Alright, let's look back at Jeremiah
chapter 21. We're going to look at this chapter
concerning the subject of the way of life and death. That title comes from verse 8.
Look at verse 8 of chapter 21. And unto this people, God speaking
to his prophet Jeremiah, unto this people thou shalt say, Thus
saith the Lord. In other words, this is the word
of God. Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way
of death. Sort of reads like the book of
Deuteronomy, when Moses was reading the law to the children of Israel
before they would go into the promised land. And he read the
book of the law to them. And he said, I set before you
the way of life and the way of death. And this one here is a
little bit different. We'll look at it here in a few
minutes. But before we get into that chapter, turn over to chapter
23, just for a moment. Beginning at chapter 21 and all
the way through chapter 24 is one section or one message of
prophecy that's given to the king. The king's name here is
Zedekiah. Up to this point, he'd been giving
messages to another king. You know Jeremiah, he prophesied
through several kings up until the destruction of Jerusalem
and Judah. And sometimes it jumps around
in the prophecies here. It's not really in chronological
order. It's kind of hard to keep up with exactly who the king
is at the time. It tells you here, this is Zedekiah. And so this section here from
chapter 21 to chapter 24, is one prophecy to the king,
to the people, to the prophets and the priests. In fact, this
chapter 23 starts out, Woe be unto the pastors that destroy
and scatter the sheep of my pasture. Those pastors would be the false
prophets and the corrupt priests who would lead the people in
a false religion, in idolatry, in a false peace. And because
of that, right in the middle of this section is these two
verses here in verse five and six of Jeremiah 23. And I got to thinking about this,
is this is the key. These verses here are the key
to understanding this prophecy. But if you think about it, they're
the key to understanding the whole purpose of God and all
of his doings and all of his dealings with with man. They're
certainly the key to understanding the purpose of God in his dealings
with Israel. And what these two verses state
out is the hope of Israel amidst all of these prophecies that
Jeremiah is preaching of doom and gloom and destruction because
of their sin. And as I told you, Jeremiah is
preaching to his nation While he's watching his nation just
flat go down the tubes. And we feel like that today,
don't we? I do. Watching this nation go
down the tubes. And I don't know what's in store
for America. I really don't. I'm not going
to tell you that. I know things that God hasn't
put in His Word. But I know that, I know this,
there's no salvation for a sinner because he's an American or because
we're in this nation. This nation is not our salvation.
Christ is our salvation. And that's what Jeremiah is saying
here. The nation is going down to the tubes, but he calls people
to repentance by telling them, you don't have to go down with
it. You look to the promise of God of salvation by his free
and sovereign grace in Christ who is to come. Who Jeremiah
knew as the Messiah to come. And of course we're given more
information as the Old Testament goes along concerning the identification
and distinction of who that Messiah is. And look at this, verse 5
of chapter 23. Behold the days come, saith the
Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch." Now
that's Christ, the branch of David, the branch of Jesse. He
was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. Now I
think that's important for us to remember because he mentions
David back here, the house of David, in chapter 21. And he
said, a king shall reign and prosper. Now these kings that
Jeremiah is prophesying to, they're not reigning and prospering.
In fact, right now in chapter 21, the nation really has already
been conquered by Babylon. This Zedekiah, he was one of
Josiah's sons. Josiah, he was the last godly
king of Judah. He's the one who brought about
the Reformation. He was the one who began to reign
when he was 12 years old, and then I think when he was in his
early 20s, That's when the priest, the high priest went into the
temple to clean it up because it had been so run down and neglected
under Hezekiah and others that they had to go in and clean it
up. And remember, he's the one who found the book of the law
and he brought it to the king. That was Josiah and he rent his
clothes. That's repentance. And he read
the book of the law and he rent his clothes. and he began to
establish reforms in the land. Now he could, you know, the king
had that power. He could tear down the idols
and he could outlaw the idols, but what he couldn't do was change
the hearts of the people. It's just like a preacher. I
can preach the gospel to you, but I can't change your heart.
I can't even change my own heart. That's a work of God, isn't it?
The new heart, the inner man, that's the work of God. And so
Josiah, he brought these reforms. Well, Josiah got killed. He got
killed in a battle by an Egyptian king, in a battle with him. And
then he had sons, and some of them reigned. This Zedekiah was
one of his sons. And Ozedekiah, he was placed
on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. So the nation had
already been conquered. Now Jerusalem had not yet been
destroyed. That's coming. But he was placed
on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar, and this Zedekiah, he was the
king of Israel, or Judah, when Jerusalem fell, when the temple
was destroyed. He was the man. So this king
here, he's not talking about Zedekiah here. A king shall reign
and prosper. In fact, he's not even talking
about David of old. He's talking about David's greater
son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the king of kings. He's not talking
about an earthly kingdom here. Look here in verse five, he says,
this king shall reign and prosper, and this king shall execute judgment
and justice in the earth. Now, how's he gonna execute judgment
and justice in the earth? Through the blood of his cross.
That's how he's gonna do it. He's gonna come to this earth,
In the fullness of the time, God's gonna send forth his son,
made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were
under the law. And in his substitutionary death
on the cross of Calvary, he's going to execute judgment and
justice and satisfy God's justice for the sins of his people charged
to him. He's going to establish righteousness.
Look at verse 6. In his days Judas shall be saved
and Israel shall dwell safely. There's that united kingdom.
I believe that these are symbolic of spiritual Israel. And this is his name whereby
he shall be called Jehovah Sid Canu. That's the Lord our righteousness. Now there's your king right there.
This king will establish righteousness. He'll reign in righteousness.
He's God in human flesh. The gospel is the revelation
of the righteousness of God that we must have in order to be saved
and blessed and commune with God. Now these people in Judah
had long lost sight of those glorious, gracious gospel truths
that were pictured and typified in their temple, in the holiest
of all, in the mercy seat, in the Ark of the Covenant, the
blood of the lambs, the priesthood, but Jeremiah was sent of God
and other prophets too was sent of God to remind them. And so
let's look at chapter 21. It says in verse one, the word
which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, the word of God. When
King Zedekiah sent unto him, Pasher, the son of Melchiah.
Now you remember we run into a fellow named Pasher in the
last chapter, that Pasher back then, He was the son of Emor,
the priest. And that pastor, he was kind
of like the chief officer of the temple. He was kind of like
the sergeant at arms, you might say. And he's the one who had
Jeremiah beaten and put in stocks. But now here's another fellow
named Pastor. That was a common name back then.
Not the same one. And so Zedekiah the king. he
sent unto Jeremiah, this man named Pasher, the son of Melchiah.
And then he sent unto him a man named Zephaniah. Now, you know,
there's a prophet named Zephaniah who was a contemporary of Jeremiah. This is not the prophet now.
This is another man named Zephaniah. And he was the son of Messiah,
and the priest. And so Zedekiah thought enough
of Jeremiah to send these two emissaries to Jeremiah to inquire. And here's what he wanted, he
said, now ask. Verse two, look, inquire. I pray thee of the Lord
for us. In other words, Jeremiah, will
you intercede on our behalf before almighty God? Now you know what's
happening here? The enemy's at the gate. They're
getting ready to storm the battlements. Destruction is imminent. All
right? That's a picture of God's wrath
against sin. And here the king sins for the
prophet of God, but it's too late. It's too late. The day
of mercy is over. Remember over here in verse 7,
one of the longest verses of the Bible, Jeremiah 21. He says,
I have no mercy. I have no pity. It's over. The
day of grace is over. My friend, do you realize that
there will come a time when the day of mercy and the day of grace
is over? That's scary, isn't it? to think
about it. And so he sent these emissaries
saying inquire for us. And he says, for Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon, maketh war against us. We shouldn't have been surprised. Jeremiah had been telling them
that all along. Now there was a thousand other
prophets who were telling them otherwise. They were saying peace
when there's no peace. But he says, if so be, the Lord
will deal with us according to all His wondrous works that He
may go up from us. What do you suppose he's referring
to there, His wondrous works? Well, it's everything in the
history of Israel that God had done for this nation. Think back
on Egypt, when they were captive in Egypt, before they were even
formed as a nation, how God marvelously, wondrously dealt with Egypt in
His wrath. Think of the plagues, the power
that God set forth through His prophet Moses. I always think
about the Passover. He said, put that lamb's blood
on the doorpost and on the lentils. And He said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass. That was a wondrous work. What a picture of Christ
and salvation from our sins by His blood, the blood of the Lamb
of God. Think about the parting of the
Red Sea, the destruction of Pharaoh's army. And then think about the
giving of the law on Mount Sinai. Think about the destruction of
the idolaters who formed the Golden Calf and took sides with
the idol against God. Think about God's preserving
them in the wilderness from the Amorites and the Amalekites.
Think about all these wondrous things. Think about the things
that God did. It's almost like Zedekiah is now trying to remember
the former things of old, but it's too late. And so he'd been,
this Zedekiah, he was put on the throne by a heathen king,
Nebuchadnezzar. He'd been loyal to Babylon, this
probably for around eight years, the historians say. And you know
what happened? You know why Nebuchadnezzar is
now coming up to destroy him now? Even the man that he put
on the throne? It's because there was a faction
in Jerusalem and in Judah who wanted to appeal to Egypt to
get an alliance going so they could rebel. And you know what that says about
man by nature? It's sin upon sin upon sin upon
sin. Here this Zedekiah had made an
alliance with Babylon, now he's thinking about making an alliance
with Egypt. In other words, what it says is this, man is in a
dilemma. He's in between a rock and a
hard place as you see. When it comes to sin and death
and hell, man knows there's a judgment. He knows that he's going to die.
What are you going to do about it? And the ways that man devises
to get himself out of this mess end up being worse than what
it was before. It's like that woman with the
issue of blood. She'd been to so many doctors
and spent all that money and she ended up worse than she was
before. There's only one person who could
heal her and that's the great physician. There is a way that
seems right unto a man, the way there is of death. Man by nature
will seek religious ways for salvation, his own religion,
and it's worse than before. Worse and worse. So Zedekiah,
he sends these two men, Pasher and Zephaniah, to the prophet
to request him to intercede well here's his answer look at verse
three then said Jeremiah unto them thus shall you say to Zedekiah
now here's the answer Jeremiah prophesies and he says thus saith
the Lord God of Israel behold I will turn back the weapons
of war that are in your hands wherewith you fight against the
king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans now Chaldeans is just
a general way of referring to the Babylonians but they were
the same thing which besiege you without the walls and I will
assemble them into the midst of this city and I myself this
is God speaking now God says I myself will fight against you
now Zedekiah the only reason he would send emissaries to God's
prophet to seek for intercession is that he just imagined in his
mind like these false preachers that God is for us We're the
people of God. We're Abraham's seed. We have
the temple. We're circumcised. No, sir. Jeremiah says, God will fight
against you. It's not so that God was for
him. When I read that, I think about myself for so many years
that I thought that God was for me. in my own mind and conscience
now is what I'm saying. I'll tell you what, if you're
a child of God, if you're one of his elect, he's been for you
in some sense all your life, hasn't he? Even before the foundation
of the world. But in my own religious mind,
I thought he was for me, but he was an idol. Many today are
assuring themselves that God is for them. Have you ever considered,
who is God for? Romans chapter 8 makes this statement.
Ask this question, if God be for us, who can be against us? Well, is God for me? Is He for
you? Well, I'll tell you exactly who
God is for. All who are in His Son. All who
come to Him begging for mercy, pleading the blood and righteousness
of Christ. God's for them. That's right. And He's not for anybody else.
And that's what he's telling Zedekiah here. I'll fight against
you, look at verse 5, with an outstretched hand, with a strong
arm, even in anger and in fury and in great wrath. Those are
just words not to show God's emotions. It's not emotions here,
but it's God's judgment against sin. And he says in verse 6,
I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast,
and they shall die of a great pestilence. The whole kit and
caboodle is going to be be brought down verse seven and afterwards
sayeth the Lord I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah and his
servants and the people and such as are left in this city from
the pestilence from the sword and from the famine into the
hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of
their enemies and into the hand of those that seek their life
and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword he shall
not spare them neither have pity nor have mercy Nebuchadnezzar
Babylon are instruments of God's judgment against sin. There's
no escape for these people. Why? Because it's a message here
for any sinner that there is no escape for us from the ultimate
eternal wrath of God but in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no
escape but in Him. He's the way, but He's the only
way. He's the truth, and He's the
only truth. And He's the life, and He's the
only life. And that's the bottom line to
this gospel message. There is hope, but it's not in
the earth. It's not in man. It's not by
our works or our will. It's in the Lord our righteousness.
Now look at verses 8 through 10 here. There's several things
here I want you to see. Now listen, he says, under this
people thou shalt say, thus saith the Lord, behold, I set before
you the way of life and the way of death. Now what is that? Well, look at verse nine. Well,
he that abideth in this city shall die by the sword and by
the famine and by the pestilence. You stay in this city, Jerusalem.
You know what Jerusalem means, don't you? City of peace. That's
what Jerusalem means. But you stay here, you're going
to die by the sword or by the famine or by the pestilence.
But he that goeth out, out of this city, and falleth to the
cow dens that besiege you, he shall live. You know what Jeremiah
is telling them here, don't you? Give up. Give it up. He shall live and his life shall
be unto him for a prey. He says, for I have set my face
against this city for evil and not for good, saith the Lord.
It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he's
gonna burn it with fire. And that's exactly what he did.
Now what does this teach us? Now there's several things here.
The number one thing here is that it sets forth the conditional
nature of that old covenant again. In other words, God's saying
is the only way to survive here. The only way to survive this
is to submit to God's will in His judgment against their sin.
That's the only way to survive. It's kind of like saying this,
submit to the king of Babylon. He's God's instrument of judgment. And it's like this, coming before
him and saying, Lord, we deserve every ounce of punishment you
give to us. Submit. And admit that Jerusalem
And the temple was no protection from God's just wrath. You know
what, that tells us something. It teaches us something about
how God deals with sin. Oh Lord, if thou Lord shouldest
mark iniquities, who would stand? Do you realize right now, at
our best moments, that if God were to judge even any of us
based upon our best What would we deserve? What would we earn? And the old writers used to talk
about taking sides with God against ourselves. Now, that's what this
is. Submit. The only way you can
stay alive, Zedekiah, the only way you can stay alive is to
submit to God's judgment. God's right. I'm wrong. God's
sovereign. God's sovereign. I'm nothing.
God's everything. I'm nothing. God's just. I'm
a sinner who deserves nothing but wrath. But now go on. Here's
the second thing. It re-emphasizes. This little
passage right here re-emphasizes this. That there is absolutely
no salvation for sinners under the terms of any conditional
covenant. Any covenant of works. Anything conditioned on us, we
need salvation by God's grace. Grace is our only hope. Mercy,
that's it. There is no place else to go
but to the mercy seat. Like the old publican, God be
merciful to me the sinner. Listen, God does not save or
bless or forgive or preserve us because we're better people
than these Judaites of Jeremiah's day. In fact, Paul says that
over in Romans chapter 3. Let me just read this to you.
When he's talking about the nation Israel and the privileges and
the promises that they had that were conditional. And he makes
this statement in verse 9 of chapter 3, he says, what then,
are we better than they? And he says, no, in no wise. That means, we'd say it this
way, no way. Are we better than them? Do you
think God saves you and blesses you and keeps you and preserves
you because you're better than Uzziah and Zedekiah back here,
and Pasher and the rest of that bunch? That's what really most
people think. I'm telling you the truth now.
You bring most people what they call Christianity today. And
why they believe they're blessed of God, and why they believe
God saved them, it's really down to its kernel truth, or its kernel
lie, rather. It's that because they believe
they're just a little bit cut above than these Israelites who
are getting what they deserve. It's either because I believe
or because I made a decision or because I joined the church
or because I got baptized. Well, why didn't these people
do that? Are they worse than you? No, it has nothing to do
with what we earn or what we deserve. And I'll tell you what. Are we better than they? He says,
no and no wise for we before proved both Jews and Gentiles
that they are all under sin. What does that mean? That means
they all deserve God's wrath. And that's when he says there's
none righteous, no not one. None righteous, no not one. Are
we better than they? No. It's grace, it's mercy, it's
unconditional love in Christ. And I wanna show you something
else. Turn back to Isaiah. Turn to Isaiah chapter one. And
think about this. Now you know we've read, we're
up to 21 chapters in Jeremiah. And we've read something of the
history of Israel there. History of Judah. And I'll tell
you what, we've read some awful things, haven't we? We've read about people who set
up idols in the groves. We've read about people who offered
their children to the false god, Molech, murdered their children.
Incidentally, it brought to my attention when I dealt with that,
you know, people think about abortion today. Think about that. People talk about murdering children.
How in the world does man ever get off thinking that he can
debate and determine when a person is a person or when life begins?
That's pride, isn't it? God's the one who determines
that issue. And you read the Bible, read
the Psalms of David when he talks about in the womb, God marked
me out, in the womb, the breath of life, you see. And I thought
about that because it brought to my attention, I made a statement
and said, well, we think we could never go as far as what they
went and offer our children to a false god, but boy, we can
murder a bunch of them, can't we? That's what abortion does. when you think about that. But
we've read some awful things here, haven't we? About Israel
and Judah. And the thing about it is, a
person could read stuff like that, and this gives us some
insight on how we look at the Old Testament, how we look at
the whole Bible, really. Because what happens, you read
stuff like that, and you know, we're good old Americans, and
especially from the South, you know, and say, well, shoot, we'd
never do anything like that. I mean, good night. And we stand
appalled at it, and we should. But let me show you something.
Over here in Isaiah chapter 1, about 100 years before Jeremiah,
same problem. And he's talking about the sin
of Israel and Judah. Isaiah prophesied in Jerusalem.
He was a city prophet just like Jeremiah. And he's talking about
the sin of Judah. He says, look at verse 4, he
says, a sinful nation of people laden with iniquity, seed of
evildoers, children that are corruptors, forsaken the Lord,
provoked the Holy One of Israel into anger, gone away backward.
Why should you be stricken anymore? You'll revoke more and more.
The whole head is sick. The whole heart faint. That's
the extent of sin. It's not just an outward thing.
It's a, it's an inward cancer. From the sole of the foot even
to the head, there's no soundness in it, he says. Wounds, bruises,
putrefying sores, they've not been closed, neither bound up,
neither mollified with ointment. In other words, your religious
exercises have not cured the problem. They've not washed away
the sin. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. You see, the blood of animals
won't do it. He says, your country's desolate,
your cities are burned with fire, your land strangers devour in
your presence, and it's desolate, overthrown with strangers. The
daughter of Zion is left a cottage in a vineyard as a lodge in a
garden of cucumbers as a besieged city. Now look at verse nine. Listen to this very carefully.
He says, except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small
remnant, we should have been as, what's that next word? Sodom Sodom and we should have been
as unto Gomorrah now, you know Sodom and Gomorrah Ask you a question did Sodom
and Gomorrah deserve the wrath of God And the answer is yes
There's no doubt now, right they deserved every ounce of wrath
that they got. But here's the ultimate question
to me. What do I deserve? You say, well, I'm not a sodomite. I thank God I'm not a sodomite.
How about you? Here's the issue. Now, the fact
that I'm not a sodomite, does that make me righteous before
God? And the answer's no. You see, that was the problem
with the Pharisee over in the parable of the Pharisee and the
publican. You know that Pharisee, there was a lot of differences
between the Pharisee and the publican. A lot of differences. I know when you think of the
word Pharisee, we sometimes, I think sometimes we have a picture
that comes forth in our mind like they had pitchforks and
horns and tails or something. They didn't. Christ himself said
you appear righteous outwardly. And I tell you, among the Pharisees
and the Sadducees and the Essenes and the scribes, there were different
types of people. It's just like false preachers
today. Listen, I know some false preachers who are just as genuine
and sincere as any people you'll ever meet. They wouldn't dream
of Cheating you or or doing anything like that and then I know some
shysters I Know some you you better hold on to your wallet
When you get when you shake hands with I know some TV preachers. I don't know them personally,
but I believe they're in it just for the money And I believe some
of them are proud of it So there's all kinds of them And I thank
God I'm not like that. Because I know what I am by nature.
I know what I can do. I know what I'm capable of. But
here's the issue. Does that make me righteous before
God? And the answer is no. Does that
mean that I deserve less than the wrath of God based on my
works? And the answer is no. And that's
what this Pharisee here, he said I thank thee that I'm not like
other men extortioners unjust adulterers even as this publican
I fast twice a week I pay tithe is that what makes a sinner righteous
before God is that what washes away the sin is That what cures
the sin cancer and the answer is no What does it's what that
old publican played God be propitious? Be merciful Christ He's my righteousness It's his
blood that washes away. If God were to give me what I
deserve or what I've earned, even now, even now, it would
be hell and damnation. That's right. My only plea, Christ
died for me. Christ died for me. Look back
at Jeremiah 21. Now these Israelites, these Judaites,
they weren't Sodomites in that sense, physically. But Isaiah
said, you deserve no better because you don't have a righteousness
that answers the demands of God's law and justice. Why? You've
rejected the only one there is, Jesus Christ and him crucified. And there's no other. Grace reigns
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Salvation is based on His righteousness imputed alone. And that's it. And the third thing we learn
here is we learn something about true repentance. I said it before.
Taking sides with God against ourselves. You know what the way of life...
He talks about it. He said, I set before you the
way of life and the way of death. You know, we do that, Alan, every
time we preach the gospel, don't we? I'm setting before you the
way of life and the way of death. The way of life, Christ. I am
the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. The way of death? Every other way. Any other way. It's Christ and Him crucified
alone. Well, look at verse 11. He says,
And touching the house of the king of Judah, say, Hear ye the
word of the Lord, O house of David. Thus saith the Lord, Execute
judgment in the morning, You know whenever it says do something
in the morning, you know what he is actually saying there?
He is saying do it. That ought to be first and foremost
on your mind. You ought not even have to wrestle
with it. Do it early or do it in the morning.
He is saying deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of
the oppressor. Lest my fury go out like fire burned that none
can quench it because of the evil of your doings. Now that
is the command of God to the kings of Judah in the line of
David. It's sort of a prophecy there
concerning the house of the King of Judah. The Bible tells us
David, King David himself reigned over all Israel and David executed
judgment and justice to all his people. And so he's simply saying
follow in the footsteps of David. But even David was a sinner saved
by grace. David on his deathbed didn't
plead his own works. He said, although my house be
not so with God, he hath made a covenant with me that's ordered
in all things insure. This is all my salvation and
all my desire. David looking to Christ for salvation. The only hope for our salvation
is the ultimate David. Christ the Lord. And so he says
in verse 13, Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley
and rock of the plain, saith the Lord. In other words, every
area of Judah you'll go to, there's the wrath of God. There's no
hiding place. Which say, Who shall come down
against us or who shall enter into our habitations? There's
that false peace, that false assurance. Who's going to do
it? God is. He said, But I will punish
you according to the fruit of your doings. saith the Lord,
and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall
devour all things round about it. Notwithstanding all the great
fortifications round about Jerusalem, in which the people vainly trust,
the Lord will most assuredly visit them for their iniquities,
and there'll be no place to hide. And notice that pride of the
people, who shall come down against us, or who shall enter into our
habitations. What pride? That's the pride
of religion. But you see what's going to happen
here? They're going to get the fruit of their doings. Now what are their doings? Well, they're trying to establish
a righteousness of their own. They're trying, they're worshiping
self. You know, that's what idolatry ultimately is. It really, I don't
care what form it takes. It always ends up worshiping
self because, you know, the Lord told him one time, he says, you
thought I was such and one as yourself. And he's not, he's
so high above us. And so what do men do? They reject
the true and living God and they create an idol and it takes many
forms, but at the heart of it, it's self. Self-righteousness,
religious pride, works and will of man, but not Christ. And the fruit of your doings,
what are the fruit of your doings? Well, the fruit of our doings
are to redound to the glory of God, and the grace of God in
Christ, and not to our own pride, not to our own self-image, not
to our own righteousness, but unto Him. All right. Let's sing
hymn number 287 as our closing hymn. like a...