Let's open up tonight's service
number 452, number 452, My Savior's Blood. If you could please stand.
452. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how he could love me, a sinner
condemned unclean. How marvelous, how wonderful,
And my song shall ever be! How marvelous, how wonderful,
Is my Savior's love for me! For me it was in the garden He
prayed, not my will but Thine He had no tears for his own griefs
But sweat drops of blood for mine How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. In pity, angels beheld him and
came from the world of light. To comfort him in the sorrows
he bore for my soul that night. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own. He bore the burden to Calvary,
And suffered and died alone. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. When with a ransomed in glory
His face at last shall see, T'will be my joy through the ages To
sing of His love for me. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. Be seated, please. When with the ransomed in glory
his face I at last shall see, it will be my joy through the
ages to sing of his love for me. What hope, what glory. We look through a glass dimly
now, but then face to face. Let's open our Bibles together
to Ephesians for our scripture reading tonight. titled the message captive yet
free, captive yet free. And the message will be coming
from Jeremiah 29, but I want us to read this passage in Ephesians
chapter four, because Paul talks about being captive to Christ. And it begins in verse one by
saying, I, therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that
you walk worthy. of the vocation wherewith you
are called, with all lowliness and meekness and longsuffering,
forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the spirit in the bond of peace. For there is one body,
one spirit, even as you were called in one hope of your calling,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all who
is above all and through all and in you all. One. You see how many times one is
repeated in those verses? One. But unto every one of us
is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Wherefore, he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity
captive and gave gifts unto men. There was a time when we could
not believe. We could not see. We were held
captive by the God of this world. The Lord took down the gates
of hell, came in and led those who were captive, captive to
himself. Now that he ascended, what is
it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of
the earth? Before he ascended into glory, he had to descend
into this earth. He that descended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might, you
see that word fill? It's the word fulfill. That he
might fulfill all things. The Lord Jesus Christ returned
back to the father, assumed his rightful place at the right hand
of the majesty on high, took with him the names of those for
whom he lived and died, and ever lives to make intercession for
us before God. And he gave some apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in
the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God
unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be. We know when he shall appear,
we shall see him as he is and be made just like him. That we henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind
of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness. whereby
they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love
may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ,
from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted
by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working
in the measure of every part, making, maketh increase of the
body onto the edifying of itself in love. Let's let's pray together. Our heavenly father, we need
the Lord Jesus Christ more than we could possibly know. We ask,
Father, that you would cause our sin sick souls to find
comfort in the one who has presented himself perfect in thy sight,
the one who has made all his people perfect in thy sight. Oh, Lord, Christ is all we have
before thee. We ask, Lord, that that you would
enable us in this hour to worship him in the power of thy spirit,
according to the truth of thy word. We pray, Lord, that you
would enable us to put aside those things that would distract
us from him. that we would be enabled by thy
spirit to set our affections on things above, where Christ
is seated at the right hand of God. We ask it in his name. Amen. We're going to sing to him now
on number 488. Number 488 by Redeemer. Number 488, if you
could please stand. I will sing of my Redeemer and
His wondrous love to me. On the cruel cross He suffered
from the curse to set me free. Sing, oh, sing! of my Redeemer. With His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free. I will tell the wondrous story
How my lost dear is staked to save In His boundless love and
mercy He the ransom freely gave Sing, O sing of my Redeemer. With His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon,
paid the debt, and made me free. I will praise my dear Redeemer,
His triumphant power I'll tell, How the victory He giveth over
sin and death and hell. of my Redeemer. With His blood, He purchased
me. On the cross, He sealed my pardon,
paid the debt, and made me free. I will sing of my Redeemer and
His heavenly love to me. He from death to life hath brought
me, Son of God, with Him to be. redeemer with his blood he purchased
me on the cross he sealed my pardon You can be seated, please. Will you open your Bibles with me
to Jeremiah, chapter 29. Jeremiah, chapter 29. yet free, captive yet free. We are captive to the word of
God. We are made free to live in this
world. We are captive to faith. We are free from fear. We are captive to seek Christ
with all our hearts, and we are free from death. those truths
are in our text and I hope the Lord will speak them so clearly
to our hearts and cause each of us to see that we are captive
and yet we are free. How often times we read in God's
Word in verse 4 of Jeremiah chapter 29, thus saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. Look in verse 8. For thus saith
the Lord of hosts. Verse 9 says for they prophesy
falsely unto you in my name and I have not sent
them saith the Lord. Speaking of those false prophets
who would pervert the scriptures. I'm so thankful that we have
an infallible revelation of truth on which to hang our souls and
govern our lives. We have the revelation of the
Lord Jesus Christ made in God's Word, and we're able to say,
thus saith the Lord. This is not the speculation of
man. It is not the opinion of experts. It's not the pious platitudes
of religious leaders or the empty promises of politicians. Plenty of that going around in
there. This is nothing less than the infallible, inerrant, inspired
Word of God. Thus saith the Lord. How do I
know if it's God's Word? Because I believe it. I can't
not believe it. I just believe every word of
it. I believe things I don't understand. But I know they're
true because God said them. Men of old spake as they were
moved by the Holy Spirit. These words are not by private
interpretation. God Almighty has spoken to His
children. We are captive. Believers are
captive to God's Word. Not only do they believe it,
it's all they've got. It's all they've got. Lord, I've
got no place else to go. You alone have the words of eternal
life. And we know and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And this book
reveals Christ to my heart. The words of God are spoken effectually. I've rested all the hope of my
salvation on the revelation that God has made of himself in his
word. I can't find any hope anywhere
else. When I look to the world, all I find is hopelessness. emptiness, vanity. When I look
to myself, all I can see is my sin, my inconsistency, my instability. Oh, I've got to
have a word from God. He has made me captive to His
Word. How foolish it is for man to
set himself up on the throne of God and to worship the creature
rather than the creator. But that's exactly what the natural
man does who holds the revelation of Christ suspect in his own
heart. The man who goes to the word
of God and he says, well, yeah, I see that, but He's always,
he's always objecting to the revelation of Christ that's made
in the word of God. Are you captive to God's word? And we don't, we, you've heard
me say this so many times, I'll say it again. We do not separate
the written word from the living word in the volume of the book. It is written of me and the Lord
Jesus Christ himself after his resurrection. met with the apostles
and beginning with Moses and the Psalms and the prophets,
he expounded unto them those things concerning himself. I've got to know what God's Word
says. I am irresistibly drawn. I've got to be here. And I've
got to hear. And I'm so thankful that the
Lord has put that same desire in your heart. We don't have
a take-it-or-leave-it attitude when it comes to the revelation
of Christ in God's Word. We've got to hear. We've got
no place else to go. We've got nothing else to rest
in other than the precious promises of God's Word revealing the glory
and the accomplished work of His dear Son. Thus saith the
Lord. And that's what preaching is.
Preaching shuts men up to God's Word. We're not, we're not, I
don't want anybody to give me any wiggle room. I don't want,
I don't want anybody to give me options. I don't, I don't
want to, I don't want to hear someone say, well, you know,
it could be this way or it could be that way. I was talking to
somebody last night about the gospel and they said, well, we'll
just have to disagree on that. And I said, oh no, don't disagree
with what God has said. Are you going to risk your immortal
soul on the opinions of men? On your traditions? And in pride, men hold on to
the position that they've taken. And they will take their last
breath in pride, not believing God. Not so, not so with God's
people. God calls us out of darkness
into his marvelous light. He causes us to become captive
to the word of God. And we don't rest the scriptures. to the destruction of our hope. We don't twist the Word of God.
We ask the Spirit of God to open to us what no man can shut. And we're so thankful that the
Lord said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast hid these things
from the wise and the prudent and revealed them unto babes,
even so, Father, it seemed good in Thy sight. Oh, Lord, make
me a babe. revealed to me." And then another
place the Lord said, they shall be all taught of God. Every one of them. From the least
of them even to the greatest. They'll be taught of God. And
they'll be taught of God from God's Word. We don't merchandise
men's soul for our own profit. And I remind you that passage
we looked at Sunday, we are not as many which corrupt the word
of God, but of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God,
speak we of Christ. We speak of Christ and we find
everywhere in God's word to reveal to us the glory of his person. We are captive. Are you captive
to the word of God? captive to the revelation to
the to the to the truthfulness of God's Word and captive as
Paul said we just read it in Ephesians chapter 4 he said he
said he said I'm a I'm a slave to Christ he's he's led captivity
captive I've got no place else to go I'm like that like that
bond servant remember he had served his time and now his time
is up and he's free to leave but he says oh no I love my master
bore me through the ear, marked me as a servant. It's what the
Lord Jesus Christ did for His church, and it's what He leads
all of His people to do. They can't go anywhere else. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom
I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon. Look at verse 10. For thus saith the Lord, that
after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you
and perform my good word toward you in causing you to return
to this place. Now the children of Israel now,
God sent them a prophet. He sent them the word. Wherever
the Lord takes us in this Babylonian exile, and that's where you and
I live. We live in Babylon. We're strangers to this world. We have a different culture.
We have a different language. We have different values. We
have a different God. We have a different God. I told
this person last night, I said, we don't worship the same God.
Oh no, yes we do. There's only one God. I said,
yeah, there is one God. But the God you're worshiping
is a figment of your imagination. He doesn't exist. There's one
God, and one Lord, and one faith, and one baptism, one church,
and one God and Father of us all. We're bound to Him. And we live in Babylon. You remember in Genesis chapter
11, I'm preparing a message for Sunday from Genesis chapter 11.
Hopefully the Lord will enable me to do that. I got excited
reading that whole experience of the people building the city
and the Tower of Babel. And they said, let us make bricks
and let us build for ourselves a city and a tower that reaches
up into heaven. And what do God's people do?
We look for a city whose builder and maker is God. We're not looking
for a city that we built. And we're not building it with
bricks that we fashioned with our own hands. And they put the
bricks together, the scripture says, with slime. That's what
they used for mortar. So they had brick for stone and
slime for mortar. Now that slime was pitch. And it doesn't make very good
mortar. But what were they doing? They were trying to work their
way to heaven. And that's just what the natural
man does. He's going to fashion bricks with his hands. He's going
to try to build a tower. He's going to try to climb himself
into the presence of God. Impossible. And God looked down
from heaven and he came down and he said, we're going to destroy
this city. And we're going to confuse their
language. And that's exactly what the Lord
did. And he called the place Babel, for they had confusion
of speech. Isn't that the way the world
is now? The religion of this world is so confusing, it's so
convoluted, it's so contradictory. They'll say out of one side of
their mouth, God loves everybody. and at the same time they'll
say that God's gonna send those people that he loves to hell
and he's going to fuel the fires of eternal hell with his own
wrath and his own holiness and his own justice and cause those
people that he loves to suffer for all eternity. What kind of
love is that? You can't make sense of it. You
cannot make sense of it. They will say, yes, man is dead
in his trespasses and sins, but he's still got the seat of faith.
He's still got a free will. He can make a decision. He can
choose. And God says, you didn't choose
me. I chose you. You can't come to me. You know,
it's just, it's, and then, well, salvation is not by works, but
then they're going to take you back to the law. And if they
don't use the law as a means of salvation, they will use the
law as a measure of salvation. And so we've got to monitor ourselves
by the law and motivate ourselves by the law. We're not under the
law, we're under grace, but, you know, the law is still there.
We've got to come back to it. You see, confusion of speech. That's what Babel means. And
that's where we live. And the Lord took the children
of Israel into Babylon for how long? How long were they there?
Seventy years. What is the life of a man? Three
score and ten. Three score and 10. Some of us
are in the twilight of those 70 years and looking forward
to the day when the Lord brings them to an end. But there we
are. We're living in Babylon. We're
living in a strange, in a strange land. And yet the Lord gives us freedom to
live in that place. Look what he says. Look what
he says in verse 5. Build ye houses, and dwell in
them, and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them. Take ye
wives, and begat sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons,
and give your daughters to husbands, that you may bear sons and daughters,
that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek
the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away
captive, and pray unto the Lord for it. For in the peace thereof
shall you have peace." We're not of this world, but
we are in this world. And the Lord's given us freedom.
We're not, we don't We don't create some sort of commune. We don't separate ourselves from
the world. We don't build a wall around
ourselves and say, well, you know, we can't be influenced
and infected by the world, so we've got to have this. There's
a lot of that going on in religion. A lot of that going on. You're
in the world. And the Lord said, you be responsible
with the opportunities I've given you. Work hard, have a family,
take care of your things. and pray for the peace of the
world that you're in because the peace that God gives the
world will be the peace that you'll experience. The Lord repeats
that in 1 Timothy. Turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter Chapter 2, 1 Timothy chapter
2. I exhort therefore that first
of all, the most important thing that you do is make supplication. Make supplication. Pray. Ask
God to supply you with that which only he can give you. First and foremost, the salvation
of your soul. Ask the Lord to save you. Ask
him to save you. We're not fatalistic on this.
The Lord says, call upon me. The spirit of the bride says,
come, and God says, cry, cry. Oh, Lord. I exhort you, therefore,
that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving
of thanks be made for all men. Oh Lord, make me to be thankful.
You've put me in Babylon. That's what the Lord said, I
put you there. I carried you into Babylon. You're in that
strange place because that's where I put you to be. And you're
to live out your life there. Pray for kings and all that are
in authority that you may lead a quiet and peaceable life in
all godliness and honesty. And later on, the scriptures
talked about how false prophets, they speak against the kings
and against dignitaries, and they live a life of rebellion. The Lord, you know, what's the
Lord saying? You live in Babylon, you be the
best citizen of Babylon you can be. You be the best employee that
you can be. You live your life in thanksgiving,
waiting for those 70 years to be over. Because when they're
over, I'm going to fulfill the promise that I've made unto you.
I'm going to bring you out. In the meantime, you do what
you do with all of your heart as unto the Lord. The Lord's put you there. Oh,
don't speak against governing authorities. God's put them there. Romans chapter 13 is clear. You
rebel against the governing authorities, you're rebelling against God.
He placed them there. I know I said this last Sunday
night over in Sarasota, I don't think I made this point here,
but maybe I did, I don't remember. If I did, you'll hear it again. When the apostles were preaching
after Pentecost in Jerusalem, The Pharisees gathered them together
and brought them into the Sanhedrin, and they took notice that they
were ignorant and unlearned men. But they marveled that they had
been with Jesus. I want that to be the case for
me. Ignorant and unlearned as I am,
I hope that men will know that I've been with the Lord. And
so they told the apostles, they said, you can't do this in Jerusalem
anymore. You remember they said you turn
the city upside down? Actually they turned it right
side up. It was already upside down. But you can't preach this
anymore. And what did the apostles say?
You decide for yourself what's right. As for us, we must obey
God. Now the only time that a believer
has any right to disobey the governing authorities is if they
are commanding you not to do something that God says do, or
if they are commanding you to do something that God says don't
do. And I would challenge anybody
that's hearing this to tell me of one single situation in our
government that we have been given the privilege to live under,
where our government is forcing us to do something that God says
don't do, or forcing us not to do something that God says do.
Unless that happens, it may happen. But if it does, if it doesn't,
we're to, that's what the Lord's saying, to pray for those in
authority, that you live a peaceable life. There's no place in the
scriptures for believers to be rebelling against governing authorities. All this religious stuff that's
going on. The Lord said, I put you in Babylon,
you live there. And you have children, and get
married, and have jobs, and be responsible, and pray for the
country that you live in. Pray for the governing authorities.
That God would give peace to the land because in the day in
which the land gets peace, you're going to benefit from that peace.
That's so clear, isn't it? There's no place for a spirit
of rebellion in the hearts of God's people. God put us here, and we're to live our lives to
honor Him. Look at verse 8. For thus saith
the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, let not your prophets
and your diviners that be in the midst of you deceive you,
neither hearken to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. Oh, whatever imagination you
might have. We got to go back to what sayeth
the scriptures? What does God say about the truth? We're to speak the truth in love
and we're slaves to the truth of God revealed in the person
of Christ. We're captive. We're captive
and we're free from deceit. God's people can tell the difference.
I know when a person professes faith in Christ, in the gospel,
and they're able to leave and go back to a diviner, a false
prophet, I know they never heard. They never heard. Because when
you hear the truth, you're free. From deceit, you're free from
the lie. You can never, ever go back. Captive to the Word of God. Free to live to God's glory in
this Babylonian world in which we live. With all the confusion
of speech that's in this land, we speak one tongue, one language
of one God, one gospel, one salvation. and free from the deceit of false
prophets for they false for they prophesy you see that word falsely
they prophesy a lie they prophesy a lie the gospel is always set
in contrast to the lie because of their because they had no
love for the truth Therefore God sent them a strong delusion
that they should believe the lie. And the delusion is so strong,
it's so strong, that though they may not be thoroughly assured
of it, but they believe it enough to where they will die believing
it. They'll die believing it. God's
people can't do that. They can't believe the lie. They've
been told the truth. They're free from the lie of
free will, works, religion. They know that all the hope of
their salvation is bound up in the righteous person of the Lord
Jesus Christ who intercedes on their behalf and who shed his
precious blood the only way that their sins are going to be covered
in the face of God. is if God sees the blood of Christ.
They know that. They're holding to Christ. The
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they cannot be drawn
away from Him. They're free. Free from the lie. For thus saith the Lord, that
after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon. Do you believe that
the Lord is accomplishing you? We know the work of redemption
is accomplished. It's finished. It's done. But
the work that God is doing to save the rest of his sheep and
get the sheep that he's already brought into glory, that's going
on, isn't it? And he says it's gonna be accomplished. It's gonna be accomplished. And
there are many paths on that road for you and for me. But the Lord's got a purpose.
He's got a purpose. Don't ever fall to the lies of
this world and thinking, you know, success in this world is
way overrated. Way overrated. Has the Lord shown
you that? I mean, I want to be responsible. I want you to be responsible.
I want you to work hard and take care of the things you have,
take care of your family, your children, and all the things
that we've already looked at in this passage. But to set your
heart on the things of this world, to accumulate some sort of success
in this world, let me ask you a question. Who would you rather be right
now? The rich man who fared sumptuously, was very successful, accomplished
all the things that this world had to offer, highly esteemed
by his peers, or Lazarus, who had the dogs licking his wound
and was just hopeful that the rich man would allow him to have
a few crumbs off his table. Which would you rather be right
now? Which would you rather be? Herod? Herod, who was the Tetrarch of
Judah and a powerful man, a man of great
influence, a man of great power, a man of great wealth, a man
who everybody would have bowed to when they saw him coming down
the road, a man of great success. who God killed and the scripture
says before he died he was eaten with worms. Or the young man,
John the Baptist was only 30 years old, 29 years old maybe,
when Herod cut his head off. Which would you rather be? The elder brother? The elder
brother who was always there and faithful to his father, always
took care of his responsibilities and never did anything wrong? Or the prodigal who wasted his
inheritance with riotous living and made a mess of his life? Which would you rather be? I ask a A lady I was talking
to one time, she was grieving over the life that she had lived. And she'd lived a horrible life. And I was sharing the gospel
with her and I asked her, I said, I said, which would you choose? The life that you lived and die
and go to heaven? Or the life that you wish you
had lived? and died and went to hell. You know, I've been thinking
a lot this week about Anthony Scalia. I don't know his heart,
you know, maybe he heard the gospel somewhere along the way
and maybe just before he died the Lord did a work of grace
in his heart. I hope so, I don't know. But he never publicly renounced
the whore of Babylon and the bishop of the Catholic Church
did his funeral. Highly esteemed, extremely successful,
very intelligent, and I'm sure very influential in our country,
and we've benefited from a lot of the things that... You see
what I'm saying? Success in this world is highly
overrated. Not many of you, the scripture
says, are noble. Look what he says, verse 10,
for thus saith the Lord, after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon,
I will visit you and perform my good word toward you in causing
you to return to this place. That's what I want. I want to
return to that heavenly Jerusalem, the one that comes down from
heaven, the one whose builder and foundations are God, the
one That's our goal, isn't it? And the Lord says, I'm going
to perform and accomplish my good word toward
you. For I know the thoughts that
I think toward you. I have always been plagued ever
since I was a child with being a daydreamer. I have so many
vain thoughts and so many empty thoughts. I can sit and think
about things. When God has a thought, it's the same as when God has
an act. He's never had an empty thought.
When he thinks it, he does it. And when he says, I know the
thoughts that I think for you, thoughts of good and not of evil,
For what reason? To bring you to your expected
end. Is that your hope? To have an
expected end. God never had an idle thought.
He never changed His mind. And there are no difference.
There is no difference between his thoughts and his actions. So when he says, I know the thoughts
that I think toward you, I know what I've got in store for you
and it's all good and none of it's evil and it's going to bring
you to your expected end. Oh, what freedom we have in faith.
Do you believe that? Freedom in faith. Free to believe
God. There was a time I couldn't believe
that. But I believe it now. I believe it. Look what he goes
on to say in verse 12. Then shall you call upon me,
and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you,
and you shall seek me and find me when you shall search for
me with all of your heart. I will be found of you, saith
the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity and will gather
you from all the nations and all the places whether I've driven
you, saith the Lord, and I will bring you again into the place
whence I caused you to be carried away captive. You see how definite
those words are? I'm gonna do it and you're gonna
do it. You're gonna seek me, you're gonna pray. Now James
puts it like this. If you lack wisdom, Christ is
our wisdom. God's made him to be our wisdom,
our righteousness, our justification, our redemption. Since you lack
wisdom, ask it of God and he will give to you liberally Ask
for Christ. He'll give you Christ. And he'll
upbraideth it not. He delights in showing mercy. He delights in revealing himself.
But when you ask, ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that
wavereth is like the wave of the sea tossed to and fro by
the wind. Let not that man think that he'll
receive anything from the Lord, for the double-minded man is
unstable in all of his ways. Now, what does that mean? I mean,
I always feel double-minded. Here's what it means. We are double-minded when it
comes to the flesh warring against the spirit and spirit against
the flesh. We're just torn in two directions, aren't we? But
here's where the child of God is never double-minded. when he asks for salvation in
Christ. He's never double-minded. A double-minded
man is unstable in all of his ways. You remember I mentioned
the Tower of Babel and they had bricks for stone and they had
tar for mortar. They put the bricks together
with tar. And that tar or pitch or slime, as it's called in Genesis
chapter 11, is the same thing that Noah put on the outside
of the ark in order to make it waterproof. It's the same thing
that Moses' mother, remember when she made the bulrush basket
and she pitched it so that it would be waterproof. Tar is great
for waterproofing, but it's not very good for mortar. But that
pitch translated means atonement. It means a covering. And that's
the picture with the Ark. It's the covering of the atoning
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, His shed blood. And it's the
only thing that keeps out the wrath of God. The only thing. What did they do at the Tower
of Babel? They mixed what they had made, the bricks that they
had made with their own hands, with tar. And you talk to people
that, oh yeah, we gotta have the death. The person I was talking
to last night, well, I believe that Jesus died for my sins.
I believe that. I've got to have Christ for my
salvation. But the more you talk to them,
the more you, they're mixing works with that. They're saying,
oh yeah, we gotta have Christ. We've gotta have the atonement. But we gotta do our part as well. That's what being double-minded
is. And when James says a double-minded man is unstable in all of his
ways, let not that man think that he will receive anything
from God. The believer does not mix works
with grace. He doesn't do it. If God's taught
you the gospel, you know that the hope of your salvation is
100% by the grace of God and the work
that was accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. If you lack
Christ, ask it of God, and he will give the Lord Jesus Christ
to you liberally, and he will not upbraid him. But ask in faith. Not wavering. Don't be like the
waves of the sea, tossed to and fro. Well, I gotta have Christ,
but I gotta do my part too. I gotta have the atonement, I
gotta have the bricks, I gotta, you know, no, no. You're double-minded
if you're doing that. Double-minded man's unstable
in all of his ways. Is all the hope of your salvation in the glorious person and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. If it is, then this will be true
of you. Look what he says. Verse 12,
let's read these three verses again. Then shall you call upon
me, and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto
you, and you shall seek me and find me when you shall seek after
me with all of your heart. What do Ethiopian eunuchs say? Philip said, if thou believest
with all thine heart, if all the hope of your salvation is
resting in Christ alone, then you may be baptized. And the
Ethiopian said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. I believe he's my only hope.
Only hope I have, and he's able. And I will, here's the precious
promise of God, child of God, listen, I will be found of you,
saith the Lord, I will turn away your captivity, I will gather
you from all the nations and from all the places whither I
have driven you, saith the Lord, and I will bring you again to
the place whence I have caused you to be taken away captive.
I'm gonna bring you back to Jerusalem. I promise, I promise. Rest all your hope in the God
with whom it is impossible for him to lie. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, We need
for you to make us free, to seek Christ with all our hearts, make
him everything to us, that we might be delivered from
this life of Babylon in which we live
and have the hope of knowing that you are going to accomplish
your good word for us. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 463, let's stand together, number
463. Who can cheer the heart like
Jesus, By His presence all divine? True and tender, pure and precious,
Oh, how blessed to call Him mine! All that thrills my soul is Jesus,
He is more than life to me, to me, and a fairest of ten thousand
in my blessed Lord I see. Love of Christ so freely given,
grace of God beyond degree. Mercy higher than the heaven,
deeper than the deepest sea. All that thrills my soul is Jesus. He is more than life to me, to
me. And the fairest of ten thousand
in my blessed Lord I see. What a wonderful redemption Never
can a mortal know How my cinderella crimson Can be whiter than the
snow All that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than life
to me, to me. And the fairest of ten thousand
in my blessed Lord I see. Every need His hand supplying,
every good in Him I see. On His strength divine relying,
He is all in all to me. All that thrills my soul is Jesus. He is more than life to me, to
me, and the fairest of ten thousand in my blessed Lord I see. God, the crystal flowing river,
with the ransomed I will sing, and forever and forever, praise
and glorify thy King. All that thrills my soul is Jesus
He is more than life to me, to me And the fairest of ten thousand
In my blessed Lord I see Okay.