This message is one of the Times Square
Church Pulpit Series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge,
P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771, or
calling 903-963-8626.
None of these messages are copyrighted, and you
are welcome to make copies for free distribution
to friends.
Last week I spoke on the subject, Governed
by the Word of God.
I want to preach part two of that
message, Governed by the Word of the Lord.
And subtitle is, Penknife Christians.
Penknife.
P-E-N-knife.
Knife.
You know what I mean?
I'll tell you, my text will give it
away immediately, please.
If you go to Jeremiah 36, chapter Jeremiah
36.
I want to read to you the first,
let's start with verse 1, Jeremiah 36.
I'd love to hear the rustling of the
leaves.
Keep rustling until you find it.
Jeremiah 36, beginning at verse 1 from King
James.
And it came to pass in the fourth
year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king
of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah
from the Lord, saying, Take thee a roll
of a book and write therein all the
words that I have spoken unto thee against
Israel and against Judah and against all the
nations from the day I speak unto thee,
from the day of Josiah even to this
day, that it may be that the house
of Judah may hear all the evil which
I purpose to do unto them, that they
may return every man from his evil way,
that I may forgive their iniquity and their
sin.
Then Jeremiah called Baruch, the son of Jariah,
and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah
all the words of the Lord which is
spoken unto him upon a roll of a
book.
And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut
up, I cannot go into the house of
the Lord.
Therefore, go thou and read in the roll
which thou has written from thy mouth, from
my mouth, the words of the Lord in
the ears of the people in the Lord's
house upon the fasting day, and also thou
shalt read them in the ears of all
Judah that came out of the cities.
Verse nine, it came to pass in the
fifth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah,
king of Judah, in the ninth month that
they proclaimed to fast before the Lord to
all the people of Jerusalem and all the
people that came in the cities of Judah
and Jerusalem.
Then Baruch read in the book the words
of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.
And we'll stop right there, if you will,
please.
Heavenly Father, we have come to honor and
revere the word of God this morning.
This is the only foundation in these trying
times, and all the foundations are going to
crumble.
This is the only foundation, the word of
the living God revealing Jesus Christ as Lord.
And I pray, Father, that you give me
the anointing of your Holy Spirit to deliver
the message you put on my heart.
Lord Jesus, I know you're trying to get
your people established in the word.
You're not wanting your people, you will not
allow your people to be tossed by every
wind and wave of doctrine and all the
foolishness that is sweeping across the church land
today.
Oh, God, convict us by your word.
Dig deep into our hearts, establish us, that
when we walk out of this place this
morning, we will know that we have heard
from you.
Let every man, woman, and child listening hear
what the Spirit has to say.
In Jesus' name, amen.
I want to show you what happens to
a nation or a people or a church
who reject the word of God as the
divine authority of Almighty God.
When the word of God is rejected, it
results in nothing but chaos and judgment.
I know of no single nation on the
face of the earth, I know no national
leader, no nation that is under the total
authority of the word of God, who rule
and reign their nations by the word of
God.
On the other hand, you look at Muslim
nations with Muslim leaders, you will find that
they rule their nation with a rod of
iron under the Koran.
It is their supreme authority and the government
is ruled and it is reigned as on
the total dominion of the Mohammedan book, the
book of Koran.
Certainly, the United States of America is no
longer governed by this book.
It is not governed by the living word
of God.
This nation and all its leaders and political
leaders, its judges, have done everything to reject
the Bible, to put it out of our
society, out of our schools, out of our
courts, out of our whole judicial system.
They've tried to make it politically correct to
despise and reject the living word of God.
And I tell you, it's a fatal thing,
it's fatal for any nation, any people, to
reject the living word of God.
It's fatal to reject the warnings and pleadings
of God sent prophets.
It's fatal to a nation, it's fatal to
the church.
If the Bible is true, that all things
in the Old Testament are recorded for our
learning, for our admonition upon whom the ends
of the world have come, then we had
better go back to this chapter that I've
referred to now and take very seriously what
we read about what happens to a nation
and a people and its leaders when they
reject the supreme authority of God's word.
As I've said before, you may not believe
judgment is coming for any other sin, but
you had better believe that when a nation
rejects the word of God and the scriptures,
that is the last call, that is the
last step before judgment.
Beyond bloodshed, beyond immorality, beyond everything else, when
this word is finally rejected as the standard,
when men become lawless, but nothing more to
do with this book, that is the last
step toward divine judgment.
And in the thirty-sixth chapter of Jeremiah,
we go back to the reign of Jehoiakim.
Now, the Lord came to the, this is
the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim.
He was the son of Josiah, a very
godly king.
And the word of the Lord comes to
Jeremiah, and the Holy Spirit says, I want
you to record everything you've been saying.
Now, for twenty-three years now, Jeremiah, in
fact, at this point, twenty-seven years, he
has been warning about the judgment that God
has prophesied or pronounced upon Israel for the
sins of the grandfather Manasseh.
I want you to follow me very closely.
He's been warning that a day of accounting
was coming.
Josiah's father was the notorious Manasseh.
Manasseh was the bloodletting king of all times.
The Scripture says of this man that he
turned the house of God into an abominable
center of idolatry.
He dabbled in witchcraft.
He dealt with enchantments, familiar spirits, wizards.
The Bible said he made Israel to sin
more than any other nation.
In fact, to sin more than the heathen
around them.
He despised the word of God.
He trampled the laws.
He rejected his commandments and his statutes.
The Bible said, moreover, Manasseh shed innocent blood
very much till he filled Jerusalem from one
end to another.
And I want you to listen to what
God promises to do to a nation and
its leaders when they fill a nation with
blood.
When innocent blood is shed and when the
law of God is rejected and no longer
under the authority of the Scripture.
Now, folks, this nation was founded on this
book.
Our Puritan fathers came here to establish a
government and a system that is ruled that
was under the total authority of the Scriptures.
And now we have totally thrown aside that
yoke, as we call it today, and despise
the living word of God.
The Scripture says, because Manasseh has done these
abominations and he's done wickedly and he has
made Judah to sin.
Behold, I'm bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and
Judah that whoever hears it, his ears shall
tingle.
He says his ears will literally tremble.
They won't believe what they're hearing, what God
did to his own people, his own city,
his own nation.
God says, I'll wipe Jerusalem as a man
wipes a dish.
I'll wipe it and I'll turn it upside
down.
He said, I'm going to turn everything upside
down in this society.
He despised the commandments of the Lord.
He rejects the authority of the word of
God.
And the result, of course, was national chaos.
And God promised, I will not turn aside.
I've set my heart and my mind and
my anger against this nation, wickedness, bloodshed, and
I will not turn away.
Now, we know that Manasseh repented before he
died.
But God said, I will not call off
what I have promised.
I am going to judge this nation because
of your sins.
I will forgive you, but you have led
this nation into a butchery and shame and
bloodshed.
Now, I'm going to tell you something, folks.
Any politician, any preacher, I don't care if
he's Pentecostal, Baptist, whatever he may be.
Any politician or preacher who can stand before
a people and say, America is going to
be exempt from judgment, that this is a
missionary nation and God can't judge it because
we've got to evangelize the world.
Folks, that's exactly what God said of the
Jew.
That's what he said of Jerusalem.
The law would go out of Jerusalem and
bless all nations.
In spite of it, God sent judgment.
He sent powerful judgment.
Incredible judgment upon Jerusalem, Judea and Israel.
America today has shed an ocean of blood,
our leaders.
And I'm going to tell you, our President,
President of the United States, faces the same
indictment that Manasseh received from Almighty God.
Because the President of the United States, our
present President, against Congress, against the majority of
the feelings and the thoughts of the United
States people, the American people, refuses to stop
the bloodshed and the sucking out of the
life of our unborn, innocent babies in the
third trimester.
And I want to tell you, any preacher
who tells me that God is not going
to judge this nation for its bloodshed, has
to totally ignore the example of Scripture.
The Scripture says that these things are given
to us.
They're written for our sake, for our admonition,
upon whom the ends of the world have
come.
God says, go with the Old Testament.
You don't know what I do to people
who shed blood, innocent blood.
Here it is.
Here's your example.
Folks, we have an ocean of blood 3
,000 miles long, 2,000 miles wide, and
35 to 40 million cries of babies.
And you tell me God's not going to
judge America?
An ocean of blood.
Manasseh shed a rivulet of blood compared to
the ocean of blood that we have shed
in this nation, in this country.
America kills its unborn because it has refused
to believe what this book says about bloodshed.
If we were a Bible-believing nation under
the authority of the Scriptures, this could never
happen.
Manasseh's son, Josiah, takes the throne.
The Bible says of this son, and this
is amazing that such a wicked man can
have such a godly son.
And he did, this is Josiah, he did
that which was right in the eyes of
the Lord.
And he walked in the ways of David,
his father, well, his great-great-great-great
-grandfather.
Josiah, the Scriptures said, trembled at the word
of God.
And one day the high priest found dusty
Scripture in some hidden corner of the temple,
and he brought it to the scribe, brought
it to Josiah, and he began to read
it.
And it says, and it came to pass
when the king had heard the words of
the law that he rent his clothes.
He trembled, he turned to ashcloth.
He rent his clothes, and in his shattering
and in his terror at the living word
of God, he sends representatives to the prophetess
Huldah and said, what shall we do?
The wrath of God is against us because
of our sins.
He compared the nation and where it was
compared to the book and what the word
of God said.
And he said, well, the judgment he was
reading from Leviticus, no doubt, and 28 and
Deuteronomy, and all of the warnings of Moses
concerning how God judges nations who reach flashpoints
of sin.
And he said, we've reached those flashpoints, what
do we do?
And he trembled and he wept and he
cried before God because the word had convicted
him, and the word of God became his
rule.
And in essence, the prophetess Huldah said, tell
the king the judgment that was promised on
Jerusalem, Judah and Judah will still stand.
But because you have humbled yourself before the
Lord when you heard his word and what
he spake, and you wept before the Lord,
you shall not see the evil which will
bring upon this place.
God gave a short time, a time of
blessing and prosperity.
And I've written that in my last, in
one of my book, America's Last Call.
The last call is a prosperity call where
God has determined judgment, but there'll be a
stretch of time.
This was 31 years, a little time, 31
years that the goodness of God would lead
Israel to repentance.
31 years, Josiah submitted himself to the authority
of God's word.
Every time he heard a new commandment and
read of a new statute, he conformed.
When he read that homosexuality was wrong, he
went through the land and he dealt with
the sodomites.
The scripture says he cleansed the land of
the sodomite prophets and teachers and worship.
When he found out God's hatred toward idolatry,
he tore down all the idols.
When he found out God hated the human
sacrifice in the Valley of Ginnom, he did
away with it, he smashed it.
Everything the word said, he complied.
Because of fear of God, he was governed
by the word of the living God.
Bible says, God rising up early sent prophets.
Now, rising up early doesn't mean he got
up at 5 o'clock and preached on
the streets when people were still sleeping.
Rising up early, it means he came early,
far before the event of judgment.
He came far before.
In fact, 23 years, 27 years when this
word, 27 years rising up early, God warned
Jerusalem and Judah.
I have sent you all my servants, the
prophets rising up early, sending them saying, return
ye now every man from his evil ways.
But you have not inclined your ear.
You have not hearkened to me.
Behold, I'm going to bring on Judah and
Jerusalem all the evil that I've promised, that
I've pronounced against them.
Now, why does God say, now I'm going
to bring forth all the evil?
He had pronounced it 27 years before.
He says, but now, God says, the time
has come.
And what is it that precipitated judgment suddenly
now, after 27 years of warning?
Because I have spoken to them, but they
have not heard.
I've called unto them, and they've not answered.
You refuse to hearken to me?
You will not receive my instructions.
You've turned away from my word, and there's
nothing else to say.
Now, folks, God loved Israel.
He loves his church.
He loves his people.
He loves this nation.
God has no hatred toward anything except the
sin in the nation.
He loves the people.
It's not anger against individuals, but against the
mindset, the demonic powers that possess them.
Now, keep in mind, Jeremiah's word is not
going to be sent to a heathen nation.
God said, write this down.
It's to God's own people that this warning
comes.
And, folks, it's a mercy call.
I get weary of hearing people say, that's
a doomsday message.
No, folks, when God puts men in the
pulpit, and you've heard it from this pulpit,
by pastors of this, who pastor this church,
oh, our associates here, Pastor Carter, my associate,
standing here in this pulpit, sometimes with a
hard message, a judgment message, warning messages.
Why does God do that?
Why does God send us into the pulpit
and warn and warn and warn until people
get weary of it?
Because it's the greatest expression of God's mercy
there can be.
It is the love of God for his
people.
Here is the mercy call, he said to
his scribe, Baruch.
He said, here's why I want you to
go and preach these warnings to the people.
It may be that the house of Judah
will hear all the evil which I purpose
to do to them, that they may return
every man from his evil way, that I
may forgive their iniquities and their sins.
God says, I want you to warn so
strong.
I want you to wake them.
I want you to so shake and stir
their hearts that maybe they'll see the evil
of the ways and they'll repent so that
they can come to God in sorrow and
I can forgive and cleanse them and restore
them.
Did you hear the news this week?
The mainline Lutheran Church is in close dialogue
with the Roman Catholic Church to remove all
their differences.
And the Lutherans are moving closer and closer
to union with the Catholic Church.
And I want you to know it's all
in the name, they call it the love
and unity.
I call it the love trap.
This is how the devil is going to
bring about one world church.
They're going to talk about love and unity.
And now they'll take certain scriptures and misquote
them about love and unity and do away
with all of the reformation gospel.
All of those who have died for justification
by faith, who paid with their own blood.
Folks, it's going to come back to earning
your own salvation by your works.
That's going to be the doctrine of the
Antichrist.
Getting totally away from it.
And nobody in that movement, nobody in the
leadership, they're going now toward homosexual pastors, the
homosexual churches and union of all churches no
matter what.
And they're saying, let's forget all of our
differences and let's see where we agree.
Folks, that is right straight out of the
pits of hell.
We're to love people no matter who they
are.
To love homosexuals, but to hate their sin.
And because of God's love to warn them.
Not in your face kind of gospel, but
a loving.
Look in the eye and say, here's what
God says.
Because this brings loneliness, it brings fear, it
brings terror to the soul.
It brings haze, it brings despair.
It's what it does to you.
To come in that kind of love.
God gave Jeremiah a final word for his
people.
And this was going to be the final
word before the Chaldeans invade.
Go now and read all that you have
written from my mouth.
All the words of the Lord in their
ears.
Of the people in the Lord's house upon
the fasting day.
These weren't heathen, these were people in the
Lord's house.
This was to be a preached message that
he had written the word of the Lord.
Also, read them in the ears of all
Judah that come out of their cities.
Now, it says in the ninth month, they
proclaimed a fast before the Lord.
To all the people in Jerusalem and to
all the people that came from the cities
of Judah unto Jerusalem.
Now, folks, there's only one record.
There is only one fast at this time
by law that was demanded of God, the
children of Israel.
And that was on the seventh month.
And that was Passover.
That was the only time, the only fast
day that all of Israel was to come
in the time of Josiah and Jehoiakim.
So this is the ninth month and it's
a special called fast day.
I don't know how it could have lasted
two days, it could have lasted a week.
And the reason they're coming now is because
intelligence had brought reports that the Chaldeans were
on the march already.
And the word is that they were coming
to overrun Judah and they're going to destroy
Jerusalem and the temple.
This was the goal, they're going to deal
with the Israelites completely.
Now, the warnings are getting a little closer
to home now.
There are signs that the prophet Jeroboam may
be right after all.
And so they flock to Jerusalem now.
Now, this word was given in the fourth
year.
It was given in the fourth year of
Jehoiakim.
The feast is held the fifth year.
So this word was held in the heart
of Jeremiah for a whole year.
And he released it at the time of
the fast.
Now, this was going to be proved to
be a fatal fast.
Now, I know that there's always a holy
remnant, that God has always had a holy
remnant.
No matter how dark a society has become
or how wicked, even the dark ages, God
had this holy remnant.
And I know there were holy remnant people
that came from all over Judah.
And they were hoping that what would happen
at this fast would be the same thing
that happened in the history of Israel.
When Ezra and Nehemiah came to rebuild Jerusalem,
there was a hope and a cry that
they would repent at the hearing of the
word of God as they did.
As they trembled when Ezra read the word
of God, they stood for hours listening to
the word and began to tremble and shake
at the word.
And they repented and they changed.
They came under the authority and dominion and
government of the scripture.
And this is the hope, I'm sure, of
many that came to Jerusalem at the time.
And in the middle of this fast, with
no announcement, Baruch, and everyone knew he was
connected to the prophet Jeremiah, and he takes
a prominent place in the temple, and he
begins to thunder out the message of judgment.
A distillation of 27 years of warnings.
Word for word, everything that Jeremiah had said,
God says, one last time, repeat it.
Give it to them, let them know what
is coming.
He stands before that host.
Now, folks, there are three kinds of hearers
represented in this episode in the 36th chapter
of Jeremiah.
There are three kinds of hearers.
There's the passive hearer, the perturbed hearer, and
the penknife hearer that we're going to see
and talk about here in the next few
moments.
This whole multitude listens, sitting there, and the
Bible makes it very clear that they had
become passive.
Passive.
Now, I want to tell you something.
Prosperity is a narcotic.
Prosperity can numb your soul and your mind.
Prosperity can make you think it will never
end.
Prosperity will shut your ears and your eyes
and harden your heart to the gospel and
the warnings of the prophets.
Folks, I'm not a prophet.
I know I'm not a prophet because a
lot of things I've said didn't happen.
I know I'm not a prophet because there
are times I've spoken out of my own
heart and my own fear.
But I know what I'm speaking as a
watchman.
I know what I'm speaking according to his
heart and his mind.
Here comes the final warning in the ninth
month.
Please get this picture in your mind.
These people that heard these warnings for 27
years, they can tell you everything that Jeremiah
had been preaching.
They can tell you the Chaldeans are coming.
They're going to take over the city.
We are going to be taking captives.
We'll be there 70 years.
We will return.
God will have a remnant that will return
and rebuild the walls, and God will return
to his people.
They could just spill it out and mouth
it out to you.
They knew it all.
Judgment had been set.
It couldn't be avoided.
Year after year, there was no judgment.
It was prosperity.
And the more they sinned, the more they
seemed to prosper.
And I wonder what kind of mockery Jeremiah
must have endured.
Where is it, Jeremiah?
You say that hard times are coming and
there are no hard times.
We've got prosperity on all sides.
And I wonder if Jeremiah ever questioned.
I know how I've questioned what I've heard.
I have been talking about a coming depression
to the United States and the whole world.
And instead, I see nothing but a stock
market going higher and higher.
I see a booming economy.
I see the lowest unemployment in the history
of this nation.
We have a judge that has just ruled
against Microsoft, and that should send the stock
market crazy tomorrow.
But one of the analysts yesterday in the
newspaper said, and it's very clear he said,
there's an apathy now that nothing seems to
shake anybody.
He said it probably won't even move the
market.
It may even go higher because there's a
total apathy and a complacency.
People don't believe there can be anything go
wrong.
Amazing.
But now in the midst of these good
times, these intelligence reports that an army is
already on the way.
The Chaldeans are on the march.
And here are the three classifications of people.
The passive here, the turbed here, and the
penknife here.
And all three kinds of these here's in
the church here this morning.
Yeah, and even in the annex.
That doesn't mean you're getting away with anything
over there.
All the annexes, wherever you're watching on the
jumbotrons.
Let's talk about these three kinds of here's.
Then read Baruch, the words of Jeremiah in
the house of the Lord, in the ears
of all the people, all the people.
This is the whole congregation.
Folks, we've got conferences being held all over
the United States and around the world.
Conferences, fast, solemn assemblies.
But folks, I want to tell you, it
can become an absolute stench in God's nostrils.
If people go to meetings and conferences and
big meetings, if they don't go there with
a heart set on hearing the word of
God, submitting to the word of God and
changing by the word of God.
If they're going for excitement, they're going to
just see something unusual.
If they've got itching ears to hear something
new, folks, it's damnable.
It could destroy the soul.
This is the end of side one.
You may now turn the tape over.
Desire and folks, here's a conference called.
Here's a fast, a national fast called.
I don't know who called it.
There's no evidence in the word who called
it.
God somehow called it together.
Jeremiah knew it was coming in.
The word was prepared for this people.
We know that they rejected this word.
They become so passive.
It just went in one ear and out
the other, because in chapter 37 we read,
but neither he, the king, nor his servants,
nor the people of the land, those who
had come to the fast, did hearken unto
the words of the Lord, which he spake
by the prophet Jeremiah.
Passive folks.
Let me tell you something.
I am absolutely dumbfounded by the passivity.
I have seen even in this church.
In the 1112 years that we've been here
since this church is founded.
I am absolutely dumbfounded by the passivity of
some Christians.
Your passivity means to receive a word or
an action without responding or initiating a response
in return.
It is not responding to the word of
God in your everyday life.
And it's amazing that we can stand in
a pulpit and this dumbfounds me.
This is one thing I will never ever
understand as long as I live.
As long as I preach the gospel.
This is one thing that has bothered me
and troubled me.
I have no answer.
That when we stand in a pulpit and
we warn lovingly and with broken hearts, get
into the work.
Get into the book.
Study it.
Daily dig into it.
Because everything is going to be shaken.
A flood is coming.
And you're going to need this so that
you're not tossed and turned by every wind
and wave of doctrine and finally be deceived
by the Antichrist.
The spirit of the Antichrist is already here
in the Bible.
The deception starts now.
Not after rapture or whatever you believe about
becoming the Lord.
Now!
The spirit of the Antichrist is at work.
And many Christians are being deceived and many
Christians, I'm telling you now, are now dabbling
into the Antichrist spirit.
Because they are not into this book.
They are running around and hearing and seeing
things that are unscriptural and calling it the
Holy Ghost.
There is such foolishness in the house of
God today.
Such entertainment that comes from the dredges of
hell itself.
And people sit there saying, it's marvelous, it's
wonderful.
You ought to come and see and hear.
And when you come and see and hear,
you want to vomit.
You say, how can anybody be blind?
And we stand in the pulpit and we
warn, get into the book.
A flood is coming.
You're going to be under overwhelming.
You're going to be in the midst of
a nation that's going to be judged.
And you're going to have to know where
to go.
You're going to have to know how to
pray.
You're going to have to know the word.
And in spite of that, pleading, begging, and
in my part, even screaming.
Well, Carter too.
Seriously.
In spite of all that, some of you
didn't even open the book last week.
Some of you then opened it a month.
And all you live on is the preaching
of the gospel.
And that's not going to keep you.
That's not going to do it.
People send me videotapes.
I told you they send me videotapes from
evangelists and prosperity preachers.
And I look at those masses of people
under seduction.
And I say, God, how does that happen?
Because I listen to what the man says.
One tape recently, one of the well-known
evangelists says, I curse any man who stands
against me in my ministry.
The Bible knows.
The Bible says if you curse a man,
curse anyone, the curse comes back on you.
And I'm saying, don't those people know their
Bibles?
And then I see this unbelievable stuff that's
going on.
And people are clapping and yelling.
And I have to come to the conclusion
that if they were just cursory readings, if
they just were reading a little bit of
this book, they would know.
They would have discernment.
They would understand.
Folks, get into this book, lest you be
deceived by the winds and waves of false
doctrines and false prophets and false preachers that
are abounding in the land today.
Get into the book.
Daily read it and say, oh God, discipline
me in the reading of the Word.
Let me be governed by the Scripture.
If you think that when the day of
judgment comes, when hard times really come, then
you'll be driven to the book, don't believe
it.
These people, these people were on the brink.
They knew the Chaldeans were at the door
and they were passive.
No, no, no.
The Bible says that when the final judgment
is coming and even when God is sending
fire from heaven, the Bible says they'll stand
on the mountains and curse God.
They'll curse Him.
They won't turn to the Scriptures.
If you're not reading your Bible enough, you're
not into the Word of God, I don't
care what judgment comes on this nation, you'll
just harden your heart.
You will not turn to this book.
You'll never do it.
Oh my.
I know that there's a sensory overload in
America today.
Our minds satiated with terrible, awful reports of
planes falling from the sky and mass murders
in our schools and atrocities and the wars
all over the world pictured on television.
And now all the daily news about everything
we eat now is going to kill us.
I mean, every day there's some new thing.
Just when I start learning to eat some
vegetable, they tell me it's going to cause
cancer.
It's a sensory overload.
But I want to tell you something.
You can't blame a sensory overload for passivity,
because if you're not into this book, you're
going to turn to false doctrine.
You're going to get itching ears and you'll
run after the spectacular and the sensational.
The perturbed here, number two.
To be perturbed means to be greatly disturbed
and upset, made uneasy.
At that meeting, there was a scribe by
the name of Micaiah, and he was from
the king's court.
And he belonged to an inner council, the
secretary of state and other scribes and officials
at the king's court.
And he's standing at the perimeter, evidently.
And he saw these people listening.
And here's Baruch standing there, crying out this
message.
And this scribe, Micaiah, begins to tremble.
His knees begin.
And the Bible says the word Hebrew in
Hebrew is shudder.
They shuddered.
And this man begins to shudder.
Because you see, he knows the intelligence of
what's coming.
He's been part of these intelligence reports that
people don't even know most of the material.
They're probably hiding from the general populace.
And so he knows.
And he knows that this man has heard
from God, because he's saying things that nobody
else could know.
Not even many of the intelligence corps.
And so he begins to tremble.
So he goes to the secretary of state.
And he goes to a group of leaders,
could have been the king's cabinet.
And the names are all there.
And they invite, this scribe, Micaiah, goes back.
And he said, gentlemen, I've heard some disturbing
news.
I have heard from this prophet Jeremiah what
God's about to do.
That we are not going to be able
to stand up against the Chaldeans.
That they're literally going to come in here.
Now he's warned us all these years that
they were coming.
And now they're coming.
This man has been telling the truth.
And he said, we have got to listen.
We've got to get a hold of this
word.
We can't ignore this.
And so they invite him to a private
secret meeting.
The scripture says, so Baruch took the roll
in his hand of the book and came
to them.
They said to him, sit down now and
read in our hearing all that Jeremiah said.
So Baruch read it in their ears.
And it came to pass when they heard
all the words that they were afraid, both
one and another.
And the word here in Hebrews, they shuddered.
They trembled at the word of God.
They were perturbed.
There's a whole multitude sitting there pastive.
And here in leadership are a handful that
are shaking and trembling at the word of
the living God.
Folks, I want to tell you something.
In spite of the fact that Washington, D
.C. has become a cesspool of iniquity, I
can assure you that as sure as God
had his men in the royal palace, God
has his secret men in high places right
now in Washington, D.C. in our government
who tremble at the word of God.
There are prayer meetings going.
I just got word last week of some
prayer meetings, a number of senators, some who've
been just a little backward about.
Now there are prayer meetings fervently crying out
to God.
Men who believe that America is on the
brink of judgment.
God has his men.
And he always will.
Glory be to God.
I got a letter last week from a
pastor who just came back from Ukraine.
I don't know if you know it or
not, but after, you know, just seven years
ago, in fact, even five years ago, if
you passed out a tract or gave out
a Bible in Ukraine, you'd get five to
seven years in jail.
But the leader of Ukraine right now is
a man who fears the word of God.
And he's opened up the whole nation to
the gospel now.
He's giving land to build churches.
And we need to pray for Ukraine because
there's an election coming and the communists are
trying to move back in again.
We need to pray.
But thank God there's a man there and
the word of God.
God is blessing Ukraine in a way that
Russia can never experience.
Because this man has begun to subject himself
to the scripture, to the living word of
God.
Right now, God's word is being preached in
Ukraine under great anointing.
Hallelujah.
Let me tell you how this word affects
me.
I tremble at this book.
The last month or so, I've been reading
what the prophets say about prophets, about watchmen,
about shepherds.
And it makes me tremble because of God's
wrath against men who speak their own mind
and borrow messages from one another.
And say, thus saith the Lord, when God
hasn't said a word.
And I tremble at that lest I ever
say anything, anything contrary to His word or
out of my own heart.
It's caused me to tremble and examine everything
that I say now.
That's called coming under the government of the
gospel, under the government of the living word
of God.
The perturbed hearer.
Thank God for those that hear the word
and tremble.
I have seen that in this house.
I've seen it when every pastor of this
church has been a pulpit priest and suddenly
the word comes forth like a hammer, a
two-edged sword.
And I can see people, their mouth drops
and they can't wait for the invitation.
I mean, the tail pail melt right down
the altar and cry out to God, Oh,
God changed me.
The word of God has convicted them.
Does it still convict you?
Are you still perturbed by the word of
God?
My grandpa told me when I was a
young preacher, he said, David, make them mad
or glad, but nothing in between.
And the word will make you glad, but
it will make you mad too.
It'll make it sound like the preacher's been
sitting down talking to somebody who knows you
real well.
Finally, I want to talk about the penknife
here.
The perturbed men said, we must tell the
king all the words.
King Jehoiakim is at his winter palace and
he's sitting before a fire with his staff.
And these, these men come to the king
said, we, we have, we are really disturbed.
We are bothered and we tremble because we
have heard what Jeremiah is saying.
And King, in essence, he was saying, you
know that the Chaldeans have, have warned us,
our intelligence reports, and you know what's about
to happen to this land.
And we beg you to listen to what
this book says.
It's all written there.
And it's in the scribes quarters.
He sends Yehudai into the scribes quarter and
he brings the book.
And Yehudai begins to read to the king.
And it came to pass that when Yehudai
had read three or four leaves of the
book, he, Jehoiakim meaning, Jehoiakim, he cut it
with a penknife and cast it into the
fire until it was consumed.
Yet they were not afraid, nor did they
rent their garments, neither the king, nor his
servants, who had heard all the words, all
the words.
They had heard it all.
He took his penknife and as soon as
he read three or four land leaves, he
would hand it to the king and he'd
reach out and take it.
And he'd just take his penknife and start
cutting it up and throwing the pieces in
the fire.
Brethren, listen.
The Bible says those who shudder, those who
are perturbed by this word, made intercession to
the king that he would not burn the
roll, but he would not listen to them.
He would not hear them.
Listen to me.
You know what's happening in this nation.
We've got judges now.
We've got atheists.
We've got politicians that are ungodly, are trying
to ban this book.
They're trying to get it out of our
society.
They've got their penknives out and they're trying
to cut and destroy and consume and burn
and get rid of this book and get
it out of the American system completely.
They tried it in China.
You know what's happening in China now.
Millions of Bibles are being printed right in
China now.
There's an ocean, there's a flood of Bibles
going all over China now.
You can't ban this book.
Jeremiah, Baruch goes and tells Jeremiah, Jeremiah said,
get your pen.
And the Bible says, I get so blessed.
This scripture says, Thus saith the Lord of...
Here it is.
Let me read it to you.
Then took Jeremiah another roll and gave it
to Baruch the scribe and wrote therein from
the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of
the book which Jehoiachin had burned in the
fire and there were added besides unto the
many more like words.
Word came back more powerful than it ever
was.
Albania, just a few years ago, they said
that they had outlawed and they had rid
the country of Christianity and that they had
rid the nation of Bibles.
Today, churches are springing up everywhere.
The Word's coming back more powerful than ever
and thousands upon thousands of Bibles are being
distributed now in Albania.
And you watch what happens.
God's going to throw the whole government out
and bring somebody in that's a believer.
Glory be to God.
You can't ban the book.
You can't kill it.
But in closing, let me come down now
and zeer into these penknife hearers that are
in the house of God because God's concern
is not what's happening out here among the
wicked trying to ban his book.
God laughs at that.
What a puny effort that proves to be.
But God is brokenhearted about the penknife hearers
in his Word.
Now, who are these penknife hearers that cut
the Word?
To understand that, you have to go back
and study the life of Jehoiachin, the first
knife cutter of the Word of God.
You see, he's the son of a godly
man.
Jehoiachin probably went with his father on his
tours when he tore down idol temples.
He was there when he smashed all of
the idolatry.
He sat through over 30 years of revival.
He heard the Word of God as no
other young man had ever heard.
He heard it from Jeremiah.
He heard it from other prophets that God
had raised up.
He had every opportunity, but somewhere along the
line, he had his own ideas of who
God was.
He had something in his heart.
He would not let go of the spirit
of this world.
And folks, this speaks of the new generation
that's rising up right now.
Sons and daughters of godly Josiahs.
Sons and daughters of pastors.
Sons and daughters of another age where God
moved in such power.
Another age that respected and loved and were
under the government of the Word of God.
And we have a generation now.
I thank God for the godly young pastors
that come.
But folks, there is a whole army of
young ministers that are being raised up now
that never did let go.
Somewhere along the line, even though they came
from godly homes, even preacher's homes.
Godly homes.
Men like Josiah.
Godly.
Yet, they became addicted to the music of
the age.
They became addicted to the permissive lifestyle of
the age.
They started drinking when they were younger.
And now they're coming and they're bringing into
the house of God this compromised, knife-cutting
gospel.
I get a call this past week from
a friend of mine, a pastor.
And he's heartbroken because his son, his young
son, is drinking.
And he's getting in deep trouble.
He said, you know what bothers me?
A youth pastor of another church took my
son aside.
And said, the youth pastor drank.
And he said, drinking is, there's no indictment
in the Bible against drinking.
This is a new age of freedom without
guilt.
No problem, drink.
The youth pastor introduced him to drink.
And there's a whole generation now of those
who just take their knives.
And this is contrary to my music style.
This is contrary to what I believe.
It doesn't matter what the book says, but
this is what I see.
This is how God is.
Away with guilt.
Away with all fear.
Let's just believe that God is love.
Everything is fine.
Do as you please.
Jehoiachin is the king of God's people.
This represents the church of the time.
I know young pastors who stood in my
face and mocked and laughed at the hymns
of the church.
My son, one of my preacher sons got
a call this past week.
He called me Friday.
He said, Dad, I just got a call
from a young evangelist.
And he named him.
He said, he said to my son, is
your dad just kind of drifted away and
got not a touch with humanity and what's
happening to the young people?
He's not going to feeding your dad is
out there somewhere.
And my son said, yeah, he's out there
somewhere.
And my dad just doesn't like all the
garbage that you guys are bringing into the
church.
And the sad thing is, this is a
young man that I thought, because he sat
down, told me once, I want to know
everything God has to say to me.
So I told him.
But now he thinks I'm out of another
planet.
Young people, let me tell you something.
The Bible makes it very, very clear.
You're not to remove the ancient landmark which
your fathers have set.
You do that and you have nothing to
hold on to.
These landmarks set by our fathers were foundations
deeply embedded in this word of God.
And I fear that we have a whole
generation now that can sit through.
They can't endure doctrine.
They can't endure these things.
So I'm talking about young married couples, the
whole X generation, as they call it.
Now, they invented their own gospel of permissiveness.
And everything has to be contemporary.
It can have nothing to do.
The musicians here, thank God that you'll hear
a mixture of hymns.
And even the contemporaries that were asking God
to bring it in line with Scripture, everything
of its contemporary.
I don't care what you call it.
It has to line up to this book.
And it can't be flesh.
It has to be spirit.
Young people, I have to say it because
this tape goes out in video and audio
all over the world.
My heart just breaks when I see young
ministers and young people just take their knife,
their own healings, their own concept totally isolated
from this book and preaching out of their
own heart and doing what they please because
they can pick and choose what they want.
They won't take the whole book, but just
pick and choose.
That means you've got a knife in your
hand and you're a pen knife here of
the word of God.
When I stand before the judgment with this,
I close.
I want to know that I have preached
the whole counsel of God.
Will you stand?
No clapping, please.
Just stand.
This is our salvation.
And how will you escape?
Now I'll tell you what the Holy Ghost
told me.
And this is going to be one of
the boldest invitations ever made in this church.
But the Lord's made it clear that if
you have neglected the study of this book,
if you have not been into this book
in the last ten days, you have neglected
it.
If you have not been in this book
for two weeks or a month, God help
you.
And I'm telling you, if you haven't been
into it for the last ten days, you
need to repent.
I believe everyone hearing me, up in the
balcony, the main floor, behind me, in all
of the overflow rooms, wherever you may be,
if you have neglected this book, you're on
a downward spiral.
And you're not going to make it.
It's that strong.
And as I said, I get dumbfounded when
people can hear me say that.
And just passively.
And it doesn't register.
If I were standing where you're at and
I had to admit I have neglected this
book, I would begin to tremble.
But open these altars.
And this is repentance meeting now.
For those who are willing to take it
up before the Lord in all honesty and
say, Lord, that's me.
I have neglected your Word.
I confess it before heaven.
I confess it before this people.
No, you've got to put yourself on the
spot.
You've got to put yourself out on a
limb now and say, God, I'm not going
to go like this.
I've been warned before.
I've been told about it.
I've tried to preach it in love.
I've done everything I know how.
And I'm telling you, folks, we're going to
have to repent.
And you're going to have to make a
commitment.
I want those up in the balcony and
here in the main floor.
You come to the front right now.
And just right out, Lord, I have neglected
this book.
Now, folks, if you just open it up
and you read a verse, that's not what
I'm talking about.
I'm talking about getting into this book.
Until you say, Jesus, I want to know
everything that you ask of me.
I want to bring my life into conformity
to this book.
I want to know how to stand.
I want to know how I get faith.
I want to know Jesus in more intimate
ways.
God, forgive me for neglecting your word.
And in the annex, just go to the
front.
Don't block the screen, go between the screens.
And I'm asking you to do that because
you need to put yourself on the spot.
I know that's a bold call, and I
know that some of you may feel embarrassed
about that, but I wouldn't feel embarrassed.
I'd rather be embarrassed here than before the
throne.
Now, wait for it, because I'm going to
pray that God, for everyone that's coming, God
will do something special.
I know there are just many of you
a little hesitant about stepping out, but I'm
going to pray for you also.
In just a moment, we're going to ask
God to change things here.
If you're standing here, listening to me, and
you know in your heart, in all honesty,
you have neglected this book, you know that.
And if you can stand here just passively,
and not, while I'm talking, be making up
your mind in your heart before God, Lord
Jesus, forgive me.
Maybe you didn't step out.
But there has to be something in your
heart.
Otherwise, you're just passive, and you'll be that
way until Jesus comes, and you'll stand before
him passive.
Not reciprocating, not initiating any kind of action
to try to change things, to conform to
the word of God.
And if you can't respond to a loving
call, you that are visiting, what do I
get out of this by pressing this issue?
I'm not asking for any money.
I'm not asking anything of you.
But I know that if we can get
you into the word, if we can get
you established in this, you'll never be seduced
by the false foolishness that's going on in
this world today, and in the church.
We know that you'll stand strong until Jesus
comes, and you'll grow in grace and the
power of the anointing of the Holy Ghost.
This is the conclusion of the message.