Scripture - It Demands a Response - Pastor Greg Addison - August 23, 2026

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

Okay, I tell you a lot of times, like it messes me up when you change seats.

Okay, Jacob and Mav really messed me up today, right?

But it was fun.

We thought it was great to uh let them swap places and let you guys enjoy each other.

So we had a great time at Chaffee this morning with uh Jacob leading worship there.

And uh Maverick did a great job here, so it's kind of fun.

And uh, told the congregation over there they hadn't really met Jacob yet, and I told them it's great always for you to meet all of our staff and have them all appear.

It's a blessing to know that you have more than just me.

Amen.

You have a great staff and lots of pastors and wonderful people that love you and love Jesus.

And so it is just good to be a part uh of our staff, and I love our folks, and they are a great blessing.

So it's good.

Uh let's pray this morning, and I want you to bow your heads, and I'm gonna lead you through a couple of prayers, okay, before we get started.

First of all, I want you to just uh tell the Lord thank you for scripture.

Thank him for scripture.

Just right there in your hearts, just talk to the Lord, tell him thank you for his word.

Next, I want you to ask the Lord this morning to open your heart specifically to his word because we're going to talk about the word of God as the word of God today.

And so I want you to ask the Lord to just open your heart to what he wants to speak to you about today.

And then I know in life we we have times where we get out of rhythm in our quiet time, or maybe some here you have some doubts about the word of God or its application, or maybe you're here and you you you're wrestling against something that you know God has told you, and you're you're in that sort of mode, and we all have those modes.

It's it's in a room this size, I'm sure there are some in all those groups.

So I want you to ask the Lord this morning just to speak to you, just to just to minister to your heart.

Do you have a doubt?

Do you have questions?

Are there things you're struggling with?

Is there something that you know he wants to deal with and you're pushing back on?

Just ask him this morning to give you a fresh picture of how his word ministers to you in that setting, in that struggle that you have.

And I want you to ask him just to give you a fresh, different, you unique, sort of new love for his word this morning as we talk about his word.

Lord, those are the prayers of your people this morning.

And we come as we come to this passage in Jeremiah 36.

We just ask that you help us to see your word as your word, as holy scripture, as what you wrote for us.

I pray that you'll help us see your heart in your word, why you wrote it to us, what it means in our lives.

Lord, I pray as we see how your word always evokes a response, that you'll help us to be sensitive this morning to what our response is to your word.

And I pray this morning, Father, that just as you dictated your word to Jeremiah and you spoke to him, as you spoke through Jeremiah to the people, I pray this morning that your word will speak clearly today.

That help me get out of the way and us not to be thinking about me or somebody else, but us coming together as a church family to hear you and to see your description of your word and what it means to us in our lives today.

We pray these things in Jesus' name, and everybody said.

Well, obviously, we're going to talk about Scripture this morning.

And so if you'll turn with me in your Bibles to Jeremiah 36, as you know, we are reading chronologically through Scripture, and we hit a pretty incredible event right here in Scripture.

And here's what I want to talk to you about.

Scripture demands a response.

Scripture always demands a response.

Now, I grew up in church as I've shared my testimony before.

Not everybody has that testimony, and that's fine.

We all have different testimonies, and so mine just happens to be that I grew up in church.

Uh, so I've been hearing people teach the word of God since before I even knew that's what they were doing, right?

And then uh my uh I started teaching Sunday school when I was in uh a freshman in college.

Uh I went to the student minister and asked if I could teach, and I wanted to start teaching, so I started teaching seventh grade boys, right?

Love it.

It was great.

If I knew what I knew now, I'd have stayed in the seventh grade with all the fellas.

Love our seventh graders.

So uh so it was great.

And so pretty much since then, most every Sunday, uh except for vacation or maybe a school issue or something, I've spent every Sunday teaching scripture in that time.

Now, here's what I know.

It didn't have anything to do with me, right?

I don't, it didn't have anything to do with me.

I learned that a long time ago that it's not me.

It is the Word of God.

It is the living and powerful Word of God, and it speaks to folks.

And it's kind of fun to be in my spot.

I told the Chaffee campus this morning, I wish y'all could stand where I stand and watch y'all, right?

And so I'm reading scripture and you have no idea how expressive you are.

It's kind of fun to watch all of you.

Do you know how many times I see this right here?

I'll read a scripture and I see y'all go.

It's pretty funny.

Some of y'all are laughing because you know that was me and you were caught, right?

And then I'll see some of you go.

I'll see people white knuckle the pew in front of them, man.

They're not coming down the aisle, doesn't matter how clearly God spoke to them.

I see folks, man, I can tell the conviction or I can tell the struggle, and I watch them pray and look up and see God has done a work in that moment.

God's word always brings a response.

It is incredible the power of God's word.

And as I have been doing this this long, man, I have a deeper love for Scripture than I've ever had.

I mean, it just gets bigger every year, deeper every year, because you watch people respond to the word, and it always demands a response.

And so here's what this scripture is about, I believe.

It is literally about the word of God.

So let's read in Jeremiah 36, starting in verse 1.

And so I'm going to do this a little different today.

We're going to read portions of the scripture and kind of unpack the story as we go.

So here's what the Bible says in Jeremiah 36, verse 1.

Jeremiah 36:1

In the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord.

So God is about to speak to Jeremiah, but he sets up what's happening here.

And so chronologically, it's good to take a moment and understand where we are.

Jehoiakim was the son of Josiah, and God's telling us all this for a reason.

Josiah was the last godly king of Judah.

And as you read his story, you saw that he was king for almost 40 years.

He started when he was a child and developed a great love for the Lord, and he was a godly king.

He called the people to repentance, he made them get rid of evil gods.

There's a point where he started having them rebuild the temple or repair the temple that had gotten in disrepair because of the evil kings.

And while they were doing that, they found scripture hidden away in some spot, and he commands them to start reading scripture and they start promulgating scripture again.

So he has a deep love for the word of God and love for the Lord.

Now, Jehoiakim, his son, became king.

They got into a war or a battle with Egypt, and Josiah was killed in a battle with the Egyptians.

And so the Egyptians forced Judah to have Jehoiakim as king.

And then in order to save his life and save his position, Egypt forced him to be paying heavy tributes and taxes back to Egypt.

Now we find ourselves, Babylon is continuing to grow.

They're continuing to force themselves on Judah.

They're besieging Jerusalem itself and some other places.

They're conquering places in Judah.

And when they conquer, they begin to take people back.

And so there's multiple times where they conquer areas of Judah and they take folks back.

It was during this king that Daniel and others were taken captive and taken off to Babylon.

So that gives you context because a lot of these books of the Bible happen concurrently or they overlap as we're reading through them.

And so it was during this king's reign and this besieging of Nebuchadnezzar that they took Daniel and Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego and a bunch of other people off into captivity in Babylon.

So that gives you context of where we are.

Now, God's word comes to Jeremiah.

Jeremiah is in prison because he's been preaching about Jehoiakim.

You guys are evil.

God's going to bring judgment.

This Babylon thing is going to get worse.

God's going to use them to conquer us.

You need to repent.

They don't repent.

And so he's got Jeremiah sequestered off somewhere, not letting him preach.

And so there's the context.

The Bible says this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord.

Now note that particular word, that very specific article.

This word came to Jeremiah from the Lord.

Take a scroll and write on it all the words I've spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations from the time I spoke to you during Josiah's reign until today.

So this is years of messages from God, they're writing down on this scroll, which means this Joker's going to be really long.

Like this is a big long scroll.

So he says, Perhaps, this is God speaking still, perhaps, when the house of Judah hears about all the disaster I am planning to bring on them, each one of them will turn from his evil way.

Then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.

Now I want you to just, this right here, grab this.

Each one of them will turn from his evil way.

God's word is written to his people, but it's written to each person as well.

So it's written to you.

So Jeremiah summoned Baruch the son of Nariah, and at Jeremiah's dictation, now that's kind of a funny word to be in Scripture, but watch how often it shows up.

At Jeremiah's dictation, Baruch wrote on a scroll all the words the Lord had spoken to Jeremiah.

So God's specifically telling us that what they wrote on the scroll are the words of God.

Then Jeremiah commanded Baruch, I am restricted, I cannot enter the temple of the Lord, because they've been mad at him and they sequestered him away because they don't want to hear him anymore.

So you, Baruch, must go and read from the scroll which you wrote at my dictation.

Again, you see that word again.

He's making clear exactly what's written in that scroll, the words of the Lord in the hearing of the people at the temple of the Lord on a day of fasting.

Read his words, God's words, read his words in the hearing of all the Judeans who are coming from their cities.

Perhaps their petition will come before the Lord, and each one, you see that again?

Each person hearing the word of God responding, each one will turn from his evil way, for the anger and fury that the Lord has pronounced against this people are intense.

So Baruch, son of Nariah, did everything the prophet Jeremiah commanded him at the Lord's temple.

He read the Lord's words from the scroll.

So here's truth number one.

I want you to see right here that this is the inspired word of God.

Scripture is the inspired, supernatural word of God with his inspired, supernatural message of repentance and redemption.

That's what God's word is.

I made a commitment to the pulpit committee that this is what I would do when I came, and I made a commitment to you on the first Sunday I was here that every time we got together that we were in a teaching setting, it would begin this way: take out your Bibles and turn to.

Because this is the only message that matters.

And scripture is itself truth.

It is inspired, and every single word of it is exactly what God intended to speak.

And he gives us a moment right here in detail to show us exactly how we got our Bibles.

Now, in the New Testament, when Jesus was reading Scripture, he was reading the Word of God, often he would use this phrase.

He would say, the law and the prophets.

The law and the prophets.

And that is a very specific term.

And so they knew exactly in Jesus' day what their Bible was, what we would now refer to as the Old Testament.

And this phrase, the law and the prophets, tells us exactly what they were reading.

They were reading Moses' words, the law, and then these people like Jeremiah, the prophets, and that was captured into a specific catalog that every Jew in the Old Testament and everyone in Jesus' time knew exactly what the Bible was.

There wasn't a question about what book was in there and what book was not in there.

It was a very specific catalog of Scripture that was all they were all recognized.

And now God shows us how those got written in this moment in Jeremiah's life.

I want you to look on the screen.

I'm going to show you a passage from Scripture for 2 Peter.

And 2 Peter, he's writing to Christians who have been dispersed, and he's encouraging them about the truth of God's word.

So, chapter 1, in the beginning of it, he says this.

I'm writing to all you as Christians.

And then he says this, by God's glory and grace, he has written us great and precious promises that have the spiritual power of God to redeem us and to restore us to God wants us to be.

Then he says, you should add to your reading and belief in Scripture all of these activities and behaviors.

He tells them right before this, listen, I'm getting old, as Peter, I'm getting old, and here's what I know.

You need to hear this, and I'm going to repeat this over and over and over as long as I'm here.

Because even when I'm gone, I want you to hear my voice in the back of your head, in the back of your mind, that this is God's word.

And he says, because of that, so we have the prophetic word strongly confirmed.

He's referring to books of the Bible just like Jeremiah.

You will do well to pay attention to God's word as to a lamp shining in a dismal place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

First of all, you should know this: no prophecy of Scripture comes from one's own interpretation.

Because no prophecy ever came by the will of man.

Instead, men spoke from God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

And just as Peter explained exactly how it happened, we see it right here recorded in Jeremiah.

That's exactly how we got our Bibles.

And it's recorded in Jeremiah so that we would know that Isaiah wrote it this way, Daniel wrote it this way, Nahum wrote it this way, Micah wrote it this way, Habakkuk wrote it this way, Malachi wrote it this way.

They all wrote it this way.

This is how we got our scripture.

And so we know, you see how often they use the word dictation?

Again, that's a weird word to be in Scripture, but he is making it as clear as he possibly can that they are writing down only the words of God, that it is only the words of God that are on the scroll, it is only the words of God that are read, it is only the words of God that are speaking.

And so when the Bible says that all scripture is inspired by God, that word inspired is the New Testament word for the Hebrew word that happened in the book of Genesis when the Bible says that he formed Adam out of dust of the ground and he breathed his own breath of life in him.

It's the same word picture in the New Testament in 2 Timothy.

All scripture is God breathed, inspired, and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Listen, if it's not God's word, it is not going to instruct us in righteousness.

It's not going to have the supernatural power to convict us of our sin.

And so this is just one example how we know that this is God's word.

This is it, that God spoke it, and it was written down exactly like he spoke it.

Now the next thing you see in here is the message of Scripture.

So I told you in that truth one, it is God's inspired supernatural word, and it is his message of redemption and repentance.

Look at what he says again in verse 3.

Perhaps, this is God instructing Jeremiah what he's going to write.

And now he's telling him why he's going to give him these words, this message.

Perhaps when the house of Judah hears about all the disaster I'm planning to bring on them as judgment for their sin, each one of them will turn from his evil way.

Then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.

Listen, that is the word of God on every page in every chapter of every book of the 66 books.

From the beginning to end, this is written to us for one reason.

God loves us, he's the author of life, and he created the Garden of Eden and us to walk and be in relationship with him.

But God is the author of life, not of death.

And when we sinned and we broke this and judgment entered in because of our sin, God immediately stepped in to their sin in Genesis chapter 3, and he said, I am going to bring forgiveness to you.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

I am going to bring a redeemer to you.

And God's word has always been a message of repentance and redemption.

Jesus is the hero on every page of Scripture.

And the message is always repent and place your faith in Jesus so that you can be saved.

Scripture is not written as some harsh, legalistic don't do this and don't do this, and don't do this, and don't do this, and all that kind of stuff.

That's not what the Bible is.

The Bible is the message of Jesus died on the cross for our sins so that we could be saved.

And we have to know what our sins are so we can repent from them.

We have to know that there is judgment for our sins to understand the grace of God that He sent Jesus to come and save us.

And his heart here in Jeremiah is the same on every other page in Scripture.

Perhaps when they hear my call, they will turn from their evil way.

And then I will forgive them and their sin.

It's no different than John 3.16.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him will never perish but have everlasting life.

And then he says this for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, because the world was already condemned, but that the world through Jesus might be saved.

Perhaps each of them will turn from their evil way.

Repentance.

And then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.

Redemption.

Listen, hear me.

The reason that we meet in church that we study God's word is because we want you to know Jesus loves you and he died for you on the cross to pay the price for your sin.

And he has a plan for your life.

And if you will place your faith in him and turn from your way of doing things and trust him and follow him in his word, he will save you, he will bless you, and you will live in it.

Eternity with him forever.

That is the message of God's word.

Now, here's a little free one.

I'll just throw a free one in here for you.

This is a freebie.

You don't have to pay for this one, right?

The preacher's role and the preacher's heart is the same thing.

Look at what he says.

When he tells him, Baruch wrote all the words down.

And then Jeremiah commanded Baruch, I'm restricted, I cannot enter the temple of the Lord.

So you must go and read from the scroll, which you wrote at my dictation, the words of the Lord.

And to make it clear, we understand in verse 8, at the Lord's temple, Baruch read the Lord's words from the scroll.

The reason that I made the commitment when I came was to every single time take out your Bibles and turn to God's word because what I think or what I have to say does not matter.

My role, my calling is to read the words of the Lord to the people.

It is to read God's word to the people so that you hear God's word.

And the role of a preacher is always to read God's word.

In fact, I even do things like you don't have to do it this way.

This is not an uptight thing, right?

It's not a legalistic thing, so don't misunderstand me.

A lot of guys preach from iPads and laptops, all that kind of deal.

But I stand up here and I hold a physical Bible every week because it's important for me that you see and understand this is God's word.

This is God's word.

And this is what we're doing.

The world, according to Greg, is probably a mess and doesn't really matter.

It is God's word.

And then the preacher's heart is that.

Look at what Jeremiah tells him.

I'm restricted.

I can't go.

But somebody's got to go because here's his heart for them.

He says in verse 7, perhaps their petition will come before the Lord, and each one will turn from his evil way, for the anger and fury that the Lord has pronounced against his people are intense.

You see, he has the same heart of God.

If we're reading the message in the Word of God, and that's the message in the Word of God, then the preacher's role is to have the same heart that God has.

It is to give that petition.

Look, this is sin.

This is what the Bible calls sin, and there's judgment for that.

But listen, there is hope, and God has for forgiveness for you, and this is how you repent of your sin.

And if you will turn to the Lord, Jesus will save you, and he'll save you right here today if you'll turn to him.

And it's the preacher's heart, not to bang away and judge and and pound on people and be all legalistic and all that kind of stuff.

It's also not the preacher's job to just be encouraging and happy and life is good and all this kind of stuff.

No, there is a message in God's word and the heart of our staff, every one of them that you see, I love our staff because they have this same heart.

They want to deliver God's message so that people will repent and turn and trust Jesus and give their life to Him.

That is the preacher's heart and motive.

So as you are going through life, as you're seeing people on TikTok or Instagram or whatever it is, listen, stay away from people that aren't in some way or other holding up God's word and preaching God's word.

Stay away from people that aren't talking about the name of Jesus.

A lot of people talk about God, and God can be anybody or anything.

Now that's one of God's names.

I get it.

It's God.

I'm not saying that's not, but I'm saying, listen, people can talk about God and they can make that sound all grandfathery or however they want to.

But when you call on the name of Jesus, it is very clear.

We're talking about sin and the cross and the resurrection of Jesus and salvation only comes through him.

Which is the message of Jesus.

And the preacher's heart should be to calling people to Jesus so they can be saved.

Okay, that's a free one.

I'll tell you now to pay for that.

Truth number two.

Truth number two.

Scripture is powerful and it impacts every hearer.

Listen, I told you that, I can't tell you enough how much that happens.

I mean, and those of you who are Sunday school teachers, man, you're amening right now.

If not out loud, or you are in your heart because you've seen it too.

When you teach God's word, it impacts people.

Now, all kinds of impacts.

There's a lot of people get mad.

There's a lot of people, I preached plenty of sermons where people got up and walked out.

I, you know, preached when people got saved.

I mean, it's all it but there's always an answer.

And listen, here's what happens too.

Over time, as you reject God's word, you become hard to it.

And so often the answer is, eh, heard it before.

When I served with the Arkansas Baptist Convention, our executive director, Dr.

Sonny Tucker, used to say this man, some people have been in church so long, they're preaching hardened.

They've heard it all before, and they've ignored it enough times, or compartmentalized it away enough times, they don't really care anymore.

I want you to see what that looks like.

There's lots of responses, and I want you to see different responses.

So Baruch goes and he reads to all the people, and it has such an impact that a group of leaders call him back and they ask him to come and read with them.

So we're going to skip over to verse 14 and we're going to see what happens here.

Then all the officials sent word to Baruch after he'd always been reading in these other deals, other places, and seeing response.

Then all the officials sent word of Baruch through this guy, Jehuti, who's a scribe, and they said, Bring the scroll that you read in the hearing of the people and come, come to them.

So Baruch's son of Nariah took the scroll and went to them.

They said to him, Sit down and read it in our hearing.

So Baruch read it in their hearing.

And when they heard all the words, they turned to each other in fear, in awe.

You see, they understand the seriousness of it.

They're impacted by what they've read.

They know that this is going to create a stir because it's the word of God and it creates impact in ways that only the word of God can do that.

And so look how they respond in this moment.

It says, they turn to each other and they said to Baru, we must surely tell the king all these things.

Then they asked Baruch, Tell us how did you write all these words?

Was it at Jeremiah's dictation?

And you see that word again.

Before they go responding to all this, they want to know, is this God's word?

Or is this some paraphrase or some other kind of thing?

And Baruch said to them, At his dictation.

Four times in one chapter you see this word dictation.

God is repeating himself to make sure we understand this is specifically his word.

He recited all these words to me while I was writing on the scroll in ink.

Then the officials said to Baruch, You and Jeremiah must hide and tell no one where you are, because they know what's about to happen with an evil king.

Then, after depositing the scroll in the chamber with this scribe, the officials came to the king of the courtyard and reported everything in the hearing of the king.

The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of the scribe.

Then Jehuti read it in the hearing of the king and all the officials who were standing by the king.

Since it was the ninth month, the king was sitting in his winter quarters with a fire burning in front of him.

Now that's kind of a weird like thing right there, right?

Like, why do all of a sudden we get this like it's cold and he's in his winter deal and he got this fire here?

Here's why.

Listen, the incredible detail that God is putting in this chapter.

When you get this kind of detail in an event in Scripture, you need to stop and pay attention.

God's not glossing over stuff.

He is digging in right here, and he's telling us to dig in.

He is also giving incredible detail, so you'll know this is an eyewitness account.

This is exactly how this happened.

This is a serious matter, and it gives the authority of truthfulness to it.

God is saying, listen, this is what happened.

This is exactly what this looks like, and I need you to pay attention to this.

So he says it's winter, he's in the winter quarters, he's got a fire right there.

As soon as Jehudi would read three or four columns from the scroll, Jehoiakim would cut the scroll with a scribe's knife and throw those columns into the fire in the hearth until the entire scroll was consumed by the fire in the hearth.

As they heard all these words, the king and all of his servants did not become terrified or tear their clothes.

There was no repentant response to the call of God.

Even though these guys here, they urged the king not to burn the scrolls.

They knew this was the word of God.

They were impacted with the word of God.

They pled with him, don't do this.

The king did not listen to them.

Then the king commanded his guys following him to seize the scribe Baruch and the prophet Jeremiah, but the Lord hid them.

Listen, there's a lot of ways to respond to God's word.

And this is about the worst picture and about the most sinful, disrespectful response to God that you can ever imagine.

Get this picture.

God has given us these details for a reason.

Write down everything that I've spoken to you since Josiah was king.

I mean, this scroll is long, right?

And when he wrote these scrolls, you know, it's probably like this, and it folds out.

And the best I can guess through this in research, it's at least 15 feet long.

I've been to Israel, I went to Jerusalem, I went to the Shrine of the Book.

That's where they house all kinds of these archives of all these original scrolls and all of that.

Like one of the things they house there are the scrolls that were discovered that we refer to as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Dead Sea Scrolls ended any question of are these actually the Word of God?

There were so many pristine pieces and copies and full scrolls all in there that there is and had been preserved for hundreds of years, and how they were preserved in these jars in a cave.

And so what happens is it's very hilly and all that kind of there.

There's some little shepherd boy out there, and he's keeping his sheep, and some sheep wanders off, and he throws a rock at one of them to try to get him to get back in line, and goes down in his cave and he hears this and he goes, Okay, that didn't sound right.

That's not really normal.

And so he throws another rock down there, and he goes, I better go see what that is.

And he goes down there, and there are an incredible amount of these big clay jars that these scrolls and all are in.

I've been there to the book where they're showing these, and they displayed the entire book of Isaiah.

There is this beautiful, pristine scroll that is the entire book all in one piece.

It's over 26 feet long.

And so this was probably 15 feet long at least, this scroll.

And you get this picture.

The king doesn't just get mad and go, man, I don't want to hear this anymore.

I'm sick of hearing that jump from Jeremiah.

And the way I would have done it, I'd have probably just grabbed that whole thing up and like done something with it.

Y'all get this out of here or throw it in the fire or some kind of a deal.

I didn't want this king does.

You look and read what he says.

Three columns.

And then he himself, he doesn't order somebody else to do it.

Kings in that time, you didn't do anything.

You had people to do everything for you.

He picks up a scribe's knife.

What is a scribe's knife?

It's a thing about like that.

It's sharp on both ends, and it was used as a tool that the writer of the scroll would use to make the scroll work well.

So they would shave off edges to make the edges clean.

If it was a leather scroll, which a lot of times there's tan leather, they could scrape off a word that they had misspelled or done something wrong.

It was so sharp, they could shave off that dried ink and they could rewrite and use that again.

Because there's no, you know, autocorrect or whatever.

You got a scroll 15 feet long and you mess up a word in the middle of seven feet, like you got to do the whole thing over, right?

And so the king takes an instrument used by the writer of the scroll, and they would read one command from God, and he would cut it off, and he would throw it in the fire.

And then you'd say, keep reading.

And they read another verse.

He'd cut it off and he'd throw it in the fire.

Read another verse.

Throw it in the fire.

Read another verse.

Throw it in the fire.

Read another one of those lies.

Read a verse.

Throw it in the fire.

How long do you think this exercise took?

Three or four columns at a time, at least 15 feet.

They're sitting there watching this.

This is the most incredibly arrogant rejection of God's word that you can possibly imagine.

A word at a time.

Now, in that culture, they also believed that if you burned a document, if you burned the words and destroyed it that way, then you ended its power.

I'll show you we're not going to be conquered by Babylon.

Throw it in the fire.

Read another verse.

Throw it in the fire.

There's responses all through here.

This point is God, his word is so powerful, people respond in every way.

We saw one group responds in awe and fear.

You see them recognize the seriousness of this.

These one man say, look, King, you can't burn that.

Listen, King, please, we implore you, don't do that.

Do you know how respectful that is?

Listen, God's already calling us to judgment.

Like, why are you doing that?

He is rejecting word by word and believes in his arrogance that he can destroy the power of God's word.

But listen, you got to think God gives us this moment in such detail to help us see and understand what we do in life and how this works.

He's showing us, listen, this how this is how this looks from the window of heaven.

And when I speak to you in a Sunday school class, from a scribe like Baruch, who has prayed over this lesson and taken God's word, and they read God's word to you, and God speaks to you in that moment from that scripture, and you put it aside.

Throw it away.

When you read God's word in your quiet time and you hit something you don't like, and you decide you're not going to go into that quiet time anymore, you're going to stop that because I don't need that.

Throw it away.

Every time you are encountered with Scripture and God speaks to you with his heart of calling you to repentance and to walk with him and forgiveness and blessing and relationship, and every time we don't listen, this is what it looks like from the window of heaven.

So how do we respond?

How do we respond?

Let's get the positive end of that.

We talk about this all the time.

And the essence is you got to read God's word and you got to obey it.

Jesus said, He it is who loves me and keep my commandments.

It is a sign of love to Jesus that we follow his word.

And when we don't, it is, well, it's a rejection.

We talk about this here when you get a passage of scripture, a verse.

It happens sometimes in reading like this.

We're reading two or three chapters a day.

You read through there, and there's a verse or a chapter or a passage that just jumps out at you.

When it jumps out at you, God's speaking to you.

You slow down and you grab that one.

And this is a way to meditate on scripture.

It's just a real simple thing.

You believe God has something to say to you.

That's why you're reading it, and that's why you're going to follow through with it.

Jumps out at you.

God pokes your heart.

You think, man, God's speaking to me here.

He must have something to say to me, and I believe he is going to speak to me.

Then you read and repeat that verse over and over and over and over again.

And then you slow down and you get each word.

Listen, the king chopped off each sentence individually as he read it.

If he is that angry and offended in rejecting the word of God, then when we read the word of God, we ought to read it that way.

Each word, each phrase, and we slow down and take it carefully.

And he put it into fire and burned it up because he thought he could end its power.

We should believe in the power of God.

And if God is speaking to you and he's spoken that clearly your heart and he's giving you a word from his word, you need to write it down somewhere.

Type in your phone, write it down, whatever it is.

Keep a journal, mark it in your Bible, somehow capture that God spoke to you in a way that it encourages you to go out and step out in faith and start to live it.

Let me just give you an example right here.

Again, in verse 3 of chapter 36, verse 3.

Perhaps when the house of Judah hears about all the disaster I'm planning to bring on them, each one of them will turn from his evil way, then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.

Each.

Like you read that over and over.

That's the heart of God.

That's what we talked about before.

And you start to get that sense of the heart of God, and you get more of that.

Listen, I want to call your attention to that one word.

Each.

Each word.

Each.

Each, what does that mean?

Each one of them, each person, each person who hears it, what that means is you're free to respond, and it doesn't matter if the people around you do or don't.

You are free to respond.

That means each promise is written to each person.

If each one will turn from his evil way, then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.

That means it don't matter what people around you do, if you will call out to the Lord and ask for forgiveness, he will forgive you.

He sees you as an individual.

He loves you as a person.

God's word can be activated in your life.

And it doesn't matter what happens in anybody else's.

Man, you are an audience of one to the word of God.

And he will respond to you because he's writing to you.

He has a heart for you.

Forgive.

What does that mean?

That guilt, those struggles, whatever that issue is.

He wipes it away in the blood of Jesus.

He forgives you.

His desire is to forgive.

I, look at what he says, I.

I am planning this judgment because he's holy God.

But if they repent, I will forgive their sin.

God himself will forgive you.

His heart is to speak to us.

If you're already saved, it is to grow you closer to him.

It is to invest in your life.

It is to get those things out of your life that get in the way of your relationship with him and to cleanse those and walk with him.

If you've never been saved, if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, man, we're giving you the opportunity, and God has promised right here, He will forgive.

If you'll give your life to Him.

Perhaps.

Perhaps.

Like we don't say perhaps a lot.

Like you don't ask your friends you're sitting in church and go, where are we going to go to lunch today?

Well, let's go to McAllister's, and perhaps the line is not very long.

Well, let's go to five guys, and perhaps we can beat the Methodists there.

What does perhaps mean?

It means an opportunity.

It means the potential of something occurring.

Perhaps means God is going to speak into this because you might respond.

Even though God has been planning judgment and he's been pronouncing it through Jeremiah so long, and they have rejected Jeremiah so much they've put him in jail for preaching this message.

God says, perhaps.

If I get it to them one more time, somebody will respond.

Perhaps.

If each one can respond, maybe the whole group doesn't, but perhaps that person I see, they'll respond.

It's an opportunity.

It's a word of potential.

It can happen.

It's a word of why God is speaking in one more time, sending his word out there.

Because you might respond.

Why don't you bow your heads as we close this morning?

This is a perhaps moment.

You may not have come in thinking it was a perhaps moment, but God knew it was a perhaps moment.

And he put this scripture right here in our path, all of us reading it this week and doing this here today, because his heart is perhaps.

You'll repent.

You'll see his redemption.

Place your faith in Jesus and experience forgiveness.

Each one, this is for you.

Whoever you are, this is for you.

If you're already a believer and man, you've gotten out of the rhythm of studying God's word, this is an opportunity.

This is a perhaps moment for you to recommit.

We prayed before the sermon for God to speak to your heart about his word.

It's an opportunity for you to respond and not reject, but to follow.

If you've never been saved, perhaps.

This is a perhaps moment right here for you.

If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, I invite you to come.

You may be listening online or by television or you're here in person.

Listen, respond to Jesus this morning.

Because God's heart is for you to respond and to forgive you.

If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, man, just get on your knees before God.

If you're here in the room, come in a moment when we sing.

And you just tell the Lord, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for what I've done.

I'm sorry, I know I'm guilty.

But God, thank you that you love me so much that you gave me this moment one more time for me as an individual to respond.

And I trust Jesus as my Savior.

And it was God who said, I will forgive.

He will if you'll reach out to Him.

I'm going to pray.

We're going to stand and sing.

This is an opportunity for you to leave here different than you were when you came in.

This is an opportunity for you not to cut out the word.

But it's an opportunity for you to trust in what God's broken to do.

Lord, we thank you for today, and I thank you for your word.

I thank you for this incredible picture right here that you wrote in detail for us and made it clear you wrote it so we could see and understand.

And I thank you for your heart that you're calling us to repentance so that you can forgive.

I pray you'll give us the freedom to respond to you today.

In Jesus' name we pray, and everybody sit.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to chapter and first, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.