Since September, my heart has been heavy and
burdened.
And if you've been here Sunday morning and
Sunday night and Wednesday nights, you have detected
that concern, that burden.
I believe that you are a generation of
people in this auditorium that at any moment
could hear the sounding of the trumpet of
God.
I really do believe that.
I am convinced intellectually and spiritually that Jesus
could come at any moment.
I also am convinced intellectually and spiritually that
I have to give an account to God
when that trumpet sounds on how I've spent
my life and what I've invested my time
and energy in.
I'm going to be held accountable.
I'm going to be held accountable in my
relationship to Jesus.
He's going to look me in the eye
and he's going to say, Ralph, what have
you done with the salvation that I gave
you?
I died that your sins could be forgiven.
What have you done with that eternal salvation
I died for?
Secondly, I'm going to be held accountable as
my position as a husband.
According to the word of God, I am
the high priest of my home.
God's not going to start with Musette when
he talks to our family.
He's going to start with me.
And he's going to say, Ralph, how have
you led your wife?
Have you encouraged her to serve me?
Have you been a stumbling block to your
wife with your attitude, with your response to
her, your tenderness to her?
How have you led her in causing her
to love me?
I'm going to be held accountable.
He's going to hold me accountable as the
father of my children.
He's not going to start with Beverly or
Mark or Kent.
He's going to come to me and he's
going to say, these three human beings are
on this earth because of you.
How have you influenced your children to love
me?
I'm going to be held accountable.
He's going to turn to Musette.
She's the heart of our home.
And when God made the man the head
of the home, he made the woman the
heart of the home.
That's not a relationship of one up on
the other.
God said, and the two shall become one.
How could I be unkind to her?
She is me.
How could I lord over her?
She is me.
God's trying to get us to understand that
there's a love relationship when he talks about
that he is the bride and we're the
bridegroom.
There's something very special about our relationship with
our marriages, our homes, and our children.
No wonder the devil attacks marriage.
No wonder the devil comes against the home.
No wonder the devil tries to isolate members
of a family because if he can fracture
the family unit, then he's a long ways
towards hurting the cause of Christ.
On Wednesday night, I dealt with this passage
of Scripture in Genesis.
If you want to turn to it in
Genesis 20 and verse 3, just to refresh
your memory.
But God came to Abimelech in a dream
by night and said to him, Behold, thou
art but a what?
Dead man.
For the woman which thou hast taken, for
she is a man's wife.
God was talking about how important, back here
in Genesis chapter 20, he's talking about how
important marriage is and the sacredness of marriage.
Abraham, out of fear, lied to the king.
Sarah, out of fear, lied to the king.
God went to the king and he said,
Look, Sarah is not available for you.
She belongs to another man.
And that story is given there in that
chapter so we would understand how important God
shows to you and to me this relationship
is between a man and his wife, the
wife and her husband.
The sacredness of marriage.
Hebrews 13, 4 talks about the marriage bed.
Wednesday night, we dealt with the subject while
the children and the teens were in the
other building.
We talked about the marriage bed and the
sexual activity of a husband and a wife
and that God put a fence around the
marriage bed.
God didn't say it was wrong for men
and women to be together.
He said it's wrong when you go outside
your marriage vow and you live the life
of an adulterer or a fornicator if you're
a single adult.
And he said, if you break the rules
and you leave this marriage relationship, the wages
of sin is death.
Then we talked about the source of that
adultery in Matthew 5.
This morning, I want you to turn in
the Old Testament to Jeremiah 5.
If you have your Schofield Study Bible, it's
page 777.
Jeremiah 5.
And I'm going to read at verse 3.
O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the
truth?
Thou hast stricken them, but they have not
grieved.
Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused
to receive correction.
They have made their faces harder than a
rock, and they have refused to return.
They have refused to return.
Skip over, if you would, with me to
verse 23 in this same chapter.
Jeremiah 5 and verse 23.
But this people have a revolting and a
rebellious what?
A revolting and a rebellious heart.
They are revolted and gone.
Neither say they in their heart, let us
now fear the Lord our God.
If I, as a minister of the gospel,
had to summarize one serious symptom of our
society, it would be this symptom.
We've lost the fear of God off of
America.
Church is just a social activity in most
communities.
There's not a fear of God on our
land.
There's not a reverence of the things of
God.
And people talk and act like they'll never
meet God.
I'll do what I want to do.
I don't have to worry about it.
There's no fear of God.
You say, well, I don't want to serve
a God.
I have to fear.
That's not what we're talking about.
There's a respect and fear of God.
God's not sitting up in heaven with a
giant club getting ready to hit me in
the head just because I do or say
the wrong thing.
He is a God of love.
But He, because He is a God of
love, is to be reverenced, respected, and feared
because of His power, His position, and His
authority.
Look at this part of the verse.
Neither say they in their heart, let us
now fear the Lord our God.
Verse 25.
Notice what happens.
Your iniquities have turned away these things.
And your sins have withholding good things from
you.
God's warning us that we can get in
trouble and we can be judged because if
we become more attached to our pleasures and
our will and our iniquities, then you say,
but Brother Ralph, you don't understand.
God's blessed me.
I've got more than I've ever had in
my life.
I've got more money, more things.
I've got the best car I've ever owned.
I'm living in the best house.
That's true.
But God's saying that there's so much more.
There's so much more.
And the many good things are being held
back because we refuse to go all the
way and surrender to this great God that
we love and serve.
We have yet to imagine what God could
do through a church family, one church family.
I'm not talking to the other 100 Baptist
churches in Buncombe County.
I'm talking to this church.
What could God do with one church that's
sold out to God and say, God, not
our will, but Thy will be done?
God, we're going to kneel down, clean us
up, search us out, change us by Your
might and power.
Look at verse 26.
Now, this is the part I have trouble
with, but I'm going to read it anyway.
For among, what are the next two words?
My people.
For among my people.
He didn't say the world.
He didn't say the crowd out there partying
or living.
He said among my people.
That means we have to have a soul
searching.
We talked in Sunday school this morning about
examining ourselves.
Look what the book says.
For among my people are found wicked men.
They lay wait.
As he that set us snares, they set
a trap.
They catch men.
What's God saying?
God's saying that when someone backslides and someone
breaks fellowship, they always trap someone else.
The first way you can spot someone's not
living right with God is they become critical,
they become cynical, and the next thing you
know, they're pulling back someone else and they're
backing them off their walk with God.
That's how quickly that begins to happen.
Notice what it says in verse 27.
As a cage is full of birds, so
are their houses full of what?
Deceit.
That's trickery.
That's snares.
It looks like it's okay, but it's not
okay.
It's a trick.
Now, I want you to go with me
to the last verse in this chapter.
Verse 31.
That's my text verse today.
Verse 31.
The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear
rule by their own means.
And my people love to have it so.
So what will you do in the end
thereof?
The phrase that jumped out at me in
this study was this one phrase.
My people love to have it so.
I thought about what Jeremiah the great prophet
was teaching and preaching.
The battle for morals that were going on
in his culture and society.
He's concerned about the spiritual well-being of
those who follow God.
And he's talking about wickedness in high places.
Sin has invaded the house of God.
My people are caught up.
My people have lost the edge off their
sword.
They're tempted.
They're being wooed in by sin and ungodliness.
And he's saying, here's what tears me up.
Not even all the preachers are standing true.
They're playing games at the house of God.
They're more interested in being re-elected to
serve another term at that church.
They're more interested in a parsonage and a
paycheck and a pension than the presence and
the power of God.
He said, we've got a danger there.
We've got a danger in spiritual leadership being
bought off by popularity and comfort and ease
in the house of Zion.
And so he said, now I go to
the body that belongs to God and I'm
saying, my people, you need to know that
there's sin even in the house of God.
It's easy to backslide.
You've just got to get cold and careless.
How many of us here today know someone
that used to walk with God?
Maybe even testified they were going to sing
for God or preach for God or they
were going to work in the youth ministry
or teach in the Awana ministry or they
were going to do something for God.
They were going to be, if nothing but
a place of service, maybe singing in the
choir or a doorkeeper in the house of
the Lord or working in the nursery or
a greeter in the parking lot.
And here we are a year later and
they're not even in church.
Do we doubt that they were ever saved?
No, I really believe they were saved.
But where are they today?
Why is their chair empty?
Why is their relationship with God in turmoil?
Why are they out of church?
Why do they no longer read their Bible?
Why do they no longer pray?
God said, My people.
God said, Have you noticed what God's trying
to put through this study in Jeremiah?
He said, You can sit in church Sunday
morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night and the
choir can sing biblical truths.
We can hear testimony about biblical truths.
The pastor can read the Word of God
and we can almost say, You know what?
Maybe that's true.
I'll just roll the dice.
I'll just take my chances.
I'm going to do what I want to
do.
Forget what God wants me to do.
I'm going to do what I want to
do.
Hey, He's up in heaven.
I'm here on earth.
I've got my own set of problems.
I've got my own set of circumstances.
And I'm going to make my own set
of rules.
I'll handle my life.
God, You sit on the shelf.
If I ever need You, I'll whistle.
I wouldn't say that.
You don't have to say it.
We're living it.
We're doing it.
Because we go to church and the poor
pastor, he's trying to exhort you to serve
God.
He's preaching his heart out.
He's studying, getting a burden that's crushing him
on the inside.
And the family of faith just goes, Okay,
so what?
I'll take my chances.
Maybe he's going to judge me even.
But I believe I can handle the judgment.
And what we reduce ourselves into thinking and
saying is, You know what, God?
I don't want to be right.
I'm going to do it my way.
I'm very intelligent.
I'm very smart.
I've got my act together.
I'll do it my way.
God, sorry about you and your old set
of rules.
Look what the book says.
The prophets prophesy falsely.
And my priests bear rules.
The priests bear rules by their means.
And then this next phrase in verse 31.
And my people love to have it so.
You say, well, it's not that bad, Pastor.
Well, what did we just read in verse
26 of this same chapter?
It says, For among, what?
My people are found wicked men.
Verse 27.
Their houses are full of deceit.
There's wickedness there.
And we say, oh Lord, no, not us.
Yep, God's saying, you're tricking yourself.
It's easy to lie to yourself and make
excuses.
But you know what?
I'll explain it to God when I get
to heaven.
I've got an unusual set of circumstances.
Well, God's never going to go against His
own Word.
And God's never going to excuse sin.
You say, well, Brother Ralph, you don't understand.
My wife, she doesn't understand me.
And I've met this beautiful Christian lady at
work.
And she does understand me.
And so I'm putting my attention on her.
I call her.
I talk to her.
I email her.
I text her.
And we're just soulmates.
Yes, and that's just sin.
God doesn't have two sets of rules.
God wants you to know it's serious when
we infringe upon our marriage relationships.
It affects the whole atmosphere of this church.
Your disobedience to God causes the whole church
to suffer the displeasure of a holy God.
We can grieve the Holy Spirit.
He's a tender heart.
The Bible says houses are full of deceit.
That's when I lie to myself.
You lie to yourself.
Jeremiah 5.3 says, Thou hast stricken them,
but they have not grieved.
Verse 3 continues, They have refused to receive
correction.
God walked by your house.
He took a little switch off the tree
and gave you a little switch on the
ledge and said, Look, that stings.
Doesn't that sting?
Pay attention.
You need to get your house in order.
You need to get your home in order.
You need to get your marriage in order.
You need to get your children in order.
Don't let me come back by here.
How many times has God spoken to us
about our lack of prayer, our lack of
commitment?
How many in this church are committed desperately
to Sunday morning, but you're not committed to
Sunday night?
Well, I'm a spiritual person.
I study.
I will have a walk with God.
I don't have to be in that building.
No, you don't have to be in this
building.
But your influence needs to be in this
building.
You need to be letting other people let
you live and see that you believe that
the local church is for the home, the
family, and the marriage, and that we've made
that commitment, and I'm going to lead my
family in the service of the King.
It's not a convenience thing.
Verse 3 continued, They refused to receive the
correction.
They made their faces harder than a rock.
They have refused to return.
Some of you walk in the building and
without realizing it, I'm begging you this morning
to allow the Holy Ghost of God to
speak to you and to convict you, but
you sit in this auditorium and I preach,
and your whole mindset is this, when you
walk in, I don't care what He says.
I don't care what story He tells.
I don't care how He illustrates it.
I'm not going to no altar.
I'm not going to do that.
If He thinks I'm going to get out
of my seat and go up there and
kneel down, He's wrong.
And what the Bible says, that's in the
Bible.
He said they have set their faces harder
than a rock.
They didn't care what Jeremiah taught.
They didn't care what God said.
They set their faces.
You preach what you want to preach.
I'm not going to listen to it.
You get through it.
You get it off your chest.
And you'll feel better.
And we'll go home and we'll watch a
little NASCAR.
We'll watch some football.
We're going to have a cookout and watch
a World Series tonight.
And we're going to live for us.
And you just have church all you want
to, preacher.
We're going to take care of us.
Verse 6 says, The transgressions are many.
Their backslidings are increased.
Verse 7 is the part that scares me.
Because it talks about the children being affected.
Mom and Daddy, you can rebel.
You can be hard-hearted.
You can set your face.
But your planting seed in your children's lives
at 50 years of preaching will never change.
Because they saw Daddy sit there.
They saw Mama sit there.
If you'll look at Jeremiah 5 and verse
number 7, How shall I pardon thee for
this?
God asks the question, Why should I even
forgive you?
Thy children have forsaken me.
I can remember in this church, when the
teenagers and the young adults were so broken
-hearted and tender for God, that you didn't
want to hardly hang around them, because you
would be convicted of your own lack of
prayer life.
But when the Mamas and the Daddies get
cold, the Mamas and Daddies go to the
material things of this world, then we just
take our kids and we toss them out
there to the world and say, Won't you
raise my babies for me?
Won't you let Hollywood raise your children?
Huh?
Let Eminem raise your little boy.
Let Madonna raise your little girl.
Let Britney Spears be their hero and heroine.
Huh?
Let Hollywood movies form their values.
Their children have forsaken me, and have sworn
by them that are no gods.
When I fed them, when I fed them
to the full, you think how God has
blessed this place, not only with a beautiful
sanctuary, but you think how God has blessed
our houses.
Clothes we wear, cars we drive, food we
eat.
We're living like no other people on planet
Earth, and we don't give God the time
of day.
Then they committed adultery, and assembled themselves by
troops in the harlot's houses.
They were as fed horses in the morning,
every one named after his neighbor's wife.
God said in verse 9, Shall I not
visit for these things?
God's asking Trinity the question.
He said, If you think you can live
loose and lustful, you think you can go
even to the house of God, and look
over your neighbor's fence and say, Hey, I
might want to be with that man.
I might want to be with that one.
God said, Don't you think I ought to
visit your house?
God may not come to me.
He may not come to Musette.
He might go to one of my children
to get me if I go back in
to sin.
You say, Well, why would He do that?
Your kids are innocent.
Well, if the kids are innocent, and they're
serving God and loving God, then God might
deal with me through the innocent in my
life.
God's trying to get us to quit playing
church.
Do you understand that?
This nation's in trouble.
I fear for the physical and spiritual safety
of your children if we don't have revival.
Where are they going to go where anything's
right and wrong?
Most of the churches, God love them, the
pastors are so intimidated they can't even preach
about sin because that bunch of backslidden carnal
crowd will vote them out.
Where are they going to go hear the
truth?
You say, Well, we've had a meeting about
you.
Well, have another one.
Bless God.
I'm going to tell you something.
The world wants the Bible to shut up
and not tell the truth.
If you love your children, you'll love a
man that will love them enough to read
the Bible to them and weep and cry
over the soul of your own base and
beg God not to let the marriages break
up in the house of the Lord, that
there'll be men and women of character and
courage and say, Oh, by God's help, God,
my flesh is weak, but by your help,
God, I will serve you with my heart,
soul, mind, and body.
Is there a perfect man in this building?
No, not one.
Is there a perfect woman in this building?
No, not one.
Are we all found guilty in the eyes
of a three times holy God?
Yes, we are.
Is there mercy and grace for the repentant
heart?
Yes, there is.
Can old things pass away?
Yes, they can.
Can all things become new through the power
of God?
Yes, they can.
Can lives change?
Can the marriages be healed?
Yes, they can.
Can homes be restored?
Can love be restored?
Yes, they can.
How do you know?
I'm looking at them all over this building,
people that the devil tried to destroy, homes
he tried to rip apart, lives he tried
to devastate with the power of sin, and
in the middle of that hell, here comes
God to change the circumstance.
What a God and what a Savior.
I am a trophy of God's amazing grace.
I do not deserve to go to heaven.
The way I lived and my attitude and
what I was in, I should have already
been in a devil's hell.
But on the way to hell, God's amazing
grace stepped in the roadway of ruin and
engulfed me with love and grace and mercy
and allowed me the privilege of looking up
to a holy God and saying, God, I'm
sorry.
Forgive me.
I do want to serve you.
Then I can turn around and look over
my shoulder and there come my sons and
my daughter serving God.
And I look behind them and there's my
grandbaby serving God.
And I can get on the other side
and go, whoo!
Hallelujah!
This family circle will never be broken.
We'll be together with God forever and forever
and forever.
You say, well, you shouldn't be so emotional.
How can you love and not have emotion?
You can't take emotion out of love any
more than you can take the motion out
of the ocean.
God loved me.
God saved me.
I love Him.
He loves me.
And I am challenged today by the Word
of God to say I want to draw
nigh to you, God.
I want to search myself.
I don't want to live in resistance and
rebellion.
I don't want to be found guilty of
not paying attention when God's talking.
I don't want to be found guilty of
saying, God, I'm not going to listen.
Don't tell me, God.
No, no, no, no.
Don't tell me, God.
I don't want to hear Him preach.
No, no.
Don't let me hear that song.
No, no, no.
No, no.
I don't want to hear that Scripture.
No, no, no.
That's why this society cannot be quiet.
We have to have a headphone.
We have to have a CD player, radio
player, television.
We've got to have noise coming out of
the computer.
We can't stand silence.
And the reason is silence makes you think
what's living on the inside.
I don't want to know the truth, the
power of Thy Holy Word.
Verse 23 in this chapter says, This people
hath a revolting and a rebellious heart.
And you know what we say?
We say, I don't want to be right.
Do you remember many years ago there was
an old country song?
I think it was Barbara Mandrell.
And she had a song, If loving you
is wrong, I don't want to be right.
I remember I was driving back from preaching
one night and I was flipping through the
channels on the radio and I heard that
song.
And I never have gotten away from that
concept of a woman saying, If that's wrong,
I don't want to be right.
If my parents don't like it, I don't
want my parents, I don't want to be
right.
If God thinks that's wrong, I don't want
to be right.
I want what I want.
And I'm going to do what I want
to do and I don't care who I
hurt in doing it because I'm going to
take care of my wants.
And what we do without realizing it is
we look in the face of a holy
God that died for us through His Son
Jesus Christ and we say, I'm going to
live my life.
You just get out of my way.
And if I have to be judged, I'll
handle that when it comes.
The problem with that is you don't know
what's coming.
You've never had pain until you experience the
pain of chastisement.
You've never had a correction until you have
God's correction.
Your worst nightmare can't even go there.
And the reason it will be so severe
is because you and I know better.
God doesn't judge us on the size of
the sin.
Sin, sin.
It's on the amount of light we've received.
That's where we get in trouble.
Every head bowed.