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So, You Wish To Challenge God - Part 1 of 2

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• Alright, let's open our Bibles today to Jeremiah chapter 42. Jeremiah 42. The title of the message is, "So You Wish to Challenge God."

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• This is going to be part one of a two-part message. So we're going to read the first six verses in Jeremiah 42. Jeremiah 42, beginning there with verse one: "Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, came near, and said unto Jeremiah the prophet, 'Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the Lord thy God, even for all this remnant. For we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us, that the Lord thy God may show us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do.' Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, 'I have heard you. Behold, I will pray unto the Lord your God according to your words, and it shall come to pass that whatsoever the Lord shall answer you, I will declare it unto you.'

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• "I will keep back nothing from you." And they said to Jeremiah, "The Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all the things for the which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us. Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we send thee, that it may be well with us, that we may obey the voice of the Lord our God." So you wish to challenge God. And challenges are everywhere. There are charity challenges, ice bucket challenges, sweat challenges, weight loss challenges, fight challenges, and even scriptural memorization challenges.

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• Competition seems to be built into the human spirit. We wish to test ourselves and we wish to prove ourselves. We want to be the best, the strongest, the most powerful, the wisest, and even the winner in every situation. And we tend to forget that for every winner, there's a loser. And for everyone who proves himself the best, others prove themselves the second best or third best or fourth best or right on down the line.

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• But usually our challenges are based upon equality and proportionality. By that, I simply mean this. A 10-year-old is not going to challenge a 21-year-old to a fight. And likewise, a 90-pound weakling is not going to challenge a 250-pound man to a wrestling match. Or if he does so, he's not very smart in doing that, I can assure you.

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• Now, it is true that I have seen younger men and smaller men win in matches. But the interesting thing is that usually does not happen. And even given someone's challenging someone of the same age and the same build, I would not necessarily wish to challenge a 10-time martial arts champion to a fight. That would be out of my league and I would certainly have absolutely no possible hope of winning.

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• When it comes to fighting, I would just simply say this, the older I get—years ago I learned a very plain and simple truth. And here's that truth, as painful as it may be, but the older you are, the more you will appreciate it. Here it is. If the fight is not over in 30 to 45 seconds, you've lost. You've just lost. That's all there is to it. And a man my age, 76, is not about to get down on the ground and wrestle someone 10 or 15 minutes. It's just not going to work. So my thoughts are this, if I'm in a dangerous situation, I plan on striking first, fast and hard and get it over with.

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• Now, let me tell you, you can watch all the movies you want to watch and especially the martial arts movies. And the truth of the matter is there's absolutely no one that can fight for 30 and 40 and 50 minutes straight. You look at the martial arts championships on TV, look at the ultimate fighting championships. Even when they're going for the grand prize and the belt of the best, they have only five-minute matches. And then there's a break and they may go three or four of those. And the lesser ones are only two or three minutes. And then a break. Years ago when Alice and I were taking Shorin-ryu Kempo, we would deck out in all of our fighting protective gear and we would get out and we would actually spar. I mean, we would fight.

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• And that is, we would throw our punches as hard as we could throw them. We would kick as hard as we could kick. And the most you could go was about two or three minutes without just hassling and you're out of breath. And you watch these men who fight in the ultimate fighting championship after about the second round, when they sit down, they are gasping for air. So I'm just simply pointing out the fact if the older you get, if it's not over in 30-45 seconds, you have just simply lost. To show you the truth of what I'm going to tell you.

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• Years ago, I had a friend who was a bodybuilder. He was much younger than I was and probably 20 times stronger. One of his shoulders would cover both of mine. He not only worked out regularly, he owned the gym. So he was probably 6'3" to 6'4", 250 pounds of solid muscle. I saw him one day on the street. He was talking to another man. And so I pulled over my truck and parked and I kind of trotted over to him just a little bit running straight toward him. And just as I got to him, I kind of put my hands on my hip and did like this.

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• And he looked at me and he said, "What's wrong?" I said, "Well, I woke up this morning feeling mean and mad, and like I just wanted to whip somebody. I said, when I saw you, I said, 'That's the fella I want to whip.' And so I came over here to jump on you. And I said, I just happened to reach around and I felt a back brace. And I thought, well, it might not be too wise to get into a fight with a back brace on."

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• He kind of wiped his brow. He said, "Boy, it's my lucky day." I said, "No, sir. You don't understand. If I was a bucket of water, you couldn't pour me on you." But I'm just simply saying it would be absolutely ridiculous for me to want to fight that man. There's no one in this room that's crazy enough to want to fight someone that you know is bigger, stronger, faster, more flexible, and better. You don't want to fight him.

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• We call that common sense. And yet I want you to think about this. There are people that have absolutely no hope of winning who will challenge the sovereign God of heaven and earth, who is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Men regularly thumb their noses at God. They spit in His face. They anger Him. They challenge Him to do His absolute worst to them. They're kind of like Jeroboam. You know what God said about King Jeroboam.

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• He said in 1 Kings 14:9, "But thou hast done evil above all that were before thee, for thou hast made thee other gods and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back." God said, "You did this purposely, deliberately to provoke me to anger." And it was not just Jeroboam. Israel did that as well. Because in Psalm 78:40, he said, "How often did they provoke me in the wilderness and grieve me in the desert?" There were 10 major provocations of God by the Israelites. That would not necessarily count the smaller ones, the minor ones as well. But when you begin to challenge God, when you begin to provoke Him and anger Him and tempt Him and to fight against Him, it's not only going to fail, but it's going to bring you confusion and judgment as well in your life. God said in Jeremiah 7:19, "Do they not provoke me to anger? saith the Lord. Do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?"

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• So it's just like if I were to say, "Well, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to challenge James and Steve and Gary and Francis to a fight right now. And I will take them all at one time." I'm afraid it would not turn out too good for me. You see what I'm saying? I would end up not only confused, but humiliated and defeated as well. So anybody who is stupid enough to challenge God and want to fight Him is insane as well. When you look, and I'm going to show you that in just a moment, but when you look in our context in Jeremiah chapter 42, I'm going to show you, not only today, but Lord willing next Sunday, the three distinct ways that these Judahites challenged God. Now the context of our passage is very simple.

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• Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had come over and defeated Judah and Jerusalem. He had killed thousands upon thousands of people, and he had taken a large number into captivity. And so what he did after he had conquered the land, he put Gedaliah in charge as governor of the land. And he left the very poorest of the people so that they could till the land and produce fruit and at least pay him something, I suppose, as far as taxes. But he left Gedaliah in charge. Well, there was a man by the name of Ishmael who did not care for Gedaliah. And so he came to Gedaliah and had a meal with him and then rose up and murdered Gedaliah. Not only did he murder Gedaliah, he murdered all the men with Gedaliah.

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• Moreover, at the same time, he murdered the Babylonians who were there, who were Babylonian soldiers. Let me show you. Look in your Bibles to Jeremiah 41, and let's begin reading there with verse 1. Watch carefully. Jeremiah 41, verse 1.

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• "Now it came to pass in the seventh month that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, and of the princes of the king, even ten men with him, came unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah. And there they did eat bread together in Mizpah. Then arose Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men that were with him, and smote Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword, and slew him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land. Ishmael also slew all the Jews that were with him, even with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans that were found there, and the men of war." So the Chaldeans, the same as the Babylonians, so he had some diplomats over there, he had some counselors over there, and he had some soldiers over there. So he not only murdered Gedaliah and his men, he now murdered these Babylonians as well. Now Ishmael, if you read the rest of the chapter, ultimately escaped into the land of the Ammonites.

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• But now the people are in absolute chaos and confusion. Gedaliah has been murdered. The Babylonians have been murdered. And the only thing they can think of now is this, Nebuchadnezzar is going to want vengeance. I mean, we didn't do it, but we are going to be the recipients of it because He is the one that put Gedaliah in charge. And He is the one that sent His diplomats and His soldiers over here. And now they're gone. And now they are going to come and destroy us. And so when you get to Jeremiah chapter 42, the people now come to Jeremiah and say, "Look, you need to pray for us. You need to intercede for us." And if you will skip down to verse 3, I'm going to point this out again.

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• They said, "that the Lord thy God may show us the way wherein we may walk and the thing that we may do." In other words, we are in a state of confusion. We don't know which way to turn.

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• Now, what I want to do is this. I want you to look again at verses 1 through 6, because these verses are important. "Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even the greatest, came near, and said unto Jeremiah the prophet, 'Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the Lord thy God, even for all this remnant, for we are left but a few of the many, as thine eyes do behold.' And here's why they want him to pray: 'that the Lord thy God may show us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do.' Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, 'I have heard you. Behold, I will pray unto the Lord your God according to your words, and it shall come to pass that whatsoever the Lord shall answer you, I will declare it unto you.'

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• "I will keep nothing back from you." Watch. Then they said to Jeremiah, "The Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us. Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we send thee, that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the Lord our God." I can assure you that these words would make the heart of any true pastor or any true man of God leap for joy. Here are people that come and ask for prayer, for direction, and for the will and the way of God in their lives. And they say, "Now, Jeremiah, you pray.

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• And here is our statement. God is going to be a witness between us and you. And we are going to obey God. We will do whatever God tells you to tell us to do. Whether we like it, whether we don't, whether it be good, whether it be evil, we want the will of God in our lives."

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• Now, let me ask some questions. How badly do you really want the will of God for your life? How badly do you want the will of God for your family? How badly do you want the will of God for your church? Are you willing to let go of your will, your desires, and your determinations? And what if the will of God contradicts your will? What if His will crosses your desires and your aspirations and that which you think is best? What if the will of God crosses everything that you believe is right and necessary? Let me ask it another way. What if it is the will of God for you to suffer? Now, no one likes to suffer. However, we must understand that suffering is a gift of God.

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• How can I say that? Well, Philippians 1:29, because in that passage, the word of God says this: "For unto you it is given on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake." Now note, if you would, "for unto you it is given," it is a gift. So just like faith is the gift of God, suffering is the gift of God. Moreover, as He does not give His faith to every individual, He does not give the gift of suffering to every individual. Those to whom He gives the gift of suffering are enabled by His grace to suffer for His honor, His glory, and their good. So suffering is just as much the gift of God as His faith. We still do not like to suffer. But if God gives you that gift of suffering, you will be able to do so and do so for His honor and His glory.

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• I remember years ago a lady in our church who was dying with cancer of the bone. She was in excruciating pain. Nothing could touch her pain. I would go into the hospital to see her and you could be 50 yards away coming down the hall to her room and you could hear her screaming in pain. And I would walk into the room and I would say, "Mrs. Kitchens, how are you?"

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• "Oh, I'm doing just fine by the grace of God. I'm doing wonderful." Really? You know, but I heard her screaming. I knew she was in pain. But when God gives you the gift of suffering, she never ever complained. Never. And yet, she suffered greatly.

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• Now, these people have come to Jeremiah and they said, "We want you to pray for us. We need to know the will of God. We need to know the way of God. We want what God will have for our lives."

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• Now, the interesting thing is this. God did tell the remnant of Judah exactly what His will was. He told them exactly what He wanted for them. So look, if you would, beginning with verse 7 of Jeremiah 42. Now watch. "And it came to pass after ten days that the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah." So let me just point this out. God does not necessarily answer all prayers instantaneously. Jeremiah prayed; it was ten days before God gave him the answer. So watch verse 8 when he got the answer: "Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, and said unto them, 'Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, unto whom you sent me to present your supplications before him.'

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• So here's what God says: "If you will still abide in this land, then will I build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up. For I repent me of the evil that I've done unto you. Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Be not afraid of him, saith the Lord, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand. And I will show mercies unto you, that he may have mercy upon you and cause you to return to your own land. But if you say, 'We will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of the Lord your God,' saying, 'No, but we will go into the land of Egypt where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger for bread, and there will we dwell.' And now therefore hear the word of the Lord, you remnant of Judah. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, if you wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt and go to sojourn there, then it shall come to pass that the sword which you feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine whereof you were afraid shall follow

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• close after you there in Egypt, and there you shall die. So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go down unto Egypt to sojourn there. They shall die by the sword, by the famine, by the pestilence, and none of them that remain nor escape from the evil that I will bring upon them. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, as mine anger and my fury have been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my fury be poured forth upon you. When you shall enter into Egypt and you shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach, you shall see this place no more. The Lord hath said, here it is very bluntly stated, concerning you, O remnant of Judah, go ye not into Egypt.

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• Know certainly that I have admonished you this day." So God said, "Here is my will for you. My will is that you remain in the land. If you remain in the land, I'm going to build you. I'm going to plant you. I'm not going to tear you up. I'm not going to tear you down. I will build you. You don't have to be afraid of Nebuchadnezzar. I will take care of that." So it was God's will that they remain in the land of Judah. It was God's will that they go not down into Egypt. It was God's will that they stay there and enjoy His protection and His provision. They were warned if they go down into Egypt, they would die.

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• Now, there are several problems that we see in this passage. And these same problems are very prominent in Christians today. So the first one is this. If you look in verse 20, we'll come back to this verse several times. Jeremiah 42:20. Jeremiah says to the people, "For you dissembled in your hearts when you sent me unto the Lord your God, saying, 'Pray for us unto the Lord our God, and according to all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it.'" He said, "You dissembled in your hearts." You played the hypocrite.

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• Let me tell you something. Here's an absolute truth. Most Christians—I'm not talking about unsaved folks, but most Christians really do not want the will of God. And the reason they do not really want the will of God is they really do not trust God or His judgment. They trust their own mind, their own understanding, and their own will, and their own determination. I'm going to show you that a little bit later.

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• So, the very first thing is they played the hypocrite. They said they wanted the will of God, but in reality they didn't. The second thing is this. They were more afraid of Nebuchadnezzar than they were of God. God said, "You don't have to be afraid of Nebuchadnezzar. I can take care of him. I'm sovereign." No, but you know the Bible says in Proverbs 29:25, "The fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe." And certainly the fear of man brought a snare to the people here in Judah. The very fact that one would challenge God and challenge His will evidences a lack of trust and a lack of faith in Him. To challenge God not only illustrates the fact that we doubt His knowledge, His wisdom, His sovereignty, we also doubt His love. You know, there's a verse in the New Testament where our Lord says, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit?" and later on in other passages, "and good things to them that fear him." Now listen,

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• "to them that obey him." Now He said, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children," there's none in this room, there's none in this world as holy as the Lord. There's none as loving and kind as Him. And every one of us that have had children have given good things to them just simply because they asked. And sometimes they did not even ask.

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• We knew they wanted it. We knew they desired it. And we just went out and got it. And God said, "If you're being evil and you still know how to give good gifts, how much more can I do that?" And certainly He could do that. So the very fact that they were challenging God's will evidenced the fact that they were doubting His grace, His mercy, His knowledge, and His love.

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• Now, when you consider our text, and you consider the lives of professing Christians today, the one thing that really strikes us very plainly is this. Most Christians are really afraid. They're really and truly afraid of the will of God. They are afraid of suffering. They are afraid of losing. We do not wish to suffer. We do not wish to do without. We do not wish to be deprived of the things that we desire. And somehow we think that God is going to strip us and destroy us. And the remnant that wanted to go into Egypt feared Nebuchadnezzar more than they feared God. They believed Nebuchadnezzar more than they believed God. That is for sure. They were afraid of hunger. They were afraid of thirst. They were afraid of disease. They were afraid of death. And God promised them.

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• He said, "If you just remain in the land, I'm going to take care of you. But if you go to Egypt, you're going to die."

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• Now, the amazing thing is this. They did not trust God. They trusted in themselves. Let me show you. Go back, if you would, to Jeremiah 42, and let's begin reading there with verse 20 again. Jeremiah says to these Judahites, "The Lord has said concerning you, O you remnant of Judah, go you not into Egypt? Know certainly that I have admonished you this day." That's verse 19. "For you dissembled in your hearts when you sent me unto the Lord your God, saying, 'Pray for us unto the Lord our God, and according to all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it.' And now I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, nor anything for the which he has sent me unto you." Now watch.

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• "Now therefore know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence in the place where you desire to go and sojourn." Here's an interesting thing. They were running from Nebuchadnezzar. They were afraid of Nebuchadnezzar. They were running from famine and pestilence. And what did they do when they disobeyed God? They ran straight into Nebuchadnezzar, into famine, into pestilence. Why? Because God was going to send Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Egypt.

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• Look in chapter 43, beginning there with verse 1. Watch this. "And it came to pass that when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking unto all the people all the words of the Lord their God, for the which the Lord their God had sent him to them, even all these words, then spake Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, 'Thou speakest falsely. The Lord our God hath not sent thee to say, go not into Egypt and sojourn there. But Baruch the son of Neriah setteth thee on against us, for to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they might put us to death and carry us away captives into Babylon.' So Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people, obeyed not the voice of the Lord to dwell in the land of Judah. But Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah that were returned from all the nations, whither they had been driven, to dwell in the land of Judah.

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• Now watch, "even men and women and children, and the king's daughters, and every person that Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard"—he was a Babylonian—"had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah." Let me just stop there. So they kidnapped Jeremiah and Baruch, as well as these other people, and forced them into Egypt. "So they came into the land of Egypt, for they obeyed not the voice of the Lord. Thus they came even to Tahpanhes. Then came the word of the Lord into Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, 'Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in the clay in the brick kiln, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid, and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them.'

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• "When he cometh, he shall smite the land of Egypt, and deliver such as are for death to death, and such as for captivity to captivity, and such as for the sword to the sword. And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt, and he shall burn them and carry them away captives, and he shall array himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd putteth on a garment, and he shall go forth from thence in peace. He shall break also the images of Beth-shemesh that is in the land of Egypt, and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire." Wow.

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• Now let me ask you to do this. Look back to Jeremiah 42:20. Again, I'm going to explain this just momentarily, but look what he said: "For you dissembled in your hearts when you sent me unto the Lord your God, saying, 'Pray for us unto the Lord our God.'" Do you know what these people wanted? They really wanted their own will. They wanted their own way. I have found over the years of preaching, nearly 57 years now, that most people really are not desirous of having the will of God in their lives. And the reason they do not want the will of God in their lives is because they're afraid. They're afraid to trust God. And they believe somehow that He's not going to give them the best. They believe somehow that their wisdom, that their understanding are far superior to God's. They do not believe that He's going to do everything for their good and for His glory. They really do not believe that God loves them as a father loves a child.

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• It's a strange thing for someone to claim to love the Lord and yet in reality they do not really truly want His will in their lives. I found the same thing in counseling. You know, I have discovered that when it comes to counseling, when most people set up an appointment to be counseled, they actually do not want counseling. They already come to the session with their minds made up. They do not want to hear what God says. They do not want to hear what God commands.

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• They're not interested in changing. They're not interested in doing anything differently. And so you're going to ask, "Well, if that's not the reason they come to counseling, why do they come?" Here's why they come. Because what they want is for you to put your stamp of approval upon that which they've already determined and decided to do. That's what they want. They want someone to say, "You're right. You just go right ahead and do exactly what you decided to do."

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• Now, when you look at verse 20, He says, "for you dissembled in your hearts." The word "dissembled" in the Hebrew, ta'ah, is translated as "dissembled," but it refers to one that is deceived, one that wanders, one that goes astray, one that staggers as a drunken man, and one that is led astray. So here's somebody that dissembles. He's not only a hypocrite, but he's out of his mind. Have you ever seen a drunken man stagger and stumble? He doesn't know which way he's going. He doesn't even know which way he's falling. Except down.

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• I have a pastor friend. Before God saved him, he was a drunk. He was a big man. Larger than me. A little bit taller and a lot bigger built. He probably weighed 230, 240 pounds. And he had a sweet little wife. And she was not as—or about as big as Alice. Maybe 110, 120 pounds soaking wet. And he came home one night drunk as a skunk. And he was so drunk, he fell

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• on the walkway, on the sidewalk leading up to their house. And Joy saw him. So she went out and somehow, struggling, lifted that big man, got him, had her arms around his waist, put his arm around her neck, and she was slowly but surely walking him to the door of the house, going to put him to bed. And he looks at his wife, drunk as he could be, and he says, "If my wife knew I was going home with you, she'd kill me." I told Joy, I'd have dropped him right there.

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• He would have slept on the concrete that night, I can assure you. He didn't even know his own wife. He was out of his mind. And this is what the word "dissembled" means. It means anybody who is insane enough to challenge God has to be out of their minds. Why do they have to be out of their minds? Because the Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked," because your own mind will deceive you. I've heard pastors say, I've heard Christians say, "Well, if I know my own heart," and the truth is you don't. You don't know your heart. You might know what you think in a moment, but your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. It is treacherous. And when you trust your own heart, you are insane. Now the Bible says in Isaiah 44:20, "He feedeth on ashes," listen, "a deceived heart hath turned him aside." And then of course in Obadiah 1:3, God said, "The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee."

  #51 | 38:18 to 39:34 | cleaned

• So our own pride, our own deception is enough to lead us astray. Now, I want to make one thing exceedingly clear and that is this. You cannot trust your own heart. You cannot trust your own understanding. I want you to turn—hold Jeremiah 42, but turn in your Bibles to the book of Proverbs chapter 3. I'm sure that you know this passage, but I want you to look at it in light of this truth. Look in Proverbs chapter 3, begin there with verse 5. Proverbs 3:5. Watch carefully. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding." Now, "lean not to thine own understanding." You know what it's like when you start leaning? You lean this way just a little, just a little, just a little, just a little. You keep leaning until all of a sudden you fall. Now God says, watch carefully, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not to thine own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."

  #52 | 39:35 to 41:02 | cleaned

• Now here it is in verse 7. "Be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones." So He said we've got to learn to trust in the Lord and lean not to our own understanding. In all our ways we're to acknowledge Him, and then He said, "Be not wise in thine own eyes." And when we lean to our own understanding, we are being wise in our own eyes. And when we're choosing our will above God's will, we are being wise in our own eyes.

  #53 | 41:03 to 41:40 | cleaned

• Now, here are two other passages that demonstrate this truth. First of all, Proverbs 28:26, the Bible says, "He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool, but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered." How do you walk wisely? By walking according to the will of God and the word of God. But he said a man that trusteth in his own heart is a fool. And then in Jeremiah 17:5, "Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, whose heart departeth from the Lord." You cannot lean upon your own understanding without departing from the Lord. You cannot trust in your own self without departing from the Lord. So he says, "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, whose heart departeth from the Lord."

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• We think we know best. We think we are wise. We think we know that which we desire and that which will make us happy. We think that we're capable of determining all things for ourselves, but the truth of the matter is, that's wrong. We do not know. The safest place for any child of God is right smack dab in the middle of God's will. Even in suffering, God can cause us to prosper. He can cause us to prosper mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and later on physically. What was it John wished that the one to whom he wrote that his body would be in health and prospered even as his soul prospered?

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• I've got news for you. If our bodies were as prosperous as our souls, most of us would have very poor bodies.

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• Now, see, the truth of the matter is this. The people in Judah fled from God's will. They followed their own understanding. They followed their own desires. They followed their own emotions. And they ran straight into that which they were afraid of. They were afraid of Nebuchadnezzar. They found him in Egypt. They were afraid of hunger. They found it in Egypt. They were afraid of pestilence. They found it in Egypt.

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• You know, the Bible says in Psalm 37:4, "Delight thyself in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." And all these people had to do was just simply stay in the land and delight themselves in the Lord and enjoy His protection and His provision and His promotion. But they refused. And they challenged the will of God and they lost. It was their fear, their lack of trust in the Lord, and holding on to their own understanding that caused them to flee into Egypt.

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• And they ran into everything that they were fearful of. And they lost everything. You cannot challenge God and win. You cannot challenge His will and win.

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• Now let me make a couple of applications. The first one is this. I am sure that you realize that you have a loving, kind, and gracious Heavenly Father. And once you realize this truth, that God is not going to do anything to us except that which is for our good and for His glory. His wisdom is infinite. Ours is finite. His love is eternal. Ours is temporal. His power is omnipotence. Ours is limited.

  #60 | 45:09 to 45:56 | cleaned

• His tender mercies, the Bible says, are over all of His works. You never ever lose by trusting in Him. You never lose by submitting to His will. You never lose by surrendering to His Word. The second application is this. If we really and truly desire His will, He will give it to us. In John 7:17, He said that if you will to do His will, you shall know. You shall know the doctrine if you will to do His will. Here's the problem. It's like these Judahites. They came to Jeremiah and they said, "We want you to pray for us that we can know God's will and the way that we should walk." And the truth of the matter is they really did not want to know God's will. They did not want to know the way God thought they should walk because their minds were already made up.

  #61 | 45:57 to 47:08 | cleaned

• They were going into Egypt. They believed that they knew better than God and they knew more than God. So let me put it to you very plainly. God is far more interested in you doing His will than you're interested in doing His will. And if you really genuinely want to know the will of God, God has promised that He will reveal that will to you. But He is never, ever going to reveal His will to an unstable, double-minded, hypocritical individual who cares less as to whether or not he does the will of God. God is not going to waste His time on someone who's just playing around.

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• And that's exactly what these Judahites were doing. They were just simply playing around. Here is what most professing Christians do. They say and they pray, "Oh, Lord, please show me your will. I want to know your will." It's not "I want to know your will so that I may do it regardless of the circumstances, regardless of the situation, regardless of suffering. I want your will more than anything in the world." No, no, no, no. It's not that. It's we pray, "Lord, show me your will. And, Lord, if I like it, I'll do it, and if I don't, I won't. Lord, I want a choice in this matter." That's where most Christians are.

  #63 | 48:02 to 48:51 | cleaned

• They're really not interested in doing the will of God. They're not. But God has promised if we really want His will, He will reveal it to us. And He has in His Word. Here's the third one. I want you to stop and think about the situation that the Judahites were in. Their land had been destroyed. Their people had been murdered and taken captive. They were under a foreign power. The ruler that the foreign power had appointed had been murdered along with some of the Babylonian diplomats and soldiers. And now all you have is chaos and confusion because now the army has taken over.

  #64 | 48:51 to 49:54 | cleaned

• The men with the weapons. And they even kidnapped Jeremiah and Baruch along with others and forced them into Egypt, forced them to do their will. Do you realize? We're basically in the same situation in this country. We're under a foreign power. And there is confusion and there is chaos. You look at the fighting that is about to occur in all probability, because if Biden doesn't get in, the left is going to unleash its murderous designs upon any conservative. Why?

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• They've already started compiling lists of enemies. And if Trump stays in and he wins, well, of course, they're going to really be upset. And if Biden gets in, they're going to say, "This is our mandate. We're going to destroy, we're going to take." It doesn't matter one way or the other. We are basically in the same situation in this country right now as the Judahites were in Jeremiah's day. We better find out the will of God and the way of God. We better be willing to walk in His will and not challenge Him. You have to be a sot, staggering, drunk, insane, and out of your mind to challenge the sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, eternal, immutable, majestic, infinite God of the universe. Do not challenge God.

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• Do His will, and He will prosper us and protect us and provide for us. I love what David said. David said, "I have been young and now I am old, and I'm not seeing the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread." I want the will of God. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth.

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• We ask, Lord, You would help us to know Your will and to do Your will and to bring our lives into conformity to Your Word. Give us Your grace and Your mercy that we may serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. In Thy name we pray. Amen.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T14:26:10Z