If you take your Bibles and turn
with me to Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 45. Our text will be found in verse
5. This is a short chapter of 5
verses here. And our text will be found in
verse 5. And the title of my message is
a question. Seekest thou great things for
thyself? Seekest thou great things for
thyself." And we get this obviously from this word here given to
this man Baruch, a man of God, a man used of God. And God asked
this question to him. He said, And seekest thou great
things for thyself? Seek them not. For behold, I
will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the But thy life will I
give thee, for pray in all places whither thou goest." Now in this
text, the Lord is speaking to Jeremiah. He gives the word to
Jeremiah in verse 1. He says, "...the word that Jeremiah
the prophet spake unto Baruch the son of Nerah, when it was
written these words in the book of Jeremiah in the fourth month
of Jehoiachim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, Thus saith
the Lord, The God of Israel unto thee, O Baruch. These words were
spoken by Jeremiah as the Lord gave him words to speak to this
man, Baruch. Now this man, Baruch, was the
man who transcribed this book that we have before us. Jeremiah
is the prophet. He received the Word from God.
And as Jeremiah spoke, this man, Baruch, was given the great honor
and privilege of pinning the Word. of pinning the Word of
God for the prophet. He was used of God. And God here
has a Word for him. And now if we were to take this
in its order, you would have to understand that this chapter
45 should go directly behind chapter 36. And in chapter 36,
this man Baruch, he takes the Word that was given of God by
Jeremiah, and he brings it to the king of Judah. And it is a word of destruction. It is a word of warning that
God is coming to destroy Judah. That God is coming to destroy
Jerusalem by this man Nebuchadnezzar. And you know according to this
book that God had already determined 70 years of captivity. It was
not a happy message. It was not a joyful message. It was one of a need of repentance. And you know, this man Baruch
surely expected them to hear God's Word. But we learn in chapter
36, you can read this later, that the king, when he heard
this letter, he got this letter, he tore it up. He was very angry
and he sought to take this man Baruch and Jeremiah and kill
them. He did not receive. He didn't receive what he thought
he was going to get. He thought he'd be received.
He thought it'd be acceptable that they would repent. And they
would not. It was a time of great affliction
for this man Baruch. It was a time of calamity. The
temple was going to be burned. The sacrifices were going to
cease. Famine was going to be out throughout
the land. Pestilence. And listen to this,
no one would escape. That was the word of God. No
one would escape. The righteous would suffer with
the wicked. The sword would smite the beloved
of God as well as the idolater and blasphemer. God's people
would starve as well as Those who hated God. This was a dark
time that was to come. And this was the man God chose
to bring this message to them. Can you imagine the anguish and
despair of this man after he had brought a message saying,
repent, repent. God is going to destroy us, repent. And they tore it up and sought
his life. It was a time of great agony,
great sorrow, that his whole nation was going to be destroyed. Look at what happens in verse
3. This is what God said about him.
He said, Thou didst say, Woe is me now. For the Lord hath
added grief to my sorrow, I've fainted in my sighing, and I
find no rest. Now this man, like all believers,
suffered anguish and sorrow. How many times have we expected
by the preaching of the Word that people would hear it? And
then they don't. We suppose that sinners would
love to hear the Gospel of Christ, and they hate Him. This brings
us great sorrow. This brings us great affliction.
But not only this, We live in a world that hates this gospel,
that hates our Lord and despises us. And now the Lord, after purposing
this sure destruction, He adds grief and sorrow to him. All believers know this too well,
as we live in a constant warfare. We live in a constant struggle
with ourselves, our flesh, and the world. We are in constant
sorrow over our own sin. We're constant sorrow. But God,
instead of usually, we would suppose maybe God would give
us a reprieve. And what does God often do? He
compounds our sorrow. This man Baroque, He was sorrowful
what was going to happen to his country, but now he compounds
that sorrow by these men rejecting it and seeking his life. Can
you not identify with this in your struggles, in your troubles,
in your difficulties, believer in this life, that it seems as
though God is intent, God is intent to destroy us at times.
It seems as though the billows and waves of sorrow come over
us, and we find no rest. We faint because of our sighing. Can you not identify with this
man? He says, Woe is me! Woe now! Woe now! For the Lord hath added grief
to my sorrow, I fainted because of my sighing, and I find no
rest. But now in our text, I want us
to see that the Lord sees deep into the heart of this man, even
where Baruch could not see. He sees so deep inside of this
man that this man could not see, and He exposes the secret chamber
of this man's heart by this piercing question. Look at what He says
now. He says in verse 5, "...seekest thou great things for thyself."
In the midst of this man's sorrow, the Lord is getting to the root
of the problem. The root of his sorrow is this.
He sought great things, not for the glory of God, but for himself. But for himself. It seems that
Baruch had cherished and longed for
some secret ambition, to seek some great thing for himself.
And his grief and sorrow was rooted not for his love for God
or concern for the glory of God, but it was compounded, his grief
and sorrow was compounded not only by the Lord's providence
to destroy this, but listen, his own secret ambition. So now I ask, I want this question
to be not just applied to this man, but to us. in the midst
of our sorrow, in the midst of our struggle, God asks this question,
Seekest thou great things for thyself? You are believers in Christ.
Are we not guilty of this same thing? This morning, by the grace of
God, I hope the Lord God will teach us the foolishness of this,
seeking great things for ourselves. And then, I hope by God's grace,
when you see that, when you see the vanity of seeking great things
for yourself, it is my harsh desire that God would teach us
and comfort us concerning the great things God has done for
us. Great things that God has promised
us. So let's see three things here. I want to see the evil
and vanity of seeking great things for ourselves. Then I want us
to show the purpose of God in our afflictions. The purpose
of God in the affliction of this man and the purpose of God in
afflicting His people. And then I want us to see, lastly,
the promise of God. The promise of God. So first
of all, the evil of seeking great things for ourselves. Now the
heart of Baruch, this evil lurked in his heart, and it surely lurks
in the heart of every one of us. Both of us are sons of Adam,
are we not? Both of us are sons of Adam.
We confess that we have before coveted great things concerning
the flesh. Concerning the flesh. And you
know with believers what makes it so bad is that not only Do
we covet the things of the flesh, but we try to cover it up as
though we're wanting to glorify God? We have pretenses. We make
pretenses as though it's for the glory of God. The first thing that the natural
flesh of man seeks is the great things of this world. The great
things of this world, such as riches. Riches. The comforts
of this world. the honor of worldly man. But
let us see that even believers, the world seeks after those things,
but we do too. Is that not so? Have you not
sought those things? We seek these things. This ambition,
this passion affects all men in every station, from the peasant
to the king. Those who are rulers to the commoner. We all are looking for a better
condition in this life. We want what's best for ourselves. But God has purposed for the
believer that he won't have them. God has purposed for his children
He says to Baruch, seekest thou great things for thyself? Listen,
seek them not. Why? You won't find them. You
won't find them. You know what the world, they
find them. The lost, they find great things
for themselves. But God's people, He does not
permit us, for the most part, to have these things. These worldly
things. We won't have the great things
of this world because these things, listen, They pull us away from
our God. The things of this world, if
we were given the desires of our flesh, you know what would
happen? They would pull us from our God. Isn't that what happened
to Solomon when he had all of those wives? Remember, he had
so many of those concubines and wives. And what did the Scriptures
say? They pulled him away from God. They drew his heart away from
God. And that's what worldly things
do for God's people. And so God doesn't allow us to
have these things, these honor of men. These things of the world and
the honor of men only seem to elevate pride and not the glory
of God. But God has purposed to pour
contempt on all our pride And therefore, for us, He crushes
our prospects. He takes those ambitions, those
things, He says, seekest thou great things for thyself, and
He crushes those things. If we seek them for ourselves,
our dreams, worldly ambitions, for the most part, God's people
are not rich, they're poor. They're not strong, they're weak.
They're not wise in the world, they're foolish. Isn't that what
Paul said? He said that seeing our calling,
brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty,
not many noble are called. Why? God is chosen in the foolish
thing. You want to know what a foolish
thing looks like? Look right here. You want to know what a
weak thing looks like? Look right here. You see, God's
people, He has chosen the weak things to confound those things
that are mighty, the foolish things of the world to confound
those that are wise. Believer, do you seek honor in
things of this world? That's a question. It's an important
one. Seekest thou these great things
for thyself? Listen, God says, seek them not. Our Lord says to His people,
you shall be hated of this world. You want the honor of this world?
You can't have it. Why? This world will hate you. And the more we draw near to
Christ, the more we preach the gospel of Christ, and we will
not give consent to the false freewill works religion of this
age, they will hate you and despise you the more. You see, Baruch
thought he would be accepted. He thought to seek great things
for himself, and God crushed his dreams. Why? Because it gave no glory to God. Gave no honor to God. This world
will hate you, while those who are self-righteous,
men-pleasers, the world will love them. Paul said, you that would live
godly. Now what does that mean? I'm not talking about morality,
although that may have something to do with it, but it's this.
Those who live by faith. You would live godly? Here's
living godly. Living by faith in Christ. Believing
the gospel of God's grace. Clinging to Christ alone. That's
living godly in this present world. In Christ, you shall suffer
persecution. So believer, let us lay this
to heart. Whatever schemes we devise to
prosper ourselves in this world, God must and will destroy them. He must and He will destroy them. Jesus said this, Where a man's
treasure is, there will his heart be also. Thus God will not suffer his
sons to have their portion in this world. Isn't that right? Our portion is not in this world,
is it? Our inheritance, we own everything, but not like this. God's not going to give it to
us in this falling condition. He's going to give it to us in
glory. Our portion is in heaven. Our
portion is God Himself and not in this world. Do you seek the
things of this world, believer? Seek them not. Seek them not. Second thing we seek is ambition
in religion. Religious ambition. Not just
worldly things. Riches and fame and honor and
passions of the flesh. Those things, seek them not.
But there's also, what about religious things? Dost thou seek
greatness in religion? Do you seek greatness even among
the sons of God? In the church of God? There's
a vast difference between religious things and the things of Christ,
things of His church. I'll tell you what, for instance,
a lot of people have ambitions and desires to seek spiritual
gifts. Spiritual gifts. Those gifts
that were given to the apostles, speaking in tongues and miracles. How many people seek after these
spiritual gifts, these gifts of the Holy Spirit? Now listen, a man could have
these gifts and still be lost. Isn't that right? Judas was one
of those men. He had all the gifts that every
apostle had. He could heal, he could perform
miracles just like they did, and he was lost. So what good
is it if a man has spiritual gifts and he has not Christ? These religious gifts, they often
draw the admiration of men. They're pleasing to the flesh.
They're pleasing to the flesh. Men desire to have these gifts
in order to set themselves apart. That's what they really want.
They want these gifts to set themselves apart. And I'll tell
you this, even God's people, when they hear of these things
and see of these things, even God's people wonder why we don't
have these gifts. Even God's people could be prone
to seeking these gifts. But I want to talk more about
not those miracle gifts, but let's just talk about those gifts
that some men have, like the gift of preaching. Isn't that
a gift? The gift of prayer. Some men have a gift in prayer. Some men have a gift in memorizing
Scripture. Some men have a gift of witnessing
of the Gospel, while others don't have those sort of gifts. And
what do we do? Sometimes we covet our brethren's gifts. Why? Seekest thou great things? Do you covet these things for
the glory of God or for yourself? If they're for yourself, covet
them not. Now gifts, the gift of preaching,
that's a gift that's given for the edification of the church,
isn't it? It's a good gift. He that desireth the office of
a bishop desireth a good thing. It's a good gift. If God calls
you to preach, that's a good gift. Few are called to preach. Not everyone's called to preach
the gospel. But do you truly seek great offices
and gifts for the glory of God, or seekest thou these things
for yourself? To all who possess this gift
of preaching, I tell you, there is a price. There is a price
to pay for it. God takes great care to those
He gives gifts so that no glory should ever be given to them. No glory. How often does God
shut the mouths of His ministers, not allowing us to speak, not
giving us liberty to speak at times? How many times does He
hide our eyes from the power and effect of the Spirit that
is working in the gospel we preach? So instead of pride, true preaching
doesn't produce pride. We're made to feel the barrenness
of ourselves. I can't tell you how many times
that I've preached the gospel of Christ and had to go and hang
my head in shame as though I felt there was no way I could have
possibly declared it like it should have been. Why? Because I don't seek this for
myself. No man who's a true preacher
of God seeks this glory for himself. I tell you, with these gifts
come great trials, great difficulties. Why? So that all the glory belongs
to God. So if you are desiring to preach,
if the Lord is calling you to preach, then I'll tell you this,
He's going to make sure it's not for yourself. Make sure it's
not for yourself, but for the glory of God. Seek not the gifts
of others. You know, there's even preachers
They hear other preachers and they say, man, I wish I had that
gift. Why? Seekest thou great things for
thyself? Knowledge. Here's another one. Knowledge.
Knowledge. How many believers labor and
desire the great gift of knowledge of the mysteries of the gospel.
They desire to be great theologians and write books and read many
books for the purpose of heaping up
knowledge. Knowledge for knowledge's sake. Instead of hungering and thirsting
after the knowledge of Jesus Christ, they hunger and thirst
after knowledge for knowledge's sake. Instead of seeking to know
Him, to know Him who is all in the Scriptures, they seek to
puff up their selves with pride based on their knowledge. You
know, Paul said this, that I might know Him. Now there's the knowledge
you should be seeking after. Knowledge of, not just knowledge
of Him, but knowing Him, that I may know Him. You know, do
you want to know about Christ, or do you want to know Christ?
There's a difference, isn't there? Do you want to know about redemption,
or do you want to know about the redeemer? Do you want to know of His sovereignty,
or do you not want to know the Sovereign One? There's a difference,
friends. Seekest thou knowledge for thyself? You heap up knowledge. You know
what? A man that heaps up knowledge for knowledge's sake, listen,
is like that manna that they got extra. Remember, they picked
up that manna, and they picked up more than they needed. God
said, Breed worms and stink. That's a man who knows it all.
You ever been around and know it all? A man who has an unteachable
spirit, is there anything more obnoxious than that? That's a
man who seeks great knowledge for himself. No, when God gives
us knowledge, I tell you, you should want to know Him. You
should want to have more knowledge of Him, knowing Him. But not
knowledge for knowledge's sake. Our Lord here says to Baruch,
those that think they are great, think they're seeking after great
things, He says, seek them not. Seek them not. Pastor, doesn't
God say through the Apostle Paul, covet the best gifts? Yes. What
are the best gifts? Are the best gifts the things
of the world? Is that the best gift? Are the best gifts religious
knowledge and religious gifts? Those are not the best gifts.
What are the best gifts? The best gifts are faith, hope,
and love. Those are the gifts that believers
should covet. Those are the gifts that God
gives His people that redound to His glory and not the glory
of themselves. We seek those things. We seek
to grow in the fruit of the Spirit. Those things that God gives.
We seek to know more of our God. Know more of the blood and righteousness
of Christ. The blood that cleanses us from
sin. The righteousness that covers
us. These are the great things. Listen
to me this morning. Seekest thou great things for
thyself, or do you seek Him? Believers, we should be seeking
Christ. We should be looking for Christ,
looking to Him. We are to seek the revelation
of His grace and His power and His presence. And you know what
that does? Does that elevate you or does
that abase you? What does knowing Him do? It breaks our hearts, doesn't
it? It breaks our hearts. It doesn't elevate us with pride.
It breaks our hearts. It moves us to love and believe
Him. But the soul of the self-righteous,
what do they do? They loathe the gospel of Christ. Those that seek things for themselves,
great things for themselves, they loathe the gospel of God's
free grace and desire the great things of this world without
Christ. Without Christ. But I'll tell
you this, God's people, we are glad to hear of the gospel of
Christ. We're glad to hear of Him, of
His sovereign election, of His triumphant redemption, of the
effectual calling and regeneration of the Holy Spirit, We're glad
to hear things like this, that He keeps us and sustains us,
that He will bring us to Himself without fail. These are things
that God's people seek. They seek after Him. They seek
to know Him. To us, the Gospel of Christ is
the greatest thing to be desired. The greatest thing to be desired
is Christ. I want Him. Now the workmongers
of this world, they seek things for their own honor, their own
glory, and they loathe this light bread. Why do you think we come
here and preach this gospel every time? Because we believe this
is the great thing. This is the thing God has prescribed
by which He saves sinners through the preaching of His gospel.
We cherish these things. Cherish His gospel. The religious
desire to clean the outside of the cup, to appear moral, but
fail to see the inward corruption and that Christ is the only remedy.
But all who are touched of God by His grace, what do we seek? We seek Him. This morning I want
to seek Him. I want Him. But yet we as believers must
confess that we are still hindered by this old man of sin. We are still hindered by this
old man of sin. That old man must be then exposed
by God so that we do not seek great things for ourselves. That's
what God was doing with this man. He was exposing things this
man could not possibly see. And that's what God does this
morning. I pray that God, if you are seeking great things
for yourself, that God would expose this. Why? So that you
might put it away. Seek them not, but rather seek
the glory of Christ, the honor of Christ. Does this speak to your heart? I'll tell you what, let's see
exactly what our Lord Jesus says about this. Go to Matthew chapter
6. Matthew chapter 6. I pray the Spirit will lay this
to every one of our hearts. This is exactly what God is saying
to Baruch here. This is exactly what Christ says
to us in Matthew 6 verse 19. Look at that. He says this, Lay
not up for yourselves what great things, what the world considers
great, treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt
and thieves break through and steal. But, here's the good thing,
lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moss
nor rust doth corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal. For
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. O believer,
where is your treasure? Is it in the great things of
this life and this world, or is it in Christ? Christ is the
treasure of His people. Look at verse 25, therefore I
say to you what? Take no thought for your life. He's not saying don't think about
what you're doing in life. He's saying take no anxious thought
for your life. Why? What you eat, what you drink,
what you're going to put on your body. Why? The life's more than meat, the
body's more than raiment. Then he says, consider the lilies
of the field, consider the birds of the air. Doesn't God take
care of them? Then why would you even consider that He wouldn't
take care of you? Verse 31, Therefore take no thought,
saying, what you eat, or what you drink, or wherewithal shall
you be clothed. For all these things do the heathen
and the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth
you have need of these things. Believers, seekest thou great
things of this life, of this world? Do you seek the great
religion of this world? Gifts of religion? I do pray that God would even
now fix our eyes on Christ. Fix our eyes on Him who is our
life, who is our salvation, who is our treasure. And look what
He says. Here's this. This is what you
should be seeking. Instead of great things for yourself,
what should you be seeking? Seek first. the kingdom of God
and His righteousness. Who is this kingdom of God? That's
Christ. Seek first the kingdom of God,
which is Christ the King. And listen, His righteousness. And what? All these things, your
food, your clothes, God knows you don't need those things. Believer is your treasure, Christ.
Our master is Christ. Our sustainer is Christ. I like
this hymn, Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are
my glorious dress. Amidst flaming worlds and these
arrayed with joy, I shall lift up my head. Therefore, he is
our king. He is the object of our affection.
Seek him. Seek to be found in him. and
let us forsake the vain ambitions of the self and flesh so as to
cling to Christ. Seekest thou great things for
thyself? What does God say? What does God say? Seek them
not. What are you to seek? Jesus Christ. Look to Him. Him. And what will you find? You'll find everything you need.
You'll find redemption. You'll find peace. You'll find
pardon. You'll find love, the love of
God. You'll find a refuge for your
soul in the midst of all your calamities. Secondly, I want us to see this,
not only to see the evil of seeking things for ourselves, but the
reason for God saying not to seek them. Look back at your
text. I have to go through these really quickly here, I know.
The reason God says not to seek them. Look back at your text
in verse 5. He says, "...seekest thou great things for thyself?
Seek them not." Four, "...because, behold, I will bring evil upon
all flesh, saith the Lord." The evil that the Lord is bringing
upon this... He's talking literally about the calamity of the destruction
of Jerusalem. The destruction of Judah. And God by this displays His
sovereignty in all providence. Look back at verse 4. He says,
Thou shalt say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, that
which I built up will I break down, and that which I have planted
will I pluck up, even the whole land. God declares His sovereignty
in this providence that caused this man great sorrow. That providence
was causing him great affliction. And God says, Look, I built it,
I planted it, and you listen, I'm going to pluck it up and
there's no one to stop me. It's a dark providence. Why would he do it? He said this,
I purposed it. I built it. I purposed it. Now
believer, has God dashed your plans and schemes? Has God crushed your hopes and
dreams and brought them to nothing? Who did that? God did. God did. Why? Why did God do this? You pay
attention. God did it for His glory and
your good. God did it for His glory and
your good. Do you desire the glory of God?
Then I want you to know this. The glory of God is your good.
It's for your good. But it never comes except through
great trial and great suffering. You remember that poem, I asked
the Lord that I might grow in every grace and seek more earnestly
His face. It was He that taught me to pray
and thus He has answered prayer. But it's been in such a way it
almost drove me to despair. I hoped that in some favored
hour at once He'd answer my request, and by His love's constraining
power, subdue my sins and give me rest. You see, He thought
great things for Himself, didn't He? But what did God do? Instead, He made me feel my hidden
evils of my heart, and let the angry powers of hell assault
my soul in every part. Yea, more his own hand he seemed
intent to aggravate my woe, crossed all my fair designs I schemed,
cast my feelings out, and laid me low. Lord, why is this? I trembling
cried. Wilt thou pursue thy worm to
death? Listen. Tis in this way, the Lord replied,
I answered prayer for grace and faith. These inward trials I
employ from self and pride to set thee free and break thy schemes
of earthly joy, that thou might seek thine all in me." You see why he does it? Oh, believers,
seekest thou great things for thyself? If you do, you listen,
God will pluck it up. God will cast it down. to destroy
you, but listen, to refine you. To refine you. These trials,
this destruction of all flesh. Listen. Was it good for Judah
or evil? It was good. God restored them. You remember in 70 years, God
restored them. What do you think God does for
His people in these trials and afflictions? What is His purpose? is that we might be stripped
of pride, that we might fall at His feet seeking mercy and
pardon and peace, that we should rest in His perfect love and
grace, that we should rest in the perfect work of Christ and
not in ourselves. And so by these great distresses
and sorrows, by the ruin of our great things, God does make us
long for His presence. Is that not true? Listen, something's
wrong if that's not true. These great afflictions that
God sends us, do they not drive us to Christ? Do they not move
us to want His presence? Are you in the midst of affliction? Let me ask you this, who sent
it? Who ordained it? Who purposed
it? Why? That you should not seek
great things for yourself, but that you should seek the glory
of God in Christ. That's why. This fire only refines us. And
lastly, I want us to see this. Not only do we see the evil and
foolishness of seeking great things for ourselves, Not only
do we see the purpose of God in destroying these ambitions,
but we see this, the gift of God. This is the last thing.
Look at this. He said, Seekest thou great things
for thyself? Seek them not. Why? Behold, I
will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord. But, here's a
promise of God to you. Thy life will I give thee for
a prey in all places whither thou goest. God promised this
man Baruch. He said, look, your life is not
going to be easy. It's not going to be comfortable.
You're going to be pursued by these evil men no matter where
you go. But every time they seek your
life, it'll be plucked from their hands. It'll be plucked from
their hands. As a bran plucked from the burning,
so will I pluck thy life. I will save thy life. from their
hands. That's what God promised this
man. But the greatest meaning of this obviously is a spiritual
meaning. All of the elect redeemed of
Christ, we were dead in trespasses and sins, but God in grace gave
us spiritual life, did He not? He says to us who are His children,
He says this, will I give unto thee? Life. This morning, do you have spiritual
life? I tell you this, if you have
spiritual life, I know this, by God's grace and power, you
will not seek those things for yourselves. You will seek the
glory of God. Here's the evidence of spiritual
life. You know what it is? Do you believe on the Son of
God? Faith is the evidence of spiritual life. Do you have life?
This morning, do you have life? True spiritual life abandons
all hopes of self-righteousness and clings only to Christ. That's
true life. If you don't have that, you have
not life. If you are clinging this morning
to anything you have done or will do for God, you have no
life. You are seeking great things
for yourself. But we who believe in Christ,
we believe that He is all our salvation, all our hope and acceptance
with God. We are alive. Now this life,
how did it come to you? By merit? By religious exercise? Is that
how you receive this life? We know this, it is a gift of
God, isn't it? It is a gift of God's grace that
we are alive. This life we have in our souls
is a gift. Scripture says, As many as received
Him, to them gave He the power, the right to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on His name, which were born
not of blood, not of the will of flesh, nor of the will of
man. We were born of God. Born of
God. I like this. Jesus said, I give
unto My sheep eternal life. eternal life. And what does he
say after that? And no man shall what? Pluck them out of my hands. That's exactly what is said by
this next phrase. Look at this next phrase. It's
very interesting. It's used in Jeremiah, I believe four times.
He said, I will give unto thee for a prey. Thy life for a prey
in all places whither thou goest. What does that mean for a prey?
Well, God has given us life. This life is irreversible. It's
immutable. In other words, nothing will
be able to take it from you. Nothing will be able to take
it from you. I think of a bird of prey. You know, you think
of that. The prey is the little mouse. That's the prey, isn't
it? You see, our life is a weak,
helpless, feeble little mouse. And we are surrounded by birds
of prey. We are like sheep among wolves. We are weak and helpless victims
of prey. But God says this, no one will
be able to take this life from you. No one. I'll tell you this, we're surrounded
by beasts of prey. You know the first beast of prey
is this? How about self? Is that not a beast of prey that
seeks to take your life? Satan, the world, false religion. They are all
seeking to draw us away from Christ. They are all tempting
us to seek great things for ourselves instead of the glory of God.
What about the beasts of sorrow and grief who rob us of our joy
and peace? But listen to this, God promises
Baruch and us this, they will all fail. They will never be
able to take your life. In other words, I will snatch
your life out. I will snatch you out before
they get you. They won't be able to touch you.
Jesus said, No man shall pluck them out of my hand. Why? Because God purposed it.
And God keeps our life. Just like Daniel in the lion's
den. Do you think the lions had any chance of getting to it? No. God kept Him. Those Hebrew children
cast in the midst of the fire, God kept them. And here's the
promise. Here's the promise of this. God
will keep you. God will keep you. Jesus said,
All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me, And he said,
if all that the Father had given me I should lose nothing, but
raise it up again at the last day. And so this morning I ask
you again, are you seeking great things for yourself? You who
are believers in Christ, are you seeking great things for
yourself? Know this, most of our sorrow is coming from this. Coming from disappointments that
we should never have sought for. Are you seeking after the world,
after ambition and religion? Listen, God says don't seek them.
Why? There's a reason. God crushes
our ambitions so that you should be restored, that you should
be near Christ. And this is God's promise that,
look, I'll give you a life. I'll give you life. And no man
can take it from you. I pray that the Lord would bless
this and comfort you in the midst of your afflictions when God
does destroy our dreams. Because God intends for your
good, these things for your good, so that you would cling to Christ. Hold fast to Him, believer. He's
our hope. He's our treasure. He's our life.