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Jeremiah chapter 26 verse number 2. Jeremiah 26 verse number 2 it says, Thus saith the Lord, stand in the court of the Lord's house and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the Lord's house, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them. Then notice the next phrase, diminish not a word. The title for the sermon this afternoon is diminish not a word, diminish not a word. So let's start there in verse number one. Jeremiah chapter 26 verse number one. Let's just understand what it is that Jeremiah is doing. Now actually before I start reading it, you may recall that in Jeremiah chapter 25, Jeremiah is basically preaching to everybody on the land. Okay, so it applied to everybody. But in Jeremiah 26, he's addressing the house of God once again. Okay, so when we think about Jeremiah addressing the temple, we should really think Jeremiah's addressing the local church, okay? Because the temple in the Old Testament was known as the house of God. And the New Testament house of God is your local church. Okay, so I know we don't have a physical temple in Jerusalem that we go and offer sacrifices. But this is what the Lord has set up for us in the New Testament, local churches, local Baptist churches for us to be part of. And this is what he calls his house. But let's look there in verse number one. It says, in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word from the Lord saying, so we see it once again, a new prophecy is being given to Jeremiah. And Jeremiah, as we've been seeing so far, he's faithfully communicating that which the Lord has put on his heart. Verse number two, thus saith the Lord, now look at this, stand in the court of the Lord's house. Okay, once again, we wanna apply this to us today. Okay, we know that's about the Old Testament temple, Solomon's temple, but hey, we ought to be thinking about the New Testament church. And it says, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, look at this, which come to worship in the Lord's house. So who is he addressing? Yeah, he's talking to all the cities, but specifically the people that are coming to worship in the Lord's house. So this is about Christians, okay? This is for us, we need to think about what is Jeremiah going to teach us? Okay, when we look at these words, we come to the Lord's house to worship the Lord. Hey, we don't come to the Lord's house for Pastor Kevin. We don't come to the Lord's house for brother so and so and sister so and so, okay? Now that's a good byproduct, those things, but we come to the Lord's house primarily to worship the Lord, okay? Then it says this, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them, then the Lord says this to Jeremiah, diminish not a word. What is it saying? What does it mean to diminish? Well, diminish is basically to lessen, okay? God is telling Jeremiah, when you stand up to preach in God's house, okay? In the church, in the temple here, then you need to make sure you don't diminish what I'm saying. You know, give the maximum full force of the word that I'm giving you, don't diminish the word. And this is important for pastors or any preacher to remember when you're preaching from God's word, do not diminish his word. If you diminish his word, if you lessen his word, if you soften the word of God, if you try to tickle people's ears and try to make them, you know, try to soften or sugarcoat what God has to say, you're gonna cause damage to the people of God. This is what God is addressing in this chapter. Now, if you can keep your finger there and please go to Acts chapter 20. Keep your finger there in Jeremiah 26 and turn to Acts chapter 20. And while you're turning there, I'm gonna read some words from Jesus, some very common words, some very popular words in Matthew chapter four, verse four. This is when Jesus Christ was being tempted by the devil. And it says here in verse number four, and he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. So when we're feeding ourselves spiritually, when we're feeding our soul, with the nutrients that God has for us, we have to feed it with every word, every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. You know, I'm so thankful that our King James Bible in English has every word of God in here. It's an every word Bible. You know, I don't like the NIV. I don't like these modern corruptions, not so much because of the way the English is written, but they actually take out verses. When God is saying, don't diminish my word, don't lessen it, okay? What are these versions doing there? They're taking away God's word and they're suffering what he has to say. You know, they take out the blood of Christ. They take out the name of Christ and they mess up doctrines. You know, they're diminishing God's word and adding false doctrines in the Bible. You need to make sure that you read a King James Bible. And if you're an English speaker, if you can read in English, you know, the King James Bible is the Bible that has been translated for us in English without any biases. It's been translated from the original tongues so we can have an every word preserved Bible. Now you're in Acts 20 and verse number 26. Acts chapter 20 and verse number 26. Pastor Kevin, why are you preaching for Jeremiah? You know, the Old Testament, that's when God was angry. That's what people think, right? God is angry at the wicked every day, the Bible tells us. They're includes today. Okay, so don't worry, God is angry today at the wicked, okay? But in Acts 20, verse number 26, it says, wherefore, I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, okay? Now, this is about a leader, a religious leader, Paul, an apostle saying to the people that he's preaching to that he's pure from the blood of all men. He's saying, look, I'm innocent, you know? If you guys destroy your lives, if you guys mess up your testimony, he goes, look, that's not on me. Why is it not on you? No, I don't want it to be on me either. I mean, honestly, if you guys go and destroy your life, you live a life like the devil, you know, you live a wicked life, you lose your children. What I would like to say is that that's not blood on my hands. But how is it that I can say such a thing? How is it that Paul can say such a thing? Verse number 27, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God, okay? That's how the preacher remains innocent, by declaring all the counsel of God. You know, it's not for me to pick and choose what chapters I'm going to teach or what verses I'm going to teach. It's my job to the best I can as a pastor to teach every verse that's in this book. And I know there are passages in the Bible that are uncomfortable, okay? That maybe you invite a guest and then it's like, oh man, I can't believe you preach that. You know, I've had that. I've had people come to church and they get offended and they go, okay? I remember once I was preaching a sermon against homosexuals, you know, against the LGBT and I had a woman get up and leave the church in Queens. I mean, look, if I'm going to remain innocent and not be guilty of bloodshed, I've got to do and make sure I preach all the counsel of God, regardless of what it says. That's what a preacher is meant to do, okay? Preach the whole counsel of God. Look at verse number 28, Acts 20, verse 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost have made you overseers, look at this, to feed the church of God, which you have purchased with his own blood. So God, when you come to the house of God, God wants you to be fed, okay? And again, it's not just feeding things that sound nice all the time or tickle the ears. I've got to feed you all the counsel of God. I've got to feed you every word of God. I'm not allowed to diminish God's word. And that's what Jeremiah was called to do. Get out there, get to the temple, don't diminish the word of God. Look at verse number 29, Acts 20, 29. This is the reason why this is so important. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock, okay? So if the preacher does not preach the whole Bible, okay? He hides certain doctrines, okay? Tries to sugarcoat, make you feel good, make you feel good in your sin, then that's going to open up for wolves, for false prophets to come in and destroy the church. We don't want that. We don't want blessed or baptized, I don't want it destroyed. I'm sure you don't want it destroyed. Well, then we need to appreciate when we have the whole Bible preached to us, even when it makes us uncomfortable, okay? Now, can you please go back to Jeremiah 26? Back to Jeremiah 26. Jeremiah 26. So what we're going to discover as we keep going through this chapter is that obviously we know that Jeremiah is a true prophet of God, but he's dealing with these wolves that have come into the temple of God. He's very different to the false prophets and to the wicked priests that are in the temple, okay? So for God to be telling Jeremiah, don't you diminish my word, that tells me that these other preachers, that these other religious leaders were diminishing God's word, okay? And you'll soon see these guys go head to head. Look at verse number three, Jeremiah 26, verse number three. It says, if so, so this is why, this is why you should not diminish the word. This is why you should preach all the word. Because it says, if so, be they will hearken and turn every man from his evil way that I may repent me of the evil which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings. The reason why the preacher should not diminish God's word is because it has the power to cause men to turn from their evil ways, okay? I mean, if you're not hearing preaching about your sin, you're not gonna have the desire or the zeal or the encouragement to overcome that sin in your life. And if I'm trying to make you comfortable in your sins, you'll continue living a wicked, sinful life. I mean, this is just normal, okay? If you're being made comfortable in that situation. Now look, it doesn't mean it's guaranteed. Just because you get a preacher preaching hard sermons, preaching controversial things, preaching the whole counsel of God, it's not a guarantee necessarily that God's people will give up their sins and walk a more holy life, okay? Because ultimately that comes down to the individual, okay? But what the guarantee is here that if preachers are diminishing God's word, if they're not preaching the whole counsel of God, it will definitely open up people to get back into their sinful ways. It will definitely cause God's people, I'm talking about God's people, saved Christians to get into wicked sins, okay? So you don't wanna find yourself in a church where the preaching is too soft, it's too happy all the time, because I promise you this, you're gonna get into a wicked lifestyle and you're not even gonna realize it. You're gonna think this is just normal, okay? And so this is why Jeremiah had to stand out differently from the other preachers. I want you to notice something else there in verse number three. God says, look, if every man will turn in his evil way, then he will repent of the, sorry, I'll read verse number three exactly. That I, these are the words of God, that I may repent me of the evil, okay? Which I purpose to do, answer them because of the evil of their doings. So God is saying, look, because my people are doing wicked things, because my people are doing evil, sinful things, well, I'm gonna do evil to them as well. Now we know that God cannot sin, okay? And sometimes people think that evil means sin. Now let me just explain something to you. All sin is evil, but not all evil is sin, okay? So what does evil mean? Evil means harmful. It's harmful, okay? All sin will harm you and harm people around you, okay? But sometimes harm is not sinful. For example, you know, my children might do something wicked, okay? They may disobey mom and dad. And so what are we gonna do? We're gonna take up that rod. We're gonna discipline them. We're gonna correct them. We're gonna chastise them. Hey, it's gonna cause a little bit of harm on their backside, okay? But is it sinful to correct your children? No, but it is a bit of harm, okay? It is a bit of a sting. It is a bit of a hurt, so they can learn that that was a wrong thing to do and they face the consequence of that, okay? But that in of itself is not sinful. In fact, that is very righteous, you know, disciplining your children. Well, what God is saying is, if you don't turn from your sinful and wicked ways, sorry, if you do turn from your harmful and wicked ways, then I will repent of the evil. I will repent of the harm that I was going to do to you. Now, why is that so important? Okay, first of all, so you understand what the word evil means, but secondly, that you notice that it is God who is repenting, okay? God repents more than anyone in the Bible. Why is that important? Because people are gonna walk around, false prophets, people that diminish God's will, not just diminish God's word, but people that add to God's word, okay? And they're gonna say to you, repent means turn from your sins. Well, God just says that he will repent from his evil. Does that mean God's gonna repent from his sins? And that would be blasphemy. God has no sin, okay? God repents more than anyone else, okay? What does it mean to repent then, if it doesn't mean to turn from your sins? All repent means is to turn, that's all, to change, to go another direction. But from what to what is within the context of what you're reading, okay? I mean, you know, you may go to one store, you may go to Woolworths, and it doesn't have what you need, so you repent and you go to Coles, okay? You didn't turn from your sins, you just went from one shopping place to another shopping place. You changed direction, okay? You had a change of mind ultimately, okay? And so what God is saying, that instead of me causing the Babylonians to come and to destroy this nation, I will repent from that. I will cause them to not come and judge you so long as you turn from your wicked ways, from your sinful, harmful ways, okay? So anyone that's trying to tell you, look, that term, repent of your sins, is not in your Bible, okay? It's not in your Bible. Yet how many preachers openly just state that behind the pulpit? And they actually mean you got to turn from sins to be saved. That is a wicked, false gospel. It is impossible for you to live a life without sin. It is impossible. You're trying to get to heaven on your own righteousness. How ridiculous is that when Christ has come and given us His righteousness, okay? So you can make very clear here that God is repenting, and He repents more than anyone else in the Bible. Verse number four, And thou shall say unto them, Thus saith the Lord, If you were not hearkened to me to walk in my law, which I have sent before you, to hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early and sending them, but you have not hearkened. Now this is basically a repetition of what we saw in Jeremiah chapter 25, and by the Lord saying that and sending them, rising up early, meaning that He acted quickly. He sent these prophets quickly to help this nation turn from their wicked ways. But He says, look, the people, God's people, have not hearkened, they've not listened. Once again, across Sydney right now, there are churches full of people right now. Churches full of people. But you know what is not being taught? They're not being taught to walk in God's laws. Verse number four, that's what it says, to walk in my law, okay? That's what church is supposed to be, the teaching of God's law. And say, hey, yeah, this is what God's law says, this is what God wants from you, hey, walk thereby. It's not my job to come into your house and check how you're doing, you know? Are you living the righteous life? You know, it's not my job to come and check your DVD. Do people have DVDs anymore? To check your subscription, your Netflix, I don't know. What do people have these days? You know, it's not for me, I was gonna say CDs, so look at your CDs, we don't even have them anymore. So look at your MP3 collection, see your Apple. What do people use now? Streaming as well, it's all streaming now. It's not my job to come to your house and check what you've got, is what I'm saying, okay? It's my job to teach you what God's law says. It's up to you to decide, are we going to harken to this or not? Are we going to listen to this or not? It comes down to you. Once again, I wanna be innocent. I wanna have my hands clean of anyone's blood, which is why I'm just gonna preach to you the whole Bible. And then it's your job to decide whether you're going to live and walk thereby in accordance to God's word. Now, I also want you to notice that in verse number five, it says to harken to the words of my servants, the prophets. Sometimes as I'm reading through Jeremiah, I feel like he's a very lonely guy. I don't know, that's kind of the impression that I get because he has got the whole nation against him. But one thing that we need to remember is that there will always be true prophets of God. Just like there will always be false prophets on this earth, at the same time, God will always run away and God will always rise early and send his prophets plural. There's always more than one man of God teaching God's word, all right? So sometimes it just takes the effort to say, hey, you know what? This church, I don't know about this guy. I don't even know if this pastor is saved. I mean, that's happened to me sometimes. You just wonder, I don't know, I have no idea, okay? But hey, what are you gonna have to do? You know that God is sending a prophet somewhere and you've gotta find where they are, okay? You gotta find them and understand that this prophet is going to teach me God's laws. And something that I've learned as a pastor, this is something I've heard from other pastors and I'm starting to realize it a little bit. Sometimes being a pastor is a little bit lonely. And you sometimes think, am I the only guy? Because you come across other pastors and all of a sudden they're watered down or they don't have the right gospel or they're not soul winning and they're just compromising. It's like, man, am I the only one around? Sometimes you get that impression, okay? And I'm not trying to talk myself up or anything like that. I'm just saying, sometimes that's the view, but one thing that I can be encouraged by God's word is that He will send His prophets, plural. There are always more than one person, okay? It's not always just this one. You know, some people have, well, this is just the one good church. I've had people say that to me. I've had people say to me, you know what? New Life Baptist Church, I know there's one good church up there and one good church down in Sydney. And I'm like, you're not looking hard enough. There are other good churches. There are other good pastors, okay? They may not be exactly like us about everything, hey, but if they're right on the gospel, they're teaching from the King James Bible and they're out soul winning, or at least not against soul winning, hey, that pastor's got my back, okay? Because I know how much sacrifice is required to lead a church and try to walk in God's righteous ways. Now, let's keep going, verse number six. It says, then will I make this house, again, the house here is referring to the temple, like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth. Now, we did look back at Shiloh if you were here for Jeremiah chapter seven, so it was many, many weeks ago, but we did look at what Shiloh meant, what it represented. So we're just gonna refresh our memories very quickly. Why is God saying that the temple or Jerusalem will be like Shiloh? Well, if you can please keep your finger there and go to Psalm 78. Go to Psalm 78. Hopefully you kind of remember this, maybe you haven't, but Shiloh, before Jerusalem, Shiloh was a place, a location, that God set up his tabernacle. So you may know the history before the temple, before there was actually a building, God had his Ark of the Covenant and the sacrifices were made at the tabernacle, which was also known as the house of God. And in Psalm 78, verse number 59, I just wanted to show you that the Lord was angry once again with his nation, and this is what he did in Shiloh. Psalm 78, verse 59. What's good about Psalm? It just summarizes what it's about. Okay, Psalm 78, verse number 59 reads, when God heard this, he was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel. What's the word abhor? It's hatred. Okay, so we know that not only is he wroth, he's very angry, right? He's hating what his nation is doing. Look at verse number 60. So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tents which he placed among men and delivered his strength into captivity and his glory into the enemy's hand. So the Ark of the Covenant was taken by one of Israel's enemies, okay? But the Bible's telling us here that God was so angry with the nation that he forsook, he removed his presence away from the people of God. And so as Jeremiah is preaching and saying, look, it's gonna be like Shiloh, what is he saying? He's saying, you know what? This temple that you guys think is so important, God's gonna forsake it as well. God's presence will leave this place as well. And why do we need to hear this preaching? Because I do not want God's presence to leave this church. I don't want God's presence to leave Blessed Hope Baptist Church, okay? But it can happen. It has happened in the past where he has forsook his house. Hey, he can forsake this house as well if we don't adhere to all the counsel of God. If we start to diminish God's word, expect God's presence to leave this place, okay? We can see here that it's a negative message. He's saying, look, God's almost done with you guys. He's so close to departing like he did in Shiloh. Back to Jeremiah 26, verse number seven. So now we have the enemies of Jeremiah, okay? Verse number seven, it says, so the priests and the prophets, so now we're looking at the religious leaders. And all the people, so now every, all the worshipers that are in the temple here, all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. Now it came to pass when Jeremiah had made an end of, look at this, speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak unto all the people. I love Jeremiah. He's so obedient, isn't he? God said, don't diminish my word, okay? And what's he doing? He goes, right, I'm gonna speak all that the Lord had commanded him. Even if it's gonna offend the people in the church, okay, the people in the temple. Now what's the response? That the priests and the prophets and all the people took him saying, thou shalt surely die. Now, I don't know. I don't know if someone wants to kill me, okay? But here's something that I learned about this, okay? A true prophet of God, a true preacher of God will have enemies that would want to see him dead, okay? I mean, I'm not saying necessarily here in this body because I know you guys make the effort to come here and be a part of this church, right? And I'm not necessarily saying you guys here, I just want Pastor Kevin to die. But I'm just saying like our preaching's online. It's on YouTube, okay? I mean, I'm sure there are enemies of this church, okay? I have no doubts. I have no doubt they would want to see this pastor perish, okay? So I'm just saying, pray for me, you know? And any other good pastors that are out there, any other good preachers out there that you're familiar with, pray for them, okay? Because there are people, if you're just preaching God's word, there are people that would want to see you dead, all right? Now, this reminds me of a few things. So what we saw here in verse number, look at verse number seven again. So you have the religious leaders, so the priests and the prophets, and then it says, and all the people. Again, that's the people of the temple, those are the people worshiping God. Now, it looks like they're all just offended by Jeremiah. When we read these verses, it looks like they all just want to kill Jeremiah. What I want to show you, it's not so much the people. Yes, the people have been influenced, but it's primarily the false prophets, it's primarily the wicked priests that are turning the hearts of the people against Jeremiah. You see, the average person actually likes God's word. Like the average person knows that God's word is right. They like what is righteous, okay? They may not be living the righteous life, but generally speaking, people like the Bible. They like the message of God's word, okay? But what you'll find is it's usually the religious leaders. It's usually corrupt pastors and corrupt prophets, okay, that turn the hearts of the people against the prophets that are preaching the true message of God, okay? And you'll soon see, as we keep going through this chapter, that is the case. This also reminds me of the final week of Jesus, just because it's Easter. You know, I just want to talk about that again. Remember when Jesus Christ, on his final week, when he was riding the, the colts, the donkey, all right. See, once I preached this and I said he was riding a camel. So, and yeah, yeah, I said that incorrectly. And then brother Michael corrected me and it's like, I've got this emotional scar. So every time I say he's riding on, I'm like, am I going to say the right thing this time? Anyway, he was on a donkey, he was on a colt, okay? Anyway, the story, you know, you know the story. So he's riding on the donkey into Jerusalem. And remember, what were the people doing? They were praising God, right? They were recognizing this as the Messiah. They were so excited about Jesus, you know, coming to Jerusalem on his final week. Well, then what happens a week later? The same people crucify him, crucify him. Why did they go all of a sudden? Just rejoicing, praising God to say, man, this guy needs to die. It was again, the Pharisees. It was the religious leaders. It was the false prophets. It was the wicked people in these churches or in the temple of God that had turned the hearts of the people against a true prophet. In fact, God himself, God the son. And so if this happens to Jesus and this happens to Jeremiah, it's going to happen. It's going to happen to me, okay? It's going to happen to other pastors, other preachers. And we just need to understand and reflect upon this and just understand this is the way the world works, okay? You will never find me. I promise you this. You will never find me just attacking good men of God. Now I don't agree with, I don't know of any pastor that I agree 100% with on everything, okay? Now obviously when it comes to the main things, you know, the fundamentals of the faith, you know, I'm going to agree with everything in that sense, okay? But at the same time, if I see a man of God who is just loving the Lord, and again, he may be different to me. He may believe differently on reprobates. He may believe differently on Israel, okay? He may believe differently on the time of the rapture, okay? But I know that he's grounded on the fundamentals of the faith, and I know that he's preaching the gospel, and look, he's doing the best he can with what he's been given, you know? At the end of the day, I'm not going to attack that man. When you see a religious leader stand up and attack a good man of God who's doing good works of God, mark it down, that is a wicked man, okay? That is even potentially a false prophet, potentially a wolf in sheep's clothing, okay? Once again, I don't necessarily agree with every pastor with how they do things, okay? But if I see in them that they're trying to serve God with the best ability they have, you won't see me trying to tear that person down. Now, if that person, sorry, if there's a pastor, a preacher preaching a false gospel, or they're preaching another Christ, or they're preaching with another spirit, yeah, I will call them out, okay? Because actually they're doing harm to the body of Christ, they're doing harm to God's word, and they're causing people to ultimately go to hell with a false gospel, okay? But if there's just another good pastor out there that's doing the work, hey, they've got my, you know, I've got their back, I should say, okay? I've got their back, even if they're a little bit different on some other secondary doctrines, all right? Now, look at verse number nine. Jeremiah 26, verse number nine. Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, this house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without inhabitants? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. So there's a bit of an uproar in the house of the Lord, right? So now we have another group of people get involved in verse number 10. It says, when the princes of Judah, now we have the politicians, we have the authorities, right? The princes, those of the royal family, those that actually pass law and make judgment, now they're gonna get involved, right? There's an uproar going on, they're like, man, we better go there, right? Okay, so verse number 10. When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king's house unto the house of the Lord and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the Lord's house, okay? So I want you to think about these three groups that we have in the story. Besides Jeremiah, we have the wicked religious leaders, we have the general worshipers in the house of God, and now we have the authorities, okay? They've come to listen to what's going on. Verse number 11. Then spake, now notice this, then spake the priests and the prophets, so the corrupt leaders, unto the princes, so to the authorities, and to all the people, the worshipers, okay? So you can see these guys, the corrupt religious leaders, they're trying to convince, they're trying to, well, have a look at this, what are they saying? This man is worthy to die, for he have prophesied against this city as he have heard with your ears. So who is it that's calling for the death of Jeremiah? Is it the general worshipers? No, it's the priests and the prophets, and they're trying to convince the people, they're trying to convince the authorities to kill Jeremiah. Again, this reminds me of Jesus, okay? You know, when Pilate saw Jesus, what did he say? He says, look, I find nothing guilty in this man, you know? He said, this man is innocent, like he washes his hands. You know, it says, look, this man is innocent, okay? But again, it was the priests, it was the prophets, it's the religious leaders that are turning people against the true prophets of God. Once again, I'm not here to attack other pastors, okay? Be careful of men of God, so-called men of God, that are just constantly attacking good men of God. There's something wrong there, okay? There's something wrong with that kind of attitude, all right? Now let's keep going. Sorry, guys, what am I up to? 13. 12, 12, all right, 12. So they're saying about Jeremiah that he needs to, he's worthy to die, and then Jeremiah responds in verse number 12. Then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes, and to all the people, saying, the Lord sent me to prophesy against this house, and against this city, all the words that ye have heard. So he's saying, look, this is not my message. This is coming from God, all right? Now you might say, Pastor Ken, why'd you preach? My goal is just to preach what God says. That's why we use the Bible, right? We're constantly just preaching the Bible. I would not have come up with this sermon if I just had my own ideas. I promise you, you know, we're using God's word. That's all we're trying to do. Look at verse number 13. Therefore, now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will repent him of the evil that he pronounced against you. So it's the same message that he says, right? He says, I'm simply preaching God's word, and he's addressing the princes and all the people. Verse number 14. I want you to notice Jeremiah's behavior toward the authorities here. He says, as for me, behold, I am in your hand. Do with me as seemeth good, and meet unto you. Okay, so Jeremiah is respectful to the authorities. He's like, he puts up the offense, look, I'm just preaching what God said, all right? And then he says, look, but I'm in your hands. At the end of the day, it's your decision to do with me as you wish, okay? So you can see that he's submissive to the authorities, he's respectful to the authorities, but at the same time, in the next verse, he warns them. Okay, he warns them if they act corruptly, okay? Verse number 15. But know for certain that if you put me to death, you shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof, for of a truth the Lord have sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears. So he says, look, it is true that God has sent me, you kill me, you put me to death, you're gonna have innocent blood in your hands. God's judgment's gonna come upon you. Verse number 16. Then said, look at this, then said the princes, so the ones in authority, and all the people, unto the priests and to the prophets. This man is not worthy to die, for he have spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God. So again, who's trying to kill Jeremiah? False prophets, okay? The authorities hear it, this guy's not worthy of death. He's just preaching God's word. It's exactly what happened to Jesus, okay? Exactly what happened to Jesus. I can't help but see the parallels here, right? And so it just, I mean, it just shows you how wicked. There is something about, I don't know what it is, but there's something about being a pastor, being a religious leader. You either get the best of people, or you just get the absolute worst of people. You know, let's just kill this guy. And even the authorities, you know, they're not the ones that are in God's house all the time. They're like, this guy doesn't, he's not worthy of dying. Like they've got the common sense about them, right? He's just preaching God's word. Look at verse number 17. Now we've got the representatives of the people. It says, verse number 17, then rose up certain of the elders of the land and spake to all the assembly of the people, saying, so the elders at this point in time here, they were well-respected representatives of the people. Okay, sometimes in order for there to be some type of authority structure in the land of Israel at this point of time, different tribes or different families will appoint elders, okay? So if there's like a dispute between families or whatever, they would go to this elder and this elder would help pass judgment, okay? So they're well-respected people of the land. So now these elders come to the scene and they've got a word to say, right? What do they have to say? So actually they come to the defense of Jeremiah. Verse number 18. They say, Micah, the Morrisite, prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, thus save the Lord of hosts. Zion shall be plowed like a field and Jerusalem shall become heaps and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest. So the elders come and say, look, Jeremiah is not the only one with this message. We also had Micah. One of our books in the Bible is Micah, same guy. We also have Micah who prophesied the same thing about us in the time of king Hezekiah. So let's have a quick look at Micah. It's toward the end of your Old Testament. Please keep your finger there. And let's go to Micah chapter three. Let's go to Micah chapter three. Micah chapter three. Let's have a look. So they're saying what Micah said. Let's go and have a look at what Micah said. And I want you to see the parallels that we see here in Micah. It's toward the end of the Old Testament, one of the minor prophets, Micah chapter three, and look at verse number 12. Micah chapter three and verse number 12. So verse number 12 is what they repeated, the elders repeated, which says, therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field and Jerusalem shall become heaps and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. So Micah is saying, look, God's gonna come and just plow Jerusalem. He's gonna destroy Jerusalem for the wickedness of the land. He's preaching this at the time of King Hezekiah, sometime in the past. Now, why did Micah preach this? Well, I don't know if the elders skipped verse number 11 on purpose, but I love how they bring up the same passage. Because if you look at verse, we read verse number 12, look at verse number 11. Literally just right before there, it says, verse number 11, Micah 3.11, the heads thereof, so the heads, that's the authorities, thereof judge for reward. Now look at this. And the priests thereof teach for hire and the prophets thereof divine for money. Yet will they lean upon the Lord and say, is not the Lord among us? None evil can come upon us. So they quoted a passage of Micah. Why is God saying, why is God saying, I'm gonna destroy Jerusalem? He says, because the religious leaders are so corrupt. They do it for the money. They do it to get rich, okay? So what's going on then in Jeremiah's day? They don't like Jeremiah coming on the scene. They've got their cushy jobs. They've got their high paying jobs, right? Jeremiah's coming to the scene and showing them to be false prophets, to be false teachers, showing them to be people that diminish God's word. And they're like, let's kill this guy. We don't like Jeremiah. Let's kill this guy, right? And the elders are like, hold on. That's the same message as Micah. Jeremiah's also dealing with some of these corrupt priests and prophets. All right, go back to Jeremiah, please, 26 and look at verse number 19. Jeremiah 26, verse number 19. So how did the king of Judah respond to Micah? Well, again, the king of Judah was Hezekiah, verse number 19. Did Hezekiah, king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? Did they kill Micah? It's a rhetorical question. They didn't kill Micah, okay? Did he not fear the Lord and besought the Lord and the Lord repented him of the evil which had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure great evil against our souls. Says, look, they did not kill Micah. Okay, in fact, it caused the fear of God in our land and it helped us get back on track with the Lord. So if that happened in the past, how is it that we're gonna kill Jeremiah now? In fact, they say that in verse number at the end of verse number 19, thus might we procure evil, sorry, great evil against our souls. So to procure means to obtain or to cause. They're saying if we kill Jeremiah, this is going to cause God's judgment to come down now. You know, God's gonna accelerate His judgment if we kill Jeremiah. He's just preaching the same thing that the prophets of old like Micah have preached. Let's look at verse number 20. It says here, and there was also a man, so now we looked at Micah, then we look at another preacher here, another prophet. There was also a man that prophesied in the name of the Lord, Urijah, the son of Shemimiah of Kerjat Jirim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah. So he's saying, look, there's this other guy, this other prophet, Urijah. He preached the same words as Jeremiah. Now, let me just say this again. God will send more than one prophet. There is more than one preacher, okay? If there's one pastor saying something completely different to everybody else, you can mark it down, this guy's a false prophet. They're saying that Urijah and Jeremiah are preaching the same words, okay? If you've got a spirit-filled pastor or preacher behind the pulpit, you know, what they teach should be no different to what other preachers are teaching, okay? Or other preachers in the past that have been taught. If all of a sudden I'm preaching something completely different, you better be, you know, that should be warning signs to you. That should be red flags to you, okay? That should be an issue, all right? But again, we see this principle that God will send more than one prophet. But let's have a look at what happened to Urijah. Verse number 21. And when Jehoiakim, the king, with all his mighty men and all the princes heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But when Urijah heard it, he was afraid and fled and went into Egypt. All right, so what we're seeing here is Urijah and Jeremiah, they're preaching the same words. They're both prophets of God, but they have a different response, okay? When people are calling for Jeremiah's death, Jeremiah says to the authorities, I'm in your hands. Okay, it's up to you. But then Urijah, when he hears that people want to put him to death, what does he do? He flees. He gets afraid and runs away. I don't blame him. I can kind of understand, you know? I mean, this guy's just doing God's word and he's hearing the news, they want to kill you. So he's like, you know what, I'm going to flee. I'm going to flee. I'm going to go to Egypt. Look at verse number 22. And Jehoiakim, the king, sent men into Egypt, namely Elnathan, the son of Akbar, and certain men with him into Egypt. And they fetched forth Urijah out of Egypt and brought him unto Jehoiakim, the king, who slew him with a sword and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people. So unfortunately for prophet Urijah, he was killed, okay? So we learn an interesting principle here. You either, you know, God gives you a word as a preacher, as a prophet. You preach the same message. People want to kill you. People want to hurt you. You have two options. You just say, well, Lord, it's in your hands. You know, God, you've got these authorities and let the authorities do as they need to do. That's one approach. Or you're like, man, I'm getting out of here. I'm going to flee this place because this is just going to be a world of hurt for me. Well, you notice here that the one that fled ultimately lost his life, okay? So one thing that I learned from this, that if I'm a preacher and I get bad press, or if I get in the news or something like that, and they call me a hate preacher, or one day there's people protesting outside, you know, the best thing to do is just continue doing the work. You know, I mean, that's actually the safest place to be than to run away, go hiding into Egypt, okay? Because ultimately, if they want to kill you, they'll find you and they'll take you and they'll slay you. Okay? I mean, that's the lesson that we see here, right? You've got to be, you know, make sure that if you are going to stand up to preach and you're going to say something controversial, if something bad happens, if you're the kind of person that says, I'm probably going to flee, then it's probably not the job for you, okay? It's not the job for you. You know, we should be like Jeremiah and say, you know what? Let it be. Whatever it is that the Lord wants from me, that's going to happen. Verse number 24. Nevertheless, the hand of Ahicham, the son of Shaphan, was with Jeremiah that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death. So Jeremiah did not flee, okay, from fear, and he stayed in his ministry. He had people to come and support him. They protected him, right? They stood up for him. And so this is an important part of the preacher. You know, preachers should not diminish God's word, number one, okay? Number two, understand if you don't diminish God's word and you preach all the counsel of God, you're going to have haters. You're going to have false prophets, false priests, you know, turn against you, and you're going to have people that want to cause you harm, that want to hurt you, that want to hurt your family, okay? But if that happens, the lesson here, don't flee. Just do what is right. Stand for the Lord, okay? And you can see here that if the Lord wants to protect you, the Lord protected Jeremiah, that will be the case. But if you flee, if you run away, if you run scared, then you're going to have guaranteed destruction. Anyway, that's Jeremiah chapter 26. We're halfway through the book, okay? We've got another 26 chapters to get through. Let's pray.