Thank you, brother. Miss Pat. Blessed Jesus. Blessed Jesus. What a friend we have in Jesus. Amen, Carolyn. When everybody let us down, he's always faithful. Amen. All right, anybody have any questions you wanna ask? We've been doing our best to bring this up again and again. We don't want you to walk through this book and have questions that you don't ask. You wonder what it might be talking about or why he said it this way or what he's doing in this. And we might not be able to answer it directly right now, but I will commit to try to find some solutions, some help, a blessing that would encourage you in the truth, in the truth. That's what we wanna stand on, the truth in Christ. It's obvious they wasn't standing on the truth. Now they thought they were, but they were believing too many lies and they liked it that way, the scripture says. So anything, anything you wanna ask, anything you wanna give away out of this in our time. I encourage you to meditate upon it. It is so, so such a very vivid reality to right where we are right now. Right where we are right now. I wanna tell you, if God, if they had Facebook and Instagram and all that stuff going on, he would have some words to say about it, I guarantee you. He would, on the things that people share and the things that people do, and you think, oh my Lord, don't distort your witness, you know? Because you're just discrediting the glory of God when you do that. or say that, or share that, or partner with somebody in that situation. He'd be talking about it, Brother Shannon. I'm telling you, Jeremiah would have been hitting it as thus saith the Lord. Chapter four, chapter four. Chapter 4.18, he says, Your ways and your doings have procured, purchased these things for you. The wages of sin is what? Death. This is your wickedness because it is bitter because it reaches to your heart. It's saying, this is what you've done, you've reaping the consequences of that. He's already said the same thing. Look at the end of chapter number, it's not the end, but in chapter two, verse 19. Chapter two, verse 19, when he says, your own wickedness will correct you and your own backslidings are gonna rebuke you. Things you've done are going to whoop you. the actions you've taken, the things that you've done, it's gonna turn around to bite you. And it's gonna be bitter, it's gonna be difficult, it's gonna be hard, but you've done this to yourself, is what he was saying. You've done, not only has God brought things in his chase and in love toward them, but they are reaping consequences that they had sown, and now it's a bitter thing to them, that they can't get away from. We talked about that before. We reap what we sow. You can be forgiven and still reap what you've sown. Now, thank God we don't reap everything we've sown in the sense that God is able to turn back things. He can change that, but only He can. We can't alter what's been planted. But see, He can alter that. He can, and He does. But in this case, they kept, what, pushing back at him, so as a result, what was coming to them was consequences of their own actions. And as a result, it was gonna be a very difficult thing, but they wasn't even seeking forgiveness. So not only were they not right with God, but they were receiving that which was not right that they'd done themselves. The Bible says, if you sow to the flesh, you shall of the flesh reap corruption. But if you sow to the spirit, of the spirit, you reap life, everlasting life. And you have to endure in that. You gotta keep sowing. Ecclesiastes helps us, says, look, good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. And just the same. It's general. Common things come to common people, but there are things we've done that will create trouble for us, and they're our own doings. It's not like we've done what was right, and then God gave us bad for it. No, we receive what we've done. in the consequences of it. Now, he could forgive in that. That's why he tells in Hosea. Hosea goes along with all this, because Hosea was a prophet to the northern 10 tribes Israel, which was that picture of him marrying the prostitute, and she was gonna go right back to what she was doing, and God would keep showing her the love that he did, and eventually, she'll go from just being consequences of the job of a prostitute, that she'll realize Hosea really loves her. Just like Israel's gonna come to a day when they're gonna realize God really loved us. And he proved that love when he came and took upon flesh and died for us. And that's why we see and hear. You see how God keeps bringing up that idea that I'm married to you? Remember, God had a perpetual law that if you entered into marriage, the only way to be broken from that marriage is death. Nothing can break that. You could divorce and remarry but you commit adultery in that remarriage and if you left your spouse or divorced your spouse and they marry, they commit adultery and you was part of that. Can't get away from it. Now that doesn't send people to hell. The only thing that sends people to hell is what? Rejecting Jesus. Because that's a sin just like any other sin is and the wages of sin, even the single sin is what? death. So God made a perpetual deal that just like he was married to Israel and even though Israel went off and committed adultery and married another God told him in his Old Testament law if that happened instead of filling the land up with defilement abominations you couldn't go back and remarry the first person. Because it just, what would happen, people in their folly would say, well, I don't want this wife, put her out, she goes marry another. He said, well, I want her back. And then they take marriage lightly in that sense. So God set up laws of where they couldn't do that. But remember, the law was added because of their what? Wickedness. Not because they were good people, it was added. And he brings this out in Jeremiah. He said, did I tell you to bring sacrifices to me when I delivered you from Egypt? Mm-mm, the law came in after the fact to reveal that you were way wrong with me. Now, in the New Testament, I'll give you this little tidbit here in the New Testament when it comes to this idea of marriage, when he says, people use it as an exception clause. He says, if you divorce your spouse except for immorality, let's say adultery, you cause that spouse to commit adultery. And people say well that's the only excuse God gives for marriage but that's not an excuse. That person's already committed adultery. So you can't make them commit adultery again, they've already committed it. So he's not giving them an escape clause, he's basically saying God never intended that way. God's always said what? What comes together is to what? Well, that don't always happen. We got divorced folks sitting right here today. The thing is, is that we all need Jesus. That's the thing. Everybody needs Jesus. Not just for a divorce, not for fornication in a heterosexual relationship, or not in immorality in a homosexual relationship. Both, everybody needs who? Jesus, Jesus, that's the whole point. We all need Jesus. But same way with God. He says, it's unheard of if a man takes his wife back, but I'm pleading with you, I'm married unto you. Why? Because God sticks to his covenant promises. You are bound to me. You are bound to me and I'm bound to you. That's why I'm giving my life up to rescue you and that's important for us to remember. That's why marriage is such a biblical picture of the gospel. Why is A marriage that is rightly related to the truth, to the scriptures, a marriage that rightly relates to God's love and his laying his life down for his bride to cleanse and make her whole through his own life. So marriage is a gospel issue. That's why we wanna protect marriage. Why we say a lot about marriage. Why the scripture highlights many things about marriage. But we always go back to God's faithful, ain't he? He's faithful and true. And whether you've been through a divorce or you have not been through a divorce, You need Jesus. Everybody needs Jesus. And the God's people said, everybody needs Jesus. It ain't the end all, end all. We know that, you know that, you've experienced that. God is able to do something wonderful out of something that didn't turn out wonderful. Are you with me? He's able to do that. That's why we put our confidence and trust with him. And that's with every aspect of life. Our mess ups don't have to, messes up, that's right, that's right. They can become a living message of the redeeming work of the grace of God. So yes, this is what was happening. What was the main problem? Chapter two tells us, and he's been telling us again and again and again in different ways. Look in verse number 13, this was the problem. And you've been picking this up if you've been reading through it. He's been saying this again and again. He's just using different terms on it. Things like my word has become a reproach to them, something they don't delight in. They rejected my word. This is how this all took place. Verse 13, for my people have committed two evils, two bad things, two fallen things, two useless things. What is it? They have forsaken me. The Lord, the fountain of living, life-giving, life-sustaining, life-needed water. God is our source of life. They rejected that. They forsook that. And what did they do when they forsook him? They had to have some kind of water to survive, so they hewn out for themselves what? broken cisterns that wouldn't contain water. On my ride back from Shreveport, I was noticing as you get between Monroe and Vicksburg, y'all have all been on that path there before, you know, those cornfields they got planted along in them flats. As you go there, they've got ponds, dug out water holes. What are those water holes for? They are to collect that water, all that drainage water, all that to come there. And then they've got their watering devices there at the water hose to pull up, to pipe that water in, water all that land out there. And those water holes is what we would consider in our day, like an old time cistern back in that day. They didn't have flat ground like we had. They couldn't collect it that away. So they would build these rock cisterns and funnel the water into it. And then that rock system would hold it like a pond. But what does stagnant water do? Stagnant water will kill you. Stagnant water is filled with what, bacteria? It's filled with waste. It's got all those things in it. And he's saying, you forsook a fountain, a fountain that's flowing from a spring of life. You don't have to, you can just dip your bucket down in it and drink from it fresh. It's life-giving water. But that old cistern water, That old stagnant water, you drink it without balling that water, purifying that water, there's a good chance you're gonna be sick. How many of you ever been out of country and they tell you don't drink the water in these places? Water's contaminated, make you sick, you're not used to it. They can drink it because they've drunk it all their life, but you can't drink it. And God was teaching his people that from the very beginning. Look, when you enter this land and you go wherever you go, don't drink the water of the people. because the water of the people is gonna poison you, it's gonna contaminate you. Where does he say that at? Look in Deuteronomy 12. Deuteronomy 12. Now, he's not talking about water here, he's talking about his word, his life as being as living water unto us, the source of our life, drinking from that wisdom and that well. Deuteronomy 12. Deuteronomy 12. Everything we see wrong, looking about verse number 29, Deuteronomy 12, 29. Everything we see wrong going on with Jerusalem and Judah right now is a reflection of those two things. What did they do? They rejected God and they went to other sources. They rejected him and they went to other sources. That's gonna create trouble for them, Brother Shannon. That's the part of the whooping that is coming. Verse 29. Deuteronomy 12, 29. When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess and you displace them and you dwell in their land. Verse 30, take heed. Remember what we said that means? It's you're accountable, you're responsible. for this, take heed to yourselves that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you and that you do, listen to this, that you do not inquire after their God, saying, how did these nations serve their gods? I will also do likewise. That's where the problem came, right there. That's the what? Forsaken God and building a cistern that's broken and does not hold. This is what this symbolizes. That God said don't do it, well they didn't heed Him so they forsook Him. And then what did they do? They went and searched for answers on how to live from everybody around them. And God says, that is a problem. That's gonna cause you some problems, cause you some trouble. So he says, verse 31, you shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. For every abomination to the Lord, which the Lord hates, they have done to their gods. For they burn even their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. So whatever I command you, be careful to observe it and you shall not add to it nor take away from it. and Jeremiah is dealing with this issue right here. They were fools. Why were they fools? They thought they had better solutions. So they disregarded what God said, they rejected it. God, you don't know. You out of date on this thing. You have no idea. These people look good. These people smell good. These people live good. These people got some neat practices, and we're gonna go do what they do, and we're gonna abandon what you've given us to do, except this is the thing. You know what God became to them? God became to them as a result of this addition of the law, when the law said that if you sin, Accidentally is the idea. You go ahead and bring this sacrifice. You know what the people said? Oh, well, that means we got permission to go do what we want. We can just bring a sacrifice and get it covered up and we're good to go. And God said, that's never the intent of it. I know I gave you that because you were wicked. I gave you that to remind you that how I want you to live in this life, not so that you can go live how you want, just bring something to appease me, because that's exactly what Jeremiah says the people were doing. They were saying, we're coming to the house, we're coming to worship, we're bringing sacrifices. But they were doing it only as a means of perfecting. They were experts in sin and sacrifices, but they weren't experts in knowing what God's will was for their life and what God wanted them to do. And that was what? A rejection of the Lord and then going to find out what everybody else was doing in life, how everybody else was living, sharing what everybody else shares and bringing it in. Let's find it in Jeremiah. So this is a good place to go back. The heartbeat of it. of what we see, Deuteronomy 12. Deuteronomy 12, let's see. I'll look over in... I had jotted down a note, I know I did, let me see if I can find it. That is see, that's right. We had talked about that years ago when we were in it, when he says in 231, old generation, see the word of the Lord. That is see what God is doing. Remember, you could only see by what? Hearing, that meant you gotta hear. And that is, God was painting a picture of what he was doing. I know I just... Jotted down a note not 20 minutes ago. I'm just trying to find where I put this. I've got... Yes. Look over in... Chapter seven, chapter seven. God kept telling them to return. Remember, they were going to Sabbath worship. God kept telling them to turn, and they felt like all was good. If you look in chapter seven, when he says in verse number one, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, stand in the gate of the Lord's house. Why? Because everybody was coming. Stand in the gate of the Lord's house. It'd be like today, go stand at the gate, go stand at the front door this place that's been dedicated to gather together the worship, as was the temple. He says, go stand and proclaim this word. He says, hear the word of the Lord, all you Judah who enter in at these gates for this purpose. What was the purpose? They came to worship, Greg. This is the idea. They really legitimately came to worship because this was how they understood it. They understood it all wrong, but they still came to worship. But what they were coming to worship was not all lined up with the way of the Lord. So they came to the house of God as it was required, the duty, They came to worship, that's why they were having trouble. Why you on us? Why you keep downing us? We doing everything we supposed to be doing. Verse three, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, what did God say? Do what? Amend your ways. What is the idea of amend? What do you do when you amend something? You change, change your ways. So God initially says, I see you coming. I see you coming to worship. I see you believing in something, but something's got to what? Something's got to change. Something's not right. Something is not right here. Amend your ways and your doings and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Verse four, they put in trust, they believe something, Janet. Do not trust in these, what? Somebody has duped you. Somebody's lied to you, saying the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these. The idea is that the temple took precedent over the Lord himself. Gathering for worship took pressing over being right with God. Coming to the temple, the temple itself was of more importance in their own eyes than being rightly related to the Lord. As long as they had a feel that they was okay, they felt good about themselves. Now, he goes on to say this, verse five, for if you thoroughly change your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, why does he keep emphasizing thoroughly? When you say thoroughly, what are you saying? Completely, totality, if you would totally amend your ways and completely change how you're looking at this and everything you're doing. Verse six, if you do not oppress the stranger, that's important. Same way with our day, we got strangers entering our lands, foreigners coming in and we can't oppress them, why? Because we've all been strangers at one time or another. That's what God told his people. Look, I kept people from harming you, and you as a stranger, and you don't need to harm them. You don't need to learn how they live, but you don't hurt them. You are there to be a what? A witness to them, of an example of God's unfathomable, gracious love. So do not oppress the stranger. Also, don't oppress who? The orphans, the fatherless. All these people can't do nothing for you is the idea, and they can't do nothing against you, so people took advantage of them. They took advantage of the stranger, took advantage of the fatherless, took advantage of the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place or walk after other gods to your own hurt. So they had to change how they was doing business. So obviously, Janet, they had no problem with bad mouth and hurting a stranger, mistreating the orphans and mistreating widows. And they didn't have no problem with taking a man's life. And they had no problem with bringing any kind of sacrifice to the house of God. Why? Because they'd been told all that was okay. Their teachers told them it was quite fine with them and God. And we cannot heed these false ideas and false teachers. So he says this, verse seven, then I will cause you to dwell in this place and the land that I've given to your fathers forever and ever. Verse eight, he says, behold, see, that goes back to that 231, you gotta see this, see the word that I'm painting for you. You are trusting in what? Words that cannot, They can't profit you. They cannot, you have trusted in words that cannot profit. So you go back to somebody had been duping them on what they were believing, thinking, and the way that they were living their life. It was contrary to the things of God. That nothing was gonna happen. What was they doing? Verse nine tells us. Now think about the law. Think about the law when you read this. He says, will you what? Steal, thievery, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, verse 10, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, we are delivered to do all these abominations. You see how they was messed up? They had a messed up view of God's grace, God's glory, and the reason why God gave them laws and sacrifices. They felt like if God gave an opportunity to cover these sins with these sacrifices, you know what I can do? I can go out there, lie, cheat, and steal, and do anything and everything I want. I can go live how I want as long as I show up every Sabbath and bring a sacrifice. And God says, you got to change that. You got to change your hope. Somebody has lied to you. and you like the way they lie to you because you can live how you wanna live and then gather with everybody else and give your part, do your part, and you think everything's okay. And God said, I never gave the sacrifices for those reasons. And those sacrifices were just shadows of what I was gonna do for you in a later day. But what I was gonna do for you was to change you from the inside so that it affected how you lived on the outside. They were messed up. They believe if I could just, I can go do what I want as long as I confessed it. I can do what I want as long as I brought a sacrifice. And in Isaiah, God told him when you live that away, you're gonna be caught up with a delusional mindset. And you're gonna think that sacrifice is sufficient, but I'm gonna see that sacrifice totally different than how you see it. And the reason is that you have not humbled yourself, you are not contrite before me and you didn't tremble at my word. You neglected my word and found you a safe way to live your way and just appear as if everything's good as your neighbors watched you. And he says, I don't put up with that. I see it. That's why God said, I've marked your iniquities out. But when God forgives us, you know what he does? He wipes the record clean and puts us back in right standing. And what does that do? Puts us in a spirit of giving place to him, fearing God, loving him and treasuring him. And then going forth and praising his name for what he's done within you and made you clean before him. That's where Psalm 51 and Psalm 32 comes in with David. When he had sinned and David was begging God to do what? Blot out the record, forgive him of his transgressions. He said, you don't require burnt offerings. He says, the only thing you're looking for is a broken and contrite spirit. A humble spirit that's deflated of self that God can fill up. These people wasn't humble. They wanted it their way and were gonna do it their way. They just brought what was told, was required to keep them right with God, but it was by far not doing it. Look in Isaiah 66. Isaiah 66, yeah. God tells us, closing book of Isaiah. Remember Isaiah come on the scene a little bit before Jeremiah did. Isaiah 66, we gotta always remember, if God doesn't accept us, he doesn't accept what we offer to him. If I'm not right with him, nothing I do is right. Nothing I bring is right. But you don't put everybody in leadership. Are you with me? It's not that you keep people from coming to hear the word. You go in the people that hear the word, but you don't take those that are totally contrary to the revealed truth of God and put them in some kind of leadership position and then want everybody to accept you. We can't associate with that. You see, that's how people think. Well, if we can just give them a ton of money, they'll overlook all that. These people are saying, if we can bring these sacrifices and we can perfect it, God'll overlook all that. That's how we live. Well, it doesn't work that way. So in Isaiah 66, he tells us the kind of person that God looks upon and brings in the fellowship with him. Verse one, thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you will build me? That's always, it was always about this house and these sacrifices. Let's get it right and we'll be right. But God says, for all these things my hand has made and all these things exist. That's not what I'm here, that's not what it's about, he says. But on this particular one will I look. The person, the sacrifice themself is the person. On him who is what? Of a poor and contrite spirit and who does what at my word? tremble, who's moved by my word, who takes me at my word, who believes that my word is a living fountain to them. God says if you're not in that right position with me, that is broken and humble and contrite and trembling at my word, when you bring a bull, I see it totally different. I see it as if you just killed a man. That's not a good thing, right? God doesn't take finally of what? Murder. He says, when you're not right with me and you sacrifice a lamb, I'll look at it as if you was unmerciful and broke a dog's neck. He who offers a grain offering as if he brings what? defiled swine's blood on the altar, which was a forbidden thing. And he who burns incense as if he blesses an idol. And God says this, just as they have chosen their own ways. This is what we're dealing with, what, in Jeremiah, they chose their own ways. Why did they choose their own ways? They thought they was wiser than God. So they were acting like fools. They chose their own ways and their soul delights in their abominations. So what does God say? I will choose their what? their delusions. You know what that means? That's part of that repercussions of your own wickedness is going to whoop you. That is you have you believing that bringing this sacrifice is acceptable to me but it's not and you're deluded in that and you're thinking you can live how you want and come bring it to me. You're deluded in that God says, I will choose their own delusions and I will bring their fears on them because when I called, they didn't answer. When I spoke, they didn't hear, but they did evil before mine eyes and chose that which I did not what? Delight. This is what we're dealing with in Jeremiah. They were under delusion, delighted in things that God did not delight in, and therefore they were bringing these offerings, but God said they needed to what? Amend their ways, they needed to change their ways. To change your way, you gotta change the way you think. You can't change your way if you don't change the way you think. You can't change the way you think unless you change, your heart is changed and your heart won't be changed unless you come into someone who can change your heart. And that was not happening with them. So this passage in Isaiah 66 is such a great reminder for us that God looks on this kind of person that is poor in spirit, contrite in heart, and that trembles at his word. Takes him serious is the idea. That when he speaks, you remember when daddy used to speak? And you knew the reflection of his voice when he done got fed up and you knew what was coming. And you began to tremble because if daddy told you he was going to whoop you, what was he going to do? He didn't pretend, He didn't play with you. If He said He was gonna discipline you, He what? If He said He was gonna reward you, He what? He rewarded you. Why? He was what? Faithful to His Word. He was a man of His Word. Well, God is a man of His Word. And that God has exalted His Word above His own name, that He is faithful to His Word. And when we reject His Word, that means we reject Him, personally. And that's what we see going on in Jeremiah again and again. And all the evidence coming out of that is what was going on all around them. What was going on all around them. Look in chapter six, go back to Jeremiah six. See, when you reject the fountain of living waters, you know what you become or we become or society becomes, what they became? Look in verse number seven. They became a fountain themselves, but this fountain was a polluted well. And he says, as a fountain wells up, spills up with water, so she wells up or bubbles up with her own what? Violence and plundering are heard in her before me continually, grief and wounds. Be instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you, lest I make you desolate and a land inhabited. So what does a fountain do, Keith? It flows. So the picture here is that we have a steady, unhindered flow of wrongness or wickedness coming out of these people. Because they gave up what? The fountain of living water. and therefore the water that came from them became defiled and corrupted. Look in chapter six, look in verse number 10. Verse 10 says, to whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Indeed, their ear is uncircumcised. They have something obstructing it. The flesh is covering it up and they cannot give heed because they cannot hear. Behold, the word of the Lord is a what? reproach to them they have no what? Oh man they have no delight in it. The word delight come from a word in that day that meant a dog. You don't want a dog come up to you and that dog was not threatened by you, but that dog rejoiced when it seen you. You ever watch a dog wag its tail? A dog is ready to celebrate. That dog takes that tail and bends its tail forward, the bending of the tail. That dog is excited to see its master, got its tail bent and it's going to war. There's no threat there, it's excited. That's saying that they have no, inclination or a bend toward the Word of God because they don't celebrate the Word of God. When the Word of God is brought to them, they're not like a dog that's excited to see you. You ever seen a dog when a dog is ashamed and it knows it's done wrong and it's being scolded by its master? What does that dog do? They tuck his tail underneath and they bow their old head down. That's the picture. They had this bent inclination, not toward the delight of their masters in his word, but they had an inclination or bend toward wickedness in their own ways. You ever say that saying before that somebody had a natural bend toward something? That they were bent toward this or they were bent toward that? Well, you see, there was no supernatural bend toward the things of the Word of God. Why? The Word of God was what? A reproach to them. The word reproach is a word that means it was a stigma. There was a stigma there. You ever heard people say, I don't talk about politics or, in our modern day, what is the term people use? I don't talk about religion or, Politics or they cause too much trouble see when the Word of God would come up. It was a stigma I don't want to hear what God's Word has to say. There's a stigma attached to it It was a reproach to them something that they didn't want anything to do and they would tuck tail When the Word was brought to light And you and all, we've been out before. When you bring up the Word with people, you watch them. There's a stigma where they get nervous. They don't want anything to do with it. They tuck tail and wanna get away. You can be talking about hunting, talking about fishing, talking about the weather, and as soon as you start bringing up Jesus and the authoritative Word of God and the exclusivity of Jesus, boy, they start crawfishing back from you, wanting to get away from you. Not in every case, but you know what I'm talking about. You've been in those situations before, they start getting all clammy, and they don't wanna necessarily have to offend you, but they lock up and get real quiet. This was the people in Jeremiah's day. They had gotten to a place where the word they was receiving, which was lies, that wasn't gonna profit them, they celebrated it. They celebrated what the atmosphere, the culture around them was appreciating and enjoying, but soon as the prophet with a message from God came up, that was a stigma. Uh-uh, we don't want that, don't tell us that. Tell us what we wanna hear. And these are all, remember what I said this morning? this little infrared thermometer or tell us the heat of something. God gives us so many indicators in his word to tell us the people we're around and the situations we're in. They give us insight that you can gauge the temperature of a person, how they stand, do they delight in the law of the Lord, the ways of God, the word of God? Or is it a stigma and a reproach to them? You just bring the word, bring Jesus up, and bring Jesus' message up around them, and you're gonna know what you're working with quickly. What does Psalm 119, 74 say, Greg? They that fear the Lord when they see me will be what? That's right, because I feared him. We have a common conviction. A common hope in the message of the Word of God. And all believers rightly related and connected with the Lord celebrate the message of God. They celebrate the truth, amen? They celebrate it. What does Psalm 1 say? Blessed is the man that walks not. And the counsel or the advisement of the ungodly who doesn't stand in the path with sinners, that is people just who habitually miss the mark with God, don't bring Him glory, and they don't sit in the seat of the mockers or the scorners, but their delight is in what? The message of God, the law of the Lord. And in His law, what do they do? They meditate day and night. Day and night. They meditate, they chew on it, they ponder it. It is a source of life to them. They love it. They love the message and the revelation of God's word. Look down, if you would, in verse 16 of chapter six. Thus says the Lord. He told them to go stand in the ways and see. Ask remember in chapter 5 he told him to go to the city and look for a person he couldn't find anybody now he tells them to go in the highways and the byways along the path and Ask the people for the old paths where the good way is and walk in it Then you will find rest for your souls. But when they asked what did the people say? We don't go that away no more. We don't live like that anymore. This old Bible is archaic. We don't live like that. God, Paul didn't say that. Jesus didn't teach that. Psalms don't teach that. You see, they don't look back to the old paths. We go in a what? A new way today. What new way is that? Remember what Deuteronomy 12 said, don't ask the people how they lived. It's gonna be a snare to you. That's what our society, it's a snare, it's a trap. And too many have taken the bait and they couldn't tell you hardly a thing. about the message of the Word of God and what God's done and what God's doing, the way God works. If there's anything, as we mentioned this morning, remember what God says? They don't know the truth, they don't have understanding in me, but they're really good at doing bad stuff. You don't wanna be classified that way, amen? You wanna know it, not just so you could know it and have something to say, you wanna know it so you can know Him. And when you know Him, you wanna make Him known the people and you wanna be able to talk about things of what God's done in the past. The Bible tells us to meditate on the word. Bring it up again and again. Remember, God's made his wonderful works to be remembered. He wants you to remember about Noah. He wants you to remember about Abraham. He wants you to remember about Jeremiah and Isaiah and Hezekiah and all these. He wants you to remember what they did. Remember a week ago we talked about Johassaphat? When Johassaphat said we don't know what to do? We don't have power, but our eyes are what? Fixed on, he wants you to remember that, amen? So we wanna be able to remember these things for sure. So he says, ask for the old paths and where the good way is and the people set. We don't value that anymore. We don't walk in those ways anymore. Look over in chapter five in verse number 30. 530. He says, an astonishing and horrible thing all in one has been committed in the land. It's an astonishing thing that it's happened, but it's also a horrible thing that it's a reality. The prophets prophesy what? Falsehood. And the priest rule by their what? Own authority, not the authority of the word, what God has said. And my people what? Love. They love it so. But what will you do in the end? See, my people have raised up teachers and preachers that scratch their what? That's right. Peter says, in those days, they had false prophets. In your day, there's gonna be false teachers. And this is what they do, they teach falsely and they operate in their own authority and their own power. And that's why we need to know what? The living articles of God. We gotta know God's word because it's the only standard we have to determine the authority of person. based on the authority of the Word of God. So we can see, we can see again and again of how these things happen in our everyday life. Look over in chapter number eight, look in chapter number eight. There's so much in here. Look in verse number five. Why has this people slidden back, the nation as a whole? Why is Jerusalem in an unending perpetual backsliding? They hold fast or they cling to what? deceit, and they refused to return. They refused to return. I listened and I heard, but they do not speak aright. God said he's paying attention, he's watching. He don't hear people speaking right. No man repented of his wickedness, saying, what have I done? Everyone turned to his what? his own way, his own course, as the horse rushes into battle, that is, with fearlessness. They have with no fear just run in to wickedness with no fear whatsoever. They just abandon it totally and they cling to the deceitful thing. He says in verse number eight, how can you say then we are wise and the law of the Lord is with us? Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood. They've been duped. The wise men are ashamed. They are dismayed and taken. Behold, they have what? The Word of the Lord. Rejected the Word of the Lord. Let me give you a few passages of Scripture to go look up. Time-wise, it don't look like we're gonna be able to get into them. Psalm 144. Psalm 144. Psalm 144. Psalm 144 is the Psalm of David. This is what David asked God to do. He asked God to help train his hands, his fingers, to war, for battle. And he said, God, I need you to do this. I need you to remove from me anyone or the foreign thought of foreigners that don't know you, that don't operate in you. Basically what David was asking God to remove him from liars, get him out of the land. The land needed to be ridded of falsehood and lies in Psalm 144. He brings it up twice. He said he was like in a sea of liars, and he needed God to get him out of the sea, pick him up out of the water, because the lies were covering him up like water. He was drowning in them, and he needed God to deliver him out of them. And he says, God, when you deliver me out of them, you deliver us, the fathers, us, the leaders, out of these lies, it's gonna reflect in what's going on in the nation. And he says, our families and our creatures won't burst the bonds. They won't come out of their pens. They won't just go after anything. They'll be contained. There'll be a pleasant place. And he said, our sons will grow up and be like plants grown up in their youth. They'll mature quickly. And our daughters would be like sculptured columns of a palace. You know what all that, that all revolved around God delivering them from falsehood and the result of it. These people needed that in Jeremiah's day, but they couldn't see that. Psalm 119 verse 29, David asked God to take the lie from within him. He had lies still in him. And he said, God, I need you to take the lie out of me. So we see two things. Not only deliver the lie out of me that was in me, but deliver me from those who are lying around me. Because the consequences are deadly if I'm heeding and paying attention to lies. Not only does it affect me, but it affects everybody around me. That's important. Also Psalm 81, Psalm 81, look in Psalm 81. Psalm 81 gives us some great, great insights. I thoroughly encourage you to look at it. God said, I would have fed my people with the best of the best. but they wanted no part of me. If they would have just opened their mouths, I would have fed them mouth to mouth. Not only would I fed them, but I would have guarded them and protect them from all the nations around them. Nobody would have been able to touch them. Had they just, what? Listened to me. Isn't that what he's telling Jeremiah again and again? What? Hear the word of the Lord, listen to me, return to me, amend your ways. But they, what? Rejected that word. But had they opened their mouths and consumed it, God would have fed them with the living water, and then God would have protected them, fought for them against their enemies. Now God opens up the protection and tells the enemy, whistles to them, y'all come on. The boundaries, the protection has been taken off. You can have them now. Why? They wouldn't open their mouth and listen to him. Wouldn't let him feed them. Wouldn't drink from the fountain of living water. Psalm 81. Psalm 144. These are solutions for us in these times that we see in Jeremiah's day. We know our solution is Jesus, but we see these things that He taught us in Christ, how Christ lived His life. Christ's mouth was open to the Father at all times. He ate what his father gave him, amen. He said, how can I push away? How can I not drink the cup from which my father has given me? I don't rebel against that. I drink what the father gives me. It's a good thing for me. Is it gonna cost me? Yeah, it's gonna cost me, but I'm gonna drink what the father gives me. No lying Jesus whatsoever. So anything connected and associated with Jesus is what? It's gonna be fruitful and flow to the glory of God. Well, we see all these things. So Psalm 81, Psalm 144 are just great passages to look at. And also one more, Psalm 92. Psalm 92, Psalm 92. Psalm 92, we're gonna see how their mornings and how their midday and how their evening starts. And God says, when his people are rightly connected with him, even in old age, they're gonna bear fruit to the glory of God. They're gonna be like a tree, planted. They're gonna be like the palm and the cedar, planted. And it is for this purpose that they may what? Declare the praises of God. So see, when you're being fed by Him, you're being planted by Him, you're walking in His living water, what happens is you become a fountain that the insights and the wisdoms and the glories of God flows out of your life. Wickedness is not flowing out of you, but life's flowing out of you, and that life is gonna be light, and that light is gonna come forth as praise, and it's gonna declare the glories and the goodness of God, amen? So I would encourage you to look at those things and I think they'll give you some helps of how to avoid what was going on with those that rejected the word because the word was a stigma or a reproach to them. They had no delight in it, they took tail when anybody brought it up. Because they had what? Abandoned and forsaken the fountain of living water. And they have unwisely walked in their own ways and found solutions for life that was foreign to the ways and the wonders of God. And how we can prevent that from happening in our own journey. Amen? Amen. Tomorrow's reading you're gonna see right off the bat. God is gonna tell them that these people, they have shaped their tongues like they would their bows. And every time they say something, it's like when they shoot their bow, what comes off of their tongue, they shootin' lies out. And when they launch that word, it's a lie, like they shot a bow. because they had shaped their life like you would a bow to shoot an arrow. They've shaped their life and when they shoot words out, it's lying words of falsehood and deceit. And God says, these people don't know me. How do I know they don't know me? One, everything they say and do, it's a lie. Number two, they are not valiant or dangerously strong for my truth upon the earth. And they go from one thing to the next that has no eternal value to it whatsoever. It's useless. It's evil. Has no value to it. Why? Because God's not in it. and it's not upon them. And what a difference that makes, amen? Amen. Father, we bless you, we thank you, ask you to help us with these things as we continue to search and dig and pursue you. We do wanna see our young ones vibrant and strong and grace and understanding, but we know as parents and grandparents, you gotta deliver the life from us and you gotta deliver us from liars. Show yourself to us. As we prayed last week as Moses said, Lord, let your work appear to your people and your glory that our children may see your glory upon us and your work in our life. So Lord, we ask you to do that. We all, every one of us will admit there's much work still to be done in our own journey, but we're grateful for you for living within us. And we're grateful that when you look upon our life, and you find what you're looking for, you see the Lord Jesus in us. And we just thank you and praise you for it. Ask you to be with us, help us, in Jesus' name, amen. Love y'all, y'all have a good night.