[0:00] If you don't mind turning your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. As we come together today, this is a very serious moment for the believers in the church.
[0:13] Just as we get into this, I want us to know just three simple and quick things to consider while we're taking the Lord's Supper. As we're getting into this, there's just some things that we do need to understand.
[0:26] The first thing that we need to understand is that this is for the believers in the church. It's for those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as their Savior. If you have not trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior to take away your sins, your sin debt, then I wouldn't ask you to partake in this.
[0:43] But instead, I would like to ask you guys to just repent of your sins, get right with the Holy God, and just come to know Jesus as your personal Savior.
[0:57] And for the believers in here that should partake in this, we need to understand that this is a very, very serious moment. This ordinance should not be taken lightly or flippantly.
[1:10] And so we need to go to the Bible and see what Scripture has to say about it. But as we go to this, if you have sin in your life and you haven't brought that before the God of heaven, now would be the time to do so.
[1:23] That's one of the reasons why we do the Lord's Supper is to continually get right with the Lord. But as we look into 1 Corinthians chapter 11, the first thing that we need to consider tonight is in verse 28, and it's ourselves.
[1:42] Verse 28 says, Church, tonight we need to consider or we need to examine ourselves.
[1:54] We need to take the time to look over how our walk with the Lord is. We need to go through our life and just ask God, Am I doing what I should be doing?
[2:05] Am I doing what you want me to? You know, the definition of examine is to inspect carefully. It's to go to your heart and to see what is, it's to see what your heart, the real state of it is, to see what the real state of your life is, what it's about.
[2:23] And so as we look into this, we need to check our attitudes. We need to say, Okay, do I have bitterness towards anybody? We just need to ask ourselves, Am I reading the Bible like I should?
[2:38] Do I have the correct heart that I should as a child of God? And as we go into this, are we really sensitive to the Holy Spirit? So we need to check our actions.
[2:49] We need to check our attitudes. And we need to just check our hearts. And so as we do that, we're going to go into this and just, we need to consider ourselves. The second thing that we need to do is we need to consider the cost.
[3:01] This is what I want to mainly focus on tonight, because this is what our lives are based upon. And that's the gospel. It's what Jesus Christ has done. And so we are able to come and do the Lord's Supper because of the cost that Jesus Christ has paid on the cross.
[3:18] And so we look at this in verse 29. It says, For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
[3:30] You know, we often take supper without thinking. A lot of times we just do it through the motions. We don't actually sit down and think about what is wrong in our lives, how we are not correct with the Lord.
[3:45] But this is a serious time. This is a time that we go to God and we say, God, I am repenting of everything that I've done wrong. I just need to get right with you.
[3:56] And as we go into this, we're not valuing, sometimes we don't value his sacrifice the way that we should. Sometimes we take it flippantly. We go through John 3.16 and we just go ahead and say it, but we don't really even think about the cost that he paid for our sin debt.
[4:16] But now it's not the time to play around. You know, whenever I was younger, I used to always want to do the Lord's Supper. I always saw my older friends doing it.
[4:28] And so I thought, all right, well, if everybody else is doing it, then I'm going to do it too. And I knew that I wasn't right with the Lord then, but I just did it in vain. I did it flippantly. That's not how we should do it.
[4:40] We should do this because we are doing it according to what the God, according to what the word of God wants for us. So as we look in, just in this passage, notice what Christ has said.
[4:52] In verse 24, he says, This is my body, which is broken for you. Verse 25, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye as oft as ye drink, in remembrance of me.
[5:05] For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. Also in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 5, it says, Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he says, Sacrifice and offerings thou wouldest not, but a body thou hast thou prepared me.
[5:24] You know, the blood of bulls and goats, they would never please God. But then we go to Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 22, and it says, And almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood is no remission.
[5:41] Church, it would take the sacrifice of a holy God to take away the sins of the world. And that's exactly what happened. See, each and every one of us have sinned.
[5:52] We've come short against, according to God's word, we've come short of the glory of God. And because of that, we don't deserve heaven. It doesn't matter what we believe.
[6:04] It matters what the truth is. And the truth is, we don't deserve that. But the good truth is that Jesus ended up coming down to this earth, and he died on the cross. And you know what he did?
[6:17] He was mocked for us. He was spat upon for us. He was beaten horrendously for us. And when that happened, this was humiliation for him, for the holy God of heaven, the almighty God.
[6:31] And it was all because of what we've done, because of our rebellion against the holy God. It's because he loved us. This is what Christ did.
[6:43] When we take this Lord's Supper, we need to consider the cost. We need to consider what has been taking place. That way, we should not take it flippantly. Because this is so important to realize what Christ has done in our lives.
[6:59] But the Supper is to point us back to just proclaiming Christ's death. He says in this passage, he says to show it. When we partake in the Supper, remember that the cost that Jesus has paid for our sins is the cost that we need to consider when we take the Lord's Supper.
[7:20] And then lastly, when you take the Lord's Supper, consider the judgment. In verse 31 and 32, he says, For if we judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
[7:31] But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. The good thing is that chastisement is for Christians. Condemnation is for the lost people.
[7:43] Those who have not trusted in Jesus Christ as their Savior, if you're here in this room, then you're part of the people who are condemned. The Bible says you're condemned already. And that means that you're on your way to hell right now.
[7:57] God didn't want that. He wanted you to become His family, and that's why He ended up sending His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross. But for us church, us children of God, we are not involved in the condemnation, but the chastisement.
[8:14] Because God treats us as His children. And therefore, if we are being disobedient and disrespecting, then He's just going to chastise us out of love. If we look at verse 31 and 32, we see that to be chastened in verse 32 is to practice discipline.
[8:31] It's just to educate. It's very similar to the punishment or the discipline that a parent would give to his child. But though it can be severe and maybe pretty hard chastisement, it's definitely a temporal judgment.
[8:50] Because it's not an eternal judgment. That's something that we can rejoice in. But we can rejoice knowing that God loves us enough to chastise us. But now is the time He wants us to get right with Him.
[9:02] He doesn't want us to get right with Him. He says that if we judge ourselves, we should not be judged. God deals with everyone differently.
[9:14] Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 7 says, If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with His sons. For what son is He whom the Father chasteneth not?
[9:25] In verse 8 he says, But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then ye are bastards and not sons. Church, we judge ourselves not to be judged by God.
[9:38] And he's saying that to take this time to think and to pray to God, to get right with Him, to judge ourselves right now. If there's sin in our lives, we need to get it right with God today.
[9:51] We need to get it right with God now. We shouldn't take of this unworthily. We shouldn't take it flippantly. Because there is a cost that has been paid. We need to consider that cost.
[10:02] We need to consider ourselves as we take this. So the world gets away with things that we can't get away with. But they will pay forever.
[10:15] And we're just chastised for a moment. But audience, just ask yourselves today, have you received the forgiveness available through Christ Jesus?
[10:27] He's paid a tremendous cost for you. Have you received that? It's not just a feeling. It's not just a spiritual high. It was a choice.
[10:40] It was actually a gift, the Bible says. Have you accepted it? Christian, are you on the verge of unworthily taking this Lord's Supper?
[10:51] Maybe it'd be because of pride. Maybe it'd be because you're just fighting with God over the sin. You don't want to get right with God. Church, don't do that. Now is the time to get right with God.
[11:06] To take this Lord's Supper. And that's what it's for. So that we can just consider ourselves. And so if you plan on asking forgiveness and continuing down the same path as you were just in your sin, then I would think that you'd still be part of the unworthily part.
[11:21] Don't do that either. Just get right with God today. Get right with God. But if you mean business, then God would be pleased with your participation.
[11:33] So now church, it's the time to get right with God. So if you're in here today and you know that you haven't been doing right, you know that sin has been in your life and you have not put it before the Lord, now's the time to do that.
[11:45] Now's the time to get right with the Lord. There are people in here who have sins that are just tucked deep down where they think that nobody knows.
[11:58] But the God of heaven knows. And if you're his child, then you will be chastened if you don't judge yourselves. But those who are not the children of God, the Bible says that you're probably not being chastened because you're not his children.
[12:14] But for church, for us church, it's time to get right with God. And so as we go to the bread and the juice tonight, I want to turn to Matthew chapter 26 and verse 26 through 28.
[12:30] Matthew chapter 26, verse 26 through 28. And so it says, and as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body.
[12:47] So as we now take the Lord's Supper, I would ask Brother David Dubois, if you don't mind praying for us as we take the bread.
[13:02] And now Matthew chapter 26 and verse 27 and 28. He says, and he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying, drink ye all of it for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for the many for the remission of sins.
[13:21] So, Brother John, if you don't mind praying for us as we take the... All right. Well, I'd like to invite you to take your Bibles and be turning to the book of Genesis.
[13:35] Genesis chapters 1 and 2 right there. We'll start out there as we get the slides up for this brief presentation. So, the Chinese language is somewhat unique for one particularly obvious reason and that being that whereas the majority of languages in the world have an alphabet, Chinese and Japanese use what are often called characters and characters not like characters in a story but characters just meaning symbols or pictures.
[14:03] And so, I've decided to call this Chinese characters with Bible characteristics and you'll see what I mean by that as we go through this. And so, just this last week we had the Through Mercy seminar.
[14:18] Let's see if this will... I'm not sure. Okay. There we go. During the Through Mercy seminar Brother Sam Wilson said if I can use your culture to share the gospel with you I will happily do that.
[14:29] And I was thinking well that actually applies very much to what I would like to share with you all here this evening. So, finished. Now that does not mean that my presentation is finished already.
[14:39] That simply means that the red character behind the English word finished is the Chinese word for finished or for complete. And just to share with you how that's broken down well actually what we'll do first is okay they may actually be controlling it back there I don't know.
[14:58] But so in Genesis chapter 2 and in verse 1 it says thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. now if we look at this Chinese character that means finished it actually can be broken down into these different parts so there in the middle you have the Chinese character for two these two horizontal lines there then you also have the word for what is in modern Chinese the word for son but way back when was more commonly used just for person and those two together actually combine to create a character that means first and then when you add a little radical a little extra symbol on top of that that kind of commonly means home or house you have finished and obviously in Genesis chapter 1 there what we have is the story of God creating two people and he created them into this home this family and he said that it was very good and it was finished and it was complete and that's what we read about there in Genesis chapter 2 and in verse 1 so that's just the first one here the next one that I'd like to share with you is the character that means create
[16:07] Bible says in Genesis chapter 2 and in verse 7 and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul now keep in mind this character this picture is the word in Chinese for create and it's broken down into these parts the character for dust with the character for life the character for mouth or breath and then the character for walk take dust breathe life into it and it starts walking and you have created pretty interesting alright so moving on to the next one garden so this character has actually been modified in modern China or they call it simplified but this is the traditional way to write the Chinese word for garden this would still be used in Hong Kong and in Macau and in Taiwan this way of writing it and this was used in all of China up until probably about 75 or so years ago when the communist party decided to simplify some of the characters but this is the way it had been written for thousands of years garden so in Genesis chapter 2 and in verse 8 it says and the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed well garden is dust and there's breath or mouth and then that bottom part there that's inside the box would represent two people and then the character for mouth if it's big and it's wrapped around the character it actually implies an enclosure and so you have dust that's been breathed into it the breath of life these two people and they are in this enclosed area you have this garden you have a garden alright so let's see ok this is where it starts to get interesting forbidden so the Chinese word for forbidden zi ok so Genesis chapter 2 and verse 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die god forbade them from eating the fruit of this tree well that part that's doubled at the top each of those means tree and then there that last part is an abbreviated form of the character for god or an abbreviated form of spirit so god forbade them from eating from two trees you say well why two trees well there was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but then also there is the tree of life and so people were forbidden from access to the two trees by god that's the word for forbidden ok next tempter so if we read in this would be like tempter or like devil or like like demon a character that means kind of all of those things ok
[19:14] Genesis chapter 3 and verse 1 now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the lord god had made and he said unto the woman yea hath god said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden well this one's pretty complicated but we'll break it down so that little part that's down in the bottom right hand corner would kind of imply like secret or mysterious there's that character that would represent a person or man there's a field and life and that is devil so the secret man or person that's that's living in a field it mentioned field there that's the devil and then the devil in the place with the two trees and under cover or in disguise that's the tempter and keep in mind a Chinese person wouldn't think to break it all down like this this isn't it's not like they all just know oh like when they look at this character they're not thinking oh well there's two trees and there's cover huh I wonder why it means that they're not really thinking that they just know when they see this symbol it would mean tempter or devil or demon but it's been built into the language from as far back as they've had their writing system okay so next covet now this one's really interesting so there's those two trees again there's the two trees kind of makes you wonder what that bottom half of the character might represent well okay so Genesis chapter three and verse six and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat wonder what that bottom half means there's the two trees again what is that bottom half woman so the word for covet in Chinese is a woman who is in a place with two trees covet okay moving on boat now we're jumping out of the creation account out of the fall account there and we're jumping further ahead into the book of Genesis here's the character for boat now if you look in Genesis chapter seven the account of the flood and in verse seven the bible says and Noah went in and his sons and his wife and his sons wives with him into the ark because of the waters of the flood now keep in mind he had three sons and they each had wives so four men four women look at the breakdown for boat a vessel with eight mouths or people on it this is a boat and it's kind of like you know we say well you know how many mouths do you have to feed or something like that well it's just a representation of people a vessel with eight people is a boat okay tower so jumping ahead to Genesis 11
[22:20] Genesis chapter 11 verses 3 and 4 and they said one to another go to let us make brick and burn them thoroughly and they had brick for stone and slime they had for mortar and they said go to let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven and let us make us a name lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth so that left hand side part there is unity which actually is the character for people and one mouth or one person so there is a bunch of people who are coming together as one unity and then the character for straw and the character for dust the ingredients to make bricks and you have a tower people combining together uniting together with straw and dust and you have a tower ok so we've looked at some of these different characters in Genesis really quick Chinese New Year now let me explain what I'm doing with this this is something a little bit different so in Chinese
[23:22] New Year the way that they would say it commonly in China is guanian and guanian is just kind of their way of what are you going to do for Chinese New Year or how are you going to celebrate Chinese New Year and they would say it needs a guanian how are you going to celebrate the New Year well during Chinese New Year what they do is they have these around their doors of their house they'll put these like red banners up over and around their doors and they'll write these different blessings and things on them but the point is you put a banner on the left hand side on the right hand side and then up there along the top and the story goes like this a long time ago there was a monster called the nian and the the nian is the second character in that phrase there there was a monster called the nian and the nian came every year wanting to eat your children and they couldn't figure out what to do about this nian he was really pesky and so what they what happened is this old man shows up one day and says
[24:31] I have the solution to the nian problem here's what we're going to do he doesn't like the color red so we're going to put these red things around our doors so that he doesn't come in to eat our children and he also doesn't like really loud noises so we'll shoot off a lot of firecrackers they're Chinese so they have to throw in that part but obviously you can see where that would draw from in fact we even taking the Lord's Supper tonight very interesting but this word for Chinese New Year guanian the guanian means pass and then nian or the nian so the nian monster and it's now the word the name of that monster is now their word for year in the Chinese language and so guanian means the passing of the nian monster or Passover so every year in China they celebrate this holiday that more or less is them celebrating Passover where they put the red over the door and you say well do they realize all of this?
[25:46] no and in fact what's really strange is many believers in China don't even realize this and you you kind of walk them through it and they say wow I never noticed that I've read Exodus 12 I know the account of the Passover there in Exodus but I never made this connection but it's obviously there and the similarities are striking okay one last thing here the Chinese word for righteous this is my all time favorite righteous is a phenomenal picture of the gospel because it's two parts the character for lamb and the character for me because somehow thousands of years ago in ancient China they had this idea that if I was going to be righteous I needed to be under the lamb I needed to be under the lamb and you say well how did they know all of this well there's a lot of theories that I have about that and that's for another time but maybe you can find me later or maybe I'll have another opportunity to share a bit about that but in
[26:48] Chinese the way to write righteousness or righteous is to put a lamb over yourself to put a lamb over me and so I say all of that to say it's really neat how God has or how this has been God has preserved this in their language without them really even knowing perhaps but also to say pray for China and maybe this is even a tool that you could use to share the gospel with Chinese people if you're interested I can get you this information I'd be happy to share that with you take your Bibles if you would and go with me to Jeremiah chapter 39 and verse 18 Jeremiah chapter 39 and verse 18 my response to the word of God has consequences my response to the word of God has consequences so I want you to look at the story of two different people here in this passage of scripture read with me if you would Jeremiah 39 18 which is like the last part and we'll go through quite a bit of the scripture in the 15 or so minutes I've got for you but look at this 18
[27:48] I will surely deliver thee he's talking to Ebedmelech he said I will surely deliver thee thou shalt not fall by the sword but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee because thou has put thy trust in me says the Lord so this guy's gonna come out he's gonna win two guys in the story for us to look at tonight one is a king named Zedekiah and he is a persistently rebellious king and he is going to pay the price for this rebellion in the passage tonight it's gonna be a horrible price that you'll read about in a minute there's this other guy in the story Abimelech he's an Ethiopian eunuch and he is going to be worried about what happens to the man of God and he's gonna be trying to take care of the man of God and God is going to see that and bless it we're going to find in this passage scripture that sin has horrible consequences but honoring
[28:53] God is always rewarded go with me if you would to Jeremiah chapter 38 and verse 2 and just quickly read some verses with me Zedekiah's rebellion continues if you recall as we've been going through this Zedekiah doesn't listen to the man of God he doesn't listen to Jeremiah as he preaches and in verse 2 the Bible says thus saith Lord he that remains shall die so Zedekiah is cautioned by Jeremiah he tells him in verse 2 if you will leave the city and go out to the Chaldeans if you'll surrender you'll live and if you'll surrender they'll take over the city but they won't burn the city but the politicians are upset with Jeremiah they say Jeremiah's message is crippling their army look at 38 4 underline he weakens the hands of the men of war he is not interested in the welfare of the people oh
[29:54] Jeremiah just wants to hurt the people his message is crippling our army so in anger they cast Jeremiah into a dungeon in verse 5 Zedekiah the king said behold he's in your hand y'all do what you want with him and in verse 6 they took Jeremiah and they cast him into a dungeon so it's like a well with no water in it it's just got mud in the bottom and he begins to sink like in quick sand oh Zedekiah still rebelling oh Zedekiah still not showing the respect he ought to but in Jeremiah chapter 38 and verse 7 Abimelech the Ethiopian respect is clearly seen look if you would at chapter 38 and verse 7 when Abimelech the Ethiopian heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon he went to the king he goes into the king and he said man I'm concerned about Jeremiah he said these men in verse 9 they have done evil they have cast him into the dungeon
[30:57] I think he might die from hunger you know there's no bread in the city he can't go get anything to eat Abimelech cared for Jeremiah he got permission took 30 men with him in verse 10 and he goes down and he takes Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon before he dies and while he's doing it he is so tender and kind before they threw him in the pit but in Jeremiah 38 and 11 he took some old rags he took some old claws and he put them around the rope and he lowered them down to Jeremiah and he said with great kindness and very tenderness in verse 12 he said hey put these rags under your armpits put them under your armpits on the rope and I'll pull you out of there and he treated Jeremiah very differently than the world had look at verse 13 they drew up Jeremiah with cords and took him up out of the dungeon and remained in the court of the prison so the next thing that happens is oh
[32:00] Zedekiah again rejects the counsel of God's man you got a picture here are you with me so you got this one man Zedekiah he's a king he's all powerful he has the life of Jeremiah in his hands he doesn't like Jeremiah saying the things he says he throws Jeremiah in the in the muddy hole in the dungeon and puts him in there Abimelech goes and gets him out and then Jeremiah speaks once again to Zedekiah the king calls for him in verse 14 Jeremiah 38 14 Zedekiah the king sent and he took Jeremiah and he said Jeremiah I'll ask you a thing hide nothing from me he calls the king in and he says I want to know what you got to say and if you listen to verse 15 Jeremiah considers how he ought to answer and look what he said in verse 15 if you got an ink pen underline or circle if I declare unto thee look at that he said if I tell you the truth what's going to happen here if
[33:02] I tell you the truth you kill me if I tell you the truth you kill me and by the way if I don't answer you because you'll either kill me or you won't answer so Jeremiah repeats that same counsel to the king if you go down to verse 16 he Zedekiah swears I won't kill you I won't I don't want anybody to know I'm giving you my word but in private here I give you my word I won't harm you everything is going to be all right I thou wilt assuredly if you will surrender yourself walk out of the city walk over to the king of the Chaldeans if you'll go to him verse 17 your soul will live and the city will not be burned with fire you'll live and your house will live your kids will live nobody is going to do anything to your kids just do what
[34:11] I say verse 18 he says but I go look at verse 18 if thou wilt not go forth if you decide not to do what God told Jeremiah to tell you to do this city is going to be put in the hands of the Chaldeans and they will burn it and you will die you will not escape what's really funny here is Zedekiah wants to know what God's got to say but Zedekiah doesn't like what God's got to say and he's angry with what God's got to say and so now he's called for Jeremiah and in private he wants to know he really wants Jeremiah to say to him hey we're going to win and the Chaldeans are going to leave and you're going to have victory and king everything is going to go well but that's not the message God's given old Jeremiah so now it's been clear Zedekiah if you'll just do right God's going to let you live your choice leave surrender live fight or run you die fight or run and you die in verse 19 the king doesn't trust
[35:24] Jeremiah and what he's saying he says my own people would hurt me if I were to surrender look in verse 19 he said Zedekiah the king said I'm afraid of the Jews he's a Jew and he's afraid of his own people he said if I surrender and I go out there my own people look and underline it they'll deliver me and they'll mock me they'll try to hurt me I don't want to do that that's not what I want to do the trouble is that Zedekiah doesn't like to obey Zedekiah doesn't like to obey look if you would at Jeremiah 38 and verse 20 Jeremiah said they will not deliver you they'll not turn you in put a big circle around what Jeremiah is telling the king to do which is what God is telling me to do which is what God is telling you to do obey obey I beg you I beseech you just do what
[36:26] God says not easy not popular just do it and look at verse 20 if you do that it shall be well unto thee your soul will live I know you don't want to surrender I know you don't want to run the embarrassment I know you don't want to run the risk but just go out of the city and hold a white flag up and surrender obey king I'm going to say it again because you don't seem to listen verse 21 if you refuse to go forth if you refuse to surrender if you refuse to hold up the white flag and go forth verse 22 it says all the women that are left in the king of Judah's house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes these women shall say thy friends have set the own and have revealed to you see thy feet are sunk in mire and they are turned away back said you're going to take your women if you do what I tell you you'll live you don't do what
[37:35] I tell you they're coming for your women in verse 23 bring out all thy wives and thy children and thou shalt not escape out of their hand if you don't do what you're supposed to if you don't obey you won't escape your wives won't escape your children won't escape and this city will be burned with fire so here's the key how do I react when God tells me what to do as I read and study my Bible how do I handle how do I respond to the word of God and it has consequences in my life and Zedekiah received chastisement right here in the story look at chapter 39 verse 2 in Jeremiah chapter 9 verse 32 the city was destroyed it says in verse 2 the city was broken up these Chaldeans came in they destroyed the city they're going to tear down the walls they're going to burn the city and the coward ran and was captured and he didn't surrender look at verse 4 and
[38:42] Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them and all the men of war when he saw the enemy he fled he ran he said I need to escape from my life I can't trust what God said he would do to take care of me and he fled and he went out of the city by night he's running for his life all give up he lives his wives live his children live his city stands God's told him and God's asked him to obey but Zedekiah has given a choice and Zedekiah his choice is I won't do that in verse 5 as Zedekiah goes running away they caught him underline in verse 5 they overtook Zedekiah they overtook him they caught up to him and got him and in he gave judgment upon him here it comes when you look back now you're like
[39:48] Zedekiah just listened but guess what happens his children were killed before his eyes if you read verse 6 it says the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah and Riblah before his eyes and the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah it's a terrible thing God said it the man refused and the consequences were horrendous he has now watched them die I'd like to pause and say we've been commanded to repent of our sin and trust Jesus Christ as our savior we've got to hold up a white flag and surrender ourselves we've got to walk out to the king and say I can't I've messed up I've sinned I've failed I need somebody bigger than me but many of us are angry with God and say ugly things to
[40:48] God and have an attitude with God and when we do that judgment comes because if you refuse the consequences will be real last thing he saw was his leaders and his children dying and in verse seven they put out his eyes and left him blind more over he put out Zedekiah's eyes the king carved out Zedekiah's eyes what a terrible way to end this part of your life had you listened you would have been cared for had you listened your children would have had help had you listened the city wouldn't have been burned but next his castle is burned to the ground look in verse eight they burned the king's house now you got a whole different story the next story is just crazy it's probably one of the most beautiful pictures of our salvation of what
[41:50] God did for us but this Abimelech is rewarded completely look look if you would when they destroy Judah and they take the city they give consideration only to the very poorest they take anybody that's got any money anybody that's live in NOS and they take them with them and kill them or make slaves of them Jeremiah 39 10 they left of the poor of the people which had nothing that was a good day to be poor amen that was a good day to be poor you're so poor we won't mess with you and we'll leave you here and they carried Jeremiah home in verse 14 even the wicked king said somebody go get that preacher and take him home give him a break verse 14 they took they sent and took Jeremiah out of the court and said that he should carry him home so he dwelt among the people he went back to his home but
[42:51] Jeremiah has got a beautiful word for Abedmelech he communicates that God is going to take care of him in verse 15 the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah and he says to Abedmelech in verse 16 yep the city is going to be destroyed I will bring my words he says Abedmelech in verse 16 I will bring my words upon this city for evil and not for good and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee but Abedmelech I'll take care of you verse 17 you will not be given into the hand of the men that you're afraid of and I'll tell you why Abedmelech it's your conviction that I'm telling the truth you believe me look at verse 18 I will surely deliver thee thou shalt not fall with a sword but thy life shall be for a prey why God will save you God will rescue you not because you're an
[43:51] Ethiopian not because you're a eunuch not even because you were so good to Jeremiah but you believed God I want to believe God don't you want to believe God I want to look at it and say boy I know that Jesus died on a cross and paid my sin debt I know that Jesus gives me eternal life I know that Jesus does all these things in my life I want to know that I want to believe that I want to trust God with that let me end this with this how you respond to the word of God has consequences oh Zedekiah I don't know you know if this were a movie it would be R rated for all the blood and gore I mean Zedekiah says to God I'm not going to do what you tell me to do I reject your counsel I will not obey Jeremiah even looked at him and said I beg you just obey God he said I'm not going to do it instead of surrendering himself he takes off running to save himself and that's when he loses he runs doesn't surrender and he loses and his kids are killed in front of him and then they poke his eyes out what a terrible way to go he disobeyed but oh
[45:10] Abimelech we know this you know why he took care of the prophet because he believed I know that because it says in verse 18 I'll save you because you believed have you believed have you trusted Christ as your savior do you know for a fact that you'll go to heaven because you have come to the place that you quit trying to be so elevated in your scholarly knowledge and just humbly said I'll believe God do what he says calling you to do that right now with your heads bowed and your eyes closed let's have a word of prayer Father save those that do save those that don't know you and I pray God you help us to obey you and to respond correctly to your word and God will give you praise for what you're doing because you are wonderful and you are almighty and you are great with heads bowed and eyes closed do you know if you died today you'd go to heaven do you know that have you realized that you've sinned and just accept this
[46:26] I have sinned the Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God accept that believe it and make it real in your life and trust Jesus the Bible says that God commended God showed God proved his love toward us and while we were yet sinners Christ died for us you can trust God trust him right now know for a fact that you'll go to heaven when you die if you're not saved I ask you to please speak to someone trust Jesus tonight and as a Christian I challenge you to obey God and what he says to us father in heaven we love you praise you and thank you please work in our lives but he has bowed eyes closed you know whether or not God has spoken to you if you want to talk to somebody step forward I'll meet you if you want to come and pray do that let's do some business with God and whenever you're finished praying you can send and sing with Stephen as he leads us in a song