"Saved From The Pit" with Doug Batchelor (Amazing Facts)

and dear Lord you've also created a new life in you dear father for lily and we just ask that you be with her and bless her and her journey with you there father as she walks with you the remainder of this Earth's history and through the pearly gates with you there father we just ask that you be with her in a very very special way Lord as we're here also we are we know those that are coming forward dear father they have burdens on their heart they some of may have praises that they want to just glorify you with Lord we just ask that you take them all and be with them and whatever their challenges are work it out there father to your honor and glory we trust in you dear father to work out the best in our lives as well as many others throughout history you have done Lord be with us now and we ask that you P be with pastor Doug as he speaks today may your your Holy Spirit be upon him as he shares the word today then we may take something home and throughout eternity from what he shares with us today thank you again be with us now as we look up to you on this wonderful Sabbath day we pray in Jesus wonderful name amen amen [Music] good morning did any of you get to see the amazing adventure programs of Pastor Ross and I put on say some of the families all good we're so glad they did some of you not even know we were gone come on fess up we just had a it was a wonderful experience working with the Michigan conference there and doing these children's meeting and it was we never knew what was going to happen it was not scripted and we had a lot of living bruit breathing energy in some nights I think we have 250 young people a junior age and so we produce some new programs I hope you'll pray for those we're hoping the new lessons Bibles programs are going to be reaching kids for years to come but it was it was a delight to do that and it is good to be home with you again this morning we're gonna be talking about a subject I was surprised as I went through the Bible and saw how many times it talked about that three-letter word pit about people who are caught in the pit and how God saves from the pit you know I remember we had some neighbors when I was a kid in Florida and it was the Mackel family didn't know much about them until they became front-page national news when their daughter Barbara Jane Mackel was kidnapped while she was attending schools 20 years old up in Atlanta and the people that carefully planned this kidnapping they'd built a fiberglass coffin a little bigger than a coffin but not much bigger and had some air they pumped into it and gave her some water put some sedatives in the water so she wouldn't panic too much and a little fan the battery went out eventually a light and the battery went out and they put her in there and they buried her alive basically and they were not going to divulge her location unless the parents five hundred thousand dollars well now back in 1968 as about three and a half million in today's terms parents did come up with the money and they wanted it to be old unmarked $20 bills and they had the ransom their ransom drop all went sideways because the police officer that didn't know he wasn't supposed to be involved thought it looked very suspicious this person picking up this money late at night started chasing the kidnappers but eventually they were apprehended and they located Barbara but she spent 80 hours 72 hours as three days is that right over three days basically buried alive not knowing if anyone would come back she never lost faith but that'd be terrible and how happy she was when the authorities arrived and they removed the dirt and found that she was still doing well he's buried in a box like that saved from the pit you know there's a story about a famous Old Testament prophet that had a similar experience turned with me to the Book of Jeremiah chapter 38 Jeremiah chapter 38 we're gonna read the first few verses here we'll probably read verses 1 to 7 let me give you the background Jeremiah was called at a young age as a prophet of God and he lived during a time where there was great apostasy in Israel and his message was one of pleading with the people to return to the Lord and finally when because of their sins they wouldn't return to the Lord he said that judgment was coming the Babylonians also known as the Chaldeans were going to conquer them and you know some of the leaders in Israel were becoming exasperated at Jeremiah because the false prophets were saying don't submit to the king of Babel and don't pay taxes to the king of Babylon even though Zedekiah the king had made a covenant in the name of the Lord he would do that they broke their covenant rebelled against the king of Babylon and Jeremiah said wrath is coming upon you but if you surrender if you submit even now God will show you mercy you may get carried away captain but you'll live and so he was sharing this message while the Babylonians had surrounded Jerusalem jeremiah was saying surrender and live well you know if you're fighting an enemy and you got someone in your group and they're saying surrender they saw that as treacherous they saw that as treason they saw they said that's gonna demoralize our soldiers and Jeremiah said look take that up with the Lord the Lord is telling me what to tell you you've rebelled against the king of Babylon you made a covenant you're being oppressed because of your disobedience but if you want to live surrender and you'll live so this is where our story takes up in Jeremiah chapter 38 verse 1 now chef Athiya the son of Matan in get Alya the son of pasher zukul the seneschal Amaya and pasher the son of Mike I am heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken to the people saying thus says the Lord he who remains in this city will die by the sword by famine and by pestilence but he who goes over to the Chaldeans if you surrender to the Chaldeans you will live and his life will be a prize for him and he will live thus says the Lord this city will surely be given to the hand of the king of babylons army which shall take it there for the princes said to the king please let this man be put to death for he's weakening the hands of the men of war who remain in the city and the hands of all the people by speaking such words to them for this man does not seek the welfare of the people but their harm man Zedekiah the king said look he's in your hand for the king can do nothing against you the princes were kind of rising up against the king so they took Jeremiah I thought well maybe he is a prophet we don't want the blood of a prophet on our hands so we're not gonna kill him but we kind of like Joseph's brothers we won't kill him we'll just throw him in a pit and so they took Jeremiah verse 6 and they cast him into the dungeon of malkia 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 Meyer so Jeremiah's sink in the mire now in some of these ancient dungeons there was a cistern so used to capture the water and they'd run it all into these cisterns and this is not the water that was used for drinking they would use the spring water for that but they use that water for you know watering the animals or for washing and and sometimes those cisterns were dry if there wasn't rain sometimes they were abandoned and it sort of became a catch-all for everything and all the muck and the mire would gather in there and and they lowered they tied Jeremiah up with these rough hemp ropes and they cut his skin and they lowered him down in there roughly and they dropped him and threw the rope in after him and he sank into the mire now the problem with that is not only does it stink a mire was just a little better than sewer water but you couldn't sit down because he'd just be sitting in muck and it who knows it may have come up to his knees it says he sank down into it so you just got to stand and lean against the wall and listen to the Flies and smell the stench and it was a very depressing situation as you can imagine sweltering the hot smelly feeling abandoned dark and they abandoned him there now everyone in the city is starving they're surrounded by enemies Oh who's gonna care about him so Jeremiah sank down admire have you ever felt like you were in the pits sometimes life is the pits you've heard that I like grapes and olives but I don't like the pits and Jeremiah was literally in the mire in the pit you know this is a story of how God saves us from the pit the children of Israel when they were in Egypt what was her principal work away in the mire away in the clay never heard that song God leads his people along they were down in these clay pits and they would mash the clay up with their feet and they would labor there in the Sun and God save them from the meir and the clay saved them from the pit of their prison and the Jeremiah was down in the pit this is a symbol for being in a lost condition a symbol for being in sin now there are principally three kinds of sin three pits of sin you might say in the Bible you can read in 1st John chapter 2 verse 15 it says love not the world neither the things that are in the world for If any man loves the world the love of the father is not in him for all that's in the world and here comes the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life it's not of the Father but of the world and the world will pass away in the lusts thereof but he that does the will of God will abide forever basically it's talking about the three areas of sin lust of the flesh lust of the eyes pride of life some have summarized it as passions possessions and positions when Eve fell go in your Bible to Genesis chapter 6 no so Genesis chapter 3 verse 6 Genesis 3:6 you remember there was that forbidden tree and it says when she was finally enticed to eat there was three areas that sort of put her over the edge so the woman saw the tree was good for food it looked like it would be tasty smelled good lust of the flesh it was pleasant to the eyes lust of the eyes and a tree desired to make one wise I mean after all the devil had just said you'll be like gods the position of power that you'd have same three areas which by the way are the same three areas where Jesus was tempted by the devil and he overcame reminding us that Jesus can save us from any sin all sin sort of falls into one of those three categories that actually gives me relief because if you told me you've got an over huh overcome and all 365 different sins that could be discouraging but if you said you've only got three well it makes it a little easier I remember when I lived up in the mountains in a cave I looked at it on Google Earth last night I wanted to see if I could see it from Google Earth satellite view and I could it was a very steep section of the canyon we call that the second Canyon and you could not just go up the canyon because there were three waterfalls smooth sides we called it three pools and it sells very attractive it was actually very dangerous what would happen is hikers and especially in the wintertime the mountain is 11,000 feet high Mount San Jacinto and have you ever been to Idlewild in Southern California it's up on the back side of this this is the desert side snow on that mountain you don't think about snow in Southern California but the water was very cold from melted snow and it had washed the canyon walls almost perfectly smooth and people typically when they're going down the mountains they follow the creeks well they would go follow the creeks and they'd say oh look if I could get down to that pool it was real slick side to getting down to the pool I can go around swim through the pool and and keep on hiking but what they didn't know is around the corner was another waterfall in another pool and you couldn't go back because you had slid down unless you had ropes or climbing gear and a lot of people died because they try and go hiking down through three pools and they'd realize they couldn't get up or they try to jump over the falls into the next pool and they get stuck in the cold water and they have a heart attack I actually met a girl up there once a waitress who had been lost for several days who had tried to go down the canyon in three pools I ended up kind of escorting her all the way out of the canyon showing her where the trails are you got these three areas where people get trapped lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes the pride of life it's about passion possession and position we're gonna talk about this a little bit first of all the pit of lust proverbs 22 14 the mouth of an immoral woman is a deep hit and he is our bird by the Lord will fall there now when I say lust of the flesh many of us automatically think of things like sexual lust it might be pornography it might be pastry as any kind of physical attraction proverbs 23 verse 27 for a harlot is a deep pit and a seductress is a narrow well and so you know I've got a really neat mousetrap up in the hills they say you can't improve on a mousetrap but we found something that I think is a little better you take a five-gallon bucket any if you have problems with mice you don't have to raise your hand but get a five-gallon bucket you fill it with about five inches of water and then you make a little plank of plastic it's got to be smooth plastic it's got a pivot on it it's got a magnet on one end I know I really should have brought a diagram but you can adjust the magnet with a screw so that the magnet is just barely holding the plank down and it's on a hinge on the end of the hinge you put peanut butter do not use the natural peanut butter use the bad peanut butter to stuff with sugar and the hydrogenated venta mice love that they don't care about their arteries they're gonna die before it's a problem for them anyway and so you put that out on the end of the plank and the mouth smells it you can even just put a little around the edge he smells it he sees a big gob out there and he goes out and he doesn't realize that even mice do weigh something and when he gets out on the end you know I got it adjusted so that just the weight of the mouse plus the peanut butter you got a count take into account how much that peanut butter weighs he gets out on the end he cannot resist and it flips and it drops him off in the bucket you got to have enough well I know you're a poor little mouse I'm sorry you're gonna report me PETA will be protesting at my door and he drops off in there and ultimately drowns falls into the pit because he cannot resist the peanut butter now we're smiling because we're talking about mice but my scent the only ones that have trouble with the lusts of the flesh there's a lot of people yes Christians too God made us with physical bodies and they have physical needs and desires and God designed you know the devil did not invent sex God did but it's to be treated in the appropriate sphere within the the Covenant of marriage and God invented food and tastebuds he wants you to enjoy food Bible talks about both sex and food as things that can be pleasant the way God designed them but anything outside of God's design gluttony or pornography they can become pits that trap people and drown them in perdition a lot of folks are needing help escaping the mire of the lusts of the flesh you know more people in North America are dying now not from malnutrition but from overeating most of the hospital visits now are connected with obesity as opposed to malnutrition used to be people were struggling with rickets and all these problems growing up with malnutrition and now it's too much someone told me one third of the internet downloads is pornographic material its accessibility has just made it an epidemic in our culture and you know in spite of how prevalent it is God's Word has not changed God is calling on Christians to be pure in heart also wants us to have control over our appetites and our passions then you've got the pit of greed 1st timothy 8a chapter 6 sorry verse 8 through 10 you all know this and having food and clothing with these we should be content but those who desire to be rich they long to be rich now you may work hard and get rich but if your goal was being rich there's something wrong with that those who desire to be rich fall into temptation they fall into a pit and a snare and many foolish and harmful lusts one thing leads to another which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money and I'm not money in itself but the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and they've pierced themselves through with many sorrows Solomon had a lot of money but you read Ecclesiastes and you can see that at the end of his life he realized that he had pierced himself through with many sorrows having that wisdom and the power and the possessions it led to all kinds of problems it almost led to a cynicism what was it that brought about the fall of Judas he sold the Savior for silver and that's not very wise I remember hearing a story about a white knight that was travelling through the countryside and he came upon a village and they were so happy to see him and they said could you please deliver us from the ogre that lives in the pit he we hear the shrieks and the moans and he's been tormenting our community and he comes out at night and haunts us and they said several champions have gone down in the pit to destroy him but we don't recall any ever coming out again well this night was brave and he was looking for some adventure and challenge wanted to make a name for himself so the villagers directed him where the mouth of the ogres pit was and it was a very narrow entrance and he could see it was very deep so he needed a rope and he also would have to strip himself of his armor just to get through the narrow entrance but he did take a dagger with him that he tied around his neck so that he could do a battle with the little fiend at the bottom of the pit it went down quite a ways and it get dark as he went down lowered himself by his long rope and as he neared the bottom before he released himself he looked like there was a mound looked like two mounds actually one mound with some glitter and another mound glittering off to the left and as he got a little closer he dropped himself down on the fur mound and he thought oh this is a mound of bones and he could see the glitter was the armor and the weapons of others who had evidently come down to kill the ogre and it didn't end very well and then he heard a shriek and he saw the ogre and he was shocked the ogre was no bigger than a rabbit it jumped up and screamed and waved its little arms and he grabbed for his dagger and the ogre saw he had a dagger and he ran and dove in to another remote recess of the cave it's a true story I can see you're on the edge of your seats so as he went over to fight the ogre he saw the second mound and he realized this is a mound it was of gold bars silver jewels rubies diamonds as big as tennis balls and he thought to himself forget about the ogre he said he's no threat these people are scared of this little bitty ogre as big as a rabbit he's not gonna hurt anybody so there's treasure here he's trying to figure out how he could take some out with him and so he was wearing you know his undergarments so he tied off several gold bars into his underwear and before he walked away from the mound he thought I've got to get one of those diamonds rubies aren't worth as much so they put a diamond in his mouth had nowhere else to hold it and he began to climb the rope first his breathing through his nose and eventually he got to the point where he could not breathe and he was gasping for air halfway up and he sucked the diamond into his throat and before he lost consciousness and fell he thought was it worth it and his body was among the others that had fallen on the pit they thought that the town was being haunted by an ogre in the pit the ogre was greed that's what had been slaying the mighty and a lot of people have been destroyed by the same then you've got a pit of pride proverbs 16 verse 18 pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall people it's the power of position it's the titles I think it was Spurgeon that said we should never be deceived by somebody's race or space or face second samuel 18 verse 17 and they took Absalom you know how Absalom ended badly he wanted his father's position he's proud of his beauty his appearance his title had fifty men running before him he wanted to be king like the devil who said I will be like the Most High and absalom's rebellion ended up in a fall he died suspended between heaven and earth they took his body and they cast him into a large pit in the woods and they laid a very large heap of stones over him and all Israel fled everyone to his tent while I was thinking about greed I just thought about akin you know akin he was greedy for the spoils of Jericho he ended in a pit too didn't he so if you find yourself in one of these pits I think it's helpful to remember that Jesus overcame and with his help we can overcome the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes the pride of life how do you do it well for one thing you ask let's go back to Jeremiah now if you want to read about Jeremiah's prayer from the pit you don't actually find it in Jeremiah you find it in the book lamentations also written by Jeremiah it's in lamentations chapter 3 verse 52 and he prays and he says my enemies without cause hunted me down like a bird they silenced my life in the pit they threw stones at me the waters flowed over my head I said I am cut off and here's the key I called on your name Oh Lord from the lowest pit and you have heard my voice so if you find yourself in the lowest pit it's the deepest pit with like the Tar Pits you're stuck in the minor what do you do call on the Lord the Bible talks about Psalm 69 verse one and two save me O God for the waters have come up to my neck I sink deep in the mire where there is no standing I've come into deep waters where the floods overflow me that David Noah that felt like to be in the pits where it looked like there was no help some also get I should add there's a pit of discouragement sometimes we can just become overwhelmed with our own failures feels like the floods will overwhelm you Jonah talked about being in a deep pit if you get swallowed by a fish and you're still alive that's the pits and you're praying that the fish will spit the pit out Jonah chapter 2 verse 1 then Jonah prayed to the Lord from the fish's belly and you go to the end of chapter 2 and he says I went down to the maureen's of the mountains and Maureen is where you tie something off you tie up a boat it means the place where the mountains are tied off to the earth the very bottom of the mountains in the ocean you know where the tallest mountain in the world is it's in Hawaii yeah it's Manalo or Monica which one's taller Monica yeah it's really the 2bic Island Hawaii is really two volcanoes side-by-side you go down off the coast of Hawaii if you count from the sea floor it's taller than Mount Everest it's over 38,000 feet from the sea floor below Hawaii up to the top of Mauna Kea and the Bible says God will take our sins and cast them into the depths of the sea even though they might be like a mountain you can move by faith Jonah was at the bottom and it says he prayed to the Lord you've brought me up from the pit Oh Lord my God you know after he prayed that God answered his prayer and the fish surfaced Peter knows what it's like to be sinking you know the story Matthew chapter 14 but the boat was now in the middle of the sea tossed by the waves and the wind was contrary now in the fourth watch of the night in the darkest time in the middle of the sea in the middle of the night in the middle of a storm Jesus went to them walking on the sea and when the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were troubled and said it's a ghost and they cried out for fear I mean they thought their problems had gone from bad to worse they're out in the middle of the water in the middle of the night and then the ghost comes where do you run but immediately Jesus spoke to them saying be of good cheer at his I do not be afraid and Peter said Lord if it's you command me to come to you on the water that's interesting you only find this here so he said come can this really no time you can find in the Bible when someone says Lord can I do this he said sure and when Peter had come down out of the boat he walked on the water to go to Jesus but here's where things turned Peter took his eyes off Christ I have a theory I can't prove but I think when Peter was walking on the water a little bit of pride came into his heart and he thought I'm the only one besides Jesus walking on water I wonder if the other guys are getting this on their iPhones and he turned around said hey what do you think look it is whenever you hear a man say y'all watch this better get your camera out and as soon as Peter turned to see if they were looking he took his eyes off Jesus and he saw the wind and the waves were boisterous he began to look at the problem and he was afraid he lost faith when his faith started to sink he started to sink and he cried out then he prayed like Jonah and like Jeremiah and he said lord save me this is actually the second shortest prayer in the Bible I think Jehoshaphat uh sure he issues a prayer that simply says Lord help when he was in battle Peter says lord save me so to get an answer from God you have to have a long eloquent prayer with a lot of sophisticated words what makes your prayers valuable to God the eloquence your vocabulary or your desperation your sincerity lord save me sometimes you're out on the highway and you see you're about to have an accident you can just pray and immediately Jesus didn't say alright there's a waiting period or he what a sunk and immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said to him oh you a little faith why did you doubt and they got back to the boat the wind ceased so in the waters when you're sinking in the pit the bottom of the ocean you can pray whatever your pit is you come to the Lord as you are and you might have to pray more than once you know the Bible talks about Joseph being cast in the pit Genesis 37 verse 24 it might be because of the decision others have made you had the pit that you're in and his brothers took him and cast him into a pit and the pit was empty and there was no water in it the other thing is when you pray you don't know exactly how God is going to answer that prayer in the story of Jeremiah I want you to turn back now and it introduces another character go back to Jeremiah chapter 38 and where we left our hero it says he's sink in the mire and verse 7 begins now ebed Melek the Ethiopian one of the eunuchs who is in the king's house he heard when they had put Jeremiah in the dead now even Melek the Ethiopian he loved the Lord and he believed in Jehovah and when he heard what had happened to Jeremiah he went to the king now don't you all wish that you had an Abed Melek a friend that will intercede with the king for you when you're in the pit some people are only going to get out of the pit because somebody else outside of the pit is interceding for them and he had a friend the name even Melek it means servant of the king by the way you know what yow jeremiah means jeremiah means may Yahweh lift up so if you got the name Jeremiah there's a good chance you're gonna get out of the pit now even Melek the Ethiopian one of the eunuchs he was in the king's house he heard that they put Jeremiah in the dungeon and when the king was sitting at the gate Benjamin EBIT Melek went out to the king's house and he spoke to the King saying my lord King these men have done evil and all that they've done to jeremiah the prophet whom they have cast into the dungeon he is likely to die from hunger in this place where he is for there's no more bread in the city he said even the people in the city have no bread how much chance is there a prisoner's gonna get any bread or water there's nothing to drink in there I can't drink the mire he's gonna die well that's what the the enemies of Jeremiah wanted then the king commanded eben melech the ethiopian saying take from here thirty men with you in case anyone tries to stop you you know Zedekiah you read on on the story he believed Jeremiah but he didn't have the backbone to stand up for him he said take with you thirty men and lift jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon before he dies now you know somebody went to the king and interceded and the king answered their prayer so you can pray and you may know others that are in the pit and you can pray for them you can pray when you're in the pit and you can pray for others that are in the pit amen so even Melek he took the men with him and he went to the house of the King under the Treasury and from there he got some old clothes and rags and he let them down by ropes to the dungeon to Jeremiah then eben Melek the ethiopian said to Jeremiah please put these old clothes and rags under your armpits under the robes why because he had already been cut and and burned by the ropes when they put him in the pit and he's saying this is gonna make it easier for you he's gonna pull them out gently put him onto your armpits so they pulled Jeremiah with the ropes and they lifted him out of the dungeon and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison and it goes on to say he stayed there until Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar and among the few people that were spared in the city Jeremiah was one of them isn't that interesting the King comes and he conquers the city and he punishes the King and the elders in the priests everybody has judgment but he sees Jeremiah in the prison and someone says he was the one that stood up for the Lord he sets him free it's kind of interesting that when the Babylonians are conquered by the Persians the one who spared is Daniel the prophet and when the Babylonians conquer Israel Jeremiah is spared now something else interesting happens here because even Melek cared about others even during this time God gave a special promise to him he's sent there's part of Jeremiah that is written as a prophecy for even Melek says go speak and this is jeremiah 39 verse 16 go speak to EBIT Malik the Ethiopian saying thus says the Lord of hosts the God of Israel behold I will bring my words to pass on this city for adversity and not for good and they'll be performed in that day before you but I will deliver you in that day says the Lord and you will not be given into the man into the hand of the men of whom you were afraid for I will surely deliver you and you will not fall by the sword but your life shall be as surprise to you because you have put your trust in me so the Lord in working to save others he saved himself you catch that so in this story if you're in the pit you want to be praying from the pit and praying you've got friends that will intercede in your behalf if you feel like you've been saved from the pit what's your next job to intercede for and to do all you can to pull the other people out of the pit someone once said that evangelism is one bigger telling another bigger where the bread is and the first thing you're gonna want to do if you've been saved from the pit is they help get other people out God showed mercy on this man whose name was servant of the King because he had been involved in saving others you know it's interesting then the King calls Jeremiah you read on in the story and I won't read you all these verses the King calls Jeremiah again he says I want to talk to you tell me once more what is the word of the Lord and Jeremiah said well you know if the princes find out that I'm talking to you they're gonna kill me the King says no you can just tell them that you are appealing to me that you don't go back to the cistern the dungeon the mire again which was true and the thing that struck me was in one day Jeremiah goes from the mire through the intercession of ebed melech he ends up in the palace and later that day he's in the temple and I looked at the different examples in the Bible of how many people went through a transition like that Daniel goes from being a captive to being prime minister in one day Daniel goes from the Lions Den to the palace doesn't he Joseph goes from the prison he changed his clothes and he shaved and he's brought before Pharaoh and he becomes Prime Minister and one day the apostles were in prison about to be judged but the angel opened the prison lauren said go to the house of the lord and preach these words they go from the prison to the palace in one day so when you're safe from the pit you don't go to limbo or purgatory you're either saved or lost Jesus says you're with me or against me and so they went from the pit to the presence of the king now Jesus came to save us from the pit sinn Matthew 12 and we actually read this during Sabbath school what man is there among you who has one sheep if he falls into the pit on the Sabbath will not lay hold of it and lift it out of how much more value is a man than a sheep or a bird or a goat and jesus said look if you care about your animals and you bring them out of the pit doesn't our Good Shepherd care about his sheep doesn't the Shepherd go and leave all the other lambs to look for that one lost lamb how interested is God in getting you out job 33 verse 24 for he is gracious to him and says deliver him from going down to the pit I have found a ransom even in the book of Job it says that God has found a ransom to get us out of the pit look in Isaiah 38 verse 17 for you have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption for you have cast all of my sins behind your back right is it clear now I told you the word pit and I'm not reading half of them get your Bible computer type in pit and you'll be surprised it equates it with the sin being trapped by sin and he says you've cast all my sins behind your back zechariah zechariah 9-11 asked for you also because of the blood of your covenant i will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit and it's a Joseph one of the pit and was dry it means there's no life in the pit so if God can save Jonah and Jeremiah and Joseph and all the others from their pits can he save you from your pit it doesn't matter whether it's passion or possessions or positions whatever it is it's distracting you he can save you from that but some people have trouble believing that God can get him out of their pit I remember reading the evangelist and preacher G Campbell Morgan was doing some revival meetings in Scotland by there was some miners and this one miner came up he said pastor Campbell he says I just tell you I I have an awful hard time believing that all I need to do is ask and that God is gonna give me and save me he says it seems too easy it seems too cheap and pastor Morgan said you're a miner right that's right listen how did you get out of the mine yesterday he said I took the elevator he said well how much did that cost you once it doesn't cost me anything to take the shaft elevator he said so the elevator is was free didn't cost anything he said oh no the elevator was very expensive they spent a lot of money building that elevator he said but you just had to get on it right finally dawned on him he said salvation is very expensive Jesus paid for it but it's free for you because he loves you God doesn't want to leave you in the pit you know when the some of the highest television ratings in the world were when the last of the 33 miners you remember that in 2010 the last of those 33 miners were brought up out of the pit two billion people were watching around the world you know they spent 70 days they broke a record for them largest amount of time anyone would be trapped below ground about a half a mile below ground when there was a cave-in there was no way out no communications and there's a long period of time before they sunk the first weld that could just send a message down they sent a message back saying were alive 33 of us you remember that is a great story but there was a long period of time when they were down there they had no idea that everybody above was engaged in trying to rescue them sometimes we wonder does anyone out there care is there any hope for me and we have no idea you know all of heaven is engaged in trying to save the lost world you may not know it because we're in the pits but God and His angels in heaven is extremely interested in the redemption of this world because their commander loved it so much he came into the world to become one of us to save us you got to want to get out those miners that were saved also had to take a step of faith they had to get into a cage that was lowered down and be willing to get out and at any time they knew there could be another earthquake and they could get crushed halfway up so there were some risk involved some people are in the pit ah because I like it you heard the story I probably told it a hundred times about the frog that was hopping along carelessly one day and he fell into a pit he hopped and hopped and he couldn't get out he didn't mind so much because plenty of bugs bugs crawled into the pit and so he had plenty to eat so he got to where he's kind of comfortable down there but he got tired and every now and then he'd call out and he'd say help help and one day I a turtle came by slowly and craned his neck over the edge he looked down in the pit and he saw the Frog another tree story and he he said what's the problem the Frog said well hope it would be obvious he says I'm stuck in this pit and I can't get out he said well can't you hop out he says I've tried I just can't hop high enough he said what do you want me to do the Frog said to the turtle well if you'd go get a stick in your mouth and drop it in here I could crawl out turtle said I'll be right back but you know for turtles that's relative so about an hour later the turtles making his way back to the edge of the hole and he's got a stick in his mouth and before he gets to the hole he sees the Frog is there sunbathing on a rock up on the side and the turtle said what are you doing here he said I'm sunbathing he said well how did you get here he's gonna hop down to the hole he said you told me you couldn't get out of the hole he said well that was until the snake crawled in he said I had to get out sometimes if we would only know that the wages of sin are truly death we'd get motivated but we keep thinking we've got plenty of time to hop out we don't understand the desperation of the situation and some people they stay in the pit because they say I tried before and it's hopeless I can't get out I got another frog story it's actually a poem - frogs fell in a can of cream or so I heard it told the sides of a can were shiny and steep the cream was deep and cold the first frog croak go what's the used his fate no help surround goodbye my friends goodbye sad world and weeping still he drowned but the other frog of sterner stuff dog paddled in surprise and while he wiped his creamy face and he dried his creamy eyes I'll swim as long as I can swim so I've heard he said it really wouldn't help the world if one more frog was dead an hour or two he kicked and swam not once to stop and mutter but he kicked and kicked and swam and kicked then he hopped out via butter he finally turned that cream into butter by swimming you got to want to get out you know something else just the way the story ends when Nebuchadnezzar took the city those who put Jeremiah in the pit were killed Jeremiah was spared the Bible says that if you dig a pit for someone to fall into you will fall in the pit that you dig Psalm 7 verse 14 behold the wicked has made a pit and dug it out he's fallen into the ditch which which he had made you know the book of Esther Haman was hung on the gallows that he built for Mordecai proverbs 26 27 whoever digs a pit will fall into it how's the devil gonna end Isaiah 14 you will be brought down to Sheol to the lowest depths of the pit Daniel was brought out of his pit and who was thrown in the ones who had accused him revelation 20 verse 1 then I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand and he laid hold of the dragon that serpent of old the devil and Satan and bound him Ezekiel 28 talking about the devil they will throw you down in the pit you will die the death of the slain in the midst of the Seas he talks about the water in the pit you tried to drown them in the mire and you're gonna drown yourself you know I'll end with this story some of you remember reading about this little baby Jessica it's been just about 30 years ago now it's back in 1987 an 18 month old what's been more than 30 years ago 18 month old toddler how many of you remember the story you're old enough some of you younger ones you don't remember this let me tell you it was something a little toddler in Midland Texas was playing in her aunt's yard and is a big backyard and there was someone had uncovered a closed well and oil well if you've ever been to Midland you can smell when you get to middle in Texas and Odessa because they got oil wells everywhere anyone been there you know I'm talking about and there was an abandoned oil well very deep the cover had come off and this toddler fell way down in the well and word eventually reached the local papers and then it got to a wider paper that they were trying to get this baby out of the well and soon it made national news this was one of the first nationally covered twenty four-hour-a-day stories in North America they had its satellite technology then to carry it and there was a circus of news agencies that descended they lowered down a light and a camera they could see that she was still alive but she was just totally wedged covered with oil grease and grime stuck in this hole and they put a light down there and you know the light the the air once you get by six feet now and it's like 50 degrees the ground temperature she was 22 feet down so it's very cold and eventually you could die from hypothermia so they began to blow warm air in they lowered down a little microphone sore her mom could talk to her they felt great encouragement when they heard her singing Winnie the Pooh she was just old enough where she had learned Winnie the Pooh Winnie the Pooh and she was singing that and that gave him great hope there was no way for them to get her out they put a camera down there they tried to figure out can we get a lariat around a wrist and pull her out no full-grown man could go down there and get her and meanwhile the hours are ticking by and they wonder how long can she last they brought in well drillers and and ultimately they came up with a solution to drill another well through solid rock right beside her well lower man down he had to go down deeper than she was so then he could go up drill across horizontally up to where the baby wasn't all this was just you know best guess estimates and eventually they were able to rescue a little baby Jessica who is alive and well today and a mother of her own but the interesting thing was the only way they could get her out was they had to get a volunteer to go back down you know even with the 33 miners when they dug that shaft and the meetly cage to save the miners one man had to go down and bring the gear and tell them how they were gonna be saved someone had to go down and that's what Jesus did he came into our world that he might save us from our pet now I don't know what kind of pit you're in but whatever it is he's in the business of saving if we ask him maybe you know some others that are in the pit they need your intercession they need a friend and I think this is a good opportunity for us to say today is the day I want the Lord to save me for my pits is that your desire now we're gonna do something different I'm going out on a limb here we're gonna sing a song that's not in the hymnal but how many of you know the song love lifted me a borrowed from the Methodist hymn know if you don't the words are on the screen our song leaders are gonna come they know it we're gonna stand together and sing this song I think by the second verse you're gonna love the tune and let's raise the roof [Music] I was sinking deep in sin from the deep within sinking to my soul but the master of the sleeve heard my despair [Music] I'll say [Music] love lifted me when girls to me love lifted me [Music] did me [Music] oh my lord - hey never [Music] in his presence days ever is grace you see some ideas true [Music] servus [Music] love lifted me [Music] good let me did me nothing else [Music] oh Jesus heeey you pockets of out of the angry way I see your savior wants to keep me safe too [Music] lifted me [Music] nothing else could [Music] lifted me lived at me [Music] Jesus came into our world we love him because he first loved us Moses went to the slavery of Egypt to bring them out just like they lowered somebody down to bring the others out Jesus has come to where we are to reach us and the goodness of God his love leads us to repentance everybody's really included today we all fall into one of those categories maybe we are in multiple pits but whatever they are Jesus came to save us and he can if we asked you and we also once we've got our feet on solid ground we need to be praying for those that are still caught in the mire and in the pit that's the purpose of this church it's the purpose of the gospel is to help set people free how many of you want to say Lord saved me and helped me to reach others that are in the pits of sin Father in Heaven we thank you for the simple message of the gospel the power of your love to save help us Lord not to minimize how awful it is to be buried alive in the pit to be trapped in hopeless but I pray that we'll also not underestimate your power to reach even those who are in the deepest depths of sin lord I pray that you'll be with those who may be struggling we all struggle with temptation Lord how some its passion might be possessions it might be pride and position whatever it is Lord I pray that you will help us to fix our eyes on Jesus to take hold of the Rope of salvation that you've lowered and lets you lift us from the pit of sin please bless Lord I pray that like eben melech we'll be friends and intercede for those that are still trapped we have loved ones and family that are wrestling with various sins and temptation set them free and I pray this can be a place in a church where the gospel goes forth we thank you we pray all this in Jesus name and we praise you hey men you may be seated just give us a chance to get to the door so the elders can greet you god bless and happy sound [Music]

Channel: Doug Batchelor

Views: 46,407

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Id: gRp88h2ogNo

Length: 58min 9sec (3489 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 11 2019