Bitter Fruit Of Disobedience by Chuck Smith

let's turn on our Bibles to Psalm 95 for our scripture reading Psalm 95 I'll read the first and the odd-numbered verses pastor Bryan will lead the congregation in the reading of the even number verses let us stand to read the Word of God oh come and let us sing unto the Lord let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation let us come before his presence with Thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto Him with songs for the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods in his hand are the deep places of the earth the strength of the hills is his also the sea is his he made it and his hands formed the dry land come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our maker for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the Sheep of his end today if you will hear his voice harden not your heart as in the provocation and as in the day of temptation wilderness when your father's tempted me proved me and saw my work 40 years long i was grieved with this generation and said it is a people that do in their heart and they have not known my way under whom i swore in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest let's pray father we pray that our hearts will ever be pliable that our hearts will ever be open to the instruction of your word lord we do pray that even today as we again look at the nation of judah and their destruction realizing lord that had they only obeyed they could have been blessed but chose to go their own way and suffered the consequences so lord may we today choose to obey to follow your way to do what is right in your sight to bring glory and honor Lord unto you in Jesus name we pray amen you may be seated tonight we'll be studying Jeremiah 40 through 42 as pastor skip is leading us through the study of the Book of Jeremiah interesting chapters that deal with the fall of Jerusalem and the events that followed the fall of Jerusalem this morning we'd like to draw your attention to the 42nd chapter it deals with the people that are left a small small group when the Babylonians had conquered Jerusalem killing thousands of people and those that survived the siege were taken as captives back to Babylon they did leave a few people there in the land they made a man by the name of galilea the governor but gov the governor get Alya was assassinated and thus the people that were left felt that once again they would surely experience the wrath of the Babylonians because the man who assassinated or the men ten of them who assassinated get Alya also killed the Babylonian garrison the small garrison that was left there to help keep order in the land so the people gathered together and they were getting ready to go to Egypt for safety they called for Jeremiah to have Jeremiah pray and get direction from the Lord promising that whatever the Lord would say they would do it Jeremiah began his prophetic ministry to the nation of Judah in the years 626 BC this is now the year 586 BC he has been prophesying for some forty years during this time he had been warning the people over and over again of the desolation the destruction that would come if they would not obey the commands of the Lord he would give them the word of the Lord but they would turn away from it and they would listen to the false prophets but one by one the prophecies of Jeremiah proved to be true the things that he said would happen did happen and so now after 40 years these people ready to go to Egypt call for Jeremiah that he might tell them the word of the Lord to pray and to seek the mind of God I see in this Book of Jeremiah the faithfulness of God even though the people weren't listening God was still speaking that shows me the grace of God to continue to warn them to continue to speak to them if I were God I would have quit talking to them a long time ago but God was so faithful and and here they are 40 years later not listening to God but God is still speaking over and over Jeremiah had told the people what God said they should do in order to escape destruction and escape with their lives but over and over the people did not believe Jeremiah they did their own thing they continued in their downward plunge until the nation was destroyed the city of Jerusalem destroyed and burned just like Jeremiah said it would Jeremiah said that the Babylonians were gonna come and make war against them the false prophets were saying the Babylonians will never come you don't have to listen to Jeremiah but the Babylonians did come and made war against them Jeremiah said the Babylonians are going to conquer the city of Jerusalem your best action would be to make a treaty to surrender to yield to them and you can spare the city you can spare your lives but the false prophets were saying we will destroy Babylon they can't take the city but the Babylonians did take the kit said he killed so many of the people destroyed and burned the city jeremiah said don't trust in the Egyptians to deliver you from the babylonians when it gets really tough the Egyptians will desert you they'll go back to Egypt the false prophets were saying in the Egyptians is our salvation they will deliver us from the Babylonians when the battle got tough the Egyptians deserted and went back to Egypt and the Babylonians then conquered the city of Jerusalem just like Jeremiah had said over and over again the words of Jeremiah proved to be true had they listened to Jeremiah their history would have been a different story but they went their own way now here again most of the people are gone they either have been killed or taken as captives to Babylon this small remnant fearful because of the insurrection against Babylon in the assassination of the governor that was established by Nebuchadnezzar get Alya they gathered together and they have purposed to go down to Egypt to find safety and preservation there but more or less just to cover their bases they called Jeremiah in and they said Jeremiah we want you to pray for us and find out what God is saying to us at this time I'm sure that this must have pleased Jeremiah they're finally willing to listen to what God has to say and I'm certain that this change of attitude was something that really encouraged your oh my after 40 years of the people not wanting to hear not paying in attention now at least they're asking that he would pray he went further than that they said whatsoever the Lord tells you we will do it made a vow that they would obey the word of the Lord no matter what it was just seek the Lord and bring us God's Word we will keep it so after 10 days Jeremiah came to the people and he said to them this is what God says don't go down to Egypt for safety stay here and God will be with you and bless you and God will help you to rebuild the ruins and the king of Babylon will be merciful toward you and he won't retaliate against you for the assassination of get Alya but he will be favorably inclined toward you so stay here in the land don't go down to Egypt in the next chapter we will read that the people said to Jeremiah God didn't tell you that because they were determined that they were going to go to Egypt and felt that they would find safety there in the scriptures Egypt is a type of the slavery that one experiences when they live after the flesh so Egypt is a type of the life of the flesh that brings a person into bondage even as their fathers were slaves in Egypt it's interesting how that the flesh seems to have an alarm n't for us even those who have been delivered from the life of the flesh their often time seems to be that interest of maybe going back to Egypt back to the place of the flesh we do read in numbers chapter 11 that the mixed multitude that was among them began to lust the children of Israel also began to weep saying who's going to give us flesh to eat we remember the fish which we ate in Egypt freely the cucumbers the melons the leeks the onions the garlic all we have is this manna and how that they were weeping over the provision that God had made just the bland manna oh remember the onions and the garlic and flavorful you know and the melons and cucumbers and all the meat we could eat in the 14th chapter of numbers and all the congregation of Israel lifted up their voice and cried all night and all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron the whole congregation said unto them would to God that we had died in the land of Egypt rather than to die here in this wilderness why as the Lord brought us into this land to die by the sword would it not have been better for us to return to Egypt they said let's find someone that will lead us back to Egypt the sensual pleasures of the flesh seemed to have a strong draw on the people here we are 850 years since their fathers were delivered by God from Egypt but now the desire to return to Egypt to that land of the flesh it's interesting how that we can have selective memory all they could remember were the onion rings and french fries of Egypt they didn't remember the story of the horrible bondage and slavery that their fathers had experienced in Egypt they were slave laborers they served under heavy task masters they were beaten daily as they were pressed for larger production than what they could actually perform and so it was a selective memory just remembering the good things but sort of forgetting the nights of weeping all night and the the sorrow that they had the killing of their sons and these things they seem to forget that as they thought only of the sensual pleasures of Egypt people often have selective memories concerning the life of sin they think of the parties the drinking they forget the misery of the hangovers they think of the excitement of the sexual escapades but they forget that misery that turmoil that confusion when a pregnancy develops and the horrible guilt after the abortion here's a group of people they're determined to go back to Egypt back to that old life though God is warning them do not go back to Egypt God told them what would happen if they went back to Egypt there you will be slain there you will die don't go back wouldn't you think that by this time they would have recognized that Jeremiah was a true prophet of God everything that he said would happen has happened he's been batting a thousand percent and you think well surely they will recognize he is a true prophet of God and they will listen to him as they vowed and promised that they would listen to him tell us whatever God says we will obey again I'm amazed at the blinding and the stupefying power of sin how it blinds you to things that are quite obvious as God tells us there are things that if you do them they're going to destroy you they're going to bring you into bondage they're gonna rob you of things that are worthwhile and precious to you somehow people seem to have the misconception option that they can go against the Word of God and still be successful even the Greek philosophers knew that you couldn't fight against God the Greek philosophers had a saying the dice of the Gods are loaded they recognize you can't go against God and hope to win [Music] Saint Peter warned in his second epistle for if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ if they are again entangled in it and overcome by it they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning going back into the world of the flesh having received Jesus Christ you're in worse condition than you were even to start with there will be no deliverance for them out of Egypt they'll be slain in Egypt they'll die in Egypt if they go back that's God's Word it no doubt became very obvious to Jeremiah that they weren't really accepting what he was telling them he could tell by their reactions that they were determined to go to Egypt even though he was giving them the warnings from God not to go so Jeremiah said just be sure of this you made a fatal mistake when you sent me to the Lord and said pray to the Lord our God for us and tell us everything and everything he says we will do it I told you today but you still have not obeyed in all that God sent me to tell you so now be sure of this you will die by the sword and the plague in the place where you want to go and settle in spite of the warning they went to Egypt where they died by the sword and the famine and the plague just like Jeremiah said now as they are there in Egypt and as the Babylonian army comes and they are being slain would it be right for them to say God why did you allow this to happen to us would that be a right thing you know it's so often what people do you disobey the Word of God you go after the things of the flesh and then when you start to experience the bitter consequences the bitter fruit of the life of the flesh you say oh why would God allow this to happen to me well God told you that that's what's going to happen if you give yourself over to the flesh life God had warned them what would happen if they went back to Egypt it would be manifestly wrong for them to then complain to God and say Oh God why did you desert us why did you allow this to happen they were in deliberate willful disobedience to the commands and the Word of God and they are now suffering the bitter fruit of disobedience the people were much like many people today who go for counsel who really don't want counsel they go in order that they might be affirmed that what they're doing is all right and if you say no you can't do that the Bible says that you shouldn't do that then they'll get angry and they'll say oh he's a horrible counselor you know and they'll start shopping for a counselor until they can find one that says oh well that's fine you know don't worry about it sure you can do that and because they oh my what a wonderful counselor but then when the consequences come when God's Word again is proven to be true then they want to blame God for the calamities that they are going through Paul the Apostle said if I seek to please all men I'm not a servant of Jesus Christ God's Word is something that we may not always want to hear it may go against what I was planning to do such was the case with Jeremiah they said pray to the Lord for us whatever the Lord says we'll do it Jeremiah came back with the word Lord's Oh God didn't tell you that we're going to Egypt and so they really didn't want to hear what God had to say they had their minds made up of what they were going to do and it cost them dearly the bitter fruit of disobedience costs them their lives it's so important not to just hear the word of God but to obey the word of God may God help us to be obedient listeners to the word father we thank you for the fact that you don't give up easily you were still speaking to these people and still holding out at this late hour holding out promises of blessings promises of being with them helping them and still Lord they went their own way to that destruction that you told them would happen if they went their own way lord help us not to be so foolish as to insist on what we want to do but lord speak to us show us what you want us to do and may we follow Lord you're leading in Jesus name we pray amen

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Length: 28min 48sec (1728 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 18 2010