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[0:00] Jeremiah 18 starting at verse 11 says, Now therefore go speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, say, Thus saith the Lord, behold, I frame evil against you and devise a device against you.

[0:18] Return you now everyone from his evil way and make your ways and your doings good. And they said, there is no hope, but we will walk after our own devices and we will everyone do the imagination of his evil hearts.

[0:36] Therefore thus saith the Lord, ask ye now among the heathen who hath heard such things. The virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.

[0:47] Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?

[0:58] Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient past to walk in the past in a way not cast up.

[1:13] To make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing, everyone that passeth thereby shall be astonished and wag his head. I'll stop reading right there.

[1:25] So once again, at the beginning of this chapter, Jeremiah 18, we see the potter, we see the vessel that is marred and we see the potter make a new vessel.

[1:39] But then we have the explanation of this vision, of this thing that Jeremiah has fallen witness to. We see the Lord himself giving an explanation of what has happened here.

[1:52] In verse 11 he says, go speak to the man of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, thus saith the Lord, behold, I bring evil against you and devise a debase against you, returning now everyone from his evil way and make your ways and your doings good.

[2:14] God, in a few extra words here, tell them the people of Judah and tell them the people of Jerusalem, you need to repent, you need to turn from the evil of your ways and you need to go back to the paths which I set out before you.

[2:32] I set these paths out long before you were here, long before your parents were here, or your grandparents, you need to go back to the ancient paths, to the ways of God, to the laws of God.

[2:47] This is why you need to return to and how did the people answer when this message came out? They said, we will not do this thing, we will not go back to those paths, we'll go our own way, we'll go our own cause, we'll go the way that we want us to go.

[3:05] What had God said though? He said, I've devised evil against you folks that has stern words coming from the God of all gods, coming from Jehovah God, the maker of the world, the King, the God that had brought this people up out of the land of Egypt, they were sitting here telling that God, we will not follow your ways, we will not follow your laws, we will go the way that we want to, and there is nothing that you God can do about it.

[3:39] But God said, I am God and beside me there is no other, I am God, you are my people, I will bring you back into line, I will devise evil against you, and I will have these evil devises come against you folks, God does the same thing now here in 2020.

[4:07] It ain't no different. We are, I don't care if you saved or you lost, you're God's property, God made you, you may disagree with that, but God made you the sovereign God of the universe, He created you, He created Adam, and created Adam out of the dust of the earth, He created Eve from Adam's rib, but in your way God created them, therefore He created you, He created me, we belong to Him whether we accept it or not, whether we believe it or not, the Word of God says that we belong to Him, it teaches that we belong to Him, and God can do with His creation whatever He deems that.

[4:57] There's nothing that we can do about that. What is He trying to do here? He is trying to bring His own people, His own people, the Jews, the Jews, that He called the Bible cause, the apple of His eye, His own people that He brought up out of Egypt, His own people that He fed manatee, had Him the wilderness, that He brought water, had Him the rock floor, that He performed miracles, He split the Red Sea and brought them across, and these people have rebelled against Him, and God in His richness and mercy, God in His compassion is trying to bring His people back.

[5:42] How many people's God's screaming to nowadays? Folks, He screams every day through this Word, every Sunday, He screams a couple of times, every Wednesday, every Thursday, some churches do Tuesday, not midweeks, folks, it don't matter, God calls His people every day, God calls the lost every day, and the message is no different for the same than it is for the lost, the message is repent, the message is return to your God, it's the same in the new and the old testaments, it doesn't matter which testament, the message is the same, we need to repent, and we need to return back to our God.

[6:24] I am hearing this, this God's telling them, He said, behold, I frame evil against you, folks, that's God speaking, that is God speaking, I frame evil against you, I frame evil against you, that doesn't make God evil, that doesn't mean that God is an evil being, God owns it all, God has control of it all, God can use whatever, whatever means He deems necessary, or that jiggles His fancy to get our attention, whether that be evil spirits, whether that be demons, whether that be evil, or whether that be good, God can and does use those things.

[7:12] He says, I frame evil against you, I frame at one point in the scripture, God says, who's gonna go? This is back when Ahab, Ahab was king at that time, it gives a picture of God saying, who will go?

[7:26] It says that a spirit steps out, and that spirit says, I'll be a lying spirit, I'll go whisper in the ears of them, folks, that couldn't have been an angel, that couldn't have been an angel of God that said that, that said, I'll go whisper lies, that was an evil spirit telling God, I'll go do this thing, evil spirits do, what evil spirits do, evil spirits will not act in a good manner, no more than good spirits will act in an evil manner, but God has control over it all, and if He devices evil against us, if He claims evil against us, there is nothing we can do to stop it.

[8:09] And He's done it for a purpose, He's done it that we might repent and return back to Him folks, that's what repentance is. Listen, He goes here in Jeremiah 18, He says, behold our friend evil against you, and devise the device against you, return you now everyone from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.

[8:34] Now folks, I preached it before, I'll do it again, just because we might quit one or two sins, just because we might lay lying to the side, or we might lay adultery to the side, or drinking, or whatever the case is to the side, that does not make us a child of God, that doesn't mean that we're saved in doing that, but when God gets ahold of somebody, and they repent of their ways, hey, they're gonna start to make their ways good, but what's the hardest part of that, for any Christian to do, it's to tread the path back to God, it's to get back to God, and it's not because, it's difficult to be saved, but it's difficult when the people you used to drink with, the people you used to cuss with, they start seeing you in a different manner, they start hearing you in a different manner, the people that you once hung out with, partied with, whatever the case was, they start seeing you, and you start testifying of the goodness of God, that is going back to a good way, that's going back to a good God.

[9:47] Oh man, that's the hard part for us though. Oh yeah. We have a hard time doing that, for whatever reason. Tell you one of the main reasons for that, is because we know there's been a change take place in our life, there's been a change take place, and they're not gonna accept it, they're not gonna like that change.

[10:10] Our friends told y'all before, I got friends, and when I told them I got saved, they laughed at me, they said they ain't no way God wouldn't have you, they ain't no way that this happened.

[10:24] You'll be right back out in the bars with us for a month from now, and folks, I'm working on 12 years later now, they're still waiting on me to fall on my face, but it ain't happened, and bless God, my God's got me, it ain't gonna happen, my God, you gotta hold up my heart, he turned me toward that righteous way, turned me toward the faithful way, turned me toward Jesus Christ, I'm depending on how God has a hold of me, I'm depending on the blood to keep me clean, they didn't wash me the day I got saved, that blood is all-powerful, I do not doubt it now.

[11:03] But the thing is people won't believe it, that's what makes it so hard on us, we'll return to that good way. What does, some of the things Ezekiel said, Ezekiel and his prophecy, he preached repentance, he preached repentance, he turned to Ezekiel 33 sometime, you'll read the account of the Watchman, there's a Watchman that's been said, there's a Watchman, he's supposed to blow his horn, he's supposed to sound the trumpet, when he sees the sword coming into the land, but folks, when he blows the horn, it's up to the people with ears, it's up to the people with the nudge to know what that trumpet's supposed to mean, hey, there's danger on the way, hey, grab up your arms, get inside the walls of the city, there's somebody moving across the plain toward us, folks, the gospel is that trumpet, the gospel is that warning, there is danger on the way, there's judgment on the way, the gears are turning, we cannot stop it, but praise God,

[12:10] God made a way out from underneath, His own judgment through a man named Jesus Christ, hallelujah. Amen.

[12:20] Yeah, but it's coming, folks, God told Israel what was gonna happen, he told him through Jeremiah, through Isaiah, through Ezekiel, through all those prophets, he told him what was gonna happen, he said they're gonna come in, they're gonna destroy, they're gonna take you captive, they're gonna hold you captive, all these things are gonna happen, those Israelites would not listen.

[12:46] There was a few that did, hey, God's always gotta rend the nonbelievers out there, praise God, I'm happy I'm in that few, I praise God that I'm in that few, I'm in that remnant that believes the word of God, and if you're a born again Christian, it's because you believe the word of God, and God watched you clean off your sin, but folks, not everybody believed it, so when the destruction came, when they came in and they raised the city, and they burned it down, and they burned the temple, and they took the brass thereof, and they took it back to their homeland, when all these things happened, some people were called off guard, because they did not heed the trumpet, the trumpet's blind this morning, not only here, but in churches all throughout the region, hey, judgment's coming, get inside while you can.

[13:40] And then, judgment's coming, folks, repentance is not coming to an altar, making a one-time confession of Jesus Christ, and then going right back out, living your life just as you was, that's not repentance at all.

[14:01] John chapter eight, there was a woman brought to Jesus in a very, committing the very act of adultery, they brought her before Jesus, these higher-ups did, they said Moses' law says she should be stoned.

[14:15] According to the law, she should be killed, but according to the law, the man should have been killed too, that's a whole other story, but they were trying to frame Jesus, they were trying to pick on Jesus, trying to seek an occasion where they could accuse Jesus of coming against the Mosaic law.

[14:32] So what did Jesus do? It says he stood down, he wrote in the dirt a little bit, and when he stood back up, he told that group, he said, he, which is without sin, let him first cast a stone.

[14:45] And what none of them could throw a rock, and folks, I can't throw one at you, and you can't throw one at me, you've got sin, I've got sin, everyone I was sitting here doing, I don't care what preacher tells you that once we're saved, we no longer sin, don't you listen to that bunch of bologna and that bunch of garbage if you hear, because the Bible says that if any man says that he has no sin, he has made God a liar.

[15:10] Every one of us have sin, saved or lost, we have sin. But folks, when that woman was brought unto Jesus, and he told that bunch, hey, whoever of you does not have sin, let him first cast that stone.

[15:25] Hey, that was according to the Mosaic law, the accusers were the first ones that were to cast stones at those whom they had sinned, and this manner, and none, not one of them could cast a stone at that woman, and Jesus stood, and they started to leave one at a time, and when he looked back up, he said, woman, where are that accusers?

[15:50] She said, I have none, Lord. He said, I neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. He didn't say go, you've been forgiven, you've been given a free pass, go do what you want.

[16:08] Go and sin no more. Now the Bible doesn't say, you don't read nothing else about that woman in the scripture, but I have a feeling, never once again, she committed adultery, never once again, she do that.

[16:23] Now, hey, the Bible don't say that, but Jesus told her, he give her the way, he give her the way, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more.

[16:35] Flip back just about four chapters from there, John chapter four, Jesus and his disciples are moving through Samaria, there's a woman at O'well, that Jesus purposely, Jesus purposely, I'm persuaded that he purposely went through the area of Samaria there, there would have been a shorter route for them to have gone another way, but Jesus knew there's gonna be a woman there that needed something, she needed salvation, he knew there'd be a woman there at that time of day, growing water up, but God had other plans for her, God had a will for her that was without end, he had a will for her of living water, living life that began in him.

[17:17] But what was the thing? John chapter four, Jesus tells that woman, he says, go get your man, go get your husband, she said, I have no man, Lord, he said, you're right, you're right, you don't.

[17:40] The one you're with now, that's right, you've had five and the one you're with now, he ain't even your husband, that one that you're living with, that one that you're fooling around with right now, he ain't even your husband.

[17:55] And what did she say? She starts trying to change the subject, she says, I perceive thou art a prophet, well, they don't take a real observant person to figure that much out, he was a prophet, he knew everything about her, and folks says that story goes along, as it goes along, Jesus tells that woman, he says, hey, that's coming today, one woman neither worship here in Jerusalem, nor worship upon your mountain, but God is a spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth, and that woman, when she left the presence of Jesus Christ, she went running into town, she said, come see a man that told me everything about myself, she went and confessed Jesus Christ.

[18:40] Christ! Hey man, but it was no different for her than it was for the woman in John chapter eight. No different for her than it was these people in Jeremiah 18, it's no different for them than it is the people in Ezekiel 33, or Ezekiel chapter three, or Ezekiel chapter 18, read those chapters folks, they all have the same principles, they all have basically the same lessons within them, repent and go back to God, repentance is key to this thing, hey folks, I know it takes the blood of Jesus Christ to wash us clean and to make us white as snow, I know that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin, but believing in that blood and not repenting of your sin will equal you, go into hell for all eternity, it is a two per deal as far as that goes.

[19:38] That's what Jesus preached, what John preached, what these prophets of old preached, repent and believe, repent and believe, because as I said, we can be sinners and we can repent of that sin all day long, but without believing in the gospel, it will do us no good, it will do us no good to repent and not believe.

[20:02] I know people that are just as lost as the proverbial hot ball and high weeds that have given up drinking, I know people that are as lost as that ball and high weeds that have given up fornicating, I know people that are as lost as that ball that have given up all kinds of different sin, they've given up sin on every hand, they've gone back to their wives, gone back to their husbands, they've taken their children back in, they've raised good families, but they're still lost, they still don't believe the gospel, they've taken that sin, they said, okay, I'm gonna do my best to follow the law of God, we cannot follow the law of God, Jesus Christ is the end of the law of salvation.

[20:50] So the whole reason the man had to come because we were incapable of following the law, the people give up sin left and right, thinking when I get up there, I'll get all that way my bad, ain't no good in you, and no good in me, there's none good, no not one, there's none to seek it that they're God, there's none to seek it that they're righteousness, no not one, post-Syno-Testament, Paul, Quo-Rav-It, in the New Testament, it stands from the word of God, it's for over settled in heaven, if you die in your sins without repentance and without belief, you will go to hell, that's what the Bible says, and it is forever settled, there'll be no plea in your case, there ain't but one that can plea our case, and that's Jesus Christ, I won't stand before God, and I won't blame any preacher I've ever heard, and I won't blame any dick in her Sunday school teacher, I won't blame my wife, I won't blame anybody, and you won't do it either, we can't blame parents, we can't blame friends, the Bible says we are all without excuse,

[21:54] God has dealt with each and every person in his own way, in his own manner, and we are without excuse. God is the only judge, I ain't judging nobody, I ain't judging anybody, I can't do that, this word judges you, it judges me, I'll be judged on what I preached this morning, one of these days I'll be judged on what I preached, James chapter three verse one says, being not many masters knowing this, that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

[22:30] Folks that's scary words for a preacher, it should be, there's a lot of preachers out there, and a lot of teachers that don't pay any attention to that, most I will answer for every word I preached out of this Bible, from the day God called me, until the day I die I will answer for every sermon, I'll answer for every lesson, I'll answer for everything that I preached, taught, or said concerning this book.

[22:53] And I will have nobody to plead my cause, and I will plead it, God already knows, God already knows, He'll already have it drawn up, there won't be a little checklist folks, and He won't have an eraser, and say, okay you're right, I was wrong, folks that's like Jeremiah 18, and I said that vessel was marred, because of something that got into it, because of something that got into the clay, there was a foreign object got in there folks, these vessels they're marred because of sin, God didn't create us in sin, we talked about it this morning in Sunday school, hey when God created Adam, He created him perfect, and set him in a perfect world that He created, when He created Eve, He created her out of a rib that He had made from a perfect man, so He created a perfect woman, and they were perfect until sin creeped in.

[23:49] And that's what marrs our vessels, that's what marrs our vessels, Paul talks about it in the book of Romans, there's some of us that are vessel to honor, some of us that are vessel to dishonor, a lot of people don't like that scripture, a lot of people can't stand that scripture, but it's the Bible, and it's by suffering God, and God if He wants to use you as a vessel of honor, He can, and if He wants to use you as a vessel of dishonor, He can and there is nothing you can do to change His mind.

[24:17] He is God, but this whole thing bowing down to repentance, back to the original term, this whole thing bowing down to repentance, God says, I have devised evil, I have devised evil.

[24:34] Folks, Roger read it this morning, I thought about it when you read it, out of the book of Deuteronomy, God says I kill and make a lie, I kill and make a lie, I hate people out there that'll swear up and down, that ain't in the Bible, that'll swear up and down, my God wouldn't kill, my God wouldn't do that, folks, He's killed the entire world before, save eight people, and He's gonna do it again one day, I don't know how many souls will be on planet earth at that point, but folks, when He flooded the world, all but eight people died, and not only people, but animals as well, that's my God that did that, it's the God that I serve, it's the God I'm dependent on to keep me, because I know He doesn't have to.

[25:24] Amen. That's my God. Yep. I devise evil, I devise and devise against you, return you now, everyone, that's an individual thing.

[25:37] Deb said it, there's two things in this morning, I knew where I was gonna be preaching for, two things this morning, that confirmed what I needed to preach, one was what Roger told, and another was what Deb said, when she said, I can't go riding on a cocktail of my brother, folks, God says, everyone, turn back, everyone, not every tribe, not every family, not every sub tribe, not every man, or not every woman, or not every child, he says, turn back everyone, it is individual, it is up to you to repent, it's up to you to believe, it's up to you to accept the scripture for what it says, and it's up to us to add to it and to take away from it, it's up to us to reject it, it is up to us to do every one of these things, but God says, turn, he says, now, he says, returning now, everyone from his evil way, and make your ways, and your doings good, return from your sin, and make your ways good, folks, we can turn from our sin, I've already said it, and we can start making our own ways good, but without belief, and the gospel of Jesus Christ, that will do us no good, folks, they didn't have the gospel of Jesus Christ, in Jeremiah's days, all they had was turning from evil, and working toward good, they had their own works, they had their own righteousness, they had these things, and that's all that they had, but they had to believe the God that told them to do these things.

[27:19] The same God that says, believe it, my son, Jesus Christ, the same one that said, this is my beloved son, whom I will please, here he is, that's the same God that said that, the same God tells Jeremiah these things, the same God says, repent, the same God put the words into John the Baptist's mouth, repent me, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, the same God spoke those words, repent me, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent, repent, repent, there's all throughout the scripture, I don't wanna hear that you went to an altar when you was five years old, cause the preacher guilted you, and the do-it-it, I wanna hear that you believed, what you heard, you repented of your ways, and now you're on your way to heaven.

[28:04] When God deals, God deals, and when God deals when someone has sin, and the Holy Ghost gets ahold of them, they know it, I knew it.

[28:16] I knew what was going on in my life before I got saved, I knew what was going on when the Holy Ghost got ahold of me, but I rejected it, I denied it, I said, this is adrenaline, this can't be real, this can't be happening, I couldn't have been wrong for all these years, I said all kinds of things, and yet in the back of my mind, I knew what was going on.

[28:37] And if anybody's here this morning, and they lost, you know what's going on, cause I preached gospel, I preached repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent, repent and believe, have we repented and not believed, or have we believed and not repented?

[28:58] Hey, there's a lot of that goes on, and a lot of people say, oh, I believe Jesus Christ, I believe you, I'm on that cross, I believe you died for my sin, but I'm gonna continue in that sin. Paul speaks in such things, when he said, has said about, the grace of God, the grace of God, God forbid it, God forbid it to sit about, because we have that much grace, folks, the grace of God is unfathomable, we can't measure it, it's impossible to do.

[29:26] I can't tell you how much grace it took to save my soul, and I don't know how much grace it took to save your soul, but I can tell you that grace comes from an everlasting source.

[29:39] I can tell you that grace comes from a source that will never run dry. It's like that woman that Elijah told over there in the Old Testament, he said, if you just make yourself back to that barrel, if you can just get back to that cruise, I promise you, there's gonna be meal in the barrel, and I promise you, there's gonna be oil in the cruise.

[29:57] God has ordained this thing, and my God has ordained, no man is gonna change that. Folks, his grace is sufficient and is everlasting, and it will not run out.

[30:09] So, all that being said, I'll be back here for the kingdom of heaven's end.