Now, I want you to turn back
to Jeremiah chapter 34. I've entitled the message this
evening, A Breach of the Law of Liberty. A Breach of the Law
of Liberty. Now, this passage begins this
prophecy that God gives to Jeremiah. begins right after the Book of
Consolation, that blessed section of scripture that records Jeremiah's
prophecy proclaiming the coming of Christ into the world. And
now the record begins to describe the fall of Jerusalem, and again,
the reason for that fall, which is sin and the broken covenant.
They broke the covenant. God's justice against all sin. God's wrath poured out against
all sin. And he begins here with speaking
a message to the last king of Judah. His name is Zedekiah.
There was one other governor that was set over Judah after
him. But this Zedekiah was the last
king of Judah before the fall of Jerusalem. And so the first
seven verses are God's message to Zedekiah, this last king.
Listen to it. It says, The word which came
unto Jeremiah from the Lord, when Nebuchadnezzar, king of
Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth
of his dominion, and all the people fought against Jerusalem,
and against all the cities thereof. You see here, this is the time
of the siege of Jerusalem. And he's saying, verse two, thus
saith the Lord, the God of Israel, go and speak to Zedekiah, king
of Judah, and tell him, thus saith the Lord. Again, this is
the word of God, not the word of men. And you tell him, behold,
I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon,
and he shall burn it with fire. That was a physical burning of
this city of Jerusalem, this great and magnificent city of
Jerusalem. which contained the temple of
Solomon. And this burning here is an emblem
of God's wrath. He says he shall burn it with
fire. But now look at what he says to Zedekiah. He says, and
thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be
taken and delivered into his hands. Zedekiah, you're going
to be captured delivered into Nebuchadnezzar's hand, and thine
eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall
speak to thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon."
You're going to face Nebuchadnezzar, face to face, that's what that
means. And he's going to take you to Babylon. Now we know what
happened there with Zedekiah. He was blinded and he was put
in subjection to the king of Babylon, but now there's more
here. Very interesting. Look at verse 4. He says, Yet
hear the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah king of Judah. Thus saith the
Lord of thee, Thou shalt not die by the sword. Now he was
maimed, but he didn't die in battle. He didn't die by the
sword. He wasn't executed. But thou shalt die in peace. And with the burnings of thy
fathers, the former kings, which were before thee, So shall they
burn odors, or spices, for thee, and they will lament thee, they'll
sorrow over your death, O Zedekiah, saying, Ah, Lord, for I have
pronounced the word, saith the Lord. And so then Jeremiah the
prophet spake all these words unto Zedekiah king of Judah in
Jerusalem, When the king of Babylon's army fought against Jerusalem
and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against
Lachish and against Azekah, these were two cities that still remained
with their defenses. He says, for these defense cities
remained of the cities of Judah. Now, isn't that interesting about
Zedekiah? Now, Zedekiah was not a godly king. There are very
few godly kings. If you were to go through the
scriptures and get you some kind of a study guide of the history
as recorded in 1st and 2nd Kings and 1st and 2nd Chronicles, you'd
find that Israel, the northern kingdom, had no godly kings. And you'd find that Judah, the
southern kingdom, had very, very few godly kings. And a godly king was not just
a moral man or not just a religious man. He was one who led the people
in serving the Lord according to the terms of the covenant.
That's what the godly king is. And he recognized, a godly king
is one who recognized that God alone is the true sovereign over
all. The true king. And that his kingship,
the earthly king's kingship was just to be a vassal of God Almighty,
an instrument, an arm of God Almighty. And he recognized that
he was a type of the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
I believe we see that in the Psalms of David so plainly, don't
we, that many times when David is speaking, he's not speaking
ultimately and eternally and spiritually of David himself,
but of David's greater son. the Lord Jesus Christ, the King
of kings. But now, Zedekiah was not a godly
king. Yet, yet, God says, you're going
to die in peace. And not only that, Zedekiah,
you're going to have an honorable funeral. That's what that describes
there in verse 5. The burnings of thy fathers.
You're going to die just like the other kings of Judah in that
sense. and they're going to burn spices
for you. That's representative of the prayers of the people
for the king. And they're going to sorrow over
your death. Die peacefully. Now, the scripture here does
not tell us why God brought this about this way. We know it's
of God. Normally, when a king was conquered
in that culture and in that age, The king was tied up and hauled
through the city in shame and derision. Many times his head
was cut off and put on a pole and they'd ride through the town,
showing the victory over the king. And yet Zedekiah, he says,
you're going to be captured, you're going to see Nebuchadnezzar
face to face, he's going to take you to Babylon, but you're not
going to die by the sword. That's God's doing. And I suspect,
and I don't think it's reading too much into the scripture to
say this, that this was a way that God had of communicating
a message to the small remnant of true believers that were in
Babylon. And you know there were a small
remnant of believers there. We can name some of them. Daniel
the prophet, Ezekiel the prophet, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. We can name them, but there were
others. It was a small remnant. It was not anywhere near a large
number. It wasn't anywhere near the majority
of the Israelites or Judahites who were in Babylon. But I believe
that this act of a peaceful, honorable death for this man,
Zedekiah, was God's encouragement for that small remnant in Babylon
to tell them, to communicate to them, to assure them that
God had not forgotten or forsaken His covenant with David. For
Zedekiah was of the earthly line of Judah, the earthly line of
David. God was saying to them, I have
not forgotten to honor my word to David that there would always
be a king sitting on his throne. And that would only be fulfilled
in the sending of Messiah to them for salvation. You remember
back in Jeremiah 23, when he prophesied of the Lord our righteousness,
what did he say in verse 5? Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and
a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and
justice in the earth. So that's what I believe is happening
here because the king, even though Zedekiah personally was an evil
man, was an ungodly man, that throne that he occupied was a
type of the throne of the greater son of David, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And what a message that is. This
is certainly out of the ordinary, as I said, and to that culture
and unto the despots of that day. They would have done this
normally, but here he is, Zedekiah. And God tells him, you'll die
in peace. You'll have an honorable funeral. God has not forgotten
His covenant. And even though Judah the nation,
along with the king, had broken the covenant of law, God is always,
has always been, is always, and always will be faithful to His
covenant of grace in Christ. Always. Well, look at verse 8. Beginning at verse 8 and going
all the way through verse 16, we see the broken covenant, the
broken covenant, Now, we've already seen that. Jeremiah, when he
prophesied of the new covenant, the Lord said, I'm going to make
a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
not like the covenant that I made with their fathers when I took
them out of Egypt. And he said, which covenant they
break, they break, they broke that covenant. You know, throughout
the prophets, it's not only just that they broke the covenant,
but they broke everything about that covenant. We read it in
the book of James. To be guilty of one transgression
of the law is to be guilty of how many? Of all. We'll look
at that in just a moment again. But he always gives us examples
of specific parts or laws of that covenant that they did break.
And here, you know what law it was they broke? The law of bond
slavery. The law of bond slavery. You
know something about the law of bond slavery, don't you? Paul
called himself a willing, loving bond-slave or bond-servant of
the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're in Christ tonight,
if you believe in Him, if you're united to Him by electing grace,
by redeeming grace, by regenerating grace, you know what you are?
You're a bond-slave of Christ. A bond-servant. And there was
a law of bond-slavery. Let's read through some of these
passages. Look at verse 8. He says this is the word that
came unto Jeremiah from the Lord after that the king Zedekiah
had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem
to proclaim liberty unto them. Now that law of bond slavery
is a law of liberty, a law of freedom, setting those in bondage
free from that bondage. So he said to proclaim the liberty
unto them. Now the sense of this is that
some things were going well at this specific time in Jerusalem. Or in other words, not going
well, but going rough at this specific time. And so, like man
by nature, when things are going bad, what does he do? He gets
religious. and he turns to God, and he gets on his knees, or
he'll start going to church, or he'll turn over a new leaf,
or he'll get back. That's the kind of thing that's
going on here. Things are going pretty rough. So Zedekiah made
a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem to proclaim
liberty unto them, verse 9, that every man should let his manservant,
and every man his maidservant, being in Hebrew now, or in Hebrew
us, this is for the male and female Hebrews, and for the Gentiles
now, and he says, go free. That none should serve himself
of them, namely of a Jew, his brother. In other words, you
shouldn't take advantage of them. And these were people who were
to be let go according to the law of bond slavery. Verse 10,
now when all the princes and all the people which had entered
into the covenant, heard that everyone should let his manservant
and everyone his maidservant go free, that none should serve
themselves of them any more, then they obeyed and they let
him go." They let him go. But look at verse 11. But afterward they turned. Now the sense is here now things
start going well for a person. You've always heard the The saying
that when diversity comes, people get religious. When prosperity
comes, they go fishing. That's the kind of thing that's
going on here. When they're healthy and wealthy,
and Henry would say, got the world on the tail by the downhill
slide, then the last thing they think about is going to church.
We're going somewhere else for the weekend. Well, this is what's
going on. Afterward, verse 11, they turned
and caused the servants and the handmaids whom they had let go
free to return. They brought them back into slavery
and brought them into subjection for servants and handmaids. So
when things were dismal and destruction was coming, all the people determined
to keep the covenant, as stated here in the law of bond slavery.
You know, as I said, you know something about the law of bond
slavery. We'll look at a passage of Scripture here in just a moment. But look at verse 12. He says,
Therefore the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord,
saying, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, I made a covenant
with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out
of the land of Egypt, out of the house of Babylon, saying,
At the end of seven years let you go every man his brother,
in Hebrew, which have been sold unto thee." Now you know what
this is all about. This is bond slavery. What happened? A person would get in debt and
then they'd have to become a servant of the person to whom they were
indebted. And it says they'd have to serve
six years. That's what the law said. And
then on the seventh year they went out free. That's the law
of bond slavery. You can read about that in Leviticus
Or Exodus 21, Deuteronomy 15, other places. But he says, And
when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go
free from thee. But your fathers hearken not
unto me, neither incline their ear. What he's saying is, since
the time that they were, as a nation, delivered out of the bondage
of Egypt, and God did it based on the blood of the Lamb, the
Passover Lamb. Here's a great picture of Christ.
Since that time, and that covenant was made, and this law of bond
slavery was set in motion under the terms of the old covenant,
very rarely had they kept it. Very rarely had they kept it.
Now you know, as well as I do, that man by nature, at some point
in his life, or at some point in his ancestry, is going to
lose everything he's got. Isn't that right? Now, I've seen
it happen and you have too. Eventually. It may not be in
your lifetime. It may be your sons and your daughters or your
grandsons. But eventually, everything that you worked hard for is going
to be gone. That's man by nature. That's
the way of all flesh. That's the plight of man. But
God had instituted laws in the Old Covenant that would ensure
that the Israelites would keep their land and their possessions
in spite of their natural tendencies. One of them, for example, was
the Law of Jubilee. They had seven Sabbath segments
all the way up to 49. And then in the 50th year, all
the land that they had sold or they had lost would return back,
revert back to them. Why did God do that? Was He just
being spiteful? No! That was to ensure that the
nation wouldn't lose the land. Because it was a land He had
given them. But I don't see anywhere in the Old Testament where they
ever kept the Law of Jubilation. And then another law that God
instituted to ensure that they wouldn't lose their possessions
or their land was the law of the kinsman redeemer. When a
person got in trouble and in debt and was going to lose everything,
a kinsman, a near kinsman could come. See, that's another great
picture of Christ. Christ is our Jubilee. We lost
everything in Adam, folks. Isn't that right? We fell in
Adam. Christ worked all those weeks and years up through that
would accumulate unto the seventh, that's Sabbath, and He's our
Jubilee. And we have returned unto us
because of Him everything we lost and more. And more, don't
we? Christ is our near kinsman. He
was made like unto His brethren, you see. Well, look back here. God had delivered them from the
bondage of Egypt. He set down this law of liberty
for their well-being and their prosperity and possession in
the land. But look at it. He says, verse
15, And you were now turned, and had done right in my sight
in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor. Now Zedekiah,
he did right to issue that proclamation that all the slaves, Hebrew men
and women, would be set free. He says, you did right in proclaiming
liberty, every man to his neighbor. And you had made a covenant before
me in the house, that is in the temple. They even went down to
the temple and made this promise. You hear about promise keepers
today? Man's not a promise keeper, he's a promise breaker. God's
the only promise keeper. All the promises of God in him
are yea and in him are amen. He says, you went down before
me in the house which is called by my name, but you turned and
polluted my name and caused every man his servant and every man
his handmaid whom you had set at liberty at their pleasure
to return and brought them into subjection to be unto you for
servants and for handmaid. Now you know what's going on
there. They're being respecters of persons. They're despising
the poor. They breached the law of liberty. They broke the covenant. That
precious law of liberty. How important is that? Turn back
over to James. When we talk about the Lord Jesus
Christ and salvation by the grace of God in Him, that's what we're
talking about, liberty. Salvation is liberty. He speaks of it in verse 25,
talking about hearing the word and doing the word. What does
that mean? Does that mean we're supposed to keep the law perfectly?
Well, let me tell you something. If that's what it means, if it
means that we're supposed to keep the law perfectly, that's
not liberty for you. And that's not liberty for me.
That's bondage. And I'll tell you why. We're
sinners. You say, well, I'm not as bad
as the fellow back there. Doesn't matter, you're still
a sinner. And any notion of liberty in your keeping of the law is
nothing but self-righteous, proud arrogance. That's all it is. What is it to do the Word here?
It's to behold, it's to looketh into the, verse 25, the perfect
law of liberty. And continue therein. Well, who
is my liberator? Jesus Christ is my liberator. Paul wrote in Galatians 5, 1,
Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. There's
my liberty. Sinner, that's your liberty.
There's no other liberty. Everything else is bonded. Religion
will tie you up. That's right. Ceremony will bind
you down. Legalism, law, will burden you
to the point that you can't stand anymore. But Christ sets the
captives free. We read it last week in Isaiah
61 to proclaim liberty to those who are captive. He says in verse
25 that those who look into that perfect law of liberty and continue
their being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this
man shall be blessed." And notice it doesn't say because of his
deed, it says in his deed. You know why? Because those who
are free in Christ are blessed of God. We're blessed. And He sets us free. Think about
Romans chapter 6, you don't have to turn there. For he that is
dead is freed from sin. Dead how? Dead in Christ. Christ
died for me. I'm justified. I'm at liberty. I am under no obligation to the
law of God in order to attain or maintain my salvation. Christ
has set me free. I cannot be condemned. Why? Because there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. My sins
are all taken away. We sing that, do we believe it?
Did you hear what Jesus said to me? They're all taken away.
Your sins are pardoned and you're free. They're all taken away.
Who took them away? The Lamb of God took them away.
The law didn't take them away. Baptism didn't wash them away.
The church didn't take them away. Mom or dad didn't take them away.
Christ did. And they cannot be charged to
me so that I can say with David of old, blessed is the man to
whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. I'm righteous in God's sight.
That's liberty. That's freedom. And that can't
change. And you know why? Because I didn't
have anything to do with it. Christ did it all. It cannot
change. It cannot be diminished. It cannot
be taken off of me. It cannot be corrupted. It's
the righteousness of God accounted to me. That's freedom. That's
liberty. Now, if I'm trying to establish
a righteousness of my own, where does that leave me? In bondage.
That's why he said, Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free. And don't be entangled again
with the yoke of bondage. That doesn't mean that I as a
free man am not to be obedient and honorable in the sight of
God and of men, it just simply means I'm free to serve Him out
of love and grace and gratitude. And then Romans 6, 17, and 18,
remember what it says there? Being then made free or set free,
liberated, when? When the gospel was come to you
in power, when you were born again by the Spirit, when you
were regenerated by the Spirit, and that form of doctrine which
was delivered unto you, or which you were delivered to, you believed
it from the heart. And there's liberation. That's
when I was free from darkness, free from spiritual death. I'm
not free from sinning by any stretch of the imagination. I'm
like Paul in Romans 7, 14. I'm carnal, sold under sin, but
I'm still free. How in the world could a man
be carnal and sold under sin and at the same time free? There's
not but one way. And that's in Christ. Look over
at James 2 and verse 12. He's talking about those who
have respect of persons. That's a common problem amongst
us all, within us all. But if that's what rules us and
guides us and drives us, then we don't know Christ. That's
what he's saying. And he says, so verse 12, so
speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the law of
liberty. You see, I need salvation by grace. And having been graced
of God, having been an object of his mercy, I must show mercy
to others. Not in order to earn mercy from
him, for mercy cannot be earned. And if you show mercy, or if
I show mercy to others, they can't earn it either, or it's
not mercy. It's respect of persons. You
know, if you show favor or even compassion towards someone because
they deserve it, that's not mercy. That's respect of persons. But I've got to be constantly
reminded of how God showed mercy to me and loved me and died for
me even when I was his enemy. And I tell you, it's not easy.
There's nothing easy about it. I'm not standing up here telling
you I'm the paragon of Christian virtue in that area because if
you catch me at the right time, you'll ask the question, can
he even be a Christian? That's right. Well, we were in
bondage, but Christ set us free. Christ, our kinsman redeemer,
did a great work as our substitute in surety, and he satisfied the
law and paid our debt in full, so we must go free. He served,
you might say it this way, six years. And then on the seventh
day, he sat down because the work was finished. And what happens? He did it as the representative
surety and substitute of his people. That's why Jeremiah called
him the Lord Our Righteousness. And we go free. Christ is our
Jubilee. Christ is our Kinsman Redeemer.
And Christ is the one who paid our debt. You know, the bondservant
was one upon whom the law had no claim. His debt's paid. Look back at Exodus 21. Let me
show you this and then I'll close. Exodus 21. When the debt was paid, this
person who got in debt and had to sell himself out to his debtor,
now after the six years, the debt was paid, and during that
time, in this passage, during that time, and this is the picture
of a sinner saved by the grace of God, during that time, his
heart was changed. Look what happened. He says in
verse 1, Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them
if thou by a Hebrew servant six years he shall serve and in the
seventh he shall go out free for nothing. That's unconditional
salvation towards the center. If he came in by himself, he
shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his
wife shall go out with him. If his master hath given him
a wife, and she hath borne him sons or daughters, the wife and
her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out by himself.
And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, I love
my wife, I love my children, I will not go out free, then
his master shall bring him in unto the judges. He shall also
bring him to the door. under the doorpost, and his master
shall bore his ear through with an all, and he shall serve him
forever. The six years Christ paid our
debt, and then he brought us under the preaching of the gospel
in the power of the Holy Spirit, and he bore our ear. He made
us to hear. Well, look back at Chapter 34.
What happens in the rest of this chapter is simply saying the
punishment fits the crime. You've broken the covenant. Listen
to what he says, verse 17 of chapter 34. Therefore, thus saith
the Lord, you have not hearkened unto me in proclaiming liberty,
every one to his brother and every man to his neighbor. Behold,
I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword. to the pestilence, to the famine,
and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the
earth." Here's a perfect picture of what people call man's free
will today. It's a myth. God lets them go
on their own way without his protection, without his security.
This is a liberty man thinks he wants, but it leads to death.
God said, I'm going to set you free, free from me, free from
my protection, free from my safety. God's saying, I'll set you free,
free to be killed in war and by disease or by starvation.
I'll make you a spectacle of horror. People all over the world
will take one look at you and shudder. That's what he's saying.
Now, is that the kind of liberty you want? Well, that's the liberty
man thinks he wants. But verse 18, he said, I will
give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed
the words of the covenant, which they had made before me when
they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts thereof,
That refers to a rite or a custom used in when they would confirm
covenants. They would take an animal, cut
it in pieces and lay the pieces out and the two people who were
entering the covenant would pass between the parts. And what they
were saying there is if that covenant, if they broke that
covenant and didn't fulfill the agreements that they agreed to
and swore by, then they deserved to be cut in pieces as that creature
was. That's what they were saying.
You see a little bit of that back in Genesis 15 when Abraham
cut up animals and he passed between them. Well, that's what
we deserve by nature. Sin deserves death. Sin deserves
death. Well, look at verse 20. He says, I will even give them
into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of them that
seek their life. Their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls
of the heaven and to the beast of the And Zedekiah, king of
Judah and his princes, will I give into the hand of their enemies,
and into the hand of them that seek their life, and into the
hand of the king of Babylon's army, which are gone from you.
Behold, I will command, saith the Lord, and cause them to return
to this city, and they shall fight against it, and take it,
and burn it with fire. And I will make the cities of
Judah a desolation without inhabitation." Somebody said that's a perfect
perfect segue in the Hebrews chapter 2 Which says this? Therefore we ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things which we've heard lest at any
time. We should let them slip With the word spoken by angels
talking about the old coven Was steadfast and every transgression
and disobedience received a just recompense of reward. That's
what's going on How shall we escape if we neglect so great
salvation? which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.
All right. Let's sing When I Surveyed the
Wondrous Cross, hymn number 118.