Jeremiah Chapter 7, the Bible reads in Verse 1, "The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, 'Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these.'"
Of course the greater context of the Book of Jeremiah is that Jeremiah is preaching to the sinful Jews at that time in the nation of Judah that have forsaken the Lord. They're about to be destroyed as a nation. They're about to be brought to Babylon as captives where they're going to spend 70 years in exile. Then, of course at the end of that 70 years when they get right with God, God is going to bring them back, and they're going to be reestablished as a nation, and they're going to rebuild the temple, rebuild the wall, but that's way off in the future. That's their descendants.
Right now they are in big trouble with God. God's angry. God's warning them, and so Jeremiah is preaching against them in most chapters here. Here he brings up this lying statement that had been going around. Somebody had been preaching this, apparently, this statement of, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these." What does that mean? If you think about what he means by "the temple of the Lord," the temple of the Lord would be basically a dwelling place for the Lord, if you think about it.
In the New Testament the Bible talks about how our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in us, and we are not our own, but we're bought with a price and so forth. Then the Bible also talks about the church, and it says, "That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."
The assembly of God's people when they congregate together make up the house of God, a dwelling place for God, in a sense, and then obviously we know that God is everywhere, but the house of God in the New Testament is the local church. Our body is called "the temple of the Holy Ghost." Why? Because the Holy Ghost is in us. So when they're saying, "The temple of the Lord," or, "The temple of God are these," what they're saying is that God is dwelling among us, or God is among these people. "These" is obviously referring to "these people" in saying, "The temple of the Lord are these." "These are God's temple," meaning that God dwells among them. They are the people of God.
The Bible says that that was a lie, that these people were not the temple of God. Who are "these people?" He's saying in Verse 2 that this is being preached to "all ye of Judah," at the end there, "that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord." He says to these people in Verse 3, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your doings and I will cause you to dwell in this place."
Is he saying, "You're going to dwell in this place no matter what you do, no matter how you live? No matter what you believe you're going to dwell in ..." No. He says, "If you straighten out you'll dwell in this place." Don't listen to this lie that these people are just automatically the temple of the Lord, these people are just automatically the people of God or that God is among them.
Look at Verse 5: "For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings, if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever." Is he saying here, "Well, I gave it to your fathers forever and ever. Therefore, no matter what you do you're going to dwell in it?"
Man:
No.
Man:
No.
Man:
No.
Steven:
I made an everlasting covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob therefore you have a carte blanche. You can do whatever you want. You can lie and cheat and steal and be wicked, and because you're Jewish, you're just God's people, and you're going to dwell is this land. This is your land because God promised it to Abraham, and you're the descendants of Abraham. There are a lot of ifs there. That was a big list: "If you throughly amend your ways and your doings." "Throughly" means within and without, all the way through. Basically, what do we change, God? Everything.
"You guys are doing virtually everything wrong. You would have to just throughly amend your ways and throughly you would have to execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, not oppress the stranger, not oppress the fatherless, not oppress the widow, not shed innocent blood, not walk after other Gods. Then I'll cause you to dwell in this place in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever." But people today are teaching that because he gave it to their fathers forever and ever that means the descendants automatically have a right to it, but is that what the Bible says?
Congregation:
No.
Steven:
Not even close. This is just one scripture of many. I've preached on this subject a whole bunch of times, but I've never used this scripture to preach on it. You know why? Because there was just such an abundance of other scriptures to turn to that I didn't even need to turn to this scripture. This is just another scripture that's saying the same thing.
He says, "Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not, and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, 'We're delivered to do all these abominations.' Is this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it," saith the Lord.
"But go you now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I did set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel." God is saying, "Look, I destroyed Shiloh. They're Isrealites. They're of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It didn't stop me from wiping out Shiloh, from wiping out the place where the tabernacle had dwelt, from wiping out God's people by bringing in the Assyrians to judge them. Think not to say within yourselves, 'We have Abraham to our father,' John the Baptist said. "For I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."
That doesn't sound like you can just do whatever and you're a child of Abraham; you dwell in the land; you're God's people. "The temple of the Lord are these." This sounds like a John Hagee sermon: "The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord! I said, the temple of the Lord are these! Amen." But it's a lie. Those are lying words, and they were saying it back then, and John Hagee and all these other Zionists are saying it now. It was just as much of a lie then as it is now.
In fact it's even more of a lie now because they don't even come close. They don't even have the right name anymore. They used to at least have the name right, Jehovah. Now they don't even have the name because the name is Jesus. They don't have that name, "and if they don't have the Son, they don't have the Father, and neither is their salvation any other. For there's none other name. There's none other name given among men whereby we must be saved." That name is Jesus. Jesus is ... "Well, Yahweh." No, Jesus: That's the name that's above all names. That is the only name.
You can't sit there and say, "We're just going to call on the Lord. We're just calling on the Father. We're going to bypass the Son." "No man cometh unto the Father but by me," Jesus said. If you would let's flip over to John 8 just quickly. I don't want to spend too much time on this because I've preached about this so many times, but it needs to be preached because this is a big lie that's out there.
I don't want to go on and on about it, but I do want to touch on it quickly here. John 8:37 Jesus said, "I know that ye are Abraham's seed," so he's acknowledging that they're the physical descendants. "I know that you're Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto him, 'Abraham is our father.' Jesus saith unto them, 'If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.'" Is he saying that they are or are not?
Man:
Are not.
Steven:
He's saying, "You're not. If you were you'd do the works of Abraham, but now you seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, 'We be not born of fornication. We have one father, even God.' Jesus said unto them, 'If God were your father you would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.'"
This is clear. Go back to Jeremiah 7. It's clear in the Old Testament. It's clear in the New Testament, and yet people have bought into this pro-Israel, the Jews are God's chosen people. "Well, they're in unbelief right now but ..." If you're in unbelief you're nothing. Without faith it's impossible to please him. Not only that, but without faith you're not God's people sort of grandfathered in because of old Grandfather Abraham. No.
If you don't believe in Christ you have God's wrath abiding on you. Whatever happened to, "He that believeth not is condemned already?" Whatever happened to, "He that hath the Son hath the life, but he that have not the Son of God hath not life?" What happened to, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God?" Whatever happened to just saying, "If you believe you're saved, and if you don't believe, the Bible says, 'But the wrath of God abideth on him?" Does that not apply to Jews?
What's funny is that they'll say, "No, they have God's blessing on them even though they believe not," but wait a minute. If you don't believe you have God's wrath abiding on you, so they have this mixture of God's wrath and blessing. He's angry with them and punishing them and blessing them at the same time? Which one is it? On one hand they'll tell us, "Oh, yeah, God's mad at them. That's why they went through the Holocaust."
Then on the other hand they'll turn around tell you this: "Oh, well, God's blessing them. That's why whenever they go to battle he performs all these miracles so that they always win." Which one is it? Are they being punished? Are they being blessed? Look, they're not God's people. They're not even under his blessing one iota because they haven't even taken the first step.
How do I get blessed in my life? How do you get blessed? Step 1: You got to be saved. You got to believe in Jesus. Then Step 2: If you want God to bless you, salvation is just believe. That's it, but if you want to be blessed by God, if you want to be in his favor, then another step would be baptism because that's obedience. God commands us all to be baptized. It's not optional. He commands baptism.
Then he commands us to obey all the teachings of Christ, all the teachings of the word of God, and we're supposed to obey and keep those commandments. That's how I get blessed. That's how you get blessed. How does a nation receive blessing from God? First of all by acknowledging the Lord, and then by keeping his commandments, and then by not murdering, all the things that he listed, not oppressing the poor, not oppressing foreigners, not hurting people, and ripping people off, and stealing and murdering, and doing all this stuff, and not fornicating and committing adultery. That's how I get a blessing. That's how you get a blessing. That's how our nation gets blessed.
What is this other group of people that just gets this automatic blessing, free pass, just get out of God's wrath free card over there just because Abraham is their father? It's meaningless. It's meaningless. Avoid genealogies. I don't even care who your father is. "We're not born of fornication. Abraham is ..." Who cares? I don't care if you are born of fornication. If you believe on Jesus you're saved. Nuts to this thing of who gave birth to you means you're God's people or you're not God's people. It's meaningless if you believe in Jesus. It's only faith that profiteth. It's not circumcision that profiteth. It's not uncircumcision that profiteth. "It's faith which worketh by love," the Bible says.
Here in Jeremiah 7 he is rebuking them for thinking that they can just dwell in the land no matter what, that they are just the temple of the Lord no matter what, and he's making it really clear to them, "There's a whole bunch of things you have to fix, and you have to stop worshiping a false god. Then you'll dwell in the land. Then you'll be the temple of the Lord, and then I'll dwell among you. I'll be your God. You'll be my people, et cetera."
Look at Verse 13, "And now, because you've done all these works, saith the Lord, I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but you heard not, and I called you but you answered not. Therefore will I do unto this house which is called by my name wherein ye trust and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers as I have done to Shiloh."
I think it's interesting how he says that they trust in the place. They trust in the house itself, and this is something that Jesus also rebuked in Matthew 23 when he talked about how foolish and blind they were to say, "Well, whosoever sweareth by the temple it is nothing," but if you swear by the gold of the temple you're guilty. They're basically elevating the gold of the temple above the temple itself.
That just shows you the money, the lust of money that these people had in their hearts that would even cause them to elevate the monetary value of God's house above the spiritual value of God's house. It shows you a wicked heart there, because the love of money is the root of all evil. He rebukes them for this, and he talks about the fact that they basically say, "You swear by the temple. That's one thing, but don't swear by the gold of the temple. You swear by the altar. That's one thing, but don't swear by the gift that's on the altar."
Okay, but he says, "Look, if you swear by the temple you're swearing by him that dwelleth therein." It's the Lord that makes the temple what it is. Here's the thing: Without the Lord the temple is just a building. The gold is there. The altar is there. The animals are there, but it's only the fact that God's presence showed up at the temple that gave it value in the first place.
If you remember when they first built the temple, because before that they had the tabernacle, and when they built the tabernacle God's presence came and dwelled in the tabernacle in the form of the cloud that filled the house. Then when Solomon built the permanent temple building in Jerusalem, again, when Solomon finishes dedicating the house and praying God's spirit comes and dwells in the house, and the cloud, remember the cloud by day, the fire by night, the cloud of God's glory and God's presence filled the house in that passage in 2 Chronicles 5 through 7 where the temple is being dedicated. That's the significance of the temple. It's not, "Oh, the gold. Look at all the gold and so on."
This is what the disciples were even impressed by. They wanted to show Jesus a tour of the temple. "Look at all these buildings. Look at all this wealth. Look at the gold and the silver." He said, "You see all these things. There shall not be here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down." Why? Because if God's spirit isn't there, if God's word isn't being preached there he's going to put the ax to the root of the tree and cast that thing down because you see this already in this passage where he says in Verse 14, "Therefore, I do unto this house, which is called by my name wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim. Therefore, pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor pray for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear thee."
Again, people today, they put a great emphasis on the land, and when you try to say, "You know, the Jews aren't God's chosen people because they don't believe in Jesus, and if they don't have the Son they don't have the Father." "But God has a special relationship with the land." That's such a joke, like God is just so concerned about the land, the dirt, like it's the dirt and the soil. There's something special about it. The only thing that's special about it is just because God chose it. That's what makes it special. The fact that those people were chosen is what made them special when they were chosen and it's what makes us today special because we're the chosen people because we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We are the elect according to the New Testament.
It's just bizarre this emphasis on a building or emphasis on the actual land, like the physical, literal land, and emphasis upon these carnal things and a total disregard for the spiritual condition, just, "What's your genealogy? What's your pedigree?" What's funny is that a lot of these Jews that you talk to so-called, they don't even tell you that they're a proselyte, where they converted to Judaism. People have been doing that throughout history. They've been converting to that stupid religion for the last 2,000 years, and it is a stupid religion. It's a stupid, meaningless religion. It's a religion that says, "Oh, our holy book is the Torah," which tells you like hundreds of times to make animal sacrifices but you never make an animal sacrifice. That's a stupid religion. It doesn't even make any sense.
There are a lot of other foolish things about that religion, but people have been converting to that foolish, stupid religion. You say, "How dare you call it stupid." Jesus called it stupid. Jesus said the Pharisees are fools and blind. What is a "fool" mean?
Steven:
"Fool" means you're stupid. That's what it means. In fact, "fool" is even a stronger word than "idiot" or "a stupid person." "Foolish" is even worse. "Foolish" is a pretty strong word. Jesus said to the Pharisees, "You fools." They go, "Well, we're Abraham's seed." "Your father is the devil." That's what Jesus taught, and people have converted to that foolish religion, and they're not even of their pedigree that they think that they have that goes back matrilineal or patrilineal or however they want to calculate it. What about Sammy Davis Jr.? Who knows who Sammy Davis Jr. is? Is he one of the chosen ones? Because Sammy Davis Jr. converted to Judaism. Does that make him the chosen people?
Madonna is into the Kabbalah. Is she one of the chosen ones? What about Captain Kirk and Spock? Are they the chosen people because they're both "Jewish?" The bottom line is that this whole carnal doctrine of the Jews being God's chosen people, and then you try to pin people down. Are we talking a physical descendant? Then it's like, how do they know? If we're told to avoid genealogies how are we going to figure out how legit they are?
Then you try to [pin it down 00:21:00]. "Well, no, no, no. It's the Jews, you know. You know, just the Jews, you know." You know, Sammy Davis Jr., David Lee Roth, Captain Kirk, Spock, Larry, Curly, and Moe, Billy Crystal, Adam Sandler. You know what Jews are. Come on, Jeff Goldblum, Steven Spielberg. Don't act like you don't know what Jews are. You know what they are, but then it's like, if you're not talking about a genealogy that goes back are you just saying if they just live in that land? Is that what makes them a Jew? Then all the Palestinians are Jews then. Then you'd have to support the Palestinians. "No, no, no, because they're Muslim." Wait a minute, is Muslim any farther from Christianity than Judaism?
Man:
No.
Steven:
No. Muslim is no more unsaved than a Jew is unsaved. At least a Muslim says that Jesus was a prophet. That's a step. That's not enough to get you to heaven. It's not enough to get you saved. You got to believe he's the son of God, but at least they say he's a prophet. That's a starting point, whereas the Jews teach all kinds of wickedness about Jesus. They blaspheme Jesus. They hate Jesus, so they're not even to first base to getting saved. They're not even close.
Then it's like, is it living in the land? Oh, it's the religion. So basically you join a false, Christ-rejecting religion, and that's how you become God's people. So you're a black guy like Sammy Davis Jr. You're a white guy like whoever, and you join this false religion, and that's how you become ... What if I want to be God's chosen people? Do I have to go join a false religion? Oh, so if I deny Christ and go join the religion, then I get to be one of the chosen people. "Yeah, but then you don't go to heaven," so it's like, "Ehhh, do I want to be one of the chosen ones? Live a charmed life or do I want to go to heaven? Eh." Guess what? I can have both because the Bible said if I believe on Christ all blessings are available unto me.
The reason I spent a little time on that is just to illustrate to you just how foolish and ridiculous this teaching is, that you can reject Jesus and you're still the temple of the Lord. You're still God's people. You're still under his blessing. It's madness and folly. You know what? A lot of people are waking up to it, frankly. We've been sending out the Marching to Zion film. We sent it out. We sent a copy of it to every independent Fundamental Baptist pastor in America. Did you know that? Over 6,000 churches we sent a copy of Marching to Zion.
I'm constantly getting emails and people saying that, "Our church got this film, and now our church is teaching that the Jews are not God's people," and that they've changed that. I've gotten multiple messages. Brother Baker, you saw some of those messages, right? Multiple messages of, "Hey, this was taught in my Sunday school class," or, "Hey, I'm a pastor and I'm teaching this now, and your video really opened our eyes, and we're experiencing revival now. Our church is really doing great, and we really appreciate it. We just want to thank you for that film." Why? Because that film is irrefutable. No one could even begin to refute it. It's all right there. It's ironclad.
Once you see the truth on this ... I'll tell you this: I first figured this out back in 2006, is when I realized, "Wait a minute. I've been wrong about Israel. I've been wrong about the Jews. I've been taught this my whole life, but it's just not true." I realized that around the summer of 2006. I'd already been pastoring for 6 months, and I hadn't really preached about it one way or the other. It just was not a big emphasis of mine, but I was preaching one time about six months into this church, and something started to come out of my mouth about the Jews or Israel or something. As it was starting to come out of my mouth I just thought, "Is this really true or am I just repeating this, what I've heard?"
Then I went home and studied it, but I'll tell you my reaction. Once I studied this subject, and I knew the Bible. When I'd started the church I'd read the Bible 24 times cover to cover. I'd memorized over 100 chapters of the Bible, of the New Testament, even, and I remember just when I saw this how the Jews aren't God's chosen people, how God has taken that away from them and given that unto believers in the New Testament, my thought was just, "How could I have ever been wrong on this?" I felt kind of dumb. Goodnight. How could I have read the Bible so many times ... I'm looking at chapters that I'd memorized, and I'm thinking, "I memorized this."
Those of you who've memorized a full chapter, for example, those of you who just memorized Daniel Chapter 12, it's a lot of work, isn't it? It takes a long time. How many times would you guess ... Who's done with Daniel 12? Put up your hand. Who's done with it? Okay, how many times do you think you read it, or quoted it, or repeated each phrase of that in order to memorize the whole chapter? What do you think?
Man:
20.
Garrett :
500.
Steven:
If you did it in 20 then you are a genius, because if I read through that 20 times I wouldn't have it memorized, not even close. Garrett said 500, and I would say it has to be several 100 times. Each phrase, each verse is repeated, at least me. Maybe I'm an idiot, but it took me several 100 times. People think I have some magical gift for memorizing scripture. No. It's called just repeat it hundreds of times. It's just the hard way, just the old-fashioned way. I don't really have any tricks, nothing up the sleeve here.
Honestly, in order to have learned Daniel 12, except for the few geniuses among us now, in order to learn Daniel 12 you went through it hundreds of times, and I don't know about you but when I memorized Daniel Chapter 12 a whole bunch of things jumped out at me that I'd never thought of or never seen. All kinds of things are popping out at you, and you're like, "Whoa," because when you really just go over it hundreds of times, you notice everything. You have plenty of time to think about each verse as you're learning it.
I looked at passages that I'd known for years, that I could quote up one side and down the other, and just thought, "How could I have not seen what this is saying?" Romans 2:28 and 29, just Romans 9, just the beginning of Romans 11, just so many things I'm just like, "What in the world was I thinking when I read it and quoted and learned this?"
I felt just like an idiot, like, "What in the world?" How could I fall for this?" Because that's how clear it is in scripture, and that's why there's a real strong agenda in the media and in churches to basically keep people from talking about this. There's a lot of opposition when you come out with a movie like Marching to Zion or when you try to speak out about this. You're not going to be on TV unless it's, "Can you believe this horrible, racist, anti-Semite?" or whatever they're going to call you, even though I don't have a racist bone in my body.
They come at you with all these threats and intimidation, and they hold little press conferences in the city of Tempe about how bad your church is. They had a little press conference where a transvestite go up and spoke about how bad our church is. Ramon Ventura was down there, and he filmed the press conference. He was like, "Oh, I filmed that press conference." I get 10 minutes into it, and all of a sudden this woman walks up to the podium and starts talking with a man's voice. I was like, "Whoa. What in the world?"
The congressman, our congressman stood in front of the door of our church building with a camera crew from the media saying, "This guy needs to stop, and he's saying all this hateful things, and it's got to stop," blah, blah, blah. His name happens to be Shapiro, but anyway, our representative Shapiro, he's out there railing on our church, and they had a big press conference where they got all the leaders together: "What are we going to do about this guy, Pastor Anderson?" Why? It was all because we were in production of Marching to Zion. That's what it was all about, just, "This horrible film," and everything.
They want to scare people where they don't want to watch it, or they're afraid to watch it, or they don't want to talk about it because they're going to call you all these names and everything like that, because of the fact that they know that if somebody watches that video and has a brain in their head they're going to walk away saying, "These aren't God's people at all." You know that's true. I defy anyone to watch, anyone who is saved and has an I.Q. in the triple digits, to watch that film and then walk around, "I still think they're God's people. I still think they're praying to Jehovah God." You're nuts if you think that. Anyway, I went a little too far off on that.
Let's get back to the chapter here, but it is what the first half of the chapter is about, so it was worth talking about. Look what he says in Verse 16. He says, "Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up crying nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee." Here's the thing: Sometimes when you're reading the Bible you run into scriptures that seem to contradict each other.
If you would, keep your finger and go to 1 Timothy Chapter 2. I believe that there are no contradictions in the Bible because I believe that the Bible is a perfect book. I believe that any time we see something that looks like a contradiction it's just that we're not understanding what's being said, and so we think it's contradiction. For example, the Bible says in one gospel that Jesus crucified at this hour, and in another gospel it's another hour. In one gospel at the 12th hour he's on the cross. Then over here it's the sixth hour. You're looking at it and you're confused about this.
It seems like a contradiction when you compare John with Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but then you realize, oh, it's just that you're not understanding that John is on a different clock. John is on the world's clock that starts at midnight, and Matthew, Mark, and Luke are on the Jewish clock, which starts at 6am. When you're starting at 6am the six hour is noon, but in the world's system that would be for us the 12th hour, 12:00. You realize that it's two different books written by two different authors, both inspired by God, both geared toward two different audiences, so they look at things in a different way.
There is no contradiction. It's just two different ways you recon time, or, for example, the Bible will say, "Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou be like unto him," and says, "Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceits." Those are back-to-back verses right next to each other. What's he saying there? I believe what's being said there is just you can't win when you're dealing with fools because if you answer them you end up being like them in people's sight, that is, and if you don't answer them they walk away wise in their own conceit: "No one can refute me." It's like you can't win.
Man:
You can't fix stupid.
Steven:
Or other people have said that their interpretation of that verse is that, "Hey, there's situations where you should answer and situations where you shouldn't answer." I think that's a valid interpretation also. My interpretation is that it's just telling you you can't win with these people. Just pick your poison, but you're going to lose. You want to look like an idiot or do you want them to go away wise in their own conceit? You pick.
Basically there are all kinds of things in the Bible that could appear to be a contradiction, but what you have to do is synthesize these two things. What I mean by that is that you basically understand how they both can be true, how they can both be true, because if they're not both true then something is wrong with your Bible, and we know that there's nothing wrong with the Bible. That's our starting point is we have faith in the Bible.
These things need to be brought into harmony or we're understanding them wrong, and if there's disharmony and contradiction we have our wires crossed somewhere. Like, for example, over here it says that Jesus rose again on the third day, on the third day. Then over here it says he's going to be dead for three days and three nights. A lot of people think, "Oh, that's a contradiction," but again, it's the reader that has a misunderstanding because when the Bible says, "On the third day," he doesn't mean what we mean. He means after three days. You can prove that from the Bible because, for example, Esther, she basically says fast for three days, and then on the third day she's going to go in to the king, meaning after three days.
Then, for example, Elijah, after three and a half years he goes and presents himself to Ahab, but in the Old Testament it's portrayed as in the third year even though it's three years and six months. From a Biblical reckoning three years and six months is in the third years, whereas we would think of it in America as in the fourth year.
For example, in America when we go to a building, the first floor is the one that's on the ground, and if we go upstairs we're on the second floor, but in Germany you walk into a building. You go upstairs to the next level, and that's called "the first floor." You're like, "What in the world? How could this be the first floor when it's not the first one?" It's because that's the way they ... That's the ground floor, and then the first floor.
Think about it: What they call "the third floor" is our fourth floor. Are they wrong? Are we wrong? No. Basically when the Bible says, "On the third day," you're misunderstanding that. "On the third day" means basically the day after we're done with three days; that next day is the third day because they're not counting the day that they're on. The first day is tomorrow, then the second, then the third, sort of like the building floors.
Look what the Bible says here in 1 Timothy Chapter 2. The Bible says in Verse 1, "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men, for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."
In this scripture here he's telling us to pray for everybody. Isn't that what it says: "Pray for all men, kings, all that are in authority so that we can live a quiet and peaceable life." But then over in Jeremiah 7, and this isn't the only place, but in Jeremiah 7:16 it says, "Therefore, pray not though for this people, neither lift up cry nor pray for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee." Then over in 1 Timothy he said, "Oh, prayers and intercessions should be made for all men."
Here's what most people do when faced with these type of "contradictions." They'll just pick the one that they like and ignore the other one: "Pick the one I like; ignore the one I don't like." So they usually pick the one that's more positive and throw out the one that's more negative. Like, for example, the Bible says, "For God so loved the world," which that would be everybody, right?
Man:
Right.
Steven:
The world. Then over here it says that God hates certain people, "And I will love them no more. I hated them." What people will do often is just pick the one that they like. Or #2, here's what they'll do: They'll just throw out the Old Testament and just take whatever is New Testament, and throw out the Old Testament with no rhyme or reason or explanation why it would be any different. Are there some things that are different in the New Testament? Yeah, but most things are the same. A lot of things are the same. Otherwise, why are we even preaching through the Book of Jeremiah? Why do you even go to a church where we spend an hour going through each chapter of Jeremiah? Because all scripture is profitable for doctrine. That's why.
There's nothing in the New Testament that would say, "Oh, well, this has changed." Here's what's really going on. Here's a real understanding, and here's what's foolish about saying, "Well, Jeremiah is in the Old Testament. Throw it out." We could find New Testament scriptures of praying against people. How about Romans 11, for example? There are places throughout scripture in the New Testament that would back up these concepts of the Old Testament.
The bottom line is when we run into two scriptures that seem to contradict each other we need to bring them into harmony. How can they both be true? How can God "so loved the world," but yet over here it talks God not loving people anymore and hating them? Here's why: Because it doesn't say "God loves the world." It says, "God loved the world."
The truth of the matter is that God loves everybody at some point in their life. "God loves everybody." Yeah, but here's the thing: He doesn't continue loving people for all eternity that reject him. You understand what I'm saying? So, yeah, "God so loved the world." Every single person who's born on this earth and is a little baby, and a little child, and is growing up, God loves that person, but then the Bible also teaches that you can get to a point where God doesn't love you anymore, and where God actually hates you. Here's the thing: If you're a believer in Christ, that would never happen, because once you're saved the Bible says nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
Once we're saved he said he'll never leave us nor forsake us and that nothing could separate us from the love of Christ, but let me ask you this: Is that promise made unto unbelievers that nothing can separate them from the love of Christ?
Man:
No.
Steven:
No. There is a way where they could push things too far and become what the Bible calls "reprobate." Here's the thing: You'd have to ignore a whole bunch of scripture and just say, "I'm just going to pick the positive only in order to deny that." That's what the Bible says. It's the same thing in this situation. These two ideas need to be brought into harmony, and the answer is very clear because here in Jeremiah 7:16 he says, "Therefore, pray not thou for this people, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee." But then, just a few chapters later he makes the exact same statement, but he adds something. He says, "Therefore, pray not thou for this people for their good."
When he says, "Don't pray for them and don't make intercession for them," he's saying, "Don't pray for God to bless them. Don't make intercession for them," in the sense of on their behalf, because, he says, "Don't pray for them for their good." By comparing scripture with scripture in Jeremiah we see two statements that are identical, except one of them just adds, "Don't pray for them for their good," a clarification of what he meant. Does everybody understand?
When we're in Romans Chapter 11, for example, and you don't have to turn there. You can stay in 1 Timothy 2, but then it says in Romans 11:2, "God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias?" Watch this, "how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, 'Lord, they have digged down thine altars,'" and so forth. That's an example of Elijah making intercession for Israel for their good? No. He's making intercession against Israel. He's praying against Israel.
Here's the thing: If we go to Psalms we get a lot of examples of the prayers of David, and in the prayers of David there are 19 of them where he is specifically praying against people and praying doom upon them. Obviously we're not supposed to pray doom on our enemies. We're supposed to love our enemies, meaning people who personally do us wrong, people who we have it in for, but the Bible does say, "Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?"
Again, there are God's enemies. There are those who hate the Lord, and then there are personal enemies. What do we do with our personal enemies? We love them. We pray for them. We bless them. We try to overcome evil with good. What do we do with the evil, reprobate enemies of the Lord, haters of God? We should not pray for their good. We shouldn't pray, "Oh, God, would you please bless Jack the Ripper, Lord? Would you please let Jack the Ripper be blessed today?" Isn't that just stupid?
Man:
Right.
Steven:
That's not what the Bible ... "Well, love your enemies," but here's the thing, and obviously Jack the Ripper has been dead for a long time, but the point is that the Jack the Rippers of today, should I pray for God to bless them? Is that really what God is saying? Here's the thing: Why is it that 1 Timothy 2 told us to pray for all men? Because he said, "It's his will that all men would be saved." If a person is past the point of being saved, if a person is a reprobate according to Romans 1, then it wouldn't really make any sense to pray for that person if God's not going to hear you anyway. That's what he's saying in Jeremiah 7, so there's no contradiction here; it's just two different situations.
"I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men, for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." This is not necessarily saying that we should pray for God to bless all kings and for God to bless all those that are in authority. No, the prayer is that we would live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
We should pray that God works in our leaders so that it benefits us as God's people, so that we can lead a quiet and peaceable life. Because think about it: Their laws affect us. If they make some law in D.C. that raises our taxes through the roof, that affects us, or if they make a law that says, "Hey, you can't preach against homosexuality," or, "You can't knock doors and preach the gospel," or, "You can't spank your kids," if they make these type of laws we can't lead a quiet and peaceable life anymore because we're going to have all these problems.
Our prayer for our leaders is not just, "Oh, God, please just bless that faggoty president that we have, Obama, Lord. Just please just bless him and give him a good day today. Just keep him safe, Lord." It's more like, "Hey, let his days be few, and let another take his office." That's a prayer from Psalms. There was a bumper sticker that I saw a lot of people had out there. It said, "Pray for Obama," and then it said, "Psalm 109:8, and let his days be few and let another take his officer."
That's a legitimate prayer for a Christian to pray because he's not helping us lead a quiet and peaceable life. He's not being a blessing to us. He's not punishing the evildoers. He's leading our country to hell in a hand basket. He has appointed a special LGBT ambassador to all these things. He's not helping our country. He's damning our country; therefore, it wouldn't be wrong to pray, "Lord, let his days be few and let another take his office.
In fact, if you prayed for God to bless him, you're exhibiting a total lack of understanding of scripture when the Bible tells you that, "Look, some of these people are reprobate. When they're going after strange flesh, when they are attracted to other dudes, and that's Obama. It has come out many times about how everyone who went to college with him that's pointing out that he's a homo, and all his different past homo lovers have come out, and then they died mysterious deaths, Larry Sinclair and whoever.
Basically we have this evil president, and people say, "Oh, pray for God to bless him." No. I'm going to pray that he dies, and that another person could step in. Anyway, the point is that, yeah, we should pray for our government, that it does what it's supposed to do. That's the prayer. The prayer is, "Oh, God, please let the government leave us alone so we can lead a quiet and peaceable life. We just want to do what's right, God. We just want to be married to our wives and just raise our children, and we just want to go to church, and we just want to go soul-winning. We want to serve you, God, and please just don't let these people stop us from doing that and send us all to prison." That actually makes sense.
Here's the thing: If there are leaders that actually have an ounce of decency in their body and actually have some human semblance of a soul left, then it would make sense to pray for them to be saved, but when they're just already a total reprobate, what's the point at that point? You're wasting your time. He's saying, "Don't pray for people because I'm not going to hear you when it's these total people ..." Because remember, get the context, folks. Look at Jeremiah Chapter 7 where we were.
The reason that this preaching goes against the grain with a lot of people is twofold. Number one: They have a very simple understanding of scripture in the sense that everything like this is too complicated for them. They just want to just, "It's just real simple, okay? God just loves everybody. Just, everybody is good, okay? Just pray for everybody to be blessed. Just bless everybody, God. Bless Charles Manson, Lord. Just bless Kim Jong-un or -il or whatever Kim Jong is in there. Just bless him, Lord. So what if he's torturing and killing people. Just help him to have a good bowl of rice today over in North Korea." Are you going to pray for Kim Jong ... What's his name?
Man:
Un.
Man:
Kim Jong-un.
Steven:
Kim Jong-un, yeah. Are you going to pray for Kim Jong-un to be blessed?
Man:
No, sir.
Steven:
What if you're living in North Korea? Everyone around you is starving to death. Christians are being murdered. There's no Christianity allowed. People are being tortured and put in GULAGs, and then what if somebody is just like, "Man, I'm just going to pray that that short, ugly, little whatever, that he just slips on a banana peel, and falls down the stairs, and dies, and may he go quickly into hell." Would you really blame those people for praying that? Hello? "No, just bless him. It's the Christian thing to do." No, the Bible says that if you bless the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth, that's a sin.
The Bible says that if you bid God speed unto false prophets, people who are preaching another gospel besides the gospel of Jesus, he says, "If you bid them God speed, which is a blessing, you're partaking of their evil deeds." People want to take this overly simplistic view of scripture, pick the part that they like and ignore the part they don't like instead of realizing, "Hey, let's bring this into synthesis. Let's bring this into harmony," but they want to have an overly simple understanding, or, #2, they want to fit in in this adulterous generation, so they're afraid of being called "hateful."
They're being taught that we're supposed to act loving toward even the worst possible reprobate. Look at the context. Look at Jeremiah 6:30: "Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them." These are people that the Lord has rejected, and those are the same people he says, "Pray not for these people because they're reprobate." It's not that we just pick and choose; it's people that God has given up on. You say, "How are we going to know that?" Read Romans 1 and you can see the outward manifestations of a person who is reprobate, and that's a whole nother sermon. I've preached it many times.
We need to get off this overly simplistic, positive-only message, and it's amazing to me how ... Somebody sent me this video, and they said, "Oh, man, this Christian pastor just tore up this homo pastor on TV. I mean, he just tore him up!" The Christian pastor who makes a cameo in Marching to Zion, by the way, on the wrong side of the issue, the Christian pastor is just like so nice and loving to this homo pastor. He's calling him "Pastor." He's like, "Well, listen, Pastor, let me ask you this." It's like, do you think that I would call some filthy homo "Pastor?"
"Pastor" is a title of respect. When you say to someone, "Pastor," you're basically acknowledging their position. A dirty sodomite, and he's called, "Well, Pastor, let me ask you this." He's not quoting scripture. He's not quoting Leviticus 13. He's not quoting Romans 1. He's just trying to logic with this guy, and honestly, I was just shaking my head. Then the homo pastor says, "Well, it's not a choice. We're born that way."
Then the Christian pastor says, "Well, no. It's any activity that we perform in that regard is a choice, even whether we're hetero or homo. It's all a choice," and he says, "No. If you're talking about inclinations though, yeah, that would be another story," so he basically acknowledges to this guy that people are born with homo inclinations. I don't ... Do you believe that? I don't believe that.
Man:
No way.
Steven:
Oh, but, "He tore him up." No, he admits to the guy that he believes that people are born with or could be born with homo inclinations. "That's another subject. Yeah, okay, but doing the act is a choice, you know, actually acting on it." No, the Bible says that even in their heart, the reason that they even burn in lust toward another dude is because God gave them over to a reprobate mind. That's what it says in Romans 1, but this guy is just tip-toeing through the tulips with "Pastor," and arguing with him with all man's logic about why they shouldn't get married and yadda, yadda, yadda, and whether they should have to bake a cake for them and all this stupidity.
This is the world that we live in, and I saw all the comments on the video where people say, "Oh, you handled that so well because you were so loving. So loving, good job. You spoke the truth in love." Here's the thing: We shouldn't express love to filthy haters of the Lord who are blaspheming Christ. Thing about how wicked a person is to be a sodomite in the first place, #1, but #2, to be a filthy, homo, a filthy sodomite, and then to get up and say, "I'm a man of God. I represent Jesus Christ. I'm coming to you and teaching you in the name of Jesus."
Think about how people in the Bible reacted to this kind of stuff. Think about how Paul and Peter and James and John and all the Old Testament prophets reacted to people who did things that were far less offensive than that. What about when the king of Israel comes in to talk to Elisha, and Elisha says, "You know what? I have no respect for you, and if it weren't for the king of Judah being here, I wouldn't even look at you." That's what he said to him.
In the Bible they broke down the houses of the sodomites just for being too close to God's house. Now it's like, "Oh, bring in the sodomites into God's house." It's just people have taken an overly-simplistic view of the Bible, and they just want to hear no evil, see no evil as our country goes to hell in a hand basket because the homo agenda is all out and proud, and we're like cowering in fear: "Well, Pastor ..." instead of actually letting it rip.
Here's the thing: I have zero regard for whether what I say is politically correct. It means nothing to me. If the Bible says that they're filthy, if the Bible says they're reprobate, if the Bible says that they're haters of God and that we should hate those who hate the Lord, and the Bible says, "Shouldest thou help the ungodly or love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from the Lord thy God because you love them that hate the Lord," he said. Am I supposed to ignore that scripture?
Man:
No.
Steven:
Or shall I not read the whole scripture and obey the whole scripture? We as a nation have become dumbed down on our spiritual knowledge. We need to get back to reading the whole Bible. We need to read Jeremiah. We need to read all the books of the Bible that we might have a complete view of scripture and not a one-sided view. This is a great opportunity in Jeremiah 7:16 where we see something that a lot of Christians have never heard where he says, "Therefore pray not though for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee," understanding that we do not pray for God to bless every person in this world, and that that is actually false.
You can study and read the examples and figure out the difference between the two, but it's there. You can't just cross this verse out of your Bible like it doesn't exist. It's there and it has meaning, and it needs to be taught in church or else we're not teaching all the doctrine. "Well, God was wrong back then," or, "God was mean back then, but now he's nice." He's always been mean and he's always been nice. It just depends on which side of his character you're on. He's mean to people that are mean, and he's nice to people that are nice to him. It's that simple.
I got to hurry up. I'm already totally out of time, so I'll just kind of explain to you briefly what the rest of the chapter is about. A lot of it is very similar to what we've seen in other chapters, and we did read the whole chapter at the beginning, but he basically just talks about the fact that the children of Judah are living in sin. They've gone backwards. They're backslidden. They're provoking him to anger. He tells them, "Your animal sacrifices aren't making me happy. You need to get your heart right. You need to do the right thing and keep my commandments. Then I'll even care about your sacrifice."
Then I like those two words at the end of Verse 21: "Eat flesh." That's a motto that I have. I'm not a vegan, and then in Verse 29: "Cut off your hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away." What's he saying there? He's talking about in the Bible when people would be mourning they would shave their heads and rend their garment. He said, "You ought to be weeping. You ought to be mourning. If you knew the bad things that are about to happen to you you'd be crying."
Then he talks about in Verse 31 how they're sacrificing their sons and daughters to devils. They're actually murdering their own children. We talked about that last week as well. Then he talks about how they are going to be murdered as a result because they murdered babies. Because they made their sons and daughters to pass through the fire he says, "You will be slaughtered as a result. The Babylonians are going to come slaughter you because you slaughtered the unborn or the newborn in that case.
You know what? Slaughtering the newborn and the unborn is the same thing. It's just murder. If God slaughtered them for murdering their unborn or newborn then God is going to slaughter, and there is going to be a slaughter some day in the United States where God is going to require all the innocent blood that has been shed. That's a New Testament/Old Testament concept. The Lord is the same in both Testaments, same God. He has the same character.
Let's bow our heads and have word of prayer. Lord, we thank you for the Book of Jeremiah, Lord, because if we only had a New Testament in our hand our knowledge of you would be incomplete, Lord. Thank you for giving us these important books, all 66 of them, Lord. Help us to read every single one of them, and help us never to just scoff at or ignore a verse and just say, "Oh, well that, let's just negate that." Lord, help us to understand what that verse means, why it's there, and help us to understand that although, Lord, you love everyone when they're born, when they're a child, as they're growing up, and many people, their entire lives, Lord, help us to understand that there are some people that get to a point where they're past that, Lord, and where there's hatred and wrath upon them, Lord.
Help us to study to show ourselves approved, Lord, and to not take an overly simplistic view of your word, because we're living in perilous times, Lord, and these dangerous people with their dangerous agendas are trying to creep into our churches, and they creep in as preachers and as teachers of the Bible, Lord. Inwardly they are ravening wolves. Help us to stay by the stuff, Lord, and not be deceived, and help us to keep our church safe and our children safe from these deceptions and wickedness. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
