May God be pleased to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
prophecy of Jeremiah, chapter 29, and we will read the 11th
verse. The prophecy of Jeremiah, chapter
29, and verse 11. For I know the thoughts that
I think toward you, saith the Lord. thoughts of peace and not
of evil to give you an expected end. Such words surely must have been
very encouraging to the captives in Babylon to realize that the
Lord had such gracious words to speak to them. We should be
reminded of course that what had happened was that Judah had
rebelled against God. What they had done was they had
not listened to the prophets who had spoken to them over many
years and warning them of the consequence of their sin. But
what did they do? They ignored such words. The problem is today, people
ignore the Word of God. They ignore the preaching of
the Gospel. They think it isn't relevant
to them today. They think they needn't hear
the Word of God. They think they can carry on
in accordance with their own agenda and follow their own pursuits. Well, that's just what Judah
did. They ignored the gracious word of God and the word of God
is a gracious word and it is a right word and it's to be followed
and it's not to be ignored. And today you and I have the
word of God from Genesis to Revelation, which is an amazing privilege. It's a wonderful thing to think
that we have a translation in our own language of the very
words that God spoke to those who wrote all those books of
the Bible. And as Jesus said, when he prayed
to his father in the 17th of John, he said this, thy word
is truth. Now we live in a world where
there is not much truth today. Not much truth in our media,
not much truth amongst people, but what a blessing that you
and I can rely 100% upon the truth of God's Word. There may be things that you
and I can't understand, we don't really appreciate. That doesn't
mean to say there's anything wrong with the Word of God, the
fault lies in ourselves and therefore how good it is if we have a desire
to read the Bible and to study the Bible and to pray over the
Bible that it may speak to our very hearts that it's not just
a mere historical account which of course it is in many ways
it's not totally but it is in many ways but the word of God
speaks far more powerfully. And so may we recognize the importance
of it. Now, Judah had turned their back
upon the things of God and what God had said had come to pass. Nebuchadnezzar had come up and
he fought against Jerusalem and had taken it and taken away many
that dwelt in Jerusalem across to Babylon, which was a long
way. If you look on a map, you'll see it's a long way from Jerusalem
to Babylon. It wasn't just around the corner.
And it was across desert. It was a hard journey. And they've
been dragged all that way. And now they were in Babylon. And what was one of the worst
things was this. They didn't have a temple now to worship
in. They'd left that behind and it
had since been demolished. And what a sad position they
were in. And yet, you see, God was still gracious. And that
is true today. God is still gracious to us today. And God has given us His Word
to be able to read, to be able to ponder, to be able to pray
over, and to know that we still have a God that we can pray to.
we can come and commit our way to. Well, in these days, Jeremiah,
a prophet of the Lord, a faithful preacher, he didn't get any medals,
naturally, for the things he preached. In actual fact, he
was thrown into the dark dungeon, thrown into prison, for telling
them the truth of God. It was a hard life for Jeremiah,
but he was a faithful prophet. He didn't give up. He didn't
stop. He carried on. And that surely
is the testimony of a true prophet, a true servant of God's to not
give up, but to press on, to declare the truth of the gospel. Well, that's precisely what Jeremiah
was able to do in writing this letter. And you may have noticed,
it's not easy this chapter to actually read as we come down
to the end, but towards the end you will find there were those
prophets who were false prophets. They didn't prophesy the truth. They told the people to ignore
what Jeremiah had said, to build houses and that, don't do that,
it's only gonna be a short captivity. Jeremiah said, no it's not, it's
gonna be 70 years. therefore it's needful. Then of course
this man Shemaiah arose and spoke those things which were so wrong
but you see the Lord spoke to Jeremiah and Jeremiah then responded
and the word came from Jeremiah unto Jeremiah saying send to
all them in the captivity saying thus saith the Lord concerning
Shemaiah because that Shemaiah prophesied unto you And I sent
him not. And he calls you to trust in
a lie. It's very important in an age
in which we live that we don't trust in a lie. There are many people today who
preach the gospel, but it's not the true gospel. It's another
gospel. It's a lie. And how important
it is, therefore, that you and I follow the truth of the word
of God. And the truth of the Word of
God directs us very clearly in this way. It directs us to show
to ourselves what we are before a holy God. That means when the
Holy Spirit does that, we don't stand up and think, what a great
Christian I am. There are many people today who
think they're great Christians. They've never actually stood
before a holy God. They've never been condemned
before a holy God because of their sins. They've never found
themselves guilty before a holy God. They've never been found
trembling before a righteous God. What a mercy then, if you
and I know what it is, to stand before God and tremble because
of our sins, because of what our sins, the result of our sins
to us will be. It'll mean that unless the Lord
comes and has mercy, we shall find ourselves in eternal hell
forever and ever, ever and ever with no escape. The day of grace will have passed. You and I today, my friends,
are in the Day of Grace. The Day of Grace is a day when
God shows His amazing mercy and favour, totally unmerited, to
unworthy sinners. And He shows them the way of
salvation. He shows them the way to be delivered
from their sins. What a mercy that is. And what
is that way? What is it? My friends, it's
the way of the cross. It's the way of the Saviour.
The way of the Lord Jesus Christ. To realise that it's through
His death that our sins can be washed away. No other way. No other way. Look nowhere else. Look to Jesus, the blessed Saviour. As He says, look unto Me. All ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest." What a blessing it is then to
have such glorious words of encouragement. Well now, Jeremiah wrote this
letter and he comes down and he says this, for, I know the
thoughts that I think towards you. Now you see, you and I don't
know the thoughts of God, do we? God is almighty. God is in heaven. We don't know
what his thoughts actually are. But here he tells us something
of them. And he says, I know the thoughts
that I think toward you, saith the Lord. What are those thoughts
going to be? Are they good thoughts? Are they
bad thoughts? What does God think of us? How's
God going to deal with us? What's he going to do unto us?
He says this, for I know the thoughts that I think toward
you, saith the Lord. thoughts of peace and not of
evil. Now to Judah in Babylon this
must have been music in their ears of a letter from Jeremiah
telling them such good news. They never deserved any blessing
and nor do we and yet to realize that the Lord
speaks to his people in the same way that he spoke to Jude of
old. Such words as this, thoughts
of peace and not of evil. Now that's very, very humbling
to think of that, to think that the great God should grant us
thoughts of peace. And if the Lord has thoughts
of peace toward us, then we can understand what the prophet goes
on to say, to give you an expected end. And what will that be? That will be a good end. It won't
be a bad end. It'll be a good end. And what
is a good end? A good end means that you and
I, by the grace of God, will be found in glory. heaven at
last and we won't be found in hell where our sins deserve to
be to will take us unless we receive the blessing and mercy
of Almighty God so just imagine this to Judah of old there they
were in Babylon to have such wonderful words spoken to them
and of course in their case In a natural way, they were going
to be brought back to Jerusalem at the end of 70 years. The promises
of God were being fulfilled and they were going to come back
to Jerusalem and they would receive, therefore, an expected end. Now, today, of course, we're
not in that situation in a physical sense, but we are in the same
situation, really, in a spiritual sense. and we do need to know
that the Lord has thoughts of peace and if the Lord has thoughts
of peace it means that he has love toward us and he has a view
of mercy toward us and we're not going to be cut off because
of our sins but he's going to look upon us in love and mercy
and bring into our hearts that Peace of God, which passes all
understanding. In the 14th chapter of John,
that well-known chapter, and in the 27th verse, he tells us
this, in the 14th chapter of John, and the 27th verse, he
says these wonderful words. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give
I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. Well, we are afraid. If the Holy Spirit has touched
our hearts and caused us to see what we are before a holy God,
we'll tremble. We will be afraid. We'll be afraid
that we might end up in hell. We will be afraid. And yet you
see these glorious words which the Saviour spoke. Remember,
they were spoken to the disciples in that upper room after he had
instituted the Lord's Supper, partaken of the Passover, and
now giving these disciples this wonderful sermon. Glorious words
they are. Peace I leave with you. My peace
I give unto you. No one else give us true peace. Men covet peace don't they? Men in the world want peace but
you see the peace of time evaporates. The peace of time does not last
but the peace which God gives is an eternal peace. What a blessing
it is then for us today to realize such a wonderful favor as this. Peace I leave with you, my peace
I give unto you. It's the gift of God. It's not
something that you and I can work for or merit. It's the gift
of God. And so what a wonderful thing
it is. Thoughts of peace and not of
evil. to give you an expected end. Now, you and I need to know the
wonderful favour and the wonderful blessing of Almighty God toward
us as these thoughts of peace and not of evil. Well, we have to examine ourselves,
don't we? as we stand before God, to know
what his thoughts are toward us. God doesn't change his thoughts. They remain constant. And what
a mercy it is, therefore, if God's thoughts are indeed good
toward us. How do we think about that? What do we consider? the thoughts
of God toward us. Well, we want to know, don't
we, that God's thoughts are good toward us. They are thoughts
of peace, and they're not thoughts of evil. And it won't be something
that you and I will just push into the background. You see,
unbelievers push it into the background. They don't think
it's very important. And if it is, they'll give it
due consideration in time to come. But a true believer is
one in whose heart is the Spirit working. And my friends, if the
Holy Spirit of God, and just realise how utterly wonderful
that is, to think that the Almighty God, in the person of the Holy
Spirit, works within our heart to reveal to us where we are,
where we're going, and the need of salvation, and then direct
us to the Lord Jesus Christ. There would have been a time
in our life when Christ meant nothing to us. No, just a name. Just a name. We were familiar
with, perhaps, Many people in the world started not even familiar
with the name of the Savior. But no doubt we have been familiar
with His name. But what has it meant to us,
the name of Jesus? What does it mean this morning
to us? What does Jesus mean to you and
to me? You see, it's not something which is irrelevant. There are
many things in the world which are irrelevant. But Jesus is
not irrelevant. What a mercy if the Holy Spirit
then has caused us to, as the Apostle says when he wrote to
the Hebrews, to consider him. Have you sat down? Have you pondered? Have you considered the Lord
Jesus Christ? Have you wondered? What his thoughts
are towards you? And have you been worried that
his thoughts towards you are thoughts of evil? Because you
know what you deserve. No one comes to the Saviour thinking
they deserve any mercy. We come to the Saviour desiring
that we might know his thoughts his thoughts of peace toward
us. Designed to have the confirmation
that we are one of his children. Have the confirmation that the
Lord Jesus Christ has indeed taken away our sins. As I so
often say, there are no sins in heaven. No sin. No sin. My friends, if you and
I are to get to heaven, it won't be dragging sins with us. However small they may appear
to us, we need to be utterly clean, pure, washed. My friends, you and I can't produce
that ourselves. We have no ability. And that's
why, blessed be God, Lord Jesus Christ came with thoughts of
peace toward his people. And what a mercy it is today
if you and I have the evidence in our heart that he has thoughts
of peace toward us. Each one of us Don't forget,
religion is very individual and it's very personal, and you and
I will need to know ourselves very positively that the Lord
Jesus Christ has thoughts of peace toward us. And if that
is so, it will be set before us in that glorious salvation
that the Saviour has brought about. through his death, through
his suffering, through the crucifixion. What a mercy, what a blessing,
how important, most important that you and I know the blessed
effect of that salvation to wash away all our sins, every one,
not one remaining, not one sinful thought, Not one sinful word,
not one sinful action is left. But all, all are washed away
in the precious blood of the Redeemer. It matters not, does
it, how black are sins, how bad they are. Indeed, the Prophet
Isaiah, in that first chapter in his prophecy, he says, and
he desires to be washed, he desires to be made clean, he desires
to be amongst those who are the redeemed, he desires to know
that he is clean. Because he says, from the sole
of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it but
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores They have not been closed,
neither bound up, nor modified with ointment." You see, that's
the position, really, of each one of us. We're not only unclean,
we are very unclean. And it's a very desperate situation. And therefore, the Saviour says,
come now. Come now. Isn't that good news?
It doesn't say, well, just wait till you're a bit better. Just
wait till you're in a better mood. Come now. And let us reason together, saith
the Lord. That's a wonderful thought, isn't
it? To think that God, the Almighty God, invites us to come and to
have conversation with Himself. Reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. And though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient. That's the problem, isn't it?
So many times people are not willing and they're not obedient. What do they say? I'll tell you
what they say. We will not have this man to reign over us. We're
not going to conform to the Word of God. We're not going to obey
the truth of God. No. We're going to be unwilling. We're going to be disobedient. I don't actually say it in so
many words, but that's the feeling and that's the result. If you be willing and obedient,
what's the result? Ye shall eat the good of the
land. Eat the good of the land. What
does that mean? Tell you what it means. It means
this. Jesus will be precious to us and we will eat and feed
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He will be meat and drink to
us. We'll rejoice in his great work. We'll love to hear of his
great work. We'll love to speak of Jesus.
We'll love to hear of Jesus. It won't be something, it won't
be a name which we don't want to hear. When you're under condemnation,
you may not want to hear the word of the word of Jesus because
the prophet goes on to say, but if you refuse and rebel, you
should be devoured with a sword for the mouth of the Lord has
spoken it. So summarize, then we are on
one side or the other, aren't we? With either those who are
willing and obedient or with those who refuse and rebel. Well, it's a very clear-cut line,
isn't it? And yet we have this statement
here this morning. Thoughts of peace, and not of
evil. Thoughts of peace towards such
unworthy men and women, boys and girls. To think that the
blessed Saviour has these thoughts of peace toward us, and they
were so glorious and so wonderful. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this sinful world in order to save our souls, in order to
redeem us from the curse, in order to pay the redemption price
that was upon our head. We couldn't pay it ourselves.
We were unable to. We were black sinners. lost and
ruined in the fall, no hope, we couldn't pay the price. There
was a price for our freedom and yet we could not free ourselves. You cannot free yourself. What a mercy it is to know that
we have a great glorious Saviour who can and who does free the
vilest of sinner, the worst of sinners. What a mercy it is that
none of us can feel too bad. It's good when the Holy Spirit
convinces us of our sins. So we don't stand and think,
I'm not as bad as other people. I haven't sinned very much. When
the Holy Spirit works, we're utterly condemned. We are the
sinner. And we need a blessed Saviour,
a Saviour who speaks such wonderful words as this, when he says,
thoughts of peace. And you see, if we are blessed
with these wonderful thoughts of peace, it must direct us to
the Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work. Because there,
as we come to Calvary, you know, we sung, didn't we? in that second
hymn. Wonderful truths about the cross
of Christ. And the hymn writer, William
Gadsby, he says, he says, forbid that we should boast save in
the cross of Christ. Well, this morning, what does
the cross of Christ mean to us? It should mean this. It should
mean there on that cross at Calvary, the blessed God in the form of
the second person in the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, willingly
suffered and gave his life to take away all our sin. Now, the result in our hearts
should be this. What a Savior. What a Saviour! What a God! Who should have saved my soul! What a mercy! And Gansby goes
on to tell us, lose sight of Jesus and His cross. That means turn away from that.
What happens? And soon we fall a prey, our
lust and pride by power or craft will carry us away. But when
by faith the cross we view, such is its mighty power, though earth
and hell unite with sin, we conquer and adore. Never forget that
we are more than conquerors through him. the Lord Jesus Christ. And so how vital it is that you
and I know this Lord Jesus Christ as the one who was crucified
upon the cross and died for us. He stood in our place. He bore
the punishment instead. These are great truths. These
are wonderful truths. They are vital truths. And how
good it is when we have the personal evidence in our hearts, which
we receive through the blessed work of the Holy Spirit, that
it is well with our soul. And the blessing is this, the
Lord has thoughts of peace toward us. Essential, isn't it? absolutely essential. Let's not
go away this morning thinking anything less than this will
do, because the result is to give you an expected end. That means it's to give us a
good end, an end which results in coming home to God, into glory. There is an end for all of us
here. Every one of us would have an
end. It'll either be a good end, or
it'll be a bad end. There's no great areas where
the thing is of God. And we have a God who doesn't
change his mind. Don't think he'll suddenly change his mind.
We have a God who is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. And as he says, I am the Lord,
I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. We
have a very great and faithful God. A very holy God. God, it does not change to give
you an expected end. Well, what end are you and I
expecting? What are we expecting? You see,
there's only one thing absolutely certain in our life, and that
is the day of our death. Nothing else is certain, but
that time which God has ordained will come to pass. And you and
I will not be able to put it back. We won't be able to bring
it forward to time known to God, the day of our death, the end
of our natural life on this earth. But what a wonderful blessing
if that is an expected end, that we are expecting the time to
come when we shall. be forever with the Lord. It won't be a morbid subject.
It won't be something you think, oh I don't want to talk about
that. People in the world don't want to speak about things like
that. I remember years ago I was with
somebody and they said, oh I hate birthdays. I never want to think
about birthdays. Why was that? They realised every
birthday was bringing them nearer to the day of their death. to give you an expected end. Well, what's our prospect of
a good end, of an expected end? It will only be a good prospect. It will only be an end we can
look forward to expectantly if the Lord has come and revealed
himself unto us as he does not unto the world, and that is as
our great and wonderful Saviour and that One who has died in
our place, that One who finished the work that His Father gave
Him to do. There is no better place to come
and to stand and to sit before than the cross of Christ and
to there meditate upon the cost of our salvation and the value
of it You see, we think things in this life, don't we, are very
valuable. Perhaps we have little treasures which we think are
valuable, but they'll all pass away. The most valuable thing
we have is our soul, because that never dies. And
therefore how important it is that our soul is blessed. We possess the wonderful
life of God in our soul and the Lord has wonderful thoughts toward
us, wonderful thoughts toward us. There are many statements
in the word of God about God's thoughts toward his people, especially
in the book of Psalms. There are many words there which
are encouraging to the Church of God, and in the 40th Psalm,
which is a familiar Psalm, I hope to most of us, it's the Psalm
of David, in the fifth verse he says, Many, O Lord my God,
are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts
which are to us ward. They cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, they are more than can be numbered. The thoughts of
God toward us. The thoughts of God to you and
me, you see, it's individual, it's personal. What a wonderful
thing is if we have the evidence of those thoughts of God toward
us, which are good thoughts and they're not bad thoughts, and
they're thoughts of love and thoughts of mercy. And then in
the 92nd Psalm, we read this in the fifth verse, O Lord, how
great are thy works, and thy thoughts are very deep. Yes, the thoughts of God are
beyond our natural understanding, beyond our comprehension, but
yet how wonderful it is to think of these things. And then in
Psalm 139, we read in the 17th verse, How precious also are
thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
Now you see, if our thoughts of peace toward us, to give us
an expected end, they are indeed really very precious, aren't
they? How great is the sum of them?
How precious are the thoughts of God? Because the Lord God
is therefore looking upon us. And He knows what is prepared
for us. Our life might not be very easy.
The life of the true believer is never really easy. It's always
hedged up with opposition, because we have the devil fighting us
all the way. He's always endeavouring to turn
us away from the things of God. He's always trying to produce
those sins in our hearts, in our thoughts, in our ways, in
our words, which are against the things of God. He's always
there at our elbow, nudging us this way and that way. My friends,
it's a continual battle, but realise The thoughts of God are
toward us. And what is it? All this way,
it's teaching. It's teaching. It's teaching
us to turn to Him, not to listen to the devil. There are many
temptations. The devil is full of temptations
in the things that he brings before us. He tempts our flesh. He tempts our minds to think
and do things which are not right. But may we ever be found realizing
the thoughts of God toward us, thoughts of peace and not of
evil to give you an expected end. You see, it is the gift,
the gift of eternal life. This giving, this expected end,
the gift of eternal life. It's a wonderful blessing, isn't
it? You and I can receive many gifts
in our natural life, but this gift exceeds them all by a massive
way, the gift of eternal life. And so this morning, may we be
able to trace out in our hearts the blessed work of the Holy
Spirit in convincing us of our sins, leading us to the Lord
Jesus Christ, directing us to Calvary, to view thou the suffering
Saviour, paying the price required to free us from the condemnation
of our sin, and directing our thoughts to the rest that remaineth
to the people of God, and to realise the Lord, blessed Saviour,
has gone to repair a place for us, And as he said, I will come again
and receive you unto myself, that where I am there, he may
be also. Well, take these words away,
ponder them. For I know the thoughts that
I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not
of evil, to give you an expected end. Amen.