We were going to look through
the whole book of Jeremiah tonight. Someone texted me, Brother Tommy
Parker down in Spring Lake. He and Johnny often listen, join
in with us. They have their midweek service
on Thursday night, you know, and I urge you to join with them
on Thursday. I had a good preacher down there.
But Tommy, he asked where we were going to be. I said, we're
going to look at the whole book of Jeremiah. He said, that's
a lot of looking. So that made me think, it is. You know, we did that Sunday
morning with Isaiah, 66 chapters, but you're fresh on a Sunday
morning, and this is Wednesday night, and I'm aware that you're
tired and weary, and so we're just going to make it about halfway. This whole book, if you've read
it, and I know you have, most of you, is mostly sin and misery
and rebellion and idolatry and destruction and doom and death. The gospel is hard to find in
Jeremiah. It's there for God's people,
but there's so much misery, there's so much woe. It's a little gospel
here and there. You understand now what I'm saying.
The whole book is good news for God's people in the midst of
a sinful world. But it's hard to find. We're going to find it. We're
going to search for him and find him. Jeremiah was hated. If you read this, he was imprisoned
a couple of times. One time he was put down in a
pit. They lowered him down in the
sand. Just break your heart. This is a man who wept over those
people. He was constantly weeping over those people. Jeremiah is
a type of Christ. He's a clear type of Christ. He's a man, our Lord said in
chapter 1, He said, Before I formed you
in the belly, I knew you. That's Christ in it. And ordained
you a prophet to the people. That's Christ. That prophet was
with the Father from the beginning. Formed in the belly. Jeremiah
was hated. He was despised. He was rejected. Though he told people the truth. The whole book, Jeremiah is preaching
and praying and crying and weeping and warning the people. Our Lord
Jesus Christ wept. Why in the world would he weep
over such sorry people? He did, didn't he? He did. Don't you love the story of Joseph?
Especially when his brethren came to him. After all they did
for him, when they came to him and they were broken, they were
repentant, he wept over them. He wept. He said, get everybody
out of here. He made himself known to his
brethren. And they all wept. But Jeremiah was not alone, actually.
You know, there were six other prophets alive at the time of
Jeremiah. There was Daniel, Ezekiel, Habakkuk,
Nahum, Zephaniah, and Obadiah. They all lived. But they were
few and far between. They weren't together. They were
spread out. And that's typical, isn't it? That's now. Like Amos 8-11, you
run to and fro looking for the word, and you have to go to far
places to find it. You have to go down Spring Lake
to find it. You have to go to Fairmont to find it. You have
to go to Kingsport to find it. You have to go to Georgia. You have to go to North Carolina. It's there. God hasn't left himself
without a witness. Thankfully. You know, Isaiah,
go to 2 Chronicles. Let's go over there, 2 Chronicles.
I promise you, I'm not going to wear you. 2 Chronicles chapter 36,
the very last verses in 2 Chronicles. Isaiah, the book of Isaiah began
with a sinful world and it ended with the end of the world. Right? You read it, wouldn't you? Jeremiah
is the same, except Jeremiah begins with how bad the world
is that he lived in, the nation he lived in. But in the end,
a man called Nebuchadnezzar, the evil king, just like Jeremiah
said would happen, just like the Lord said, he came and he
destroyed Jerusalem and took everybody captive. And Nebuchadnezzar
represents the God of this world. Now men are held captive by him.
But look at 2 Chronicles 36 verse 19. This is how Jeremiah ends. They burnt the house of God,
break down the wall of Jerusalem, burnt the palaces with fire,
destroyed all the goodly vessels. Then they escaped from the sword
and carried away to Babylon. That's us. We're in Babylon. They were servants to him until
Christ took us. And verse 21, this was to fulfill
the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah. See that? As long as she lay desolate,
she kept Sabbath until 70 years. Okay? And then you remember the
Lord gave the word to Cyrus. to Ezra, Nehemiah. So, Jeremiah. Now go to Jeremiah
with me. As I said, I want to comfort
you tonight. I want to comfort you, but let's
read a few scriptures. There's no real comfort unless
there's misery. You know that? The gospel's not
good news unless you've heard the bad news. It's good news
from a foreign land. We live in captivity. We live
in Babylon. We're captives in this world
and in this flesh. We still feel like we're held
captive. We want out. We're not of this
world. We're like Lot and Sodom. We're
standing, we're watching at his gates and doors saying, Lord,
come get us. So let's read some scriptures
leading up to chapter 29. This is talking about a people
that changed gods. Chapter 2. Look at chapter 2.
Israel professed to be believers in the God of the Bible. This is not relevant to our day. Nothing is. Chapter 2, verse
11. Have a nation changed their gods,
which are not God's? Ask people everywhere about their
God. They'll tell you about the God
they believe in. He's not God at all. He can't
do anything unless man lets Him. That means He can't. He's not
God. The God of the Bible is God. What does that mean? He
made everything. He owns everything. He rules
everything. He does everything. There's nothing and no one can
do anything except God says so. Has this nation changed their
God? Yes. There's no God. Why? False prophets. And if you read Jeremiah all
the way through, just constantly false prophets everywhere. I
told you there were seven. Isn't that interesting? Seven
living true prophets at this time. That's it. When Elijah
stood on Mount Carmel, there were 450 at that time. Altogether,
850 false prophets and one true. And the world says that's not
possible. It sure is. It's always been that way. Verse 12, be astonished at this. Be afraid. Verse 13, my people,
those that say they are, have committed two evils. They've
forsaken the fountain of living water and hewed out broken cisterns. So this is a nation, a world
that's changed God. So that sounds like Romans 1.
All of Jeremiah sounds like Romans 1 all the way through 9. We're
going to read about the potter in chapter 18 of Jeremiah. And
the clay. Romans 1, it sounds like Romans
1 and 2. But our Lord is merciful. He
says repent, return. Why will you die? I want to look
at Ezekiel. Why will you die? Chapter 3, look at chapter 3. Our Lord is so gracious. He told
Jeremiah verse 12, go and proclaim these words toward the north
and say, return thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord. I will
not cause mine anger to fall upon you. I'm merciful, saith
the Lord. I will not keep anger forever.
You mean God is angry? He sure is. Don't you see it? The wrath of the Lord, Romans
1, is revealed from heaven every day against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men who hold the truth and unrighteousness.
Every day. It's clear for God's people to see it. Like Israel
and Egypt. It's clear. This is the hand
of God. The world says, it's just natural causes. In verse 13, chapter 3, it says,
Acknowledge thine iniquity and thy transgressions against the
Lord thy God. Verse 14, Turn. Isn't God good? Let the unrighteous man forsake
his way. He said in Isaiah, I will part,
abundantly part. God's so good. What's the problem?
We're so bad. What we're going to see here
is the depravity of man is real. It's not just a doctrine. It's
just real. That's the world we live in. Chapter 5, look at Chapter 5.
The truth seems hard to find. It was hard to find in Jeremiah's
day, the truth. You know, they did. You read
it for yourself. It said, Jeremiah, You're not the only one. Who
do you think you are, Jeremiah? He didn't think he was anybody. Just a voice. Just tell him what
God says. That's all Jeremiah did. If you'll
notice, I notice it, that the false prophets, it would say,
they would start saying something, and they'd say, the Lord said
this. But when Jeremiah spoke, it said, the word of the Lord
came to Jeremiah. It begins with the word of the
Lord to Jeremiah. But when false prophets spoke,
it says, they started speaking and said, the Lord told me that. See, the word of the Lord comes
first. Jeremiah didn't say anything
except what God told him to say. But the truth is hard to find.
Chapter 5, verse 1. Run to and fro through the streets
of Jerusalem. See, now know, and seek in the
broad place. If you can find a man, if there
be any that executes judgment, then seeketh the truth, and I
will pardon him. That person. Verse 3, Our Lord, are not Thine
eyes upon the truth? Didn't our Lord say, The time
shall come when they that worship the Father worship Him in spirit
and truth, for the Lord seeketh such to worship Him. And He's
the one that said, When He comes, will He find? Will He find anybody
on earth? Verse 4, Surely these are poor
and foolish, they know not the way of the Lord or the judgment
of God. Truth's hard to find. I'm back
in Jeremiah's day. Chapter 5, look at this. This
is a great chapter. Verse 20, foolish blind people,
oh foolish people. Verse 21, oh foolish people without
understanding which have eyes they see not, ears they hear
not, don't you fear me. I've always liked this verse.
This shows the sovereignty of God by sand. Now God keeps His
wrath back by sand. Verse 22, Will you not tremble
at my presence which hath placed the sand for the bound of the
sea? Do you know how powerful the sea is? What holds it back?
Sand. If you look at those mansions
on the water, million-dollar mansions, everybody's clamoring
to buy. That's your third and fourth
house. On the sea are not those houses built on the sand? And our Lord is the one that
every day, day in, day out, keeps that ocean from... Hear the touche
come? No problem. Every day, day in,
day out. Every now and then He says, OK. Don't you fear me. Nope. Verse 23, it's a rebellious,
revolting people. They're revolted. Nobody says, verse 24, let's
fear the Lord that giveth rain. What about the Lord that giveth
rain? We read that in chapter 14. Nothing
man can do can bring rain. Who sends rain? You'd think, Brother Mike, you'd
think the whole Midwest and West would be crying unto God, send
rain. No, they're cursing it. You see, it's no worse than it
was then, but it's more widespread. So that makes it worse. As in
the days of Noah, the whole earth had corrupted his way. That's
when the Lord destroyed the world, when the whole earth had corrupted
his way and was full of violence and nobody gave God a thought.
Didn't care. God said, okay. Well, that's
now. That's now. Well, look at us. A few little people in an ark. The weeping prophet, chapter
9, Jeremiah was a weeping prophet. Verse 1, Oh, that my head were
waters, mine eyes a fountain of tears. I might weep day and
night for the slain of the daughter of my people. And oh, that the
Lord would give us a greater burden. and not be at ease in
Zion. We're very comfortable, aren't we? Too comfortable. Let our
laughter be turned to mourning. We ought to weep. We ought to
be weeping. The evil customs. You know some
of these verses. Chapter 13. The evil customs
in chapter 10. And the people who are accustomed
to evil. Jeremiah 13, verse 15. Hear and give ear. Be not proud. The Lord has spoken. Give glory
to the Lord. Before He caused darkness. Look at verse 22. If you say in your heart, why
are these things coming upon us? For the greatness of Thine
iniquity. Verse 23, Can the Ethiopian change
his skin? Can the leopard his spots? And may he also do good that
are accustomed to do evil. It's so true of mankind. Oh, then there's curses and blessings,
chapter 17. Look at this, chapter 17. We're
going to get to 29, and we're going to stay there. And you're
going to rejoice. We've got to put the diamond
of God's gospel, the pearl of great price, against the very
black backdrop, you see, to appreciate what the Lord has done for us.
Verse 5 of Jeremiah 17, Thus saith the Lord, Curse it, be
the man that trusteth in man. And that's our generation, more
than any other that this generation thinks. We're going to find something
to get us out of any trouble we get into. Any sickness, any
disease, any drought, whatever it is, man is so smart and so
clever, we're going to pull ourselves out of this. Trust in man. That's a curse. Verse 17, all
that blessed is a man that trusteth in the Lord, whose hope the Lord
is. Is that you? Is that you? Really? Is it you? I don't trust anybody anywhere
today, except my brethren. Honestly, everything I hear and
whoever I listen to out there, I don't trust anything anyone
says about anything. Do you? I don't. Because all
men are liars. Godspeed. Jeremiah wasn't a liar. He was telling the truth. And
he's telling them, don't trust man, trust the Lord. That's safe
ground. That's comfort. Do you hear me?
You have nothing but misery and discomfort and worry and anxiety
if you trust any person. Verse 9, the heart is deceitful
of all things. You know these verses. These
are what we call classic verses, aren't they? Well, this is real. The heart is deceitful. And Paul
wrote in the last days, evil men and seducers are worse and
worse, deceiving and being deceiving. And the God of this world is,
the Lord sent him out there. The Lord has sent Satan out here,
Revelation 12. All right, verse, chapter 18,
look at this. Here's the pottery. The word
came to Jeremiah, verse 1, from the Lord. See, that always starts
that way. The word which came to Jeremiah
from the Lord. Say, Arise, go down to the potter's house. There
I will cause thee to hear my word. And I went down to the potter's
house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. It's his
work. The vessel he made of clay was marred in the hand of the
potter, so he made it again another vessel. It seemed good to the
potter to make it. Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me that? Hath not the
potter power over the clay to make one vessel of honor and
another of dishonor? What if God, willing to show
his wrath, and his mercy. That's the God of the Bible.
He's the potter. You believe that? You believe
God's made everything? You believe God controls everything?
You believe God does everything? You believe you're absolutely
100% in His hands? Do you believe the King's heart's
in the hands of the Lord? Aren't you glad? Does that make
you happy? It makes the world mad. It makes
us exceedingly glad. We know this, we love this. Romans
9, the world wishes it wasn't in the Bible. That's the chapter
that saved us all. Show us who God is, what man
is. Well, the first nine chapters. Potter and the Clay. As said,
the depravity of man is real. It's not just a doctrine, it's
a reality, and we experience it, don't we? We see it around
us, we see it in us. The holiness of God is true.
We see it clearly. We see his hand. We see his judgment.
We see his anger. We see his wrath. Yes, we do.
Yes, we do. We feel it. We feel his displeasure. Yes, you do, don't you, child
of God? He's felt his rod, and sometimes you know why. The salvation of the Lord is
true in this. If He doesn't save us, we won't
be saved. If God doesn't save people, they're not going to
be saved. Because they're not seeking God. They're not calling
on God. They don't even believe in God. But God. It's rich in mercy. Is there no hope? Chapter 18.
Is there no hope? Verse 11. Chapter 18. Go speak to the men of Israel. Verse 12, there's no hope, they
say. We'll walk after our own devices.
We'll do the imagination of our own evil heart. That's what the
world says. Is there no hope? Go over to
chapter 23. That's where our brother spoke from. Chapter 23. Is there no hope
in the midst of such an evil world? Verse 5, Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, I will raise unto David a righteous
branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute
judgment and justice in the earth. That is, justify a people, a
sinful people. In his days Judah. We're in His days, you know.
A.D. We live in A.D. Anno Domino. The year of our Lord. Our Lord
Jesus Christ. He's reigning and ruling over
everything. Aren't you glad? He came. The Lord said, He shall not fail.
He'll prosper. And He did. He finished the work. That was His meat and drink to
do. He finished the work. Daniel wrote of, Daniel prophesied
of, and it would make an end of transgression, finish it all. He did. What's his name? Our hope. Is there no hope? Yes. What's his name? Jehovah Sidken. John's smiling real big right
now. In the midst of this sinful world, where are you going to
find the righteous people? In Christ. In the ark. That's where they are. Then chapter
29. Alright, let's go there and stay
there. God had men write this book. And then He had men translate
it. And there's so much error that
could happen. There's so much that could happen.
But God had this English translator translate this from the Hebrew
and then put it into chapters and verses just so you could
find this thing. And I love how every now and
then, quite often, it just amazes me. where they just happen to
put these things. All right, we all have the same
Bible now, pretty much. I mean, a Cambridge Bible is
exactly the same, all right? If you look, Jeremiah starts
on page 942. It ends on page, hold on a minute,
let me think. This is just so good. It's lovely.
It ends, chapter 52, on page 1022. Okay, so there's 80 pages. And exactly page 40, page 982,
is Jeremiah 29. Right smack in the middle. I
mean exactly in the middle. It begins with just sin and everything,
and it ends in terrible destruction and captivity and all that. And right
in the middle is the gospel to God's people. Right smack in
the heart of this. Literally the middle pain. We're
going to look at Ecclesiastes, Lamentations. And right in the middle, I mean
to the page, it says, I'm the man. I mean to the page. I don't need
that. No, I don't need that. Look at Jeremiah 29. This is
great. These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the
prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the resident. That's us. We're the remnant. We're the
resident. We're the offscouring. The ones that escaped the sword. The carried away captives, though.
We're here. We live in this place. The priests, the prophets, people
whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive. We were once held captive
by the God of this world. The world still is. We're not
anymore. Our Lord said, uh-uh. No, we're
under the reign of our King, the Lord Jesus. of the world,
so we're in this world. He reigns over us. And down in
verse 5, By the hand of Elisa, the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah
the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, he was a bad king. Jeremiah lived under a bad king. Josiah was the only good king.
Josiah is a picture of pride. Josiah, I love Josiah. He's the
one that, they found the book, And he just, that's another story. But he lived under bad kings. Zedekiah was one of them. Nebuchadnezzar blinded him and
had him captive. Boy, if that isn't our rulers
today. Pawns in Satan's hand. Verse 4, Thus saith the Lord
of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away
captive, whom I have caused to be carried away. from Jerusalem
unto Babylon. Our Lord prayed in John 17, don't
take them out of this world, but keep them from it. He said,
I send you into the world. God put us in this world, didn't
He? We feel we're head captive by
it. No, no, no, we're not. We got some hope here. He says
in verse 5 to those that live here in this world captive, build
houses, dwell in them, plant gardens, eat the fruit of them,
take wives in the Lord, beget sons and daughters, take wives
for your son, give your daughters to husbands, and bear sons and
daughters that you may be increased there and not diminished. In
other words, the Lord gives us all things richly to enjoy. Hasn't
He blessed us? Hasn't He blessed us? over at
someone's house just the other day, and it's just such a nice
house, and I was just telling them what, and we were both marveling
and thanking the Lord for what He's done for her, and hasn't
He done good by us? Hasn't He done so much for us?
Don't we, we live in the land of Goshen, really. We're in Egypt,
like Israel, in captivity, but we live in the land of Goshen. You know, if you're going to,
don't swear, but if you have to say anything, say that. Lands
of Goshen. We live in the lands of Goshen.
We really do. He says in verse 7, Seek the
peace of the city, whether I have caused you to be carried away
captive. Pray unto the Lord for it. Paul told Timothy, and he was
under knee rope. Paul was under Nero, who, a little
while later, just, he was a lion. He was just destroyed. He burned
Rome. They say he was played the fiddle
while he was burning. Remember? Bad men. God did that. Every single bad
ruler is, God did it. Daniel said it, did in chapter
4, said, Most high ruleth over the kingdom of men, and giveth
it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest
of men. Why? Sin. Forsaking God. Okay. If God's
not, if you won't have God as your king, I'll give you a king.
That's the reason he raised up Sodom. Okay. I'll give you a
king. But not God's people. We have
a kingdom. We have a good kingdom. Like we read in chapter 23. Son
of David. Wouldn't you have liked to have
lived in David's kingdom? We do. We all have our own vine
and fig tree. Christ. Pray for the peace. And the peace thereof shall you
have peace. Pray for the peace. Oh God bless America. But I want
him to bless it by bringing it down, bringing the pride down,
and convicting people of their sin. There's only one way God's
going to really bless this country is if there's a revival, and
it'll only come through preaching the gospel, the truth of who
God is, what man really is, a true God, and a truth about man, and
a truth about salvation, one way. like Jeremiah. Jeremiah never strayed from this
one message. Verse 8, Now thus saith the Lord
of hosts, the God of Israel, Let not your prophets or your
diviners that be in the midst of you deceive you, neither hearken
to your dreams which cause you to be dreamed. They prophesy
falsely unto you in my name. I have not sent them, saith the
Lord. I've talked to people over the
years and so many people hanging on to an old profession of faith
and under false preachers. God doesn't save anybody under
false preachers. No, sir. No, he doesn't. In Jeremiah 23,
there's so many other chapters about false prophets. All of
Jeremiah. But chapter 23, the Lord says, I'm against them.
God's not going to use a false prophet to save one of His people.
He's against them. And He said in verse 32, verse
23, they will not profit this people at all. So, and we're to try them. 1 John 4, we're to try the Spirit.
Many false prophets, our Lord said, have gone out in the world. And quite often what it is, is
people heard a little bit of truth and they finally, the Lord
brought them under a true preacher. And now they hear the truth and
they believe the truth. And what it is, is you didn't
know the Lord, Dan, now you do. It's like being born again. A
child doesn't know when it is. You don't know when it happens. Eventually, one day, a child
realizes I'm alive. You know it. Well, look at this, verse 10. Thus saith the Lord after seventy
years be accomplished at Babylon. Remember we read that in 2 Chronicles. I will visit you and perform
my good word toward you in causing you to return to this place.
And he did. He did that for these four people,
this residue, the people that were left from the sword and
escaped. He did that for them. Bless their
hearts. Bless our Lord. He did that. The Word came. And you remember
the old fellas, the old fellas, when they saw the walls going
up, they were just weeping. They were just all crying and
some of them were laughing and nobody could tell the difference
between the crying and the laughing because they were all so happy.
The Lord actually did that for them. Ezra and all those true
preachers, you know, there were so many false preachers and the
Lord raised up Ezra and all, you remember all those names
of all those preachers and was preaching to them all day long?
And they didn't get tired. John, they didn't get tired.
Why? Because they hadn't heard good preaching in so long. Jeremiah
was the only one around. He said, I'll visit you. But
I think of this. This is like, you know, we may live 3 score
and 10 years. That's all the Lord's told us
we may have. Maybe 4 score. 70 years. Right? Well, we're getting really close,
aren't we? Some of you are way past that.
He said, I'm going to visit you. I'm going to visit you. I'm going
to bring you to my place. I'm going to bring you home.
out of this mess, out of this captivity. For verse 11, man, this make
you cry good tears. I know the thoughts I think toward
you. Thoughts of peace, not of evil. Give you an unexpected
end. I know the thoughts I think toward
you. Thoughts of peace. David said, he said, Thy thoughts
toward me in Psalm 139. Remember he said, Thou, Lord,
knowest me. You know my down city, my upright.
And he said, There's not a thought, there's not a word I say, there's
not a thought I think, there's not a sin I've sinned, there's
not a thing I've ever done. You don't know me. You know everything
about me. And what causes fear also causes comfort. You know
me and I still believe you love me. And he says, such thoughts,
he said, how precious are our thoughts unto me, O God, how
great is the Son of Man. Thoughts of peace, he said. What
God is telling them, I'm out to do you good. Whatever God's
out to do, He does. He said, my thoughts toward you
are thoughts of peace, not evil. Verse 11, thoughts of peace,
not evil. God has brought evil on this
world. God's the one that does it. That's right. He sent evil spirits
to delude King Ahab and others. Yes, He did. Read it. The world
never read those things. This is the God who is God. And
all this evil, it didn't... Who was it? The old minor prophet
said, Shall there be evil in the land? The Lord hadn't done
it. You mean something can happen without him? No, it can't. And that gives us comfort. Because
he said, no evil shall withhold you, my people. Thoughts of peace. Why does God have, why are we
at peace with God? Somebody give me one word why
we have peace with God. Somebody, anybody. That's what Brother Ron read,
Ephesians 2. He is our peace. He hath made
peace for us by the sacrifice of himself. God poured out His
wrath and His anger on Jesus Christ, on Calvary's tree. And if you're in Him, there is
no wrath, no anger, no judgment. No evil shall befall you. Peace. See the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace by them that make peace. And that applies
more to our Lord than anybody else does. He made peace with
us. Peace with God. Do you understand
that? I know you do. You all said it. It was unanimous. Christ is our peace. You know
how few people know that. You know how many people say
he made his peace with God? It's a false peace. That's what
prophets, false prophets say, peace, peace. No, there's no
peace. He says in verse 11, I'm going
to give you an expected end. You know, that's what hope means. The word hope means expectation. If you trust in the Lord, you
hope, you trust Him, you believe He's going to do what He said
that you did. He'll never leave us or forsake us. He's given
us eternal life. We'll never perish. And He's
going to raise us up in the last day. He said He would. He that
believeth on Me, I'll raise him up to the last day. Brother,
we just better believe in nobody else but Him. What do you believe?
Him. And we'll raise Him up. Everybody that's just trusting
Him, the Lord says, I'm going to raise Him up. But what? Just stay right there, trusting
the Lord. I'm going to give you an expected
end. And then verse 12, you'll call on me and you shall go and
pray unto me. I will hearken unto you. You
shall seek me and find me. And he's saying here, he's not
saying if you do this. You notice this? He's not saying
if you do this. He says you will. You seek me and find me when
you shall search for me with all your heart. And there comes
a time when God really does a work in us, and we really do seek
Him with our whole heart. And we find Him. And His name
is Jesus Christ. He said, I will be found of you.
Like Philip. We found Him. Not until the Lord found him
first. Called him. And the Lord says, I will turn
away your captivity. See, it will not have dominion
over you. You're not going to be held captive by the God of
this world. A stronger than he has taken him, spoiled his goods. And now David recovered all the
spoils. And I will gather you from all
the nations, from all the places I've driven you, saith the Lord,
and I will bring you. I will. Notice how, I will, I
will, I will. Can't wait to get to Ezekiel.
Might deal with chapter 36. I will, I will, I will, I will.
Maybe 37. What about 16? What about 34? The great shepherd. I will, I
will, I will. I have driven you and I'll bring
you again. The place I've carried you away,
Captain. Isn't that good? Right smack
in the middle. There's the message in the middle
of the mess. There's mercy in the midst of that misery. Right
smack in the middle. In the heart of this is the gospel. Isn't that good? Okay, stand
with me.