Take your Bibles, open with me to Jeremiah 29, this is where we started last week and actually did only get through the first point and letter A from this chapter, so hopefully we'll be able to finish the chapter out this morning, but I do want to review just briefly from last week. Jeremiah here is writing a letter to those in exile, those who were taken in the first big raid against Jerusalem or against Judah in 597. There were those Nebuchadnezzar had sent to go and to attack and to take captives of thousands upon thousands of the rulers and the elders and the priests and the prophets and the best in the land. This letter was written then in 594, so just a little over two years into the beginning of that part of the captivity. What we talked about last week that was amazing was that all the false prophets were saying that it was only going to be two years and then Babylon was going to let them all go and they were all going to be restored. And as Jeremiah now is writing this letter to those in exile, he's writing to them and they've been there longer than two years. Now, what we notice, though, in the text is that the false prophets have not changed their message. They're still continuing to proclaim, it's just going to be two years. Now, the question that's asked there, how can they keep saying it's only going to be two years when it's already been longer than two years? Well, they're going to subvert or try to change the subject or try to talk around it because you see the last thing a false prophet can do is admit to being wrong. Because under Old Testament law, as soon as you were wrong once, that was it, you were done. There was not going to be an opportunity for anybody to listen to you ever again if it was only that easy to get rid of false teachers today, to mark them out and for people just to avoid them and for their ministries to wither and to die. But as they are there continuing in exile past a two-year mark, There is still yet to be another invasion, still eight years in the future, that's going to be when Nebuchadnezzar finally comes, builds the siege ramp and wipes Jerusalem completely out, destroys it from the inside out, destroys the temple and kills the rest of the people that have not already starved to death under this siege. While they're in exile though, this letter has been written by Jeremiah to tell those in exile how to live, how to continue on in their life. As we looked at it last week in the first nine verses, he tells them that if they're in exile as in exile, they need to live so as to be a blessing. Text there, now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken away into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King Jeconiah and the Queen Mother, the court officials, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, the smiths, had gone out from Jerusalem. The letter was sent by the hand of Elasa, the son of Shaphan of Gomariah, the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, saying, Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat their fruit, Take wives, and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters, and multiply there, and do not decrease. Seek the peace of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to Yahweh on its behalf, for in its peace you will have peace. For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, Do not let your prophets, who are in your midst and your diviners, deceive you, and do not listen to your dreams which you dream. For they prophesy a lie to you in my name, and I have not sent them, declares Yahweh." Quickly to review, they are to live in exile so as to build a life and to be a blessing. Now, it's something that we didn't touch on last week in the application of this to us living as exiles and sojourners and pilgrims in the world. And in preaching and listening again to the sermon last week and preparing to finish the chapter this week, it dawned on me what a picture of life in this world is presented to us in Jeremiah 29. You're going to be in captivity for 70 years. The whole time you're in that captivity, I've sent you off into exile to accomplish my purposes for the glory of my name, to refine you with my word, to prepare to bring you home where you're supposed to be with me. How do you live in the meantime? You build houses, you get married, you have children, be fruitful and multiply, promote the peace of the city where you are, and be attentive to listen to the truth. Do you see the picture of our life in this world right there? We are in exile as believers. This world is not our home. We don't belong here. We're waiting to return as Christ returns for us to bring us to be where He is. We have about 70 years, give or take, in this exile. What do we do in the midst of those 70 years? Build a life, get married and have children, promote the peace of the city, wherever you are, live to be a blessing. The question is asked, how can we be at home in this world? We can't. Our citizenship isn't here. Our citizenship is in heaven. Well, how do we live then? We live as homesick pilgrims. We live as sojourners, those who are on a journey, who are not where we are to be yet, but one day will arrive, and that day is when Christ calls us to be with Him, or when He comes back for us, and we are changed where we stand. This is how we live in exile. We work to promote the peace of the people around us. Again, we defined it last week, promoting peace is not the same thing as being tolerant, because you'll find out the people who preach tolerance are the most intolerant people in the world. But we promote genuine peace. How do we do that? Well, you can't have peace with one another if you don't have peace with God. That means our means to promote peace is not just going along and getting along in the community where we are. It's that we are salt and light in that community. And that means whether we go to the mission field, we understand the mission field has come to us. This is the great news about the world in which we live and the technology that we have today. People are so upset in our nation about immigration worldwide. And you know what the church should say? We don't have to be funded to go to the mission field to get to them. God's bringing them here. Not that we don't still send missionaries and go to get the gospel out where it still needs to go and still hasn't been. But as we go to preach the gospel, we can't miss the fact that God is bringing the mission field to us. And for the most part, they speak English. And for the most part, they speak it better than we do. Here they come. We have a mission field. People are upset about what kinds of people and from what nationalities and what religions are coming. And I saw a lot of outcry this week about pluralism and this multicultural push even at the top of our government. Somebody was complaining that the new director of the FBI was sworn in by placing his hand on the Bhagavad Gita instead of a Bible. Well, he's not a Christian and we're not a Christian nation. Why should that matter? Honestly, because most people who are putting their hand on the Bible probably shouldn't be touching it unless they're open to read and obey it. What that means is that God is bringing people here and putting them in positions of prominence who need the gospel. And guess what? God has people in the same land under exile who know the gospel. This is how the kingdom grows and how the kingdom spreads. We infiltrate the world, not as conquerors, not as knights in shining armor. I almost wanted to sing onward Christian soldiers, but we have to define that now. Because what we're marching for is the gospel. What we're marching to proclaim is the gospel. What we're doing is not going to conquer the enemies of God. We're going to see them converted, to bring them to peace with God. And even if they don't, if we promote the peace of where we are, that's going to be better for us anyway, but we need to be promoting a true biblical peace. We need to remember that we are exiles here. We also need to understand that while we're in exile here, just like they were there, there were false prophets in the midst. They were the people of God. They were put into captivity. The ones that were taken into captivity, remember, were called the good figs, not the bad figs. By God's sovereign choice, they were actually spared being destroyed with the city of Jerusalem. But along with them went priests who weren't preaching the truth and went prophets, weren't prophets, who were lying, just outright lying, not prophesying for God by any stretch, telling the people absolute lies. Verse 9, they prophesy a lie to you in my name. I have not sent them. We have to beware of false prophets and false teachers. They abound. The way we do that, Martin Lloyd Jones says, is we don't just listen for unsound doctrine, but we look for unsound living. You know, it's easy to sound okay all the while you have a hidden life. Isn't that how most scandals in the church come about? That somebody grows a big following and they grow a church, and it seems to be mostly gospel-based, and it seems to be accomplishing great things, and then there's some scandal and some sin that's revealed, and it's not a sudden sin. It turns out to have been something that was there for years but was hidden. Now see, what we've done in the evangelical church is we've crafted it so that you don't know your pastors, and you can't test your pastors, and you don't see them in their day-to-day life. You only see them in the pulpit, and rarely you ever get to talk to them or address them. And then when the scandal comes out, everybody says, we didn't know. That's because nobody knew because there was no accountability. Jesus teaches the shepherds need to be among the sheep. We need to know each other. Your way to test what you're hearing is not just to test the truthfulness of the words and the doctrine and the teaching, but to see that those who are preaching to you have a life to back up the reality that they believe what they're saying. Martin Lloyd-Jones says we have to realize that good doctrine produces good fruit. And so even if it sounds like good doctrine, if what's being produced is bad fruit, somewhere there's something rotten in what's being believed and preached by those teachers. The point is, you can preach the truth and not believe it, can't you? You can sit in the pew and think you believe and not. How do we know this? Most frightening verses in the Bible. Many will say to me, Lord, Lord, and I will say, depart from me. I never knew you. James White addressed this in a sermon he actually preached last night on worldview. I need to send you out a link. He was preaching on the importance of a Christian worldview in the world today because there are actually some in the Reformed world now who are saying that we don't need to be discussing worldviews. That's all just philosophical. We need to be preaching and living and working in our minds through that grid of a biblical worldview. We can't adopt the thinking of the world. If we do that, while what we say might sound true, the motive behind it is not biblical. And this is as fine a point as the lesson in Sunday school this morning, that we can pray for the right thing, but if we pray for the right thing with the wrong motive, God will not answer that prayer. because the motive needs to match the mind. What our heart wants and what our mind wants ought to be what's coming out of our lips. There ought to be unity in what we believe. And if we're really believing the truth, it will produce good fruit. If we're not believing it and just using the gospel for gain or just preaching to draw a crowd. And by the way, I've learned something in years and years of ministry. If you want to draw a crowd, don't preach the gospel to them. It doesn't work that way, hardly ever. Sometimes there's exceptions, but usually not. We preach the truth, we live the truth, and if we see a disconnect between the two, we need to be careful who we're listening to. There were false prophets. Now, they weren't called false prophets, they were just called prophets. They were taken into exile. Well, they're God's people with us, and we're all suffering under the same hand of the Babylonians, and they're pointing us to God, and they're giving us messages from God. Praise God for these prophets who are assuring us and giving us peace and comfort from the Word of God. But what they missed was they were preaching and prophesying a lie. It wasn't true. And we're going to see several of them actually get called out by name. I love it that the Scripture calls false prophets out and false teachers out by name. You realize Paul names eight people in the New Testament that all strayed from the faith and caused harm to the gospel and to his ministry. And he named them in letters to the churches. to say, watch out for these people, these wolves in sheep's clothing. They're ravenous, dangerous wolves. We have to be warned about this, and this is what God does through Jeremiah. He names names. Now he starts verses 10 through 14 and he tells them, if you live so as to be a blessing, build your life as a sojourner, be fruitful and multiply, promote peace, listen to and discern the truth, then he says you're going to have a future and a hope. Verse 10, For thus says Yahweh, When seventy years have been fulfilled for Babylon, I will visit you and establish My good word to you to return you to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you, declares Yahweh, plans for peace and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares Yahweh, and I will return your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have banished you, declares Yahweh, and I will cause you to return to the place from where I sent you into exile." God says, if you do what I'm telling you to do, even while living a life in exile, You have a reason to be sure of your future and it's a future full of hope. I'm going to bring you back. I'm going to return you to the land. Now we have to be careful how we define these terms because we understand that there were some who were taken into captivity who died in captivity. They didn't come back. Some of them were godly people. Daniel was taken into captivity as a young man. And he, through reading the letter that Jeremiah wrote to the exiles, came to understand it was going to be 70 years and began to preach and to teach and encourage the people that it was going to be 70 years, that that time was almost up, that they were going to return home. But he never made it. He, at that point, would have been well over 85, almost 90 years of age, it's believed, and he died in captivity. Well, did Daniel not have a future and a hope? I almost think that Daniel had a better future and a better hope than those who went back to Jerusalem because he went to glory. Those who went back to Jerusalem, they just got the earthly version of these things. And when they did return, They had to go and build the wall, and they had to build the temple, and they faced persecution and opposition, and they got lazy, and they got greedy, and they stopped building. That's what the whole letter of Haggai is about. The people stopped. They just stopped building the temple of God and actually started stealing the stuff that was given to build the temple and took it home and built their own homes with it. There was a delay of 11 years in building that temple. And Haggai came on the scene and said, tear your houses down and put it back together like it's supposed to be. Build the temple. Why have you waited so long? You're neglecting service to your God. After 70 years of captivity in exile, when they get to come home and rebuild it all and start over within just a matter of two years, they dropped it and let it go and stopped and quit and started doing other things. Those poor Israelites, those poor people of Judah, boy, they were thick, weren't they? You think we would have been any different? No, this is the story. Thankfully, our relationship with God is not based on what we do for Him. It's based on what Christ has done, the work that He has finished. And that ultimately is the promise. He says, I know the plans I have for you, declares Yahweh, plans for peace and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope. And we have to take this and we have to understand that this verse in context is not just a promise to return and rebuild Jerusalem. It's not just a promise to return and rebuild the temple and reinstitute the worship of God and the sacrificial system. No, this is a promise beyond that. It's a promise that you've been returned from exile so that a line can be preserved so that soon the Messiah will be born in the line of David to sit on the throne forever. That is the future and a hope. This verse gets so mistreated, especially around graduation time. I know the plans I have for you, declares Yahweh, plans for peace and not calamity to give you a future and a hope. Stop it. Apply it in context. What's the context? This is a promise about Jesus. This is a promise of the future and the hope and the peace that we have because Christ is coming. He's coming and He's going to be born. Now, if we want to tie Daniel into that, by the way, what was Daniel doing for those years in captivity? He was interpreting dreams. He was influencing those who were ruling the known world at the time. He had the ear of the most powerful kings in the world. And as he talked to them and preached to them about the truth of a sovereign God who was controlling all of history for his purposes, he was also raising up under him wise men who served the court. They got rid of the astrologers and the astronomers and those who were looking to the heavens for signs, and they learned to look for the truth. You realize that it was men trained by Daniel who taught generation after generation after generation until one day a group of those men were waiting and watching and they saw a star appear in the east. and they knew what it meant. How did those wise men from Persia, how did they know what that star meant? Because Daniel had been sent into exile and he taught the wise men how to look for the coming of the promised king. So that when they showed up and asked Herod, where is he who's been born king of the Jews? Herod said, that's me. No, no, no, no. This is bigger than you. We've seen his star. And Herod immediately, Herod knew what he had to do. He had to find this new king and kill him to preserve what he thought was his power. No, Christ coming, this is the promise and the fulfillment of this. This isn't just the plans in the future that I have for you, Judah, my people. This is the plans that I have through you for peace and not calamity. Peace with who? The world? No, we're never going to have peace with the world. Peace with God. This is the promise of Emmanuel, God with us. and talk about a future, think about how old you turned your last birthday. You don't have to say it out loud, no testimonies. How old did you turn your last birthday? Now, do you realize that whatever that age is, you're just getting started? You're that age going on eternity. You can't die. Now, we might conduct your funeral, but you won't be dead. You would have put off this body for a time, but Jesus said, if you believe Me, I'm the resurrection and the life. If you believe in Me, even if you die, you live. This is the promise of a future and a hope. The worst that death can do, John MacArthur says, is open the door to Jesus. We need to be of that mindset, don't we? We hang on, I'll be honest, we hang on to this world much too tightly. And I think it's because, first, we don't truly believe what's coming in the world to come, or there are doubts, oh, it's the unknown. If a believer ever tells you that the next life, the afterlife, that it's unknown, just throw your Bible at them. Just, the bigger, the better. Tell them, pick it up and read it. We know what's coming. We're told what's coming. and we're told to want it, to yearn for it, to long for it. He says, then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me and I will listen to you. This is the promise given to us by Christ throughout the Scriptures about the hope of coming to God and that hope being rewarded. In Jeremiah 31, in the chapter where we're introduced to the New Covenant, there is hope for your future, declares Yahweh, and your children will return to their own territory. In Psalm 23, 18, surely there is a future and your hope will not be cut off. Proverbs 24, 14, know that wisdom is thus for your soul. If you find it, then there will be a future and your hope will not be cut off. Romans 8, 18 reminds us, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us. Do we believe it? 2 Timothy 4.8 says, And here's the great news. The great news is not, yay, I get a crown, yay, you get a crown, crowns for everybody. You know what you're going to do with that crown. You know exactly what you're going to do with that crown. We sing about it. Crown Him with many crowns. And you know in the picture in Revelation when Christ comes and He appears on the white horse with the sword of the Word of God coming out of His mouth, it says, on His head were many crowns. Where do you get those crowns? All of those who have gone before us who received the crown of righteousness, they've thrown it back to Him. He's picked it up and He says, I'll wear this one for you. Now, why can He wear the crowns? Because He's the one who earned the crown. Ultimately, He's the one who's done the work, who's done what was necessary so that we might receive a crown just so that we might throw it back at His feet in praise to His name. The result then is inspired by that hope for a future and for peace We need to come to Him. We need to call on Him. We need to pray. We need to seek His face. That's what He says in verse 12, If you call upon Me and come and pray to Me, I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares Yahweh, and I will return your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have banished you, declares Yahweh, and I will cause you to return to the place from where I sent you into exile. We are called to call, to come, to pray, and to seek, to do this with all of our heart. And He says, then you will find Me, and you will be found by Me. To say that I will return you, that's the phrase that means literally, you will find Me, and in finding Me, I will have found you. Understand the way that works. If He doesn't find you first, you'll never find Him. He comes to seek and to say that which is lost. We love Him because He first loved us. All of this is initiated by Him with a promise of hope. Now in verses 15 through 20, the letter addresses the bad figs, those who were left behind and those who were misleading the people. He says, "...because you have said, Yahweh has raised up prophets for us in Babylon. For thus says Yahweh concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who live in this city, your brothers who did not go with you into exile. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, Behold, I am sending upon them the sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like split-open figs that cannot be eaten due to the rottenness. I will pursue them with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, and I will give them over to be a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse and an object of horror and of hissing and a reproach among all the nations where I have banished them." This, as the word of God is continuing to come, you remember the vision of the figs. The good figs were those taken into captivity because they were spared. The bad figs were left because they were going to be destroyed. And the only difference is that they were both sinful people, but God chose to be merciful to one and to judge the other. He says in verse 19, because they have not listened to my words, declares Yahweh, which I sent to them by my slaves, the prophets rising up early and sending. But you did not listen, declares Yahweh. You therefore hear the word of Yahweh, all you exiles whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon. He says there are false prophets with the people in exile who are telling them a lie. There's false hope for those who are still in Jerusalem because they think those others are going to be sent home within two years. It's all going to be okay. And look, we didn't get taken. You understand it was those who were left behind who were going to suffer even worse than those that were taken into exile. And all of this because God says to them, you did not listen. You didn't listen to my prophets. You didn't listen to my word. You didn't listen to what I was saying. And we need to pay attention to this because we also read in the book of Amos, that God says that part of judgment on any nation is that there will be a famine in that nation, and not a famine of food. It's described as a famine from hearing the Word of the Lord. You won't be able to hear the Word of the Lord. It will be hard to find. Now let me ask, some of you have been searching for a church for a while, and what you were searching for was a church that was preaching the truth. And has it not been your experience that those are far and few between? Those might take a little bit of a drive. Those are hard to find, and when you do find them, they're probably small and out of the way. What is God doing? He's judging our nation. Understand, we can rejoice in elections and in exposing corruption, but that does not change the truth that our nation is still under the judgment of God. There may be drops of mercy and drops of revival within that judgment, but our nation is still under judgment. And one of the evidences of that judgment is God says, when I judge a nation, there will be a famine for hearing the word of the Lord. Pray for those preachers you know who are preaching the truth because it is not outside of God's ability to shut down good churches, to shut up good preachers. Something that I struggled in understanding early in my ministry is that several of the most godly men who impacted me the greatest with their preaching and with their walk with God died suddenly. One, Delf Eisenfeld, 46 years of age, died with an aggressive brain tumor. They discovered he had a brain tumor and within less than a year he was dead. And I struggled with that because it was like, he's a godly man. He's preaching. He's preaching the truth. Churches are actually experiencing genuine revival with his ministry. God, why would you take him? Because as we say, our nation is under judgment. Please understand that does not excuse us because where does judgment begin? It begins at the house of God. And part of that judgment at time is to take those who are preaching the truth and to remove them, to silence them. Does that stop the truth? Does that stop the gospel? Absolutely not. But what would be the reason for God to do that? I think Leonard Raven helped me understand this. He said, you can preach the truth and preach the truth and preach the truth, but if the people of God won't listen to the truth, then finally God will stop talking to them. And that judgment will begin at the house of God, and it begins with a famine to hear the Word of God. Now, this at the same time gives me hope because there are churches that we know, that we fellowship with, that we talk to, pastors that we listen to, that are preaching the truth. It's not a complete famine. There are still those outposts out there. You have to understand though, James White mentioned it again last night. He said you have to understand that even in those of our churches where the truth is being boldly and rightly preached, how many in those churches, in those chairs, in those pews could you sit down with and ask a few basic simple questions about the gospel and you wouldn't be able to get an answer? because we understand that even though we would hope and that we would pray that everyone here has been born again, we know we're not all. People say, why do you preach the gospel so much? Because the gospel is all I have to preach. Well, if people are saved, they don't need the gospel. If they're saved, they need the gospel even more, because now they understand it. And now they understand the implications of that gospel, not just that it saved them, but that daily it empowers us to live as we ought to live. We preach Christ crucified. We preach Christ crucified. That is our hope every day. What do we do every day? Every day, Martin Luther said, the believer must begin by repenting and believing. That doesn't mean you get saved again every morning, but it's a nice start to remember, I'm a sinner and I need God's grace today. Repent and believe again as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. There is a danger of not listening. There is a danger of not hearing. There is a danger of the word being closed up. And that means that we need to be even the more bold to proclaim it as long as God gives us grace to do so. He now names two false prophets in verses 21-23. Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Coliah, and concerning Zedekiah the son of Messiah, who are prophesying to you falsely in my name. Behold, I will give them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will strike them down before your eyes. And because of them, a curse will be used by all the exiles from Judah who are in Babylon, saying, May Yahweh make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire, because they have acted with wicked foolishness in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives, and have spoken words in my name falsely, which I did not command them. And I am he who knows, and am a witness, declares Yahweh. two false prophets named Ahab and Zedekiah. They are prophesying falsely, God says, in My name. And the result is, I'm going to turn over to Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadnezzar is going to kill them in front of your eyes. You're going to see it. Now, in studying, something jumped out in verse 22. How did Nebuchadnezzar kill them? He put them in the fiery furnace. You understand that fiery furnace was not first ever lit up for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They would have gathered all the time to seen heretics, those who were enslaved, those who were false prophets, those who weren't prophesying according to the gods of Babylon, who were being sacrificed to the gods of Babylon in that fiery furnace. God took them out. They were roasted to death in the fire because they acted with wicked foolishness in Israel. Here's what they did. They spoke words in my name falsely, which I did not command them. And he says, they committed adultery with their neighbors' wives. There it is. They claim to be speaking for God, but they are living in absolute known sin. Everybody knows the scandal. And they claim to be prophets, and they claim to speak for God, but God outs them. He calls them by name in this message from Jeremiah to the exiles. And this is what's amazing. Jeremiah is telling this to the exiles, this is not news to the exiles. They know who Ahab and Zedekiah are. They've listened to them. They'd probably send them a thousand dollars hoping to get out of captivity and be sent home. They knew who these guys were. They knew that they were living in sin, but they claim to speak for God, and they're telling us what we want to hear. If you ever do come across a preacher you haven't heard before, and he's saying things that you want to hear, first, I hope that you're wanting to hear right things, but continue to listen. It's happened multiple times through my life that I'll come across a ministry or a ministry that I was not aware of, and I'll start to listen. It's like, boy, this guy sounds really good. This preaching is right. Uh-oh. What did he just say? Oops. Because for the false preaching to work, there has to be enough of the truth subverted then by the lie. It's to the point that God says, they are cursed because I'm cursing them and I'm going to make their name a curse. He says in verse 22, "...because of them a curse will be used by all the exiles from Judah who are in Babylon." Meaning, it got to the point that when they were exposed and they were killed, then people would curse one another with this. May Yahweh make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab. Can you imagine being cursed and then your name being used as a curse? You would say, oh, I would hate it if I turned out to be like that. Well, keep listening to the lies. Keep denying the truth, stop examining the fruit, and you're in danger. You're in danger of being a curse and becoming a curse. Here they were living like this. Paul addressed the same thing in the church at Corinth. He says in 1 Corinthians 5, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I did not at all mean with the sexually immoral people of this world or with the greedy and swindlers or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But now I'm writing to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is a sexually immoral person, or greedy, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler, not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Are you not to judge those who are within the church, but those who are outside God will judge? Remove the wicked man from among yourselves. I actually saw a comment from this in reading, and it was the point that you see, we're not, as the church, we're not supposed to associate with any so-called brother who is persisting in sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, reviling, drunkenness, or being a swindler. Not even to eat with such a person, not to have fellowship with such a person. And somebody commented to that, and they said, wow, do you realize that we're not supposed to be having fellowship in the church with anybody else in the church who does all of these things, and yet this is what we go to be entertained by every day. I mean, it's not a good story if you don't have these elements in it, right? The book, the movie, the TV show. We revel in sin. The Bible says if a believer is accused of doing these things, living in these ways, don't even have fellowship with them anymore. You need to be inspecting the fruit and being careful. And that's what God is telling His people. There are prophets, but they're prophesying to you falsely. You know the sin that's in their lives. They're going to be cursed and their name is going to become a curse. And they were put to death by Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah then has a very specific controversy with one person, Shemaiah, in verses 24 through 28. To Shemaiah, the Nehalemite, you shall speak, saying, Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, because you have sent letters in your own name to all the people who are in Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah, the son of Messiah, the priest, and to all the priests, saying, Yahweh has given you to be a priest instead of Jehoiada, the priest, to be the overseer in the house of Yahweh over every madman who prophesies, to put him in the stocks and in the iron collar. So now, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anatoth, who prophesies to you? for he hath sent to us in Babylon, saying, The exile will be long. Build houses, and live in them, and plant gardens, and eat their fruit." Somebody hears Jeremiah's letter, and they give him a bad Google review. Jeremiah, what are you doing telling people you're going to be there a long time? The people don't want to hear that, and yet that's what you're telling them. But that's not the truth. We have other prophets who have said so. And so Shemiah here responds. He's another one of these prophets. And the response for him is to say that God has sent me to rebuke Jeremiah because he is saying things that aren't true. And so, Shemaiah basically says, I've been called by God to be an overseer in the house of Yahweh over every madman who prophesies to put him in the stocks and in the iron collar. He refers to Jeremiah as somebody who is out of control. Here's what that sounds like. That sounds like when a man is faithfully preaching the Word of God and somebody takes issue with him faithfully preaching the Word of God because he won't give that other person a platform to teach what they want to teach, and so immediately that good pastor becomes a cult leader. I don't know if y'all know this, but did y'all know y'all are a member of a cult? And I am your leader. Right. Sure. We've been accused of that multiple times in ministry, in multiple churches. You're just a cult leader. You're just a cult leader. If I am, I'm not a very good cult leader. I have a little tiny following, praise God. I don't want a big following. I've seen what happens. But that's the accusation. He's a madman. Literally, Jeremiah is out of control. And so Shemaiah writes a letter back to the people in Jerusalem and says, why haven't you rebuked him? Why haven't you arrested him? Why haven't you stopped Jeremiah from doing this? Specifically because of what he is preaching and what he's doing. Put him in bondage. Don't let him do this. This is a common thing in 2 Kings 9, now Jehu came out of the servants of his master and one said to him, is all well, why did this mad fellow come to you? Referring to Elisha. And he said to them, you know the man and his talk. Prophets being called madmen, nothing new under the sun. Hosea 9, 7, the days of punishment have come. The days of recompense have come. Let Israel know this. The prophet is an ignorant fool. The inspired man has madness because of the abundance of your iniquity and because of your hostility, which has abounded. calling prophets madmen, saying that they're out of control. And this is what's always amazing to me. Those who scream about the preaching of the truth, they really are just concerned with the words that are being said, aren't they? It's rare that you see a church attacked for its ministry, for what it does to serve. The attack is always aimed at what's being taught, what's being preached, what's being proclaimed to try to shut that preaching down. That's why when the disciples were told in the book of Acts to stop preaching in the name of Jesus, so they were threatened with prison, they immediately, immediately started a Facebook protest page and had everybody sign a petition. Tell them they can't arrest us. No, what did they say? They didn't even say pray for us because we're about to suffer. You know what they said? Pray that we would be bold. If they're going to tell us it's going to cost to preach the truth, then pray that God would give us boldness so that we will be bold, we will preach, and we will suffer, and that then we will rejoice that we've been seen fit to partake in the sufferings of Christ. Sometimes we're allergic to suffering when suffering is the very will of God for us. Jeremiah does refute Shemiah back. He actually responds to Shemiah's letter. So Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the hearing of Jeremiah the prophet. Then came the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah saying, send to all the exiles. So this letter response to Shemiah was not just sent to Shemiah. He sent another letter to everybody. Thus says Yahweh concerning Shemaiah the Nehilimite. Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, although I did not send him, and he has made you trust in a lie, therefore thus says Yahweh, behold, I am about to punish Shemaiah the Nehilimite and his seed. He will not have anyone living among this people, and he will not see the good that I am about to do to my people, declares Yahweh, because he has spoken rebellion against Yahweh. The letter back marks Shemaiah. It tells the people God did not send Him. Not only did God not send Him, He is lying to you. And in those lies, He is rebelling against God. You see, Shemaiah had heard the truth. How do we know that? He knew what Jeremiah had said. He knew what God had said through Jeremiah, but he stood up to try to argue. It is never wise to try to argue with God's Word. Whether or not you want to argue with a preacher, that's up to you. But don't argue with the Word of God. By the way, if you come across a preacher who likes to argue, you need to leave him alone too, because the marks of maturity are that elders are not quarrelsome. If they love to argue, and I've had people, I just love to debate. Again, saw a friend posted a picture at his local coffee shop. I don't know if this was real or not. It looked real. and a post of a thing stuck on the door going out to the patio at a coffee shop. And it said, and this was posted this week, due to recent events, theology books are not allowed on the porch. I'm thinking, what kind of argument happened out there? Apparently they needed stronger coffee or something, I don't know. If all people want to do it. Now, is there a time to stand up and to offer an answer for the hope that's in us? Yes. Is there a time to debate? Yes. But the purpose of debate and apologetics ultimately is evangelism, not debate for debate's sake. If you like to quarrel, something's wrong. Well, here, God warns. I didn't send him. He's lying to you. And he's rebelling against God. Why? Because he's fighting against the word of God. And he says it doesn't matter that he's fighting against Jeremiah. That's not the point. The fact is he's fighting against the Word of God. Jeremiah is inconsequential to this discussion. He's the conduit for the message of God. And Shammai, if you have a problem with this, your problem is not with Jeremiah as a person or a prophet, your problem is with the Word of God itself. And if you will not submit to that Word, what else can you be but a rebel? So the decree then is, he and his seed will die and not see the good that has been promised. That future and that hope, it's not going to be extended to Shemaiah because he's lying and rebelling against God. We need to keep in mind, by the way, in our daily lives, that if we know that the Word of God tells us to do something and we don't do it, Not only is that sin, that's rebellion. We're rebelling against the Word of our King and our Savior. If He tells us to do something, we should gladly and joyfully and eagerly do it, to be obedient to Him. That's what God says, isn't it? I desire obedience rather than sacrifice. Some people would rather sacrifice. I'd rather give up a whole lot for God. Actually, you know, God doesn't want you to give up this and that. You know what He wants you to give up, don't you? Yourself. A living sacrifice daily. Give yourself up to Him. But understand, you're not giving up so you can get from. He got you, so now you give up. And now He empowers you to walk and to live in obedience. Walter Kaiser said of this chapter in conclusion, he said, "...many today think that laypersons or clergy who announce that we must turn back to God in repentance, or that we and our nation are in harm's way, are likewise crazy and out of our minds. But God has said that we must not be suddenly persuaded to say what the masses wish to hear. God's word remains true even when others do not like it." Preaching and teaching and witnessing, serving as an apologist and an evangelist, these are not popularity contests. This is not how to win friends and influence people. This is how to work as an ambassador, a spokesperson from another kingdom. in exile in this world. And again, we don't come as knights to conquer. We come as ministers of reconciliation. We come and we preach the gospel of the kingdom. And as we preach the gospel of the kingdom, we see the sheep brought into the fold. Is everyone going to turn? No. But there will be those who do. God is the one who gives the increase. Our job is to sow the seed. to be faithful, to preach the Word of God, and to live it, even and especially when others don't like it. Our job is not to please men. It is to please God. How do we please Him? By being faithful. Be faithful to live His Word, to obey His Word, to share His Word, to preach His Word, to live His Word, to apply His Word, to memorize His Word, to meditate on His Word. What a glorious thing it is that He's given us His Word. That's how we know how to live as exiles here. This world is not our home. We're looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. And we pray for Christ to come back knowing that when he does, we'll be with him from then on forever. Even so come Lord Jesus. Let's pray together. Father, we do thank you this morning for the promises of your word. for the hope that we've been given in Christ, for the provision that's been made for our future. Not just a future here on this earth, but a future in the new heavens and the new earth because of the finished work of Christ. Father, I pray that you would, by your Spirit, aid us so that we might be on guard, so that we might listen for the sound of your word and support those who are preaching it. At the same time, we confess and we understand that there is a famine for hearing the word of the Lord in our own land. We pray for those who are faithfully preaching that by your grace, you would allow your word to be heard and believed and obeyed. Father, we also confess the sins of our nation. We pray for revival. We pray for drops of mercy. But ultimately, we pray for the glory of your name. We pray that you would glorify yourself in the salvation of sinners and also that you would glorify yourself in the judgment of our nation. That you would demonstrate for the world to see that you are God and there is none other. We pray these things in Jesus' precious name. Amen.