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[ Music ] I am redeemed, bought with a price. Jesus has changed my whole life. Oh, feel it, buddy.

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Can't feel it, buddy. Yes, yes, I am. Yes, you are. Hail them, I am, I am, oh I am, I am, redeemed.

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Lord will power, oh Christ Jesus, change. ♪ Changed my whole life ♪ ♪ Oh, if anybody should ask you ♪ ♪ If anybody asks you ♪

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♪ Just who I am ♪ ♪ Just who I am ♪ ♪ Tell them ♪ ♪ Tell them ♪

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♪ That I am ♪ ♪ That I am ♪ ♪ I am redeemed ♪ ♪ Well, there was hate ♪

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♪ Love now abides ♪ ♪ Where there was confusion ♪ ♪ Peace now reigns ♪ ♪ I'm walking with Jesus ♪

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♪ I'm a child of the King ♪ ♪ Oh, because I've been, I've been redeemed ♪ I am redeemed. Oh, yes, I am.

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I've been bought with a price. Jesus has changed my whole life. Oh, the billion bodies should ask you, Oh, just who I am, tell them that I am Eugene.

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I'll tell all his favor, I've got to tell all his love. I'll tell all his goodness to me. Because he purchased my redemption with his own precious blood. And from sin I've been set free.

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Oh, I can tell the whole that I am redeemed. Oh, I've been bought, bought with a price. Jesus has changed. Oh, yes, he has.

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[chanting] Oh, oh, if anybody should hurt you, tell me who's that man. [chanting] Heaven for me, that I am redeemed.

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Oh, I'm redeemed. Yes, I am. Oh, I've been bought, bought with a precious price. Jesus has changed.

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He picked me up and turned me around. Oh, oh, if anybody should like you, [music] Our scripture lesson, for some time now, we have considered the book of the Prophet Jeremiah,

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And we have followed his activity as it relates to the judgment of God in the life of his people, the punishment which would be inflicted upon them because of their sin. We come today to consider the fall of Jerusalem. When you've preached as long as I have, there are many passages that you've heard preached

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time and time again. This is one that I've never heard preached. So I have wrestled with the Lord concerning what he has for us in this particular experience. It was the experience of Babylon and Jerusalem many years ago, but what does he have to say

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to us through their experience in the here and now? So I'd like to read as the basis of this message the translation from the New English Bible. The Babylonians burnt the royal palace and the house of the Lord and the houses of the people and pulled down the walls of Jerusalem.

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Babylonians burnt the royal palace and the house of the Lord, the royal palace, the house of the Lord, and the houses of the people, and pulled down the walls of Jerusalem. The fall of Jerusalem. The fall of Jerusalem.

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Some years ago on a visit to Berlin, Germany, I noticed some of the ruins of World War II. seemingly in the heart of the city. There was a church that was situated there. All around it was bombed, but the church escaped. It remained there. Here we have the story as recorded by the prophet of the fall of Jerusalem. The prophecies

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that were related to this city had been proclaimed by Jeremiah from his early days, he said a foe would come from the north. He began his ministry saying that. Now this foe has not only come, but this foe has been instrumental in the destruction of the city of Jerusalem.

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Jerusalem, the holy city. Jerusalem, the home of countless pilgrims of the faith. Jerusalem where those who came to worship gave this prayer which has been preserved for us through the centuries. I was glad when they said unto me, "Let us go into the house of the Lord."

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Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together, whether the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, and to the testimony of Israel,

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to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. For there are set thrones of judgment, the throne of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper, that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my

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brethren and companions' sake I will now say, Peace be within thee, because of the because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good but Jerusalem the holy city has fallen into the hands of Babylon Jerusalem, God's dwelling place, has fallen into the hands of

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Babylon. The Babylonians burnt the royal palace so the king had home. They destroyed the houses of the people. They destroyed the house of God. And the armies whose job it was to protect the city fled by night.

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Jerusalem was a holy city that people armored with worship, capital of Jewry, Jewish people from all over the world came there. But it's a symbol of holiness. It's a symbol of God's presence.

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Babylon is miles away. It's a symbol of hostility. It's a symbol of that which we must contend against. Babylon, Babylon.

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Well, what does Jerusalem have to say to us, those of us who are beginning again in school, beginning a new year? What does Babylon have to say to us? We do have Babylon and Jerusalem with us today. We have them. I discovered early in my years that I had to contend with of Babylon. I went to school and when school was let out, there were some fellas who had

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told me while school was in session, "I'm going to get you today." That was Babylon. And I became quite skillful in trying to devise ways to get home from school. And I was a from school and I did that for quite a while and then I decided that I was not gonna run home every day and so even though I may not be as strong as the

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other one I was gonna stand up for my rights and so I I was not gonna be embarrassed either before all the girls. And so I stood and I fought Herman Davis that day. I still remember, still remember I fought Herman Davis and my arms and my body was sore for several days afterward. But after that fight Herman came to me

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And he said, "Now, we're not gonna fight anymore." So I had come to terms with my situation and I stood up for what was right and I'm glad even to this day that that happened.

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I didn't have to run home every day. So we have our Jerusalem. We have our Jerusalem has to do with our aims, our objectives, where we intend to go ultimately,

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where we intend to be, whether we will finish high school or be like some who say, I don't see where I need to finish high school. They settle for much less than Jerusalem,

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Jerusalem, the holy city. Jerusalem, the apex of our joys. So they destroy the hopes and aspirations that they have for themselves.

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They destroy them themselves. Jerusalem, Jerusalem and Babylon. In fact, it was only after they got out of Jerusalem that the Jewish people of that day really understood the

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advantages they had in Jerusalem. And while they were down there by the rivers of Babylon as captives of war, they said, "Oh, Jerusalem, if I forget thee, oh, Jerusalem, may right hand forget her cunning. May my tongue cleave to the

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roof of my mouth if I remember thee not above my chief joy." They recognized the importance and significance of Jerusalem when they were driven out of Jerusalem. Here they are, running army has fled from the city and the king's house has

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been destroyed. The king joins the army, so to speak, in taking flight and he's captured. Can you imagine what it's like? We've lived in a country that has never been attacked since the war, the early wars that we fought in forming this nation, we've had peace. But the ancient cities had walls that

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were built around them, and they were not only high in height, but they were impregnable walls, they thought, that no enemy would be able to get in and conquer them. So they had these Sometimes several chariots could drive around the walls.

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And historians tell us that Nebuchadnezzar's army came and attacked the city for 18 months. That's a long time to be under attack. People inside were wondering how long, how long.

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They were in a state of fear, they were hysterical because the armies of the enemy were at the gates. And Nebuchadnezzar had his powerful battering rams. There were huge holes that they rammed against the walls

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and they kept ramming them against the walls until they made a hole and then the soldiers went through those holes into the city and they destroyed the city.

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The city. But what disturbs me is why God would let Babylon destroy Jerusalem. That's a difficult question.

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Jerusalem, the holy city, Jerusalem, the dwelling place of God, and God Himself permits Babylon to conquer Jerusalem. That's strange. That's strange. But God has the right to govern this world any way he pleases. It's his. He's sovereign. He's

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over all of us. He's over Babylon. He's over Jerusalem. And he has the right to do whatever he wishes. And he, in this instance, he punishes the people of God, Israel, by using pagan forces. That's what he does. He punishes them. And he has a

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right to do that. He uses Babylon as an expression of his arrived to conquer Jerusalem. Well, I remember when I was in school, as a youngster in elementary school, two boys got in a fight and they were sent to the principal's office and the principal had them to fight. He took them out in the

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yard and had them to fight. As long as they could raise their arms and fight they fought each other and then when they got through fighting he took him into the office and gave them a whipping. I didn't think that was a nice thing to do as a little boy I just decided that I would never be in that shape because the

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The principal had a right to do whatever he wanted to do. I know that differs from the disciplinarian policies that we have today. But those were the policies of yesterday

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and they worked quite well. And they guided us in ways that we needed to go. So Babylon is an instrument of God. So look in your own life and see Jerusalem and also see Babylon.

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>> Yes, I do. >> See that which is highest and best in you and see those forces that you encounter that are designed for your failure and see how you can relate to Babylon and how you can relate to Jerusalem.

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Well, Jerusalem fell, fell. Terrible fall. Read the passage when you get home. Terrible fall. Not only did they destroy the temple, not only did they destroy the house of the the king and the other houses, but they took captive the king. And when they had done that, they took the king's sons and killed them before the king's eyes. And then after having

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sons, they put out the king's eyes so that the last thing he could remember was seeing his sons killed by the Babylonians. That's a terrible thing, terrible humiliation. But as we think about the fall of Jerusalem, why did Jerusalem

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fall? We've been talking about it in our sermons for several several weeks because she was an unfaithful wife. She failed. So unfaithfulness to God was the cause of Jerusalem to fall. False prophets called to her. They were crying, "Peace! Peace!" And there was no peace. They called Jerusalem to fall

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because Jerusalem listened to them. Corruption in worship caused Jerusalem to fall. They had become so corrupt that they felt they could do anything and it was all right with God and it caused Jerusalem to fall. And then the nation forsook God. These are the things that caused Jerusalem to fall. And brothers and sisters, that has been the reason for the fall of many nations,

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disobedience to God. That has been the cause, disobedience. Not being faithful to the God who made us. And in the book of Lamentations, we see the weeping and the great sorrow that followed the fall of Jerusalem. But that's a lesson for us. You know the story of Adam and Eve, how they were driven out of the garden, how they had this wonderful state of affairs,

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but they failed. And in Adam's fall, we sinned all. All of us can identify with the fall all of that. Gibbons tells us the story of the fall of Rome. And you know, as in the case of Jerusalem, so was it with Rome. Rome did not fall really because of conquering armies from

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without. It was from internal problems, inner weakness. And most of us, you know, we look good in our clothes. We look this morning, we don't fall because of some external things many times. It's because we do not have that inner faith, that

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inner strength that we need to contend with the forces that are against us. Jerusalem falls to Babylon. Oh, what a day. What a day. No more worship in the temple, no more governing by the king. Jerusalem has fallen. And Jerusalem falls in our lives

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whenever we are unfaithful to God, whenever we listen to the wrong advice, Jerusalem falls. But I see another Jerusalem. This Jerusalem here falls. It's subject to the conditions of the flesh. It's subject to carnality. But there is another

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Jerusalem. Come with me and let us look with John on the Isle of Patmos. And he says as he looks, he says that he sees a new Jerusalem coming down from heaven. A Jerusalem from God. A Jerusalem that cannot be destroyed. A Jerusalem that is a spiritual gift from God. And you don't have to worry about the walls. You don't have

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to worry about the walls. Nebuchadnezzar's battering rams and his soldiers there with their chariots on the wall, they have to worry about the walls because the walls are of jasper. They are the walls that the Lord God himself has made and they are walls that no army can better down. There is a new Jerusalem and all of us are on our way to that new Jerusalem.

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I want to walk in Jerusalem just like John. Walk in Jerusalem just like John. For God has prepared a holy city for all of his children. And we need not worry about the victory of worry about the victories of Babylon down here because there is a new Jerusalem that celebrates the victory that no one can take away. It's an

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impregnable city. So as we sing this hymn, Rock of Ages, you know, in the midst of our disappointments, in the midst of our defeats, in the midst of all of our there is this assurance of the rock of ages.

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And as we sing, we extend the privilege of the church to accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life,

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to become a part of the family of God here at Ebenezer. If you're living in Austin

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without a church home, we invite you to identify with this church family. Come as we sing,

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rock of ages. [MUSIC PLAYING] Lord, the church is open. I invite you to come.

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♪ God of angels, plan for me ♪ ♪ Let me hide myself in thee ♪ ♪ Let the water and the fog ♪ ♪ Stand like water to stand with me ♪

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♪ Be a stranger, thou of June ♪ [MUSIC] ♪ And I will call ♪ ♪ You my Savior ♪

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♪ Go and control ♪ ♪ These who sin ♪ ♪ But Thou have taught ♪ ♪ And will sing ♪

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♪ And I will love ♪ ♪ In Thy hand, O ♪ ♪ Christ, I pray ♪ ♪ Send me to ♪

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♪ The closer he is ♪ ♪ All I know is ♪ ♪ Screaming prayer ♪ ♪ When the Irish ♪

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♪ Are closing in ♪ ♪ When I rise ♪ ♪ To pass the door ♪ ♪ And behold ♪

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♪ The arm of God ♪ ♪ But the wages ♪ ♪ Therefore be ♪ ♪ And behold my soul in thee ♪

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- We come now to commune at the Lord's table. The table which we commune is prepared by Jesus Christ himself. He is the diet that we need for our life.

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His body, his blood provide us with the strength that we need, the hope that we need, the faith that we need as we make this journey. So every person who accepts Jesus Christ

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as Lord of your life is invited to commune at his table. He prepares a table for us in the wilderness, in the midst of all of the dangerous animals that may lurk in the wilderness,

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in the midst of all of the barrenness and the starvation that we associate with the wilderness. In the midst of all of that, Jesus prepares a table for us. And we invite you to come

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because it is his table prepared for his people. Let's pray. Lord, here we are again calling on your name, asking your blessings upon us as we carry out your command

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to commune at your table. And as often as we do it, we do show forth your death and your suffering. We have precious memories concerning

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how we encountered you in our lives. And as we pause at this juncture, we ask that you will equip us with the fuel that is necessary that will enable us to run on the race

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that you have set before us. Bless and use us as we partake of these elements, that we may be empowered to encounter the problems of tomorrow with the assurance of your victory.

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We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]