Pen Knife Religion JEREMIAH 36 20 23 Pen

Pen Knife Religion JEREMIAH 36: 20 -23

Pen Knife Religion Introduction: 1. The story is told about an older woman and the preacher who went to visit her and set up a “Bible Study” with her regarding the need for baptism in order to be saved. The study began, but shortly into the study the woman said that this was just a waste of both their time because baptism is not in her Bible. The preacher asked what she meant and she said, “just what I said, baptism is not in my Bible. ” The preacher asked if he could examine her Bible and sure enough every place he looked in her Bible for the word “Baptism” or any variation of the word, was not there. He asked what happened and she replied, “I don’t believe that it (baptism) is necessary so I cut it out with my knife”

Pen Knife Religion A. The story sounds stupid, unreal, funny, even brings a few giggles. Never the less it happens. I actually found someone who instead of “cutting out the words” has simply taken a marker and “blacked them out”. B. Folks who do not want to place themselves under the direction and commandments of God in one way or another will try to just “cut out the portion that they don’t want to obey or agree with. ” However, God’s Word DOES NOT CHANGE or GO AWAY!

Pen Knife Religion • The early Christians suffered great persecutions under the government of the Roman empire. The Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter and many other Christians were put to death under the cruel reign of emperor Nero. During the first 300 years of the church, persecution followed persecution, and many believers were MARTYRED (put to death because of their faith in Jesus Christ). • In 303 A. D. the Roman Emperor Diocletian issued a royal decree (EDICT) that EVERY BIBLE SHOULD BE DESTROYED. As a result many Bibles were burned and many Bible believers were put to death. This fierce attack against the Bible did not last too long, because the next emperor was Constantine who allowed freedom of religion and who even ordered copies of the Scriptures to be made.

Pen Knife Religion • Voltaire, the noted French infidel and one of the most fertile and talented writers of his time, used his pen to retard and demolish Christianity. Of Christ, Voltaire said, "Curse the wretch!" He once boasted, “Within 50 years the Bible will be no more. My single hand shall destroy the edifice it took twelve apostles to rear. "Shortly after his death the very house in which he printed his foul literature became the depot of the Geneva Bible Society. That was over 200 years ago. • [The above taken from Last Words of Saints and Sinners by Herbert Lockyer, page 133. ]

Pen Knife Religion • Voltaire was convinced that he could destroy Christianity and the Bible. He believed that people would become so enlightened that they would neither believe in God, the Bible or their need of salvation through Jesus Christ. • Voltaire died in 1778. Since Voltaire's death millions upon millions of Bibles in numerous languages have flooded the world. • Today most people in our country have at least one copy of the Bible, but few have the writings of Voltaire! He is dead and gone, but the Bible lives on.

Pen Knife Religion I. Jeremiah and Jehoiakim - JEMERIAH 36: 20 -23 A. One of God’s great prophets never ceased to try and bring God ‘s people back to the “old” and right path. (Jeremiah 6: 16) B. Rejected, unheeded, hated, imprisoned, despised, he worked on as God led him. C. He spoke to the people the Words of God that came to him - Jeremiah 1: 4 “Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: ”

Pen Knife Religion 1. The people of God had completely left God, King Josiah came along as a Good King and began a reformation of the people, cleaning the temple , restoring God’s Word until he was killed at Megiddo ( II Kings 22: 1 - 23: 29) 2. His Son, Jehoahaz, then reigned for 3 months until he was removed by Pharohnecho – (II Kings 23: 30 -33) 3. It is during the time of Josiah that Jeremiah is called by God and introduced - Jeremiah 1: 2 “The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, 2. to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. ”

Pen Knife Religion 4. Jeremiah has been continual prophesying about the coming destruction of Judah. 5. In Jeremiah 36: 2 – God tells Jeremiah to write a book which we now have concerning all the words of God that He has given Jeremiah. "Take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah even to this day. ”

Pen Knife Religion 6. The purpose being – so it could be read and re -read to the people to cause them to hear and repent before it would be too late. Jeremiah 36: 3 “It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the adversities which I purpose to bring upon them, that everyone may turn from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. "

Pen Knife Religion 7. Jeremiah calls his servant – Baruch writes while Jeremiah dictates - Jeremiah 36: 4 “Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote on a scroll of a book, at the instruction of Jeremiah, all the words of the LORD which He had spoken to him. Note: “ …all the words of the Lord which He had spoken…” Not some or the ones that he liked, but all.

Pen Knife Religion 8. Jeremiah sends Baruch to read the book to the people – (perhaps because he is shut up in the court of the prison when the king of Babylon had seized Jerusalem. (32: 1 and 33: 1)but perhaps not based on (36: 26) 9. While Baruch reads the book (scroll) to the people – he is called to come read the scroll before all the princes of Judah. Jeremiah 36: 11 -15

Pen Knife Religion 11. When Michaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the LORD from the book, 12. he then went down to the king's house, into the scribe's chamber; and there all the princes were sitting--Elishama the scribe, Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, Elnathan the son of Achbor, Gemariah the son of Shaphan, Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes. 13. Then Michaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read the book in the hearing of the people. 14. Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, "Take in your hand the scroll from which you have read in the hearing of the people, and come. " So Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand came to them. 15. And they said to him, "Sit down now, and read it in our hearing. " So Baruch read [it] in their hearing.

Pen Knife Religion 10. It brings fear upon all of them as they hear God’s word. “Now it happened, when they had heard all the words, that they looked in fear from one to another, and said to Baruch, "We will surely tell the king of all these words. “ (36: 16) 11. In attempt to save Jeremiah and Baruch, the princes tell Baruch to take Jeremiah and hide themselves (39: 19)

Pen Knife Religion 12. They take the scroll/book to King Jehoiakim, King of Judah, they tell him of the Words of God as they are written, he in turn tells Jehudi to read the Words to him in (36: 21) 13. As Jehudi reads from the Words of the scroll/book 3 -4 columns/pages, Jehoiakim takes out his “PENKNIFE” (KJV) and cuts off those pages throws them in the fire because he does not like what he hears from God, he continues until the entire Book is destroyed in the Fire. (36: 23)

Pen Knife Religion 21. So the king sent Jehudi to bring the scroll, and he took it from Elishama the scribe's chamber. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and in the hearing of all the princes who stood beside the king. 22. Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, with [a fire] burning on the hearth before him. 23. And it happened, when Jehudi had read three or four columns, [that the king] cut it with the scribe's knife and cast [it] into the fire that [was] on the hearth, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that [was] on the hearth.

Pen Knife Religion 14. However, Jehoiakim can not destroy it because God commands Jeremiah to write it all again. JEREMIAH 36: 27 -32 27. Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words which Baruch had written at the instruction of Jeremiah, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying: 28 "Take yet another scroll, and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned. 29. And you shall say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, 'Thus says the LORD: "You have burned this scroll, saying, 'Why have you written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and cause man and beast to cease from here? ' "

Pen Knife Religion 30. Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: "He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. 31. I will punish him, his family, and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring on them, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah all the doom that I have pronounced against them; but they did not heed. " 32. Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it at the instruction of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And besides, there were added to them many similar words.

Pen Knife Religion II. Many People of the World and Of the Church are Like Jehoiakim. A. They don’t want to hear God’s Warnings/Commands B. They don’t like to hear God’s Warning’s/Commands C. They think they can just ignore God’s Warning’s/Commands D. They think they can just use their “penknife” and “CUT OUT” what they don’t like and burn it up and as a result it has just gone away.

Pen Knife Religion 1. The following are just some examples of “Penknife Religion”. a. They are set in no order because that doesn’t really matter for the purpose of illustration. They certainly are not inclusive of every scripture to which the illustration could be applied, but then one could throw the whole thing into the fire as Jehoiakim did and not bother with a passage here and there. The outcome is still the same in the end.

Pen Knife Religion Must be baptized Mark 16: 16, Act 2: 38, 22: 16 I Peter 3: 21, etc.

Pen Knife Religion The Lord’s Supper every First day of the Week Acts 20: 7

Pen Knife Religion Live in Peace as much as possible, avenge not yourself Romans 12: 18, 19

Pen Knife Religion Ignore the warning of the works of the flesh Galatians 5: 19 -21

Pen Knife Religion Ignoring Church Discipline Romans 16: 17, II John 9, 10, Titus 3: 10

Pen Knife Religion Preaching the Word no matter what II Timothy 4: 2

Pen Knife Religion Forgiving others Matthew 6: 12 -15

Pen Knife Religion Speaking only as God Speaks I Peter 4: 11

Pen Knife Religion III. God’s Word Can Not Be Destroyed or Denied A. What comfort for some and a heartache for others. B. People are going to Reject It, Cut it Out with their “Penknife”, The Bible tells us so. II TIMOTHY 3: 1 “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3. unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4. traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5. having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! “

Pen Knife Religion II TIMOTHY 4: 3 -4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4. and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. ”

Pen Knife Religion However, God’s word will forever stand remain the judge of us all. John 12: 47 -48 47. And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him--the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. ”

Pen Knife Religion Jesus says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. ” MATTHEW 24: 35 Peter writes, 23. “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, 24. because "All flesh [is] as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, 25. But the word of the LORD endures forever. " Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. I PETER 1: 23 -25

Pen Knife Religion Conclusion: 1. Jehoiakim had a sad ending to his life for his rebellion against God’s Word. Jeremiah 22: 18, 19 – 36: 29 -31 2. As will ALL who do the same today. 3. It does not need to be this way, Jesus’ Words are LIFE SAVING if we will listen and heed what He says. The Psalmist writes. “Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven. ” Psalm 119: 89

The Anvil – God’s Word Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith’s door, And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime; Then looking in, I saw upon the floor, Old hammer’s, worn with beating years of time. “How many anvils have you had”, I said, “To Wear and batter all these hammers so? ” “Just one”, he said, and then with twinkling eye; “The anvil wears the hammers out, you know. ” And so, thought I, the anvil of God’s Word, For ages septic blows have beat upon; Yet though the noise of falling blows was heard, The anvil is unharmed…… the hammers gone.

What Must You DO To Be Saved? Hear The Word Of God Romans 10: 17 Believe His Word Mark 16: 16, John 8: 24 Repent of your sins Luke 13: 3, Acts 2: 38 Confess your belief Romans 10: 10, Acts 8: 37 Be Baptized Mark 16: 16, Acts 2: 38 For the Remission of Your Sins Acts 22: 16 Galatians 3: 26, 27 • Live Faithfully Titus 2: 11 -14 • • •