I'm going to read from two passages of scripture. The first is Lamentations chapter 3, which is right after Jeremiah. It was written by Jeremiah, I believe, I'm not going to be dogmatic about this, but I believe it was just after the fall of Jerusalem. where, and as we've been going through Jeremiah, we're in chapter 38 today, and we're a chapter away from the actual fall of Jerusalem, and then the chapters that follow that are the time period that immediately follows the fall, and then that's the end of Jeremiah. But Jeremiah pens the book of Lamentations as he is contemplating and considering all that has happened to Judah and Jerusalem and to the people of God temporally and the people of God eternally. But I wanna read chapter three because it has a few references to what we're gonna be thinking about today and by way of reflection, Jeremiah by way of reflection is writing about what we're gonna be thinking about that he experienced in chapter 38. So let's read this. It's a little bit lengthy, but this is good for us to have our minds focused on the Word of God and to think about the truth together. Lamentations 3, verse 1, I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light. Surely he has turned his hand against me time and time again throughout the day. He has aged my flesh and my skin and broken my bones. He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and woe. He has set me in dark places like the dead of long ago. He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out. He has made my chain heavy. Even when I cry and shout, he shuts out my prayer. He has blocked my ways with hewn stone. He has made my paths crooked. He has been to me a bear lying in wait, like a lion in ambush. He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces. He has made me desolate. He has bent his bow and set me up as a target for the arrow. He has caused the arrows of his quiver to pierce my loins. I have become the ridicule of all my people, their taunting song all the day. He has filled me with bitterness. He has made me drink wormwood. He has also broken my teeth with gravel. and covered me with ashes. You have moved my soul far from peace. I have forgotten prosperity. And I said, my strength and my hope have perished from the Lord. Remember my affliction and roaming, the wormwood and the gall. My soul still remembers and sinks within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore, I have hope. Through the Lord's mercies, we are never consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth, Let him sit alone and keep silent because God has laid it on him. Let him put his mouth in the dust. There may yet be hope. Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him and be full of reproach. For the Lord will not cast off forever. Though he causes grief, yet he will show compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men, to crush under one's feet all the prisoners of the earth, to turn aside the justice due a man before the face of the Most High, or subvert a man in his cause the Lord does not approve. Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass when the Lord has not commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that woe and well-being proceed? Why should a living man complain, a man, for the punishment of his sins? Let us search out and examine our ways and turn back to the Lord. Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven. We have transgressed and rebelled. You have not pardoned. You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us. You have slain and not pitied. You have covered yourself with a cloud that prayer should not pass through. You have made us an offscouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. Fear and a snare have come upon us, desolation and destruction. My eyes overflow with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. My eyes flow and do not cease without interruption till the Lord from heaven looks down and sees. My eyes bring suffering to my soul because of all the daughters of my city. My enemies, without cause, hunted me down like a bird. They silenced my life in the pit and threw stones at me. The waters flowed over my head. I said, I am cut off. I called on your name, O Lord, from the lowest pit. You have heard my voice. Do not hide your ear from my sighing, from my cry for help. You drew near on the day I called on you and said, do not fear. O Lord, you have pleaded the cause for my soul. You have redeemed my life. O Lord, you have sent Excuse me, oh Lord, you have seen how I am wronged. Judge my case. You have seen all their vengeance, all their schemes against me. You have heard their reproach, oh Lord, all their schemes against me. The lips of my enemies and their whispering against me all the day. Look at their sitting down and their rising up. I am their taunting song. Repay them, O Lord, according to the work of their hands. Give them a veiled heart. Your curse be upon them. In your anger, pursue and destroy them from under the heaven of the Lord. And then let's turn to Ephesians 6. Verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the day of evil and having done all to stand. Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplications in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplications for all the saints, and for me that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak." So let's turn to the focus of the sermon today is in Jeremiah chapter 38, the first part of it. We're gonna read the first 13 verses. Now Shephtiah the son of Matan, Gadoliah the son of Pashur, Jucal the son of Shalamiah, and Pashur the son of Melchiah, heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken to all the people saying, thus says the Lord, he who remains in the city shall die by the sword by famine and by pestilence. But he who goes over to the Chaldeans shall live. His life shall be as a prize to him, and he shall live. Thus says the Lord, this city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which shall take it. Therefore the princes said to the king, please let this man be put to death, for thus he weakens the hands of the men of war who remain in this city. in the hands of all the people by speaking such words to them. For this man does not seek the welfare of this people, but their harm. Then Zedekiah the king said, look, he is in your hand, for the king can do nothing against you. So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon of Malachi, the king's son, which was in the court of the prison. And they let Jeremiah down with ropes. And in the dungeon, there was no water but mire. So Jeremiah sank in the mire. Now, Ebed Melech, the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs, who was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon. When the king was sitting at the gate of Benjamin, Ibed-Melek went out of the king's house and spoke to the king, saying, my lord, the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon, and he is likely to die from hunger in the place where he is, for there is no more bread in the city. Then the king commanded Ibed-Melek, the Ethiopian, saying, "'Take from here 30 men with you "'and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon "'before he dies.' "'So Ebed-Melech took the men with him "'and went into the house of the king under the treasury "'and took from there old clothes and old rags "'and let them down by ropes into the dungeon to Jeremiah. "'Then Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, Please put these old clothes and rags under your armpits, under the ropes. And Jeremiah did so. So they pulled Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of the dungeon. And Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. So we had just real quick context here from a couple sermons from chapter 37, just to give us a little bit of a chronology, and I believe this is, there is a chronology here between 37 and 38, but we have the Chaldeans came down, as you recall, they surrounded, they came into Judah, surrounded Jerusalem, they were there for a time, and in the context of that, Zedekiah sends men, some of the men that are actually his accusers here in 38. I think Jukau was one of them. They send these men to Jeremiah asking to make an inquiry of the Lord and for a blessing from the Lord. And as the Egyptian army comes up, the Chaldeans flee. Then the answer of the Lord comes to Jeremiah as Jeremiah speaks to these men. And Basically, Jeremiah says, even though the Chaldeans have left, do not deceive yourselves in thinking that they will not come and destroy this city, according to what the Lord has been saying for many years now. As the Chaldeans left, Jeremiah then is going to leave the city to go claim some land, if you remember. And one of the men was at the gate of Benjamin. And he arrests him and falsely accuses him of defecting to the Chaldeans. and he is put in a different prison from the one that we're reading about here, apparently, and one that was bad, and he wasn't given any food or very little, and he was despairing unto death, and then King Zedekiah calls for him. If you remember, I think last week we looked at that. Zedekiah calls for Jeremiah. They brought him out of this prison. I believe the context of that was the Chaldeans return, He was stirred up to bring the prophet out, and he says, is there a word from the Lord? And we thought last week about Jeremiah's boldness in declaring the truth to Zedekiah, even if it meant he would be put back in the prison. What happens is, he's not put back in that prison, but he It says, then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah to the court of the prison and that they should give him daily a piece of bread from the baker's street until all the bread in the city was gone. Thus, Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. So he was confined, but he was not in that place. And apparently he had, coming in the chapter 38, he had the, ability to speak to people, continuing to speak to people who came in and were around the court of the prison. And we know what he was saying. He's saying the same thing he's always said. We know what he said because these men who come in the beginning of chapter 38 that we just read, as they come to Zedekiah and they say, this man should be put to death, They recite what Jeremiah's been saying. At the end of verse one, heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken to all the people, anyone who could come in and who was in the hearing of what Jeremiah was saying. And of course, you know what was going on. As people would come in and as Jeremiah would speak these words, these words would be talked about outside of the immediate area where Jeremiah was. So it was well known that this is what Jeremiah was saying, especially in Jerusalem, especially at the time when the Chaldeans are now surrounding the city, and there isn't much bread to eat, and there's very little water to drink. The cisterns are running dry. They have no way to go outside the city and gather water and to bring it in. The very basics of life are starting to wither away. The fighting men were growing weary. Growing weary of heart. Physically growing weary due to lack of nourishment. As they stand on the walls, and I don't know, I guess every once in a while they're firing arrows at the siege, those who were besieging the city. Maybe lobbying projectiles. But they needed to be encouraged to carry on, to fight the good fight. And what Jeremiah was saying is you should give yourself up. Go to the Chaldeans and your life will be as a prize to you. And those who were seeking at all costs to defend themselves and to defend the city and to defend what they believed were saying what Jeremiah was saying was weakening their hands. and in effect it was, weakening their hands. As the judgment of God is being declared and the judgment of God is actually seen all around Jerusalem, their knees were weak. But as we have said many times, even the presence of this foreign army from the north that had been predicted and prophesied now for decades. They have arrived on the doorsteps and the people in Jerusalem are actually feeling the heat of this judgment that had been declared so clearly by Jeremiah for so long. It doesn't convert one soul. It actually causes them, in their fear of death and in their own depraved way of thinking, it causes them to buckle down and to double down, as it were, on where their confidence lies. But one thing is for sure, they want to get rid of this guy that keeps telling the truth. The king, this guy Zedekiah is a pretty interesting character. We've seen him equivocate now four or five times. Isn't that interesting? He just brought Jeremiah out of the prison. Asks him, is there a word from the Lord? Yes, there is, you're gonna be given into the hand of the Babylonians. All right, keep him here, protect him. Now these men come in. These men who are listed here in the first verse of chapter 38 are the ruling princes who had the people behind them. So the majority is being represented in front of Zedekiah. And Zedekiah once again gives in to the majority. He's not ruled by conviction, he's not ruled by the truth, even though he knows that Jeremiah is a prophet of the Lord. Therefore the princess said to the king, please let this man be put to death, for thus he weakens the hand of the men of war who remain in this city. And he weakens the hands of all the people by speaking such words to them, for this man does not seek the welfare of this people, but their harm." Isn't that amazing? The declaration of the gospel of the salvation that is in Christ, the declaration of God's love is true blessing. And when people hear that who are not the recipients of that true blessing, they think that it's to their harm. They hate it. This is against me, that's what they hear. The Lord Jesus Christ says, they hate me because I declare to them that their deeds are evil. I don't know if you caught that in Lamentations 3. Why should a living man complain? A man, for the punishment of his sins. It's not fair. I'm good enough. Or I have done this, or I've done that, or I haven't done this, or I haven't done that. That's what the depraved nature says as it is faced with the declaration of the truth. So Zedekiah, back to Jeremiah 38, Zedekiah says to the king in verse five, look, he is in your hands. For the king can do nothing against you. So they took Jeremiah, the majority, those who had positions of power, those who had garnered the will of the people, those who the people looked up to as their princes, as their confidence, as their strength, those that the people in Jerusalem most looked up to for deliverance from the judgment of God. They took Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon of Malachi, the king's son, which was in the court of the prison. And they let Jeremiah down with ropes Now, they didn't want to publicly execute him, apparently. They wanted him dead. But I guess you could say they didn't have the courage of their conviction either. They sought to put him away secretly, put him down in a dungeon. That way they can say, well, we put him in prison and I guess he starved to death, he died, whatever. They didn't want to do this out in the open for fear of the people. It sounds very much like the days of Christ when they sought to They sought the secret betrayal in private, apart from the masses. So these men are doing something very similar as they put Jeremiah into this dungeon. And I think what this was is a cistern that they had built to hold water. But since there wasn't any water, what was left at the bottom was mire. And it must have been pretty thick because it says he sunk down into the mire. I don't know how far it was, but I don't think it was ankle deep. I think he sunk down and he was despairing of even to life. Imagine being in a circular, like you ever see one of those barns with a silo? Imagine that as like this stone structure that's down beneath the floor and you're being lowered through a little hole. and you go down and you're actually in nothing but mud and mire, where you can't get your footing, and you feel like it's all around you, and you don't see much light, you see nothing but darkness, and it smells, and the sores of the ropes, because you know they were rough with him. You know they threw stones at him. That's what he says in Lamentations 3. He had sores, and when you're in muck and mire, your sores get infected and festered. without water, without food, despairing even of life. We're gonna think today, briefly, about Jeremiah's experience, about Jeremiah and his experience as a picture and or a representation of believers in our experiences as we walk by faith, spiritually, as we live the life of faith. We experience the same thing that Jeremiah experienced. We're not in a king's palace in a cistern that's full of mud, that's not what I'm saying. But his life and that experience and what follows is a representation, it is a picture of our experience as believers as we get mired down. As we are in a place that we read earlier that the psalmist laments, David himself laments about the place he was in because of his own sin. whereby we cry out to the Lord for help and for deliverance. And the Lord provides that help and that deliverance whereby we are literally lifted up out of the mire and our feet are set squarely and firmly upon solid ground, upon a rock. God answers the prayers of His people God brings forth the situations that we find ourselves in. He providentially ordered the situation that Jeremiah found himself in. As Jeremiah cries out, we don't actually have that testimony in Jeremiah 38. I don't think it says that he cried out, but we know from lamentations that he cried out to the Lord. The Lord heard his prayer. and he is lifted up. So when I think about the difficult places that we find ourselves in as Christians, as is represented in what we just read about from Jeremiah 38, think a little bit about our cry to God and the confession of our need and the acknowledgement of God's promise and power because those things are never separate. And then think about how it is that God answers the prayers of His people and brings this deliverance. So first, the difficult places that we find ourselves in, that's similar to the muck and the mire, hedged in, as we read earlier, such that Jeremiah in Lamentations speaks about, just flip back over there just to remember a few of the statements that he made, it's pretty amazing. I'm a man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light. Surely he has turned his hand against me time and time again throughout the day." And he goes on and on and on. And of course the wrath here is not wrath, eternal wrath against him, but it is the hot displeasure that has come against this people. And as Jeremiah and others who are elect dwell among this people, And as the truth is being declared by the Regenerate Ones to this people, these things are happening to him, and he is the recipient of them, by design. Such that Jeremiah, it almost appears, as the psalmist often says, Lord, you have turned away from me. As David said in Psalm 51, as he is in the muck and mire, the consequences of his own sin, as one loved of God and encouraged in the truth of that by Nathan, even as he was exposed as the adulterer. God chastens him. such that David says, make me hear joy and gladness again. He didn't have joy and gladness in this place. That the bones you have broken may rejoice. This is true affliction. Create in me a clean heart, O God, Now he knows that he's justified by the blood of another. When he says, create a clean heart, he is mindful of his sins that are ever before him. He cries out, keep me from presumptuous sin. His sin is so much before him and the consequences of David's sin was so present in his experience that he cries out to God to cleanse him. as one who is cleansed. Create in me a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence. And do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. It needed to be restored. And uphold me by your generous spirit. Uphold me, lift me up, because I'm in a place in the mire And I'm not experiencing right now anything in my circumstances that gives me any hope whatsoever. But you notice who David is crying out to. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, the God of my salvation. You know, when David says, do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me, David wasn't a man that thought that God elects somebody and then turns around and unelects them because of something they do. But in his experience, because of his sin, because of the weight of his sin, because of the contradiction of his sin, to what he is in Christ as one who practices righteousness, to one who lives and abides in a state of justification. He knew wherein he lived. He knew the state which he lived in, which is a state of salvation. And that's what caused the great consternation. That's what caused the grief, because what he did was so against who he was. And it's an expression of true humility. I don't deserve the Holy Spirit to abide in me. I don't deserve in myself based on what I've done to have the Lord continue to uphold me. But David knew, as all believers know, that God is the God of their salvation. And that the only reason that they will be preserved and that they will be brought before him as sons and daughters in the Day of Judgment, wholly justified, is because God has made a promise that He must keep. Jesus Christ has saved His people from their sins. He has taken away their sins. He has removed their sins from them, such that they are justified. And God must save. those that Christ died for. God will save those that Christ died for. But David was in this place. So we find ourselves in these difficult places, like being in the muck and mire of a dungeon, such that we can barely keep our head above water due to our own sin, due to the persecution of those who oppose God and oppose his people, in the case of Jeremiah, where those who hated him and hated the truth of judgment that was being declared, they persecuted him. That's the very definition of persecution. They sought his life. They sought to kill him, to murder him. That was the circumstance and the occasion that Jeremiah found himself in. I think another, and we find ourselves in that place too. We know from our experience over the years that we have found ourselves in great distress and great despair. As we have seen the people of God, we thought, that we once walked with, turning away little by little, person by person, listening to the deceiving doctrines of men. and being spoken against as we go to those that we believe are our brothers and sisters, telling them the truth. Forsake that lie. Forsake that subtle denial. Forsake the reformed, as we have said many times, the reformed lie in all of its subtleties. Forsake it. Flee from it. Don't embrace it. Don't put your arm around it. Don't say that we'll go in because we're all brethren and we'll change it. None of us, as a result of that, were put in a cistern, in actual physical mire. But in varying degrees, many of us wept. were grief-stricken for many months as this was going on, prior to our departure, crying out to God that he would deliver and keep us and that he would deliver and keep his people, that he would raise us up out of the mire, out of that weight of oppression and set us on firm ground, making things clear to us, praying that God would make things clear to us, that the darkness of the dungeon would make way to the light in which we walk. I can remember praying. many times for many months that God would bring clarity for God's people to see these things. That the truth would be made known and that those who were laying the snare in the trap would be trapped in their own snare, which happened. As we find ourselves in that place, we cry out to God for help, confessing our need, acknowledging God's promise. We think about the song we sang, Psalm 40. The psalmist here is not talking about a cistern full of mire. He's talking about his life as a believer. When he says, at the beginning and the end of it, I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined to me and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my steps. At the end of it he says, but I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinks upon me. So he begins the psalm with I'm poor and needy. I'm in the miry clay. I'm in a place where I cry out to God for deliverance. I don't find strength and help in myself. I don't lift myself up out of the dungeon, out of the miry clay, but the Lord is the one that establishes us upon the rock. He daily, remember that, we just read that? Every morning the truth is new to us. It is renewed in our thinking. The Lord places us in the place, He puts us in the place where we are in the mire, we are weighted down such that we wait patiently for the Lord for the deliverance. He heard my cry and brings us up out of the horrible pit, out of the miry clay and sets my feet upon a rock and establishes my step. He has put a new song in my mouth. Praise to our God. Praise to our God. We praise God as God continues to deliver us day by day. I want to spend most of our time, the remaining time, on the response, God's response and His deliverance. So go back to Jeremiah Now, in verse seven, now Ebed-Melech, Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs who was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon. So who is this man, Ebed-Melech, who comes to the aid of Jeremiah? Well, he's a stranger to the nation of Israel. He's an Ethiopian. He doesn't descend from Abraham. And he would have been one who would have been despised by the Israelites. But he was there as a servant in the king's household. He is a regenerate believer, as it turns out. We know this if you flip over to Jeremiah 39 in verse 15. As Jerusalem falls, this is said to Ebed Melech. This is in verse 15. Meanwhile, the word of the Lord had come to Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the prison, saying, go and speak to Ebed Melech, the Ethiopian, saying, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for adversity and not for good, and they shall be performed in that day before you. But I will deliver you in that day, says the Lord, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid. For I will surely deliver you and you shall not fall by the sword, but your life shall be as a prize to you because you have put your trust in me. He had the gift of faith, he was regenerate, he was spiritually alive as he lived and served as a stranger to Israel, in Israel, in the place of the king of Judah's house. He was Jeremiah's brother. He was a fellow believer. He was one of a few of the remnant, the spiritual remnant in the days of Zedekiah, in the days of Jeremiah. Jeremiah is put in the dungeon and Ibn Malek hears about it. What does he do? Ibn Malek in verse eight went out of the king's house and spoke to the king in the gate of Benjamin in a public place not in secret my lord imagine this, this is like a servant in the king's house I don't think we can appreciate what that was like to live in the time of a monarchy where You didn't even walk before the king unless you were called. Let alone a servant, somebody who serves in his household, speaking publicly against something that the king has done and sanctioned. Sound familiar to Jeremiah? Jeremiah spoke openly for years, decades, saying the same thing, submitting to the word of God, declaring the truth of God. as to what God was willing and going to do against Judah and Jerusalem. That caused Jeremiah to be put in chains. In effect, he's in chains, he's in prison, he's in the muck and the mire. This man goes and speaks, my Lord the King, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. whom they have cast in the dungeon, and he is likely to die from hunger in the place where he is, for there is no more bread in the city." He calls those men, those princes, evil. He calls what they did evil. He essentially is saying what Jeremiah has said is true, and what these men have said is a lie. They are evil. Jeremiah has done nothing to deserve what has happened to him. He is innocent of the blood of all men, as he has declared the word of God to them. And yet he is in this place. Ebed Melech puts his neck on the line for Jeremiah. He lays down his life, as it were, for his brother. He lays down his life for the truth. He's not ashamed of Jeremiah's chains, but rather, he was, I believe, emboldened by them. We think of what Paul says in Philippians chapter one. If you want to turn there, we'll read just a few verses. You think about when trouble comes because of those who tell the truth, how does that affect others who are in the truth? Natural wisdom would say, well, if that happened to them, I certainly don't want to say that because I don't want that happening to me. But in the truth, those who are regenerate, it emboldens them. in Philippians 1, beginning in verse 9. It says, and this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ." His chains. Paul was in prison. Imprisoned because of the gospel. He says, I'm in prison because I have declared the truth. I have not shunned to declare the whole gospel, the whole counsel of God. And my chains are in Christ. And most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear." You know, one of the things that happens when we, ourselves, or we talk to each other, and we relate our discussions with people, it's interesting that as we describe, or as we think about the last time you spoke to somebody, and you talk to them, and you're speaking about the truth that is so clear to you, it is so simple, and they just don't see it. They can't see it. and they speak, maybe they speak evil of you right then and there, or they'll say things that they obviously don't agree. Yeah, but. And isn't it a confirmation to you and to us as we see the difference? God is illuminating the difference between those who have been given life, who find the gospel a sweet smelling aroma, unto life and to others as we speak to them, it is the stench of death. It's not something they like. It's not something they want to hear. And even those who give lip service to facts that are true about the gospel, it's not a savor of life to them. It's just a bunch of facts they agree with and they confess because they're reformed. But to the believer, it is our bread. It is our daily bread. It is our sustenance. It is that by which day by day we are encouraged and lifted up out of the mire. And find our feet firmly standing, as it were, on the rock. Mindful that we're on the rock. By the way, we don't go off the rock on the rock. But it's Kind of like we were talking about in 2 Corinthians 5. Be ye reconciled to the Lord, you who are reconciled. Be mindful of your reconciliation, right? Be mindful of the fact that you are cleansed from all of your sins. Be mindful of the fact that God has loved you from eternity past and that you belong to him. and that there is now no condemnation for you because you are in Christ. Be mindful of this. Our eyes are enlightened. Paul prays for that for the Ephesians. that your eyes would be enlightened. It's not like we don't have light, but that we would see more clearly, that God and the gospel and His promise and the Lord Jesus Christ and the glory of what He did would come into clearer focus. Because in our day-to-day lives sometimes, sadly, We focus on things, not necessarily sinful things, but just being caught up in the world, in the daily activities of work, of parenting, of going to school. We need to be reminded of the truth. Reminded that I'm actually standing on solid ground. I'm not on the shifting sands of a lie, but I have been established in the truth. Obed, keep saying Obed, Ebed Melech, loves the truth. He loves God. He loves Jeremiah. He sees the injustice. He knows why Jeremiah is in the dungeon. He goes before the king, risking his own life. He speaks boldly to the king, declaring Jeremiah's innocence and the wickedness of these men. So the king says, he flips back again, it's like he has no anchor. Well, king hears this, it's like the last person to talk to him. I've known people like that. The last fine-sounding argument that they hear is where they stand, at least until the next fine-sounding argument comes along. I remember, and I won't name names, but I remember in a session meeting before we left, there was one man on the session. And we'd be sitting there talking, and several of us were seeing the truth. And we would make a point against what was being promoted by the pastor at the time. And this man would shake his head. Yeah, that's right. And we're like, kind of encouraged by that, you know, shaking the head. And we would talk things through, and then it was somebody else's turn to defend the lie. And I would see that very same man then shake his head at that comment. You look at that, and what is that? Well, I think Zedekiah is somebody just like that. Then the king commanded Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian, saying, take from here 30 men with you. The Lord turns the hearts of even the wicked kings. We know he did that when he brought back the captives. He turned the heart of the Persian king. He turns the heart of this man, Zedekiah, who's a hater of God, who does evil in the sight of the Lord. That was the testimony of scripture against him. But God turns him here as Ebed-Melech stands before him. And he says, take 30 of my own guard. He had men around him in the gate of Benjamin. He says, take 30 of my men, which left him maybe even more compromised, and go and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon before he dies. God hears the cries of Jeremiah in the mire, and he lifts him up. All things work together for our good. God even uses the wicked Zedekiah the king for the good of Jeremiah. He says, take these 30 men with you and lift him up against the will of the people, against the will of these wicked men. but he also used a brother. He used Ibn Malek to rescue him. He stirred him up in the truth, such that he counted his life not dear to himself, such that he would go before the king at risk of his own life. to declare the truth for the good of his brother. So he takes the 30 men with him and went to the house of the king under the treasury and took from there old clothes and old rags. This is interesting. Apparently, under the treasury where the gold was kept, they would keep old clothing. It was probably stored there and given to the poor. He was lowered down with ropes. And I believe the significance of this is as he was lowered down, he probably didn't have any clothes on, they stripped him. And he was probably, his arms were torn up and he had infection. And when this man, is going to rescue and to pull up out of the mire his brother in Christ. He does it oh so gently. He takes that which is discarded by that which is of any preeminence like old rags. I think of the crumbs that fall from the master's table. That which is despised by men, this man takes and he lowers it down. They use a rope, but he says, put these under your arms so that as we pull you up. I hope the gentleness of God doesn't escape you. As you think about how he keeps you You who are not worthy to be kept, even as you become mired down in your own sin, or as you become mired down in the place of despair because of persecution, whatever the situation is, as you are being lifted up, you are being lifted up with godly gentleness, loving kindness, tender mercies this is how we treat each other in the church as we seek to lift each other up I'm going to look at a couple passages of scripture that describe this glorious care that our Heavenly Father provides for us that He provides for us, sometimes directly to us, and I say directly, meaning that we can be encouraged as we privately study the Word of God, as we read the Bible. We can be encouraged, and we are. But God also encourages us one to another. And as this man goes to pull up Jeremiah and seeks to be tender and gentle with him as he is rescuing him, lifting him up, doing what is necessary to put his feet on solid ground. This is a picture of our lives together in the church. It is a picture of God who is our Father, who has separated us from all other people, his own chosen precious people that he loves and cares for and is tenderhearted towards. Consider the goodness and the severity of God toward us. Salvation and life, tenderness, fatherly care. Toward all the rest, condemnation and wrath and judgment. That should stir us up to holy worship. and thanksgiving to God. Paul says in Ephesians 4 verse 1, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another, bearing one another's burdens with all lowliness and gentleness. endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, as we encourage one another, directing one another to the rock, to the solid ground and sure footing upon which we stand as Christians. Isn't that what we do when we're together? We should be directing one another to the truth of Christ, the precious cornerstone the sure foundation upon which we stand and are being built. But we do so in all lowliness and gentleness. I'm sure you're thinking of Galatians chapter 6. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Restore such a one, one who is not mindful, not discerning, who needs to be corrected. Restore such a one. Use the old rags. Don't use a coarse rope or a sharp word, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens. That's what Ibn Malek did, he was bearing the burden, he was sharing in the chains. He was willing to be found in the same place for the sake of the truth and for the sake of the brethren. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Colossians chapter 3 is another place. You can think of many, but these are just some places as we think about the answer of God to our cry. And even when we don't cry, sometimes we're in the mire and we're okay with it, in a manner of speaking. And our brother or sister comes along and rebukes us. as iron sharpens iron, as we are hit up alongside the head and reminded of the truth. That's loving. Colossians 3 verse 12, therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved. Holy, set apart by God from eternity past. Holy, being pure and justified and reconciled before the Father. Holy, being found righteous and perfect in Christ and beloved. Loved of the Father. Cherished by the Father. Given by the Father to the Son. Those for whom all things are being brought to pass for the good of our eternal well-being. This is who this is to, to us today. Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering. What is the context of tender mercies? What is the context of kindness? What is the context of humility and meekness and long-suffering? Well, it has to do with our lives together in the Church of Jesus Christ, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. Now, we are to be kind to people outside the Church, but the admonition and the encouragement here is that we are to be these things in the Church of Jesus Christ. These things should abound more and more in the Church of Jesus Christ, one to another. Why? Because God loves His people. He is stirring up you and me to treat each other with the love that He has for us. The tenderness that He has for us. the concern that He has for us, to keep us and to preserve us, to strengthen us, to cause us to discern, to cause us to see more clearly between good and evil, to cause us to have our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of our salvation. That is His will, that is His purpose, that is His promise. He is employing you and me in that service, he employed Ibn Malek in that service, as he served his brother who was in the mire, and lifted him up with all gentleness and care. Second Thessalonians, we're gonna close here in just a moment. look at 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13 but we are bound to give thanks to God always for you brethren, beloved by the Lord You know, I know without a shadow of a doubt that Ibn Malek said that about Jeremiah. Jeremiah continued to tell the truth. And I am bound to give thanks to God always for you, Jeremiah, beloved of the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation. He has chosen me and he has chosen his people. We are his people. Not the physical descendants of Abraham who are persecuting you and throwing you in prison for declaring the righteousness of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Who from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. to which he called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions, the gospel, the truth, the doctrine which you were taught, whether by word or through our epistle. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and our God and Father who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. The rock upon which we stand, which is represented by Jeremiah being lifted out by the goodness of God and the answer to his prayer and the help that his brother provided for him and the gentleness that was expressed and demonstrated. The rock upon which we stand is the promise of God. It is the immutable promise and purpose and will of God that is brought forth in the person and work of Jesus Christ that comes forth in the lives of God's people by the power of God's Word. It is in the truth that we stand firm. It is in the truth that day by day we are reminded of the truth that causes us to stand. against all the wiles of the devil against all the trickery and deceitful plotting of men and even against our own sin that can weight us down I'm going to finish by reading Romans chapter 8 What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who could be against us? He who did not spare his own son but delivered him for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore, is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." The point of what we've been saying today, what I've been saying today, is not that we will be delivered out of every physical circumstance. The point isn't that it was so miraculous that Jeremiah was actually brought up out of some physical muck and mire in a dungeon in the days of Zedekiah. The point of all that happened to Jeremiah is to show us, God is showing us and teaching us through the scriptures of his love for us. It is a picture of our lives, at various times and in various circumstances, where we find ourselves spiritually, as David did, and Paul did, for different reasons and different ways, but find ourselves in these situations, and the help is spiritual. The help is eternal. were not promised deliverance physically from our enemies. The apostles weren't delivered physically from their enemies. They ended up dying at the hands of those who hated the gospel. But even in their death, even in their physical death, as we know, they were not separated from the love of Christ. They served their time, and their death gave way to life eternal. Who will bring a charge against God's elect? I'm gonna close with just one thought from Lamentations. Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass when the Lord has not commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that woe and well-being proceed?" The Lord declared judgment on Judah, declared judgment on Jerusalem, declared judgment on the house of Zedekiah, on the princes and the priests and the false prophets during the day of Jeremiah. He brought woe to them. And he declared life to Jeremiah and to Ebed-Melech and people like them in their day who were the people of God. And those who laid a charge against Jeremiah, falsely, that charge did not stand. It cannot stand. Satan, the accuser, rails and lies against the brethren, even before God. But no one can bring a charge against God's elect because God has dealt with it. God has brought to pass that which is necessary for our justification, such that we are properly said and eternally said to be those who are without any guilt before God because He has taken it away because of Christ. even though he causes grief, even though he brings things like muck and mire and persecution and even ordains the sin that causes us to despair and to lament over, like we think about David, in our own experience. Though he causes grief, yet he will show compassion according to the multitude of his mercies, his mercy which endures forever. For he does not afflict willingly. It's interesting, I looked at the word willingly, it means from the heart. His affliction is not for the eternal grief or condemnation of his people. To crush under one's feet, in verse 14, or excuse me, 34, all the prisoners of the earth, those who are in chains, that's not what he is doing. Rather, he as a father chastens us. He as a father tests and tries us. He is the one that puts us in the place whereby he delivers us to the glory of his name. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your deliverance. We thank you for your faithfulness, which never fails. We thank you for the reminder of the truth in which we stand this day. Lord, teach us to love the brethren in all gentleness. Cause us, Lord, to be your servants, whereby we lay down our lives, speaking the truth in love to others and seeking the help and the restoration even of our brethren as they need to be lifted up and encouraged in the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ and our Savior. And we ask these things in his name, amen.