I'm going to ask you to take
your Bible, and I want you to turn, I'm going
to have you turn two passages of Scripture. I want you to turn to Philemon.
Philemon is just before Hebrews. Turn to Philemon, it's only one
chapter there. Hold your finger there. Well,
I'm going to flip to that in just a minute. And then after you got that one
marked, I want you to turn with me to Jeremiah
chapter 32. Jeremiah 32. I want to preach this morning
out of the first 14 verses of the 32nd chapter of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 32 verses 1 to 14. And what I did as I was going
over my notes this morning, I was reading the first 6 verses of
Jeremiah 32. And as I was reading those first
six verses, my heart was directed to a passage of Scripture in
Philemon chapter 1 verse 9. So what I'm going to try to do,
and I do pray the Lord bless it, because I prepared the message
out of Philemon 1-9 about 45 minutes ago. And it so stirred
my heart, and I want to try to share with you what the Lord's
laid on my heart. What I'm going to be preaching
out of Philemon is comfort to an aged believer. There's a lot of us as we're
growing in the twilight of our years, and I want to say again,
this is worship. If you want to know what worship
is, this is worship now. Now listen, listen, you don't
want to miss this. Worship is saying back to God
what God has said to us. The world has got this idea that
we're going to get into a spirit of worship. Now, I've told you
before, they'll try to work themselves up into a frenzy and they'll
raise their hands and throw their head back 15 degrees and close
their eyes and sway and moan, whatever. Lift their hands up. If that's what you want to do,
well, you'll have your reward. You'll get your attention. But
I'm going to tell you what worship is. Worship is obedience to say
back to God what God has said to us. Worship. I pray the Lord bless you, so
now hold your place in Philemon, Jeremiah 32. The word that came
to Jeremiah from the Lord in the 10th year of Zedekiah king
of Judah, which was the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar. For then
the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem and Jeremiah the prophet
was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king
of Judah's house. For Zedekiah king of Judah had
shut him up saying, Wherefore dost thou prophesy and say, Thus
saith the Lord? Behold, I will give this city
into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it.
And Zedekiah, king of Judah, shall not escape out of the hand
of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of
the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth,
and his eyes shall behold his eyes. And he shall lead Zedekiah
to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, saith the
Lord. Though he fight with the Chaldeans,
you shall not prosper." Now let me tell you what was just said. Jeremiah is in prison. And the reason he's in prison
is because he was faithful to preach what God had taught him,
preach what the Lord had said. And that's exactly the reason
he's there, humanly speaking. He's in Zedekiah the king's house,
a prisoner. Locked up in the king's house. And the king, who was told by
Jeremiah, this is what's going to happen. The Chaldeans are
going to come and they're going to besiege this city and they're
going to take you prisoner. They're going to take you and
all of us back to Babylon. And we're going to be in Babylon
in prison. And Zedekiah the king said, Who do you think you are telling
me, the king, that I'm going to be taking prisoner? Put him
in jail. Put him in jail. That's what
he is. Now, there's Jeremiah, a prisoner
of Zedekiah. Well, I guess outwardly. But let me tell you who Jeremiah
is. Jeremiah is a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. A prisoner. Paul the Apostle said concerning
himself being a prisoner. Look at Ephesians 3, verse 1. Ephesians 3, 1. And then we're
going to Philemon. Ephesians 3, 1. For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner
of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if you've heard of the dispensation
of the stewardship of the grace of God which is given me to you,
how that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery as
I wrote afore in few words, wherein when you read you may understand
my knowledge in the mystery of Christ." Here's what Paul was
saying. He said, the Lord Jesus Christ
has captured me by grace. He's arrested me by power according
to His everlasting covenant. And I am His prisoner. I'm His prisoner. Alright, now
turn to Philemon. Philemon chapter 1 and verse 9. Paul the Apostle says this, yet
for love's sake I rather beseech thee being such in one as Paul
the aged and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I'm talking specifically to us
who now have found ourselves in the twilight of our years.
And for those of you that are younger than some of us that
are older, I'll tell you this, if the Lord allows you and gives
you breath, you're going to be right here too. Don't think you
won't. I was in high school. I graduated
from high school about five years ago. Five years ago. And I'm getting
ready to have my 50th class reunion here very soon. 50 years. Paul the Aged. That's what he said about himself.
Paul the Aged. Now, as we see ourselves, and
I'm talking to you as believers now, I'm not talking about people
just growing old. Everybody's growing old. But
I'm talking to those of us who now have found ourselves, and
as we grow older, it's just natural to be looking at ourselves and
be discouraged in our lack of ability to think like we used
to think, to do as we used to do. But to one who by the grace of
God, who has been made a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
has been kept by the power of God through faith in the trials
of this life, I've got a word of comfort to you. I'm talking
about Those of us that feel the frailty of this life as a believer,
as a believer. As I said, everybody's getting
older. Everybody's getting older. You're older today than you were
yesterday, I'll tell you that. But in our passage this morning,
Paul the Apostle refers to himself, and this word right here is under
the inspiration of God's Spirit, All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God is profitable. Profitable for instruction in
righteousness, for correction, for reproof. Listen to me. Those of us that see ourselves
now on the back half, humanly speaking, I don't know how long
we've got, I don't know. Janice's brother just died, aged
57. But I want to tell you this,
you that have been kept, you that feel older, by the grace
of God, number one, you're still here. You're still here. There may have been some that
you've known years ago and once they sat here and filled the
pews with you and maybe they're Still alive somewhere. But I'm
going to tell you something. By the grace of God, you're still
here. And that's the only reason you're still here. You've been
kept by the power of God through faith. The Lord gave you faith
again today. As I've told you before, faith
is not something that you got a hold of one day and you were
able to just hang on to it. cometh by hearing. It's fresh every day. I've said,
I don't know, I can't think of a better illustration. Like I
said, I appreciate, I thank God for the breath that I had yesterday,
that I was able to breathe, that I could inhale. Do you know how good it feels
just to be able to breathe? and that Almighty God would give
me faith right now to believe. Right now. You don't bank it
up. You don't have it in a safety
deposit box somewhere where you can just kind of draw off it.
God's got to give you faith, Neil, to believe right now. And faith cometh by hearing. You hear the Word of God, you
hear the glory of Christ, and marvelously, Come and think of the privilege,
you that have been here. You that have been here less,
but you that have been here a long time. Think of the privilege
that God has given you. And I chose that word on purpose,
the privilege. I'm going to show you something
in just a minute. No, I'm going to show you right now. Hold your
place. Turn to John 1. John 1. I'm going to refer to this Scripture
probably more than once today, but John 1. John 1 verse 11 and 12. He came unto
His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received
Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on His name. Now if you have a reference in
your Bible, I've checked this out. If you have a reference
in your Bible, and you see that word power, He gave power. If
you have a reference, mine says, rightly so, the right or the
privilege. He gave the privilege to become
the sons of God. Now listen, I'm going to tell
you something. If you've been kept by the power
of God, God has privileged you to believe. Privileged you. to be here, privileged you to
call on His name. Think of that which we've learned,
of the sufficiency of God's grace. I know this. There's no rest
on this side of the grave. I know there's not. Don Fortner
called me. I was on my way to Danville and
Don called me yesterday morning. He said, Marvin, would you do
me a favor? Just a little comic relief here. He said, if you find a place,
would you stop and pick me up about 18 to 24 hours of rest? And I said, yeah. I may use some
of it, Don, before I get there. But you know what? There's no
rest on this side of the grave. Listen, you that the Lord has
called out of darkness, you that the Lord has clad with that holy
armor, the one that did gird your loins about with truth. He taught you the truth. He imputed
to you the breastplate of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ and shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel
of peace and gave you the shield of faith. It's given unto you
to believe. and took the helmet of salvation,
put it on your head and taught you the gospel, which is the
sword of the Spirit. Let me ask you this, you, who
like Paul are the aged, has he ever failed you? Now you think
back when the Lord ever failed you. He said, I'll never lead,
I'll never forsake you. Think of Him who has carried
our debt, who bore our sin in His own body. Did He not say,
listen to this, this is Isaiah 46, 3 and 4, to you that are
the aged, hearken unto Me, O house of Jacob
and all the remnant of the house of Israel which are born, kept,
carried, born by Me from the belly, which are carried from
the womb, and even to your old age, I am He, and even to whore
hairs, gray hairs, will I carry you. I have made, and I will
bear, even I will carry, and will deliver you." We feel the frailty of this life. But the Word of Him that endureth
forever says, I'm going to carry you. I'll deliver you. I'll keep
you. Is it not a glorious comfort
to an aged and struggling believer to cast all your burdens upon
Him? Why? He careth for you. He careth for you. the heart of one that has been
upheld by the everlasting arm of the Lord, he's not going to fail. And let
me tell you the expression, something like this, for an aged believer,
one that has been comforted, soulless, kept, calmed, You made me, and You made me
new. Lord, You've born me on eagle's
wings. That's what You said. That's
what You said. You said, I've born you on eagle's
wings. I've kept you. Protected you. Lord, You've been the best friend I
ever had. You know who said that? He did. He said, no greater love hath
any man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
And he said, I'm your friend. Let me ask you this. Who is the
best friend of a sinner? Lord, you redeemed me from the
curse of the law. And you've delivered me from
innumerable Evils. And now, Lord, in the twilight
of my life, as I see more and more daily, the frailty, the
hurts, the pains, the doubts. You know, you start getting older,
and let me tell you something. A believer, let me tell you what
a believer thinks. Lord, if I've never believed, if I've never trusted You truly,
Lord, help me today to believe today. Lord, don't let me leave
this world without You. With every assault of Satan,
Lord, look upon me in mercy. And Lord, oh, for grace to remember
that which you've done. And Lord, help me to be thankful. Help me to remember. Listen to what the Lord says
in Proverbs 16, 31. The hoary head is a crown of glory if it
be found in the way of righteousness. Lord, comfort our hearts today
as we grow older and wait on you, and according to your good
pleasure and providence, keep us for Christ's sake. Amen.