Clean Transcript

The Sin Every Christian Commits

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• Well, you will have to listen very closely because I can't preach very loud, I don't think, today. I would really appreciate your prayers, not just for me. But I wanted to mention, last night, prayer was asked for the Kimetz family. Daniel just turned 24. He has bile duct cancer. They sent him home to die. He's basically doing alternative. His mother was trying to take care of him. She came down with cancer.

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• They have a fungus in their blood. They have Lyme's disease. They have whatever. And so last night, as we started our singing, I muted my phone. And just as we did, I'd gotten a text from Daniel. I just assumed that one of them had died. But lo and behold, it was just a medical report. So I let him know that, I'm in church. I don't have time to, you know, I'll talk with you a little bit later.

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• But it is very serious for those people. And right now, the young lady, Victoria, she's the main support of both of them. And so if you would really pray for the Kimetz family, I would appreciate that. They're fine people. They're godly people. They're grace people. And they just need our prayers. And I don't know how mother's going to take care of him with since she's got cancer as well, but if you would remember to pray for them.

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• I want you to open your Bibles, if you would, to Jeremiah chapter 13. And let's begin reading there with verse 1. Jeremiah 13, verse 1, "Thus saith the Lord unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water. So I got a girdle, according to the word of the Lord, and put it on my loins. And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying, Take the girdle that thou hast got, which is upon my loins, and arise, and go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock. So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me. And it came to pass, after many days, that the Lord said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there. Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it. And, behold, the girdle was marred."

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• It was profitable for nothing. Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, "Thus saith the Lord, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods to serve them and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing. For as this girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah, saith the Lord, that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory. But they would not hear."

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• The title of the message is, "The Sin That Every Christian Commits." I'm sure that you're wondering, what is the sin that every Christian commits? I suppose that we could begin by naming many sins such as lust, covetousness, prayerlessness, sins of omission, sins of commission. However, I think there is a basic sin that covers all of those sins and really a multitude more. But this sin is so horrendous that Christians really commit it every day, and they especially commit it on Sunday, on the Lord's day. Now you're going to ask me what that sin is. Here it is. It is the sin of refusing to hear the word of God. We could probably say that this is a historical sin because it has been committed through the ages. And here in our text, it is Judah and Jerusalem that are sinning against God. And may I remind you that Judah and Jerusalem were supposedly the people of God after the Northern Kingdom apostatized and went into idolatry. For a while, the Southern Kingdom remained faithful, and they gloried in the fact that they were a covenant people and the people of God.

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• In fact, they had a lot of advantages. The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 3 verses 1 and 2 asks this question, "What advantage then hath the Jew or the Judahite? Or what profit is there in circumcision?" And then he says this, "There is much in every way but chiefly that unto them were committed the oracles of God." In other words, they had the word of God. When you get to Romans chapter 9 verses 4 and 5, the Apostle Paul says it like this, "Who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen." Now, you're going to object when I say that the sin that every Christian commits is the sin of failing to hear the Word of God. And you're going to say, "But I'm hearing the word of God. And I come to church on Sunday and I come to church any other time we have a conference or a meeting and I sit there and I listen and I hear the word of God."

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• May I remind you that according to the Bible, there are actually two types of hearing. There is that external auditory hearing that everyone who has the ability to hear can hear. But secondly, there is that internal and spiritual hearing that only a very few really hear. In fact, I would say that probably this is where about 90 percent of most professing Christians are. They come, they sit, they listen, they leave, and their lives are absolutely never affected.

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• So let me ask you this. How is it that we can attend church so much, hear the word of God so often, and yet know so little? And how is it that seemingly as Christians, we end up having some of the same problems that the non-Christians have? Why is it that we can hear and we never really know how to apply? And it's amazing to me how some Christians have the same problem over and over and over in their life, seemingly never work it out. One of my friends, years ago, he and his wife were having trouble.

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• They came to me for counseling. I counseled them several times. Gave them the same counsel every time. Finally, one day he came back into my office and he was whining and complaining and bellyaching and going over the same stuff that we had been over time after time again. And I looked at him and I said, "Brother, may I tell you what I'd really like to do to you?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Here's what I'd like to do. I'd like to take you by the shirt and catch you and hold you up against the wall and just slap you silly."

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• And when I said that, his mouth fell open. And when his mouth fell open, I said, "And if I thought it would help, I would do it." I said, "Let me explain something to you. I can tell you what the word of God says, and I can tell you what you must do to be obedient, but I can't make you do it. And unless you apply the word of God to your life, you're going to continue to have this same problem. Do you understand?"

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• He looked at me and said, "Yes, sir. I understand now." And from that day to this, they've never had that problem again, and they've been married over 50 years as well. But I'm just simply saying. The problem is we don't really hear. It was Augustine who said that he heard the gospel all of his life, and then one day he heard it. So let me show you.

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• I want you to hold Jeremiah 13, but look in your Bibles, if you would, at 1 Samuel, chapter 15, 1 Samuel, chapter 15. So you can see exactly what I'm talking about. Everyone knows in this story, 1 Samuel, journey. He's to slay all of the Amalekites. And yet the Bible tells us that Saul spared Agag the king and the best of the oxen and the fat ones. He spared the best, but he killed everything else. And when Samuel, the prophet, started coming to Saul and Samuel approached Saul, Saul said, "Blessed be thou of the Lord. I performed all the word of the Lord."

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• And about that time, something went bad. And Samuel said, "If you obeyed God, what means the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the oxen in my ear? If you'd obeyed God, everything would be dead." And of course, then Saul tried to blame it on the people because he said the people spared the best so that they could sacrifice it. So look, if you would, in 1 Samuel, chapter 15, beginning there with verse 22. Samuel asked this question.

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• "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king."

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• Now go back to verse 22. And Samuel said, "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?"

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• Now, I want you to pay close attention to the latter part of this verse. He said, "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken is better than the fat of rams." Have you ever stopped to think about this? He said to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken is better than the fat of rams. You know what the fat of rams was? The fat of rams was the chiefest part of the sacrifice that was always given to God. But I want you to pay close attention. He said to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken is better than the fat of rams. In other words, you don't really hear until you obey. You don't really hear until you take heed. You don't really hear until you apply the Word of God.

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• So if you will turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 6, you'll see how our Lord says exactly the same thing. Notice in Luke chapter 6, everyone can quote verse 46, but look at it. In Luke 6 and verse 46, our Lord says, "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" And of course, the word Lord is kurios, which means boss, owner, master, sovereign, supreme one. Our Lord says, "Why are you calling me sovereign? Why are you calling me master if you're not going to obey me?" And then he goes on and he says this in verse 47.

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• "Whoso cometh to me and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you whom he is like. He is like a man which built a house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock, and when the flood arose the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built a house upon the earth, against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great."

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• Now I want you to pay close attention. He talks about the man who hears and does. And then he talks about the man who hears and he does not. So the man that really, truly hears is the one that obeys. The man who says he hears, but he does not obey, does not really hear. So absence of obedience demonstrates that there has been no real hearing. So our Lord is saying, look, if you really hear my words, you're going to obey me. It's just that simple. Do you remember that passage in John chapter 10, where our Lord is showing us the difference between his sheep and the goats? He said in John 10 in verse 27, "My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me." So the distinguishing characteristic of the sheep is that they hear His voice and they follow Him. Now, I want you to go back to Jeremiah chapter 13. I'm just trying to set the stage for you. And I want you to look, if you would please, at verse 10.

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• Look what our Lord says concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Remember, these were supposedly His covenant people. But in Jeremiah 13 and verse 10, He says this, "This evil people which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods to serve them and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing." Isn't that amazing? And then he says in verse 11, watch carefully, "For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah, saith the Lord, that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory, but they would not hear." So God said, I wanted them to be for my name, I wanted them to be for my praise, I wanted them to be for my glory, but they would not hear.

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• Now, you remember earlier, I told you that this was a historical sin because it occurs throughout the Bible. Let me just show you several passages. I want you to turn to 2 Chronicles, chapter 36, and look, if you would please, beginning there with verse 15. 2 Chronicles, chapter 36, and verse 15. Watch carefully. 2 Chronicles 36, verse 15. The Bible says, "And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers rising up many times and sending, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place." Now let me just stop right there. Do you realize any time that God has compassion upon a people, He sends them His preachers? He sends them His Word? Any time God is going to judge a people, He does one of two things. He will either remove His preachers or he'll shut their mouths.

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• When Elijah was moved out of the land and there was a drought for three and a half years, that drought was just a physical picture of a spiritual reality. The man of God, the preacher, was out of the land. There was no word from God. When you get to Jeremiah, God left Jeremiah in the land. He just shut his mouth. He said, "Pray not for this people." And then finally, Jeremiah kept wanting to pray. God said, "All right, Jeremiah 14, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'm going to let you pray. But you pray that I'm going to destroy them because that's exactly what I'm going to do." So in Elijah, he took him out of the land. In Jeremiah, he just shut his mouth.

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• But notice if you would now, verse 15, he said, "And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up every time and sending, why? Because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place." But what was their response? "But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy."

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• "Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with a sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man or him that stooped for age, he gave them all into his hand." So note if you would please, again, God sent, but they would not listen. If you would turn in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 7. Jeremiah chapter 7, and look at verses 25 and 26. Jeremiah 7, verses 25 and 26. Here it is again. God says it like this.

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• "Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets daily, rising up early and sending them. Yet they hearken not unto me, nor incline their ear, but harden their neck, and did worse than their fathers." Look in Jeremiah 11, beginning there with verse 7. Jeremiah 11 and verse 7. God says, "For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even in this day rising early, and protesting, saying, Obey my voice. Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart."

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• "Therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did them not." Turn right over to Jeremiah, chapter twenty-five. Just showing you, this is a historical sin. It's amazing when you look at it. Jeremiah 25, notice if you would please, verses 3 and 4. "From the 13th year of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, that is the 3 and 20th year, the word of the Lord had come unto me and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not hearkened. And the Lord has sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear." Look in chapter 26 verses 4 and 5. 26 verses 4 and 5. "And thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the Lord, If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you, to hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early and sending them, but ye have not hearkened

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• unto me." I could keep going in the book of Jeremiah. I could look at Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah 32, Jeremiah 35, Jeremiah 44. It's the same thing over and over. They would not listen. All through the scripture, the Bible tells us that God commands, He begs, He pleads, He threatens, He admonishes, He exhorts His people to hear His words and to hear His commandments. And over and over, they refuse, they rebel, they fail to hear, they fail to listen to His words, they stiffened their neck, they hardened their heart and God judged them and God chastised them and God whipped them. And yet they still would not hear.

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• Let me show you something. Look in your Bibles to the book of Amos. Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. Look in Amos chapter four. We're not going to read all of that, but look in Amos chapter four. Notice what God has done to get the attention of the people. Amos chapter 4, look at verse 6. God said, "And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in your cities, and want of bread in all your places."

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• "Yet you have not returned unto me, saith the Lord. And I've also withholden the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest. I caused it to rain upon one city and caused it not to rain upon another city. One piece was rained upon and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered into one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied. Yet you've not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I've smitten you with blasting and mildew, when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them, yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I've sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt."

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• "Your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses, and I've made the stink of your camps to come up in your nostrils. Yet you have not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning. Yet you have not returned unto me, saith the Lord." And then in verse twelve, "Therefore will I do unto you, O Israel, and because I will do this, prepare to meet thy God." In other words, God sent all of these plagues and all of these acts to gain their attention.

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• But they would not hear and they would not listen. Now, let me ask you, is it not absolutely unnatural for a child not to listen to his father? Is it not unnatural for one who professes to be God's people not to listen to their creator, their God and their Redeemer? There's an interesting verse in Isaiah 1 and verse 3. God says, "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib. But Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." The ox knoweth his owner, the ass his master's crib.

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• I have cattle, and I've got news for you. All I have to do is walk outside and they see me, they start lowing, they start running, they start coming. I've got several bulls that weigh 3,000 pounds, Santa Gertrudis, nothing but big pets, black little dogs, folly everywhere. And all they want is attention and all they want is food and loving. Here's what God is saying, sometimes these supposedly dumb animals are smarter than people. At least they know. They know where their bread comes from. They know who feeds them. They know where the stall is. They know. But my people, he said, does not know.

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• Now, I want you to turn to Jeremiah, chapter 35, because I'm going to show you we're coming back to Jeremiah 13. But I want to show you something here that is very, very enlightening. Jeremiah 35 gives us some wonderful illustrations on how some will hear and obey when given instruction, although that instruction is not necessarily logical, practical, or right. So look at Jeremiah 35 and let's read a good bit. "The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, Go into the house of the Rechabites, and speak unto them, and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink. Then I took Jeazaniah, the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazaniah, and his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites. And I brought them into the house of the Lord, that is, into the temple, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah, the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door."

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• "And I sat before the sons of the house of the Rechabites, pots full of wine and cups, and I said unto them, Drink ye wine. But they said, We will drink no wine. For Jonadab, the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, You shall drink no wine, neither ye nor your sons, for ever. Neither shall you build houses, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any."

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• "But all your days you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many days in the land where you be strangers. Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he charged us, to drink no wine all of our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters, nor to build houses for us to dwell in, neither have we vineyards, nor field, nor seed. But we have dwelt in tents, and obeyed and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. But it came to pass, when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up into the land, that we said, Come, and let us go to Jerusalem, for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians. So we dwell at Jerusalem." Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Go and tell the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction to hearken to my word, saith the Lord?"

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• "The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed. For unto this day they drink none, but obey their father's commandment. Notwithstanding, I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but ye hearken not unto me. And I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early, and sending them, saying, Return ye now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them."

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• "And ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and your fathers. But ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearken unto me. Because the sons of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, have performed the commandment of their father, which he commanded them. But this people hath not hearken unto me? Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, all the evil that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken unto them, but they have not heard, and I have called unto them, but they have not answered. And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according to all that he had commanded you. Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab the son of Rechab, shall not want a man to stand before me for ever."

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• Now, the key verse is verse thirteen. "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, Go and tell the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction to hearken to my words, saith the Lord?"

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• Now, I want you to think about this in the context. God tells Jeremiah to take the Rechabites and put them in the temple and give them wine to drink. Well, first of all, let me just say this. Alcohol is not sinful in and of itself. If it was sinful in and of itself, then God here would be the author of sin. And we know, obviously, according to James 1, verses 13 and 14, the Bible says, "Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed." Let me put this another way. Sin is not in anything material. Alcohol does not make a drunkard any more than money makes a thief. Now, I will be honest with you, I don't drink.

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• I've never had a beer in my entire life. I don't plan on starting now. But I'm just simply pointing out the fact. God said, you give these fellows wine. By the way, I hope you understand it's Greek dualism that tries to put sin in anything material. And actually, when you read 1 John 1, particularly, 1 John 1 is against the Docetic Gnostics. The word dokeo is the Greek word which means "I appear." Well, since the Docetic Gnostics believed that sin was material, they denied that Jesus Christ had a real body.

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• They said he was an apparition. So that's why John wrote in 1 John 1, "our eyes have seen him, our hands have handled of the word of life." In other words, he's real, he's genuine. And so wine is offered to these Rechabites. And they said, "No, we're not going to do this." Why? "Well, Jonadab, our father, commanded us that we were to never, ever drink any wine." Now, listen.

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• Moreover, we were not to live in houses. We were not to have vineyards. We were not to have trees. We were going to just live in tents and be nomads all of our lives. Let me ask you, how practical is that? How would you like to know that you could never live in a house? How would you like to know that you could never have a garden? You could never have a pear tree or a fig tree. You could never have a grapevine. You could never have any of those things. In other words, what Jonadab had done, he had commanded his sons and his daughters, you're never to do these things. And they obeyed.

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• Do you understand that what he commanded them was very impractical, very unrealistic in one sense of the word, especially in our day and time. So the point is simple. These Rechabites honored and obeyed their father's instructions, and they kept his commandments. The very fact that Jonadab's commands were impractical and difficult and of mere human origin did not deter his sons and daughters from obedience.

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• On the other hand, here is the divine word of God from the sovereign God of the universe, whose commands are life-giving and good and right and honorable and holy, and Judah and Jerusalem will not obey them. Here's an interesting scenario. These people were obeying their father when it was very impractical and very difficult. And yet the people who were supposed to have loved the Lord refused to obey.

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• If you will look in Jeremiah 35 again at verse 14. Jeremiah 35 verse 14. "The words of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine are performed. For unto this day they drink none, but obey their father's commandment notwithstanding. I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking, but you hearken not. And I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending, and saying, Return ye now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them."

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• "And you shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and your fathers. But you have not inclined your ear, nor hearken unto me, because the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father, which he commanded them. But this people have not hearkened unto me." Let me show you something else. If you would turn right over to Jeremiah chapter 36. Jeremiah 36 is another good illustration.

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• Because it shows how men refuse and despise the word of God. Jeremiah has been shut up in prison. He can't preach. So he calls Baruch and he tells Baruch, "You write down everything that I'm going to tell you." And he does. And now he tells Baruch, he says, "You take what you have written and you go to the temple and you read it to all the people." And he did.

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• Well, several of the princes heard. And they said, "How did you do this?" "Well, he spoke and I wrote." And they said, "Well, you need to put this up because we need to let the king know this." So watch this. Look in Jeremiah 36, beginning there with verse 20. "And they went unto the king unto the court, but they laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the ears of the king. So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll, and he took it out of Elishama the scribe's chamber. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king."

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• "Now the king was in the winter house in the ninth month, and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with a penknife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king nor any of his servants that heard all these words." Isn't that amazing?

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• Now, I've got a question, and I want you to turn back in your Bibles to Jeremiah 13. I want you to listen very carefully to this question. I want you to try to answer it, if you would, in your own mind. What do you think the Lord's attitude is toward people who refuse to hear his word, especially those who profess to be his people? You just stop and think of all the churches just in this town. And people will be there tomorrow. Some will hear, some will not hear, most will not hear.

  #51 | 36:05 to 36:57 | cleaned

• You know what we do? We have reduced Christianity to church entity. What most people do is they come to church on Sunday, act pious, listen to a sermon, leave, and then during the week, do whatever they want to do, live the way they want to live. Totally ignoring God and His Word. So my question is, what do you think that God's mind is toward people like that?

  #52 | 37:00 to 37:41 | cleaned

• Well, if you'll go back to Jeremiah 13 and look at verse 7, you remember Jeremiah got this girdle, a brand new girdle, wore it, never washed it, took it, hid it by the river Euphrates. God says, "Now you go back after it." And when he got there, he said, it was horrible. Watch it. There it is, Jeremiah 13, verse 7. "Then I went to Euphrates and digged and took the girdle from the place where I hid it. And behold, the girdle was marred."

  #53 | 37:42 to 38:25 | cleaned

• It was profitable for nothing. Now, if you really want to know the meaning of this exercise, you've got to read a little further. Look in verse 8. "Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Thus saith the Lord after this manner will I mar the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem." Watch verse 10. "This evil people who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the imagination of their heart and walk after other gods to serve them and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing." He said this people are going to be like this girdle, which are good for nothing. I wonder if it'd be appropriate if we talked about good for nothing Christians. It was good for nothing Judahites. Good for nothing Israelites. He said these people that will not hear they are positively evil. And I'm going to mar them. Just like this girdle is marred. And just like this girdle is good for nothing, so they are good for nothing.

  #54 | 38:26 to 39:57 | cleaned

• You know what John Gill says on this verse? He says, and I'm quoting, "as they were corrupt in their practices and were become useless and unserviceable to God, so they would be carried captive into a foreign country where they would be inglorious and unprofitable, uncomfortable in themselves and of no use to one another." Matthew Poole goes further, he says, "God expounds himself what he meant to teach the Judahites by this."

  #55 | 40:00 to 40:37 | cleaned

• that he did intend that they should be consumed by the people beyond the river Euphrates, as that girdle was marred, and he also shows them that their own sins in disobeying his word and following the imagination of their own hearts, particularly their idolatry, was that which brought this sore judgment upon them. So the attitude that God has to people who will not hear his word is that they are an evil people. And they are good for nothing. And he will mar them just the way that girdle is marred.

  #56 | 40:38 to 41:18 | cleaned

• Now, go back to Jeremiah 13, verse 11. Let me make a couple of applications. I want you to think this through with me. Watch carefully. Jeremiah, chapter 13, verse 11. "For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah, saith the Lord, that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory, but they would not hear." Now you and I think about a girdle. You must remember the curious girdle on the ephod of the high priest. It was a thing of beauty and glory. So God said, I intended you to be a thing of beauty and to be a thing of glory. But you have refused to hear my words.

  #57 | 41:19 to 42:19 | cleaned

• You've stiffened your neck, you've hardened your heart, you've rebelled against me. And now, instead of being a praise and honor, you'll be marred and dishonored. Here's the second application. It should be properly pointed out that when we fail to obey the word of God, we end up walking after our imagination. That's what he said, "this evil people who walk after their own imagination." I don't know how many times I've counseled people and they would end up saying like this after I told them what the word of God said.

  #58 | 42:21 to 43:11 | cleaned

• I had one man say it just very plainly. He's a preacher. "I know you're right. And I know the Bible's right. But I just got to do what I think is best. I've got to handle this my own way." You know what happened? He ended up losing his entire family. When we refuse to hear and apply the Word of God, we end up walking after our own imagination, what we think is right, what we think is best, and doing according to our own will instead of according to the Word of God. Here's a third application. I think we should understand that in reality, there's no such thing as a good for nothing Christian. Because he's actually good for something. Chastisement. Judgment. God points out and says, "Don't be like this. Don't do like this."

  #59 | 43:11 to 44:35 | cleaned

• Notice if you would, all this comes to pass. Because they refuse to hear the word of God, therefore, God said, "I'm going to mar. I'm going to mar the pride of Judah. And the great pride of Jerusalem." I find it interesting that God even notices the distinctions in pride. Pride is bad. But there's pride, and there's a great pride. And God said, "I'm going to mar it."

  #60 | 44:39 to 45:10 | cleaned

• And it is God's honor and God's glory that He brings down the proud, the arrogant, and the haughty. Pride will always have a fall. A haughty spirit goes before a fall. Pride goes before destruction. The safest thing for you and I is to hear the Word of God. And by hearing the Word of God, I don't mean just sitting here listening. I mean taking it and making it your own. And you can only make it your own by personally applying it and obeying it on a daily basis.

  #61 | 45:11 to 45:53 | cleaned

• Listen to this, James 4 verse 17. "Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." Years ago, there was a family. My wife and I called them Mama and Papa Morris. We were not related. But they just adopted us, and their boys were like my brothers. And they had a family reunion. And I came through from a meeting to attend that family reunion, and one of his daughter-in-laws was just popping me question after question after question. Finally, Papa Morris looked at her and said, "Francis, why don't you shut up and leave him alone?"

  #62 | 45:58 to 46:52 | cleaned

• "Can't you see he's tired?" She said, "Because, Papa, I don't know the answers to these questions, and it bothers me." I've never forgotten what he said. He said, "It's not what I don't know that bothers me, it's what I do know. To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." Watch, look in Jeremiah 16 and verse 12. Jeremiah 16 and verse 12. Look what God tells these people.

  #63 | 46:52 to 47:36 | cleaned

• "And you have done worse than your fathers. For behold, you walk everyone after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me." Doing what you think is best and walking after the imagination of your heart keeps you from hearing God. It keeps you from obeying God. The sin that we most often commit is we hear, but we do not. We fail to apply it and make it our own. Make sure when you hear the Word, you apply it to your life, and you change your life, and you bring your life in conformity to it, and you will not be walking after the imagination of your own heart.

  #64 | 47:39 to 48:47 | cleaned

• Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. We ask, Lord, that You would indeed teach us, build us up in the most holy faith, help us to hear and to obey. In the name of Jesus Christ we ask and pray. Amen.

  #65 | 48:49 to 49:09 | cleaned

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-04T21:41:12Z