Sodom’s Judgment: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 We’re going to take a look at precious promises before, during, and after Sodom’s judgment that God pronounced on the wicked, on the wicked believers and people that would reject the message of repentance. Okay? Now remember in the midst of these messages that we preached previously, the judgments, the war, the famines, the acts of God, the captivity where they lost their home, their family members, they lost their nation, they were taken away from their nation, everything that they knew. In the midst of these judgments, there’s another message that God has for the people that will listen to the message of repentance.

▶ 1:02 Okay? And Jeremiah is speaking less than 20 year or less than 30 years before the captivity is going to happen. He is speaking 11 years. The Egyptian war, the Egyptian nation and the Assyrian nation and the Babylonian nation are warring, and Judah is right in the middle of it. And it’s happening all around them. And Jeremiah’s preaching what’s going to— the, these guys. Israel has already been carried away captive and destroyed by war and famine. And now we find Judah still even though all these things are going on around about them.

▶ 1:53 They think and they believe and they speak. Their false prophets speak that nothing’s going to happen to Judah. Does it sound like America today? All these wars, all this sin going on in their nation, all this trouble around us. A lot of the nations I’ve preached in a lot of the nations in the world and they hate America. You know, America just don’t get it. Are you there? And in the midst of this, God comes with the other side of the message. Jeremiah 3:14: “Return, repent, oh backsliding children, says the Lord, for I am married to you.” Now, the Bible says that God hates what? Divorce. And he’s married to us. So, is he wanting to divorce us?

▶ 2:45 Are you out there? See, this is pertinent stuff. It’s important. See, he is God was married to his Jews, his Jewish people back there. He’s married to his church. And he reminds even though he’s telling them all these judgments are coming, he reminds them that you’re my bride. You’re married to me. And so not only for that group back in Judah at that time, but also for the church. Jeremiah is prophesying. In 2 Corinthians 11:2: “I’ve espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” Amen. So who is the wife of Christ? The church. Yes. You see, he’s married to us. Yes, he will punish us. Yes, he will correct us.

▶ 3:37 But he’s married to us and he isn’t giving up on us because we got some problems. Amen. He’s just asking us to change our stupid ways. In Revelation 19:7, “the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready.” Speaking of the second return of Christ, the church will be a mature, righteous dressed in white linen bride when Christ comes. And this is what most of the end time prophetic preachers aren’t bringing in. All they bring in is the seven years of tribulation and the antichrist, which isn’t even in there. You have to twist scriptures to get that out. One man being an antichrist and son of perdition and all that. But when Christ comes back, is he coming back for a baby church or a mature bride church?

▶ 4:33 Yeah. Do men marry children? No. [unclear] that child has to grow up and mature and take on that shape that these women have to get these men’s attention. And in the spiritual, that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Jesus is going to build a glorious church. And he’s coming back for that glorious [unclear]. Also in Revelation 21:9: “I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” And he showed Jerusalem coming down out of the heaven as a bride prepared for her husband. Okay. Now again in Jeremiah 3:14-18: “I will take you from one city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.”

▶ 5:31 He said, “I’m married to you, and I’m going to go and get my bride.” Now, King David is an illustration of this. King David’s first wife was taken by her father. David had to go into the wilderness. Her father married her off to another man. And when King David got through his wilderness wanderings and God’s promise came to him and he was made king, he went and got his bride back from that husband that wasn’t his her real husband. You see, when we’re in sin, when we’re in the kingdom of darkness, we’re married to Satan. We have a relationship with Satan. But Jesus comes by his blood and the power of his resurrection and he takes us from that bad husband and he brings us unto himself.

▶ 6:29 Are you there? Yes. And Jeremiah is speaking of all these things back then for those people and the future of the church that God is going to raise up in the earth. Now he says, “I’ll bring you to Zion.” And I’m going to remind you that Zion is the church. John 12:15. Jesus is coming into Jerusalem. And he quotes the scriptures: “Fear not, daughter of Zion, for your king is coming to you sitting on a donkey’s colt.” All right. Jesus is riding in Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt. And the scripture is quoted that your king is coming unto Zion. So where was Zion at that time Jesus was riding? In Jerusalem and that’s where the natural Zion was.

▶ 7:20 It was a mountain in Jerusalem, a stronghold. All right. But your king is coming unto you. Was he really coming just for that natural city or was he coming to the people? The people, of course. And to make it clear in Hebrews 12:22, we’ve come to Mount Zion. We the church have come to Mount Zion. And then he explains what Mount Zion is. The city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the general assembly, the church of the firstborn. So Zion is the what? Church of the firstborn. And it goes on to say to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. Are you there? So Zion is Jesus making a stronghold in his church.

▶ 8:12 You see, and he says he’s going to take us one from there and two from here and bring us to his church where he is enthroned. Ah man, that was good. Do you guys get that? See, this was hundreds of years before Christ came and died and built his church. And Jeremiah is speaking tremendous things during this bad stuff going on. What great stuff can happen while it’s going on and will happen in the future. All right. Then he says, “I will give you shepherds according to my heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. I will give you shepherds, pastors, feeders of the flock, and they will make you feel good.”

▶ 9:11 Now, what is these pastors that God is sending doing? Feeding us with what? Knowledge and understanding. Hallelujah. How many of you know that’s what we need? We need some knowledge and understanding. And the scriptures back it up. Number one, in John 10:1, Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd.” “I am the good shepherd.” Folks, in Hebrews it says God spoke in the old days to our forefathers by the prophets, but now he speaks to us through his son Jesus Christ. And let me tell you something.

▶ 10:03 Even though Jeremiah said, “I will send you shepherds plural,” no undershepherd has the right to teach anything but what the shepherd Jesus said to teach. No undershepherd has the right to give you their opinion. They must give you the truth from the Bible. Period. In Romans 10:2: “They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.” Here the Jews, he’s talking about the Jews. Yeah, they have a zeal of God. They’re stirred up for God, but they don’t have the knowledge. How many of you know Christians like that? You know, they’re stirred up for Jesus and they don’t even know him. Why? They have no knowledge. They don’t go to Sunday school. They don’t go to Bible studies where the word is being taught and they don’t open their book through the week. Got no time to study the Bible.

▶ 10:56 Got time for everything, but can’t study the Bible, which is our new covenant promise that he would inscribe it in our minds and our hearts. But how can he inscribe when we’re not hearing it, listening to it, reading it, and studying it? Can I hear an amen? Amen. Also in Romans 10:3: “Being ignorant of God’s righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness.” See, they don’t have the knowledge of God’s righteousness. And the Bible tells us in first John that “he that doeth righteous is righteous.” Duh. Amen. And so they’re ignorant of what God says is right. Jeremiah 4:22 says, “My people are foolish.

▶ 11:52 They haven’t known me. They are stubborn children. They have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good, they have no knowledge.” And this is the American church. We talk about Jesus. We talk about the Bible, but we don’t know him. And we do evil because we don’t bother finding out what God says is right and what God says is wrong and avoid the wrong and do right. Can I hear an amen? In Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of faith.” No, you guys shaking your head. That’s right. It doesn’t say that. “My people are destroyed for lack of grace.” No, it doesn’t say that either. “My people are destroyed for the lack of the baptism of the Holy Ghost with speaking in tongues and prophecy.”

▶ 12:44 No, it doesn’t say that. But these are the little eccentrics that the church groups get on. It says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. And because you’ve rejected knowledge, I’ve rejected you to be priests unto me.” A priest is the minister. How can you be a minister when you don’t have the knowledge of God? Verse 16, then it shall come to pass when you are multiplied and increased in the land, Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord. Wow. In the midst of this message that you know you’re going to die from famine, you’re going to die from war, you’re going to die from plagues, you know, and you’re going to be taken into captivity.

▶ 13:37 Here he comes and says, “Hey, I’m going to increase you.” Totally the opposite of the other side of the prophecy. Are you hearing me? So, in the midst of the message to the wicked, he has a message to the righteous. In spite of these things coming, in spite of the wicked, continue to do wickedly. Believers that do wickedly, unbelievers that do wickedly, I’m going to increase you and I’m going to multiply you. And we found that he did. In Israel, there were 7,000 that never bowed their knee to Baal, nor kissed his feet. There were people in the northern kingdom that served God. We know there were people in the southern kingdom that came to God at this time. Daniel was one of them. Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Ezekiel, Jeremiah here.

▶ 14:31 There’s Ezra, Esther. I mean, these people listened to this message and God was what? Multiplying and increasing them and enthroning in them. And Jeremiah is also speaking to the church that is a far off several hundred years when Christ comes. Okay. Now, how does that relate to us today? Well, today, no one was prophesying, no one was speaking that only 25% of Catholics would be going to church in 2013. No one back there 50, 40, 30, 20 years ago. You see, the Catholic people are getting upset about their church allowing these homosexuals to come in and abuse their children, abuse their youth, and so forth.

▶ 15:34 And so, they’re voting by staying away. Protestants, only 27% have been going for about 20 years. They got their little home Bible studies going and all that and they’re voting because of all the junk and the corruption in the Protestant church. Am I right? The only problem is when I looked into the home the home Bible study movement, they got the same problems as the denominational does. And we need to get rid of these problems and get back to the book. Can I hear an amen? Many of Americans youth, the news says today, vote liberal and they reject God’s promises of increase.

▶ 16:30 They reject God’s word. But I submit to you, I’ve been keeping records for 40 years, over 40 years. And it’s been this way in every generation. 75% of the young people whose parents take them to church, okay? Fall away when they leave the house and go to college, go to school. The universities turn them all around and all that opportunity to sin is there. It’s always been that way. But let me tell you something. I also found that in strong Christian homes where they put their kids in a Christian school that 75% of them stay with their faith.

▶ 17:36 Are you there? So in the midst of the bad news, there’s what? Good news. I also kept statistics that these that fell away, 50% of them come back somewhere down the road when they’ve been trained up in the way they should go. Somewhere they come to their senses like the prodigal in the pig pen, they come back and that puts the percentages in our favor. Are you there? So, don’t get so riled up about these statistics. God is bigger than the statistics and he has a message in the midst of the statistics that he is touching lives and gathering in people to him. Can I hear an amen? Hallelujah.

▶ 18:28 And that’s what we want him to do in this generation. Is that correct? Absolutely. All nations, all Gentiles will be gathered to Jerusalem, the throne of the Lord. All the Gentiles, he didn’t leave out the unbeliever. Gentile is someone that doesn’t believe in God, the creator. They believe in God’s, but they don’t believe in God the creator. They don’t believe in Jesus. Okay? That’s what the word nation is almost every time in your Bible. It’s Gentile. It’s those that don’t believe in God. That makes it easy to understand. So, is God in the middle of this judgment upon his people, judgment upon the wicked?

▶ 19:19 Is he still reaching out to the unbeliever, the wicked sinner? Absolutely. And that’s what us Christians got to understand. You can’t get so wrapped up in the bad news that you forget there’s good news. In spite of God’s judgment, in spite of God’s vengeance, he is still married and he is still bringing people to Zion, his people. And he is still reaching out to the unbeliever and bringing them in. Wow. And you got to preach the whole counsel of God. If you’re going to preach the bad news, you got to preach the good news. If you’re going to preach the good news, you got to preach the bad news. It’s got to be balanced. Can I hear an amen? When we need to repent, we need to repent. Many of Americans, youth and Americans right now are voting liberal.

▶ 20:20 They reject God’s promises of increase. They reject the Gentiles coming to God. They reject the message that believers are no more following their own ways and we’re just caving in and giving in to the news media around us. Now continuing, we go over to Revelation 7:9 and it says, “A great multitude that no man could number of all nations, all the Gentiles, all the kindreds, all the ethnic groups, all the people and all the languages stood before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes.” How many people when this thing is over is before Jesus Christ?

▶ 21:12 A number that cannot what? Be numbered. Jeremiah is talking about something God is doing in the earth. John over in Revelation is talking about the accomplishment of it. And it’s an innumerable company of people. Christianity is big in God’s eyes. Christianity is powerful in God’s eyes. The church is big. The church is powerful. The church is strong in God’s eyes. And he’s going to bring our eyes up to his eyes. He’s going to bring our knowledge up to his knowledge and he’s going to bring the performance of his word up to where it is going to come to pass. And this is what the end time preachers are missing. That there is a visitation the end time. In spite of the bad news, there is some tremendous news that God the Lord of the harvest is bringing in the harvest.

▶ 22:05 Both of his people who act like Sodom and those who are acting like Sodom and without him. Ah church, Jeremiah is hot stuff here. And this is the part that should get you excited to keep on serving God and keep preaching the gospel and let God change America. And listen to this. Jeremiah, going back to Jeremiah 3, no more shall they follow the dictates of their evil hearts. Wow. Now, is God going to do something or not? Yes. I mean, this is God talking so strongly that he says, “Man, I’m not only bringing the Gentiles in and my people who were wicked in, but no more are they going to follow their own opinions, their own standard of morality.

▶ 23:00 They’re going to follow me and my Bible morality. And he did it. When Jesus came, he did it. Multitudes followed him. When the apostles went out, the Bible says they turned the world upside down with the message of repentance. God accomplished what he said. And if he can accomplish it back in Jeremiah’s day, if he can accomplish in Jesus days, if he can accomplish in the apostles days, can he do that in the days of America? Absolutely. That’s the power of Jesus Christ. Again in verse 18, in those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel. They shall come together. The house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel. And they shall come together out of the land of the north. The land of inherit to the land of inheritance.

▶ 23:55 The land of the north throughout Ezekiel, throughout Jeremiah, throughout Daniel is referring to the opposition in the natural coming down and invading Judah and having war with his people. Started with Assyria. It says Assyria came out of the north when they really came out of the east. It said Babylon came out of the north when Babylon was directly east. You’re looking at me like, “Huh? Duh.” Yeah, you need to you need to examine these things. In Daniel, we know that Rome and Greece were from the north. He says they were from the north and finally they get somebody north. But see, it’s a Bible terminology of opposition.

▶ 24:50 So when the homosexual activists, the atheist, the humanist, the religious, and all these groups that oppose the Bible, they are coming from the north. Why? Because they are opposing God’s people. They’re opposing Jesus. They’re opposing the word. And when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Lord will what? Raise up a standard against him. And that standard is Bible morality. Amen. They’re going to come out of the land of the north. So these people, Judah and Israel, these part of God’s people are what? Opposers of the very God and the very Bible that they believe in. Are you there? Now, how does that work for us today? Well, let me give you a little of kinser imagination today.

▶ 25:46 All right. I very seldom say this is me but today this is me. Let me give you a little illustration of this. Let’s imagine that Israel is the liberal side of the Bible in America today and Judah is the conservative side. Okay, you got it? Two groups both believe in God. But see, Israel, they rejected the scriptures and said there was other sources to reason and logically make decisions and they created other gods and other ways of worshiping God.

▶ 26:37 Does that sound like the liberals in America today? Absolutely. You see, they rejected the atonement that was coming, just like the liberals in America today. They made their own form of worship and taught the people a different way of worship than God’s way. Isn’t that what liberals do today? The liberal churches. Israel not only broke the moral laws, adultery, stealing, and all them civil laws, but they had their own way and wrong way to worship God and serve Jesus. Okay? Judah, they had the right way.

▶ 27:30 They had God’s way, but they sinned. They broke the moral laws of the Bible. Are you there? Isn’t that the way a lot of us Christians are in America today? Yes, we know the right way, but we commit adultery, homosexuality, incest, stealing, you know, we won’t work. We’re lazy bums. Are you there? And so, we’re in opposition to Jesus and his word. And he said, I’m going to bring them out of that opposition. I’m gonna bring them to myself. Folks, that is powerful.

▶ 28:23 Is there hope for Americans today? Hope for Christians that believe and don’t obey? Hope for the liberal church that had really messed up everything. Can they be saved by the power of Christ, his blood, and resurrection? Absolutely. Jeremiah 3:22, “Return. Repent you backsiding children. I will heal your backslidings.” Does Jesus have the power to heal, not just forgive our backsidings? Yes. Can he heal them? Can he restore us, make us whole again? Absolutely. He can deliver us from the disease of sin. Now listen to this. Jeremiah suddenly goes to the first person of the people through the Holy Spirit. He starts talking from the first person of the people and he says indeed we will come to you the Lord our God.

▶ 29:23 Now see he’s talking about the people now saying this we will come to you the Lord our God. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and the multitude of mountains. Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation, the deliverance, the healing of Israel. Now you got to understand what the hills and the mountains are to get this. Isaiah 2:2, Micah 4 is very important verses for the church in this hour and in this day. Very important verses. Okay. And this is what he says. It shall come to pass in the last days.

▶ 30:17 When is this going to come to pass? Are we living in the last days? Have we been living in the last days since Jesus died and started building his church? Absolutely. Okay. In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains. Now, what is the who’s the Lord’s house? The church. Okay. It be established in the top of the mountains and exalted above the hills and all Gentiles shall flow into it. All many people shall go and say, “Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways. We will walk in his paths. For out of Zion, the church shall go forth what? The law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, the church.” Now, see, this is our problem.

▶ 31:14 Israel had high places up on the hills and the mountains all over Judah and Israel. You got that? They had these high places. These places where they went to do their little thing to worship God when only worship was supposed to be where? In the temple. The sacrifices, the gathering together was to be where? In the temple. Not on the hills and the high places in the mountains. We will come to you. They said we will come to you. For deliverance isn’t in the mountains. It isn’t in these religions. It is in you. Amen. And who is the Lord, by the way? Jesus.

▶ 32:08 Now Micah 4:5 goes on to say this. All people will walk everyone in the name of his God. But we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever. And what is his name? Say it like you mean it. Yes. What do they hate out there? Jesus. You can say God all day long, but you say Jesus, you get them riled up. And that’s the exact name God has given us in Philippians 2:10. At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow. If Jesus is your Lord, I guarantee you, you will bow. If Jesus is your king, I guarantee you he will bow because that is a biblical expression of a recognition of a power by bowing. Romans 14:11, it is written, “Every knee shall bow to me.” Whether you like it, one of these days, you’re going to bow.

▶ 33:04 You might have missed out on it on earth, but boy, when you get to heaven and you stand before him, you’re going to bow. Ain’t no cockiness. Then you’re going to humble yourself immediately. Bowed down on the ground. When you see his majesty, when you see his glory, when you see his authority, you are puny. You’re nothing. And you’re going to bow. And every tongue shall confess. If we confess our sins, he’s what? Faithful and just to forgive us our sins. What do you think you’re going to be doing when you stand before the judgment throne? Defending your choices? No. You’re going to be admitting, confessing you were wrong. Wouldn’t it be better to do that now? Amen. You say, “I’m wrong, Lord.” Jesus is the one we’re [unclear] into. Jesus is the one that can deliver us. Jesus is the one that can save America. Jesus is the one that can change my life today.