THE CAPTIVES

MIKE CUNNINGHAM

January 14, 2007

Although I have many fond memories of my childhood, most of which were centered on my mother’s sacrificial love for her children; I can still recall some of the real scary “what if’s” that weighed heavily on my pre-teen mind during the Second World War.

For instance, what if something bad happened to my mom? Who would take care of me and my younger brother and sister? What if America lost the war; would the Nazi’s and Jap’s kill all of us? Facing similar circumstances, I suppose all young kids growing up during that dark period of our nation’s history would have had the same “what if’s” as I did. However, I can’t help wondering if there were many eight and nine year old kids wondering about what if they accidentally broke some law and were thrown into prison, and then forced to work on a chain gang?

I can still visualize the movies of those prisoners in their black and white stripped uniforms and funny looking caps on their heads digging and chipping away at the rocky ground in some desolate piece of land. Those prisoners were chained at the ankle to each other, and were watched like a hawk by mean looking cigar chomping prison guards armed with rifles you just knew they wouldn’t hesitate to use.

There was something about being chained that way that really got to me. And to worsen my fears, whenever I saw the newsreel footage in the movies of captured American soldiers tied to each other and being led single file by jeering Jap’s, I freaked out and worried up a storm.

That’s probably why I have such an intense appreciation for the incredible sacrifices our men and women in the military are making today in order to preserve our freedom. I never take my freedom for granted and I know it isn’t cheep. A tremendous price in human death and suffering always has to be paid to secure and maintain liberty and justice.

From a very early age I never wanted to be captured and loose my freedom. I never wanted to be enslaved by some conqueror. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what happened to me. Although I didn’t know it at the time, but back in eternity past, God ordained and predestined that in the course of human history, and at a specific moment in time which had been chosen by Him alone, I would become a captive; not once but a couple of times.

I still have occasional disturbing flash backs to the way things were during the duration of my first time of captivity. And the more I remember about that miserable existence, and that’s all it really was; the more I know I will always be eternally grateful for being set free, and for the price that had to be paid to secure my freedom.

How about you folks? Can you say that you had a similar experience? Are you appreciative of the freedom you presently enjoy? You ought to be because the freedom I’m speaking about is freedom from the devil and sin. Make no mistake about it, we were all captured by the devil the moment we left our mothers womb. The Holy Spirit confirmed this fact through King David when David acknowledged that he and all men were born in sin.

Psalms 51:5 (AMP) ⁵ Behold, I was brought forth in [a state of] iniquity; my mother was sinful who conceived me [and I too am sinful].

Psalms 58:3 (AMP) ^{3 “}The ungodly are perverse and estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.”

Jesus taught that because of this horrible fact all people must be reborn in order to enter into God’s kingdom.

John 3:5-7 (AMP) ⁵ Jesus answered, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, unless a man is born of water and [even] the Spirit, he cannot [ever] enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ What is born of [from] the flesh is flesh [of the physical is physical]; and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Marvel not [do not be surprised, astonished] at My telling you, You must all be born anew (from above).

John 1:12-13 (AMP) ¹² But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name— ¹³ Who owe their birth neither to bloods nor to the will of the flesh [that of physical impulse] nor to the will of man [that of a natural father], but to God. [They are born of God!]

To a greater or lesser degree; how do you think folks whose heart’s and mind’s have been darkened and corrupted by their sinful nature from the moment of birth is apt to play out in their life; folks who have not been reborn and are therefore still in the devil’s hands?

Genesis 6:5 (AMP) ⁵ The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually.

Genesis 8:21 (AMP) ²¹ …the imagination (the strong desire) of man’s heart is evil and wicked from his youth;

Ecclesiastes 9:3 (AMP) ³ This evil is in all that is done under the sun: one fate comes to all. Also the hearts of men are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live,

Jeremiah 17:9 (AMP) ⁹ The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]?

Mark 7:21-23 (AMP) ²¹ For from within, [that is] out of the hearts of men, come base and wicked thoughts, sexual immorality, stealing, murder, adultery, ²² Coveting (a greedy desire to have more wealth), dangerous and destructive wickedness, deceit; unrestrained (indecent) conduct; an evil eye (envy), slander (evil speaking, malicious misrepresentation, abusiveness), pride (the sin of an uplifted heart against God and man), foolishness (folly, lack of sense, recklessness, thoughtlessness). ²³ All these evil [purposes and desires] come from within and they make the man unclean and render him unhallowed.

John 3:19 (AMP) ¹⁹ The [basis of the] judgment (indictment, the test by which men are judged, the ground for the sentence) lies in this: the Light has come into the world, and people have loved the darkness rather than and more than the Light, for their works (deeds) were evil.

Romans 8:7-8 (AMP) ⁷ [That is] because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God’s Law; indeed it cannot. ⁸ So then those who are living the life of the flesh [catering to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature] cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable to Him.

1 Corinthians 2:14 (AMP) ¹⁴ But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated.

Ephesians 4:17-19 (AMP) ¹⁷ So this I say and solemnly testify in [the name of] the Lord [as in His presence], that you must no longer live as the heathen (the Gentiles) do in their perverseness [in the folly, vanity, and emptiness of their souls and the futility] of their minds. ¹⁸ Their moral understanding is darkened and their reasoning is beclouded. [They are] alienated (estranged, self-banished) from the life of God [with no share in it; this is] because of the ignorance (the want of knowledge and perception, the willful blindness) that is deep-seated in them, due to their hardness of heart [to the insensitiveness of their moral nature]. ¹⁹ In their spiritual apathy they have become callous and past feeling and reckless and have abandoned themselves [a prey] to unbridled sensuality, eager and greedy to indulge in every form of impurity [that their depraved desires may suggest and demand].

Ephesians 5:8 (AMP) ⁸ For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of Light [lead the lives of those native-born to the Light].

Titus 1:15 (AMP) ¹⁵ To the pure [in heart and conscience] all things are pure, but to the defiled and corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are defiled and polluted.

Until a person is reborn his or her spiritual father is the devil. He so controls their mind’s and heart’s that Jesus says they actually want to emulate the characteristics of the devil. Obviously, the intensity of their desire is regulated by our sovereign God.[1]

John 8:44 (AMP) ⁴⁴ You are of your father, the devil, and it is your will to practice the lusts and gratify the desires [which are characteristic] of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a falsehood, he speaks what is natural to him, for he is a liar [himself] and the father of lies and of all that is false.

Ephesians 2:1-2 (AMP) ¹ AND YOU [He made alive], when you were dead (slain) by [your] trespasses and sins ² In which at one time you walked [habitually]. You were following the course and fashion of this world [were under the sway of the tendency of this present age], following the prince of the power of the air. [You were obedient to and under the control of] the [demon] spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience [the careless, the rebellious, and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God].

2 Timothy 2:25-26 (AMP) ^{25 ….}in the hope that God may grant that they will repent and come to know the Truth [that they will perceive and recognize and become accurately acquainted with and acknowledge it], ²⁶ And that they may come to their senses [and] escape out of the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him, [henceforth] to do His [God’s] will.

1 John 3:10 (AMP) ¹⁰ By this it is made clear who take their nature from God and are His children and who take their nature from the devil and are his children: no one who does not practice righteousness [who does not conform to God’s will in purpose, thought, and action] is of God; neither is anyone who does not love his brother (his fellow believer in Christ).

1 John 5:19 (AMP) ¹⁹ We know [positively] that we are of God, and the whole world [around us] is under the power of the evil one.

John 8:34 (AMP) ³⁴ Jesus answered them, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, Whoever commits and practices sin is the slave of sin.

Romans 6:20 (AMP) ²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

Titus 3:3 (AMP) ³ For we also were once thoughtless and senseless, obstinate and disobedient, deluded and misled; [we too were once] slaves to all sorts of cravings and pleasures, wasting our days in malice and jealousy and envy, hateful (hated, detestable) and hating one another.

Please don’t think it’s just those deluded Islamic extremists that are being held captive by the devil and whom he has enslaved because nothing could be further from the truth. To a greater or lesser degree, everyone sins against our Creator.

2 Chronicles 6:36 (AMP) ³⁶ If they sin against You—for there is no man who does not sin—and You are angry with them and give them to enemies who take them captive to a land far or near;

Job 15:14-16 (AMP) ¹⁴ What is man, that he could be pure and clean? And he who is born of a woman, that he could be right and just? ¹⁵ Behold, [God] puts no trust in His holy ones [the angels]; indeed, the heavens are not clean in His sight— ¹⁶ How much less that which is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water?

Psalms 130:3 (AMP) ³ If You, Lord, should keep account of and treat [us according to our] sins, O Lord, who could stand?

Psalms 143:2 (AMP) ² And enter not into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no man living is [in himself] righteous or justified.

Proverbs 20:9 (AMP) ⁹ Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?

Ecclesiastes 7:20 (AMP) ²⁰ Surely there is not a righteous man upon earth who does good and never sins.

Ecclesiastes 7:29 (AMP) ²⁹ Behold, this is the only [reason for it that] I have found: God made man upright, but they [men and women] have sought out many devices [for evil].

Isaiah 53:6 (AMP) ⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way…

Isaiah 64:6 (AMP) ⁶ For we have all become like one who is unclean [ceremonially, like a leper], and all our righteousness (our best deeds of rightness and justice) is like filthy rags or a polluted garment; we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away [far from God’s favor, hurrying us toward destruction].

Romans 3:9-12 (AMP) ⁹ Well then, are we [Jews] superior and better off than they? No, not at all. We have already charged that all men, both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles), are under sin [held down by and subject to its power and control]. ¹⁰ As it is written, None is righteous, just and truthful and upright and conscientious, no, not one. ¹¹ No one understands [no one intelligently discerns or comprehends]; no one seeks out God. ¹² All have turned aside; together they have gone wrong and have become unprofitable and worthless; no one does right, not even one!

James 3:2 (AMP) ² For we all often stumble and fall and offend in many things. And if anyone does not offend in speech [never says the wrong things], he is a fully developed character and a perfect man, able to control his whole body and to curb his entire nature.

James 3:8 (AMP) ⁸ But the human tongue can be tamed by no man. It is a restless (undisciplined, irreconcilable) evil, full of deadly poison.

1 John 1:8 (AMP) ⁸ If we say we have no sin [refusing to admit that we are sinners], we delude and lead ourselves astray, and the Truth [which the Gospel presents] is not in us [does not dwell in our hearts].

1 John 1:10 (AMP) ¹⁰ If we say (claim) we have not sinned, we contradict His Word and make Him out to be false and a liar, and His Word is not in us [the divine message of the Gospel is not in our hearts].

These are the truths I was alluding to earlier when I was described my first captivity as being a miserable existence. These timeless spiritual truths together with those we considered the last three Sunday’s should also help us to better understand the absolute Sovereignty of God in everything, including the salvation of poor lost sinners such as you and me.

I believe that whether or not folks find these particular verses to be either awe inspiring and humbling or tedious and boring to hear or read is indicative of that person’s spiritual health. Folks are either spiritually alive in Christ or spiritually dead in Satan. Regardless of whether or not a person is a true born-again Christian or a non-Christian they have to deal with these verses. Everyone has the choice of either believing or rejecting them. If someone’s decision is the latter, it won’t be because he or she can’t, but rather because they won’t. I have prayed that each of you folks will come to humbly accept and embrace them and together we can praise God from whom all our blessings flow.

But how about that second time I said in the beginning of my message that I was taken into captivity? Lord willing, next week….