Jeremiah 29. Thank you, Jania. Thank you, John. Take your burden
to the Lord and leave it there. Remember in his word how he feeds
a little bird. The day before yesterday, I was
sitting in my study preparing a message, which is important. It's vital. The life or death
thing. I looked outside and the birds
were all over the feeder. There was no feed in the bird
feeder. I stopped what I was doing and went all the way to
Walmart to get them a bag of feed. Birds. I had better things to do. But
no, they were dependent on me. They were looking at me. I stopped
everything. Our Lord stopped for one woman
who crawled to touch the hem of his garment. One blind man
that cried unto him. Then again this morning, you
know how cold it was? The birds were out there on the
water, the bird bath. Ice, no water. Stopped what I
was doing. Went outside, emptied it, poured
some fresh water in there. Came back inside and every one
of them were thanking me. Jeremiah 29, I've worked on this
a long time. I've looked at this and read
it many, many times, four or five days at least. Just another
story of many stories of God's amazing love, mercy, and grace
and kindness to his people. Just another story of how God
saves his people. I thought of several titles for
this. One could be, Expect a Good Ending. That's what he says in chapter 29. Or another one could
be, the good that God will do us. It says that in one of the
verses. Or, grace found in the wilderness. That's a wonderful verse. Or,
write it down. God will save us. That's what
he told Jeremiah. Write it down. I'm going to save
my people. But I chose this title that will strike a chord with
all of us. It's hope for us and our children. Hope. We're saved by hope. You
can't live without hope. You know that? We hope in God. That's a good hoping. It's a
sure hope. We hope in God's mercy. We hope
in His Word. David said, Remember thy word
unto thy servant, or bring it back to mine, upon which thou
hast caused me to hope. All our hope is on His promises. We hope in Christ. You couldn't
have a better hope. The only hope there is. We're
saved by hope. We're saved from sin. We're saved from the world.
We're saved from wrath. But we're saved from despair
in a hopeless world. You look around you. You look
and listen. If you let it bother you, it
will make you sink in despair. We just sang that, didn't we? So take that burden to the Lord
and leave it there. If you trust, hope, never doubt,
He will surely bring you in. But let me say this, whether
you trust Him or not, He will bring you in. Right? That's Psalm 107, isn't it, brother? He kept bringing them into trouble,
and they cried unto the Lord, and He brought them out of all
their trouble. This story begins The story of
man, the story of Israel, our story, begins with a people in
captivity. People in bondage. Look at chapter
29, verse 1. Now these are the words of the
letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem under the
residue. That's us. That's who I'm preaching
to. The residue, the refuge, the remnants, the off sky ring. These are the
words that the Lord gave to Jeremiah to the people. Verse 1, it says
that we're in captivity, away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon.
Verse 4, thus saith the Lord God of hosts, the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, unto all their carried away captives, whom I
caused to be carried away captive. He read it with me that God said,
I did this because your sins were increased. God leaves us in this world for
a while in captivity, doesn't He? We're all born that way. We're all born in this world
captive to the God of this world. We're captive to sin. We walk according to the course
of this world. We follow the temptations and things that the God of this world
tempts us with, willingly. No, we're captives. We don't
think that we're in captivity at the time. You know, our generation,
Margaret and Deborah, was the free, you know, 60s, 70s, free. Oh, no. That was one of the worst
periods in history. I was so enslaved by what was
going on around me. And so is everyone by nature,
and so are our children now who don't know the Lord. I drive by every day down Scuffling
Hill Road to the church house. And every day I look in the backyard
of a house, there's a dog chained up. to a house that's changed
about that long. Nothing but dirt. And I feel sorry for that dog.
I can't tell you how many times I thought, I'm going to poison
that dog. Put him out of his misery. But there's something
worse than that. I drive by a Roman Catholic building
where people just flock in there. And they're in bondage. Then
I drive by a Southern Baptist place, which is not much different,
and they're in Bombay. That's much sadder still. That
dog dies, and his troubles are all over. Those people die without
the Lord, and their troubles have just begun. So we ought
to feel great sadness and sorrow for people like that in captivity. The story of Israel And captive
in Babylon, if you've read the scriptures, Babylon, go over
to Revelation, Babylon, Babylon, you know where that started,
don't you? The Tower of Babel, where people all over the world
got together and they raised the tower and said, we're going
to ascend to heaven. Just like Satan, I will be like God. Like Adam, we'll be like God.
Men everywhere got together and said, we're going to get to heaven.
And God said, no you're not. And he scattered them and changed
their language. Babble. That's all man does is
babble. Babylon is this world. Babylon is false religion. Revelation
12 talks about the God, Satan, the God of this world coming
down and said, down to this world, the one who deceives the whole
world. That's what God said. He allowed
him to come down here. To deceive the whole world. It doesn't matter if it's a doctor,
a lawyer, or a dishwasher. They're deceived. They're in
captivity. To sin? You won't walk in according
to the course of this world. Some of them are religious, but
they're still in captivity. To ignorance, to darkness, to
false prophets. And so we're Israel. And so are
we. What am I going to say next?
Everybody chose Israel John Davis. He really did. They wouldn't
have come out, would they? They wouldn't have come out if
God hadn't said, Jacob have I loved, election of doctrine. No, it's
salvation. God's people know it. Jacob knew
it. I wouldn't know God. I wouldn't
love God if God hadn't first loved me. He wouldn't have called
on God. He wouldn't have laid hold of
God unless Jesus Christ came and wrestled him down to the
ground. Remember that? That was Mac's favorite story.
Old Jacob, running, scared, running from God, running from everybody. He couldn't run faster than that. God found him. Christ found him.
Put him on the ground and said, what's your name? Jacob. You're going to see that in a
minute. Judaic was trouble. He said in verse... Well, I wanted
to show you this because I sent several of you a text and told
you to watch a movie about Brother Tyndale, William Tyndale. Many
of you had seen it before, but others hadn't. Good movie. I never recommend the movie,
you know that. But it's so scriptural. And this happened to Jeremiah. It happened to all the prophets.
The Lord killed every single one of the prophets just for
preaching the Word. Who did it? Religion. False prophet. Look at chapter
38. Chapter 38. The Lord sent the Word to Jeremiah. What a blessing. What mercy. And he said, Jeremiah, you go
tell my people that I've chosen you. You go tell them what I
told you. I'm going to bring them out of captivity. How? The
Word. They'll know the truth. The truth will make them free.
The Son will make them free. The gospel frees us. It's the
power of God and salvation. He leads captivity captive by
the gospel. And he sends men to preach it.
Do we hear them at first? We don't hear them. We hate them. Jeremiah 38. Jeremiah is called
the weeping prophet. He wept over Israel. They didn't
weep over him. They hated him. Look at verse
5, or verse 4. The ruler said to the king, we
beseech thee, lest this man be put to death. Why? What did he
do wrong? Preaching the truth. They said, this man speaketh
not to the welfare of the people, but they're hurt. Oh, no, no,
no, no. This is their salvation. And the king said, he's in your
hand. Verse 6, so they took Jeremiah,
cast him into the dungeon. And they let down Jeremiah with
cords into the dungeon, where there was no water but mire.
And Jeremiah sunk. He laid him down in a pit full
of filth and stench. And he sunk in the mire. And
we don't know how long he was there. Just for bringing us the Word.
And a little later somebody felt sorry for him and said, he's
going to die down there if we don't get him out. And the Lord
brought him out. over the 10 day old what's in it to bring us the
word didn't bring people out of captivity the chapter 29 verse
10 look at this chapter 29 verse 10 thus saith the Lord after
70 years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you I'll perform
or that is I'll do my good word towards you I'm gonna do what
I promise to do and causing you to return to this place. Seventy
years I'll visit you. I thought about this. We live
three score and ten, that's about it. Maybe at four score, God
given strength. After three score and ten, he's
going to come get us. And we're going to go home. Seventy
short years. 70 years are short, aren't they,
Nancy? Real short. Aren't they? Aren't
they? Shorts. Aren't they? Aren't they? Wrong. Went by real
quick. Ed, Janelle, 70 short years.
These young people think, wow, 70 years. I got 70 years. It won't be long now. It's not
long now. Lift up your eyes. Lift up your head to your redemption,
God. But I thought about this, too. We live in this world, and the
way the Lord's going to bring us out of it, He's going to have
to visit us with the gospel. He's going to have to do something
for us. He's going to send the Word to
do it. And what He's going to do is bring a people out of this
world and cause them to return to Him. Turn to him. Psalm 80, I believe it is, where
he keeps saying, turn us again, O Lord, God of hope, cause our
face to shine. We'll be saved. If he doesn't
turn us, we won't be turned. So here we have a people returning
to the Lord. Verse 11, the Lord said, after
he promised that, verse 11, he said, I know the thoughts I think
towards you. Thoughts of peace. Not of evil. I'm going to give you an unexpected
end. You can expect it to end well. Oh my, I will. All through here
He says, I will and you shall. I love that. Verse 13, you shall
seek Me and find Me. You shall. We wouldn't seek Him
if He didn't say, seek Me. Isn't that right? People think
we make, you know, God to be so sovereign that we're just
puppets. Well, I want to be completely under his control, don't you?
I'm so glad salvation's up for the Lord, completely, from start
to finish. But if it's up to us, we're helpless. But he says,
you shall seek me. David said, when you said, seek
my face, That's when I say it, thy face will I seek. But not
until then. Now, this may seem confusing
to those that don't know, but if you don't seek the Lord, you
won't be found. If you don't call on the Lord,
you won't be saved. And if you don't call on the
Lord, it's your fault. He keeps telling you to call
on the Lord. He keeps telling you to seek Him. with all your
heart. Seek Him in the Word. Seek Him by prayer. Call on Him.
If you don't, you won't find Him. You won't hear from Him. But if you do, it's because He
calls you to. So I don't understand. Well,
I do. And there was a time when I believed in election. I believe
in election. I believe God's sovereign. I
believe if I'm going to be saved, if I'm going to elect, I'm going
to be saved. I hit the road and I didn't care. But if you don't call on the
Lord, you won't be saved. And whosoever calls on him shall
be saved. And whoever seeks him, he says,
you seek me, verse 13, you'll find me when you search for me
with all your heart, in sincerity and truth, really calling from
the heart of the Lord. You ought to learn what that
means. And if you do, if you don't seek him, it's your fault.
If you don't call, it's your fault. If you do, it's his glory. It's his grace. It's his goodness. He said, I will be found of you.
I will. I'll be found of you, saith the
Lord. I'll turn away your captivity. I'll gather you from all the
nations. I've driven you. God scatters. We've got people here that have
been on. from New York to California, North Carolina, and all places
in between. Here we are again. How did we get together? God
said, I'll say to the north, give her up. Give her up. Give
them up. There's two New Yorkers sitting
right back there. Three of them. Three New Yorkers
right back there. The north said, bring them. Where? Rocky Mountain, Virginia. Where? Rocky Mountain, Virginia. That's
where the gospel is. Well, surely there's somewhere in between.
Not many. Bring them from the South. A
lot of these churches everywhere all over the South, every street
corner. North Carolina's got them on every street corner.
Virginia, Alabama, everywhere. Everybody's religious. Everybody
loves the Lord. Alabama? No, they don't. There's one little place in Sylacauga,
another place outside of Birmingham, Minor Heights, and not many more. That's a fact. That's a fact. He said, I'll bring them to the
place, the place. You remember Deuteronomy? It
was a place God's chosen to put his name there. 17 times it says
that. It's a place. He said, you go
there. It's too far for you. You sell everything you've got
and move there, you see? Because it's one place where the gospel is preached.
So here we have a people returning to the Lord. He said, I will
and you shall. I'll visit you. I'll perform
my good word. I'll send the word. I'll send the gospel. I'll turn
to you. I'll gather you. I'll bring you
and your children. You read that. You know, some of us, I for one,
was raised under the gospel. You may not know this, but Kelly
heard the gospel when he was a boy from Dan Park's father
in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, right? We heard the gospel as
boys. You heard the gospel as boys.
And we lived. Amen. Now what am I going to say next?
But God. And this congregation is full
of people with children. And that's why I say, that's
why I brought this message. There's hope. Just wait till
the end. Wait till it ends. There's hope. You might see a few of these
particles walk through this door. It ain't over yet. I did. I'm telling you that none of
your children or grandchildren could possibly have been worse
than this fella right here. Not possible. Not possible. None of your children
or grandchildren were so low as I was or any lower than him. None of them. There's hope. Great
hope. He'd bring you and your children.
He'd hope for you. One of our brothers said, if
He saved me, He'd save anybody. It's all about the gospel. He
said that, I'll perform my good word. My good word. Look at chapter
29, verse 32. The last part of verse 32. He's
talking to a false prophet. The prophesied lies. And he told him, what you're
saying is not going to come true. But he said, in the very last
part of that, he said, you're not going to behold the good
that I will do for my people. Started to name it, the good
that God will do for his people. We can expect it all to end good
because God is good. He's too good to do evil. And
no matter what it is in our lives, No matter what happens, it is
the Lord. And it works together for what? Good. To them that love God,
and you do love God. I know you. I've known you a
long time. You love this God I'm preaching.
You love His salvation. You love His Son. You love His
Word. To them that are called, and you've been called by this
God according to His purpose, it's all good. It's all good. And it's just like David said,
not the king in Israel, but the preacher in Madisonville. God's
out to do you good. It's going to end good. Wait,
and you'll see. You remember that message? Wait,
you'll see. It's going to end good. It's
going to end good. So he said, write it down. Write
it down. God will save. Who's he going to save? Jacob.
Who? Jacob. Jacob, God will save some more
just like Jacob. Oh boy, why not you? Why not
your son? Why not your daughter? How he
saves is look at verse, you read with me verses four through seven.
It says, look at this, a man is holding his loins like a woman
about to give birth. He's in such pain, such sorrow.
What's that? It's a new birth. That's what
it is. Verse 7 says, it's the time of
Jacob's trouble. You know how the Lord does us
good? You know how this good begins?
He puts us in trouble. Only grace preachers will tell
you, the only ones that will tell you and tell people the
truth are those that say, God's great goodness sends you trouble. It's God's great mercy to send
trouble. Now, this trouble is not so much
trouble, you know, in the material world, although He sends that. But it's trouble within yourself. Trouble with yourself. He's got
to bring you to where you know that you've caused yourself trouble. and everybody else. Like the
prodigal, you're going to have to come. God's about to bring
young or old alike to the point where they realize, I've sinned
against God, against goodness, against mercy, against the one
who's done all these things. I've sinned against my parents.
I've sinned against those that love me. I've sinned. That's
all I've done is think about myself. All I've ever done is
think about myself. We come into this world loving
ourselves. We come into this world thinking
only of ourselves. And it gets worse, that we don't
think of anybody but ourselves, and we hurt everybody, including
ourselves. Isn't that right? But God sends trouble, and He
makes you like the prodigal. You can be a prodigal in a church
period. But he'll bring you to yourself. He brought that prodigal
son to himself. What does that mean? He finally
saw himself for what he was. You know, I'm no good to anybody. You reckon God would have mercy
on me? Reckon the Father? Who did this? But it was God that did it. Sent
him trouble. And it says there in verse 7,
and you know what he's going to make you do? He's going to
make you go, you're going to start loathing yourself. You're
going to go from loving yourself to loathing yourself. Like we
read in chapter 31, remember Ephraim bemoaning himself? He said he was chastised as one
unaccustomed to the yoke. One that didn't like the yoke,
any authority. Don't tell me what to do. Now the Lord put this yoke on
him. He's so glad. It's good. A brother in here
and I talk about it all the time. It's good that a young man or
woman bears a yoke of Christ in their youth. Because, buddy,
if you get out in this world and get a taste of it, it's going to stay with you the
rest of your days. And it's going to tempt you unlike it would
if you had never tasted it. Do you know what I'm saying? So may the Lord satisfy us early
with that mercy. That's what it means there in
Psalm 90. It means save us early. Oh, save our children from this
world before they go out there and get a taste of it. Because there's pleasure in sin
for a season. So he said, I'm going to bring him out. I'm going
to bring him out. And the way he does this is to
send trouble. And it's like Gomer. Go back to chapter 31. Chapter
31. Let's see. Look at verse 11. The Lord hath
redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand of him that was
stronger than he. Now come and sing in the height
of Zion and flow together for the goodness of the Lord. Wheat
and wine and oil. That's the gospel. The young
of the flock and the herd is lamb. As a watered garden they'll
be. Then shall the virgin rejoice
in the day. He keeps calling Israel and Jacob
a virgin. Verse 4. Old virgin of Israel.
She was anything but a virgin. She was used up by every man
that came along, like Gomer. She let any man that came along
have her. And so did we. We went after
everything. Stocks and silver and gold and
things and people and everything but God. But God calls her a virgin. And the sense here is of a wedding,
a marriage. The Lord told the story of the
ten virgins. It's hard to find ten virgins today, then and now. He calls all his people virgins.
He's going to present them as chaste virgins, spotless, holy,
unblameable, unapprovable, saved for one man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's going to present them to the Lord in a white wedding garment.
They were dressed in ashes black. I'll present them in a white
wedding garden, like Gomer. Hosea parading Gomer down the
streets. Look at my bride. Isn't she lovely?
Isn't she beautiful? Is that that former harlot? Yes,
it is. But don't you call her one. She's
my virgin. And that's what the Lord calls
these people. Isn't that something? My, my. Never sin without sin. That's something. And he lured Hosea, or Gomer,
into the wilderness and spoke comfortably to her and said,
you're mine. You're not for anybody but me.
So there's hope to the end. Look at chapter 31, verse 2,
or verse 1. He said, at the same time, saith
the Lord God, I will be a God of all the families of Israel,
and they'll be my people. The people that were left of
the sword found grace. He read with me how the fierce
anger of the Lord is going to come down hard on the wicked.
That's not a fable. That's not some fictitious, apocalyptic
movie that comes from Hollywood on Armageddon or whatever. It's
the word of the Lord. That the sword of the Lord is
going to come down hard on this people that forget God and have
no use for God and don't have any use for Jesus Christ. That's
right. Why not us? We found grace, didn't
we? They found grace, like Noah. The wrath of God came down on
the world, and our Lord said, as in the days of Noah, it's
coming again. Fire, isn't it? Why did Noah? Why was Noah found
in the ark? Because Noah found grace in the
eyes of Noah. Why was Shem? He found grace in the eyes of
Noah. Why were there wives? They found grace in the eyes
of Noah. Why are you here? Why are you listening to this
gospel? Why do you want to be found in crime? You've found
grace. You've found grace. In the wilderness. He said, I'll cause him to rest.
And look at verse 3. This is to God's people. Verse
3 is to God's people. Isn't that clear? Who's he been
talking to all this time? Jacob. And you see this on billboards. You see this everywhere for all
men and women to read. That's blasphemy. This is to
God's people. He says to God's people, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. I loved you before you were born, before you've done
any good or evil. I chose you. Yes, Jacob, have
I done. And therefore, how do we know
it? He draws us by the Gospel. He said, I'll build you up on
this most holy thing. And then looking down at verse
10, let me close it. It says, hear the word of the Lord, O
ye nations, declare it in the isle. He that scattered Israel
will gather him. He'll keep him. As a shepherd
doth his flock, he'll gather them. He'll scatter them. He'll
gather them. He'll keep them. He'll keep them
gathered. There was a time when I had no
use for this, the gospel. As a teenager, you know, we all
thought we'd do this or do that. Didn't we? I don't know what
you thought you'd be, John. I guess you thought you'd be
a famous bluegrass musician. Did you think that? That's what
you hoped, a rodeo star. I was going to be a rock star.
That's right. People were going to come from
all over and hear me sing. Play my guitar. Now, I just want to sing about
the rock. You know that? I want to meet
with people from all over and sing this song of Zion. And I
used to have no more use for that until he brought me back.
Took a miracle. Took a miracle. And he did. He said, I'll keep them. As a
shepherd keeps his flock, we're kept by the power of God. I fully
expect to be kept to the end. You know that? Why? Because I'm
trusting the Lord to do it. And none of them that trust him,
he said, will be desolate. None of them. I know I'm kept
by the power of God. I know I was called by the power
of God. I know I was brought by the power of God. I know I
was given faith by the power of God. And I know I'll be kept
by the power of God. I know that. And I expect to
hold fast to the hand. And you, too. Because that's
your hope in Him. He's never let anybody down in
hope, did He? Never. Nobody. Nobody. So He tells us again, in verse
11, He says, I've redeemed them. I've ransomed them from the hand
of Him that was stronger than them. And they'll come. eat the
bread and drink the wine. Verse 13, they'll turn their
morning into joy and comfort them, rejoice. Oh, I get such
joy in this gospel, don't you? I mourn over my sin. I mourn over the world. I get
so much comfort hearing the gospel, don't you? Verse 14, I'll satiate
the soul of the priest. That's me. That's you, with fatness. My people will be satisfied with
my goodness. Well, my goodness, isn't the
Lord good? Isn't this gospel good? Now,
look at this. This is where the title came
from. The Lord said, I've heard you crying for your children. I've heard you weeping for your
children. Why? They're not here. You know, I counted, well, your
children. Your children. Your children.
Your children. Why your children? Hmm? Your
children. Why your children? Huh? Keep
going. Your children. Your grandchildren.
Your grandchildren. Your granddaughter. Your wife. Hey, not here. Are they? And our Lord on the way to the
cross said, you weep for yourself and for your children. They're
not here. But there's hope. Look at it. Read with me. Verse
17. There's hope in the end, saith the Lord, that your children
will come. Whether they do or they don't,
we're going to be glad in the end. We're going to thank the
Lord for however it happened. But if they do, wouldn't that mean
something? If your children can walk with
it and sit down beside you and say to you something, can you
think of anything that would give you more joy than that?
Anything. He did it for me. I keep telling
him my story. There's hope. What's our hope? What's their
hope? It's gospel. The door of the ark is still
open. This door is still open. We want it to stay open. Pray
the Lord keep this door open. Pray. There's hope. The Lord
will bring hope again. I left. You left. And you left. Here we are. We're back. And we don't want
to go away again. We know what that's like. And
there's hope. And I counted 17 children that
do come here, beginning with your, from one year old to 18,
that don't know the Lord. And I don't, I don't. And there's
no, you're not hearing of it in other churches either. You
know it? You're not hearing young people being brought to the Lord.
And I don't know why. But there's hope. I keep waiting on the Lord to
deal with my life. He did me. This is how I did
it. This is exactly how I did it.
Preaching the gospel. This is the power of God. You
bring your children. As long as they're under your
roof, you bring them. You bring them. This is how I did it. And
if he does, If He does, I've witnessed it. I've seen
the Lord save our children, some of them. And there's nothing
more joyous, nothing more glorious. And as I've said before, and
I mean it, we mean it, don't we, men? There'd be nothing to
give us more joy than the Lord save your children, rather than
my own. But if we'd whoop and holler,
there's hope. Hope up. Get your hopes up. If
there ain't a Lord, there ain't no need to be up. All right,
stand with me.