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Rescue the Perishing (Jeremiah 38:1-13)
10 Plays21 days ago
The Lord Jesus Christ said that the reason He came to this earth was “…to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10.
This is also the mission of the church. Christ’s disciples are to rescue those who are perishing in their sin. Jude 23 says, “save others by snatching (pulling) them out of the fire…”
Let’s look at a biblical example of a great rescue story. Jeremiah the prophet warned the people of Jerusalem of impending judgment from the Babylonians and exhorted them to surrender. They did not like the message and threw Jeremiah into a cistern as punishment. But thankfully, one man tried his best to deliver the prophet from death. His intervention made the difference!
What a vivid picture of how to reach others for Christ!
Condemnation of the Perishing, 38:1-6
Motivation toward the Perishing, 38:7
Mediation on behalf of the Perishing, 38:8-9
Authorization concerning the Perishing, 38:10
Expiration of the Perishing, 38:10
Cooperation for the sake of the Perishing, 38:10-11
Operation for the Perishing, 38:11-12
Consideration of the Perishing, 38:11-12
Explanation to the Perishing, 38:12
Invitation to the Perishing, 38:12-13
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Growing in Grace Devotions and Inspirations
Hosted by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam Street
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Prayer
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message. If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, FBCColumbusTX.org. And now take your copy of God's timeless word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
Mission to Encourage Ethiopian Pastors
00:00:43
Speaker
Welcome back to Growing in Grace. I'm so excited these days because the Lord has opened up an opportunity for our church to just encourage and maybe train some pastors that are located in the African country of Ethiopia.
Jeremiah's Story and Its Parallels to Christ
00:01:00
Speaker
And so sort of out of just sheer joy and gratitude to God, I thought we would look at an Ethiopian that is featured in Jeremiah, Chapter 38.
00:01:11
Speaker
And what I think he's doing right, this man is rescuing someone who's perishing. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ said that the reason he came to this earth was to seek and to save the lost. That's what he said in Luke 19.10.
00:01:26
Speaker
But in Jude, it also says that as disciples, as those who are committed to following Christ, that we are called to the same mission, that we should be, it says, save others by snatching them. It means pulling them out of the fire.
00:01:44
Speaker
Well, in the passage that I'm about to read from Jeremiah 38, it's not the image of a fire pit, but it's definitely the image of a dark cistern is what they would call them. ah A dark well, if you will, that had dried up. It had mud at the bottom. But in that well, probably some 20 feet down was a prophet named Jeremiah. He had preached the word of God to the people of Jerusalem and Judah, and they didn't want to hear it. And so some of them threw him in there, but there was an Ethiopian man, and somehow God touched his heart, and he made this gallant effort to get him out of there. So I want us to look at this great picture I feel
00:02:32
Speaker
of how can we also be a part of Christ's mission? How can we snatch people out of the pit that is surely coming for those who do not trust Jesus Christ and look to Him for salvation? So let me read ah the first first few verses anyway and then make some comments sort of as we go along.
00:02:54
Speaker
Jeremiah 38 verse 1 starts this way. Now, Shephatiah, the son of Matan, Gedaliah, the son of Pashur, Jukal, the son of Shelemiah, and Pashur, the son of Makiah, heard the words that Jeremiah was saying to all the people. Thus says the Lord,
00:03:16
Speaker
He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. But he who goes out to the Chaldeans shall live. He shall have his life as a prize of war and live. Thus says the Lord, this city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon and be taken.
Ebed Melech's Courage and Christian Duty
00:03:40
Speaker
And then the officials said to the king, let this man be put to death, for he is weakening the hands of the soldiers who are left in this city and the hands of all the people by speaking such words to them. For this man is not seeking the welfare of this people, but their harm.
00:04:01
Speaker
King Zedekiah said, Behold, he is in your hands, for the king can do nothing against you. So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king's son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.
00:04:31
Speaker
Let's just start out by looking at things and trying to to make some parallel statements. or so I draw some corollaries, some spiritual truths from this story that I think also could be backed up with New Testament doctrine about salvation. The first thing would be this. you know I think about the condemnation.
00:04:54
Speaker
of this perishing man. There he is in verses one through six. In his case, he had done nothing wrong. But Jesus says in Luke 13, verses three and five, a let that ah unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. And of course, the perishing there is like in the words of John 3 16.
00:05:22
Speaker
that we have to put our trust in Christ so that we will not perish eternally. You know, Jesus said that if someone does not believe, He made these statements right after John 3.16, which is a great verse about God's love and how He sent His Son so that we would not perish. But He goes on to say, just a couple of verses later,
00:05:45
Speaker
in John 3.18, that for those who do not believe, they're condemned already. And so the problem is that even though there was a group of people that said, let this man be put to death, like we saw in verse 4 of our text here in Jeremiah 38, it's the same for us. We are under the condemnation of our own sin.
00:06:09
Speaker
Mankind in general, we deserve punishment.
The Urgency of Evangelism
00:06:13
Speaker
We deserve judgment from God. And so what are we going to do? Because if if we don't put our faith and our trust in Christ, then something terrible is going to happen one of these days when we enter out into eternity. But I want you to see something that happened in verse 7. It's unexpected in the text, but it says, when Ebed Melch The Ethiopian, a eunuch, who was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. The king was sitting in the in the Benjamin Gate.
00:06:52
Speaker
Ebed Melech went from the king's house and said to the king, My lord, the king, these men have done evil in all that they did to Jeremiah the prophet by casting him into the cistern, and he will die there of hunger, for there is no bread left in the city.
00:07:13
Speaker
So I just want to make a few statements here before we proceed to verse 10. The second principle that I see sort of similar is the motivation toward the perishing. You know, the Ethiopian man had a lot of responsibility ah to the king. It said he worked in the king's house as like a servant. But you know, he could have turned away.
00:07:38
Speaker
He could have said, you know, my life is hard too. I realize that Jeremiah the prophet is going through a difficult time. He's got these guys that did not want to hear that message. But so is my life difficult. You know, the parable of the Good Samaritan is ah is a story that reminds us that sometimes when we're going through life, we see people in need and either we can turn away from the need or we can turn toward the need.
00:08:06
Speaker
And in the the Good Samaritan parable, you'll remember that a Samaritan man, he had compassion. And so he stopped and he helped a man who had been robbed and beaten and left on the side of the road. That parable is found in Luke 10.33. But it says here that he heard they had put Jeremiah into the cistern.
00:08:30
Speaker
I don't know what motivated ah this Ethiopian man to care about a Jewish prophet, but all I know is compassion filled his heart.
00:08:41
Speaker
Maybe he thought, oh my goodness, it's 20 feet down. Maybe he thought, I know that cistern. I know where they placed him. He's going to die. There's no water down in there. And so he's just going to be stuck in mud and he won't be able to get out. Who could crawl out of a of a cylinder shaped hole in the ground that goes down for 20 feet? There's no way to climb out. And so what does he do?
00:09:09
Speaker
I think he did something that we can do as Christians, because you know what? We know the king. We know the one that the father sent to die on the cross for our sins. And so we can do the same thing that Eben Melech, the Ethiopian, did. It says that he went and he interceded. He made a plea to the king.
00:09:33
Speaker
And his intervention in a dispute brought a resolution to that dispute. And so I thought that was so powerful. But how can we pray for the lost? You know, I think there are scriptures like Colossians 4, 2 through 6, or Acts 26, verse 18, that tell us, how can we pray for those who are still living in darkness, just like Jeremiah the prophet was? But certainly we would say, Lord,
00:10:02
Speaker
I want to come on behalf of my neighbor. I want to come on behalf of a brother or a sister or a son or a daughter or a father or a mother. Who is it that you know that is perishing in their sins? You know, it says that the king commanded. That's what verse 10 is going to say. And so I want you to listen next in this Verse 10, for the authorization concerning the perishing. Earlier, the king had said, I can't do anything because these were nobles who wanted to cast Jeremiah down into that pit. But I wonder if the more he thought about it and the more he heard the mediation on behalf of the perishing, the more the king thought, you know what?
Teamwork in Evangelism
00:10:49
Speaker
I can do something about it. And here's what it says in verse 10.
00:10:54
Speaker
Then the king commanded Ebed Melch the Ethiopian, take 30 men with you from here and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies." Wow, isn't that cool? Whenever the one in authority says, you know what? I'm giving you the authority to go and to get them out of that pit. Do you know that Jesus said all authority?
00:11:23
Speaker
is given to him in heaven, but also on this earth. And based on that authority, he tells each Christian today, go and make disciples of all the nations. So we have been given authority by the King to lift those who like Jeremiah the prophet are in some dark place, like a dark cistern.
00:11:47
Speaker
And I believe that we need to take people with us. You know, this king, this great king, the Lord Jesus Christ, hey, I'm telling you, he has the resources to get the people out of the pit. And so I thought to myself, he says here, he will die there of hunger. So there's an urgency. Do you know the fifth principle that I think applies? Even if you look at New Testament doctrines, it is,
00:12:17
Speaker
that someday we will die physically. And when we die physically, we will face God spiritually. Our soul will face Him. And so there's an urgency that we must realize time is running out. you know He says, for there's no bread left in the city. That was what they had said ah earlier in this text.
00:12:41
Speaker
And so the king knows he must act quickly because he doesn't know how long will the prophet last in that cistern. When will he just drop dead in there? You know, death is a mystery for all of us. You know, just recently in our community, we had a young football player to pass away. And he developed some ah serious disease that came from a mosquito.
00:13:09
Speaker
And so even though he was still young and in his prime, we never know the expiration date of the perishing when the time that they have to hear the gospel will expire and they will stand before God and give account. So that's why we must act quickly. But we also must act in cooperation with others. I love that that the king said, you know what? You can take 30 men with you.
00:13:37
Speaker
Listen to what verse 11 says, so Ebenmelch took the men with him and went to the house of the king to a wardrobe in the storehouse and took from there old rags and worn out clothes which he let down to Jeremiah in the cistern by ropes.
00:13:56
Speaker
I thought to myself, you know, how many people will it take to bring
Clear Communication of the Gospel
00:14:01
Speaker
a soul to Jesus Christ? You know, friend, I'm saying this because I care. I care about the lost, but I also care about you. I don't want you to miss how God will use you.
00:14:12
Speaker
Do you know that scholars who study people who come to know Christ, I mean, researchers who are looking at missions, they're looking at evangelism across the United States, they tell us that on average, the average person has to hear the gospel eight times before they finally get it.
00:14:33
Speaker
before they will allow the conviction of the Holy Spirit to bless the implanted seed of the gospel, of the Word, and for them to come to repentance. And so just think about how you need to take others with you. You know, it might be that the man you're trying to reach, he may be a computer person. He may be an automobile mechanic.
00:14:55
Speaker
He may be a farmer or he may be a student. And so someone that's like him might have a better opportunity to reach him or her ah more than you, more than me. And so we have to say, Lord, I want to cooperate with others so that together we can, for the sake of the perishing, rescue these people.
00:15:18
Speaker
You know, it's interesting too when you look at verses 10 and 11, you know, it it kind of begins to give us a hint of the tremendous operation that it took for the perishing. Have you ever read any of the military operations where they go in and they rescue people that are being held hostage by a foreign terrorist or some foreign entity?
00:15:41
Speaker
it takes It takes thought, it takes planning, it takes intentionality. You can't just think to yourself, okay, well what I'm going to do is I'm just going to take a flyer. I'm going to print up a flyer to our event and I'm going to drop it over in their mailbox or something like that.
00:16:01
Speaker
You know what, can you imagine dropping a flyer down into the dark well ah to say to to you know Jeremiah the prophet, look, we're having something special at the temple in Jerusalem. We would love for you to attend.
00:16:16
Speaker
He can't come. He can't get out of the darkness. He can't even read in the darkness. Do you know what we have to do? Jesus has commissioned us with this simple word, go. Go and make disciples. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. We have to go where they are. You know why? Because spiritually,
00:16:39
Speaker
They cannot come to where we are. So that's why we have to go to where they are. And so he knew that they were going to have to lift this man out of the pit 20 feet deep, maybe perhaps 10 feet wide. So it's very narrow, very constricted place. That's where we have to go. And so when we go, I want to give you an eighth principle about evangelism that I think is important that we need to remember.
00:17:09
Speaker
How about this one? Consideration of the perishing. Consideration of the perishing. You know, sometimes I think we forget what it's like to be a lost man, a lost woman when we were spiritually apart from Christ. Listen to what ah verse 12 tells us about this Ethiopian man. Then Ebed Melech, the Ethiopian, said to Jeremiah,
00:17:34
Speaker
put the rags and clothes between your armpits and the ropes. Jeremiah did so. Then they drew Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of the cistern, and Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.
00:17:53
Speaker
You know, if we're not careful, we could rip the skin of the of the person that we're trying to lift out of that dark place with a rope only. If we're not careful, we could pull their shoulder out of joint if we're just going to have them hang on to it with one arm. You know, 1 Peter 3.15 tells us how we need to do biblical apologetics. But notice that it says,
00:18:20
Speaker
Do it with gentleness and respect. You know, people can sense when we're trying to reach out to them, whether we genuinely care about them or whether we don't. And so we need to say, Lord, help me use the ropes and the rags, the gospel plus the gentleness.
Cultural Relevance in Gospel Sharing
00:18:42
Speaker
Don't be harsh when you're going to rescue these who are down there in the pits, who are separated from God. Don't be surprised if it's very difficult for them
00:18:53
Speaker
We need to reach out to them and to say, look, I want to help you. As a matter of fact, i I think there's something here. I didn't see it before, but the more times that I read this passage, the more it came back to me over and over again. You know what I thought?
00:19:11
Speaker
We have to explain. We have to explain the gospel. The lost do not know what to do. And so listen to this Ethiopian as he tries to tell Jeremiah the prophet exactly what he needs him to do. Eben Melech, the Ethiopian, said to Jeremiah, put the rags and clothes between your armpits and the ropes.
00:19:37
Speaker
Jeremiah did so. I thought to myself, wow, you know he's not taking anything for granted. So what he's saying is, I'm going to explain to you how this rescue is going to happen. This is how it happens. This is what we're going to do. I have plenty of men at the top of this pit.
00:19:58
Speaker
We're going to need you to put the rags, the clothing underneath your armpits so it won't rip your skin, so it won't pull out your ah your shoulders. and ah where We need you to put the rope under there as well so there's firmness, so that you won't be halfway up and then the the the clothing tears or something like that.
00:20:22
Speaker
How would you, my friend, explain to someone who's not yet a Christian how they can come to know Christ? I really think we need to put more time and thought into that to really think it through and say, Lord, how can I take the gospel message and put it into the language of the one that I'm about to share the gospel with? You know,
Invitation to Salvation
00:20:46
Speaker
just recently we had a concert And at the concert, our youth pastor, he explained the gospel to these young people and and the band that we invited in. Maybe it's not the kind of music that you would prefer. Maybe you prefer an organ or nice soft piano music or maybe an acoustic guitar, you know, something like that.
00:21:09
Speaker
But we tried to find a praise and worship band that would deliver the gospel message, the the message of the gospel in the lyrics of the songs in a way that would speak to the heart of the people.
00:21:25
Speaker
You know, I can remember being in Ethiopia, and I can remember sharing exactly what I've shared with you. This message from Jeremiah 38, and I was sharing it on the in the yard. It was an outdoor crusade of a church that was larger than my church.
00:21:45
Speaker
here in Columbus, Texas, First Baptist Church. It was a much larger building with many more people. When I preached to that church, they they had people sitting shoulder to shoulder on every bench with people standing all around the walls at the back and um down both sides, and people were standing outside listening. This church was amazing.
00:22:07
Speaker
how they were explaining the gospel message and what a joy, what an honor it was for me to be invited there. So afterwards, I just told the pastor, I said, I'm so thankful for what you have going here and how y'all are reaching your community. And he said, thank you so much. And I said, I feel so embarrassed. I feel so humbled that you would invite me to come and share to your people. you know And he said, oh, we're so glad to have you and we want you to share the word of God. He said, I share the word of God ah you know every Sunday. So it's a privilege for me to have you come. So I felt so honored. you know And I said, well, who will be outside on the grass today?
00:22:51
Speaker
And he said, oh, we' we've actually started 21 other mission churches. And so we wanted to invite those 21 other mission churches ah to come and be with us for this great day of celebration. And so he said, some of them will be here and they'll probably invite people from their community to be here. And so when I heard that,
00:23:13
Speaker
I thought of this passage, and I thought, you know what? There's a lot we can learn from the Ethiopian believers. There's a lot I can learn from this Ethiopian man named Eben Melech that is ah right here in our text.
00:23:29
Speaker
He did so many things right in terms of rescuing Jeremiah the prophet. So I thought to myself, you know, I almost feel like I'm Jeremiah the prophet and I need the Ethiopian man to come and help me to know how I can rescue other people just like him.
00:23:48
Speaker
But anyway, I just thought I would share that story with you. But I wanted to close with these remainder the the last two few things here. It's so incredible that it says Jeremiah did so. Jeremiah did so. Then they drew Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of the cistern, and Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard. But I thought it was so significant that it says Jeremiah did so.
00:24:17
Speaker
It kind of reminds me that you know every person, when they're presented the plan of salvation, they have to turn in repentance and faith in Christ. There's something they have to do. God's done everything. Everything is prepared. God's got the people there sharing the gospel with them. God's got the men there who are gonna help them grow, who are gonna help them make that transition from darkness into light. There's so many things.
00:24:46
Speaker
But here it says, Jeremiah did so. It made me room it's sort of is a reminder for me that I want to pass along to you that we're simply extending the invitation to the parachute.
Prayer for the Mission
00:25:01
Speaker
When you go out there and you try to share the gospel, what you're doing is you're simply extending your hand and saying, I have a gracious invitation from a king.
00:25:14
Speaker
And the king sees you in the dark place, and the king is saying, I have provided a way. It's the the sacrifice and the atonement of Christ. It's like the rope, but it's also like the rags that are going to come and be underneath your your shoulder blades and underneath your armpits.
00:25:36
Speaker
And the Lord is going to rescue you out of that pit. But if anyone says, no, thank you, I don't really care to be rescued. I kind of like it down here in this dark place. People don't bother me here. I like being in the darkness.
00:25:54
Speaker
I don't understand why people would make that that, you know, reply, respond in that way. But I've been on the trail for a while, friends, and I've shared the gospel with many, many people. There's a lot of people, and they say yes. And there's nothing that brings more joy to a heart than when people say yes. But I've also presented the same plan of salvation to others, and they've said, no thanks.
00:26:23
Speaker
And so if you get a no rather than a yes, don't quit being involved in the great rescue, the great mission that Jesus has called us to be a part of. Sometimes we get the no, but other times we get a yes, and it's going to be so worth it whenever you're a part of rescuing others and you get that yes.
00:26:47
Speaker
So somebody is gonna be willing for you to throw down the rope of the gospel and to bring them up out of the pit. Why don't we pray for them? Why don't we pray for you and me, for all of us that know Christ, that we would be a part of this great mission effort. Let's pray together. Lord, I thank you so much for what we can learn always from your word. It's just so rich. It doesn't matter where we open it, Old Testament, New Testament,
00:27:16
Speaker
There's just so much there, and so I'm so grateful for how living and active your Word is. But I'm also so grateful for Christians that reached out to me when I was in a dark place, and they helped me to come out of the darkness into the light.
00:27:33
Speaker
And so now, Lord, it's my joy. It's my joy to want to help others, to come out of the dark place. They can't get out by themselves, by their own effort. They're going to have to be lifted out. And Lord, it's going to take a lot of Christians around the dark tunnel, the dark place, helping them to be pulled out.
00:27:54
Speaker
And so Lord, help us to all work together because really and truly we need each other. We need each other to help our community come to faith in Christ, to help those who are, well, they're they're perishing and they're perishing in darkness, but it can be different. Instead of perishing, they can have eternal life.
00:28:16
Speaker
eternal life. They can have abundant life now in Christ, but they can also have eternal life that'll never end. So that on that day when they do reach that date of expiration, when they do breathe their last breath, they'll be able to say with confidence,
00:28:35
Speaker
I'm going home. I'm going home. The Lord has rescued me so that I can spend eternity with Him. And let me tell you, there are pleasures forevermore in the presence of the Lord is what we were promised in God's Word. So Lord, please,
00:28:52
Speaker
Help us to do our part. Help us to reach out to those who are around us. Also, help us have compassion, to compassion whenever we see people suffering, really having a difficult time in a dark place. Thank you for our friends in Ethiopia who are Christians, and I pray you bless them. I pray you bless every one of their churches. Bless each one of those pastors who attended the pastoral training this week. And may they win more people.
00:29:21
Speaker
Lord, we are not in competition. We are all trying to just increase your kingdom and bring you glory. So bless us as we go through the rest of our day. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you so much, friend, for being with us today on Growing In Grace. You keep on reaching out and see what God will do through your life. Bye-bye.
00:29:52
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.