God: 'Jerry, don't pray for them'

(sorry for delay--new article tomorrow)

"If you go to Jeremiah 7:16, how would you like to have these instructions? [16] Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.

"That's a great prayer promise, isn't it? You know, when people go to the Bible to get prayer promises, why doesn't anybody ever go get that one?

"You ever read that verse in chapter 29 of Jeremiah, where people love to quote: [11] For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

"People love to quote that. I heard a guy on Moody (radio) just the other day say, 'Oh, I love that verse.'

"You ever read the end of Jeremiah where God says, 'I know my thoughts toward you; I'm going to destroy you, clean your plow and wipe you out.'

"Why don't people quote that one? People quote that verse in Samuel that says, 'God forbid that I should sin against God by not praying for you.' Here's one in Jeremiah.

"You see, you can't just go to the Bible and pull a verse out just because you like it. That's the 'Judas hung himself' kind of thing.

"Pull that verse out, go hang yourself. You say, 'Well, I didn't like that one.' Look up another one: 'Go do likewise.' Don't like that one. Get the one that says, 'What thou doest, do with haste.'

"You see, if you don't rightly divide the Scripture and put things where they fit . . . How would you like to go out and tell people, 'God said don't pray for you. The judgment's coming and you can't stop it.'

Jeremiah 7: [27] Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee.

[28] But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
[29] Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
[30] For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.

"God: 'Jerry, don't pray for them but keep preaching.' You get that? That's Jeremiah's life and he does that for four decades. That's how he got to where chapter 20 is. He didn't just walk into chapter 20 because he went down to Wal-Mart and couldn't buy something because his credit card was overdrawn.

"He got to chapter 20 because he's preaching a message that nobody wanted to hear. If you look at Jeremiah 19: [14] Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD's house; and said to all the people,

[15] Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.

Jeremiah 20:2: [2] Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.

"He didn't just put him in jail, he did what Paul and Silas had done to them in Acts 16. You put someone in stocks to hold them, restrain them, but also to torture them. This is the first real taste of physical violence that Jeremiah has experienced.

"He's been preaching and people have been mocking him, laughing at him, throwing eggs at him, calling him names, but now you have an official from the government take him and throw him in jail and torture him. Things have escalated. By the way, Jeremiah ends up in jail five times."