JEREMIAH 52009 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Jeremiah 5

Well, as we continue on in the book of Jeremiah, we're now in chapter 5. And

As you remember from our earlier days in Jeremiah, a few weeks ago as we began the book, Jeremiah was a young man. He was given a difficult task, a very difficult ministry of preaching the word, of bringing God's word to a people that would not receive it. And the word that he brought was a message of destruction if they did not repent. And

And the difficulty was, not only did they not receive the word that was brought forth, but Jeremiah then was able to, he had to see it fulfilled in his own lifetime. And so he brings this word of destruction, this promise of God's judgment upon the nation of Judah, because of their rebellion, the people do not receive it,

And they continue, worse and worse, of a decline until the point that the judgment that God has promised does come in Jeremiah's lifetime.

The book of Jeremiah, as I've noted before, contrary to Isaiah, where many of the passages take a lot of work to really understand, to really get a grasp of what the author is saying, in the book of Jeremiah, it's not that way so much. It's pretty clear and straightforward. And some of these statements, I don't know if they hit home for you, but I pray that they do, because then as I read through them, there's not a need, you know, really to dig too deep, because right on the surface...

They're so powerful. And it causes me to spend some time in self-reflection. And I would encourage you to, as you take notes, as you're listening to the Lord this evening, that you would reflect on

on what Jeremiah is saying and how these things apply to you. Yes, he was speaking to the nation of Judah, but man, so many of these things speak right to our hearts and should challenge us where we're at with the Lord and in our relationship with God. Well, we start off in chapter 5, verses 1 through 3. It says this,

Verse 2.

You have stricken them, but they have not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than rock. They have refused to return. Here as we begin chapter 5, Jeremiah and the Lord are having a conversation. And God tells Jeremiah, run through the streets of Jerusalem.

Go in and out of the streets. Run through the main ways of the city of Jerusalem and see if you can find someone who executes judgment. See if you can find a man, God says, who seeks the truth. And if there on the streets of Jerusalem, if you find someone that seeks the truth, if you find someone that does what's right, he says, I will pardon Jerusalem. I will pardon her, he says. Jeremiah said,

was in a nation that was completely corrupt and in rebellion against God. So much so that God says, look, if you can find one other person, Jeremiah, run around, try to see if you can find anybody else.

And if you can, I'll pardon her. It's a little bit similar to, remember when Abraham asked the Lord, Hey God, if there's 50 people that are righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah, will you not destroy it? If there's 45, and he went all the way down to 10, and then we know the angels went and got Lot and his wife and his two daughters out of the city so that the righteous would not be judged with the wicked. Well, Jerusalem is in that state.

There's not ten righteous in the city. God says even, hey, you go find one other one and I will pardon her. So you can get a grasp, an idea of the state of the nation of Judah, the city of Jerusalem. And yet, verse 2 says, God says, look, they say as the Lord lives, they still speak as if they belong to the Lord and they're right with God. They still put on the appearance as if they're

In a right relationship with God. And when they make promises, they say, as the Lord lives. As if they really did have a relationship with God. As if they really did believe in God. But God says, surely they swear falsely. They don't know me. They don't even know if I'm alive. They don't have relationship with me, God is saying. And so Jeremiah says, oh Lord, are not your eyes on the truth? Here's the state of your people, God. You've stricken them, but they've not grieved.

Lord, you've dealt with them in regards to their sin, but they have not grieved. At the time of Jeremiah's life, although the nation of Judah had not been completely conquered yet, it had been incredibly reduced.

From the time when God brought them out of Egypt and there was a huge multitude and God brought them in the land through Joshua and they populated the land. By the time it was Jeremiah's turn to live, by the time he was around, there was only a few cities left of the whole nation. The northern part of the kingdom had already been conquered and carried away captive by the Assyrian Empire.

And so in Jeremiah's day, there's only the nation of Judah left, the smaller southern portion of Israel. And of the nation of Judah, there's only a few cities left. Assyria had come against the nation of Judah severely and only left a few survivors, a few surviving cities, strongholds that they were able to survive in. And so Jeremiah says, you've stricken them, but

They have not grieved. They have not mourned their sin. They have not repented. You've consumed them, but he says, but they refuse to receive correction. They refuse. We will not be corrected. They've made their faces harder than rock. And they say, no, we will not return. This is the state of the nation of Judah. And sadly, it's the state of many still today. There are those...

And perhaps you've been this way from time to time. I know I have. Using spiritual words but only to hide wickedness. Having been corrected but refusing to receive it. Refusing to return. Refusing to submit to the Lord. To fear God and surrender to Him. In Proverbs chapter 29, the author there of the Proverbs 29.1 says,

He says, he who is often rebuked and hardens his neck will suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy. This was the state of the nation of Judah. They'd been often rebuked, but they continued to harden their neck. They continued to refuse to turn. God gives us opportunity. He is patient with us. He gives us opportunity to repent, even in severe and great rebellion. But there comes a point, having been often rebuked,

Having hardened your neck, there comes a point where there will be sudden destruction and there will not be remedy for it. In the same way, Jerusalem has refused to receive correction. And the sudden destruction is coming in the form of the nation of Babylon. God is going to use Babylon to bring this judgment upon them and finally level the city and carry the whole nation away captive. Verse 4.

Therefore I said, Surely these are poor, they are foolish, for they do not know the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God. Verse 5, I will go to the great men and speak to them, for they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God. But these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds.

Therefore a lion from the forest shall slay them. A wolf in the desert shall destroy them. A leopard will watch over their cities. Everyone who goes out from there shall be torn in pieces. Because their transgressions are many, their backslidings have increased. Their backslidings have increased. Jeremiah says, hey, I'm going to go to the great people of the nation, to those who are mighty, to those...

who are of old, to those who have authority. I'm going to go to those who have power. He says, Jeremiah hears what God has said, sees the nation of Judah, and says, look, they are poor and foolish.

He says, they do not know the way of the Lord. They don't know the judgment of their God. They're continuing on and thinking that they will not experience God's judgment. He says, they do not know the way of the Lord. Poor and foolish is the one who does not know the way of the Lord. Poor and foolish is the one who does not know that God will judge sin.

And so Jeremiah says, I'm going to go to the great ones. They have known, he says there in verse 5. They used to know. I know they used to walk with the Lord. They used to know the way of God. They used to know the judgment of God. But...

He finds out there in verse 5, these have altogether broken the yoke. They used to walk with God. They used to know God. But they've broken away from God. They've broken their bond with God. They've disconnected themselves from the Lord. And as a result, he said, there's destruction coming. The lions and the wolves and the leopards are going to watch over the cities. And everyone who goes out from them will be destroyed. Why? Well, because their backslidings have increased.

Their backslidings have increased. And that is something to consider. That is something to keep in mind. We need to realize. We often bring this up, but it is so important. There's no standing still in a relationship with God. You're either going forward and growing in a relationship with God, or you're sliding backwards. Backsliding. Backsliding increases.

It's not that, well, I'm in a backslidden state and, you know, you're kind of in the same spot and it's just backslidden. A backslidden state leads to an even more backslidden state, which leads to an even more backslidden state.

One of the speakers we were watching a few weeks back on Sunday evenings compared it to being on an escalator and going the wrong way on an escalator. You know, if you stop and you're going the opposite direction of the escalator, what happens? Well, you're going the opposite direction. If you're trying to go up and the escalator is going down and you take a pause, you take a break, you're going the opposite direction.

You're going to start going that direction. The backslidings increase. And that is why we must pursue the Lord. We must chase after God. We must seek the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Because anything less is not enough. And our backslidings will increase. He says there are those who used to know the way of the Lord. There are those who used to walk with God, but they've broken that bond. And now they're on this slippery slope.

And they continued to walk further and further away from God. Their backslidings increase. Well, God responds here in verse 7. He says, How shall I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by those that are not gods. When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. They were like well-fed, lusty stallions.

Everyone kneed after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not punish them for these things, says the Lord? And shall I not avenge myself on such a nation as this? God now asks a question of the nation. He says, Judah, how shall I pardon you for this? How can I forgive you for this, he says? How can I overlook this sin in your life? He says, your children have forsaken me.

Your descendants, not only is your wickedness affected yourself, but it's affected the next generation as well. And your children you've caused to forsake me, and they've gone and sworn by those that are not gods. They have begun to worship other gods, involving themselves in idolatry. And God says, here's the kicker.

He says, when I had fed them to the full, then they went and did this. I blessed them. I provided for them. I satisfied them. I met their needs. I took care of them. And then, then they turned and they began to worship other gods. Then they chased after false gods. Then they were consumed by their lustful conditions and chased after the lusts of their flesh, filling their lives with immorality and whatever else they craved.

And so he says again in verse 9, "Shall I not punish them for these things?" It's a rhetorical question. It's not meant to be answered because the answer is incredibly obvious. Yes, of course, they should be judged for these things. It's not reasonable that God should pardon them for this sin because God had provided for them and met every need and took care of them and then they turned around and spat in His face. He had redeemed them. He provided for them. He'd met their needs.

given them everything that they required, and then they turned around with incredible disrespect, rebelled against God, and began to worship other gods. So he says, Shall I not punish them for these things? Shall I not avenge myself on such a nation as this? You can see that God's judgment is just. He must punish this wickedness. Verse 10 says,

Verse 1.

and the prophets become wind, for the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them. Two phrases here I want to just cause us to stop and consider. God says, Take away her branches, for they are not the Lord's. Take away her branches, for they are not the Lord's. Here, as God is bringing the nation of Babylon, He's coming to bring judgment, He's coming to bring destruction here.

He's cutting it down, removing all of the branches. He says, because they're not mine. Although they swear, as the Lord lives, although they put on the outward show, God says, take them all away. They're not mine. Away from me, you doers of iniquity. I never knew you. He says, look, these are not my branches. Although they pretend to be, although they might be deceived and think that they are, they're not my branches. Take them away.

He says, because they've dealt very treacherously with me. They've dealt very treacherously with the Lord. He says, they've lied about the Lord. They say, no, God's not like that. He's not going to bring judgment. We're not going to experience sword or famine. We're not going to experience these battles. God wouldn't do that to us. The people were saying, the prophets were saying,

They were convincing themselves and each other, yeah, God's not going to do that. We're Jerusalem. The temple's here. I mean, we have the temple and we offer sacrifices and we're very religious and we do all these things. Judgment's not going to happen. It's not going to take place. As long as we're here, we're safe. It's not going to happen to us. God says, you're not mine. Take away those branches. Look at verse 13. And the prophets became wind for the word is not in them.

The prophets become wind for the word is not in them. The prophets are speaking, but they're not speaking the word of God. It's just wind. It's just breath. It's just air. It's just noise. It's not the word of God. The prophets have become wind. And so God says, lest it shall be done to them. They're going to experience the judgment of God.

Because they're not filled with the Word of God. They don't have the Word of God. They're denying the Word of God that is being brought to them through Jeremiah and saying, no, it's not going to happen. They've dealt very treacherously with the Lord. And God says, these are not my branches. Take them away. Verse 14. Therefore, thus says the Lord God of hosts,

Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people would, and it shall devour them. Verse 15. Behold, I will bring a nation against you from afar. O house of Israel, says the Lord, it is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say.

Their quiver is like an open tomb. They are all mighty men. And they shall eat up your harvest and your bread, which your sons and daughters should eat. They shall eat up your flocks and your herds. They shall eat up your vines and your fig trees. They shall destroy your fortified cities in which you trust with the sword. Here God says, I am bringing this judgment upon you.

And my word is going to be like fire and the people is going to be like wood and it's going to devour them. And God says, I'm bringing this nation from afar. We know it to be the nation of Babylon. The nation of Babylon coming a great distance, not a big threat just a few years before, but they have risen up to be a great nation, a mighty nation. King Nebuchadnezzar, you've probably heard of the king of Babylon.

And he looks and he says, look, they're warriors, they're mighty men, they're quivers like an open tomb, there's just destruction wherever they go. They're going to go and they're going to eat up all the crops and they're going to take all the plunder of everything that you've worked so hard for, the things that should have belonged to your children, the things that should have passed on to them, the food and nourishment that they needed and deserved, your flocks and your herds, your vines, your fig trees.

It's all going to be consumed by them. Your fortified cities that you're trusting so much in, they were considering, they were figuring, hey, it's okay, we've got fortified cities, let them come. We're strong. They're not going to conquer Jerusalem. They're not going to conquer our fortified cities. They were trusting in their fortified cities instead of in the Lord. And he says, this nation is going to come. It's going to level them. Babylon is going to conquer Jerusalem.

Judgment is going to happen. You are not going to escape, God says. Verse 18. Nevertheless, in those days, says the Lord, I will not make a complete end of you. And it will be when you say, why does the Lord our God do all these things to us? Then you shall answer them. Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve aliens in a land...

that is not yours. You see the justice here of God's judgment. First of all, he says, I'm not going to make a complete end. I'm not going to abolish the nation of Judah completely. There's always a remnant. God always has a remnant. Those who have not bowed their knee to the false gods. But we need to understand, God's judgment is just. Although he will not make a complete end, he will bring this judgment. And because, he says, because in my land...

You've served foreign gods, then the just punishment is you're going to serve aliens in a foreign land. Here I was, God says. I was right there. I brought you into this land. I promised to give you this land. I promised to bless you in this land. I only required that you worship me. You see, we have difficulty with the understanding that we were not created to be masters but slaves.

Understand, you were not created to be a master. You were created to be a slave. I was not created to be a master. I was created to be a slave. We were never designed to be masters, but to be servants, to be slaves, to be completely surrendered. And we're going to be somebody's slave. We're going to be something's slave. We're going to serve some God.

God created us to be slaves, not masters, but the gracious thing he does is he lets us choose our master. The nation of Judah chose their master, and they chose to surrender themselves and submit themselves to these foreign gods, to these idols that are not really gods. And so God honors their choice. He honors their choice, and he lets them experience the result of worshiping a false god.

He lets us choose our Master. If they would have chosen to serve Him and to be submitted to Him and to be obedient to Him, well, they would have found the blessings that come with that submission, the blessings that come with that devotion to God.

We must get rid of this notion that we are the master of our own fate and we get to do whatever we want and it's our will and it's what we want to do and it's what we want to accomplish and it's our plans and it's our goals and it's our purposes that are the most important things. No.

You were not created to be a master. You were not created to be a commander of your fate, a commander of your life, to have complete control of your life. You were created to be a slave and to serve God, to submit to God, to surrender to God. And the sooner we accept that, the better.

The longer we fight against it, we make ourselves more and more like the nation of Judah. They fought against it. They fought against God, as we'll see in just a few moments. They rebelled hard against God, saying, no, we don't want to submit. We don't want to be God's slave. We don't want to surrender to Him. We want to worship who we want to worship. And we want to do what we want to do. And we want to live our lives the way we want to live them.

We pretend that we are free. We pretend that we are masters. When in reality, we are slaves. We're somebody's slave. We are the slave of something. If you serve God and submit to Him, you get the right, the privilege, the honor, the blessings of being His child and living in His land and inheriting His promises. But if you refuse to submit and surrender to God, you are submitting yourself to something else. And you are that God's slave.

Jesus said, whoever sins is a slave of sin. Paul said, we've been set free so that we can become the slave of righteousness. We're called to be slaves of God. We are slaves of something, but God lets us choose our master. We're not a slave in the sense that we have no choice in who our master is and our master is by us and sell us. No, God is so gracious to us that he lets us choose. Who are you going to be enslaved to?

Who's going to be your master? Who's going to tell you everything about your life and where you're to go and what you're to do and who you're to be with? You get to choose. But choose wisely. Because there's only one right choice. There's only one good choice. Every other choice. Every other master is a cruel and vicious master. Every other master leads to destruction. You're going to serve somebody. But you get to choose to serve the Lord and be submitted to Him.

God's judgment is just. He says, look, they wouldn't serve me in the land, so they're serving their foreign gods that they wanted to serve. That's what they chose in a foreign land. That's what they chose. They wanted nothing to do with me. So they've been taken out of my land. God says, take them away. They are not my branches. Verse 20.

Declare this in the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah saying, Hear this now, O foolish people, without understanding, who have eyes and see not, and who have ears and hear not. Do you not fear me, says the Lord? Will you not tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass beyond it?

Verse 25, Verse 25,

And your sins have withheld good from you. God says, Jeremiah, here's what you're to declare to the nation. Oh, foolish people without understanding. Even though you have eyes, you don't see. And even though you have ears, you don't hear. Because of their continual backsliding, because of their rebellion against God, they've put themselves in a position where God has been speaking to them, but they refuse to hear and they will not see. They've put themselves in a place where they're blind and deaf.

It wasn't that God wasn't speaking to them. God sent his messengers. He was calling out to them. He was placing up the warning signs in the roadblocks. But sin darkens our understanding. Rebellion blinds our eyes. And so they're unable to hear the word of God. They're unable to understand. A little bit earlier, remember, Jeremiah said they used to know the way of the Lord.

But now they're foolish, they're poor, they don't know the way of God. This is what rebellion does. This is what sin does. It darkens our understanding. You remember Paul in 1 Corinthians 2 explains that the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. But they're foolish to him, Paul says. He cannot know them because they're spiritually discerned. The natural person, the one that's not born again, the one who's not...

filled with the Spirit of God, cannot understand the things of God because they're spiritually discerned. They're foolishness to him because he's a natural man. And I think we understand that and we agree, but that makes sense. But Paul, a little bit later in 1 Corinthians 3, tells the Corinthians, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but as to carnal. Why? Because the things that were spiritually discerned, they couldn't understand, they couldn't receive because they had...

They had become carnal. They had become fleshly. They had become like the natural man in that they could not understand. They could not hear the Word of God. They could not see the things of God.

I don't care how far a person has gone with the Lord and how long they've walked with the Lord, sin darkens understanding and it brings blindness and deafness. And if we continue in sin, that rebellious heart will bring us back to infancy so that the things of God are foolishness to us and we cannot understand them because our hearts are carnal and the things of God are spiritually discerned. If you find yourself in a place

or the things of God, the Word of God, the teachings of God, the services, the Bible studies, if you find yourself in a place where these things are foolishness to you, you better be concerned, you better be aware. These things are spiritually discerned. And if you don't understand the things that we're reading, the things that we're studying, if you don't understand the Word of God, if you don't understand the teaching of God's Word, you're in a scary position. Either a natural man or a carnal man.

A natural woman or a carnal woman? A place where you are blind and deaf and without understanding. God says in verse 22, Do you not fear me? Won't you tremble at my presence? Don't you understand that you are to be submitted to me and surrendered to me? God says, Consider me. I'm the one. I'm the creator. I'm the one who placed the shores as the boundary of the sea. And though the sea raged...

Even though it pounds against those shores every day, it cannot go beyond them. It tries desperately, it pounds furiously, but it cannot go beyond them. He says, in the same way this people has a defiant and rebellious heart, they've revolted and departed. Just as the sands pound against the sea, trying to remove those boundaries,

The people have revolted against God and they've tried desperately to remove the boundaries of God and remove those walls that God had placed there. They've tried desperately to say, no, I'm not a slave. I am a master and I can do whatever I want with my life and it's going to be fine because I've got fortified cities and I've got this and that in place and I'm going to take care of myself and it's not going to happen. I can live and I can do whatever I want.

They fought furiously against that. They fought furiously and said, no, we don't have to submit to God. We don't have to be obedient to God. We don't have to listen to the Word of God. We don't have to do these things. We're religious. We practice. As the Lord lives, they say, they offer sacrifices, fighting against the boundaries that God has placed, fighting against the way that God had designed them and designed us to be slaves, not masters.

wanting to say we have the right to choose and live our lives the way that we want to. Verse 24, they do not say in their heart, let us now fear the Lord our God. This is the state that they're in. This is the choice they've made. They do not choose to fear God. They've chosen to rebel against him. God's the one who gives the rain, the former and latter rains, the rains that are necessary for harvest, to produce crop. God's the one who's

appointed the weeks of the harvest. He's the one who produces fruit. He's the one who supplies our needs. And God says, no more. Your iniquities have turned these things away. The early rains, the later rains, the weeks of harvest, the abundance, the fruitfulness, the blessings. Your iniquities have turned these things away and your sins have withheld good from you. That verse should strike deep in our hearts.

Your iniquities have turned these things away and your sins have withheld good from you. You see, what Paul said in Romans is absolutely true. The wages of sin is death. It brings destruction. And their sin, their rebellion against God, had kept from them the good things that God wanted to bestow upon them. Judah refused to submit to God.

They fought, they screamed, they kicked against him like the waves thrash against the shore, saying, no, we want to do it our way. We want to live our lives. We don't want to listen to God. But they failed to understand that serving God is what is best for us. And disobeying God keeps good things from us. That's why God tells us to stay away from sin. Not because he wants to, you know, ruin, you know, the good things we have going.

but because he knows. He can see a little bit further ahead than we can. And he knows those things bring destruction in our lives and will destroy us and leave us empty and bankrupt. So he says, turn. Do you not fear me? Will you not fear me? Will you not submit to me, God? God is crying out to his people. They're rebellious. They refuse to hear him. They refuse what is best for them.

Which is to serve God. And they choose instead to rebel. Verse 26. Verse 26.

They have grown fat, they are sleek. Yes, they surpass the deeds of the wicked. They do not plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper. And the right of the needy they do not defend.

Verse 29, Shall I not punish them for these things, says the Lord? Shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this? God says, look, among my people, these are people who are called by my name, living in my city, worshipping at my temple. And among them, there's great wickedness. They don't even care for the poor. They don't seek what's right. And so he says in verse 29, Shall I not punish them for these things?

My people are wicked, greedy and unjust. Shall I not punish them for these things? Now this is the third time he's asked a question like this. It's an obvious answer question. It's a question that doesn't need answering because the answer is so apparent. He says, Shall I not avenge myself on such a nation as this? And the answer is yes. The judgment of God is just.

It's reasonable. It's not reasonable that he should pardon them. It's reasonable that he should judge them. Shall I not punish them for these things, God says. Now, we have a saying, the Lord works in mysterious ways, and that gets thrown around occasionally. And it is true. God works in ways that are, well, they're hard to figure out. He says in Isaiah 55, you know, his ways are higher than our ways, as high as the heavens are above the earth.

And when it comes to the things of the grace of God and the mercy of God and the blessings of God in our lives, it is absolutely true. God works in mysterious ways and we can't understand it. And He blesses us and you can't explain it. You can't look at your blessings and look at what God does in your life and even the offer of salvation.

You can't look and say, well, that's because... And you list all the good things about yourself. And you took an extra 30 minutes to fix your hair that day and things like that. Well, it's because of this that God saved me. It's not because of anything of you. It's because of the grace of God. That's mysterious to us. It's not rational. It's not logical. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But when it comes to the judgment of God...

It is absolutely understandable, rational, and logical. It's reasonable. It's the only right thing to do. We can all come to the conclusion. You and I, we can look at each other's lives and we can't come to the conclusion like, well, God should bless that person. When we see their heart, when we know the wicked state of ourselves, we can't come to the conclusion, well, God should bless me. But when it comes to the judgment of God, it's not mysterious. It's not irrational. It's not like, why is God judging this nation?

So odd, because they've spat in his face. He's blessed them, he's provided for them, he's met their needs. And they insist. They thrash around like the waves against the shore, saying, we will not serve God. Well, they pretended to serve God, and they wanted to have the outward appearance. They wanted to be religious. They wanted to participate in the sacrifices. But they didn't want to be surrendered to God and submitted to him alone. They wanted to decide and determine

Well, I want to live my life this way, and I can do whatever I want, and it's my choice, it's my life, and I can do the things I want to do. And if I want to worship this other God as well as the King of kings and Lord of lords, well, I can do that, they would say. They wanted to live life their way. They refused to submit and surrender to God. And so their judgment is just, it's understandable, it's rational, it's reasonable, it's exactly what they deserve.

When it comes to blessings for those who walk with God, for those who surrender to God, the blessings of God in a person's life, they're not reasonable, they're not rational. It doesn't make sense. It's not proportional. It's not like, well, I've been good and so God blesses me. It doesn't work that way. God just pours out blessings and He has in store for us greater things than we could ever deserve. That's why it's grace.

But if we insist on rebelling against God, if we insist, no, I'm the master of my own fate and I can live my life however I want and I get to choose whatever I want to do and I don't have to submit to God and I don't have to be obedient to God. If we thrash against God the way that the nation of Judah did, if we thrash against God the way that the waves thrash against the shore, then the judgment of God will be just and reasonable and rational. It's exactly what is deserved.

Verse 30. He says, God says there's an astonishing thing. It's a horrible thing. It's a horrible thing. Larry was talking about some of the horrible and astonishing things.

We see on the news, we see in the world around us, God looks down and he says, I'm astonished, this is horrible. The prophets prophesy falsely. Claiming to speak the word of God, claiming to speak on behalf of God, it's just wind because the word of God is not within it. The word of God is not within them.

And the priests, they rule by their own power. They're not being led by me. They're not seeking me. They're not searching out my ways. They're not seeking to lead people and draw them to me. They're ruling by their own power, by their own wisdom, by their own might. There's so many parallels. So many parallels. As we look at the book of Jeremiah, between the nation of Judah and our very own nation. A nation where the prophets prophesy falsely.

Much, much false doctrine.