Jeremiah Chapter no. 12, the Bible reads in verse 1, "Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee, ye let me talk with thee of thy judgments. Wherefore, the way of the wicked prosper, wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously." In this verse of Chapter 12, he's basically starting out by giving God respect. He wants God to know that he's not doubting his righteousness or doubting that he has done things right but he does want to just vent to God a little bit that he's perplexed and he wants God to explain to him why the way of the wicked is prospering.
He doesn't think it's fair that wicked, ungodly people are thriving and doing well and prospering. It makes him upset and he's asking God, "why are you allowing these people to prosper so well?" First, he starts out just by being respectful saying, "Righteous art thou o Lord when I plead with thee", yet, "let me talk with thee of thy judgments. Wherefore, which means why, "does the way of the wicked prosper? Wherefore, are all they happy that deal very treacherously? Thou has planted them. Ye they have taken root. They grow. Ye they bring forth fruit. Thous art near in their mouth and far from from their reins."
Basically it says, you're far from their reins, he's saying you're not whipping their backside, you're basically putting food into their mouth. You're blessing these people seemingly. Nothing bad's happened to them when they're such wicked people. They ought to be punished. This is something that a lot of people today could ask the same question where you look at a lot of just really wicked, ungodly people just prospering and succeeding, whether that be the politicians in our country, our leaders that we know are godless, wicked people. Yet, they prosper, they're millionaires, in many cases they're healthy, they're popular, they're succeeding. We see that in all different spheres of life where ungodly people rise to the top in business or politics or in athletics. The cheaters, the people who are doping, they're winning the athletic competitions. Probably, the guy who was doing it right feels this way.
We all feel this way at times when we feel like people are just getting away with murder, God's people are suffering and the wicked are thriving and prospering. Of course, Psalm 73 is a whole psalm that deals with this subject where Asaph is questioning God and not understanding why this is.
Look what the Bible says in verse 3, "But thou o Lord", as Jeremiah continues, "knoweth me. Thou has seen me and tried mine heart toward thee, pulled them out like sheep for the slaughter and prepare them for the day of slaughter." Basically, Jeremiah is pleading with God, destroy these people, wipe these people out. Slaughter them, they're wicked. They're ungodly, I'm sick of them getting away with it.
There are a lot of prayers like that in the Book of Psalms. In fact, there are 19 psalms that are specifically known as the imprecatory psalms or psalms where David is praying that God will bring destruction swiftly upon his enemies and destroy those that are wicked and ungodly and prospering in the world.
But when you go to Psalm 73, what Asaph finally realize is and he feels like an idiot, even says, "Man, I was such a fool. I was like a beast. I can't even believe I thought that the wicked are prosperous to the point where I envied them. I wanted to be them because it seemed like they were so much better off. The thing that Asaph finally understood was that the wicked will eventually get what's coming to them. That's what we have to keep in mind that the Bible says, "Vengeance belongeth unto me", sayeth the Lord. "I will recompense." When you understand that God will judge the wicked, God will bring justice in the end. It actually allows you to not have to get so angry and worked up about things because you know God's going to take care of it.
You don't have to take vengeance. You don't have to take up the sword and go right every wrong and go destroy these wicked perpetrators. The Bible tells us that God will avenge us, God will avenge other people that are innocent victims. We don't have to take it upon ourselves. That's why he said, "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves. The Lord will avenge."
But see, the problem is today that we have a doctrine in a lot of churches and amongst Christians that God's not going to judge, God's not going to bring vengeance, God's not going to revenge. God's just going to bless everybody and they don't preach on the wrath of God. As a result, you end up with a lot of really angry, frustrated people because there's actually great peace that comes from knowing that God's going to punish the wicked. If you didn't think that God's going to punish the wicked, you might get all angry and worked up and just, "Argh! People are just getting away with it. People are ruining my life. They're ruining their life."
Have you ever known people that are just really angry like that all the time? They're frustrated. They're mad. It really causes some people to just go crazy, go off the deep end. But there's actually great peace from knowing that God will recompense when God said, "I will repay." But then you have churches and the preachers teaching people, "Hey, God's not going to repay the wicked. God loves them and He's going to bless them." Then what it does is then it makes people really mad and frustrated and angry because then they'd feel like they have to avenge something.
You say, "Well, Pastor Andersen, by preaching these imprecatory psalms and by talking about the fact that there are wicked people that God hates, that God's going to destroy, that people are going to burn in hell, you're actually preaching hate and you're stirring up violence by preaching these Biblical doctrines." But it's actually the opposite. The Bible actually subdues violence by saying, "Look, you don't have to avenge. You don't have to take up the sword. You don't have to go out and right every wrong in this world and destroy the wicked because God said that He will destroy the wicked." It's the exact opposite.
I remember I prayed years ago that Obama would perish in an untimely manner. People freaked out. "You're praying for the President". This is what they said, they said that I was threatening the President. But I said actually, this is the exact opposite because I'm actually just praying that God will take care of what needs to be taken care of. I'm not going to take things into my own. I never would take things into my own hands. I'm not telling other people to take things into their own hands. I'm actually removing the sword from their hand and saying, "Hey, why don't we just get on our knees and pray about it? Take it to the Lord in prayer. Tell it to Jesus."
But see, the world gets things backwards because they don't understand the word of god. They don't understand Christianity. They don't understand that we're not violent. We're peaceful. But we believe in a God that's going to judge. He's going to avenge. He's going to bring justice. It's not our place to bring the justice and judgment upon the wicked. Vengeance belongs under the Lord. There are people out there teaching it doesn't even belong to Him. Then at least people are really frustrated because then it's like, "well, who does it belong to at that point? Who is going to repay? Who is going to take care of these things?"
It's so funny because people thought that I was so radical and so crazy. Whenever I preach that sermon, but it's funny I was talking to my sweet little grandmother who is like almost 90 years old. She had not hear anything about my sermon or anything like that. The subject of Obama came up. These are her words. "I'm praying for something to happen to that idiot." She didn't get that from me. She just said, "I'm praying for something to happen to that idiot." You know what? There are probably a lot of people that are praying for something to happen to that idiot. You did too? God bless you. I see that hand. I did too.
The point is we need to make sure that we don't become these people who are just enraged all the time, just filled with anger, filled with rage on a continual basis of just, "Oh man! We got to stop these people." Anger has its place. There's a righteous indignation. But we need to keep in mind though that God will judge, God will recompense. Yes, we need to preach the truth. Yes, we need to strongly rebuke the evil workers of this world. Yes, we need to teach the truth and stand up against wickedness but we need to make sure that we don't cross the line of feeling like it's our job where we have to right every wrong in this world and we have to repay and we're going to take revenge and so forth.
We just realize that that's in God's hands. Then actually, we can get angry when the time comes to be angry, when it's appropriate to be angry. But then we could put off anger as the bible says, we can have the peace of God which passeth all understanding. We can go to bed and we can sleep soundly on our pillow and we can wake up with a smile on our face.
I get up behind the pulpit and sure, there are times when I rant and rave and foam at the mouth angry at sin. I believe that a preacher who doesn't do that is remiss in part of what God expects him to do as a preacher because God does demand that we preach hard against sin and spirit-filled men of God all became angry and enrailed on sin. Jesus was filled with anger a few times when dealing with the Pharisees and so forth. King Saul, when the spirit of the Lord came upon him, it says he's filled with anger. There's a righteous anger but I'm telling you there are people who are angry on a continual basis like they wake up in the morning and they're angry, and at noon they're angry, and at night they are angry. That is not right.
The Bible tells us that we need to give place unto wrath. There's a place for anger. Be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down on your wrath. The Bible says make no friendship with the furious man and with an angry man, thou shalt not go lest you learn his ways. We shouldn't even hang around people that are just constantly angry, just constantly mad all the time because that will rub off on us and give us a bad attitude. The joy of the Lord is our strength. We need to have balance in our lives.
But it seems like people tend to go off on one direction or the other. Either they're just angry all the time and mad or they just never get angry. Like "Whoa! Are you ever going to get mad about something? Look at all the bad things going on." We need balance. We need to understand that there's a time for anger, and time to put off anger. There's a time to preach the good news and there's a time to get up and preach bad news. We need to do all of it in its due season.
Here, we see Jeremiah, he's frustrated. He sees the wicked prospering. He's upset. What does he do? He prays to the Lord and says, "Lord, destroy these wicked people." Now, people would say, "Oh! He shouldn't have prayed that. That was wrong." This is inspired scripture, not to mention the 19 psalms that are inspired scripture that are teaching us this. Don't just sit there and say, "Well, I don't like that. I don't think that's right to pray that way." It's a lot better than being violent. Right?
Look at verse 4 it says, "How long shall the land mourn and the herbs of every field wither for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. The bees are consumed and the birds because they said he shall not see our last end. It's just talking about the fact there that the land is suffering as a result of the wickedness, God's bringing judgment and punishment and famines upon the land and things are withering and so forth.
But here's God's response in verse 5. It says, if thou has run with the footmen and they have wearied thee, then how can [sal 00:12:44] contend with horses? If in the land peace wherein though trusted, they wearied thee. Then how well thou do in the swelling of Jordan for even thy brethren in the house of thy Father, even they have dealt treacherously with thee. Ye they have called them multitude up to thee, believe them not though they speak their words unto thee." God is warning Jeremiah that even his relatives, even the people of his hometown, Anathoth, thought that he's already brought this up in other chapters that they're conspiring against him. They're trying to get a whole multitude riled up to literally kill him. They want Jeremiah dead. That's how bad [inaudible 00:13:22]. God's warning him saying, "Don't trust them. Don't trust the people from your hometown and don't trust your brethren, your relatives, even your own family is out to betray you, Jeremiah.
But, what he says in verse 5 is very profound. "If thou has with the footmen and they have wearied thee, then how can Sal contend with horses?" He's saying if you can't keep up in a foot race against another human being, how are you going to run against horses which are better runners than human beings in some ways? Then it says, "And, if in the land of peace where now trusted they wearied thee, then how will thou do in the swelling of Jordan?" We had asked ourselves the same thing. This is actually something that's been on my mind a lot over the last few weeks. This concept of just how good we have it over here in the United States in 2016, just how much freedom we have and just all the technology we have available, all the opportunities that are there, we could do so much for Christ right now.
We can win so many souls. The sky is the limit. We're sitting here in a city of 4 million people and it's just all white in the harvest. We can just knock doors. We don't have to worry about the police coming and telling us, "Hey, you can't do that", and arresting us or beating us. We don't have to worry about being beheaded or stoned to death or hung from a rope. We don't have to worry about being punished by the Roman Catholic inquisition or something. We can just freely walk down the street, knock as many doors as we want, preach the Gospel to these many people as we want, and then we have the technology where we can hop in the car and just drive to somewhere 100 miles away or 400 miles away and just do the same thing. Just knock doors, win could. We have the opportunity to preach the Bible sermon like I'm preaching right now, and upload it to the internet and just have it viewed by tens of thousands of people. Just broadcast it to the world to where there's people on all 5 continents listening.
the opportunities are just amazing, aren't they? When has there ever been a time when you could do as much for the Kingdom of God. When has there even been a time when you could as easily win souls to Christ? When you could as easily preach the gospel to thousands of people. Even just by being a faithful door to door soul winner, week after week, you can win. Think about it. Even if you just went soul winning and just won one person to the Lord every week on average, spend a few hours every week, you won one person to the Lord on average. Let's say you did that for 10 years. Do the math. There's 52 weeks in a year. You're winning 52 people to the Lord every year. You have for 10 years. You will have won 520 people unto Christ.
you do that for 20 years, just nothing fancy, nothing special, just a faithful soul winner. Every week you strive to win... some weeks you might win two people to the Lord, 3 people. Some weeks you win 0 unto the Lord. But if you just average that one a week approximately and then 20 years later you've won over a thousand people unto Christ. What an amazing testimony. What an amazing life's work. Not to mention what God's going to do in and through the thousand people that you've reached with eh gospel by doing that.
There are just so many opportunities. It's so easy to get your rear end to church, Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night when you've got buses and you got cars and you got bicycles and you've got all kinds of ways to get here. You can get here. You've got a nice place to live. You got transportation. You got a church sitting here that's ready to preach the word of God to you. It's right here and you could easily get here.
Think about how other people in other times an in other places have not had these opportunities where if they go soul-winning, there's a good chance they might take a beating in an alley somewhere. Or, if they go soul-winning they could get arrested and they're doing it anyway. Or, people who don't even have an independent baptist church or even a church that's preaching out of the King James Bible, anywhere near them where they're saying, "Hey, the closest church that I can find that is preaching salvation by grace through faith out of a King James Bible is 4 hours away. It's 5 hours away. I even hear from people in these other countries that make tracks like that. They're getting on a train and they're going to some city 5 hours away so that they could be baptized because they couldn't find any church in their area that's preaching the gospel that can baptize them.
If you can't serve God in 2016 America when you have all the technology, you got a car, you got a bike, you got a bus pass, whatever you got. In the church, it is 20 minutes away or 10 minutes away or 45 minutes. "Oh! It's 45 minutes away!" But it's only 45 minutes away. In time pass, if the church was 2 1/2 miles away would have taken you 45 minutes to walk there. Think about it. In the olden days, "we already rode horses". Throughout history most people didn't ride horses. It was wealthy people and certain kinds of people that rode horses. Your average Joe has always walked. Throughout history, he has walked and ran where he needed to go. In modern times, of course, we pretty much all have a vehicle or we have vehicles available to us, bicycles, cars, public transport, whatever.
But in the olden days, if the church would have been 2 1/2 miles from you, it would have taken you 45... now what's easier? Walk in 45 minutes in Phoenix in August or hopping in the car, turning on the air-conditioner, adjusting the lumbar of your seat a little bit and driving 45 minutes to get to church? I'm just putting things in perspective for you.
If you can't run with the footmen, how are you going to contend with the horses. If in the land of peace where you dwell, if in the land of peace wherein thou trusteth they wearied thee, then how will thou do in the swelling of Jordan? How are you going to do when the flood comes? You can't even stand when you're just standing in peace, you're just too tired you want to sit down and relax, what about when you're standing in a raging river, he says. You can't keep up with people that are on foot, how are you going to keep up with the horsemen?
God is rebuking us here for thinking that we have it hard when we don't really have it that hard. It's easy for any of us to start feeling sorry for ourselves thinking that we have it so hard but honestly, everybody in this room has it a lot easier than a lot of people in other parts of the world tonight that are struggling to get to church. They're struggling to find a church. They're facing great opposition from their family, great opposition from the government or from the authorities. They're struggling tonight in a situation that makes our situation seem so easy and I just keep asking myself, "Am I doing everything that I can with the opportunities that I'm being given?"
Sometimes you just want to ask people, are you doing anything? What are you doing? Imagine getting up to heaven and there's going to be all the saints of time passed that have gone through the trials and tribulations, they have been stoned and so on and under and everything else, and people who've struggled and been in prison and beaten and face great opposition and then basically your big trial and tribulation was just somebody laughing at you or maybe you had to drive a little further in your air conditioned vehicle to get to church that you wanted or whatever. We just need to put things in perspective. Honestly, I don't know about you, but I want to do greater works for the Lord in 2016. I want to see great things happen in and through this church. I believe that the sky is the limit. I love what we're doing. I just feel like that we could do just amazing things for God if we just keep doing what we're doing and especially if some people who aren't involved would get involved and jump in and get involved.
We have hundreds of people in this church now. We could turn this city upside down. We could knock every door six times. Imagine that. What if that was going on in every city in America? We can reach the small towns. We can travel to Los Angeles. We can travel o South Africa for crying out loud. Why? Because we have amazing technology, amazing opportunities. We have the freedom to do it. Let's make the most of it and let's start practicing now.
It's so funny how some people would even say, "Hey, I'm willing to die for Jesus Christ." I read Fox's Book of Martyrs and I'm willing to go to the stake and be burned at the stake. I'm willing to die for Jesus Christ. But you can't come to church? Or you can't et out soul-winning? How are you going to die for Jesus Christ when you can't even live for Jesus Christ?
If you can't get your butt out soul-winning, if you can't get to church, if you can't read your Bible and pray, how are you going to die for Him? That's all just talk at that point. We need to realize that if you're going to deal with that swelling of Jordan, if it comes, you better learn how to serve God in the land of peace and you better start running with the footmen before you start telling us how you're going to outrun the horses.
By the way, it is possible for a human being to outrun a horse over 100 mile distance. People do it every single year, those man vs. horse race that's out there. The men win by the way. We're the greatest creation that God has created. We're greater than any of the animals o so many levels. But that's another story.
Look at verse 7, the Bible reads, "I have forsaken mine house," this is God speaking. "God forbid that whatever have been said of this church, because the church is the Lord's house in the New Testament. Wouldn't it be a shame if God said, "Hey, I've forsaken my house. I've forsaken that church." You say, "Well God will never do that." IN revelation 2 and 3, that's exactly what He said He would do to churches that went in to false doctrine and they stop serving him and stop doing the first words. He said, "If you don't repent, I'll remove you candlestick out of this place." That candlestick represented the church. He said, "The seven candlesticks which I saw are the seven churches. They'll remove your candlestick out of its place. It's possible for a church to get in to false doctrine to the point where God would basically just remove the candlestick fro that church where he no longer recognizes it as. A church that is a legitimate, bonafide, Christian church, Baptist church.
We need to realize that, in order to have God's spirit mightily upon us, we need to keep the doctrine right and we need to keep the works right according to Revelation Chapters 2 and 3. Because in this case, they had completely gone into idolatry, and they've gone into a lot of sin. He said, "I've forsaken mine house." Referring, of course, to the Old Testament God's house which was the temple as Jerusalem. They might have thought that the presence of God was there but he said, "No, I'm pulling back. I'm withdrawing my blessing. I'm taking my hand off this thing and I'm going to let you be destroyed by the Babylonians that are coming in.
He said, "I've forsaken mine house. I've left mine heritage. I have given the dearly beloved of my could into the hand of her enemies. The dearly beloved of his soul here is the nation of Judah at this time. The nation of the Southern Kingdom of the Israelites, those were the dearly beloved of his soul. His house was that temple in Jerusalem. He's saying, "I've forsaken it. I've left it. I've given it over into the hand of her enemies which is the Babylonians.
"Mine heritage as under me as a lion in the forest. It crieth out against me, therefore have I hated it." What a sad state when God goes from calling it the dearly beloved of His soul to saying I hated it. What does heritage mean? It's out which you inherit. Heritage is synonymous with our modern word, "inheritance". It's the same exact concept here. That which is rightfully his that belongs to him. He's saying, I'm to the point where I'm pulling out of there." These should be my people. It's supposed to be my land. It's supposed to be my house but I'm leaving. Not only is it not, it was the dearly beloved of my soul but he's saying, "Therefore, I hated it."
What a terrible state of affairs. It says, "My heritage is under me as a speckled bird." I don't know exactly what he means by that but I don't think it's a compliment when he says that they're like a speckled bird. The birds round about are against her. Come ye, assemble all the bees to the field. Come to devour." Referring to all the people that are going to die. It says, "Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard. They have trodden my portion under foot. They have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
what does he mean by that, "many pastors have destroyed my vineyard"? If we get the context in the Book of Jeremiah in the last several chapters, he brought up the pastors repeatedly. He brings them up for a few verses in almost each chapter. He talks about the pastors are brutish and how they've not sought the Lord. But he also brought up the fact that they were dealing falsely and that they're actually ripping people off financially and taking advantage of the poor and actually serving themselves both the rulers politically and the spiritual leaders were both just getting wealthy off the backs of the people and being dishonest in their dealings and so forth. That's a reference to that once again.
Treading the people under foot. The poor and the disadvantaged and so forth. It says in verse 11. They've made it desolate and being desolate it mourneth unto me, the whole land is made desolate because no man layeth it to hard. The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness for the sword of the Lord shall devour from one end of the land even to the other end of the land, no flesh shall have peace. They've sown wheat, but they shall reap thorns. This is referring to a literal sowing and reaping saying, "They're sowing something that they want to eat, good food that is going to bring them wealth and sustenance, They have sown wheat. They're going to reap thorns because God is not going to bless their crops. God's not going to bless their crops. God's going to bring a curse upon the land in addition to the invading armies that are coming.
He said, "They've put themselves the pain but shall not profit. They shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the Lord." What do we see in this chapter? Just a lot of anger coming from the Lord. He's upset about the false doctrine. He's upset about them worshiping false gods, mistreating the poor, and so forth. Look at verse 14. This is a really interesting scripture, verses 14 through 17 here where instead of talking to the land of Judah and talking about Jerusalem which is most of what this is directed at in the Book of Jeremiah, he actually addresses the neighboring countries around Judah.
He calls them "my evil neighbors". He's referring to these evil nations that are near unto the children of Judah there. What? This is really interesting. I think someone sees it a read over stuff like this without actually letting everything sink in what God says but let's read this very carefully beginning verse 14.
"Does sayeth the Lord against all mine evil neighbors that touched the inheritance which I have caused my people to inherit. Behold, I will pluck them out of their land and pluck out the house of Judah from among them." What's he saying in this verse? He's saying that the neighbors of Israel, the neighbors of Judah, that were hostile unto Judah, that have touched their land, they basically want to take advantage of maybe Judah at a weak point and the Jews at a weak point when Nebuchadnezzar is coming in and they basically want to see the downfall of Jerusalem. They want to see the downfall of Judah this time.
He says, "Not only are the children of Judah and the Israelites going to go into captivity but he's saying you're going to be plucked out of your land as well. Pay attention. When Judah is taken captive to Babylon, he's saying you evil neighbors are going with it. Everybody understand that?
He said, I will pluck them out of their land. Talking about the evil neighbors. I'm going to pluck them out of the... and pluck out the house of Judah from among them. He's plucking the neighbors and Judah from among them. Watch this, verse 15. "It shall come to pass after that I have plucked them out, I will return and I've compassion on them and will bring them again. Every man to his heritage and every man to his land. Here he says that eventually, he's going to bring the children of Judah back to their land and have compassion on them. We know that that happened 70 years later, already happened.
Jeremiah's being written before the 70 year Babylonian captivity so he's prophesied, the children of Judah, they're wicked, I'm cursing them, God's angry, and he's saying, "I'm going to pluck them out of their land, the evil neighbors are going to get plucked out of their land also, but children of Judah are going to be plucked but he says, "Judah is coming back eventually and they're going to brought back and put in their own land", which we know happened. Of course, we can read about that in Ezra and Nehemiah, them coming back to the land, rebuilding the wall, rebuilding the temple.
Look at verse 16. This is really interesting. It shall come to pass if they will diligently learn the ways of my people to swear by my name the Lord liveth as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then shall they be built in the midst of my people. But if they will not obey I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation sayeth the Lord. Did you just understand what he just said there on verse 16?
He says, to the evil neighbors as he calls them, he says that if they will turn on to the Lord and he's saying, these people... Notice, these are distinct from what he calls "my people". When he says "my people", he's talking about the Jews in the land of Judah which in the Old Testament, were God's chosen people. But distinct from my people, he says, "It shall come to pass if they", meaning the evil neighbors, "if they will diligently learn the ways of my people". If those neighboring nations would learn the ways of God's people, when they come back and they're doing right 70 years later and they're serving the Lord, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people to swear by my name the Lord liveth as they taught my people to swear by Baal.
He's saying these evil neighbors in the past have taught God's people to swear by Baal. Judah had picked up all these idols and false religions from the neighboring nations. He's saying if they will swear by my name the Lord liveth as they taught in the past, he's saying, my people to swear by Baal, what's God going to do for these evil neighbors, if they'll get right, if they'll turn to the Lord, if they will learn how to worship the Lord according to the word of God. It says, "Then shall they be built in the midst of my people." In the midst of, in the middle of, among, he's saying, my people... There are so many scriptures like this in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, so many. You could preach so many sermons where you never even read the same scripture twice, as you just went through Jeremiah and [inaudible 00:35:04].
Where God is always reaching out to the foreign nations and saying, you can also be God's people also. You can be God's people. I'll plant you in the midst of my people. In fact, in Ezekiel, he goes so far as to say, "Hey, if the foreigners and the strangers will come in and they want to join up with the nation of Israel", he says. Of course they'd be circumcised under the old covenant and worship the Lord and keep the Passover and so forth, he said, "Whatever tribe they dwell among, they'll inherit with that tribe."
Right here, it's crystal clear that if these evil neighbors would get right with the Lord and if they wanted to be a part of God's people, if they wanted to learn the ways of God's people, they'll plant them in the midst of God's people. Or, he says, verse 17, "if they'll not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation", sayeth the Lord. Many of those neighboring nations have ceased to be a nation unto this day. There are a lot of nations that you read about in the Old Testament that aren't a nation today. We don't really know who those people are because they were just so scattered and obliterated and God intermingled and nobody even knows who they are anymore.
This goes to show what a false doctrine is. This thing of, well it's your blood or ethnicity, or race, or nationality that makes you God's people. This is just yet another scripture that flies in the face that... who cares what their ethnicity is? The evil neighbors could come and join unto the Lord. What about in the Book of Esther wherein it says, "Many of the people became Jews." Did they get all the DNA removed from their body and all the sudden get Hebrew DNA? No because it never was ethnic. It never was hereditary. It never had anything to do with race or ethnicity. Even in the Old Testament, let alone in the New Testament... Even in the Old Testament where genealogies did play a role and when they did matter and when we see [frequent 00:37:13] genealogies, even in the Old Testament, where there was a physical nation of Israel that was the chosen people of God, even then he's saying that any foreigner could join.
All he has to do is just get circumcised, dwell on the land, worship the Lord, keep the Passover. He'd say, "I have white tribe is he?" I've heard people pull that up. All you got to do is go to Ezekiel Chapter 47 and he spells out at the end of the chapter there which tribe, whichever tribe they dwell among, they become that tribe.
This flies in the face of their racist belief that somehow the so-called Jews are God's chosen people because of their ethnicity. Which their ethnicity is a joke anyway because not one of them can produce a genealogy proving that they even are who they say they are. None of them. You could talk to the most orthodox rabbi and he'll tell you, "Hey, I don't have a genealogy that even goes back to tie of Christ, let alone going back further than that."
If you remember in the Book of Ezra and Nehemiah, when they came back to the land, there were people that couldn't produce their genealogy. But the said, "We're Levites. We're priests. We're Kohathites. We are of the lineage that's supposed to be serving in the temple and the Lord." They said, "Okay, prove it." Because they could not produce their genealogy, they were put from the priesthood as polluted. They were assumed to not be truly Levites, to not be priests. But today, we're disposed to assumed that every white-skinned, freckled redhead or blonde-haired, blue-eyed person over in the Middle East today is Jewish because they said so.
Polaski, Likawsi, Kazinski, that's all their real names by the way. Does anybody know Netanyahu's real name? Somebody help me out. Like these guys, they all have these names that sounds really Hebrew. Benjamin Netanyahu or what's that other guy? I knew the names real well when I was researching for the [inaudible 00:39:45] film.
David Bengurian, and all these guys that were... if you look at all those guys names that have all these really Hebrew sound, "oh we're going back to the promised land". But then you look at... that's not the name that they're born with. What is it?
Benjamin Netanyahu's real name is he's saying Malik Kewkawski. I don't know he pronounced it right but none of us know how to pronounce it. The point is a bunch of Kopawski, Molawskis show up in the promised land. The Palestinians are like, "When these people left they were brown. When they came back, they're all white." We're disposed to take their word for it and we're like, "How are you Jewish?" They're like, "Well, my mom's Jewish." They say, "Well our dad doesn't matter. It's just our mom's Jewish." In the Bible wasn't it always the father that even... aren't all the genealogies like the father, Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat Judas, Judas begat Pharahs and Zera, wasn't it all men?
But the Jews of today do a matrilineal. It's all on their mom's side. Is that Biblical? How are these people Jews again? Well because they said so. Can't you see that they're Jewish? But then they're like, "Oh, these Palestinians, they're interlopers, these Arabs." But here's the thing. Those Arabs have probably just as much blood of the Jews of 2000 years ago mixed in as these bunch of white Europeans. Look, I'm not disputing that these white Europeans don't have a little bit of Abrahan, Isaac and Jacob's blood in them. I'm sure they do, but I'm sure the Palestinians do too because it's been so mingled and mixed over there because the Jews are scattered into all nations.
All that to say this, it's never been hereditary, it's never been some... even in the Old Testament when genealogies matter to the point where Ezra is saying, "Sorry, you can't be a priest unless you can prove to me that you are." But then we get into the New Testament, God says, "Avoid genealogies." The only genealogies that you're going to find in the New Testament, the only genealogies are of Jesus.
Now, in the Old Testament, we have all these big, long genealogies. You have two long genealogies in the New Testament, Matthew Chapter 1 and Luke Chapter 3. There's your genealogy. You know why we have that, because that's the only person's genealogy that matters, is Jesus'. Why? Because if we're a son of God, if we have Jesus Christ as our everlasting father, that's all that matters. Who cares about the rest of it? The rest of it just avoid it.
But even in the Old Testament when genealogy mattered for certain things, even then, God's telling a bunch of evil neighbors, the evil neighbors of Lebanon, the evil neighbors of Jordan, the evil neighbors of Syria or whatever, if you will learn my ways and worship and serve me, I'll plant you in the midst of my... I wonder if the Jews so-called of today would make that offer unto their neighbors. Say, "Hey, you guys who worship the Lord, you can be planted in the midst of Israel. You guys can all come in if you [inaudible 00:43:32] look.
Here's the problem with that though. If the Jews made that offer today, they'd be inviting people into a false religion. They'd be saying, "Hey, if you renounce Jesus, if you'll reject Jesus Christ o Palestinian", could you say, "Well, you can go to Israel to convert to Judaism." Yeah, if you'll sell your soul to the devil. Because in order to convert to orthodox Judaism, you have to renounce Jesus as the Messiah. You cannot believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I don't care... We talked to the most liberal rabbi. We talked to orthodox rabbi that said, "Hey, if you believe Jesus is the Messiah, you can't be Jewish." But then we talked to the most liberal possible rabbi and he said, "Well, you can believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and still be Jewish. You could still convert to Judaism, but you just can't believe that he's the Son of God." Then it's not going to do you any good because we believe on the Son has everlasting life.
The point is that there are a bunch of Palestinians over in Israel today that claim the name of Jesus Christ and the Jews want them out of there, "Hey, this is our land!" The only that those Palestinians could really have the right to be there according to the so-called Jews, it's if they would renounce the Lord Jesus Christ and join the false religion of Judaism. Then, we have a bunch of Christians in America today who are basically saying, "Yeah, the Jews are right. We need to side with the Israel. We need to get the Palestinians out. Throw out the Palestinians." You have places now in Israel that used to be 20% of people claim the name of Christ.
I'm not saying these people are all saved. Obviously, there are all different denominations of Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, Presbyterians, all manner of so-called Christian. Whether they're saved or not, some of them are saved. A lot of them aren't obviously if they're Catholic, they're not saved. But there's a mixture of all these denominations. But in areas that were demographically, like 20% Christian that are now, since Israel was founded in the 40s, now they're like 1% Christian or 2% Christian.
Then basically, what you have is in America, a bunch of evangelical Christians are saying, we need to get that 1% or 2% out. The God's people, the Christ-rejecting Jews can own all their land. See what I mean? It doesn't even make... When they worshiped other gods, God pulled out. He said, "I've forsaken my house. I've left my heritage. I hated it." Isn't that what he said? Even in the Old Testament, that's what he said. He's reaching out to foreigners and saying, "Hey, if you guys will learn my ways, I'll plant you in the midst. But to the modern evangelical Christian to the modern independent baptist, nope, it's all about race. It's all about ethnicity.
I guess these bunch of white people over there, they just self-identify as Jews. They self-identify as the sons' of Abraham. You know what? THat's no me legitimate than some dude going into the women's rooms at Target. A dude belongs in the women's room at Target just as much as these bunch of white, Polish Europeans have a right to say, "Hey, the promised land belongs to me." I'm dead serious because I self-identify. If you were borne a man, you don't belong... if you were borne a woman, I guess that's what it is right? They're trying to... I don't really care. They're all perverts. Stone them with stones.
Anyway, if you were borne female, what are you doing in the ladies room? Well, Kopawski, if you don't have a genealogy, then show us that you're borne of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, why do you think you can just waltz into the promised land and just claim it? Throw out the inhabitants that have been there for hundreds of years. This is my land now.
They reject Jesus. I'd rather stand with Christians. I don't have this race, and you know what? I don't have racial pride. I'm not going to stand and say, "Hey, I'm proud to be a white person today." Asian pride, Black pride, Black power. Him that glorieth, [inaudible 00:48:31] glory in the Lord. The Lord's name is Jesus. Here's the thing. I feel a lot more kinship with a black person, an Asian person, a Hispanic person that believes in Jesus, that reads the King James Bible. I've way more kinship with that person than some pagan whose worshiping Thor in Scandinavia or something. Because my name is Andersen so I'm of Sweden or whatever.
Who cares about that junk? How can Christians that's just been so brainwashed on this where they actually think, "Oh! You know what? It's in their blood. It's their race. They don't believe in Jesus but they're still God's people." What Bible are you reading where you could ever be God's people by virtue of race. That didn't even fly in the Old Testament. Even in the Old Testament, he said, "You don't get circumcised, you're cut off from the people. You don't keep the Passover, you're cut off from the people." Let me ask you this, "Did the Jews in the Holy Land keep the Passover Biblically? Do they kill lamb, they put the blood on the door post? No. Then God already said they're cut off. That should be a case closed, end of story, done. Sermon's over. Let's bow our heads and go home, at that point.
But evangelical Christians today are so obsessed with this thing of race and nationality where they just think, "Oh! These Palestinians. Even if they're Christians, they don't belong there. Put the Christ-rejecting Jews in there." Because they're not all Muslims folks. There are some that are different. That's what it should go by. It should go by, "Who are you siding with? The Muslims?" No, I only will side with my brothers and sisters in Christ. If they're ethnically so-called Jewish or Polish or whatever, great, I'll side with them. But I'm not going to side with Christ-rejecting Judaism any more than I would side with Christ-rejecting Islam.
This is just another chapter. You say, "why do you preach on this all the time?" I don't even want to preach on it but it just keeps being in the Bible. I'm not kidding. It's just like, "Okay, Jeremiah Chapter 1, there it is. Jeremiah Chapter 2..." Jeremiah 12, surely we're going to get a break from it. I'm not writing this stuff. This is a pretty interesting passage,
People aren't really talking about it but it's a key doctrine here that God loved the foreign nations, even in the Old Testament where he's constantly reaching out to them. Or do you think God just hated everybody except Israel in the Old Testament, then all of a sudden in the New Testament, he's like, "Whoa! There's other people in the world. Let's teach all nations. Let's go into all and teach all nations." He was trying to do that in the Old Testament too but the Israelites are too stubborn and they got all hung up on race and everything to where when Paul wants to preach the Gentiles, they want to kill him.
Take this fellow from the Earth, it's not fit for such one to live because he said God sent me to preach to the Gentiles, oh God forbid. But they're likened to Jonah where they want to see Nineveh perish. They want Nineveh to go up in flames. They hate people of other nationalities. We should not be that way. I don't care whether you call me a liberal or a hippie, I don't think we should hate people of other nationalities. I don't think that we should think that we're better because we're white or because we're American or because of anything. The only thing that would make one person better than somebody else is if God had basically made that person His child and made them a king and a priest through their faith in Christ.
That's the only thing that separate... There's two kinds of people in this world. Those who are saved and those who are about to get saved. No... those who are saved and those who are not saved. That's it, two kinds of people, saved and non-saved. Who cares about your nationality and all the set of junk. But you know what? Christians will say that they understand that but then all of a sudden when we start talking about Israel, that just goes out the window and it's like, "Whoa! But it's their nationality that makes them God's people." It's like, they need to just understand that that makes no sense.
You know what they call us? Anti-semitic. Thy have the gall, which is implying that I'm racist, that's what they mean by that. When they say "anti-semitic", you hate people of another... even though they're white and I'm white, supposedly I'm racist against myself because I'm racists against white people, but they said, "You're anti-semitic. You're racist", because I said they're all equal, because I said Jews and Gentiles are equal, that makes me racist.
No. Anyone who is zionist is racist. Zionism is inherently racist. It's racist because you're saying by virtue of race, these people have rights that these people don't have. It's a fraud. But then they call us racist. Then they'll say, "You hate Jews." You know who hates Jews? The people that tells them they're going to heaven when they're really going to hell. The person who loves them tells them the truth of the Gospel. I don't hate Jews. I want Jews to be saved so I'd tell them that they're worshiping Satan because they don't know that. Somebody needs to tell them that. I'd love to see them turn to Christ and be saved.
Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, Lord. Lord, help us all to take that admonition about running with the footmen so that we can be prepared to run with the horses someday Lord. We don't know when our opportunities are going to be gone Lord. We don't know when the Internet could be shut down and censored. We don't know when there could be laws against soul-winning. We don't know when things could be locked down to the point where we can't travel freely and go soul-winning freely Lord. We don't know when the end of this world will come. No man knoweth the day or the hour Lord, but help us to do everything we can right now while it's easy, while it's available, while it's free Lord, help us to do everything we possibly can to reach this world with the gospel Lord.
Father, I just pray to you just open the eyes of the Christians in this country who are so deceived where they have this Israel worship cult where they don't understand that the only thing that matters is Jesus. They don't get that Father and I just pray that you would just open their eyes that if people don't have Jesus, they don't have anything and that they need to be saved and that worshiping in a synagogue is going to damn their souls straight to hell, Lord. Please just open our eyes Lord as a nation. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
