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So if you look at Jeremiah chapter 7 and verse number 3, it says, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways. The title for the sermon this morning is amend your ways. Now chapter 7 begins a new prophecy of Jeremiah. I just want to show you there in verse number 1, Jeremiah chapter 7 verse number 1, it says the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, And you might be wondering why it's coming again in chapter number 7. Yeah, so whenever you notice this in the book of Jeremiah or just the other prophets that you're reading through, whenever you see that phrase where the word of the Lord comes to the prophet, it's talking about a new prophecy that God has given the prophet. And so, you know, as we're studying the book of Jeremiah, you know, we're going chapter by chapter, there's 52 chapters, you know, we're going one chapter per week, so we're going to get through this in a year, okay? But Jeremiah's teaching and his prophesying, his ministry was longer than a year, of course, right? It was much longer than that. If you can just go back, keep your finger there in chapter 7, let's go to Jeremiah chapter 1 and verse number 4. Jeremiah chapter 1, just at the very beginning, I just want to show you this. Jeremiah chapter 1 verse number 4, it starts by saying, Then the word of the Lord came unto me saying. So there it is. There's one prophecy that God has given Jeremiah. Go to chapter 2 now in verse number 1. Chapter 2 in verse number 1, it says, Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me saying. So again, you can see this repetition. The word of the Lord keeps coming upon Jeremiah, and so at different points in his life, different points in his ministry, he's receiving a new revelation, he's receiving some new words from God, which he is to go out and preach to the people of God. If you can go back to Jeremiah chapter 1 now, Jeremiah chapter 1 in verse number 2, Jeremiah chapter 1 in verse number 2, I just want you to be reminded how long the ministry here of Jeremiah was in verse number 2. It says, To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign, it came also in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month. So we see all these different kings, this different dynasty of kings that Jeremiah was preaching to, up to the carrying away of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in the fifth month. So I haven't got time to prove it to you right now, but Jeremiah's prophecy in his ministry was for about a period of about 40 years. If you work all that out, it was about 40 years that he was actually serving. So we're going to go through Jeremiah in one year, but obviously all of this takes place in 40 years. So when we get to chapter 7, go back to chapter 7 verse number 1, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, just keep in mind, this isn't like, you know, one day God's given Jeremiah one prophecy, then the next day he's given another prophecy, another year, years are going by, years are going by. And I told you, we looked at chapter 6, how Judah became a reprobate nation to God, but keep in mind that was still the early days of Jeremiah, God has still given them many, many, many years, 40 years to get right with God. Okay, given them time and time again, but of course in chapter 6 we saw the prophecy that that nation would eventually become that reprobate nation. All right, so now that we understand that, just keep that in mind, we go to verse number 2, Jeremiah chapter 7 verse number 2. This new prophecy isn't just to the entire nation, if you look at verse number 2, who is Jeremiah prophesying to? God tells Jeremiah, stand in the gates of the Lord's house and proclaim there this word and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. So now this new prophecy that God has given Jeremiah isn't necessarily to the entire nation, though it is applicable to them of course, but it is specifically to those that are going to God's house. You can see that, he's at the gate and he's preaching God's word. Listen, Jeremiah is not inside the temple of God, Jeremiah is not inside the house of God, he's outside of the gates and he's preaching God's word. We learn that in this time, the house of God was not preaching God's word. In fact, the preacher of God was outside, right? He was not permitted to come into the temple. So God says, listen, you just stand outside and you preach to the people that are going into God's house. And of course, God's house in this time was the temple, the temple that Solomon built for the Lord. And so you need to understand that this is a prophecy to the Lord's house. And just a reminder, in 1 Timothy 3 verse 15, it says, But if I tarry along, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And so Jeremiah's prophecy, yes to the Old Testament temple and those that are worshiping God there, but we want to take the application now in the New Testament, the house of God in the New Testament is the local church. So think about, you know, God using a preacher, you guys come to church on a Sunday, you're listening to some type of preaching, you're listening to some prophet preaching, but then the true man of God is outside of the doors and preaching to you guys, listen, this is what God's really saying to you. That's kind of the, you know, the parallel with the time in the Old Testament. They weren't listening to the prophets that God was sending them. They were outside the house of God, right? And so that's the reality again of Australia in 2020, how many so-called houses of God are meeting today and listening to some watered-down preacher or listening to a complete false prophet, they're not receiving the Word of God, they're receiving some fluff piece, they're receiving some hot air preaching and they're coming and they're loving it, but truly the preachers of God are out there elsewhere, you know, and they're not listening to the Word of God being proclaimed unto them. And so, you know, chapters 1 to 6, which we already covered, was Jeremiah preaching to the entire nation, but chapters 7 to 10, he's specifically preaching to the house of God. And so, you know, if you felt, well, I don't really relate to chapters 1 to 6, well, chapter 7 to 10 is really for us, you know, as church-going people. We really want to pay attention to what Jeremiah is saying to the house of God. Now look at, let's go down to verse number 3. What is the first thing that he's telling them? Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways. That's the title for the sermon this morning, amend your ways. So what is Jeremiah saying? You guys are going to the house of God, you're going to worship God, but you're stuck in your sinful ways. You're continuing down your wicked ways. And God says, look, if you want to go to my house, that's great. If you want to go there and worship me, that's great. But the first thing you need to do is amend your ways and your doings. Look at this, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. What a promise. You know, brethren, every time you come to the house of God, every Sunday morning, every Sunday afternoon, every Thursday evening, if you're coming to church, brethren, amend your ways. Okay, that's the teaching from Jeremiah, amend your ways before you come to the house of God and worship Him. Why? Because all of us sin. We sin, even the foolishness of your thoughts are sin. You know, we get comfortable in our ways, we get comfortable in our sins. And you know what, you can come to the house of God and think, well, I've ticked the box, I've come to church, I've worshiped God, but it's not going to receive your worship unless you amend your ways, brethren. Let it be an encouragement to you that when you come to church, you ought to say, well, I want to come to church, I want to hear the preaching of God's Word, so I know there's something in my life that I can fix. What is it, Lord, that you want to teach me today at church so I can fix that in my life so when I come to the house of God, I can at least with a clear conscience before you say, God, I've amended my way, at least in this area. Lord, help me to amend my ways as I continue serving you. And so we always need to reflect. I always reflect, brethren, before I come, especially before I come to preach. You know, as Brother Anthony was preaching, reading the Bible, I'm just, Lord, help me, forgive me. If there's anything that I've not confessed before you, Lord, please forgive me. Help me to be a clean vessel to preach a word to your people. Help me, you know, clean me, Lord, help me to amend my ways. And I will cause you to dwell in this place. You know, there can be a longevity to Blessed Hope Baptist Church. You know, this church can continue till the day Jesus Christ comes back, but we need to be people that amend our ways or it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. Verse number four, Jeremiah is saying, Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these. So that's what's going on in the preaching. In the temple, the preacher that's going on in the house of God is going, Hey, this is the temple of God. But Jeremiah is saying, these are lying words. Yeah, you might have the temple in the physical sense, but when the people of God are coming, they've got their wicked ways. They've not turned to the Lord. They're not seeking God. They're just doing some religious practice. They're just doing some mundane, empty, vain practice by coming to the house of God. But the preacher, hey, this is the temple of God. And what is the temple of God? The temple of God is where God's presence would dwell. Hey, in the New Testament, the temple of the God is our bodies. This is where the Holy Ghost indwells the believer. But in the Old Testament days, the temple was where God's presence was. And so they're telling the people, hey, God's presence is here. God's with us. You know, this is the temple of the Lord. Jeremiah is saying, no, those are lying words. You know, God has departed that temple. God has departed that house of God. Let that never be said of Blessed Hope Baptist Church that God's presence has departed this place. The lying words. Verse number five. For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings. So we see that again. This is the theme. You know, if you do this, you'll mend your ways, thoroughly, and your doings. If you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurts. So you see, these are all the sins that they've got. They're coming to the house of God. They're coming to worship God. Right? But they've got all these sins. What are they doing? They're not executing judgment properly. You know, they're a respecter of man. Right? They're not judging between right and wrong properly. They're oppressing the stranger. Hey, the visiting church comes in. They look worldly. They look like they're rough. And you thumb your nose at them. Who are these people? You know, no. Listen, when the stranger walks into the house of God, we welcome them. We say, hey, God loves you. If they're not saved, we give them the gospel. Right? And if they're saved, praise God. And if they're a bit rough around the edges, that means they're going to need time to work at it. They're going to need time for God to work in them. Let us be an encouragement to them so they can walk in the rain. Right? But they were here oppressing the stranger. They were oppressing the fatherless, single mothers, or orphans, and the widow. They weren't loving the widows. Right? And shed not innocent blood in this place. They were killing, and we'll look at this later, they were killing their own babies. Okay? You know, if you think abortion is okay, if you think killing innocent babies in the mother's womb is okay, I don't want you in this church. I don't want you here. Until you get that right, until you amend your ways and understand that that's innocent blood, that's a human being that God was creating in the womb, you know, if you truly believe that, don't be here. Okay? Because you're just going to defile this place. These are the problems that the people had. But then God says, look, if you just amend your ways, if you fix these things, he says in verse number seven, then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, look at this, forever and ever, forever and ever. Boy, he's saying, look, if you just get right with God, just amend your ways, just start doing things right once again. I promise you, you can stay in the house of God forever and ever. Generation after generation would have continued in the house of God. Brethren, why do churches fail? Churches that have had success for years and years, many times you see the next generation come in, they mess things up, and then before you know it, the church just crumbles or becomes a shell of what it used to be. You know, God's telling us that Blessed Hope Baptist Church can exist forever and ever, at least until Jesus Christ comes back. Okay? But what we need to do, if we want to dwell in this place forever and ever, we want to have Blessed Hope Baptist Church every single week that we can come here and hear God's word and praise God, we need to make sure we come and amend our ways. Listen, if you just stop fixing your ways, if you just keep, just, ah, it's fine to continue sin in the way I'm sin, or even worse, go backward. You know, go backward into your old ways, that's going to bring a destruction in God's house. God's presence will leave, and He can't promise us that we're going to have this church forever and ever. I want this church to remain until Jesus Christ comes back. And not just remain, but remain faithfully serving God. Right? But we need to be people that amend our ways. If we have these wicked ideas, we need to change that in our lives. Verse number 8. Behold, ye trust in lying words that cannot profit. Ah, you know, again, what was the lying words? This is the temple, this is the temple, God's presence here, those are lying words that cannot profit. So we want to be in a church that we hear not lying words, we hear we're in a church that we listen to true words that we can profit from the preaching of God's word. Verse number 9. Will ye still murder and commit adultery, and swear falsely and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not, and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, we are delivered to do all these abominations. Saying, you think you can come and just commit adultery? You think you can come and just do all these wicked sins and come to my house and praise my name? It's not going to happen, God says. It's vanity, it's empty, it's worthless. Listen, it's just better to stay home. It's better to stay home and instead of coming to God's house and disgrace His church. We don't want to come to this house of God and just play Christianity. I'll serve God to you today in church. I'd better turn up because Brother so-and-so, pastor might think bad of me if I don't turn up. Listen, just get right with God. We all do wrong things in the week. We all think wicked thoughts in the heart. We all have done stupid things. We all harden our hearts against God and trespass. I'm not saying that's fine. That's something we need to fear. I'm not saying that's okay. But I'm just saying that's the reality of the sinful flesh. Unfortunately, brethren, that's the challenge. That's the wall that we're fighting for until God gives us a new resurrected body. But when you come, you say, well, it's time for church. Let's get right with God. Let's fix it up. Even better, fix it up before. Don't let Monday be the day that you go to the devil. Don't let Monday be the day that you go into the world and say, well, before I come to church on Thursday night, I have time to fix it up. No, fix it up straight away. Get right with God straight away and don't be a hypocrite. That's what a lot of people say about churches, right? You go and knock on someone's door. Oh, I used to go to church. Oh, what happened? I was full of hypocrites. Yeah, we are all hypocrites. You are a hypocrite, the one at the door. We're all people that do wrong things but desire to do what is right if you are saved, if you have that new man. The new man desires to serve God. What we see here, there are a list of sins, you know, murder, adultery, you know, worshiping false gods, idolatry. Can you keep your finger there? Can you keep your finger there? Let's go to 1 Corinthians 5. Keep your finger there. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 5. There are some sins, brethren, that if you do them, you're not welcome in church, okay? And you say, I've never heard that before. Well, let's go to 1 Corinthians 5 and verse number 7. Actually, verse number 11. 1 Corinthians 5 and verse number 11. Now, let's not lose the context here. Paul, the apostle, is writing to the Corinthian church. So it's written to a church. If it's written to the Corinthian church, it's written to blessed-up Baptist church, okay? In 1 Corinthians 5, verse 11, it says, But now I have written unto you, to who? To the church. Don't forget, right? It's written to the church. Not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such and one know not to eat. Hey, you are not to fellowship with people that fit this criteria. Verse number 12. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without, God judgeth. Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person. Brethren, what do we learn here? We see that in the times of Jeremiah, there were people committing sins, such wicked sins, that they should not have been in the house of God. It just offends God. You know, someone walking in who's just literally a murderer. Someone that's literally killing their own children, right? And we see here in the New Testament, we have a list. And if anyone is performing sins in accordance to this list, brethren, we are to not have anything to do with them. We are to kick them out of the church. We say, well, that's not nice, Pastor Kevin. Why do we do such things? Shouldn't we just persevere? Shouldn't we just love that person? Listen, do you want to be like Jeremiah? Do you want to be in the days of Jeremiah where we just love everybody? We just love everyone's sin. Just love them. It doesn't matter. Well then, expect God's presence to leave the house of God. That's how, you know, expect God's presence to leave, right? Look at verse number 7, same chapter, 1 Corinthians 5, 7. Why do we do this? Do we do it because we just have to because we just hate that person? We just think we don't do it because of that person necessarily, though that's part of it. But we do it to protect the church. 1 Corinthians 5, 7 says, Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump as ye are leavened, for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. What this is teaching us, and this is in the same chapter, it's all about kicking someone out of the church, that that person that's in these wicked sins, they need to leave because they're like that leaven and of course leaven, leaven, leaveneth, the whole lump, right? It's like yeast. You put yeast into the bread, the whole bread's going to be raised by the yeast. You need to get rid of the yeast to preserve the dough. You need to, you know, get rid of the yeast and of course it's using the illustration of the Passover when they would eat bread with like unleavened bread which was the feast. Well, you know, having somebody with these kinds of sins, you know, fornicating, covetous, adult worship idols, railing on people, drunkards, extortioners, they're going to defile our church. They're going to corrupt our church. Listen, if we allow just somebody just faithfully, you know, faithfully, just, sorry, I'm using different words, fornicating in our presence, you know, our young people are going to grow up and say, well, church is full of hypocrites. If pastor allows so and so fornicating, then why can't I? You know, so we need to protect our congregation by kicking these people out of the church. Worst thing, you get to the point where it's Jeremiah's day and God says, look, I'm not even there anymore. You know, why are you coming to this church? All you're doing is offending my name. Back to Jeremiah 7, verse number 11, please. Jeremiah 7 and verse number 11. Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord. So the house of God became a den of robbers. People are robbing each other. You know, sometimes I see some of the young guys, the single guys aren't here because we were over, we had too many people, but anyway, you know, sometimes they just leave their wallets laying around and I tell them, guys, just don't leave your wallets laying around. Like, they didn't leave their phones, their wallets. It's like, oh, we just trust everybody. Well, you know, I don't recommend just leaving your wallets around. You know, it could go missing. I've been in church where the people you least expect, you know, were stealing money out of the offering or something, you know, or stealing, you know, going into ladies' bags that were just left there on a seat and stealing from that bag. You say, well, they shouldn't do that. You're right, they shouldn't do that, but at the same time, you know, we should also not allow people to be tempted. You know, don't just leave your money laying around financially. It would be easy for them to go and steal that. I'm just saying, listen, you know, I love each one of you, but just make sure you keep your possessions to yourself. You know, don't leave them out in the open. Hey, it's easy for anybody to walk into this building anyway and take those things. But you can see that there's thievery going in the house of God. Now, please go to Matthew 21. Again, keep your finger there in Jeremiah 7 because God says the house of God has become a den of robbers, a den of robbers. And something very similar happened in that place when Jesus Christ was in the temple. Now, he wasn't in the same temple that, in Jeremiah's day, because that temple was ultimately destroyed, but then when they came back out of captivity, they rebuilt a new temple and that's the temple that Jesus Christ would frequent. But in Matthew 21, verse 12, Matthew 21, verse 12, it says, And Jesus went into the temple of God and cast out all them that sowed and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of them that sowed doves and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves. What did God call that place? A den of robbers. What does Jesus Christ call it? A den of thieves. Why did Jesus Christ call it a den of thieves? Because they were buying and selling in the temple of God. Listen, they weren't buying and selling evil things. They were buying, look, moneychangers. People would come sometimes and exchange and give, like maybe they'd bring their produce, exchange it for money and give that money to the temple or the produce. Or they would buy doves because if you were poorer and you couldn't afford like a lamb, you were allowed to bring doves if you were of a poorer family. So they were selling things for temple worship. They were selling things that they thought were going to serve God. Brethren, I'm against, I'm against the bookstore in the church. Look, I'm against selling in the church. Please, if you've got a business, don't run your business in the church. You know, listen, you know, some people have business, nothing wrong with businesses. Nothing wrong with, you know, if you're a plumber and brother so and so need some plumbing help and he hires you to go and do a job, listen, just do that outside of the house of God. Sort that out outside of the house of God. You know, don't come here with all your business cards, hey, hey, you know, listen, I don't want any selling in the house of God. If you need a hymn book, take the hymn book home. It's, don't purchase it, okay. There is no buying and selling in the house of God because I don't want God to look down and say this is a den of thieves. This is a den of robbers. It's not going to happen in this church, all right. I've had people offer, you know, can I sell this in your church? It's like, get out of here. No. Are you crazy? I don't want Jesus Christ to come with a whip in the church because that's what Jesus did, all right. Turn the tables. It's not going to happen. Listen, if you want to serve this church, just faithfully serve this church. Don't sell your services to this church. Verse number 12, verse number 12, sorry, back, sorry, Jeremiah chapter 7, verse number 12, Jeremiah chapter 7 and verse number 12. But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. Now Shiloh, just very quickly, was a place where the tabernacle was initially set up. Before it came into Jerusalem, the tabernacle or the house of God was set up in Shiloh. So God is telling, hey, remember Shiloh, remember what happened in Shiloh. Verse number 13, and now, because ye have done all these works save the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, that ye heard not which I called you, but ye answered not. Therefore will I do unto this house, that's a temple, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers as I have done to Shiloh. He says, look, what I did to Shiloh, when Shiloh was my house because the tabernacle was there, if you don't amend your ways, I'm going to do the same thing that happened to Shiloh, I'm going to do it here in this temple. You say, what happened? Well, good question. Let's go to, let's go to 1 Samuel, actually no, go to Psalm, it'll be easy for you guys, go to Psalm 78, go to Psalm 78, what happened in Shiloh? Well, while you're turning to Psalm 78, I'm going to read to you from 1 Samuel chapter 4 and verse number 10. Now remember, Shiloh was where the tabernacle was established, okay, before the temple was built in Jerusalem. And in 1 Samuel chapter 4 verse 10, it says, And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten. So we know that the Philistines were many times an enemy to the Israelites, right? This time the Philistines win. It says here, and they fled every man into his tents, and there was a very great slaughter for their fellow Israel, 30,000 footmen. So Israel definitely lose this war against the Philistines. But then in verse number 11 it says, and the ark of God was taken, and the two sons of Eli, Eli was a high priest, Hophni and Phinehas were slain. So what happened in Shiloh? The ark, the Philistines, they defeat the Israelites. Why? Because they were not faithfully serving God. Even Eli the high priest was corrupt. His children were children of the devil. They were reprobated, okay? And God allows the Philistines to defeat Israel to the point where they actually take the ark of the covenant, which was needed, they had the mercy seat, you know, for them to offer that sacrifice, the blood of the sprinkling upon the mercy seat. So that object was taken away and you might think, well, why did they lose? Well, actually, God allowed them to lose. During Psalm 78 verse 59, Psalm 78 verse 59, it says, When God heard this, He was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel. What does it mean to abhor? To hate, to vehemently hate. God vehemently hated Israel. They got into such a wicked place. Verse number 60. So that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men, and delivered His strength into captivity and His glory into the enemy's hand. Listen, God allowed His glory, which was represented by the tabernacle, to be given into enemy's hands. He says, Man, I hate Israel so much. They are so wicked, I'm just going to let their enemies, the Philistines, even though the Philistines are so evil themselves, I'm going to let them defeat. They're going to have a great slaughter against Israelites, and I'm just going to allow my glory to be taken away by the enemy. So God says, Look, remember, Jeremiah is saying, remember what happened to Shiloh? Well, if you don't change your ways, if you don't amend your ways, the same thing's going to happen in the temple of God. Brethren, I'm telling you, if we don't amend our ways, if we don't love God and serve God, if we just think it's okay to be in sin and to be worldly, Brethren, one day, if we just, as a united church, turn our backs on God, but we think we're fine because we're turning up to church, well, one day, God's going to take His glory and bless it up at this church and give it in the hands of the enemy. So let's be warned by the words of Jeremiah. It's easy to point fingers to the Old Testament saints, but we need to take the lessons and apply it today for us. Let's go back to Jeremiah 7, verse number 15. Jeremiah 7, verse number 15. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim. Therefore, pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear thee. God is telling Jeremiah, don't pray anymore for them. Don't pray anymore for them. I'm not even going to hear you, Jeremiah, if you pray for them. Is this the kind of preaching you normally hear in a church? Don't pray for certain people. Often we think, man, we better pray for everybody. There are some people you just don't pray for, you don't make intercession for. Now, if you think that's a bit weird, just let's go to Jeremiah 11, verse number 14. Jeremiah 11, and verse number 14. Jeremiah 11, 14 reads, Therefore, pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble. Let's go to Jeremiah 14, verse 11. Jeremiah 14, verse 11. Then said the Lord unto me, pray not for this people for their good. So, just in case you thought I misunderstood Jeremiah 7, he tells Jeremiah in chapter 11 and chapter 14, again and again, stop praying for these people. I assume the reason God has to repeat this is it's in the natural heart of Jeremiah. He loves his nation. He loves the people. He wants them saved. He wants them turned into the Lord. And he has a natural inclination, well, I better pray for these people. God says, look, stop it. Don't pray for them anymore. It's done. So, how do we apply this today? Well, people that are haters of God, this is where the reprobate doctrine comes in. Remember, chapter 6, they had become reprobate as a nation. When somebody gets to the point, and I'm going to preach on reprobates probably this Thursday. When someone gets to the point where they are haters of God, where they are enemies of God, don't pray for them anymore. Don't pray for their good. Don't say, God, can you bless so and so? Don't let it happen. Listen, if someone gets kicked out of the church, if someone gets kicked out of the church for their wickedness, don't pray for their good. Don't pray that, oh, Lord, can you just bless so and so when they got kicked out of the church? Listen, they got kicked out for a reason, because of their wickedness, okay? Hopefully, they come and realize amongst within themselves, man, I was wrong. Why did I do such wickedness? I need to get right with God and they come back to the church and they apologize and get right with God and God's people. And then we forgive them, we forget it, and it's gone, all right? And they just become a regular person. We forgive and forget what they've done. But, brethren, when there's wickedness to the point where, you know, God himself has to just remind Jeremiah, stop praying for them. I'm not going to listen to you, Jeremiah, if you keep praying for them. We see this time and time again. Jeremiah, just out of the natural man, out of the natural heart, just wants to pray. God says, don't pray for the wicked. Don't pray for those that defile my house, okay? That seems weird, but hey, that's what God's saying. I can't twist God's words to make it sound something else. That's what he says, okay? Verse number 17, back to Jeremiah chapter 7, verse number 17. Jeremiah chapter 7 and verse number 17. Nor would I want to twist God's words, by the way. Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? He's saying, look, Jeremiah, stop praying for them. Don't you know what they're doing, Jeremiah? Can't you see what they're doing? Verse number 18. The children gather wood and the fathers kindle the fire and the women knead their dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods that they may provoke me to anger. Do they provoke me to anger, saith the Lord? Do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? What are they doing? They're worshiping false gods. They're worshiping the queen of heaven. Who's the queen of heaven in 2020? Anybody know? Who's the queen of heaven in 2020? Yes? Mary. Mary. I love Mary. I love the Mary of the Bible. What a great woman. What a great handmaid of the Lord to allow herself to fall pregnant through the Holy Spirit's power and to give birth to the Savior even knowing that people would think bad of her. Even taking the risk that Joseph would divorce her when he found out that she had fallen pregnant because it's a miracle. It's hard to believe, right? Hey, Mary was a great woman. But she was still a sinner. Mary was just like you and I, but she was a good woman. She was a good woman, okay? But there is one religion that elevates Mary and of course that's not the Mary of the Bible. It's a false Mary. They elevate Mary and they call her the queen of heaven. In fact, they call her the mother of God. That's the Roman Catholic Church. Listen, this is the beginning of the Roman Catholics right here, okay? The church had become the Roman Catholic Church and God says, why are you praying for them? Listen, I'm not going to pray for the Roman Catholic Church. I'm not going to pray, God, can you please bless the Roman Catholic Church? Can you please perform great miracles on their behalf, Lord? No. Otherwise, it'll be like Jeremiah who's just began to pray and God says, don't pray for them. I'm not going to hear you. Hey, listen, the Roman Catholic Church is not a Christian religion. It is not Christianity. It is a false religion. It is a religion that God hates. It is a religion where God is not hearing the prayers of those praying for that church. I just looked up Wikipedia. Queen of Heaven is a title given to the Virgin Mary, and by the way, she did not remain a virgin. She had other children afterwards, but no time for that. Given a title by the Virgin Mary by Christians, mainly of the Catholic Church and to a lesser extent in Anglicanism, Lutheranism and Eastern Orthodoxy. The title is a consequence of the first council of Ephesus in the fifth century in which Mary was proclaimed Theotokos, a title rendered in Latin, or in English, I should say, the Mother of God. The Mother of God. Now, was Mary the mother of Jesus Christ? Yeah, in the flesh, she was. She did give birth to Jesus Christ. But does that mean we should just take liberties where the Bible does not take liberties and just call her the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven? They believe that Mary did not die a natural death, that she ascended, just like Jesus Christ, she ascended bodily into heaven, remained a virgin, and when she got to heaven, she was crowned the Queen of Heaven, and that she plays a role in salvation. What blasphemy. What blasphemy. So when you think of the Roman Catholic Church, and look, some of you came out of the Roman Catholic Church. Praise God. Praise God you came out of that wicked place. You know, Jeremiah's wishing his people would come out of the Catholic Church. The temple of God had become the Catholic Church, basically. And you see that God was so angry. God, it had provoked him to anger. Verse number 20, Jeremiah chapter 7, verse number 20. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man and upon beasts, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground, and it shall burn and shall not be quenched. God's anger is going to turn into a fire, a burning fire that cannot be quenched. We know what fire cannot be quenched, which ultimately is, of course, the lake of fire. That fire is going to burn. People are going to be tormented every day in the lake of fire, those that reject Jesus Christ. How important is it for us to go and win the souls of this city? You know, I don't want to see them tormented in the lake of fire. I want them like Jeremiah's, preach to them, get right with God, get saved. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But this fire, yes, you know, I just tied into the lake of fire, but it's not really about the lake of fire here. If you can please keep your finger there. Let's go to Jeremiah chapter 52. We're going to the last chapter now. Jeremiah chapter 52. What is the fire? What is this fury of God that he's referring to here? Jeremiah 52 verse 12. Jeremiah 52 verse 12. Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the 19th year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebaz-Adan, captain of the guard which served the king of Babylon into Jerusalem and burned the house of the Lord and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem and all the houses of the great men burned here with fire and all the army of the Chaldeans that were with the captain of the guard break down all the walls of Jerusalem round about. So, man, this is still many, many years away but we see God prophesied, listen, you get right, I'm going to burn this place with fire and it's not going to be quenched. The temple was destroyed, the house of the king was destroyed, all the rich houses, all the mansions were destroyed, all the houses of Jerusalem, the walls were destroyed. Destroyed. What did we learn there? They didn't get right with God. Brethren, I don't want to see God's fire burn I'm not talking about the building. Of course I'm not talking about the building. I'm talking about us as people. We're the temple of God in the New Testament. We have the Holy Ghost in us. We need to make sure we amend our ways. Every year you ought to be a little more godly. Every year you ought to be a little bit more like Jesus Christ. Please continue moving forward in your Christian life, not backward. I want this church to last to the day Jesus Christ comes back. We can only do it if we amend our ways. Back to Jeremiah 7 verse number 21. Jeremiah 7 21. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, put down your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices and eat flesh. For I speak not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this thing commanded I them saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people and walk ye in the ways that I have commanded you, that I may be well unto you. So what are we saying? They're going to the temple. They're doing the burnt offerings. They're doing the sacrifices. But God says, look, that's not even what I asked of you. I just asked your fathers to obey my commandments. He's saying, look, go back to just obeying what I told you to do. Otherwise those sacrifices, put your burnt offerings and your sacrifices and eat flesh. He goes, you know what? It's just a barbecue that you're having. All the animals that you're roasting in the fire. He goes, you know what? If that's what you want to do, just don't eat it. Just go enjoy a barbecue. God's been sarcastic. It means nothing to him, those sacrifices. Why? Because they were not obedient to God. So we need to be careful. We're offering our sacrifices of praise. We sing. We offer our sacrifices of servitude when we serve one another, when we love one another. When you give to the local church and you give your finances, that's your sacrifices, brethren. We do a lot to sacrifice and it's easy to think, well, if we've sacrificed, God must be happy with us. Not if you're in disobedience. Not if you're in disobedience. You just enjoy the barbecue. We want to be people that our sacrifices are accepted to God. They are pleasing to God because we first made a decision that we're going to obey the commandments of God. God helped me to obey so when I come and offer my sacrifices, they are pleasing to you. All right? Just very quickly, Exodus 19 verse 5 says, Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my commandments, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. God says, look, if you obey my voice, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure. Don't forget Israel today in the Middle East, that modern nation of Israel, they still think they're God's chosen people. Many Baptist churches are teaching their people they are God's people, that they are peculiar treasures to God, that they are a holy nation. And they say, well, you know, it was, what's the term they use? It's a promise that cannot be broken. Unconditional, that's it. They'll say it's an unconditional promise. It doesn't say unconditional to me. Jesus said, or God said, if you obey. Listen, if is only if you do this. If you obey my voice and keep my commandments, then ye shall be a peculiar people. All right? Those guys in the Middle East, Brevin, they're not a peculiar people. They're not the chosen people. They worship a false god. They worship a false religion. They are unsaved. They are on their way to hell. Okay? Unless they believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. Verse number 24. But they hearken not, nor incline their ear, but walked in the councils and in the imagination of their evil hearts. Look at this. And went backward and not forward. Brevin, if you want to go forward, what do you have to do when you come to church? You've got to incline your ear. You know, when the preaching's going on, just turn this way. If you're deaf in one ear, just go, okay, this is the good ear. Incline your ear. Pay attention. Don't doze off. Don't start daydreaming. Don't start thinking, I'm a bit hungry. What am I going to eat for lunch? Don't start thinking, I've got work to do on Monday, I've got to catch up on this. Listen, when the preaching of God's word's happening, incline your ear so you can go forward and not backward. Okay? Verse number 25. So God's telling us, don't harden your neck. Don't harden your heart when you come to the house of God. I can't wait to get out of here. Lord, I'm so sick of hearing the Bible. Don't harden your neck. Okay? Destruction will come your way if you behave that way in the house of God. Verse number 27. Therefore, thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken to thee. Thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee. You know, this is one of the very first verses. When I got taught how to go door to door soul winning by my very first church. It's Southland Baptist Church now. It used to be called Bethany Baptist Church. I learnt how to go soul winning in that church. And this was one of the very first verses that I was taught. Let me read it again, verse number 27. Therefore, thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken unto thee. Thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee. What this verse was being used for was to help motivate and encourage the soul winners. Say, look, Jeremiah knew. God told Jeremiah, listen, you're going to preach for 40 years. When I preach 40 years, they're not going to listen to you. So when you go door to door soul winning, you go out for an hour, an hour and two hours, sometimes you don't even get anything, right? Sometimes, some streets are just not interested, not home, they don't want you there. Maybe they're even a bit rough to you. Maybe they might even let out some cuss words to you. And you might get discouraged and go, no one listens to me today. Well, listen, you just went out for an hour or two. Jeremiah's doing this for 40 years. And he knew before he went out for 40 years that they won't listen to him. God already warned him, they're not going to listen to you. They're so stiff-necked. But hey, what did Jeremiah do? Did he say, well, if they're not going to listen to me, I'm not going to preach. No, he was obedient to God's commandment. He still went out and preached the words of God. And so, brethren, that encouraged me, I remember, when I was trying to learn how to go soul winning. What do I do, you know, past, if they don't listen to me? Well, be like Jeremiah, just keep going for 40 years and just do what God says and God's going to bless you, God's going to reward you when you're obedient to his word. You know, it doesn't matter if people listen to you. Listen, it's wonderful when they listen to you, it's wonderful when people get saved. But listen, if you go out for hours and hours and hours and nobody's listening to you, no one's getting saved, you're not even getting John 3.16 out, just be thankful that you're being obedient to God. And understand God's going to reward you for the hours that you've used to go soul winning for his name. Yeah? Let's keep going, verse 28. But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction. Truth is perished and is cut off from their mouth. Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places. Now I want you to notice the next phrase. For the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. Now, when I looked at the previous chapter, let's go back to Jeremiah chapter 6, look at verse number 30 just as a reminder there. Jeremiah chapter 6 and verse number 30, we read, Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them. And I have taught you that the word reprobate means rejected, where God can reject people where they've lost their opportunity to be saved. Some people say, well, no, that's not what a reprobate is. And again, I'm going to teach this in detail on Thursday, so if you have questions, just wait till Thursday. But they'll turn to Jeremiah chapter 6 and say, well, look, you know, yes, God called Judah, reprobate. Yes, it does say that God rejected Judah. But Pastor Kevin, don't you understand that after they were in captivity for 70 years, God brought them back into the land. You see that even when God rejects, they'll say, God will still give them an opportunity to come back. Well, chapter 7 gives us the adds to that, okay. Yes, the nation was rejected, but look at verse number 29 again, the end of verse number 29, it says, for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. So when God looks at Judah and says you are a reprobate nation, he was talking about that generation, that generation which Jeremiah was preaching to was reprobate. And so listen, if you're an adult, let's say I'm almost 40 years old, let's say I was living in that land and I'm part of that reprobate nation and I was taken into captivity by the Babylonians, I'm not going to return for another 70 years. I'm going to have to be 110 before I can come back into the land and I'm probably going to be dead by then, okay. Like the generation that Jeremiah is preaching to, most of them did not return back. I mean, think about the 40 years in the wilderness where that generation did not want to go into the promised land and so they had to wander in the wilderness as their punishment for 40 years until that generation passed away and it was the children that would enter into the land in their adulthood, right, and their grandchildren. That's 40 years. Hey, this is 70 years. So it's more like not just the children but it's more like the grandchildren are going to be the ones that have to come back into the land and rebuild the place. And so yes, there was a rejection, there was a permanent rejection of that generation. But God allowed subsequent generations to, you know, come back to him. And so, you know, if we know of a reprobate human being, we know of somebody that is reprobate, you know, don't assume that their children are reprobate, alright. Someone's reprobate, someone's a wicked hater of God, someone in your life that you know that's been rejected by God, don't forget, you know, their child doesn't mean they're reprobate, doesn't mean their grandchild is reprobate. You know, God can still work in the hearts of these individuals, you know, to serve him. So don't just reject the entire family or the entire lineage, you know, because God rejected that specific generation. Verse number 30. For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the Lord. They have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name to pollute it. How are they polluting the house of God? This blows my mind, brethren, I can't even understand what I'm about to read. It says in verse number 31. And they have built the high places of Tophat, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart. Can you imagine people taking their own children and just burning them in the fires in worship of some false god? Can you understand why this is a reprobate generation? We do this though, not we, but our nation does this, doesn't it? You know, killing babies in the mother's wombs. It's no different today. You know, look, I don't pretend to know the forces of the devil, but I have no doubt those that are higher up that allowed this, that have passed this into law are just worshiping the devil. You know, and they're just causing the citizens of Australia to murder their babies in the hundreds, yea, thousands, yea, tens of thousands every year, you know, in worship to some devil. You know, I wouldn't be surprised. Why? Because that's what they're doing in the Bible. Again, there's nothing new under the sun, right? And so, look, God says in verse number 31, which I commanded them not, and then he says, neither came it into my heart. God is saying, I'm surprised. This idea of burning your children, of murdering your children, I would never have thought, it would never have processed in my heart, God said. And look, we know that God truly cannot be surprised, because God is all-knowing, right? We know that obviously God knew this in advance, that they would do such wicked acts, but the only way God can convey to us how wicked and how surprised he was by saying it didn't even come into my heart. You know, like even God's trying to tell us, we're surprised by the wickedness of the heart of these people. So, Jeremiah, don't pray for them. I'm not going to pray for the abortion doctors. I'm not going to pray, God, can you please save these doctors? They're reprobates. They've rejected God. They're haters of God. I'm not going to pray for their good. I'm going to pray that God destroys them the way they're destroying little babies in their mother's womb. Verse number 32. Therefore, behold, the days come, save the Lord, that it shall be called... Sorry, that it shall be... Let me start. I'll start again. Verse number 32. Therefore, behold, the days come, save the Lord, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the Son of Him. And so that was the name of the city and the valley. But what is it going to be called now? It says here. But the valley of slaughter, for they shall bury in Tophet till there be no place. And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth, and none shall frail them away. What is God saying? These people that are going to Tophet, to the valley of the Son of Him, and those that are going to that place to burn their children, God is saying, I'm going to rename that place. It's going to be called the valley of slaughter. And those that are performing these acts, they're going to be slaughtered. And their carcasses, their bodies are going to fall, and the birds are going to come and eat their flesh. God says, look, you want to destroy your children or you're going to be destroyed. And of course, that was with the Babylonians. When they came in, there was a great slaughter. It wasn't all the Jews taking it to captivity, brethren. Not a lot of them were slaughtered for their wickedness. So just like I said, I'm going to pray for the abortion doctor to suffer the same fate that he's given the little children. God's saying he's doing the same thing in the times of Jeremiah. Verse number 34. Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of Merph. Merph, I had to look this up. Merph has the same, I think it's a Germanic root word, as Mary. So being merry, being joyful, being happy. So God's going to cease the voice of Merph or the voice of Mary, happiness. The voice of gladness. The voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. So the celebrations, the parties that go on, we've met weddings and things like that. For the land shall be desolate. God is saying this entire land is coming to a time when all joy, all celebrations will come to an end. Of course, that's with the Babylonians coming in. And as I started, brethren, we need to be a church that amends our ways. I love hearing the singing. I love these walls. Part of me doesn't like this building because it's quite narrow and we're kind of squashed in here. But for singing it sounds wonderful because it sounds like we're double the size or triple the size because of the walls, the echoing. So I can hear voices of singing, I can hear voices of joy as we praise God. And as I said, I want Blessed Hope Baptist Church to continue praising God until Jesus Christ returns back, brethren. But if we don't amend our ways, if we become a church that gets into sin, that is fine with wickedness in the church, if we don't kick out people with extreme wickedness, brethren, God can tell us one day, just like He told these people, that I'm going to cease the Merph, I'm going to cease the voice of gladness, I'm going to cease the celebrations, and Blessed Hope Baptist Church can become desolate. It can. Don't think that it cannot. It can. It can. This is a warning from the Word of God. It can become this way. Let us not be people that stiffen our necks. Let us be people that incline our ears, that pay attention. Let us be people that when the preacher gets behind the pulpit that they're preaching truth and not lies. We're not just saying, well, God's always going to be here even though we live in weakness and we preach lies. It's not going to happen. God's presence will leave this place and Blessed Hope Baptist Church will become desolate. I do not want that and I know you don't want that. So let's be people that amend our ways and we serve God with obedience and then we offer our sacrifices of praise to Him. Okay, let's pray.