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Jeremiah 39 please, turn to Jeremiah chapter 39 and look at verse number 18. Jeremiah 39 and verse number 18, it begins by saying, For I will surely deliver thee. So the title for the sermon this morning, brethren, is I will surely deliver thee. I will surely deliver thee. I wanted to use this as the title this morning because we've been looking at the life of Jeremiah and we've been looking at how he's been preaching, you know, very negative sermons, right? The Babylonians are coming. They're taking over the cities. They're besieging Jerusalem. And as we've been looking at, you know, we look at the parallels with Jeremiah and the lockdowns, the current situation we find ourselves in, the restrictions, stay-at-home mandates, whatever you want to call them, you know, that are in place. And I think the book of Jeremiah is probably one of the best books to consider when you think about yourself being locked down, all right? You're being restricted in your movements. And we see that there is coming a time though, even though Jeremiah has been locked down, not only by the Babylonians besieging the capital city, but he's been locked down by his own king, right? King Zedekiah is fronting to the dungeon, fronting to the court of the prison. We also saw, we'll have a look at it later, he was also banned from entering the temple. And of course the temple in those days was the house of God. We know the house of God today as the New Testament church. And so he's banned from going to church, okay? And we find ourselves in a situation where we can't gather for church right now. Hopefully come Friday, those restrictions will be lifted and we'll be back in church on Sunday. But anyway, we see that Jeremiah is a man who's been locked down in several ways, right? Locked down in his own city, locked down in the dungeon, locked down from church. And so we're coming to a point now where God is saying that I will surely deliver thee. Now he's not speaking to Jeremiah in this verse, but God does come through and he does deliver his people from the restrictions. He does deliver people from the lockdowns. And there are some that might believe that this will continue on forever, the way we're currently living, right? That we're going to just continually, every time there's a wave, an outbreak, whatever of the COVID that we're going to, this is the new normal, right? This is how it's gonna be for the rest of our lives. I don't believe that's the case at all. Now for some, some were definitely taken in this time into captivity by the Babylonians. There's another lockdown, right? Taken and removed off the land completely, taken into the hands of foreign power. But again, that was only for a period of time. Even though it was a long period of time, it was 70 years that they were there for. But once again, God will deliver them. God will bring them back into the land of subsequent generations, bring them back. And so what we find that there is coming a time when all of this nonsense will end. Things will go back to some normality, though the world may look quite different to the way the world looked before all of this. But I want you to consider that if you're starting to get a little bit depressed, a little bit let down and frustrated, and I'm saying this because I feel that way. Every time these things happen, again, my job is to run church. I've set my heart to be in church and to teach God's word. And when you're unable to do things the way that you would like, it can be very depressing, it can be very frustrating. But God promises us one day that He will deliver us. There's coming a time, I'm not just talking about salvation. We have deliverance of salvation, praise God. I'm not just talking about going home to be in heaven with the Lord, that deliverance, those are great deliverances as well, but I'm just saying that even on this earth, all the turmoil that we're currently seeing, you know, there's gonna come an end to it and we will be delivered through this. And as long as we stay close to God, as long as we learn the lessons that we see in the Bible, you'll be fine, you'll be fine, all right? Now let's start there in verse number one, Jeremiah chapter 39, verse number one. It says in the ninth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah in the 10th month, came Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it, all right? So as I started by saying that, we're looking at a situation where now the city is under lockdown, okay, because of the hands of king Nebuchadrezzar or king Nebuchadnezzar. Can you please keep your finger there and go to Jeremiah chapter 13, and go to Jeremiah chapter 13, and verses 19, because we spend a lot of time looking at Jerusalem, okay, because that's where Jeremiah is, that's where the house of God is, that's where the temple is, that's where the king is, that's where the king's house is, that's where he's doing most of his preaching Jeremiah. But just to remind yourselves, if you go back to Jeremiah 13 and verse number 19, Jeremiah 13 and verse number 19, the Bible says the cities of the south shall be shut up. So notice it's not just Jerusalem, it's the cities of the south. Why is it talking about the south? Because remember Judah is in the south, okay? It's the southern kingdom of Israel, northern kingdom's already been taken into captivity, but also because Jerusalem is further toward the south of the city, of the nation of Judah, but it's not just Jerusalem, it's all the cities. And again, we find ourselves in a situation where it's not just Sydney that has had the lockdown, there's been plenty of cities in Australia over the last week or so that has shut down, has closed its borders, brought in restrictions, so on and so forth. And so it's not just Jerusalem, let's keep going, it says, and none shall open them, Judah shall be carried away captive, all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive. So there's the lockdown of the cities, which we're currently facing, there's the captive situation where God's people, the Jews, as it were, were taken into captivity into Babylon. Now go to Jeremiah 32, please, go to Jeremiah 32 and verse number two. Jeremiah 32 in verse number two, the Bible reads, for then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem, look at this, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah's house. All right, so now we see Jeremiah faces a different type of restriction, different type of lockdown, right? He's shut up in the court of the prison, and we know that he was eventually also put into the dungeon, he was shut up in the dungeon, completely locked down, right? Bogged down in that mire. Now go to Jeremiah 36, please, go to Jeremiah 36 and verse number five. Jeremiah 36 and verse number five, and Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up. So Jeremiah's again, he's restricted, right? He's locked down, he's shut up, but shut up where? For I am shut up, I cannot go into the house of the Lord. So Jeremiah has become an unpopular preacher and they've banned him from coming into the house of God. And again, today, we're kind of banned, aren't we? We're restricted from being able to gather to meet in the house of the Lord. Now I want you to know something about Jeremiah though, instead of whining and complaining about it, what does he do in verse number six? He goes, therefore go thou. So he goes, you Baruch, you go, and read in the role which thou has written from my mouth the words of the Lord and the ears of the people in the Lord's house upon the fasting day, and also thou shall read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities. So Jeremiah says, well, Baruch, I'm locked down, I'm shut down, I can't go into the house of the Lord, but you can. Hey, you take the Bible, you take the role, you take the book of Jeremiah, and you go and read that in front of all the people so they can hear it, okay? So what do we learn about Jeremiah? Instead of whining and complaining, what does he do? He finds a solution. He works within the loopholes, right? He finds a loophole. I can send Baruch, he can read the words that I've written down, right? The words that have come from God. And that's what we've been doing during the restrictions, that's what we've been doing during lockdown. We just find ways around it, right? Right now, we're doing the live stream, praise God, we've got that technology. You know, not long ago, a few months ago, we met in my house for church because for whatever reason, it was just easier to meet in someone's house out in the backyard than it was to actually come to a public place of worship. Well, praise God, we find the loopholes, we find a way around it, just like Jeremiah found a way around it, sent Baruch, right? This is how we ought to behave, right? Instead of just being whining, instead of just getting argumentative and angry, just find a way around it, right? And we're finding that way around it with the modern technology, the live streaming that we have this morning. All right, let's go back to Jeremiah 39 in verse number two. Jeremiah 39, verse number two. It says, in the 11th year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up. So I really like the detail that God gives us in these first two verses, because verse number one begins with Nebuchadreza besieging the city, and then verse number two tells us exactly when the walls were broken up, the city was broken up, meaning that the Babylonians actually took over the city, okay, they actually won the war. Now, if you wanna work out what that is, of course, there's 12 months in the Jewish calendar, though we have a solar calendar, the Jewish have a lunar calendar, but they also have 12 months, and every sort of three to four, five years, they need to have a leap month, but we won't go into all of that, it gets a bit complicated, but they've got 12 lunar months of 30 days each. Now, if you look at verse number one again, it says, in the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the 10th month, all right. So if it's the ninth year of king Zedekiah's reign, but the 10th month, we know there are 12 months in the year, okay. So the besiege of Jerusalem, the siege of Jerusalem started in the 10th month, meaning that we have two more months to go, you understand that? So in the ninth year of Zedekiah, two months of his ninth year, the city of Jerusalem was besieged, okay. So remember those two months, I'll get one of my boys here to do the math for me, and then when you look at verse number two, it says in the 11th year of Zedekiah, so ninth year now, the 11th year, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up. All right, so we see that the siege started on the ninth year, and then we jump to the 11th year, meaning that for the entire 10th year, okay, that city has been under siege for the entire 10th year of Zedekiah's reign, okay. So now you've got another 12 months, okay. So in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, two months in the 10th year of Zedekiah's reign, you got 12 months, okay. So it's two plus 12, and then in the 11th year of Zedekiah in the fourth month, okay, the city was broken up. So now you gotta add another four months. So we've got two plus 12 plus four. What's the answer? 16. Is it 16? Yeah, it is 16, 16 months, all right. So if you work that out, that works out to be one and a half, is it 16? 12 plus two plus four. 18, 18 months, all right. The siege was for 18 months. The lockdown of Jerusalem was for 18 months. What's 18 months? A year and a half, okay. That city was locked down for a year and a half, all right. So this is why I love the book of Jeremiah. I love the book of Jeremiah in context of where we are right now, because I was looking at exactly when did Australia start closing its borders? When did Australia exactly start putting restrictions in place? Well, that was on the 20th of March, 2020. On the 20th of March, 2020, the Australian borders were closed, okay. And then that same week, they started to put all kinds of restrictions on Australian people and Australian businesses. So we've been going for just over one year and three months with all these COVID restrictions, okay. Well, they went, okay, the whole city of Jerusalem for a year and a half, all right. So here's the situation, right. There's nothing new under the sun, okay. We're in lockdown. Yes, it's a little bit different. We don't have some necessarily a foreign power here trying to destroy this nation, though I do believe there is a secret foreign power out there controlling a lot of things, okay. But anyway, the point being, we can see a lot of similar parallels here with our life. And this is why the book of Jeremiah is so good to go through, so we can learn the lessons, right. We can find out how we ought to behave in this situation. Look at the godly man, look at the ungodly man, look at how they're behaving, and then put yourself in their shoes. Hey, which one am I more like, okay. Now let's keep going, verse number three. It says, and all the princes of the king of Babylon came in and sat in the middle gate, even Nergal-sharazah, Samgar-neebo, Sarsichem, Sabsaras, Nergal-sharaziah, Rab-mag, and all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon. So now that they've come into the city, they've got the great generals, the princes. Now don't forget in these days, the kings, the princes, these were warriors, okay. They were leaders. They would go into battle and fight, okay. They're not just a figurehead like we think of kings today. And so we have these great generals, they're in the city, they've taken over the city. You know, Jerusalem is under the control of Babylon. Let's keep going, verse number four. And it came to pass that when Zedekiah, the king of Judah, saw them and all the men of war, then they fled and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls, and he went out the way of the plain. So how does King Zedekiah react to Jerusalem being taken under control by Babylon? King Zedekiah flees. Now don't forget, King Zedekiah, again, the king is a general in the war. When there's a flight going on, they're meant to be leading the troops, they're meant to be leading the charge, they're meant to be going to war, right. And King Zedekiah this whole time has been rebellious against King Nebuchadnezzar and has been stubborn and rebellious, and he's not been listening to the words of Jeremiah. Don't forget Jeremiah's been telling Zedekiah, hey, surrender, give yourself up, all right. But he's been rebellious. Hey, instead of fighting to the death, which is what he's trying to get his troops to do, what does he do? He flees, he runs away, he does the opposite of what Jeremiah has been telling him to do. So you can see this man is a real coward, okay. Not only is he ungodly, not only does he not listen to God's word, he does the complete opposite, he acts like a coward, he runs away, he leaves his city, he leaves his people, you know, under the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar. Now, if you can please keep your finger there and go to John chapter 10 and verse number 11. John chapter 10 and verse number 11. So he's a very weak leader, this King Zedekiah, as we've already seen, okay. And he's got the signs of a coward, right. A coward is someone who sends or expects others to fight, but he himself will not fight, okay. So he runs away, he flees. John chapter 10, verse number 11. John chapter 10, verse 11. The Bible says, I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf come in, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. So King Zedekiah is acting like a bad pastor. He sees the wolf come in and he flees, all right. He flees, instead of surrendering, instead of looking after the sheep, instead of being protective of the sheep, he runs away. Look at verse number 13. The hireling fleeth because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. Now the reason I read that is because, you know, and I'm not trying to puff myself up, I'm not trying to speak highly of myself at all. You know, I don't want to do that, but I want you to understand that you have a pastor in this church that truly loves the sheep, that truly loves you. You know, regardless, some people might say that I don't, okay, but you know what? Things are quite easy on the Sunshine Coast. There's been some restrictions. You know, they had a three-day lockdown apparently, or something like that on the Sunshine Coast, three days. You know, we've got two weeks here at the moment. You know, things have been so easy. Most services are going as they normally continue, right? COVID has barely affected the Sunshine Coast. I could have just easily, easily said, you know what? Even though the borders are closed, I can't travel down to Sydney. I'll let the sheep there work it out, and I'll just stay on the Sunshine Coast where it's easy. No, you know what? I had a heart for the sheep here. I said, you know what? We're going to get down to Sydney. We're going to get down for a year. We're going to try to lead the church in this time of difficulties. You know, there's lots of different opinions within the church, how we ought to behave, what we ought to do. And you know what was important for the pastor? It was important for the shepherd to get there who loves the sheep, who's not just some hireling. All right, what's a hireling? Some of that just does it for the money, right? It does it for the money. Things get a bit difficult, he runs away. No, you know what? A pastor ought to be someone that loves the sheep, wants to guide the sheep, and make sure that they're well looked after, okay? And again, I say that because I want this church to know that even though you're at home, even though you're listening to the live streaming, I have a great love for you. I have a great appreciation for you. I love each family, and I praise God for each family that makes up this church, right? And I'm not going to run away when the wolf come. Now, I'm leaving in October. You guys know that's planned, right? But we need to start thinking about what we're going to be doing during these next few months, how we're going to arrange the church, because there have been some changes, and we need to figure out what's best for the church moving forward. And of course, I'll talk to the families about that when the time is right. Let's go back to Jeremiah 39, verse number five. Jeremiah 39, verse number five. So Zedekiah tries to run in the middle of the night. It says, but the Chaldean's army pursued after them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him. All right, now, if you can, please just go back to Jeremiah 38, just the previous chapter, and verse number 18. So King Zedekiah tries to run away. He gets overtaken. They find out that he's running away. They find him, they grab him, and they bring him before King Nebuchadnezzar, right? And King Nebuchadnezzar's about to pass judgment on him. But go back to Jeremiah 38 and verse number 18. Jeremiah 38, verse number 18. Now, remember, Jeremiah told Zedekiah, give up, surrender, you know, give yourself in. If you surrender, it's all gonna be well with you, right? The city's not going to be burnt down. You're gonna be fine. Your family's gonna be fine, right? Everything's gonna be fine if you just give up and surrender. Zedekiah, again, did not listen to God's word, but Jeremiah 38, verse 18 says, but if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, which he didn't do, he ran away, then shall this city be given its the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand. All right, so we end up reading that they do light up this place on fire. They do destroy the city of Jerusalem because of the weak leader, because of the coward leader that Zedekiah was running away, okay, instead of surrendering. And so we start to see that the prophecies, and we know this for the first time, but we see the prophecies of Jeremiah, they come true, okay? God's word comes through. The prophecies that we see in his word will always come true. You know, one of the greatest prophecies that we have about the future is the coming of Jesus Christ. You know, one day Christ will come back and it's going to happen. Guaranteed it's going to happen. Christ will come back, you know, right? God's going to destroy this earth and Christ is gonna come and reign for 1,000 years and we're gonna rule and reign with him. That's a guarantee and I'm looking forward to that great promise. I'm looking forward to that time in the future, okay? Verse number six, sorry, back to Jeremiah 39, verse number 6. Jeremiah 39, verse number 6. It says, then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes. Also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah. All right, so this is the punishment for running away, the punishment for not surrendering. King Nebuchadnezzar orders for all the sons of Zedekiah to be killed in front of his eyes, okay? Now, no parent, no parent would want to see their children die before them, okay? Now, it's one thing to die of natural causes, but what about if you've been slain by the enemy because of your actions, because of what you did, because you disobeyed God, okay? And not only was the sons of Zedekiah killed, but also the nobles, also the people that were prominent in the land, right? That were, I guess, people that supported King Zedekiah. He saw his great friends, he saw his great allies and his children killed and slaughtered before his eyes. Let's keep going, verse number seven. Moreover, he put out Zedekiah's eyes and bound him with chains to carry him to Babylon. So I've been saying that he's been plucking out, he's plucked out Zedekiah's eyes, maybe he burned to him, I don't really know. But anyway, at the end of the day, Zedekiah has gone blind, right? They've put out his eyes, he can't see, they've caused him to go blind, they've put chains around him, and then he gets being taken into captivity into Babylon. Let's keep going, verse number eight. And the Chaldeans burned the king's house, and the houses of the people with fire, and break down the walls of Jerusalem. So it's exactly what Jeremiah prophesied would happen. And this is basically the end, in this chapter, this is the end of the story of Zedekiah. You see, in this chapter, it basically has three parts. Part one is about Zedekiah, part two is about Jeremiah, and then we'll have a look at part three soon. But it's broken up about these three men, okay, and how they've reacted to the lockdowns, how they've reacted to the restrictions. Zedekiah did not obey, he did not surrender, he did not give in to the power of the land, he was rebellious, all right, and he ended up destroying his family, his kingdom, his city, and now he's being taken into captivity. He's in a worse state, okay? He's in a greater lockdown now, right? His eyes are burnt out, or whatever, plucked out, and now he's being carried into chains, into prison, into Babylon. And so, as I told you, brethren, the title for the sermon this morning was I Will Surely Deliver Thee. You know what, God had promised Zedekiah that he would deliver Zedekiah if he just did what God said, if he just surrendered, if he were just obedient to the new power in the land, okay, God would have delivered him. And it's the same message that I'm telling the church, I'm telling the believers, even though I see some comments online, they think I'm some corrupt, evil pastor for telling people to submit, hey, be obedient to the authorities, all right? But it's the same thing that Jeremiah was preaching, and again, these things are unpopular, okay? It's very unpopular to teach such things, but if we want God to deliver us, then don't you think we need to do what God says? We look at the Bible and look at the stories and look at a situation similar to what we're in, even though it's not as bad as what it was in the days of Jeremiah. And look, it was even worse in the days of Jeremiah, and even then Jeremiah's telling people submit to the new powers, okay? Even when we see Jeremiah being submissive to King Zedekiah in the previous chapter when Zedekiah is a weak leader, a coward, right? And still Zedekiah is someone who's able to honor the authorities on the land. So we're going to look at the next part now. We saw Zedekiah, he failed, okay? God was not able to deliver him in the same way that he would have liked because Zedekiah did not listen to God's word. Zedekiah was not submissive to the government, the new powers, the new government that was put over his head. All right, now let's go to verse number nine. Now we are going to talk about Jeremiah. Don't forget in the last two chapters, Jeremiah was in dungeon, he was pulled out, and now he's in prison, all right? He's in the court of the prison. He's still restricted. He can't get out of prison, all right? But he's in the court of the prison, so he's got some flexibility, he's able to get around and walk around, and he's got some level of freedom within the prison itself. But look at verse number nine. Then Nebazadon, the captain of the guard, carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away that fell to him with the rest of the people that remained. And Nebazadon, the captain of the guard, left of the poor of the people, which had nothing in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time. All right, so what we find here is that Nebazadon, this captain of the guard, instead of taking the poor people, okay, he leaves them there basically to take care of the vineyards, to take care of the crops, right? To take care of the things that are in the land. But the people with skills, the people with money, people that are rich, they're the ones that have actually taken away captivity into Babylon. Now, can you please keep your finger there and go to Jeremiah chapter 34, please? Go to Jeremiah chapter 34. And I believe the reason for this is, well, there's probably two reasons. So you've got the poor of the people, which had nothing. These people are unskillful, they're unproductive, right? So if he takes these people into Babylon, they're going to be a strain on the welfare system, basically, okay? Because they're poor, they've got nothing. At least these other people, they're educated, you know, they're able to work with their hands, that they've got skills, they'll be able to be taken into captivity into Babylon and benefit that nation, okay, with the skills of their hands. But these other people, they are no benefit to Babylon, right, they'll just be a drain on the welfare system. So he says, you know what, you just stay in the land and you take care of the vineyards, you take care of the things that are left on the land. So he leaves the poor on the land. But I believe the reason this takes place, if you go back to Jeremiah 34 in verse number nine, Jeremiah 34 verse number nine, you may remember that the people with wealth, the princes and nobles of the land, they had servants, and instead of letting their servants go on the seventh year, the Sabbath year, they retained them longer than they should have. But look at Jeremiah 34 verse number nine, it says, that every man should let his manservants and every man his maidservant, being a Hebrew of an Hebrewess, go free, that none should serve himself of them, to wit of a Jew his brother. Now when all the princes and all the people which had entered into the covenant heard that everyone should let his manservant and everyone his maidservant go free, that none should serve themselves of them anymore, then they obeyed and let them go. So they were holding on to the servants longer than what God had instructed them to do. So they let them go free. But look at verse number 11, but afterward they turned and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free to return and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids. Then they changed their minds. They let the servants go free and they say, you know what? No, we want them back. They bring them back and they continue using the servants to work on their vineyards, to work in the house, whatever it is, okay? So these servants, obviously these servants are poorer people. They've sold themselves into servitude. They're not slaves, but they've sold themselves into servitude. So these are the poor of the land. And so I believe the poor of the land are the same people that are now basically taking over all the possessions of their former masters, all right? And you say, why would Nebuchadnezzar do that, right? Why wouldn't he just take everybody out of the land and take them into captivity? Well, now go to Jeremiah 27, because we'll get the answer here. Jeremiah 27 in verse number six. Jeremiah 27 in verse number six. God is speaking to Jeremiah about King Nebuchadnezzar here. In Jeremiah 27 verse number six, it says, and now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servants, and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. So God is not just causing him to win a war. He's not just causing them to take the best people of the land and take them into Babylon for the benefit of the nation. But Babylon has been given all of the land and all the beasts that are on the land, okay? Look at verse number seven. And all nations shall serve him and his son and his son's son until the very time of his land come. And then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. All right, so all nations shall serve him, his son and his son's son. So what's happening here? The reason they're leaving the poor of the land to look after the vineyards is because basically King Babylon will serve himself of the land, okay? So basically the whole land is being taken over by Babylon, right? And so it's like when it comes to tax time, to go pay your taxes, they will take the best of the land for themselves and they would leave whatever little there is for the poor of the land. So they're leaving the poor basically on the land to serve King Babylon, all right, to be able to tax them and use them for tribute. That's the whole purpose why they've left the poor on the land. So even though there were Jews taken into captivity, there were always some Jews or even Gentiles that were poor of the land still living in that place during this time. All right, back to Jeremiah 39, verse number 11. Jeremiah chapter 39, verse number 11. Now Nebuchadreza, king of Babylon, gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebazadon, captain of the guard, saying, take him and look well to him and do him no harm, but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee. Wow, okay? So Nebuchadreza, King Nebuchadnezzar, has heard about Jeremiah, all right? He says, look, you know what? Go find Jeremiah in the prison, do well to him, do no harm to him, and do whatever he wants, like whatever he wants, let him do whatever he wants. That's how King Nebuchadnezzar deals with Jeremiah, okay? The same man who without, you know, would easily slay the nobles of the land, would easily slay King Zedekiah's sons and put out his eyes, okay? The same man is shown great love, great grace, great mercy toward Jeremiah. Now I'm sure, the reason he's doing this is because I'm sure King Nebuchadnezzar heard that Jeremiah has been preaching, all right, in favor of Babylon, all right? I'm sure he's been hearing, hey, you've gotta, you know, submit to King Nebuchadnezzar, hey, you've gotta surrender, give yourselves in, right? And this is something that, of course, King Nebuchadnezzar would love to hear. He's hearing a man of God, okay, in the land of his enemies saying basically, submit to the new power, submit to the new government, okay? And of course, these are great news, great things for Nebuchadnezzar to hear, and he says, you know what, that Jeremiah, treat him well, look after him. Now, how popular do you think that would make Jeremiah in the eyes of his nation? Very unpopular, right, very unpopular. You know, if this was, if Jeremiah was in 2021, if Jeremiah was behind this pulpit, and basically teaching the same thing, all right, submit yourselves to the authorities, right, surrender, right, don't rebel, don't fight, just be submissive. If Jeremiah was preaching that same thing in 2020, you know what they'd say about him? Oh, that's a FEMA pastor, all right? That's a pastor that's telling people, obey the government, no matter what. I'd say, oh, Jeremiah's church, that's a state-run church, okay? Boy, that Jeremiah, oh boy, that pastor Kevin, he must be being paid by, you know, Scott Morrison, Prime Minister Scott Morrison to tell his church to submit to the requirements, you know, of COVID and whatever the restrictions and all that, right? I mean, that's what people would be saying about Jeremiah, if he was basically preaching this message now. And you know what, I'm not preaching my own message, I'm preaching the message of Jeremiah. You know, the word of God is timeless. Doesn't matter what situation we find ourselves in, it's the same teaching, what God expects from his people is the same thing in Jeremiah's day as he expects in 2021. I don't care if people call me a FEMA pastor, I don't care if they call this church a state-run church, because I know it's not true, okay? I know that, you know, this church loves God, this church loves God's word, and we wanna do things in accordance to God's word, because if we do it right, he's going to deliver us, okay? If we do things right, God's gonna be the one that finds a way for things to be well with his people, all right? So, you know, I've been teaching basically this church, submit, wear the mask if you have to, if that's what they're asking, you know, get an exemption, fine, right? You know, stay at home if you have to, all right, whatever it is, whatever the requirements are, I've been saying that to this church, but at the end of the day, brethren, you know, you're free to do whatever you like, you know? If you disagree with something that I'm asking you to do at church, hey, you can do whatever you want in your own house, all right? I'm not asking your family to do certain things, again, my authority is in the local church, God has given me authority in the local church, and that's where my authority lies, okay? And then my job is just to preach God's word, and again, it's up to you to obey, it's up to you to disobey, it's your choice. You know, you can be like Zedekiah, or you can be like Jeremiah, okay? You can be, it's up to you, it's your choice, it's your free will. And you know what, whatever you decide, I still love you, you know, I still want you in church, I still want, you know, a fellowship together, I'll still be your friend, whatever happens, but my job is to preach God's word, okay? Without compromise, without fear, I don't care what people have to say about me, I don't care if people think I'm a state-run pastor or something like that, okay? Because that's exactly what they would have said about Jeremiah. Let's keep going, verse number 13. And Nebazadon, the captain of the guard sent, and Nebush-sheban, Rab-saras, and Nergal-sharizah, Rab-mag, and all the king of Babylon's princes, even they sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison, and committed him unto Gedaliel, the son of Ahicham, the son of Shapham, look at this, that he should carry him home, so he dwelt among his people. All right, so who is Jeremiah being committed to? Whose hands is Jeremiah being given to? Well, if you go to Jeremiah 26, please go to Jeremiah 26. So Jeremiah's been given into the hands of Ahicham, okay, the son of Shaphan. Or, sorry, Gedaliel, the son of Ahicham. Who's Ahicham? Ahicham has been brought up before, okay? But if you go to Jeremiah 26 and verse number 23, Jeremiah 26 and verse number 23, this name has been brought up again, in the past, sorry, in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 26 verse 23 says, 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. You may remember that Urijah was also another prophet that God used, but instead of staying in Jerusalem and preaching God's word, he became fearful and ran away into Egypt. Anyway, he was fetched out of Egypt and he was killed. And then Jeremiah was gonna be the next on the chopping block. But then in verse number 24 it says, 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 Ahicham here is someone that knows Jeremiah is a man of God. I'm sure Ahicham is a fellow believer, okay? Ahicham loves Jeremiah and he took care of Jeremiah. He made sure that the king, who was king, King Jehoiakim did not put Jeremiah to death, okay? Now you would think Ahicham now, obviously he's living in the city of Jerusalem, but notice how God has also protected his son to the point where Jeremiah's been led out of prison and now Ahicham's son, Gadaliel, is being given Jeremiah to look after him, to take him home, okay? So once again, not only does God look after his people, not only does God look after his preachers, but God also looks after the people that are supporting that preacher, okay? Who are praying for that preacher, who are there to help that preacher. And Brethren, I hope that's your heart because we can't all be pastors, we can't all be preachers, we're not all gonna get into full-time ministry in the church, but I hope in your heart you can say, you know what, I'm gonna support my pastor, I'm gonna support the man of God, I'm gonna support the preacher because I know if I do that, things are gonna end up well for me as well, all right? Now, the other thing that's quite interesting about this, of course, Jeremiah was in prison this whole time, okay? And he's under lockdown, right? But the strange thing about this, even though he is inconvenienced, even though he doesn't have his freedoms, okay? But being in prison, of course, caused him to be basically protected in that prison this whole time. Because you would expect when the Babylonians would come, we know that the Jews were fighting, there was famine, there was pestilence, but there was also sword, there was a battle, right? And things would be chaotic in that sense, where if Jeremiah was just walking the streets of Jerusalem and Babylonians came in, right? Think about all the slaughter, all the fighting that's taking place, I mean, that's a dangerous place to live, okay? That's a dangerous place. I mean, you could just, as a bystander, be killed in battle, okay? But Jeremiah is protected in prison this whole time, right? I mean, it looks bad for him, but there he was safe. He was safe from sword, safe from the famine because he was being fed from the prison house, and he was safe from the pestilence, okay? That was causing havoc in that city at the time. And so, I want you to consider our current situation where you are being locked down or being restricted, all these kinds of things, and we don't know right now what God's hand is. God does promise that he's gonna deliver us one day, but we need to just remind ourselves, if we're in lockdown, maybe God's keeping us safe. Maybe he's keeping us protected. You say from the virus, well, I don't know, maybe, okay? But maybe there are other things that God is keeping us safe and protected from and have that kind of mindset, you know? Instead of being frustrated and angry about your current situation, just think about it. Well, maybe God's put me in the lockdown to keep me safe from some other situation. And just wait, wait and find out what that is, okay? Be patient and just trust in the Lord. The Lord is going to deliver you, guaranteed, all right? So anyway, we've looked at Jeremiah now. That's the second part of this chapter. The third part of this chapter is about Ebed-Melek, okay? The third part of this chapter is about Ebed-Melek. You say, who is Ebed-Melek? Well, we did look at him before, but let's go to verse number 15 now, Jeremiah 39, verse number 15, which says, now the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the prison, saying. So we're going a little bit back in time before Jeremiah's release from prison. So he's still in prison and God's word came upon Jeremiah. And this is the other thing that I want you to think about as well. While we are in our stay-at-home orders, while we're in lockdown, notice that even though Jeremiah's in prison, God's word still came upon Jeremiah, okay? He was still able to hear from God's word. And my encouragement to you, Brevin, is if you're at home and you can't get to church, well, you know what? Open up God's word and read it. You've got more time to read God's word, right? You're saving time from driving to church. Well, use that time that you would normally drive to church. Why don't you pick up the Bible and read it a little bit more, right? Hear from God's word a little bit more. And you know, it's not just Jeremiah. We have another great example. If you can keep your finger there and go to Acts 28. Acts 28, we're gonna look at another man that was under lockdown, okay? Acts 28, and we see how God can still use his people in a mighty way, even though they've been locked down in a situation. But Acts 28, verse number 30, please. Acts 28 and verse number 30. And now we're looking at New Testament times, of course, with the apostle Paul. And I'm not going to give you the whole story here, but Acts 28, obviously the last chapter of the book of Acts. And we have the story of the apostle Paul arrested by the Romans, and he's been taken into Rome to talk on behalf of, sorry, to talk in front of Caesar, to bring his case before Caesar, okay? Now, the Bible never captures what took place there, but while he's taken into Rome, of course, getting access to Caesar would be quite difficult, okay? It's like if you get arrested now and they need to set a court date for you, obviously that can take time, okay? Now, when Paul is taken into Rome, he's basically put under house arrest, okay? He's put into a house and he can't get out of that house. He's stuck in that house. He's under lockdown. You say, how long is he under lockdown? Well, let's have a look at it. Acts chapter 28, verse number 30. Acts 28, verse number 30. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him. So he's waiting, he's under arrest, okay? He's waiting to speak to Caesar, bring his case before Caesar. He's under lockdown in his house for two whole years, okay? I don't think Paul was allowed to step outside for exercise. I don't think Paul was allowed to step outside to go to Woolworths, okay? I'm pretty confident he was in his house. He could not move out of that place for two whole years, but he was allowed to receive visitors to come and see him, okay? Let's keep going. Verse number 31. What does he do with his visitors? He says, verse number 31, Praise God. So even though Paul's on the lockdown for two years, guess what's he doing in his house? He's preaching Jesus Christ. He's preaching to whoever it is that he's able to come and visit him and no man forbids him from speaking about Jesus Christ. So again, I just show you these examples because it is new to us, lockdown restrictions, it's frustrating. And you know what? I just heard recently, I'm sure you all kind of heard a few days ago, the prime minister got together with all the premiers of the states and they're trying to put a plan out of COVID-19 for the future, which I mean, I don't know exactly what the future holds, but basically what they've concluded is that nothing's gonna change for at least another whole year, at least, maybe even two years. They haven't got the exact timeframe, but this new normal that we're in, you know, all these fears about COVID, the way things are going, they might continue going for another year, another two years. So what are you gonna do Brevin? Are you gonna get frustrated and upset, depressed? Or are you gonna be like Jeremiah? You're gonna be like Paul? And you know what? Whatever I find myself in, you know what, whatever situation I find myself in, whatever opportunities I have, I'm going to speak of Christ. And I praise God again for our modern technology. Praise God for the live stream. Praise God for the internet, right? And if we find ourselves not able to meet in this building, but we can meet in someone's house, then we'll do that. We'll find a way, right? We'll find a solution. We'll continue preaching about Jesus Christ. So please be encouraged. You know, God can still do great works through us, through this church, you know, but the message is be obedient, be patient, be submissive to the government authorities, as long as they're not asking you to sin, okay? And you know, God's gonna deliver us one day. One day, there's gonna be deliverance. I'm gonna be able to look back and go, man, you know, God saw us through. You know, I can see God's hand. He did a great work in me. He did a great work in my family. He did a great work in my church. You know, we had to look back and see the deliverance of our Lord God. All right, back to Jeremiah 39, please. Jeremiah 39 and verse number 16. So we're back to where Jeremiah receives the word from the Lord. And he says in verse number 16, Go and speak to Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian. So we learn about Ebed-Melech, he's an Ethiopian, right? Saying, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil and not for good. So God's again telling this Ethiopian, my words are evil, they're harmful. I'm going to judge the city of Jerusalem. But then he says this, and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee. All right, so keep your finger there and go to Jeremiah 38. Let's remind ourselves who Ebed-Melech was, okay? Jeremiah 38 verse number seven. Now, I know we're going to a lot of passages here, but there's a lot to think about. There's a lot to put together, right? And I love the book of Jeremiah. It's kind of like its own mini puzzle and you got to pull the pieces together, right, go back and forth and look at how it all comes together. But Ebed-Melech is mentioned, first mentioned in the book of Jeremiah in Jeremiah 38, okay? And you may remember Jeremiah 38 is when Jeremiah was thrown into that dungeon, okay? Into that place where there was no water, it was a boggy, mirey ground, okay? And Jeremiah was basically left to die there, okay? But this Ebed-Melech, he's the one that delivered Jeremiah out of that place because in verse number seven it says, and when Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian, so there he is, the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs. So not only is he Ethiopian, not only is a foreigner, but he's also a eunuch, okay? So a eunuch basically is someone that was there to serve King Zedekiah from another nation, but he's been castrated, okay? So, I mean, he cannot have kids basically, okay? And I know this is lawful practice, you know, God never commanded such a thing, okay? This is something that was done in ancient days when they would, you know, conquer a city, conquer a people, you know, they would take some of the men that were useful for the kingdom, castrate them, so they would not, you know, have the testosterone, hormones, you know, raging in their bodies and, you know, they would become, you know, they wouldn't rebel, they wouldn't fight back, you know, they would not, sometimes they were there to look after and to serve the king's wives, okay? King's concubines, those kinds of things. So by being castrated, they wouldn't, you know, be tempted in that sense, you know, they wouldn't force themselves on those women. So it was a way to also protect the king's interests as well. So this man, you know, poor man, I feel bad for him. I mean, this guy himself, this is a pretty bad lockdown for this man as well, right? Being, you know, that part of his body being removed. But anyway, let's keep going. One of the eunuchs, which was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon. The king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin, Ebed-Melech went forth out of the king's house and spake to the king saying, "'My lord the king, these men have done evil "'in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, "'whom they have cast into the dungeon, "'and he is like to die for hunger in the place where he is, "'for there is no more bread in the city.'" And so Ebed-Melech, okay, he was a man that basically convinced King Zedekiah to, you know, remove Jeremiah out of that Mairi place. And, you know, he's also someone that believed Jeremiah was a great man of God, a prophet of God. You know, I have no doubt this man was a prophet, sorry, was a believer himself, okay? And, you know, he has a great love and he's a great supporter of Jeremiah, okay? So what is his end? You know, God again is saying he's going to destroy the city of Jerusalem, and you would think that this guy who's a servant of the king, that he might also be someone that gets slain by King Nebuchadnezzar. You know, you'd think it'd be a bad end for him as well, but let's look at verse number 17, Jeremiah 39, verse number 17, Jeremiah 39, verse number 17. God says to him, "'But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the Lord.'" Okay, so it's gonna end well for him. He's gonna be delivered by the hand of God. It says, "'And thou shalt not be given "'into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid.'" So what do we learn about him? He's afraid, okay, he's afraid. King Nebuchadnezzar has come, the city's been broken down, all right? All of, you know, Zedekiah has run away, okay? And King Nebuchadnezzar's, you know, killing all these noble of the land. He's like, he's afraid, what's gonna happen to me? But God promises him, oh, I'm gonna deliver you. Why is he going to deliver him? Again, he's gonna deliver him because he looked after Jeremiah. He looked after the man of God, right? He supported the man of God. He got behind the man of God, even though it was a very unpopular time to do it in. Verse number 18, he says, "'For I will surely deliver thee, "'and thou shalt not fall by the sword, "'but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee, "'because,'" look at this, "'because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord, "'because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord.'" So brethren, if you're afraid, I don't know, I don't know if you have fears, I'm not really afraid about all these things, but maybe some of you are, okay? Maybe you're very discomforted, very afraid about what the future might hold. You know what? What is God asking us to do? He's asking us to put our trust in him. Say, Lord, you know what? No matter how difficult things get, no matter how unstable things get in this world, you know what, I'm going to trust you, Lord. You know, Lord, I'm going to behave the way Jeremiah has behaved. You know, I don't wanna be like King Zedekiah. You know, I'm going to just trust you, Lord. I'm going to rely on you, Lord. I'm going to believe in the promises that you're going to deliver us one day from these difficult times. And you know what? God will deliver thee, okay? Best thing you can do is just follow, be obedient to God's commands, right? Get behind this pastor, get behind the preachers that preach God's word to you, all right? Be supportive of God's work, right? Even if you're under house arrest, you know, do the best you can to proclaim the name of Christ, right? You have visitors come, you have people that come to your place, teach them about Jesus Christ, okay? And things will go well with you. There's one more passage that I want you to turn to. Can you please go to Isaiah 56? Isaiah 56 and verse number three. Isaiah 56 and verse number three. So Jeremiah was delivered, right? The eunuch, Ebed-Melech, was delivered by God, all right? Even though these guys were facing different styles of lockdowns themselves, right? But look at Isaiah 56 and verse number three. Because you might say, boy, you know, poor Ebed-Melech, right? Servants of the king, a foreigner, made a eunuch. How horrible. But look at Isaiah 56 and verse number three. It says, neither let the son of the stranger that have joined himself to the Lord. So was Ebed-Melech a son of a stranger? Yeah, because he's an Ethiopian. But notice that he's joined himself to the Lord, right? He's trusted in the Lord. He says, neither let them speak, saying the Lord have utterly separated me from his people. Look at this. Neither let the eunuch say, behold, I am a dry tree. So the eunuch, of course, can't have kids, okay? But God's saying, don't let him say that. Don't let him think that he's some foreigner, some stranger, some lower-class person. Don't let the eunuch think that he's some dry tree that can't be used by God. Look at verse number four. For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant. So I have no doubt Ebed-Melech was one of these eunuchs that chose the things that please God, right? That took hold of the covenant of God. Because it says in verse number five, Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Praise God, okay? So he's better than the sons of daughters of the land, okay? Because he's a son of God. He believed on Jesus Christ. He believed the gospel, even though he's a eunuch, right? Even though he may seem unproductive on this earth, but God has made him his son. He's given an everlasting name and he will not be cut off. Everlasting life, right? Once saved, always saved. So brethren, just a reminder, okay? You might be taken as a stranger into a foreign land. You might even be made a eunuch. Hope not. Hope that never happens, okay? But it can be horrible. But you know what? The promise of God, he gives us an everlasting name. If we just hold to his covenant, we have the new covenants, praise God, okay? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ The moment you do that, you enter into that new covenant. You're made a child of the king. And brethren, we're no longer citizens of this earth, okay? When you're saved, you become a citizen of heaven. You become a child of God. Your home is above, okay? You're a part of that heavenly Jerusalem, the Israel of God, okay? And we see this world getting worse and worse. We see the restrictions getting worse and worse, right? We see the sin of this world getting worse and worse. But just remind yourself, you have an everlasting name. You have an everlasting home with God forever in heaven, okay? And again, these lockdowns, this life is just a vapor, isn't it, okay? And even within that vapor, there's a smaller vapor, which are the lockdowns in your life. And you know what? Once we're in everlasting life, once we're in eternity with God, all these frustrations, all these things that we look at, they're gonna be nothing. They're gonna be meaningless, okay? But what is going to mean, what is gonna profit you in the future is whether you've been obedient to God's word during these lockdowns. You know, whether you've been obedient to the governing authorities, whether you've been submissive, whether you've been doing God's word, you know, whether you've been trusting in the Lord, okay? You do these things and God's gonna reward you greatly in the kingdom of heaven. Okay, let's pray.