In this sermon, the preacher begins by thanking those who have been working on a project to change the choir robes and carpets in the church. He then moves on to the main topic of the sermon, which is being governed by the word of God. The preacher emphasizes the importance of knowing and following the word of God in a world filled with false teachings and entertainment that comes from hell. He uses the story of Jeremiah 36 to illustrate the three types of hearers: passive, perturbed, and pen knife hearers. The preacher urges the congregation to be diligent in reading and studying the Bible to avoid being deceived by false doctrines and false prophets.

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 WORLDCHALLENGE 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. Thank you, Orchestra. God bless you. And welcome again to, personally, to all of our friends and visitors. We trust the Lord to give you a wonderful time here at Times Square Church and minister to your heart. Those that call Times Square Church your home, you'll notice we have put up our new curtains, and we're starting to remodel. We haven't gotten yet to changing the choir robes, but that's in another week or two in the carpets, and we're videotaping now to go all over the world, and redoing the stage. The Lord's been good, and we thank all those who've been so faithful in working on this project. 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. Subtitle is Penknife Christians. Penknife. P-E-N. Knife. 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 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 Jeriah, and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord which he had 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 hast written 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 9, 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 in 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 or their nation 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 of 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 to 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 in 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, want nothing more to do with this book, that is the last step toward divine judgment. And in the 36th 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 23 years now, Jeremiah, in fact, at this point, 27 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 under the total authority of the scripture. And now we have totally thrown aside that yoke as we call it today and have despised 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 rejected 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 botchery and shame and bloodshed. Now, I want 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'd 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 went into asscloth. He rent his clothes. And in his shattering, 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, We're under judgment. He was reading from Leviticus 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, 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 outbring upon this place. God gave a short time, a time of blessing and prosperity, and I've written that in one of my books, 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. For 31 years, Josiah submitted himself to the authority of God's Word. And 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 worshipped. When he found out God's hatred tore idolatry, he tore down all the idols. When he found out God hated the human sacrifice in the valley of Hinnom, he did away with it, he smashed it. Everything the Word said, he complied. Because of the 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 promised, that I 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, but 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, 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 is 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 godly 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 of 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 have 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 AIDS, 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 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 was 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 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 Jeremiah may be right after all. And so they flock to Jerusalem now. Now, this word 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 his 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 said, 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. Now, please, get this picture in your mind, if you will. 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 taken 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 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 are in the church here this morning. Yeah, and even in the annex. Sitting in the, 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 the 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 can destroy the soul. But if there's a 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 and 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 11, 12 years that we've been here since this church was founded. I am absolutely dumbfounded by the passivity of some Christians. You know what 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, the Bible says. The deception starts now. Not after rapture or whatever you believe about the coming of 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, we 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. Seriously. In spite of all that, some of you didn't even open the book last week. Some of you haven't opened it in 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 said, 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 now, if 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. Yesterday, our minds satiated with terrible, awful reports of planes falling from the sky and mass murders in our schools and atrocities and 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 sees 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 in Hebrew is shudder. They shuddered. And this man began 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 Hebrew is, they shuddered. They trembled at the word of God. They were perturbed. Here's a whole multitude sitting there passive. 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 on. 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 the 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 track 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 the 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 in this church has been to this pope and preached 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 pale, pale mouth, right down the altar and cry out to God, Oh God, change 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'll 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 men come to the king and said, 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 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 scribe's quarters. He sends Jehudai into the scribe's quarter and he brings the book and Jehudai begins to read to the king. And it came to pass that when Jehudai 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 leaves, he would hand it to the king. 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. Beloved, listen. Bible says, those who shuddered, those who were 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 is 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, the 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 them 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 gonna 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, zero in to 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 got 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. And 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. Jehoiakim 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's 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 to my son, Is your dad just kind of drifted away and gotten out of touch with humanity and what's happening to the young people? He said, I got a feeling 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 and 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 they... You'll hear a mixture of hymns, and even the contemporaries that were asking God to bring it in line with Scripture. Everything of it is 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, 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 feelings, 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. Please, just stand. Hallelujah. He is Lord. He is risen from the dead. And He is Lord. Musicians are coming. Will you sing that with me? He is Lord. Start at acapella if you will. He is Lord. The Bible says how should we escape if we neglect, neglect so great a salvation. 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 I've ever made in this church. But I'm going to do it. I don't care if one or a thousand come. Well, I do care, but it's not, it's not meant to increase the numbers that come. But the Lord has made it clear that if you have neglected the study of this book, if you have not been into this book in the last 10 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 10 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. I don't know. 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. I would begin to tremble. I'm going to open these altars. And this is a repentance meeting now. For those who are willing to take, take it out 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. I know. And 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 write 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. We'll sing it again. 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 in our lives. Sing it once more. Now, let me say this to you before I pray. 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, 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 you 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 and the anointing of the Holy Ghost. Now, for you that have come forward in the annex and here, I want to pray for you right now. But first, I'm going to ask you to pray. I want you to pray this prayer with me right out loud. Jesus, I've come forward to acknowledge to you and before the whole world, I speak the truth, I need to repent, and I do repent for neglecting the Word of God. O Lord Jesus, implant the Spirit of God in me and woo me to the Word and remind me every morning I wake up to go to the Word to get my life and strength. For this is my lamp and this is my light. Lord, I want to hide your Word in my heart that I'll not sin against you. This is my protection and I come to the Word of the living God. From this day on, help me, Father, because I truly repent, but I'll neglect it again if you don't remind me. Now, I'm going to pray for you that the Holy Ghost reminds you. Now, if you're here and you don't know Jesus, if you're backslidden or you're not right with God, you can be right in your seat where you're at. You can return to Jesus right now without making a move, accepting Him by faith. Right now, as I pray for this congregation, all you have to do is whisper a prayer to Him. Say, Jesus, forgive me. I'm sorry. I know you love me and I know that you will judge sin, but I come to your love now because the Lord says that I may forgive you and restore you. You pray that while I'm praying for the others and all of you that are listening to me now who have neglected the Word of God, where you stand, ask the Holy Spirit to forgive you. Ask the Lord to forgive you right now. Let there be true repentance and come to the Word of the living God. Now, when I say come to the Word, I'm not talking about just coming to Bible school or a Friday night meeting when the pastor is teaching and you just open the book and get... I'm talking about in your home, alone. That's what I'm talking about. That's where the neglect is because most of you bring your Bibles to church. You've got it under your arm. You have it in your heart. That's the important thing. Father, in Jesus' name, I ask you to touch every heart in this place that's backslidden, every one, Lord, that's drifted away from you, every one, O Lord, that has an aching heart because of the emptiness caused by neglecting your Word. It leaves us empty. It leaves us dry. It leaves us saying, is this all there is to it? O Lord, the joy that you have stored up for those who will now come to the Word of God. O Lord Jesus, bring my life, bring the life of everyone in this church and all of our visitors who love you. Bring us all under the dominion and authority of the Scripture that our lives may be ruled by the living Word of God. Put it in our hearts, Lord. We freely come here. We raise our hands. We praise you. We say we love the Word, but then we neglect you. And you said we can't escape if we do that. Now, God, forgive us, cleanse us, save those who need to be saved, restore those who are backslidden, and let this be a day of victory. Hallelujah, because God has heard our cry. We've heard your heart. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Glory be to God. Do you have a chorus here for us? Hallelujah. Tell you what I'd like you to do. In the aisles of the Word of God, don't make your way out. Just stay right where you're at for a few moments. And I want you to bless somebody. When you say, you take somebody's hand and say, God bless you. Do you mean it? I'm not mean when somebody sneezes and says, God bless you. I mean a God bless you from the heart. A loving God bless you to at least 10 people around you, male or female. God bless you. Amen. Right now, wherever you're at, God bless and keep you by His grace and His mercy.