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But if we look there in Jeremiah 37 verse number 9, verse number 9, Thus saith the Lord, Deceive not yourselves. The title for the sermon this morning is Deceive Not Yourselves, okay. We can deceive ourselves, you know, when we hear God's words and we can, you know, as we live our Christian life, we can think that God sees a certain way and actually deceive ourselves and actually understand that actually God sees things in a different light. Or you may hear preaching from God's word where you may step on your toes and you may be deceived into thinking that, you know, the pastor has it in for you or something. Or you can deceive yourselves or you can just, you know, truly accept that, hey, it's coming from God's word and it's something that I need to learn and to grow thereby. And so we're going to look at this chapter and I do believe deception is one of the key things that we can see in this chapter. But you may remember Jeremiah 32 and Jeremiah 33 where Jeremiah was imprisoned in the court of the prison. You may remember those chapters. Well, this is basically the, what's the word I'm looking for? The prequel? Is that what they use for movies? Okay, chapter 37 is the prequel of why or just before he was put into prison. So we actually find out exactly what led Jeremiah to be imprisoned in the prison's courthouse. And so let's start there in verse number one, Jeremiah 37 verse number one. And King Zedekiah, I'm hoping you're starting to learn these names now. Like does anyone remember who King Zedekiah is? Where does he fit in the timeline? Does anyone want to just? He just has a great name, Jehoiachin's brother or uncle? Yeah, Jehoiachin's uncle, which was the last king of Judah before the Babylonian captivity. In fact, Zedekiah was put into power by Nebuchadnezzar himself. Because all these kings of Judah were rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar. So Nebuchadnezzar goes, all right, I'll put my man. I'll put my man in there. But then at the end of it, Zedekiah rebels against Nebuchadnezzar as well. Which ultimately leads to the captivity of Judah. So again, this is toward the end, right? We're near the end. We're near Babylon being destroyed, sorry, Babylon destroying Jerusalem. And it's quite interesting because we look at Jeremiah and we're going to find out that he gets put into prison. But it's actually being put in prison that actually keeps him safe, okay? Because everything, you know, God is able to see everything, right? God is able to see how, you know, being put in prison, Jeremiah, you're going to be safe there. You have enemies against you. You might get hurt in the coming war. The Babylonians might kill you by mistake. And so he's kind of safe in prison, but he wasn't a good experience anyway. But, you know, God had great plans for Jeremiah. So let's look at verse number one once again. And King Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, reigned instead of Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, made king in the land of Judah. I just told you that. That's where Nebuchadnezzar or Nebuchadrezzar, same man, put Zedekiah as king, okay? Verse number two. That's neither King Zedekiah, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, did hearken unto the words of the Lord, which is spake by the prophet Jeremiah. So this is just a reminder what preaching ought to be. You know, when you come and you hear the preaching of Jeremiah, or you come to hear the preaching of Pastor Kevin or some other pastor, it ought to be the words of the Lord which was spoken by the prophet, okay? We don't come to hear the words of man, the wisdom of man. We come to hear God's words. But I want you to notice that Zedekiah did not listen to the preaching, okay? He knew Jeremiah was going around. In fact, we're going to soon find out that Zedekiah did recognize Jeremiah to be a true prophet of God. But even though he recognized him to be a true prophet of God, he still did not listen to the preaching of God's word. And look, if you've said in your heart that I'm a man of God, if you've said in your heart that Pastor Kevin does the best he can to expound God's word, to teach us God's word, then you better pay attention. You better listen. You don't want to be like Zedekiah in this passage, okay? Because he's not listening. His servants, his people, they're not listening to the preaching of Jeremiah. But notice what happens in verse number three. And Zedekiah, the king, sent Jehukah, the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah, the son of Maasiah, the priest to the prophet Jeremiah. So the king sends these meds to Jeremiah. Why? Saying, pray now unto the Lord our God for us. So does Zedekiah recognize Jeremiah as a true man of God? Absolutely. He goes, you know, Jeremiah, I don't want to hear your preaching. Your preaching's negative. You're preaching against our kingdom. You're preaching against our nation. I'm not going to hear it. My servants aren't going to hear it. But when the Babylonians are on their way, when the city is besieged, he goes, get Jeremiah. Quickly, go get Jeremiah. Tell Jeremiah to pray for us. Okay? Now listen, why do you think God will want to hear the prayers of Zedekiah? Like, this man has had Jeremiah there for his whole reign as a king. The kings before, they're not listening to Jeremiah. You think God's going to now just step in and listen to the prayers of Jeremiah for Zedekiah? Do you think God's just going to answer their prayer? Jeremiah, pray for us, when the whole time he's not been listening to God's word? You know, we find out later on in this chapter the reason why Zedekiah asked Jeremiah to pray, yes, of course, was because the Babylonians or the Chaldeans were on their way, but also they had made a treaty, they made an agreement with the Egyptians, and the Egyptians, Pharaoh was going to send his army together with Judah's army to fight off the Babylonians. And so Zedekiah realizes this is a bad place to be, and he says, we need God's help. We need God to step in and help us. The only one that seems to be close to God in our kingdom is Jeremiah. Get Jeremiah to pray for us. But once again, they've not been hearing God's word for how many years? You know, King Zedekiah, his reign, I don't know exactly what period of time this was exactly, but his reign was for 11 years. So potentially he could be going 9, 10, 11 years without hearing God's word, and now he wants God to step in and help him? Is that the right approach? Well, what I find interesting is that even though Zedekiah was a wicked man, he recognized God's words. And I want you to remember this, the reason you're in church this morning is because you recognize God's words. You know, we have this book, and you know, you know within yourself, I don't have to convince you, you know when you hear these words, these are God's words. And so I'm going to come to church, I'm going to spend an hour, an hour and a half, two hours maybe, in the house of God, maybe three hours if you come to both services, because I want to hear from God's word. I want you to notice that Zedekiah is a wicked, you know, godless man, a backslidden man if he was ever saved, okay? And he still knows God's words. He knows what Jeremiah says are God's words. And the reason I'm saying this to you is because I'll just quickly read to you from Hebrews chapter 4, verse number 12. Hebrews 4, 12, it says, for the word of God is quick. Now the word quick there means living. God's word is alive, okay? It's living. It has an effect on us today. And powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrows, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Okay? So Zedekiah knows, yeah, you know, God's word, you know, pierces my very insides, you know, God's word knows my heart, God's word knows my thoughts. And sometimes you might be in church and you're thinking, wow, did my pastor preach that for me? Did he know that I'm in this sin? Did he know that I'm in that trouble? No, it's not me, it's the word of God that knows. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. It knows your heart, it knows your thoughts, okay? And so this is, you know, and this is the truth for any unbeliever. You know, whether you believe this or not, the unbelieving world, the godless, wicked world, they know this is God's word. They know it. Like deep down inside of them, they know it. This is why the Bible is still the best-selling book of all time. Does that mean the majority of the world are Christians? Of course not. But they know this is a special book and it still, you know, continues to sell. You go to any wicked bookshop out there and guess what they're going to have on their shelves? They're going to have the Bible because it sells, it makes profit, it makes money, okay? God, everyone, everybody knows, you know, you compare God's holy book compared to some other holy books out there, they don't even compare to God's word, okay? Zedekiah is wicked, he's not listening, but he recognizes God's word, he recognizes that Jeremiah is God's prophet. And again, I say this brethren, because we go door to door soul winning, we preach God's word, people say, I don't believe that, you know, that's just your opinion. Listen, they know, deep down, God's word, if you're quoting God's word, it's cutting them inside. I mean, how many times that, you know, you knock on someone's door, they seem friendly, they seem welcoming, as soon as you open the Bible, ah, no, because they know it cuts deep in. They know it's the truth of God's word, okay? So don't get discouraged thinking that everybody thinks we're crazy for believing this book. We all believe this book, even the unbelieving world, you know? And when they need help, when they need someone to pray to them, they're going to go running to God, asking God to reveal himself in his word, okay? So point number one, brethren, point number one, remember the title for the sermon this morning was Deceive Not Yourselves. Point number one, don't be deceived. Prayer, okay, prayer does no good if you refuse to listen to God's word, okay? God was not about to deliver Zedekiah from the Babylonians, okay? Pray for us, Jeremiah. Why is God going to answer you? You've not been listening to his word. Once again, don't be deceived. Prayer does no good if you refuse to listen to God's word, all right? So, you know, don't come to church every Sunday or every week or midweek services hearing God's word and you don't make any changes. You don't learn anything new. You just come to church and tick a box, oh, God, I went to church, okay? But I'm not going to listen to what was said. I got challenged, but who cares, I'm comfortable in my life. Don't be that person and go for week after week, month after month, year after month, month after month, year after year to church and then think when you need help God's just going to step in and answer your prayers. Don't deceive yourself. It's not going to happen, okay? I mean, the whole time God's been trying to help you through his word. Why is he going to help you now? Just because you need to run for some help. You know, the Babylonians are coming to something, right? Don't deceive yourselves. I'm going to quickly read to you from 1 Samuel 15, 22. We've looked at this passage not long ago, but it says, And Samuel said, Have the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord, behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken, that's to listen, than the fat of rams. It's better for you to listen to God's word and when you heard it, obey what God says than for you to bring some sacrifice. You know, coming to church is a sacrifice. You sacrifice in your time. You know, going to God in prayer is a sacrifice. Singing praises to God is your sacrifice. But if you're not going to be obedient to what you've heard in God's word, listen, God's not pleased. God's not happy with that. God would rather your obedience, even if you just hear a little bit of God's word and just act upon the little that you know, it's better than knowing all of God's word and acting on nothing that you know. I've seen this many times where some Christians have a lot of knowledge. They know a lot of doctrines. They know what is right. They know the reprobate doctrine, for example. But they're not living a Christian life. They're living a selfish life. They're doing nothing for the Lord. They just don't seem to be progressing forward for the Lord at all. But they've got a lot of wisdom. Who cares? You know what? You're better off knowing one chapter of the Bible and just doing what you've heard commanded from that one chapter. God would be more pleased with you just acting on the little that you know than giving you so much knowledge and acting on nothing that you know. So obedience is better than sacrifice. God's not just going to answer your prayers when the whole time you've not been listening and doing what God wants you to do. Let's go to verse number four. Jeremiah 37, verse number four. Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people for they had not put him into prison. So they had not put him into prison yet. They were later in this chapter put him into prison. And so Jeremiah's leaving Jerusalem. He's making his way out. Why is he able to make his way out of the city? Because verse number five says, Then Pharaoh's army, remember Pharaoh, the Egyptians, Pharaoh's army was come forth out of Egypt. And when the Chaldeans, remember when we see Chaldeans, that's the Babylonians, the same people. When the Chaldeans that besieged Jerusalem heard titans of them, they departed from Jerusalem. So it looks like Zedekiah's plan has worked. He's asked for the Egyptians' help. You know the Babylonians here, the Egyptian army's on their way. They had only prepared themselves to take on Judah and Jerusalem. They had prepared themselves to take on one army. They hadn't been ready to take on an extra army from the Egyptians. So they retreat. The Babylonians, the Chaldeans, they retreat. And because they retreat, now Jeremiah is able free to leave the city, without getting captured or killed or something. He's able to leave the place. So it looks like Zedekiah's plan has worked, doesn't it? Man, the Babylonians are leaving. They're retreating. Well, that's what it looks like. That's what it looks like, okay? Look at verse number six. So this is a new word that God says to Jeremiah. Jeremiah, Zedekiah, King Zedekiah, you're happy now? The Chaldeans have left because the Egyptian army has come? Well, here's a new word from God. The Egyptians are going to leave. Then what are you going to do, Zedekiah? They're going to leave because they've got their own nation to look after. They've got their own people to look after. And so, listen, when you go to help and you go seek man to help you, or you go seek some wicked people, the Egyptians of course were wicked. They had false gods. Listen, there might be a temporary band-aid solution, but it's not going to help the cut. It's not going to help the healing. The only person that you should be running to for help is the Lord God. Now, if the Lord God uses man and whatever to help you praise God, it's the Lord's hand. We can see Zedekiah's trust is in the Egyptians rather than the Lord, okay? Let's keep going. Verse number eight. And the Chaldeans shall come again and fight against this city and take it and burn it with fire. So this is what God says, yep, okay? You've got temporary solution here, right? The Chaldeans have retreated, but the Egyptians are going back, the Chaldeans are going to come back, you know, besiege the city and they're going to burn the whole thing with fire. Verse number nine. This is where you get the title for the sermon from. Verse number nine. Thus saith the Lord, deceive not yourselves, saying, the Chaldeans shall surely depart from us, for they shall not depart. For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet should they rise up every man in his tent and burn this city with fire. Okay? So Zedekiah had deceived himself. They thought they had victory. They thought they ran off the Chaldeans, the Babylonians. God says don't deceive yourselves. Because look, even if you had the ability to win the war, right, to, what did it say there? To smite the whole army of the Chaldeans, verse number 10, and there remained but wounded men. So you basically win the war, okay? You kill the majority of the army, and now you're just left with some wounded people of the Babylonians. Well God's saying even those wounded are going to set the city on fire. Okay? Because it's not about the numbers. God is allowing them. He's giving the Babylonians the ability to take down Judah, to burn the city. Okay? God says look, you can't fight against my judgment. My judgment is coming. Stop deceiving yourselves. And so point number two, brethren, don't be deceived. You cannot stop God's judgment. You cannot stop God's judgment. Once God has said look, it's time to destroy, right, it's time to stop, look, even, we look at the story of Jonah, right? We know that God would come to destroy Nineveh. You know, God had prophesied destruction on Nineveh, and the prophet Jonah goes there, he preaches destruction on Nineveh, and the people's hearts, they're like oh man, we've got to turn back to God. They turn from their wickedness. They worship the God. You know what? Yeah, God did stop the destruction. But you know what? A few generations later, God ultimately ended up destroying Nineveh. Okay? Okay, so God's judgment is coming. Okay? And you need to remember this because we sin, we do wrong, God's judgment is coming. Okay? We know that one day, you know, we're going to enter those end times, right? The antichrist is going to rise up and there's going to be a one world government and all these things are going to happen. The antichrist is going to be on the scene. There's going to be persecution of Christians. But you know what? One day God's going to not just burn Jerusalem and Judah, he's going to burn the whole world. Okay? The fires of God, God's wrath is going to destroy this world one day. You know, and then Christ will come back, establish his millennial kingdom, and God will one day create the new heavens and the new earth. But brethren, God's judgment is coming. Okay? We might have some temporary appease, like we may, you know, the heart of Australians maybe, maybe with the help of this church, maybe with other good churches, being able to get out there and preach the gospel. We can turn the hearts of our nation back to the Lord God. I don't want to give up with that idea. You know, I truly hope that our nation will fear God once again. But you know what? At the end of the day, God's judgment is coming. It's written in God's Word, one day he's going to destroy this world with fire. Okay? We cannot stop the judgment of God. Once he's said it's happening, it's going to happen. Okay? Don't be deceived. Again, many, many churches do not like to preach about the judgment of God. They've deceived themselves. They're like Zedekiah. Right? They think, well, you know, we've done some plan, we've put some band-aids on the problem, but ultimately the band-aid's not going to solve, you know, the cancer. The band-aid's not going to solve the terminal illness that the nation has. Let's keep going. Verse number 11. And it came to pass that when the army of the Chaldeans was broken up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army, then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin to separate himself thence in the midst of the people. All right. So once again, the Chaldeans, they've retreated. Now Jeremiah's free to leave the city of Jerusalem and he's on his way to the land of Benjamin. Keep your finger there and go to Jeremiah chapter 1. Go to Jeremiah chapter 1. And Ramzan, I left my cup of water up over there if you could bring it for me. Thank you, brother. Jeremiah chapter 1 verse number 1. Why would Jeremiah go to Benjamin? Why would he go to the land of Benjamin? Just a reminder, in Jeremiah chapter 1 verse number 1 it says, The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. So just a reminder, the reason he's going to Benjamin is because he's a Benjaminite. Okay. He's going back home. All right. He's been preaching against Jerusalem for so long. He finally gets to leave the city. He says, you know what, I'll make my way back home. Okay. So Jeremiah's on his way back home. Go back to Jeremiah 37 verse number 13, please. Verse number 13. Verse number 13. It says, And when he was in the gates of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Erijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah. And he took Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Thou foolest away to the Chaldeans. All right. So we've had a few names here. Erijah, Shelemiah, probably haven't thought about these names all that much, but then you've got the son of Hananiah. Does anyone remember who Hananiah was? Yes, Matthias? The false prophet. The false prophet. Okay. Yeah. Keep your finger there. Go to Jeremiah 28. Go to Jeremiah 28 and verse number 10. Just a reminder. Jeremiah chapter 28 and verse number 10. You may remember the story where Jeremiah's going around preaching with a yoke on his neck. Right. Remember saying that, you know, God's going to put a yoke on the nation of Judah and that yoke's going to be the Babylonians. Right. Well, you've got Hananiah preaching against Jeremiah. Okay. Preach and know that God's not going to do that. Jeremiah 28 verse number 10. Jeremiah 28 verse number 10. It says, then Hananiah, the prophet, that's a false prophet by the way, took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck and break it. Okay. So Jeremiah's preaching, look, we're going to be under bondage by the Babylonians. Hananiah says, no we're not. He takes the yoke off Jeremiah's neck and breaks it. Well, ultimately, Jeremiah would preach against Hananiah and Hananiah would die an early death. Okay. But, you know, through the preaching of Jeremiah and, of course, through God's power, you know, Hananiah basically died an early life because he went up against Jeremiah. So, when we go back to Jeremiah 37 and verse number 13, and he's making his way to the land of Benjamin. Alright. And there's a captain of the ward there who was Irijah, the son of Shelamiah, the son of Hananiah. Who is Irijah? Jeremiah and I, the false prophet's grandson. Right. So, do you think he's going to like Jeremiah? Well, you know, Jeremiah's the enemy of his grandfather. Right. His grandfather died early because of Jeremiah's preaching. So, what do you think is going to happen? This guy doesn't like Jeremiah. Okay. That much should be clear. But in verse number 13, what does he accuse Jeremiah of? It says, and he took Jeremiah the prophet, basically kind of arrested him because he's a captain of the ward there, right? He took Jeremiah the prophet saying, thou fallest away to the Chaldeans. Alright. So, basically by saying he's fallen away, he's basically saying you've joined the Chaldeans. You've joined the Babylonians. Now, did Jeremiah really join them? Of course not. Did he enlist in their army and fight against Judah and Jerusalem? Of course not. Okay. So, why is he saying that you've joined up with the Chaldeans? Why is he saying you'll betray our nation? The reason he's saying that is because Jeremiah has been preaching God's word against Judah and Jeremiah. That's why. Okay. All Jeremiah is doing is preaching the truth of God's word and he's being labeled a traitor. Okay. And that's what they think about him. And you know what, brethren? There are many times that I've preached against Australia. Right. Against the abortions, against the fornication, the alcohol that gets, you know, the booze that gets drunk here. You know, the party, you know, party, Aussie lifestyle. You know, I've preached against how, especially on the Sunshine Coast, how women basically walk around in their underwear in bikinis, you know, because it's a beach place or whatever. Right. Look, when we're preaching against a nation, it's not that we betray the nation, is it? Why are we preaching against? Because ultimately all we're doing is preaching God's word. But you know what? The ungodly is going to see the preaching of God's word and think of you as a traitor. They're going to think, you must hate Australia, don't you? Jeremiah, you must hate Jerusalem. You must hate Judah. You must be a traitor. You must have joined the enemies. No. The reason a pastor preaches against a nation is not to destroy a nation, not to be a traitor, but to help the nation. For the nation's being more righteous so we can have a fear of God to protect our children, to protect the future generations. This is what Jeremiah's doing. He's got a good heart. He loves his nation. He loves his people. He's trying to help them. All he's trying to do is preach God's word. Well, you know what? If you preach God's word without compromise, you're going to be seen as a traitor by this ungodly world. When all you're trying to do is preach the truth, all you're trying to do is help the nation. Anyway, that's how they see the preacher. The preacher's really hoping that the nation will just have a fear of God and humble itself before an almighty God. That's why we need to preach hard. That's why we need to preach the truth. That's the only thing that's going to help our nation is preaching hard God's word. But again, the ungodly will see you as a traitor. You must hate us. You must hate the people. You must hate the nation. I want to see our nation saved. I want to see the hearts of our people turned back to, I love this nation. My parents migrated to Australia because Australia gave so many more options than it has. Leaving Australia is actually easy. Honestly, you can have a low-end job and you still get paid well. Praise God for Australia. It's a rich country. It's living on the blessings of the past. But it's also going down the toilet. And it's my hope that we can reverse that. My hope that our people, our nation will have a fear of God once again. Drop down to verse number 15. Wherefore, the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, so those are the people in authority. They're very angry with Jeremiah and smote him, they beat him up. And put him in prison in the house of Jonathan, the scribe, for they made that the prison. Now, it wasn't just a prison that he was put into because in verse number 16 it says when Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon, now I don't know what the dungeon looked like but I would assume a dungeon is like the worst part of the prison. That's why you kind of, I kind of think of a dungeon as like an underground, you know, basement where they can just treat the criminal as bad as they want and nobody would care. That's what I think of a dungeon, right? Anyway, he's put into a dungeon and into the cabins and Jeremiah had remained there many days. So point number three, brethren, don't be deceived. Point number three about don't be deceived is preaching against your sin or preaching against our nation is not to destroy you, it's not to destroy this nation but to improve you, to make you better. You know what? That's it. Don't be deceived, right? If I preach and I step on your toes, if I rip your face a little bit, if I feel like I'm somehow preaching against you and you get offended, don't be deceived. I'm not doing it to hurt you. I'm not doing it to destroy you. I'm doing it so you can be better, so you can be more righteous, so you can acknowledge, yes, Lord, I've done these things wrong. I need to change this. Thank you for helping me hear from your word today and help me make the necessary changes that I need to make so I can be a better Christian for you, so I can be a better light shining in this dark world, okay? Because it'll happen. I'm going to offend you one day. It's going to happen, okay? It may be from the preaching. It may be that I forgot to say hello to you or goodbye to you. It might be that I had too much on my mind and you thought I'm grumpy at you or something. I'm going to offend you. Sometimes I walk around with a grumpy face, but I'm not grumpy. I don't know, it's just my natural face sometimes. I just had this grumpy face and people have told me, are you mad at me? It's like, no, I'm not even thinking about you. You know, I'm going to offend you because I'm a man, okay? I'm going to offend you. But especially when it comes to God's word, if it happens, please understand I'm offending you because I love you because I want you to know the truth of God's word, okay? Don't deceive yourselves. Don't like, oh, man, I'm leaving church because pastor preached against my sin and I'm offended now. Man, I do it because I love you, okay? I mean, if you don't want to hear from God's word, there are so many churches in Sydney that you can be part of and you're not going to hear God's word. They'll give you the nice, good-feeling messages all the time, okay? You'll go home thinking that you're just the best Christian in the world, right? Even though you live in a wicked, sinful lifestyle, you're just going to go, man, I'm such a great Christian. Thank God, and you're just going to go to these watered-down churches. There's many of those churches out there, but if you want to be part of Blessed Hope Baptist Church, then you need to be prepared that your face is going to get ripped sometimes, your toes are going to get stepped on sometimes, your sins are going to get caught out sometimes, okay? Not personally. I'm not going to say, hey, brother Tim, you know, let me tell you about brother Tim, guys, you know? That's not going to happen, but just by the preaching of God's word, it's going to happen automatically, okay? So don't deceive yourselves. Preaching against your sin is not to destroy, but to improve you, okay? Don't get angry at the messenger, you know? If you get angry about the preaching, you're actually getting angry at God's word, okay? Let's go to verse number 17. Then Zedekiah the king sent. So Zedekiah finds out that Jeremiah's in prison, in the dungeon, so he sends for Jeremiah once again. Again, Zedekiah knows that Jeremiah's the real deal, right? He knows he's the real prophet of God, and took him out, and the king asked him secretly in his house, okay, get Jeremiah to my, I don't want anyone to see that I'm trying to meet with Jeremiah, right? It kind of reminds me of, what's his name, Nicodemus, right, in John chapter 3. He comes to seek to Jesus Christ secretly at night. He doesn't want his Pharisee friends to see him coming to Jesus asking, you know, for the truth of God's word, okay? And, yeah, it's unfortunate, you know, that people are like this. They secretly want to know God's word, right? You know, I just looked at my last sermon on Thursday, it probably has about 100 views, not a lot of views, but it has about 100 views on YouTube or whatever. Like, do you think all those 100 views are people that just love the Lord and just want to hear God's word? You know what, many of those 100 views are just people that are wicked, people that are ungodly, maybe even people that hate our church, maybe people that even hate this pastor, but I just want to secretly see what he has to say. I just need to know what God's word says, and they do it secretly. It happens all the time, okay? There's no way that 100 people are just like, righteous, I just want to, I just love God's word, I just love blessing our Baptist church, I need to see what God has, no. Many times those views are our enemies, okay? But, again, they secretly know it's God's word, right? Or they're trying to secretly find out, Pastor Kevin said something wrong that I can call him out on, right? That's what happens, I know that happens, because I get phone calls like that, people trying to catch me out in my words or something like that, okay? But, unfortunately, it's just like that, you know, instead of secretly listening, right? It's better just to be public, you know, come to church. I know there are people that can get to this church, are listening probably right now, you know, can physically get here, but they would rather just listen online. Okay, listen secretly at home. There's no point for that, it's not necessary, right? God wants us to be in his house, in fellowship with brethren, with believers, and it's important for us to be in church, but Zedekiah, hey, he wants to do it secretly, right? He's too ashamed to be seen, you know, trying to get the words from Jeremiah when the whole time he's not been listening to what Jeremiah has to say. Let's read verse number 17 again. Then Zedekiah the king sent and took him out, and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, is there any word from the Lord? Has God said anything else? The Chaldeans have left, right, anything else? And Jeremiah said, there is, of course there is. Said he, thou shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon. Zedekiah was hoping for a positive message, the Chaldeans have retreated. Well, you're going to get delivered in the hands of the Babylonians. In the hands of the Babylonians. And you may remember that his eyes got pulled, plucked out ultimately when he got captured, all right? So, it's negative preaching, once again, from Jeremiah, okay? I mean, I think if I was Jeremiah and I was put into a dungeon, and some politician, some powerful person said to me, can you, like, actually gets me out of there, temporarily? I must think, as a man, I'd be, like, very thankful, and I wouldn't want to preach something negative. That's what I think, but, you know, Jeremiah is a good example, right? He preaches straight, you know, without compromise, God's word. What am I up to? Eighteen. Oh yeah, okay. Moreover, so what else did Jeremiah say? Moreover, Jeremiah said unto King Zedekiah, what? Have I offended against thee? There it is, right? I'm preaching you the truth, but I've offended you, king? Please don't be like Zedekiah. You know, if I'm preaching you the truth, don't get offended. Don't get offended, okay? Just take it on board. Humility is so necessary in the Christian life, you know? It's so important for us to be able to recognize, because we all have an ego, we all have pride, you know? We all like to think ourselves better than what we truly are. We're sinful. You know what? If it wasn't for Jesus Christ, we would die and go to hell. We would be facing God's wrath. That's what we deserve, okay? We deserve hell. We deserve to be destroyed by God, because we're a wicked people, okay? But thank God for Jesus Christ. Thank God for the gospel. Thank you for the free gift of salvation. When you can appreciate the free gift, and you know, not only am I saved from hell, but now I'm a son of the king. I'm part of the royal family. I've got streets of gold in heaven. I've got a mansion up there. Boy, it's not just salvation. It's all the beautiful blessings that God will give us for all eternity, you know? So let's not think of ourselves more highly than we are. We are dust, okay? Don't get offended. If you get offended today, please don't get offended, okay? Just say, thank you, Lord, that I can hear the truth of your word, all right? Verse number 18. Moreover, Jeremiah said unto the king, What have I offended thee? Or against thy servants, or against this people, that ye have put me in prison? Now, this is what he says, Jeremiah says to the king, Now, sorry, where are now your prophets? Which prophesied unto you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land? Jeremiah's saying, look, why do you have me here secretly? Why are you asking me from God's word? Don't you have your other prophets? Don't you have your other pastors that preach you, you know, good things all the time? You know, the feel-good-only sermons? Don't you have them? They're the ones that are preaching that you're not going to be taken over by Babylon. They're the ones preaching that you're not going to get captured by Nebuchadnezzar. They're the ones preaching you all good things. Why don't you go to them? Now, again, as we go through Jeremiah, we've got 52 chapters, you may be feeling sometimes, boy, when's Pastor Kevin going to preach that positive sermon? I try to put some positive sermons sometimes. I mix them in, right? I preach three times, two times or three times a week sometimes. There are positive sermons, trust me. It's not just Jeremiah all the time. But you might feel that way, right? And look, again, many people go to these feel-good-only, you know, churches. And, you know, the fourth point that I have for you, brethren, point four, don't be deceived. Positive-only preaching does not satisfy the soul. Positive-only preaching does not satisfy the soul. Don't forget, Zedekiah has his positive-only pastors, his preachers, his prophets, okay? He's got all of them. Why does he not go to them? Because he knows, man, they're not satisfying what I need. They're not giving me the answers that I need. There's much more to God's Word that I need to know about, oh, man, that Jeremiah, it must be him, the guy that's preaching negative, the guy that's preaching against our kingdom, the guy that's preaching against our nation. He must be the one that actually has the truth of God's Word, okay? Don't be deceived. So many Australians are deceived that the churches that are flourishing, the churches with hundreds, with thousands of people are the positive-only churches. But, brethren, those people, yeah, they may look like they're happy. They may look like they're having the time of their lives, right, with the rock band and the purple lights and the smoke machines, but, brethren, they're not satisfied in the soul, okay? They need to hear real preaching from a real man of God, okay? This is why Zedekiah ultimately says, I need to go to Jeremiah. Jeremiah's the only one preaching the truth. So, point number four, brethren, don't be deceived. Positive-only preaching does not satisfy the soul. Let's keep going, verse number 20. So, things weren't good for him in the dungeon, right? He says, look, king, I've preached to you the truth, even though it may have offended you or whatever, okay? Now, he says, look, now do something in return for me. Please don't send me back into the dungeon. Please don't send me back into that prison that I was arrested in, okay? Because they want to kill him, okay? He recognizes these people want to kill me, okay? So, he's petitioning the king to not be put back into that prison. Look at verse 21. That they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison. And that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the Baker Street until all the bread in the city was spent. Thus, Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. All right, so this explains once again why, because now he's not in the dungeon anymore. Now he's in the court of the prison. So, if you compare the dungeon, like I said, it's probably like underground, the basement, right? It's where they treat criminals the worst, whatever, the prisoners the worst, okay? And then you've got the court. So, now Jeremiah's still imprisoned, okay? But he's in an open area, he's in an open court, right? He's got a bit of liberty, he's got a bit of freedom. Instead of being in high, what do they call it, high security prison? Is that what they call it? He's in like a low security kind of prison situation. And so, Zedekiah does harken. He kind of does give Jeremiah, well, Jeremiah wanted to be completely released, right? Zedekiah still locks him up, okay? Because Zedekiah is offended. Zedekiah is not happy with the sermon that Jeremiah is preaching. But once again, Zedekiah knows that Jeremiah is a true man of God. And so, he's got this sort of, these, what's the word I'm looking for, right? He's got like double allegiances. Zedekiah does, he does kind of recognize that they're in the wrong. He does recognize Jeremiah is a true prophet. You may remember in a previous chapter that Zedekiah also commanded that the servants be let go because they weren't keeping the law of the Sabbath for years. And so, he's trying to appease God. He kind of wants to do what is right, but at the same time, he's gone so long, not hearing God's word. He's got so many people that are against the Lord and against the prophets. And so, he's kind of like in this two minds, right? Okay, Zedekiah, I'll put you in a better place, but I'm still going to lock you up, okay? So, I look good in front of all my, you know, my royal party or whatever it is that's there. Anyway, so now we learn why Jeremiah is in the court of the prison. Again, if you go back to chapters 32 and 33, you get to understand what takes place in that court of the prison. But as we continue in chapter 38, we are going to continue the story of his imprisonment. Alright, so let me just summarize, let me conclude the chapter this morning. You know, deceive not yourselves was the title, right? We can deceive ourselves and maybe you have deceived yourselves in the past. And this is something you need to change, right? Don't deceive yourself. Number one, prayer does no good if you refuse to listen to God's word. Please remember this, please remember this. Because I'm sure, I remember times in my life as a teenager, I just lived a selfish life. You know, not thought much about the Lord, but then when I needed him, I'd go to him in prayer. I was thinking, man, what a hypocrite. To run to the Lord in prayer and this whole time I've not been picking up the Bible, I've not been going to him for help, I've not been doing what the Lord commands. Don't be that way. Don't deceive yourself. Prayer does no good if you refuse to listen to God's word. Number two, don't be deceived, you cannot stop God's judgments. Okay, you cannot stop God's judgment. If you sin, God will chastise you. As a son of God, he will correct you. He's not going to throw into hell, but listen, there are consequences to our sin. God's heavy hand may fall upon you because you've done wrong, because you've committed sin. The best thing you can do when you commit sin is, again, run to the Lord, ask for forgiveness. Ask God to help you so you don't make the same mistakes again. But please understand that you cannot stop God's judgment. Once he starts putting the hammer down, it's going to go down and just learn the lessons. Like, learn the lessons of God's judgment. Number three, deceive not yourselves. Preaching against your sin is not to destroy you, but to improve you. Please remember that. When I preach against you, you get offended. You know your sins are being caught out. I don't agree with the pastor. Don't worry, guys. That happens. Just a reminder, no, my pastor loves me. That's why he preached it. My pastor knows that it probably is going to offend me, but he did it anyway. You know, there are times that I've actually gotten ready to preach something, and I've thought, man, I don't know if I want to preach that because so-and-so is here, and they're going to get upset. No, I've got to preach it anyway because I love that person. I can't help it. You know, there was a time on Sunshine Coast that I was preaching against the homosexuals, and we had a first-time visitor. I love first-time visitors, right? I mean, we get more first-time visitors here in Sydney because it's a bigger city, of course. We don't get many first-time visitors at New Life Baptist Church. And then I'm thinking, man, first-time visitor, I want them to hang around, but I'm going to preach against the homos, and I know what society is like now. It's like, do I change my sermon? No, I've got to preach it anyway. All right, and then she got up and left, halfway through the sermon. What are you going to do, right? You've got to do what is right. You've got to do what is right in God's eyes, okay? So point number three was preaching against your sin is not to destroy you, but to improve you. And point number four, positive only preaching does not satisfy the soul, okay? So please understand this. You know, I think this is why you want to be in church anyway. You hear the positive sometimes. You hear the negative. We need to hear both. We need to hear about our balanced God. You know, our God is a God of extreme love, so much love that He sacrificed His only begotten Son, but He's also a God of extreme wrath and anger and judgment, that He would cast those that reject Jesus Christ into an eternity of hell. And think about that God for a moment, that He would cast someone to be tormented day and night forever and ever for rejecting the sacrifice of His Son. So we need to hear both. God is complete. You know, God is perfect, all right? He's not just good. He can also do evil. And again, evil means harm. God cannot sin, but God is a righteous God. He is a just God, and He must punish sin. And we need to hear the negative from time to time. Okay, let's pray.