May God bless us to be with us
this morning as we turn together to his word. We'll turn to the
book of Jeremiah chapter 33 and verses 17 and 18. The book of
Jeremiah chapter 33 and verses 17 and 18. For thus saith the Lord, David
shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house
of Israel. Neither shall the priests, the
Levites, want a man before me to offer burnt offerings and
to kindle meat offerings and to do sacrifice continually. Well, we live in a society today,
certainly in the Western world, where we have largely turned
away from God. Not exclusively, of course, but
largely society has turned away from the Lord. And most people
do not want to hear the Word of God, do not want to hear about
God, do not want to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ. Most people
have not even heard, sadly, in some occasions. But sadly, it's
also true that in much of the professing Christian church today,
only parts of the Word of God, or only parts of the truth of
God, are really heard or received. What I mean is this. Certain
attributes of God are ignored. People don't want to hear or
preach about the wrath of God. They don't want to hear about
the justice of God. They don't want to hear about
the purity and holiness of God as compared to us as sinners. There may be on many parts and
exterior of Christianity and yet there is much that is rejected. That is our society today. And
it is not dissimilar to society in Jeremiah's day. Now, Jeremiah
lived in an age, of course, when there was an outward form of
religion. They were, after all, Israel.
They were God's chosen people. They were descendants of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. They were in the promised land.
So in a sense, there was a more outward religion than there is
in our society today. But what was true that day is
that there were certain aspects of God's word that they did not
want to hear. They did not want to receive.
They wanted to hear about God's promises, God's covenant, God's
love. God had chosen them and singled
them out as a special group of people. That God would always
be there, God would always be faithful. These were good words
for them to hear. But there were words that they
were not willing to hear. And they were primarily the words
that Jeremiah was speaking. They were words of judgment,
words of wrath, words of punishment. that one day he would take them
away from their land, that one day he would remove them from
Jerusalem by the hand of the Babylonians, that one day they
would face his anger because they were not walking in faithfulness
to their God. Jeremiah faithfully spoke the
word of God to the people, faithfully warned them of what was coming,
faithfully pointed out their sins, and they would not hear. They tried to stop him speaking.
They would cast him in the prison, or they would shut him out and
ignore his word. They would even bring counter-prophecy
against him, as there were those who spoke that, no, the Lord
would not take them into captivity, or that the Lord would come,
and he would receive them and he would keep them in their land.
There's an occasion, wasn't there, when Jeremiah is told to carry
a yoke upon him, that there would be this yoke laid upon Israel
that they would have to serve under the Babylonians. And this
one comes and takes the yoke from him and breaks it. And he
says, thus saith the Lord, so will the Lord break the yoke
of the Babylonians. so that the people would stay
in the land. And Jeremiah says, I would, it
was so, but it will not be so. Truly, the word of the Lord will
come to pass. You see, they brought these counter
prophecies against them to deceive the people, to think that all
was well, there would be no problems. But no, says Jeremiah, the Lord
will deal with them. Even they went as far as to destroy
the words that Jeremiah was speaking. A couple of chapters later, in
chapter 36, on this occasion we read of how the word of Jeremiah,
the scrolls, were brought before the king. And the king, having
heard what they said, we read that he took his penknife, he
cut it with a penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in
the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that
was in the hearth. Sometimes they spoke against
Jeremiah, sometimes they tried to silence Jeremiah, and sometimes
on this occasion they literally tried to destroy the words of
Jeremiah. Jeremiah was told to write it
all down again. The people, the priests, the
so-called prophets, the king, none of them would listen to
the word of the Lord. None of them would heed his warnings. Well, the Lord had promised way
back to David his servant that there would be a king always
on the throne of Israel, that his kingdom would remain. Now
we can think going back that that refers to Solomon and the
immediate descendants, but it's a prophecy, it's a word of promise
that the kingdom would always remain, that there would be a
king on the throne of Israel. And yet when we come here in
the book of Jeremiah, we come to this king, Zedekiah, and here
we don't see a type of David, we don't see him acting like
David did. We don't see him like Solomon,
loving and serving the Lord. Don't see him like Hezekiah and
so forth, the good kings. And we have the prophecies, we
have the warning that the city will be destroyed, the kingdom
will end in a sense as you're taken off into Babylon. And you
think, well, what's happened? What's happened to the promise
of the Lord that there will always be a king on the throne of Israel?
And now the king is in open rebellion against God. The king is destroying
the word of the Lord. And now you're being dragged
off into Babylon. Where is the promise? Has it come to an end? Has the Lord failed to keep his
promise? Is the Lord unfaithful to his people? What does the
promise mean? Well, the Lord, through Jeremiah,
renews the promise here. He renews it. He says, David
shall never want a man, or that is, David shall never be in want
of a man, to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel. Well, the kingdom's about to
be taken into captivity. And yet the Lord is renewing
the promise. There will be a king upon the
throne of the house of Israel. And you see, not only does he
renew the promise of a king, but he increases the promise,
or amplifies it, by saying that there will also always be a priest. Neither shall the priests or
Levites want a man, or want of a man, before me to offer burnt
offerings. So there's a promise here for
the Lord that there will always be a king, and there will always
be a priest. This is the good thing. He says
in verse 14, I will perform that good thing which I have promised
unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. This good
thing that there will always be a king, there will always
be a priest. But here I believe it is joined
together in one person. In one person. There will always
be a man as a king. There will always be a man as
a priest. And that wonderful Man will hold these two offices,
king and priest. Now, clearly, this is not going
to refer to King Zedekiah. Clearly, it's not going to refer
to his immediate descendants, for they will be taken off into
Babylon. Clearly, this is a prophecy of one that will come, one that
will forever hold these two offices of king and of priest. We have
an instance of one, don't we, who was king and priest? We read
back in Genesis of this king of Salem, Melchizedek. There we read of this man who
came out and met with Abram, and he blessed him, and he gave
him tithes. Rather, Abram gave him tithes,
I believe it is. Let me turn to it. Genesis chapter
14 we read Melchizedek the king of Salem brought forth bread
and wine He was a priest of the Most High God and he blessed
him and said Blessed be Abraham the Most High God Possessor of
heaven and earth and blessed be the Most High God Which hath
delivered thine enemies unto thy hand and he gave him tithes
of all this man Melchizedek the king of Salem and and the priest
of the Most High God. And of course, we're told in
the epistle to the Hebrews that this man was a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Normally in the Old Testament,
the role of king and priest were separate. Indeed, we think of
Saul, king of Israel. He was judged because he tried
to take the role of priest, because he offered sacrifices to the
Lord. It was not his role as king. The two roles were separate.
But under Melchizedek, they're brought together. And as a type
of Christ, we see the Lord Jesus Christ bringing these two things
together, king and priest. Thus saith the Lord, David shall
never want a man to sit upon the throne of Israel, and neither
shall the priests or Levites want a man before me to offer
burnt offerings. So this morning, I want to consider
the Lord Jesus Christ as the fulfiller of these prophecies.
as the Messiah that did come and that holds these two offices,
King and Priest. Firstly then this morning, Christ
as King. What things do we see and what
things can we learn for encouragement this morning when we consider
Christ as our King? Well, notice in verse 15 here,
these are the blessings that the Lord brings as our King. We're told that in those days
and at that time will I cause the branch of righteousness to
grow up unto David. You see, the Lord as King is
described in this way, a branch of righteousness, a branch of
righteousness. Where does a branch come from?
Well, a branch obviously comes from a tree. It's attached to
the tree, it grows out of the tree, it comes forth from the
tree. You cannot put a branch into a tree. It grows from it, rather than
man putting it into it. You see here, we have one coming
out, up, out of the family, the household of David. You see the
Lord, didn't force himself into the kingdom, as it were. He is
not a usurper of the kingdom. It is his by right. As he comes
up out of the house of David, all the prophecies and promises
are fulfilled in him. They all apply to him. He has
not taken the kingdom by force. He is of the family line, the
house of David. If you know your English history,
You can think back to the late 15th century, and the king of
the time in 1480s and thereabouts was Richard III. Richard III
didn't reign for many years, but he met with the enemy, one
who was coming to fight against him to truncate the kingdom,
Henry Tudor, 1485 on the Battle of Bosworth. You may have heard
of that. Battle of Bosworth, Richard III was defeated, he
was killed, his armies were routed, and Henry Tudor took the crown. And he, the father of Henry VIII
and so forth, and you can think of the dynasty of the Tudors
following on from that. But the point is this, Henry
Tudor was the last English king to take the crown by force, to
win it in battle. He was the victor. Therefore
he took the crown. He challenged the king. He challenged
him on the battlefield and he won and he became the victor
and took the crown. He took it by force. The Lord
Jesus Christ is not the king by force. He is no usurper. He is the branch of righteousness
out of the house of David. I heard quite recently, coming
a few hundred years later, in the late 18th century, how Napoleon,
when he was crowned emperor of France, he had a lavish ceremony
in the Notre Dame in France, and apparently the crown was
brought to him to crown him as emperor. And what he did, if
you see a coronation in this country, if you see back in 1953
when the Queen was crowned, they take the crown and they place
it on the head of the new monarch. Well, look, what Napoleon did
was he took the crown and put it on his own head. He crowned
himself Emperor of France. You see, he had taken the role,
taken the responsibility, and taken the authority. The Lord is not like that, described
here, the branch that grows up unto David. And when we think
back of the seed of David, we have the promise of the kingdom.
And then when we read of the genealogies of the Lord Jesus
Christ, you can trace it back in the gospels through Joseph
and through Mary. He is from directly the seed
of David. He fulfills the promises and
the prophecies of the Lord through his word. This is the king. You see, we can rely on, as it
were, that he is rightly in the line of succession, if we can
put it that way. He is the rightful king and fulfills
the promises and therefore fulfills the promise of Messiah. He is
the branch of righteousness. But what is this king like? How
does he act as our king? Well, we're told he shall execute
judgment. Execute judgment. A king, who is a good king, would
execute good judgment, or would see that good judgment was executed
in the land. That is, they would judge rightly,
they would judge fairly, they would not be unkind and spiteful,
If punishment was due, it would be rightly administered. If one
was innocent, they would be rightly acquitted. It was a right judgment. That is how a king should be
acting. And you see the Lord here is
described as one who executes judgment. That is, he doesn't
punish unduly. When we come on that great day
to stand before the Lord, we will not have things laid to
our charge which we are not guilty of. We will not be cast away
because the Lord is unkind and spiteful. But we will be rightly
judged for those things we are guilty of. You see, it's a right
judgment. He will not pass away from guilt.
He will not just ignore it. Those who stand guilty before
the Lord will be dealt with. And the Lord will send those
to hell. But he will judge according to
a right judgment, according to his own law and his own commands. It will not appear that there
was a whole new unknown set of laws that we were unaware of,
which we have broken. Sometimes I see people at work
or in court, and they've broken the law. At the time, they didn't
realize they'd broken the law. doesn't stop them having broken
it. Let me give you an example. Those of us who are drivers,
if you're found driving without insurance, you have broken the
law. You may think you were insured.
You may think that the insurance company had got everything in
place. But if they hadn't, You can't blame them. It's your fault.
You should have made sure it was all in place and working. You cannot plead ignorance and
say, I didn't know. You're still guilty and you'll
still be dealt with for it. We will not find, though, that
there was a whole new set of laws that the Lord was hiding
from us and he would judge us according to a different standard.
The Lord will execute judgment. and he will be faithful to his
word, faithful to his law. And where we stand condemned
under that law, he will be just in what he does. So we can rely
on the right judgment. As our king, he will also execute
righteousness, judgment and righteousness. The Lord, for his people, has
brought in this kingdom of righteousness to bring in holiness to his church. He shows us the way of righteousness. He shows us what is the good
way, the right way, in accordance with his will for us to walk. But much more than that, more
glorious than just being shown a right way, the Lord has brought
in the kingdom of righteousness. That is, he has brought righteousness
to his church. He has, through himself and his
own holy life, made his people righteous through him, taken
away their sin, taken away all that is filthy and offensive
in them, and has given them his righteousness, his perfection,
his perfect and wonderful obedience, he shall execute righteousness
in the land. What a wonderful king, who is
all glorious and pure and holy in himself, and has by his grace
made his subjects, his people, righteous, perfect and holy as
well. This king, he will also protect
us You see, he will do rightly, he will bring in righteousness
and a righteous kingdom, but as a good king, he will also
protect his people. Verse 16, in those days shall
Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. Now a good king would make sure
his people were kept safe. It's the role of our government
today, is to protect us. And of course they have their
different services, security services, the police, the army
and so forth, that endeavours to protect us from any who might
want to hurt us. Now a good king will strive to
protect his subjects. Now this king, the Lord, the
one who sits on the throne of David, he will save his people
and will then keep them dwelling in safety. wonderful truth. The Lord Jesus Christ as our
King saves us from the enemy, saves us from the Satan, saves
us from sin, saves us from the curse which rages against us,
and keeps us safe. That is, we cannot fall out of
the kingdom of God if he has bought us with his blood. We
cannot be dragged into hell with the devil if he has fought the
fight and won on our behalf, made us safe and keeps us safe. This is the work of this great
and glorious king. Finally, we're told that this
is the name with which he shall be called, the Lord our righteousness.
This is referring to the city, the cities of Judah and of Jerusalem,
will be called the Lord our righteousness. Here the people, the subjects
of the king, are joined together with him, they are identified
with him. He is the Lord, the righteous
one, but the people are called the Lord, our righteousness. See, they openly declare in their
name and how people refer to them, that they trust in the
Lord to give them his righteousness, to make them righteous. It's
seen from others around them that they glory in the Lord and
in their king. But you see, they're also identified
with him. It's as if his church is so close,
so closely identified with the king. that they go, as it were,
by the same name, that they are joined together with this king
and in his righteousness, the Lord, our righteousness. You see, we can think of it in
our age today, in the Christian age, what a privilege it is to
name the name of Christian. What does that do before the
world if we can truly say, I am a Christian? It identifies us
with this man, Christ. It puts us that we trust, that
we look to Christ, that we are identified with him and joined
with him. I'm a Christian, a follower of
Christ. And here it's the same really.
Here, the Judah and Jerusalem would have this name. They'd
be called by the Lord our righteousness. It would be known by the people
around. that they were identified with their God. This is this
king. This king who judges rightly. This king who has authority and
is rightly on the throne. This king who brings in the kingdom
of righteousness. This king who saves and keeps
safe his people. And this king who has their head
is identified with the church. The king of kings. David shall
never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel. No king on earth, no descendant
naturally of David, fulfills this. There is no king of Israel
today sitting on the throne in Jerusalem, but there is a king
of Israel. There is the Christ, the Messiah,
who fulfills these words. So there we have one side. the
Lord Jesus as our King. But you see, as I said earlier,
these verses bring together these two glorious offices, King and
Priest. And they are both brought together
in this man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, Neither shall the priests,
the Levites, want a man before me to offer burnt offerings,
and to kindle meat offerings and to do sacrifice continually. There will always be a priesthood.
There will always be a priest to offer these sacrifices. Now
clearly we could say, has that failed? Has that failed? Has this prophecy fallen away? Where is the priest? Where is
the temple? There's no temple in Jerusalem
today. There's no altar. There's no holy of holies. There's
no priest. There's no high priest. There's no sacrifices. So where
has this prophecy gone? Where is the fulfillment here?
Well, clearly, as much as the Lord fulfills this word as a
king, so he also fulfills this word with an everlasting priesthood. And what a glorious thing it
is. us to consider the Lord as our High Priest, the great, glorious
High Priest. For all the other High Priests,
Aaron and all the ones that came after him were types of the Glorious
One, were types of the Promised One, types of the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. We can read, of course, as this
wonderful truth is more expounded in the epistle to the Hebrews
and those well-known passages which tell us of the Lord Jesus
Christ fulfilling this role as High Priest. The High Priest
was appointed by God. The High Priest was appointed
by God when Aaron was appointed the brother of Moses. The Lord
called him and appointed him. And still the same, it is so
of Christ, as he is the rightful king, so he is also the God-appointed
priest. We're told in the epistles of
the Hebrews, no man taketh this honor, that is of the priesthood,
unto himself. He doesn't choose to be priest
himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also
Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest, but
he that said unto him, Thou art my son, today have I begotten
thee. You see, he was rightly put in
the place of high priest, appointed and sanctioned by God himself. So Christ has not taken on the
role of king and priest wrongly. Christ is the rightful King and
the rightful High Priest, the fulfiller of these words. And
here he is, the Lord has appointed him as High Priest. As High Priest,
he fulfills that wonderful office. We see it as the type, as I say
in the Old Testament. What do we see in the High Priest? Well, firstly, the High Priest
identified, didn't he, with the people. He identified with the
people. He was one of them. He lived
amongst them, and then he represented them as he went in to the Holy
of Holies that once a year. The high priest had a duty of
care for the people. He must care for them, look out
for their needs, look out for their wants, and the other priests
around him would do the same. They would serve the people.
and move amongst them. So we have this great high priest
who cares for his people, who identifies with his people, who
knows of his people, who looks out for his people, who supplies
the need of his people. We're told in Hebrews 4, seeing
then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the
heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, Let us hold fast our profession,
for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with
the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted
like as we are yet without sin. You see, so the Lord knows what
it is. He identifies with us in that
he knows what it is to be tempted. He knows what it is to have these
feeling of infirmities. The Lord understands. moves amongst
us, not indifferent, not aloof, not misunderstanding or uncaring. For the Lord knows what it is
to live in a sinful world. He knows what it is to face the
fierce temptations. The Lord has endured the same. He identifies with the people. as high priest, more than that,
he offers this sacrifice. What are we told? There would
be a high priest, there would be a priest, the Levites would want
a man before me to offer the burnt offerings and to kindle
meat offerings and to do sacrifice continually. Continually. There would always be these sacrifices
raising up, as there were in that age. There's not today. There's no burnt offering offered
this morning. There's no sacrifice for sin
offered up for those that bring a sin offering. There is no sacrifice. But there is a sacrifice. Because
you see the Lord Jesus Christ as high priest didn't take an
animal to the altar. He didn't shed the blood of a
lamb or a goat or a heifer. He didn't take the blood into
the holy of holies of an animal. As the great high priest, the
Lord Jesus Christ took himself to the altar, shed his own blood
as an offering for sin, presented his own blood into the holy of
holies. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
was that sacrifice for as such and high priest became us. who
is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and made
higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily as those high
priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then
for the people's, for this he did once when he offered up himself. He offered up himself. It was a once offering. It doesn't
need to be repeated. The work was finished, it was
completed and done. It was enough to satisfy the
anger and holiness of God. It's a once-enough offering. But you see, as it were, this
offering is continually offered in the sense that Christ in glory
today still bears, I believe, the scars of his wounds and the
marks of his suffering. And as we approach unto the Lord,
and as we come to Him in repentance and in prayer, as if those scars
and those wounds are bared on our behalf, and that sacrifice
is in that sense a reminder that the Lord has suffered, that the
sacrifice has been made, and that we can approach. through
the Lord Jesus Christ, a one sacrifice, but a sacrifice that
need not be repeated, and a sacrifice whose power and weight is continual,
that the effect of it will last for eternity. There's no need
of another saviour tomorrow, no need of another sacrifice
next week, for the Lord has offered himself once for all. So we have the offering of the
high priest. We have the entering in of the
high priest into glory, the most holy place with his own precious
blood. And then we have the intercession
of the high priest. The high priest, as I say, represents
the people, identifies with them, and then goes between the people
and the holy God as he goes into the holy of holies. and he intercedes
for them, he speaks for them. But you see, that man, the high
priest, Aaron, and the ones that came afterwards, they then came
out of the Holy of Holies. They came out, they washed themselves,
they changed their clothes, and they could not return again till
next year. They interceded with the blood,
and then they removed themselves. But this man, this high priest,
because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore,
he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
He entered into the Holy of Holies with his own blood. He entered
in, and there he ever lives. There he is today. There he will
be to the end of time. There he lives to make intercession,
to speak on our behalf, to plead our cause when we come before
the Lord. And as we come through him, the Lord will accept us
because his blood has been shed, because the sacrifice has been
made, because the price has been paid. You see how wonderful it
is to have a king, How wonderful it is to have a high priest.
And how amazing that these two glorious offices, all that we
need, is united together in this one man, the Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. He is the promise of a continual
offering. He is the promise of a continual
high priesthood. He is the fulfilment of the promise
of a king to sit on the throne of the house of Israel. Isn't
it wonderful to can think that where man failed, that is where
the kings of Israel failed, they rebelled against the Lord and
were taken off into captivity. That where the priests failed,
Think of the high priest Caiaphas in the days of Christ, railed
against him and judged him guilty of death where the high priests
failed. This man, this saviour has never failed. This saviour
will remain faithful and true as a right king and a right high
priest. This saviour did the work which was required for the
salvation of our souls. God has provided a better way.
God has provided this perfect king and this perfect high priest,
his own dear son, the son of God, the everlasting, eternal
second person of the Trinity, who was willing to come to bear
these two offices so that we, poor sinners, might be brought
into a glorious kingdom and might have a wonderful intercessor. Here, is all we need. All we need. All we need for
salvation, to save us and to cleanse us. All we need for help
to protect us and keep us throughout our Christian life. All we need
when we pray and draw near to the King of Kings, the Lord himself. All we need to safely bring us
to glory and to welcome us there. the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Without him, really, you have nothing. Without him, you have
no hope. But with him, we have all things. What we must consider this morning
as we have gone through these two offices of king and priest
and the Lord Jesus, are we looking to him? Are we looking to the Lord to
bring us safely and to his kingdom? Are we looking to him and his
precious blood to save us and to plead for us? Or are we looking
to fallen man who failed? Fallen man who didn't meet the
standard? Fallen man who would not hear
the word of God and was willing to rip it up and to cast the
prophet into jail? Are we looking to fallen self
Or are we looking to the great king and the great high priest? He is the only king and the only
priest. Do not look anywhere else. If we come to the Lord
on the day of judgment, who, remember, will execute right
judgment, and we come to him as we are, and we plead what
we've done, and we plead our own work and our own righteousness,
and our own heritage and our own background and our own family. We plead, pray, cry that the
Lord will receive us because of what we are. We can only expect
the Lord to judge rightly. And the Lord will lay out the
laws and his commands. And the Lord will see whether
we have met the standard and we won't have done. And we will
then see that there is there a great king and a great high
priest. There is there one who could save. There is there one
who shed blood for sinners. There is one who is welcoming
others into the kingdom with joy in their hearts. Will we see that there is one
that we have never known. There is one that we have seen
for the first time. Never seen him, never heard him.
Never prayed to him, never sought him while we were in this world. We find that the great king and
the great high priest is the king and priest of others, but
not our king and not our priest. Where will we be when he judges
rightly? Well, may we today consider ourselves
in our own state, but may we rejoice to remember that this
prophecy, this promise, is fulfilled. The Lord is faithful to his word,
and it is so today that David shall never want a man to sit
upon the throne of the house of Israel, for a man has come
and a man today reigns. And the priests and the Levites
want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, kindled meat
offerings, and do sacrifice continually. because a man has offered himself.
The Lord Jesus has shed his blood, and that blood has power today. Well, may the Lord add his blessing
to these things. Amen.