationality is. It doesn't matter what our so-called race is. People are so foolish when they get hung up on race. It's really stupid. And it really just shows a total ignorance of the world that we live in, that anybody thinks that just white people are just purely white, or that black people are just purely black, or that, you know, anybody is purely anything. And we demonstrated, both mathematically and scientifically in our film, Marching to Zion, that we're all related, we're all mixed, and you don't even have to go back that far to find where we've been tainted, quote, unquote, and where we're not as purely whatever we think we are. But it's so amazing to me how in our day, there are so many people who are white supremacist, and they are so proud of how white they are, and then you'll run into people that are black, and you know, they're the black Hebrew Israelites, and the blacks are the chosen people, you know? And often black people will be just as racist as white people, and it's really just so foolish. You know, him that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. And it's so carnal to look in the mirror and glory in your skin color, or to glory in whatever nationality you are, because you're this Scandinavian Nordic man, you know? Based on Sunday night sermon, that's nothing to be proud of. You know, but, or oh man, I'm so proud to be black, or you know, I'm so proud to be Hispanic, and I'm part of La Raza, you know? And I'm so proud of being this type of Asian, or you know, oh Chinese is better than Japanese, or well, no, the Japanese are way better than the Chinese. It's so stupid. Because what we ought to be excited about, and glorying about, and boasting about, we ought to be boasting in the Lord all day long, the Bible says. I mean, that's all that matters. Are we in Christ? And the man that is red, yellow, black, or white that is in Jesus Christ is my brother. And the white man who blasphemes the Lord Jesus Christ, I have no part with him. I don't have some allegiance to my white brothers or something. It's so foolish. But this exists in all nationalities. And it's not just white people. There are some white people, but it's a lot of other people too. It's people of all nationalities where they get this carnal obsession, or wanna just go on and on about what race was Jesus, what did he look like, like that's some big important thing, or who are the Edomites today, or this kind of dumb stuff that people just need to forget about, and they need to just avoid genealogies. And here's my genealogy. I'm gonna recite my genealogy for you, okay? Abraham begat Jesus, and Jesus begat Stephen L. Anderson. That's all the genealogy I need. I'm the son of Jesus, who's the son of David, who's the son of Abraham. And you know what? That's everybody in here if you believe on Jesus. You have that same genealogy. That's the only genealogy you need. And so there's so much foolishness where people put so much stock in the nationality or the family. Even the most chosen people here of the Old Testament, where they were the chosen people, when they're wicked, he calls them out as being an evil family. And he says, all the places that I've driven you, you evil family, he's talking to the Jews. He says, you're gonna wish you were dead. You're gonna be that miserable. These people aren't under the blessing of God, and this is in the Old Testament. How much less in the New Testament when he said the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof? How much more in the New Testament does it not matter if you're a so-called Jew? It's so funny. I flew recently into the area of New York City, and New York City is filled with Jewish people more than any other city in America. And there are as many Jews in the United States as there are in Israel. And most of them are in the New York City area or Los Angeles area. And on the airplane that I flew in, it was about half Jews on this plane. I mean, just so many Jews. And it was amazing to me to see the Jews that were literate, and I'm not exaggerating, I'm not up here just trying to be dramatic, that literally had red hair and freckles. I mean, they looked like an Irish person. I mean, you expected a shirt that said, kiss me, I'm Irish. But instead, you saw the little skull cap on the back, and I was just blown away. And I'm thinking to myself, this is who Sam Gipp thinks the chosen people are. You know, this is who John Hagee thinks the chosen people are. And I'm thinking like, what makes these people chosen? They're red-headed white people. The whole family was red-headed. And I'm thinking to myself like, do these people really think that they're Middle Eastern? They're clearly Celtic, okay? They're not, you know, they're not Semitic, but they're like, you're an anti-Semite. I mean, wouldn't that be anti-Celtic if I didn't like you? But it just blows me away. The only thing that makes them chosen to these Baptists that believe in the Zionist garbage is that, oh, they reject Jesus. That makes them chosen now. You're the chosen people of God because you rejected Jesus as the Messiah. All of your other white red-headed relatives that claim the name of Jesus, they're not chosen. But now that you've renounced Christ and put on a little satanic hat like the Pope wears, have you ever noticed how all these demonic religions share all the same headgear? Like the Pope's got that funny hat. The Pope has the identical, and the Cardinals, you know what I'm talking about, right? That little doily. The Pope has it, and the Jews have it. It's the same thing. That's not, there's nothing in the Bible about putting a weird little doily on the back of your head and putting a bobby pin to hold it there. That's what they do. And then here's the other thing. Here's the other thing that I was blown away by. And I don't know if this was just a coincidence, but there were literally 10 Jewish adult men on this flight. There were 10 of them. And all 10 of them had one thing in common because they didn't all have red hair and freckles. They were all white as snow. They were all whiter than me. But they all had one thing in common. They were all wearing super thick corrective lenses. They all had glasses on, and they were really thick glasses like Coke bottle thick glasses. And I just, you know, okay, some people wear glasses, some people don't, but I just thought it was weird that they all wore glasses. And I was just blown, and then, so then the next day or two when we were in New York, I was with Paul Wittenberger, and he's like, hey, look, there's another Jewish guy with glasses. Look, they all have, we never saw one that didn't have glasses. I couldn't figure that out. You'd think that, you know, some people have glasses, some people don't. Why do they all have really thick glasses? I don't know. I don't know what that has to do with the sermon. But, but I was thinking about this. I was thinking about the spiritual blindness. Because that's the thing that Jesus brings up overnight. He says, you know, that they're blind, and how blindness has come upon them, according to Romans chapter nine, you know, and how when they read the scripture, the veil is over their eyes. So that's what I think of. Whenever I see those really thick glasses, I was thinking to myself, you're blind, spiritually blind. And that's nothing against people who wear glasses, of course. I just thought that was a weird coincidence that they all wore those really thick glasses. But they're not the chosen people. No, they're an evil family. Because they hate the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the condition they're in when Jeremiah's preaching to them. And he didn't say, well, you're a wonderful family because of your relatives. He said, no, no, you're an evil family because you hate the Lord, you rejected the Lord. Now look at chapter number eight, verse four. It says, moreover, thou shalt say unto them, thus saith the Lord, shall they fall and not arise? Shall he turn away and not return? Now, when you read that verse by itself, think about this. When you read verse four, it sounds like God saying, well, God's not gonna turn away from these people forever. He'll return unto them. So it'd be easy to say, well, you know, well, God is never gonna be through with these people. He'll always return to them. But let's keep reading and get the context. Shall he not? It says, thus saith the Lord, shall they fall and not arise? Shall he turn away and not return? Why then is this people of Jerusalem slid back by a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit. They refuse to return. So what he's saying is that God is ready to return to them any time. But what do they have to do first? They have to return to him. So he's saying, look, I mean, is God just gonna permanently turn away from these people and never return? Well, they're not returning. That's the problem. See, anybody who wants to can turn to the Lord Jesus Christ anytime they want to and be saved. And anybody who is a born again Christian who gets backslidden can get back with the Lord anytime they want to. His mercies are new every morning. Anytime they want, they can show back up at church and get back in the fight and start reading their Bible and start living for the Lord. Anytime we want to, we can return and God's ready to return to us. But here's the thing, God doesn't return to you unless you're gonna return to him. You gotta take a step toward him. The Bible says, draw nigh to God and he'll draw nigh to you. But if you're not gonna draw nigh to God, then he's not gonna draw nigh to you. You have to take that step. And so he's saying, but these people were refusing to return and they had a perpetual backsliding. You see halfway through verse five, perpetual backsliding, meaning backsliding that just never ends. They just keep getting worse and keep getting worse. That's what perpetual means. It goes on forever, it doesn't stop or it goes on for an extended period. They hold fast deceit. They refuse to return. I hearkened and heard, verse six, but they spake not a right. What is he saying there? I hearkened and heard. He's saying that he's ready to hear their prayer and for them to say that they're sorry and for them to get back on track. I hearkened and heard, but they spake not a right. No man repented him of his wickedness saying, what have I done? Everyone turned to his course as the horse rusheth into the battle. Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times and the turtle in the crane and the swallow observed the time of their coming, but my people know not the judgment of the Lord. So he's saying, you know, because this is back when the Jews were God's chosen people. They're not in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament, they were the chosen people. But he says, my people don't realize that it's time to come back to me and it's time to return to me. That's what makes them evil. That's why they're gonna be punished. That's why they're gonna die. And then their graves are gonna be desecrated. And then the ones that are alive are gonna wish that they were dead. These are some pretty negative words here. This is some pretty strong condemnation of the children of Judah and children of Israel at this time. Let me just point out one thing also, since this is a Bible study. In verse seven, it says, yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times and the turtle and the crane and the swallow. Now, lest you think this is like one of those little preschool exams of which one of these does not belong, turtle there is actually short for a turtle dove. It's actually the bird, it's not the reptile. Or is it an amphibian? Reptile, all right. But anyway, I'm not an expert on zoology. But it says here, but I do know that storks, cranes, and swallows are all birds. Turtle, no, this is not a flying turtle. But often in the Bible, it'll use the word turtle. Sometimes it says turtle dove, sometimes it just shortened to turtle. That's why sometimes as a sacrifice, a turtle is being offered. But it's a word that has changed meaning since 1611. So it amazes me, sometimes people have this really, this really just adamant position of, well, if it says turtle, it's a turtle. You know, or if it says wine, it's alcohol or whatever. They don't realize that words change in meaning. And somebody, we were just speaking at the community college and somebody, I was speaking against drinking and somebody just insisted that, you know, when it says wine, it means wine. I mean, that'd be just as silly as saying, when it means turtle, it's a turtle. It's a snapping turtle, you know. When in reality, words do change meaning over time. So you say, well, how do we know that? You get the context in the Bible. You can see where the Bible's talking about turtle doves. And then you could see a turtle in a list of birds. And then you can talk about the singing of birds in Song of Solomon chapter two and then the voice of the turtle, you know. I mean, it's not hard to use the context to figure out. And it's the same thing with wine. When it talks about wine being in the cluster of a grape, that's clearly not an alcoholic beverage that you get in a cluster of grapes. That's just fruit juice. And when it talks about wine of a pomegranate or other fruit, then that tells you that wine is not just a grape product. Today, wine means alcoholic grape juice. But in the Bible, it's any kind of fruit juice. It doesn't even have to be grape. Any fruit juice, whether fermented or unfermented. Wine is just a broad word that covers all of that. Look if you would at verse number eight. How do you say we are wise and the law of the Lord is with us? And again, who's he speaking to here? Disobedient Jews that are rejecting the Lord. He's saying, don't tell me the law of the Lord is with you. Lo, certainly in vain made he it. The pen of the scribes is in vain. The wise men are ashamed. They're dismayed and taken. Lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord and what wisdom is in them. I love that statement. They've rejected the word of the Lord and what wisdom is in them. What's he saying? If you've rejected God's word, you don't have any wisdom in you. That's what he's saying. The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. People who reject the word of the Lord, they don't have any wisdom. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. That's what the Bible teaches. The wisdom of the world is foolishness with God. It says in verse 10, therefore will I give their wives unto others and their fields to them that shall inherit them. For everyone from the least, even under the greatest is given to covetousness. From the prophet, even under the priest, everyone dealeth falsely. So God's bringing up another judgment that's gonna come upon them because of their sins as a nation. He says not only is there gonna be death and destruction, not only will graves and bodies be desecrated, not only will people wish they were dead because of the suffering when they're scattered into all nations, but he says also their wives will be given unto others. Now this is obviously a horrible punishment. How would you like your wife to be taken away from you and given to another man? That's pretty much one of the most horrible things that could come upon you in your life. Now if you are a normal man, if you are a righteous man, you love your wife. You know the Bible commands is husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. So a normal man, a godly man, a righteous man loves his wife. And not only does he love his wife, he's protective of his wife. And not only that, but he's jealous for his wife. What does jealous mean? Well, jealous does not mean what most people think it means. Again, this is one of those things where words change in meaning. People corrupt the meaning of words sometimes to where they think jealous means you want something that belongs to someone else. That is envy in the Bible. The Bible uses a different word, envy. Envious is when you get the promotion and I didn't and then I wish that I had it. That's envy or thinking that I should have something that belongs to you. Jealousy on the other hand is actually in a way the opposite of envy. Envy is when I want something that belongs to someone else. Jealousy is when I'm just protective of what's rightfully mine. Not trying to get what somebody else has, I'm just trying to keep what I have and something that is rightfully mine, not something that should be shared. For example, God is very jealous for his name. Well, here's the thing, no one should share that name. No one should share that name Jesus or Jehovah or the Lord or God. Those are his, God Almighty is his name. He's jealous of that name. He doesn't want other entities to call themselves the Lord or God or Jehovah or Jesus Christ or anything. He is jealous of his name. He's also jealous of his glory. He doesn't wanna share his glory with other people. He wants to receive all praise and all glory and all honor for himself because he deserves it. And he's also jealous that he doesn't want people to worship other gods. He wants to receive the worship. Well, we as husbands should be jealous of our wives by a biblical definition. And what that means is that we should not want to share our wife with someone else. Now, isn't that kind of common sense? And it's perfectly natural and normal for us as men to not want our wife to be hanging around with some other dude. But it also goes the other way. Women should be jealous for their husbands as well because this is actually a two-way street. Now, some things in marriage are not a two-way street because the Bible is clear that the husband's the head of the wife. So there are certain differences between husband and wife. But in this case, it is a two-way street. The Bible talks about the wife belonging to the husband, but it also talks about the husband belonging to the wife. And so we should both, husband and wife, want to be exclusive, meaning that we don't want to share our wife. And wives don't want to share their husband, right? Isn't that what a normal, godly, righteous person would feel? So therefore, this is one of the worst punishments that could happen where God gives their wife to someone else. It's one of the most horrible things you can imagine, your wife being given to someone else or your wife committing adultery with someone else or being given to another man in marriage. It would cause a lot of pain and sorrow. And that's what God's telling them the punishment is going to be. So don't let people come down on you in this world that we live in, this crooked and perverse generation that tells you, oh, your husband is abusive or controlling because he doesn't want you having male friends that you go out to eat with and hang out with and have all this intimate time with. And you say, well, nothing's going on. My husband should just trust me to just go out to dinner and a movie with John from The Office or whatever. No way, I mean, that's ridiculous because you're opening yourself up to temptation and putting yourself in a position to commit adultery because people don't just commit adultery overnight in most cases. In most cases, it's they get too friendly with someone and they get real comfortable with someone of the opposite gender and then next thing you know, something goes a little too far and it's like the frog in the hot water and they get mixed up into adultery that way. That happens all the time. And so we need to be careful of that and take heed of that so it makes perfect sense for a husband to put his foot down and say, no. You know, I'm your male friend right here. You can have female friends, but you don't need to be buddy-buddy with some other guy. Just like I don't need to be buddy-buddy with women. You know, I need to get that female companionship from one person and one person alone. Except for, of course, I get female companionship from my daughters, but I should not be getting that from a strange woman. That's what the Bible teaches. And not only that, but we should be protective of our wives in the, how about the way that they dress? I mean, if you are a normal, and I love that word, normal. You know, that word is really comforting to me because we live in such an abnormal society. People are confused about which bathroom to use. They're confused about which gender they are. So that's why I like that word normal. We need to start using that word more. Because there's just a lot of abnormal stuff going on. So, you know, a normal man, and let me say, a righteous man, a godly man, he wants his wife to be for himself. He doesn't want her to be enjoyed by other men. And not only physically, but also visually. Now listen, there are a lot of worldly guys out there though who they want to flaunt their wife, the trophy wife, or they want to show off their wife's body, and they want her to dress scantily clad. But you know what? That's not a Christian attitude. That's not a godly attitude. A godly man tells his wife, look, cover up, dress modestly, do not dress provocatively, get rid of the low cut top, get rid of the short skirt, and you know what? There's nothing in the world wrong with the man looking at his wife and saying, you know what? Turn around and go back and get dressed again. You're not wearing that out of the house. I can't even count how many times I've done it, and my wife already dresses modestly. But if she goes a little over the line, I'll tell her, no, you know what? That's a little too revealing, that's too much. Go change that outfit. You know what? That's not just my right, that's my responsibility to rule my home. Especially if someone wants to be a pastor. One must rule well his own house, meaning that the wife and the daughters don't go out of the house wearing clothing that you don't approve of. And it's important that you protect your wife and not only protect her physically from actually having someone commit adultery with her, but how about just protecting her dignity and protecting her honor and protecting her from just the eyes of every man who wants to just look at her. And look, honestly, it's one thing to dress stylish and nice and pretty. There's nothing wrong with being beautiful and looking good. But you know what? But when you're dressing to be flashy and provocative, and when you're dressing in a way that is drawing attention of men, that isn't right. And you know what? You say, well, but my wife, that's what she wears. Yeah, but it's your job to say, honey, let's go shopping. It's time for you. And I don't think any wife would ever say no to that. And look, I'm not saying you're not gonna have to go through tribulation here. It's gonna be tribulation. It's gonna be torture. It's not gonna be hell, but it's gonna be purgatory or heck. To go and go shopping, I'm just joking, obviously. But you know what? It's time, you say, well, I don't have the money. Well, you know what? It's time to go to Goodwill. It's time to go to a Turnstile. It's time to go to Savers. It's time and get some modest apparel and find some nice things, you know? Because honestly, it's your job, husband. It's all of our job to make sure that we protect and cherish and nurture our wives. If we're godly, we don't want our wives to go to others. And we don't want other dudes looking at our wife all the time. You know, we wanna enjoy looking at our wife. But we don't, you know, we wanna look at her in the privacy of our home. We don't want just everybody looking at her and her to just flaunt her bod to the world. Let's go to verse number 11. It says, for they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying peace, peace, when there is no peace. Now let me back up, because I wanna deal with the second half of verse 10 there. It says, for everyone from the least, even unto the greatest, is given to covetousness. From the prophet, even unto the priest, everyone dealeth falsely. So notice that covetousness leads to false dealings. Okay, so covetousness means desiring that which does not belong to you. It's similar to envy. Covetousness is when I wish I had more money than I have. I wish I had a better car. I wish I had a better house. So when you desire money like that and desire more than what you've been given, you end up dealing falsely. Meaning that you'll start getting dishonest on your job or dishonest in your business in order to make extra money. Or you'll start doing things that are immoral or unethical to make money because you have covetousness in your life. That's why the love of money is the root of all evil. It leads to other sins. Covetousness leads to adultery. It leads to false dealings. It leads to all manner of sins because it is one of the most rudimentary sins that enters into our lives at the youngest age. Even a toddler is covetous. They go into the grocery store aisle and you know, I want that, mom, give me that. I want, nope, you can't have that. But I want it. It's funny how they think that's a legitimate argument. But you can't, but I want it. No, you can't have that, but I want it. Like they expect you to just be like, oh, you want it? Oh, well, okay then, yeah, then it's yours. You know, and here's the thing. Little children aren't tempted with fornication. They're not even thinking along those lines unless they've been corrupted or perverted. You know, little kids aren't really even thinking about, you know, they're not thinking about murder and adultery and those type of sins. You know, hopefully they're not taking God's name in vain. But you know, one thing that they get right away is covetousness and it's the root of all evil. It's where it starts. It's where sin begins in our life. And in fact, when Paul talks about, you know, being a baby, a physical baby, and basically, you know, not having any sin in his life, when he talks about his first sin, he mentions covetousness as the first sin that he committed as a child. You know, because that's what we commit as children. And even as adults, it's a big sin that we need to be careful of. So what's the opposite of covetousness? Contentment. Contentment is the opposite. See, the Bible says thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. What's the answer? Be content with your wife. Don't covet your neighbor's husband, be content with your husband. Don't covet your neighbor's house, why? Because you're content with your house. Be content with your car or lack of car. Be content with your feet, your legs, your shoes, your bicycle, whatever it is. Be content, that's the opposite. Let's keep reading. But it says that because they've been given to covetousness and they've dealt falsely and specifically, these are the prophets and the priests. So these are even religious leaders. Even the pastor, it's saying. Even the pastor is covetous and desires wealth and riches. Even he deals falsely to make a buck. And there are many preachers who preach things that they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. Now, what specifically are they doing to preach falsely? The prophet and the priest. What are they doing? It says in verse 11, four, four means what? Because. So they're dealing falsely because they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. Slightly means deceptively. It means through trickery. So here's how they've healed her, by just telling her, you're fine. It'd be like if you went to the doctor and the doctor said, I've healed you. You know, you go in there with stage four cancer and he says, here's a glass of water. Here's a couple of aspirin. And then he says, you're healed. You're cured. Really? Yeah. Yeah, that'll be $500 and you're cured. You're healed. You'll never need to come back. I mean, you know, I'm using a silly example. But that's basically what he's saying these preachers are doing. People are filled with disease. They're dying. Their body is rotting away. And the doctor's just telling them, you're fine. It'd be like if you went to the doctor and you're like, doctor, I'm in so much pain. I can't sleep. And he just says, no, you're fine. It's all in your head. Everything's fine. No problem. No, you don't understand. No, no, no, you're fine. So basically the preachers of today, they're not seeing all the cancer and all the corruption and disease that is racking our nation today. Our nation is on life support, spiritually. It's on like the spiritual operating table, just flat lining it. You know, and Pastor Anderson's getting out the paddles and I'm like, clear. You know, I'm trying to do some shock treatments here. Try to get this thing coming. You know, try to bring this thing back to life. You know, I mean, our nation is choking to death and hasn't breathed in many minutes. And you know, I'm getting ready to do the tracheotomy. And it's, you know, nobody wants the tracheotomy, but we're to that point where that's what's needed. All the other doctors are standing around saying, he'll be fine. Everything's fine. Beep, it'll start beating again. It's fine. His heart doesn't really need to beat. He'll be fine. Beep. You know, and I'm grabbing you guys like, what are you doing? You know, what's going on? You know, I'm going, you know. You know, I'm trying to bring this thing back to life. And they're like, whoa, you're going to hurt him. Whoa, you're being too harsh. Whoa, that electricity hurts, man. Let's put those paddles on you and see how you like it. What in the world, do you guys not? But they don't understand the severity of the situation. And he's saying that these, they're like a doctor, because he used the word healing. They're like a doctor who heals by just telling you you're fine. Peace, peace. When in reality, there is no peace. Verse 12, were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed. Neither could they blush. Therefore shall they fall among them that fall. In the time of their visitation, they shall be cast down, saith the Lord. You know, it's one thing to sin. It's one thing to commit abomination. But then it's even worse when you commit abomination and you don't even blush. You don't even feel bad about it. You're not even ashamed of it. I mean, we could all think of times when we sinned and we felt shame, right? Isn't that a natural feeling when we commit sin? We should feel shame. And then that's when we go to the Lord and we tell him we're sorry. And we basically, you know, confess it to the Lord and receive forgiveness and move on with our lives, you know? But to sit there and just commit the worst kind of sins, even abominations, and not even blush, have no shame. But that's where we're at in this country now. We're at the point where the grossest sins are not even in the closet anymore. They're just open. They're just exposed unto the world. It's like we talked about on Sunday night with this, you know, just having children out of wedlock is just considered normal. It's considered fine. It's considered great. It's wonderful. Instead of saying, oh wow, that's a shameful thing. You know, it used to be that if a girl in the church got pregnant out of wedlock, shame, blushing. People are humiliated. People are, you know, the parents are upset and they're humiliated and she's humiliated. But now it's just considered normal. Let's throw her a baby shower. I mean, that's where we're at in most churches now. Let's give her a Sunday school class to teach. It's out there. It's out there. I've been at a church where there was a small group Bible study that was an official Bible study of the church. It was an official Sunday school class, had a weekly Bible study in the home of two people that were living in sin together and fornication, unmarried. Living in fornication, living in open sin. That's where we're at today in many places. It says in verse 13, I will surely consume them, saith the Lord. There should be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade. And the things that I have given them shall pass away from them. Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves and let us enter into the defensive cities. And let us be silent there. For the Lord our God hath put us to silence and given us water of gall to drink because we have sinned against the Lord. Because the people, they think everything's fine. That's why Jeremiah keeps telling them bad things are gonna happen. The prosperity preachers are telling them peace, peace, when there is no peace. Jeremiah comes in and says, you better enter into the defensive city. You better get behind those walls. You better fortify because war is coming. Babylon is coming to destroy you. They're being told it's peace. Jeremiah is saying, you better get ready to fight. You better get in the defense city and just get in there and sit down and shut up, he said, because God has put you to silence. Verse 15, we looked for peace, but no good came. And for a time of health and behold trouble, the snorting of his horses was heard from Dan. The whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones. Talking about the invading army of the Babylonians, their horses, the snorting and the trampling of the earth, that it's gonna cause quaking of the earth. There's so much cavalry coming. For they are come and have devoured the land and all that is in it, the city and those that dwell there. For behold, I will send serpents, cockatresses among you, which will not be charmed and they shall bite you, sayeth the Lord. When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me. Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people, because of them that dwell in a far country, is not the Lord in Zion? Is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images and with strange vanities? The harvest has passed, the summer has ended and we're not saved. For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt. I am black, astonishment had taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? So they're worshiping other gods. They have idolatry, graven images and so forth. And he's saying they provoked me to anger with their graven images and with strange vanities. Vanities there is referring to gods, because he teaches over and over again in the Bible that the gods of the heathen are vanity. Vanity means worthlessness, emptiness. So he says these strange vanities, these strange gods, these worthless gods that can't save you, these statues that are carved by man and worshiped as God by the superstitious, whether it be a little Buddha that they carry around or whether it even be a graven image that claims to be of Jesus or claims to be of Mary or claims to be of the saints. These are graven images that provoke the Lord to anger and they cannot profit. He said in verse 21, for the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt, I am black. Now, of course there are people who just take that phrase, I am black and just make a whole doctrine that Jeremiah was black, which goes back to what we were saying earlier in the sermon about how the color of our skin doesn't matter. Red and yellow, black and white, they're precious in his sight. When he says I'm black, the Bible will often use the term black to have to do with, first of all, the effects of starvation, people's skin becoming dark because of malnutrition. That's part of what he refers to with the blackness. Also, there could be a metaphor here of a shadow coming over them in the sense that they are very down and depressed and so they are in a spiritual shadow, as it were. That's another use of the word black in the Bible. It's not referring to him, I'm black, hey, by the way, did I mention I'm black? That wouldn't really fit in. He's talking, you know, the hurt of the daughter of my people and my hurt. By the way, I'm black. Astonishment that they can hold on me. Obviously, the pain and the hurt and the astonishment is what made him black. And I kind of explained a few of the, if you study the word black in the Bible, you'll see blackness as a result of famine, faces gathering blackness, and also just the dark countenance of a shadow of sorrow and gloominess coming upon you is what that could also be referring to. Astonishment that they can hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? So let me just point out to you in that last verse the closing thought. And again, this is a very negative chapter, isn't it? All doom and gloom and destruction and punishment and wrath. But you know what, the last verse though is where the hope is found, where God says, you know what? It's not that the doctor's not available. It's not that there's no balm in Gilead. It's not that there's no doctor in the house, but it's that they're not returning to him. You see, anytime anyone wants to, they could be saved. You know, this is what you constantly try to impress upon the unbelievers of this world. Oh, you're just telling us that we're going to hell or oh, you're just condemning us. But hold on a second. God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. But a lot of times people quote that verse in isolation. And if you quote that verse in isolation, you get the wrong idea. Like Jesus is just only preaching positive or something. That's what some people use. But look at the next verse. He says, for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already. Why did God not send his son Jesus Christ into the world to condemn the world? Because the world was already condemned. How could he send Jesus to condemn the world? They're already condemned. He said that he came into the world that they might be saved. Now look, anybody who wants to be saved can be saved. Anyone, anyone. You say, well, what about anyone? Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Anyone who wants to be saved can just any time they want to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and just confess the Lord Jesus and be saved. They believe in their heart and confess with their mouth they could be saved in a moment. Anyone who wants to. But here's the thing, a lot of people don't want to. That's the problem. It's funny, we were preaching the gospel in the South Mountain Community College a couple days ago. It was either yesterday or the day before. And I said to them, you know, how, or I preached to them how it's all by grace through faith and it's by believing in Christ that we're saved and all we have to do is believe. And here's what somebody responded. They said, well then basically I guess everybody in the world would be saved because it's so easy. I mean, because they said it can't be that easy. It's not that easy. You have to do all these works and stuff. And they said, well, if it's that easy, then everybody's saved. And I said, wait a minute, hold on. There's a difference between something being easy and people doing it. And I went on to explain how most people in this world do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's very easy to demonstrate because more than half the people in this world don't even claim to believe in Jesus. And then amongst those who claim to believe in Jesus, they're not all truly believers. So it's very easy to be saved. It's available to anyone. And not only that, for those that are already saved, which is the vast majority of who I'm talking to tonight, you know what? God is ready to receive you back into his good graces and his good favor anytime. I mean, I don't care how deep you've gone into sin as a believer. I don't care how bad you've screwed up. Even if you're like David. I mean, look, where David committed adultery, committed murder. I mean, these are horrible sins. But I don't care how bad you've blown it. Anytime God is ready to receive you back into his, now look, it's impossible to lose your salvation, but I'm talking about being brought back into fellowship with the Lord, restored into his fellowship and to be in his good graces. Anytime you want to, you can get back in church. You know, at a future time, you're back slid. You can always come back. You can always go back out soul winning. You can always pick up the Bible and read it. You can always wake up tomorrow morning and say, you know what? I've been away from the Lord, but I'm getting back in the saddle again. Anytime you want to. It's not that the physician's not there to heal your life, to fix the problems in your life. It's just that you're not calling him. The medicine's there. The bone is in Gilead. You're just not taking the medicine. But it's not that the medicine isn't there. So at least in a very negative chapter, God does end on a positive note in a sense, because he lets us know, hey, whenever you're ready, I'm here. Now we know that these people do eventually turn back to God. Although it's probably not them, it's probably more like their children and grandchildren, because it's 70 years later when they turn back to the Lord and are brought back to the promised land. But you know what? God's there, God's waiting, God's ready. Anytime you want to get saved, if you're not saved, or if you're already saved, he's ready for you to just come back to the fold and to be restored into his service once again. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. Please help us to apply it to ourselves, Lord, and to learn from this chapter. Even though it's spoken thousands of years ago to people on the other side of the world, Lord, help us to apply these things to ourselves, because we are also your people, Lord, being New Testament believers. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.