Clean Transcript

Walking By Faith In The Dark

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• 2 Corinthians chapter 5, Jeremiah 32. All right, 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7. I want you to hold it. We're coming right back to this passage. The Scripture just simply says, "For we walk by faith, not by sight." Now, if you'll turn in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 32, let's begin reading with verse 5 and read through verse 15. Jeremiah 32 and verse 5, "And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, saith the LORD."

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• "Though you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall not prosper. And Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum thine uncle shall come unto thee, saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is thine to buy it. So Hanameel thine uncle's son came to me in the court of the prison, according to the word of the Lord, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin. For the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine. Buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. And I bought the field of Hanameel, my uncle's son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver. And I subscribed the evidence, and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances. So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open."

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• "And I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel, my uncle's son, and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison. And I charged Baruch before them, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed, and this evidence which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land."

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• Now, if you would very quickly turn back to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7, the title of the message is, "Walking by Faith in a Time of Darkness." So verse 7 just simply says, "For we walk by faith, not by sight."

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• Now this text gives us a very clear principle. That principle is that we as Christians need to walk by faith and not by sight.

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• Now the context of this statement and truth involves a Christian view of death and the afterlife. The circumstances of our life, the circumstances of our death, in one sense of the word, really do not matter. And the reason they really don't matter is because we believe and we know that there is a resurrection and we know that there is life after death. So if you look in verse 4, the Scripture says this: "For we that are in this tabernacle, or this body, do groan, being burdened. Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." Notice he said, "For we that are in this tabernacle, or in this body, do groan." And if you don't believe that you do groan, wait until you get older. Joshua, you're going to find out. I've got one good friend.

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• He's a few years younger than I am. He always asked me, "Why did you not tell me that getting old had all of these problems?" I said, "Well, I just wanted you to find out for yourself." So it's true, and our bodies wear out, that is for sure. And certainly there's going to be a new body, a resurrected body, a glorified body. Now look, if you would please, in verse 8. He says, "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord." So walking by faith in the context of 2 Corinthians chapter 5 is walking by faith in view of our death and our resurrection. So it's not only true in that area, but it also holds true in every area of life as well. Let me just say this up front, and I would admit this and confess it and acknowledge it, that it is much easier to walk by faith when everything is going right and there's no problems and no persecution and no prosecution and you have everything you need. It's so easy to trust the Lord and thank Him for all of

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• those things. But it's exceedingly more difficult when times are dangerous, when you are being persecuted, when you are being chased, when you are doing without, when you don't really have everything that you need. I'm going to say it's only more difficult, but at the same time, that is when you need to literally walk by faith even more. So when you stop and look around at the situation that we're in in America today, it seems as if we are walking on eggshells now just to try not to exacerbate the difficult positions that we find ourselves in week by week. And I mean, we're facing an economic collapse, we're facing food shortages, we're facing tyrannical governments, moral decay, and a host of other things. I want to give you just one paragraph from an article that I read this past week. The article was written by Gary D.

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• Barnett, and I do enjoy reading behind him. But the title of the article was this, "A Dose of Reality, Can You Handle It?" And so all I'm going to do is just read the opening paragraph. He said this, "Where does one begin attempting to prepare an accounting of all the real terror, tyranny, warmongering, torture, poisoning, fatal injections, financial manipulations, government and media race-baiting, insane transgender promotion, depopulation efforts, police brutality, deadly animal experimentation and slaughter, monetary destruction, and the digitization of an entire economy by the ruling class and its government?"

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• "Is there any amount of dictatorial oppression and felonious corruption that will cause the common man to even blink? How much will this proletariat take until they actually say no and do something about this heinous and evil state's totalitarian attempts to control all of society?" And then he goes on in that article and expounds upon some of these exceedingly difficult situations. But he always ends the article by stressing the fact that when you and I think about this, that each of us happens to be responsible for our own lives, our own freedom, and our own liberty.

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• In other words, if we do nothing individually, then we are going to be totally and completely enslaved. So the principle of walking by faith is true, and even more so, I believe, when we are walking in a time of darkness. It's very difficult because when you understand that many people are afraid, and then you understand that fear is the opposite of faith, and also sight would be the opposite of faith.

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• Someone wrote this years ago, and I certainly have found it true. They said simply this: "If you want to be depressed, look within. If you want to be discouraged, look without. If you want to be delivered, look up." And that certainly is true. You're going to discover that isn't only true now, but the darker it gets, even the truer it's going to seem to you. Now, before I get to the message that I want to share with you today, I want to remind you of a message that I preached many, many years ago. The title of the message was "Knowing the Will of God." If you have not heard that message recently, I would encourage you to listen to it, because I give you five principles on how to know the will of God in every situation. I'm going to give you those five principles right now. The reason I'm reminding you of this is I'm going to show you in the book of Jeremiah how God brings this truth to Jeremiah by using one of these five means. So how in the world do we know the will of God? And I'm not talking about just simply reading the Scripture, but

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• certainly we should be reading the Scripture because the will of God is indeed revealed in the Scripture. But let me give you these five ways. Just think about these. Number one, you may know the will of God by God's promise. He said in John 7 and verse 17, "If any man will to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine," and he goes on. But notice what he said: "If any man will to do his will, he shall know." I've heard some people say it is so difficult to know God's will, and that's not really true. The truth is God is more interested in us doing His will than we're interested in doing it. And so God has said if you really truly want to know His will, He will show it to you. The only problem that most people have is this: when it comes to God's will, they come to God and they say this, "Lord, show me Your will. If I like it, I'll do it. If I don't, I won't." Well, God's never going to show you His will like that, but you have His promise that if you really genuinely truly want His will, He's going to give it to you. The second way you can know the will of God is by His providence. The Word of

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• God tells you in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 8, our Lord said, "Behold, I set before you an open door, which no man can shut." And of course, you know Romans 8 and verse 28, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." And many times God is going to open a door and we walk in it. And sometimes we are planning things and God just shuts the door. And when God slams that door in your face, then you stand still for a moment and start looking around because there's going to be another door open somewhere. But you can always know God's will number one by His promise, number two by His providence, number three by His principles. He said in John 17:17, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." So if I were to ask Joshua, "Joshua, I want you to pray for me because I'm thinking about going out and getting drunk tonight," Joshua would look at me and say, "I don't have to pray about that.

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• God says don't do it." That's a principle. I could say, "Steve, pray for me. I mean, my goodness, Gary's got a cow that I want and I'm thinking about going and stealing that cow because Gary won't sell her to me." Well, Steve could say, "I don't have to pray about that. God says, 'Thou shalt not steal.'" So here are principles that God has revealed in His Word. So God can lead us by His promise. He can lead us by His providence. He can lead us by the principles.

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• And then there's prayer, John 14:13 and 14, where our Lord said, "If you ask anything in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I'll do it." So there's prayer. And here's the fifth one: that's peace. Colossians 3 and verse 15, "And let the peace of God rule your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

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• Now, I want you to think about this with me. Here are five ways that you can know the will of God: by His promise, by His providence, by His principles, by prayer, by peace. God may lead us any one of those five ways, any two of them, any three of them, any four of them, or all five if He chooses. But listen, if whatever you start to do contradicts one of those five things, it's not God's will. If it violates His promise or you don't have a promise, it's not His will. If His providence does not open the door, it's not His will. If it violates a principle, it's not His will. If there's been no prayer, not bathed in prayer, it's not His will. If there's no peace, it's not His will. So God can lead you one of these ways. Now, let me point out the fact that God led Jeremiah in one of these, and He led Jeremiah in one of these ways during what you and I would call a very exceedingly

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• dangerous time. And I'm going to confess, and I really believe, that we are living in exceedingly dangerous times. And it's always best to know the will and the Word of God so that we may weave our way in and out of the darkness by knowing His will. There are some people who think, "Well, you really don't need to know God's will. You don't really need to know His Word. You just simply need to know how to act and go ahead and do what needs to be done." Well, the truth of the matter is, if you are a real Christian, you don't really know what needs to be done unless you know the Word of God, because there is His will revealed in His Word. Now, I had much rather right now know the will of God in advance, before I get into an exceedingly dangerous situation, than when I get in that situation and try to figure out what the will of God is. So it's kind of like I tell people when it comes to self-defense.

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• I'd much rather know how to defend myself and be able to do so and never ever need it than to be in the situation where I needed to know how to defend myself and could not do so. It's too late to try to figure it out when you're in an extremely dangerous situation. Now I want you to look back in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 32, because in this chapter God told Jeremiah to buy a field from his uncle Shallum. Now buying a field is no big task for anyone that has the money, and property is a good investment, that is usually speaking and most of the time. But I want to demonstrate for you the circumstances in which God placed Jeremiah, the circumstances in which Jeremiah found himself when God instructed him to buy this field. First of all, you have to understand that Jeremiah was a prophet, and Jeremiah consequently was hated. Not only by the false prophets, but he was hated by his own people. He was hated by the people from the city which he was raised in. In fact, if you look down in your Bibles and look in verse 7.

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• He says, "Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum, mine uncle, shall come unto thee, saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is thine to buy it." Now let me show you. Turn back in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 1 and look, if you would please, at verse 1. This may surprise you because Jeremiah was from Anathoth himself. And Jeremiah chapter 1 and verse 1, "The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin." Wow. So here he is, hated and despised by his own people. You remember, I trust, that passage in Mark chapter 6 and verse 4 where our Lord said that a prophet is not without honor, save in his own country and among his own kin and in his own house. Now I want to show you something. The men of Anathoth hated Jeremiah. They despised him.

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• They refused to hear his word. They wanted to devise things against him. I will tell you even farther, they wanted to murder him. So if you look in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 11, Jeremiah chapter 11, and look if you would please beginning there with verse 18. Jeremiah 11 and verse 18. Watch this. "And the Lord has given me knowledge of it," that is of their plans. And go back to verse 17, "For the Lord of hosts that planted thee hath pronounced evil against thee," that is in the house of Judah. He's telling them all of that. Now watch verse 18, "And the Lord has given me knowledge of it, and I know it." Then

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• "thou showest me their doings." Now watch carefully. "But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter, and I knew not that they devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof. Let us cut him off from the land of the living." That is, we'll murder him. "And that his name be not any more remembered. But, O Lord of hosts, thou judgest righteously. Thou triest the reins of the heart."

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• "Let me see thy vengeance on them, for unto thee have I revealed my cause." Now watch. "Therefore thus saith the Lord of the men of Anathoth that seek thy life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the Lord, that thou die not by our hand. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will punish them. The young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by the famine, and there shall be no remnant of them."

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• "For I will bring evil upon them in Anathoth, even the year of their visitation." So, here we're Jeremiah's own people seeking to destroy him, to slay him, to cause his message to cease. Here's the second thing: the false prophets not only hated Jeremiah as well, but they were preaching exactly the opposite of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was saying, "Look, there's gonna be death. There's gonna be disease. There's gonna be destruction." And all these false prophets are saying, "No, no, no, there's gonna be peace. There's gonna be prosperity. And those who are already in captivity, well, God's gonna bring them back, and Nebuchadnezzar is not going to do one thing." Look in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 14. Jeremiah 14 and notice, if you would, beginning there with verse 13. Watch this. Jeremiah chapter 14 and verse 13. What he said: "Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place. Then the Lord said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name.

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• I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them. They prophesy unto you a false vision and a divination, a thing of naught, and the deceit of their heart. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land. By sword and famine shall these prophets be consumed. And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, and they shall have none to bury them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness upon them. Therefore thou shalt say this word unto them, Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, and with a grievous blow." Notice, if you would, these prophets now prophesying lies, and the people are believing the false prophets and not Jeremiah. Now, the people of Anathoth hated him, the people to whom he preached hated him, the false prophets were contrary to him. Here's the third thing: Nebuchadnezzar knocking at the door. Nebuchadnezzar had already defeated the defense cities of Judah, and now he is attacking Jerusalem. He's only attacking

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• Jerusalem. Jeremiah already knows that the city is going to be given into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. He knows that the city is going to be destroyed. He knows that there's going to be a 70 years captivity. He understands this. Now look in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 25 and verses 11 and 12. Jeremiah 25 verses 11 and 12. Here it is. "This whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years. And it shall come to pass, when 70 years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make it perpetual desolations." Now I want you to go back in your Bibles momentarily to Jeremiah chapter 32, and I want you to look again at verses 6 and 7, and we'll read those two verses. "And Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum, mine uncle, shall come unto thee, saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is thine to buy it."

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• "So Hanameel, mine uncle's son, came to me in the court of the prison," he was already in prison, "according to the word of the Lord, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin, for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord."

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• Now, let me ask you some questions. I want you to think about this. Would you be interested in buying a piece of land when you knew that death and desolation was knocking at the door? When you knew that disease was going to be rampant, that famine was going to be stalking the land? Would you be interested in buying a piece of land when you knew that most of the people are going to be taken into captivity or murdered? Here's another thing: would you be interested in buying a piece of land when you knew that it was going to be at least 70 years before you could either see it or use it? If you could live 70 more years. Wow. I want to show you something.

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• Remember I told you the five ways that you can know the will of God? I want you to look, if you would, in verse 6. Jeremiah said, "The word of the Lord came unto me, saying..." In other words, God told Jeremiah that Hanameel the son of Shallum was going to come to him and ask him to buy this field that was in Anathoth. Now watch, if you would, next. He says in verse 8, "So Hanameel, my uncle's son, came to me." In other words, God said, "Jeremiah, this is going to happen." And then it happened. Look, if you would, in the latter part of verse 8, he said, "Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord." How did he know it was the word of the Lord? How did he know it was not some figment of his imagination?

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• The answer is because the providence of God opened the door and brought it to pass. So he knew the will of God not only by the promise of God, the Word of God, but also by the providence of God. Now I want you to go to verse 7 with me. Let's skip down to verse 9. He said, "And I bought the field of Hanameel, mine uncle's son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver. And I subscribed the evidence and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances. So I took the evidences of the purchase, both that which was sealed, according to the law and custom, and that which was opened. And I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel, mine uncle's son, in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison."

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• Now here it is. "And I charged Baruch before them, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed, and this evidence which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land." Now here's something that I have to point out and I really want to emphasize: walking by faith equals walking according to the Word of God. Walking by faith equals walking according to the Word of God. Walking by faith is not some nebulous instinct. Walking by faith is not some quirky feeling. Walking by faith is when you walk in obedience to the Word of God, doing that which you know is right based upon the Word of God, and then trusting God to work everything out for you. It's absolutely astounding to me that Jeremiah's in prison and here comes his uncle's son, his cousin, and

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• saying, "Buy this piece of land." And he knew everything that was going on. He knew all of the circumstances. And did he buy the land? Yes, he bought the land. Now I'm gonna show you something else from the Bible here, and we're gonna read it. Walking by faith does not mean that you understand everything. Walking by faith does not mean that you never ever have any questions. Walking by faith does not mean that you grasp the end and the results instantly. No.

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• So let's look in Jeremiah 32 verse 16. I'm going to read, in fact, almost the rest of this chapter. I am going to read the rest of this chapter, and then I'm going to come back and point something out to you. I want you to listen carefully. Jeremiah chapter 32. Watch verse 16. "Now when I delivered the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed unto the Lord, saying..." So the deal is done. And now Jeremiah makes this prayer. Now watch. "Ah, Lord God! Behold, thou hast made the heavens and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm.

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• There's nothing too hard for thee. Thou showest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them. The great, the mighty God, the Lord of hosts, is his name, great in counsel and mighty in work. For thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. Which hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this day, and in Israel, and among other men, and hast made thee a name as at this day, and hast brought forth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt, with signs and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm, and great terror. And hast given them this land, which thou didst swear unto their fathers, to give them a land full of milk and honey."

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• "And they came in and possessed it. But they obeyed not my voice, neither walked in my law. They have done nothing at all that thou commandest them to do. Therefore thou hast caused all this evil to come upon them. Behold the mounts that are coming to the city to take it, and the city is given to the hand of the Chaldeans that fight against it, because of the sword and the famine and the pestilence. And what thou hast spoken is come to pass, and behold, thou seest it. And thou hast said unto me, O Lord God, buy the field for money, and take witnesses, for the city is given to the hand of the Chaldeans. Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying, Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh.

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• Is there anything too hard for me? Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. He shall take it. And the Chaldeans that fight against this city shall come and set fire on this city, and burn it with the houses upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto Baal, and poured out drink-offerings unto other gods, to provoke me to anger. For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have only done evil before me from their youth. For the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, saith the Lord. For this city," now watch this one, "for this city has been to me as a provocation of mine anger and of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day, that I should remove it from before my face. And because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they,

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• their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face, though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them. Yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction. But they set their abomination in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it. And they built the high places of Baal, which were in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech, which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind that they should do this abomination to cause Judah to sin."

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• "And now therefore thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof ye say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. Behold, I will gather them out of the countries whither I have driven them in mine anger and in my fury and in great wrath. And I will bring them again into this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. And they shall be my people, and I'll be their God. And I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for the good of them and of their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice over them for good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul."

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• "For thus saith the Lord, Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them. And the fields shall be bought in this land, whereof ye say, It is desolate without man or beast, it is given in the hand of the Chaldeans. Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidences, and seal them, and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, the cities of the valley, and the cities of the south, and I will cause their

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• captivity to return, saith the Lord." Now I want you to go back to verse 24. I want you to watch this. Jeremiah has been obedient. He's done exactly what the Lord has asked him to do. And now he says this in his prayer: "Behold the mounts, they are coming to the city to take it, and the city is given in the hand of the Chaldeans that fight against it, because of the sword and the famine and the pestilence. And what thou hast spoken is come to pass, and behold, thou seest it. And thou hast said to me, O Lord God, buy the field for money and take witnesses, for the city is given in the hand of the Chaldeans." Do you see what he's saying? It's almost, he's asking, "Lord, how can this be?"

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• I mean, everybody hates me. I'm in prison. Everybody's speaking against me. Everybody's trying to murder me. Nebuchadnezzar is coming into the city. The whole people are going to be either slain or taken into captivity. And look, you want me to buy a field? Stop and think about that. How insane does that appear? And yet what God was saying was, "Jeremiah, look, it's not just about you. It's about my promises, about my covenant. After 70 years, I'm going to bring these people back, or at least some of them. I'm going to give them a new heart, and they're going to know me. They're gonna follow me. They're gonna obey me. And what you have just done is going to picture exactly what I am going to do." So Jeremiah's purchase seemed ridiculous at the time. Now I want you to look in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse 10. Jeremiah 29 verse 10. Jeremiah knew that it's gonna be

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• 70 years. "For thus saith the Lord, that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word towards you, in causing you to return in this place." So here's what I want to point out. Walking by faith is walking in belief. It's walking in trust. It's walking in obedience to the Word of God. Faith is not blind. Faith is not feeling. Faith rests upon that which is absolutely solid, which is the Word of God. The truth of the matter is this: Hebrews 11 verse 1, most of you can quote it: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Faith is a substance.

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• That means it is real. It's genuine. It has substance. What is the substance of faith? It's the Word of God. It's the promises of God. He said it's the evidence of things not seen. You know, the interesting thing is the Greek word for evidence, I forget which one it is right now, but it actually means a title deed. It's translated and used as a title deed. A title deed means something that is yours. You may not have it in possession, but you have the deed to it.

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• So if Steve told me that he had a new four-wheel drive pickup truck that he wanted to sell me, he gave me a good price and I said, "Sure, I'll buy it at that price." He said, "There's only one problem." I said, "What's that problem?" He said, "The truck is in Alabama and I can't get it to you until next week." That's all right. I'll give you the money, you give me a receipt, and since you've got the title, go ahead and sign it over to me. I have the title deed. I may not have the truck just yet, but it will be coming within a week or so.

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• And this is what he's saying. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It is the evidence of things not seen. It is the title deed. And so we have the title deed to the fulfillment of the promise. You remember that passage in the New Testament where it said, "These all died in the faith, not having received the promise." Well, they had the promise, for what that verse means is they had not received the fulfillment of the promise.

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• They knew it was coming. So faith is indeed a title deed. It does have substance. Now faith believes in spite of situations. Faith believes in spite of circumstances. Faith does have a substance. You remember in Psalm 119 verse 89, the Scripture says, "Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in the heavens." And in Psalm 138 and verse 2, "Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name." That's the substance of faith. Now let me point something out. We are not in the exact same situation yet as Jeremiah found himself.

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• But we may be getting pretty close. Nuclear war is being threatened. Putin and his prime minister said if Britain sends those depleted uranium bombs over there, they're going to take care of England. Well, stop and think about that. Look at our food supply that's being poisoned. Look at our economy that's crashing. All I'm telling you is this: we're living in dangerous times. We're living in darkened times. And we're not back in the 50s any longer. So the point I'm trying to make is we need to learn to walk by faith in the dark. We need to learn to really trust in the promises of God, in the Word of God. Now let me make some applications.

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• I want to try to tie this together. I've got some other scriptures I want to show you. The first application is we cannot walk by faith unless we walk according to the Word of God. What we think we know or what we believe we know may not be true. When I say that, I'm not talking about the Scripture. I'm talking about the way people have been taught all of their lives and the way they've been raised all their lives. Yeah, you look at the Roman Catholics, you look at the Muslims, you look at professing Christians that have been raised in churches where there's been really no truth taught, there's been no doctrine delivered. People believe all kind of crazy things. Just because you've heard something all of your life does not mean it is true. Believe me.

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• I've had people ask me some of the silliest questions. I had one individual ask me, "Pastor, where is it in the Bible that it says every tub has to stand on its own bottom?" That's not in the Bible. It may be an application of certain principles, but that's not in the Bible. You see what I'm saying? We've heard so many things all of our lives and we fail to search them out and see, "Is that really the Word of God? Is that really true?"

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• Now when you stop and think about this, if you're not walking by faith, then the alternative is you're walking by sight. What does it mean when you walk by sight? It just simply means that you are walking based upon what you think, what you believe, what you see, what you feel. And I hate that word because we say it all the time. "Well, Gary, how do you feel about this?" No. "Gary, what do you think about this?"

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• What is your perception about this? Feelings have nothing to do with this. I'm just simply pointing out the fact, you know what the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 3, you know in verse 5, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding." Walking by sight is leaning to your own understanding. When you get down to verse 7, He says, "Be not wise in thine own eyes." Walking by sight is walking in your own fleshly wisdom, being wise in your own eyes. So you're either gonna walk by faith, that is believing God and trusting God, or you're gonna be walking based upon what you think and what you perceive. It's just that simple. So the only alternative to walking by faith is walking by sight. Now here's the next thing. There may be times in the darkness that we may not be absolutely sure of the will of God because we don't know what we don't know. When I say that, after preaching for 58 years, I have thought, "Well, I have faced just about every imaginable scenario in these 58 years of preaching." But that's not true.

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• I have not. And I got news for you. I could face something that I know absolutely nothing about. I'm not prepared for it because I never thought about it. Never entered my mind. I never studied it out. I have no idea of what is going on. So what in the world do you do when you're in the dark and you have absolutely no idea about what is happening or what you should do? Here's the answer.

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• I don't know everything, but I know some things. I can live by what I do know until God shows me more light and gives me better understanding. So I cannot live based upon what Gary knows. I have to live based upon what I know. I cannot direct my actions based upon Steve's understanding. I have to direct them based upon my understanding. And so that means I can obey God in the area that I know that I can obey God in, and trust Him to work it out until He gives me more light and more understanding. I'm going to show you two passages. I want you to turn to both of them, and I want you to find Job 23 and Isaiah 50. Job 23 and Isaiah 50. We're going to look at the book of Job first. Look, if you would, at Job 23. I could ask you this question about Job. I think everybody knows the answer. Did Job know what was going on? And the answer's no. He knew he was not the sinner that his friends were accusing him of, but he did not know what was going on.

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• He had no idea of the test. And here's what he said in Job 23 and verse 10. Watch this. "But he knoweth the way that I take. When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." He knoweth the way that I take. In other words, I may not know what I'm doing, but God knows what I'm doing. And He will know whether or not I'm doing it to the best of my ability and according to the truth that I do know and based upon the understanding that He's given me. Job said, "He knoweth the way that I take, and when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." Now if you'll go to Isaiah 50, look if you would please at verse 10. Isaiah 50 and verse 10. Here's a wonderful passage. "Who is among you that feareth the Lord?" That's a pretty good question. "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light?" You don't understand. "Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God." So here's what he's saying: when you're walking in darkness and you don't have light, do what you know that you're supposed to do and continue to

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• trust in Him until He gives you the light. It's just that simple. When our oldest daughter was two or three years old, she was afraid of the dark. A lot of children are. So I taught her a passage from Isaiah where the Scripture says, "I will trust and not be afraid." And sometimes we would wake up during the night and she had gotten up and she was walking to the light switch, and you could hear her saying, "I will trust and not be afraid. I will trust and not be afraid," over and over till she hit that light switch. Well, you know, that's exactly what God expects of us when we're walking by faith in the dark. We will trust and not be afraid. We'll live according to the light that we have. We'll obey the truth that we have, and we'll trust Him to work it out. We'll stay upon our God.

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• What is coming down the pike? I don't know, but I can assure you this: unless God intervenes, it does not look good. And we better prepare to walk by faith in the dark until God miraculously and marvelously intervenes. 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. And, Lord, we do ask you to prepare our hearts.

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• Make us holy as thou art holy. Give us wisdom. Give us understanding. And above all, Lord, help us to trust in thee, to lean upon thee, to stay upon thee, to uphold thy Word in our lives. Give us your grace, we pray in Christ's holy name. Amen.

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• You. You.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T15:59:30Z