in the book of Ezra. Ezra chapter
1. We find in the last chapter of
2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles 36, that Israel was in Babylonian
captivity. We also know that the Babylonians
were overtaken by the Persians while the children of Israel
were in Babylonian captivity. This account was given of Ezra
chapter one in second Chronicles 36 to some degree. Some of it
was already mentioned and it's literally just verbatim what
it says from verse 22 and 23 of second Chronicles 36 in chapter
one. It says the exact same thing
over again. We know that this captivity of the children of
Israel was completely based upon their unbelief and their worshiping
of abominations, bringing in abominations and, building high
places unto false gods and intermarrying from the people of the land.
We know that the Lord brought judgment because of this. And
that judgment was for them to be in captivity. The man that
the Lord used in order to bring them into that captivity was
Nebuchadnezzar. You probably might remember that
name as the one man that built a idol of himself and told everyone,
when you hear the sound of the music, bow before this God, this
idol. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
being Jews, they said, we will not bow unto this idol. He said,
if you don't bow, you're going to burn. And he cast the three
Hebrew men into the fiery furnace. We've probably heard that account
before, haven't we? We know at the end of that, we see the Lord's
grace in that, which says that the smell of smoke didn't even
get upon the children of Israel, which is a perfect picture of
what the Lord did for his people. The king looks in and said, did
we not cast three men bound into the fire? And they say, yeah,
Lord. And he says, I see four men and
the fourth is like unto the son of God. So we see that the Lord
Jesus Christ is in the fire, went through the fire of God's
wrath for his people and brought them safely through that judgment,
that wrath. So this was Nebuchadnezzar. He's
the one that put them in Babylonian captivity. He has a son named
Belshazzar. And Belshazzar, all this can
be found in the book of Daniel. This is several books that we're
going to be going through here in the next couple of weeks.
We'll see happen during this Babylonian captivity. Nehemiah,
Esther, even Daniel was part of this as well. But this captivity
that they were in during that time, it became time, you remember
Nebuchadnezzar was also the one that looks out over his vast
empire, if you will, his realm. He had conquered every known
kingdom on the earth at that time in that area. And so he looks and says, is
this not Babylon that I have created? Look how good of a job
I have done. And he puffs himself up. He's
in pride, right? And what does the Lord do? The Lord announces
immediately that the kingdom is going to be rent from him.
He's going to eat grass like an ox for seven years and the
dew of heaven is going to wet his hair. His hair is going to
grow and he's going to have claws as eagles claws. And for seven
years, that's exactly what took place. During that time, we know
that the Lord was merciful in keeping the children of Israel,
even though they were in Babylonian captivity, and the Lord allows
his mind to come back to him. Just as the prodigal son came
to himself, that's what the Lord does. He allowed that to end,
and Nebuchadnezzar came back to himself. What do you think
his confession was at that time? Was it, look how good I've done
waking myself up from eating grass for the last seven years.
No, certainly not. His proclamation was God is God
and there's no other God beside him. So he gave glory and honor
into the Lord, didn't he? He praised and worshiped the
Lord alone. After his reign, Belshazzar, his son, took over.
And Belshazzar, being lifted up in pride, much like his father
was, said, well, let's have a feast and go get the golden utensils
from the temple that came from Israel, that came from Jerusalem.
Bring those out. We'll drink out of them. And what was he
saying? He's saying, I'm God. I'm just as good as their God.
I'm just as good as they are. I'm going to be exalted myself. I'm going to take that which
is used for worship, and I'm going to get the glory for it.
And that's what man does by nature and religion, isn't it? Over
and over we see. So what happened to Belshazzar? Well, the scripture
says that night a hand wrote on the wall and he couldn't interpret
it and nobody else could interpret it, but the Lord called the Hebrew
man named Daniel to interpret it. And it literally says, you've
been weighed in the balance and you've been found wanting. The
kingdom is rent from you. That very night, the Persians
come in and slaughter them and take over the kingdom. So now
we see that the children of Israel went from Babylonian captivity
to Persian captivity, but they're still in the same place of Babylon.
They're still in the same city. They're just now, there's a new
ruler in charge. And that's where we see. And you remember the
Persians, a good way to remind us of the Persian king would
be King Darius. You remember Daniel and the lion's
den, the account where Daniel is thrown into the lion's den
because he was tricked. The king was tricked by his princes
and things that were just trying to get Daniel in trouble. And
the king said, well, if you worship any other God besides me or worship
any other king besides me, you'll be thrown into the den of lions.
King thought that's a really good idea. I like that. Not knowing
that Daniel prayed to his God, the Lord, Jehovah, three times
a day, prayed that the Lord would remove their captivity, to set
them free from their bondage. And so the king had to honor
his word, and he threw Daniel into the lion's den. His name
was Darius. He was a Persian king. Now here we are, as it's
been prophesied 70 years prior by Jeremiah. Jeremiah comes to
the nation Israel's leaders, and he says unto them, because
of everything you've done against God, you're going to be put in
bondage. You're going to be placed in
Babylonian captivity. and it's going to last for 70
years. I find it ironic that their response to that was kill
him, kill Jeremiah. You should never have said that
we're gonna be, he was just saying the word of the Lord, wasn't
he? He wasn't declaring what he knew, he was declaring what
God had said. Is that not what we try to do?
We attempt to just say what God said, and yet the Lord Jesus
Christ himself, what did they say of him? The man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the God man, declaring truth, nothing else but the truth
his entire life, what did they say to him? Let his blood be
upon us and on our children, away with this man, kill him.
We don't want the truth. Men want what they like to hear
that makes them feel good. So Jeremiah, they said, kill
him. Well, Jeremiah said, if you do, you're shedding innocent
blood. I'm just telling you what God said. And thankfully, the Lord
spared Jeremiah's life at that time. 200 years prior to this happening,
Isaiah spoke by the means and the exact name of the king that
was going to set the children of Israel free. And that's where
we're at in Israel right now. We're having the declaration
made to set the children of Israel free to go back to Jerusalem.
It was prophesied 200 years prior. He literally names him 200 years
prior as Cyrus the king. And that's where we're at right
now. Something I wanna mention to us this morning is for you
to think about this Babylonian captivity of the children of
Israel that they were in. The way that the Lord blessed
Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the way that they
were made princes in the land. They were given provinces to
oversee. They were made princes unto the king in captivity. They
did that with the king of Babylon. They did that with the king of
Babylon. After Nebuchadnezzar threw him in the fiery furnace,
after that, he appointed him even higher. They were over many,
many of the Babylonians. So the Lord took all of that
which would have seemed evil and turned it to good. And that's
what he does for his people time and time again throughout the
scripture. Can you imagine the difficulty that these men would
have had going from Babylonian captivity to Persian captivity?
Now there's a new king in charge. Now there's a new man that is
saying different things than the king did before, how difficult
it would have been. Having that relationship with
the king at that time, now that king's gone, now we have to deal
with this new guy. And we see that this new man,
we see that this Darius was the man. What did he do? He threw
Daniel in the lions den, didn't he? And what I'm trying to say
to us this morning is we sometimes have things going our way, it
seems like in life, physically speaking. We have things that's,
everything seems to be smooth and going well. And then all
of a sudden something comes and just knocks us off of our horse,
doesn't it? Isn't that what happened to Saul? Saul thought everything
was going great. He was actually delivering letters
to persecute the church, to execute believers. And the Lord knocked
him off his high horse. That's the gospel, isn't it?
That comes by and knocks us off of our horse and causes us to
look up from the dirt and say, Lord, Lord. And that was a confession
of who God is. And so no doubt, Daniel and Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, they're human. They had to feel some
form of anxiety because now there's a new king in charge. And yet
we see their life as God bringing them all the way through that
and bringing them all the way back to Jerusalem. That's what
he does for his people. He keeps us even in the midst
of bondage, even in the midst of our lives. Everything that's
going on around us is not taking God off guard. It's not confusing
him. It's not threatening him. It's
not frustrating him. God has purposed all these things to
come to pass. Rest in the finished work of Christ. Lord says your
ways are not my ways. Your thoughts are not my thoughts,
even though our thoughts and fears that so awesomely is sell
us our doubts and fears that just constantly overtake us. The Lord says this in Proverbs
16 for the Lord hath made all things for himself, all things,
all things for himself. Yay, even the wicked, even the
wicked. for the day of evil. The Lord
doeth whatsoever pleases Him, and who shall reply to Him? He
lets it rain on the just as well as the unjust. Our Lord delights
in mercy. Rest, no matter what you're facing,
look to Christ and rest in His finished work. Ezra chapter one. is where we
find that 70 years has passed. Everything that I've just described
to us has come to pass. Here we are in Ezra chapter one,
and it says in verse one, I'm gonna read the whole chapter,
the 11 verses without comment, so bear with me. Now in the first
year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by
the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, The Lord stirred up
the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation
throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord God of heaven hath given
me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build
him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all
his people? His God be with him. Let him
go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house
of the Lord God of Israel. He is the God which is in Jerusalem. Whosoever remaineth in any place
where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with
silver and with gold and with goods and with feasts beside
the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.
"'Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah "'and Benjamin
the priest and the Levites "'and all them whose spirit God hath
raised "'to go up to build the house of the Lord "'which is
in Jerusalem. "'And all they that were about them strengthened
their hands "'with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods,
"'with beasts and with precious things "'beside all that was
willingly offered. Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels
of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth
out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his gods.
Even those that Cyrus of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithradath,
the treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheth-Bezar, the prince
of Judah. And this is the number of them,
30 charges of gold, 1,000 charges of silver, nine and 20 knives,
30 basins of gold, silver basins of a second sort, 410, and another
vessels, 1,000. And the vessels of gold and silver
were 5,400. All these did Shesh Bejar bring
up with them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon
unto Jerusalem. In verse one, we see that the
Lord stirred the heart of the king. In verse five, we see that
the Lord raised up the children of Israel. Now that's the exact
same word translated both times, stirred and raised, and it means
awakened, awakened. The people that return, if you
were to look in chapter two and into chapter three, you would
find that it gives the exact number of the children of Israel
that are gonna go back to Jerusalem, and that number is 49,697. Now,
why is that necessary or why is that important? Well, it's
because it represents a remnant. The children of Israel, according
to Bible scholars and historians, Researched as best I could and
read some commentaries and different things. They believed that the
children of Israel would have been about 3 million strong at
this time. And yet all that returned was
49,697. I did the math out of curiosity and it's 1.65%, roughly
1.65%. Why so few? Why so few returned back to Jerusalem? We're
talking about freedom. We're talking about being set
free from their bondage of Babylon, bondage of Persia, and going
back home. Why? Only 1.65%. They had fallen
in love with the things of the world. They were farmers, no
doubt, before they went down to Babylonian captivity. They
would have been farmers, they would have been shepherds. Now
they've become educated men. They've become men of society.
They've become men of titles, of titles now. They've become
businessmen, merchants. They've been prosperous where
they were. They didn't want to return back
to the former things. They were enjoying life where they were
in that captivity. Verse five tells us how God had
a remnant. It says, rose up, Then rose up
the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin and the priest and
the Levites and all them whose spirit God had raised. The only reason that 1.65% went
back from the captivity is because God raised their spirit. I would remind you that that
word means awakened. It's also the same, it's roughly
the same translation as the word quickened, made alive, awakened,
made alive. We see that that's exactly, as
I mentioned before, what happened to Saul on the road to Damascus.
He's about to deliver letters to kill the Christians, to kill
the believers, and the Lord knocks him off of his high horse. He
awakened Saul, that's what happened. It's his purpose, brethren. How
many times have we read in the scripture of the Lord's purpose?
How many times have we read when the fullness of time has come?
How many times we read, and it came to pass? Did you know it,
and it came to pass is written in the scripture 396 times, that
phrase? 396 times, and it came to pass. What is the Lord telling us there? It's his time. All of it's his
time. It's his timing, it's his purpose. And that's exactly what we see
here in this text in Ezra. This is God declaring he is God.
This is God declaring that he is the supreme being. He is the
sovereign savior. He is vastly more wonderful and
glorious than we could ever possibly imagine. The half has not been
told as we've heard recently. In his time, all things transpire. I take great comfort in knowing
that he holds all things at his disposing. He holds all things
at his disposing. No matter what it is, he can
use and do whatsoever he wants to, when he wants to, in the
way that he sees fit. Told Job, where were you, Job,
when I laid the foundation of the world? Where were you when
I hung the stars in the sky, when I separated the sands from
the sea? Tell me if you have understanding, Job. Said that
he measured the waters in the hollow of his hand. Now, that,
to me is an incredible analogy to think about the waters of
the earth in the hand of our God, the vastness or the magnitude
of his size, but that doesn't begin to describe how awesome
he is. That doesn't begin to describe
how big or how marvelous he is. And yet, he takes the time to
stir the heart of his people. He takes the time to awaken His
people out of their slumber, out of their sleep, being dead
in trespasses and in sin, calls unto them and makes them alive
unto Him. We see this very clearly in this
chapter, even that the King's heart, the King's heart is in
the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, He turneth
it, whether so ever He will. This king is made to bow to the
Lord, and these men are made to return unto God the same way
the Lord calls his dead dog sinners in this day and time. He awakens
us by the preaching of the gospel according to his purpose. I've heard a lot of people talk
about the Lord having a plan. When the children of Israel went
to Babylon, it wasn't because of a plan God had, it was purpose,
wasn't it? What about the word control?
Well, that means supervise the acts thereof. Supervise the actions. The Lord's not supervising you
and I in our actions in order to try to do something. If I
can describe it, the best way I can describe it is, is the
Lord's sitting down. He's already done the work. He's already purposed
all things. It's already going to come to
pass. And yet we see the lot falls in the lap, doesn't it?
But the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. He gets all the
glory and salvation. If we don't come to him, he gets
all the glory and that's not coming to him and we're guilty.
Yet, This Lord, this God that I'm describing to us, he does
awaken his people in his time. Isn't that glorious? He didn't
have to. He didn't have to choose you
and he didn't have to choose me. It was for his glory and
his honor for his purpose. We rest in that, don't we? Lord,
we know that you're sovereign. The Lord orders and provides. He's all powerful. He's all powerful. He's all sovereign. The example
of that is in verse two. Then saith Cyrus, king of Persia,
the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth,
and he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which
is in Judea. He hath charged me to build him
a house. Does that seem odd to you that
the king of Persia being in a foreign land from the Jews. Now, all
the Jews are there. God has given him the purpose
of building him a house in Jerusalem, back where the Jews came from.
Does that seem odd to you at all? That seems incredibly strange
to me. He had nothing to gain physically
from doing this. There was no monetary gain to
be had. As a matter of fact, he was going to lose a lot of
the monetary gain that he had in waging the war to get to where
he's at. Do we see that? He was going
to have to give money for the temple to be built. He was going
to have to give up his slaves, if you will, in order for the
temple to be built. He is a pagan, believing, worshiping
king that says, the Lord hath given me all the kingdoms of
the earth, and he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem,
which is in Judah. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that
amazing? He tells us why in the very first
verse, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus. The Lord awakened
him out of sleep. The Lord made him to be alive. And this is exactly what he does
for his people. So what caused this prompt decision, if you
will, or choice? Well, it certainly wasn't that
he allowed Jesus to come into his heart, was it? It certainly
was not. It certainly wasn't that he was
going to take the first step and let God take the rest. That
certainly wasn't it. See, the Lord had made him awakened,
but he couldn't help but believe God because God had made him
awakened. Did you know that the Lord, whenever he brings you
to the knowledge of the truth, There is no chance that you will
ever stop believing the truth if the Lord's the one that brought
you to the truth. Isn't that glorious? He keeps his people. He keeps
us from falling. He keeps us from turning our
back from him. A good example of that would
be Peter. The Lord asked Peter, are you gonna go with me? Peter said, I'll go with you
all the way even to death. I'll die with you, Lord. And that's the
kind of boldness that we have sometimes, certainly, and that's
a good attitude to have. But Peter didn't know what he
was saying, did he? The Lord rebuked him and said, get behind
me, Satan. Talking to Peter. For Satan hath
the desire to sift thee as wheat. But he said, fear not, Peter,
for I have prayed for you that your faith fell not. Can that
faith fail? Certainly not, because it's the
Lord's faith, isn't it? But what of Judas and Peter?
What did they do? Judas sold the Lord for 30 pieces
of silver, and Peter betrayed the Lord by denying him three
times, even to a little girl. He was afraid of telling the
little girl he had association with the Lord. Peter never denied
who God was. He never denied who Christ was.
He never said, no, he's not God's Christ. He never said that. He
just said, I just, I don't know him. I don't know him out of
fear. So what was the difference between Peter and Judas? Christ
Jesus prayed for Peter. That's the difference. Peter
was made to be awakened. God stirred his spirit. God caused
him to be awakened unto him. That's the only difference. And
the Lord gets all the glory in it, doesn't he? Men say God wants to do something.
If God wanted to do something, he would do it. He's already
done everything that he set out to do, didn't he? He's not trying
to do something now. He's not manipulating society
in order to hopefully get an outcome that he would like to
have. Everything is coming to pass. Every second that is ticking
by is his time and his purpose before the foundation of the
world for the salvation of his people. What would cause 49,697 Jews
to leave luxury? What would cause you to be sitting
in this pew this morning? Why are we here? What causes
us to not go to another church or go, I don't even, you want
to say something fancier, something nicer, something more appealing
to the flesh, perhaps? What causes us to be here? Is
it not the Lord? Is it not that he had opened
up your eyes and he had declared unto you live and you were made
alive? Is it not that you can't help
but want to hear about the glorious gospel of God's sovereign grace
in election? That's why we're here, isn't
it? Who gets all the glory for that? Well, I certainly don't.
I was dead in trespasses and in sin. I was like this king
of Persia. I was in, worse than that, I
was in captivity. Captivity to myself, captivity
to my sin, captivity to Satan. And I was dead and I couldn't
do anything about it. And yet God passed by. and stirs, he
passes by and stirs the spirit. He awakens his people. He says,
live. And we're no longer in bondage.
We're no longer in bondage. We are being brought back to
the place of worship, been brought back to Jerusalem. That's where
the temple is. That's where the worship of God was to be. That's
where the Lord said, I'll meet with you. We've been brought
back in harmony with God by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. I find it ironic. I've used the
word ironic, I suppose, a couple of times this morning, but it's
just interesting to me to know that 70 years were the time that
they were in bondage. How long is a man's life according
to the scripture? Is it not three score and 10? That's 70. And
he says, by reason of strength, maybe it's four score, but that's
the number of man's time on earth is 70. That's the average. If you want to say it that way,
that's the time the Lord said, this is how long you're going to live.
70 years of bondage, isn't that what it is? 70 years of bondage
to sin, to self, 70 years of bondage. That's exactly what
happened to the children of Israel. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
four. Or then this is this is a Gospel
message. This is the Lord causing a king's
heart to be made awaken. This is the Lord bringing a people
of remnant back to build his temple. This is a Gospel message.
This is about the Lord getting all the glory and salvation. We see that we are the ones in
this bondage for 70 years. Galatians Chapter 4. In verse
3 tells us even so, When we were children, we're in bondage under
the elements of the world. But when the fullness of time
was come, there it is again, isn't it? We were in bondage,
but then the fullness of time came. God sent forth his son
made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that are under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because
you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son unto your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a
servant. We're no more in bondage. We're no more a servant, but
we are what? A son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. We were in bondage. 70 years
of bondage. That's all our life is. And we
were born in this bondage. Just as the children of Israel
were in bondage to Babylon and to Persia, we were in bondage,
weren't we? Born that way. Didn't even do
it to ourself. We didn't decide to be in bondage.
We were just born that way. And then the Lord did something. When the fullness of time came,
God sent forth his son, born of a woman. born under the law
to redeem them that were under the law. This is the gospel.
This is the good news. You're in bondage, you're dead
in trespasses and sin and the Lord and the fullness of time
and his perfect right to choose, chose to save you. Chose to save
his people. Isn't that glorious? Christ Jesus
fulfilled the promise made to his father. Why did he do that? Or for what purpose? To redeem
his people. The declaration of his name was
given unto Joseph and Mary. Angel said, call his name Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sin. He shall, he
did. He did, he saved his people from their sin. He cannot fail.
He did not fail. He did not try to do something.
He will never fail at anything he does because he's God. When
it comes time, when it comes time, he'll stir the spirit of
his elected bride and she will return unto him. you will return
it to him." Why? Because he saved us first and
then he calls us. He saved us before the foundation of the
world. He saved us in time. He had to be born to do it. But
as far as God was concerned, before time ever began, Christ
was the land slain from the foundation of the earth, wasn't he? So the
Lord viewed us in Christ before time ever even began. That's
how I don't even know the right word to use. That's how perfect
his salvation is. We've never not been in Christ.
Isn't that awesome? In his eyes, we've never been
in bondage. We've never sinned one time. We're perfect in Christ
Jesus. In time, he stirs us. He awakens
his people. He says he raises us up together,
makes us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He does
this exact same thing for every single elect sinner. that he
chose to save, that he chose to redeem. We are born not even
knowing that we're dead. We're born dead. That doesn't
make any sense to man, does it? I mean, naturally speaking, it
doesn't make sense to be born dead, but yet be alive physically.
See, it's a spiritual thing, just like the Lord told Nicodemus,
you must be born again. And the Lord stirs the spirit,
understand it's him giving his spirit to us. It's him giving
a new heart. It's him giving a new nature.
birthing us into the family of God. That's what the Lord does. So what we have here, what we have here is that in
time, the Lord awakens his people and he does it by mercy and he
does it by grace. and he does it according to his
own will. That's what he said, wasn't it?
Of his own will, but get he us, not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy. According to his
mercy hath he saved us. Christ accomplished this for
his people. Did you know mercy was earned
by Christ? Grace was merited by Christ. The only way that
you and I could have mercy to obtain it for it to be bestowed
is it had to be earned by someone else. And it was the Lord Jesus
Christ that earned it by his own blood. Have you ever thought
of it that way? The Lord Jesus Christ earned the right to bestow
grace and mercy to his people. The Lord did that. The only way
that could happen is if sufficient payment was made. Was the blood
of Christ not sufficient to redeem us? Is the blood of Christ not
sufficient to bring us back to God? Is the blood of Christ not
sufficient to present us as perfectly righteous? Yes, a thousand times
yes. The Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient
for the salvation of His people. Christ accomplished all of this
with no attribute of God whatsoever being compromised. No attribute
of God being compromised. Everything he was the fullness
of the Godhead bodily and he accomplished salvation by satisfying
justice for the Lord's people. So here we are, brethren. Being
born in trespasses and in sin, being born in equity, the same
as a dog returning to its vomit or a buzzard going after dead
flesh. That's what we were by nature. That's what we are. A
dog does not become a dog when it first makes its first bark.
Cat does not become a cat when it makes its first meow. It's
born a dog, isn't it? It's born a cat. Can the Ethiopian
change his skin or the leper his spot? Certainly not. Here
we are being born in bondage, being born in bondage. And men
prefer the bondage of Babylon to the worship of God. By nature,
that's what we are, that's what we would choose, is our self,
is our self-righteousness, is our good works. This is what
men would choose. Men prefer Babylon and its physical
wealth, its health, its prosperity. I watched a man on TV, and you
could probably figure out who I'm talking about. He's got a
mega church out there in Texas, and he just makes me sick to
my stomach every time I watch him, and I don't know why I stop.
As soon as I seen him, I stopped for a second, don't do that,
keep clicking, and I do it, and I did it anyways. And so this
pompous, he's wrong, he's a liar, there's so many words you could
use that's true, he's a false prophet. He's telling everyone
that it's all about health. God came and died for health,
wealth and prosperity of man. God came to give you health,
wealth and prosperity, and that's just not true. Christ Jesus came
to save sinners. He came to give us a life eternal,
not to save our flesh. They were born in bondage and
this flesh is going to die. If we had hope of this world
only, we'd be of all men most miserable. And after he gets
done talking about the health, wealth, and prosperity, he starts
talking about heaven and how the reward that we're gonna have
there with mansions and different things like that. He came to
give us Christ in glory for all eternity. Isn't that wonderful?
To be able to worship him in spirit and in truth forever and
ever and ever. That's what he came to do and
that's what he accomplished. He just awakens us in time and lets
us know that that's what he accomplished. Men prefer titles. I know a man
that left the gospel for a title. He left the gospel to obtain
a title, and he's never been back. Lord, keep us from titles. Keep us from needing that, the
praise of man. Keep us from popularity, power,
and pleasure. Lord, keep us and give us Christ. Shut us up to Christ. Gospel's the good news that says,
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. God hath chosen you from
the beginning to salvation, whereunto he called you by our gospel.
That's how he does it, isn't it? He stirs you by the gospel,
his gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord hath saved his people. The Lord stirs his people
in time and awakens them unto him. It's just a remnant, isn't
it? Doesn't do that for everybody,
does it? Just his remnant that he's gonna bring to him and present.
He's already presented us perfectly righteous. We're already seated
in Christ, but in time, he's gonna let us know about that.
You're in Galatians four. I wanna read two verses in closing.
Verse six and seven, and because you are sons, God hath sent you
forth, the spirit of his Son, into your hearts, crying, Abba,
Father. Wherefore thou art no more servant, but a Son. And
if a Son, then an heir of God through Christ. Christ will quicken
every elect sinner that he has saved, because he shed his blood
for them, because he loves them. because we are now crying Abba
Father according to His will and purpose. You know what Abba
Father means? See, the Lord is not the father of everyone. Understand
that, it's very important. He's the creator of everything.
but only the people of God get to call him Abba Father. It's
the same as whenever your child looks at you in need and says,
Daddy, Daddy, help me. Daddy, this is, something's wrong. Something's messed up. Is that
not what children do to their parents? They come when there's
a problem and they say, Daddy, and they expect Daddy to be able
to handle it and take care of it. That's what we do, and I
mean no disrespect unto our Heavenly Father when I say it that way,
but that's what Abba Father means. We're coming pleading as a child,
so for the little children to come unto me and forbid them
not, for such is the kingdom of heaven. We come as a mercy-begging
child, Lord. Abba Father, Daddy, please have
mercy upon me. Lord, save me by thy grace. What would make a king? decide
to set his servants for his slaves and go build a temple for the
Lord. What would make a sinner side with God against themselves
and cry out of a father? It has to be all of grace, all
of grace, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
in sin. He awakens us at his appointed time, amen. Father,
bless your word according as you promised. Thank you for awakening
the people in your time according to your will. Keep us in Christ's
name. Amen.