Jeremiah 32, where we read those
verses between verse 30 and verse 42. This week I was looking at an
item on the computer online And while I was looking at this
particular item, there was what they call a pop-up. And it popped up with a message
where the company was offering with this particular item a protection
plan, a warranty plan. And it struck me because the
reasoning behind They're offering this protection plan was this. Because bad things happen to
good people. You need this warranty, you need
this protection plan that we're going to try to sell you with
this item because bad things happen to good people. And being always educated by
these advertising firms, they know what appeals to the nature
of fallen men and women. We'll refer to everyone as a
good person. and just warn them of the possibility
that a bad thing can still happen to a good person. But the problem with that is,
and that is a generally accepted thing, but the problem of that
is, one is simply this, among Adam's fallen race, that's every
one of us, there are no good people. I don't care if men and women
stand and everybody votes and it gets a hundred percent vote
that we are good people. It will not change what the Word
of God says about us. It will not alter what the God
of truth declares that we are, the one who really knows what
we are. Turn over to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3, and listen
to what the Apostle Paul is led by the Spirit of God to write. And what he's writing here is
simply a quote from the Old Testament. He says in Romans chapter 3 and
verse 12, they are all gone out of the way, They are together
become unprofitable, there is none that doeth good, no not
one. Is that clear? That's not just
my opinion. Although it is my experience,
it's not just my opinion, that's what God says. There's none that
doeth good, no, not one. Turn back over to Luke's Gospel
in Luke chapter 18. And these words were spoken by
our Lord when somebody called Him good master. In Luke chapter
18 and verse 19, and Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me
good? There is none is good save one
that is God. Now he had a reason for that,
because they were denying his deity. In other words, don't
call me good unless you're acknowledging me as God. Because there's none
good save God Himself. Micah recorded these words, he
said, the good man is perished out of the earth, And there is
none upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood. They hunt every man his brother
with a net. You stop and think about it.
That's basically what that little advertising was. It was a net
to hook somebody into out of fear. Buying a protection plan,
a warranty. And not only that, but we have
to realize that good is not measured by comparing bad to bad. You say, what do you mean? Paul
said, God help us from being among those who compare themselves
with themselves. I heard a preacher one time say,
we're like a couple of fleas. Bragging because one flea can
jump a little higher off the earth than the other flea can. But the truth is, we're comparing
bad with bad. You don't arrive at good. I'm
not good because I may be a tad better in one sense than you
are or vice versa. That's not how we find out what
good is. And that also eternity will involve
hell, which is a bad place for bad people. And the masses will
spend eternity, and in eternity, if not before, it will be revealed
that they were not good. but bad. But there's something this morning
that I want us to notice. Something that we find in the
Bible. Something that is contrasted
very distinctly to that. And something that we find the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to be. And that is the fact that good
things happen to bad people. That's what grace is all about. That's what the gospel, which
is described as good news, the gospel of God's grace is the
notion or the news, the fact that good things happen to bad
people. To a people in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now if we have any understanding
of the Bible, We know that often times God uses this nation of
Israel as a picture and type of that Israel that he speaks
of that all of them shall be saved. All Israel shall be saved
with an everlasting salvation. And he's not talking there about
that earthly nation, he's talking about that people in Christ. That he uses this people and
the very names to describe and show his great grace to them. In the verses we read, beginning
with verse 30, what a description of us. What a description of
this people. showing how that they in every
way are totally depraved and fallen and in no way deserve
anything from God by way of a gift or help or blessing or anything
else. And yet when he continues his
description of them, how they are and how he in his anger disperse
them, scattered them as men scattered in the fall. When he describes
that, almost as he begins to describe all this long negative
message concerning them and what they are in themselves, he turns. And you know what he says? I'm going to do them good. I'm going to make some good things
happen for some bad people. Look down if you would in verse
40, or verse 39. And I will give them one heart
and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them
and of their children after them. I'm going to do something good
for them. The next verse. And I will make
an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away
from them to do them good. I'm going to enter into a covenant. I'm going to pledge myself. And
in Christ, I'm not ever going to turn away from them to do
them good. Verse 41. Yea, I will rejoice
over them to do them good. I'm going to be happy in them.
I'm going to be happy rejoicing in the doing of the good that
I'm going to do for them. And then verse 42, For thus saith
the Lord, Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this
people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have
promised them. Now that's why the message of
the gospel is so contrary to what we naturally
think of ourselves. And religion, false religion,
knows this. And so, to key on us, as that
advertisement did on fallen human nature, so to key on us, it imagines
and tells us that we're able to do something that is good,
therefore we're commanded to do good. But in order to do good, you have to be good. That's why
there's none that doeth good, no, not one, because there is
none good. And the scriptures say, as we
have just read, that in ourselves we are not good and cannot do
good, And furthermore, our being bad is something that if we're
ever to be brought to receive these good things he talks about
here, we're going to have to be brought to realize and own
up and confess just what we are. How did we become bad? Well,
it will surprise some, but we became bad not by doing bad in
ourselves. Turn back over to Romans chapter
5. Romans chapter 5 and look in
verse 12 at what Paul writes here. when he says, "...wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." We became bad not when we were
born or not at some imagined age of accountability to know
right or wrong. We became bad not by our actual
doing, but we became bad when we fell in that garden place
in a man that God had appointed to be a representative man. So that every one of his race,
in that hour when Adam sinned against God, when he fell into
that state that he fell into, and was counted then before God
a sinner, and also death came upon him because of sin. Did you see that last part of
verse 12? And so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned, or all sinned in Adam when he
sinned. You see, we've been bad people
for a long time. As a matter of fact, those that
Christ died for, it says that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. What does that mean? Well, it
means, first of all, since Christ died some 2,000 odd years ago,
and I don't believe any of us here are quite that old, but
even before We were born even before Christ died for us, we
were accounted before God in ourselves as sinners, bad people. But the thing is that grace is
good news to bad people and that simply does not mean and does
not say that we will gain good by doing bad. You say, does that mean if I
do bad I'll receive good? No, you and I can't do anything
but bad. There's no question there. Paul says it like this, what
shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid. It means that this
is the character of those God saves. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. And grace which has to do with
undeserved and unmerited favor can only be shown to such as
don't deserve it and cannot merit it. It just is bestowed upon
them. And all who've ever received
this good have confessed themselves to be bad people. That's right. You listen to David. And he said,
Lord, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil
in thy sight. You hear Isaiah, the prophet,
before God and in the light of his holiness and goodness, he
cries out, Woe is me! For I am undone, I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell amongst a people of unclean lips. This Job who cries out, Lord,
I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye
seeth Thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and I repent in dust
and ashes. Or maybe like that publican that
the Bible says went to his house justified. He cries out, God,
be merciful to me, thee sinner. Or Paul, who at one point, he
cries out in that statement that is worthy of all acceptation,
he said, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of
whom I'm chief. And then later on, he'd be crying
out again and again, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? And God has shown us the character
of all these people, not for an example for us to follow,
But to show us why we must be saved. And why we must be saved
by grace. And why we must be saved by one
outside of and other than our own selves. Because we're just like Isaiah
describes us in chapter 1. The picture of a leper who is
consumed totally with this leprosy of sin when he says, from our
head to our toes we're nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores. That's the condition and that's
the character and that's the bad people that grace meets. So how is it that these good things or this
good comes to happen to these bad people? Well, there's one
thing for sure. And that is, we cannot begin
to find out by simply looking at them. When God describes Israel there
in Jeremiah chapter 32, it is obvious in His description, which
is really a description of us, it is obvious that there can
be nothing found about them or in them that would move Him toward
them to be gracious or merciful. So the very first thing When
you trace it back to the very fountainhead of this stream of
grace and mercy, the very first thing is the will of God. Why will these bad people have
this good to happen to them? Because God willed it. God determined it. God decided
to do it. And we ought to always, in looking
ourselves to the benefit that is bestowed upon us, no matter
what God in grace keeps us from being, On our best day, there
was never anything that He would see, that He would foresee in
us, or done by us, that would move Him toward us. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. Now bad people by nature, when
they first hear that, and they hear about the sovereignty of
His grace and mercy, they think that's a bad thing. No, that's a good thing. Because
when there was no reason in you or me or any of His elect, when
there was no reason in any of us to be receiving any benefit
or blessing, no recommendation for us in any part at all, He
just said, I will. The devil said, well, you ought
not to have mercy on that group. He said, I will. When their enemies
said, well, you know, you really ought not to be merciful to them. There's no reason for it. There's
no ground in it. They're not worth saving. They're
bad people to the very core. He said, I will. And you just stop and think about
that in your own personal case. When there was not one thing
about you lovely or appealing or beneficial to God, He would
not be increased, He would not be bettered by adding anything
from you or by you, but for a reason known only to Himself. He said, I'll be gracious to
Him. I'll be gracious to her." And he did that and this good
and these good things began to happen to these people before
the world began. As a matter of fact, this good
that I'm talking about this morning, this good began to happen concerning
them before they ever fell in at them, before they were ever
born. Man always likes to talk about
what happened in time. You know why? Because he thinks
if he talks only about what happened in time, he can attribute something
done by men to that. But Almighty God, in order to
assure that He Himself alone gets all the glory, This good began before the world
was, before you and I were, before we had a name given by our parents,
before we ever breathed the breath. And this all happened, if you'll
turn over to Ephesians chapter 1, you find out that Paul tells
us here that this blessing, these good things, they began to be
there, this people, Before time. Look down in Ephesians 1 in verse
3. He says, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us. I believe that's past tense,
isn't it? You ever notice how religion is always talking about
what blessings you're going to get? The blessings that God gives
to His people, they've already been given to them. They've already
been blessed. And these blessings began before
the world was. He who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings. And people get a new car and
they call it a blessing. They get a new house, they call
it a blessing. Well, it may be or it may not be. But the things that will last
for eternity, the things that will assure our salvation, our
eternal salvation, and our living in the presence of Christ, blessed
forever, they are spiritual blessings. who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." That's how
He could bless us. There is a good man. And in that good man He hath put
all His people and counted every one of them as He is, blessed
in Him. according as He hath chosen us." It began with His choice. It
will always be His choice. You see, if it hadn't been His
choice, I never would have been blessed. If it hadn't been the
choice of God in the exercise of His sovereign grace, I never
would have been chosen. I hadn't forgot what it was like
in grade school when they went to choose ball teams. I wouldn't have been chosen. But God chose these people, chose
to bless them with all spiritual blessing, chose them in Christ
before the foundation of the world. You see that? This good that God has toward
His people, it began in an element before time that you and I cannot
even begin to comprehend. Before the foundation of the
world. That's a long, long time ago.
That precedes time. When you look over in Romans
chapter 9, let me read this verse to you in Romans 9, because Paul
is here giving an illustration using the two sons, the two twin
sons of Rebekah. And he says in verse 11, "...for
the children, being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand not of works, but of him that calleth." Before they were ever born, before
they had ever done anything, being of the same parents, being
in the same environment, having the same nature, before any of
that, it was said unto their mother, the elder shall serve
the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. And then the Spirit of God leads
Paul to anticipate the natural response of bad people. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. You see, by nature, bad people
call this bad, but it really is good. And we know that because
God did it. You don't look, you and I as
sinners, as bad people by nature, we don't look at what God did
and say, well, that's bad, that's not good, I don't want to believe
that. No, we know what's good only by what God says and by
what He does. And then if you look back at
Ephesians 1, in that fifth verse, he says this concerning these
people, these bad people that he'll do good. He said, "...having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself according to the good pleasure of his will." to the praise of the glory of
His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in
whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of His grace." wherein he hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known
unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure
which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the
fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even
in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being
predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all
things after the counsel of his own will." What does that word predestination
mean, or predestinate? It means literally to mark off
beforehand. To predetermine. And for God to do something which
would be to His greatest glory. Do you think He'd leave even
one little detail to chance? Do you think he would turn over
the actual accomplishment of it or the determination of whether
it was a success or not to a bunch of rebels, to a bunch of bad
people in themselves? No, it says that He predestinated
them to the adoption of children. He predestinated them, made them
accepted in the beloved, and in that act assured them that
they'd have a good inheritance. Because I'll tell you this, the
only good inheritance is that eternal inheritance. You see, it says that He does
all these things to bring to them a desired and a desirable
end. And He predestinated, He works
all these things, all things, after His will to accomplish
this, even what men by nature say is bad. You remember Joseph? Oh, it looked like Joseph, the
faithful one, the true believer. It looked like Joseph had a hard
road to go. His brothers hated him. His brothers
cast him down in a pit, killed an animal, covered his coat with
blood, and sent it back to his father and said that he'd been
killed by a wild beast, and then they took him up out of the pit. Sold him to a bunch of slave
traders going down to Egypt. He goes there. He befriends a
man that he's made a servant to. He stays faithful to his
master. He's put into prison. The man
he's there in jail with, he helps and then he gets out of prison
and he forgets about him. And then the day comes when his
brothers come to get grain because there's a famine in the land. And when they find out who He
is, they become very, very afraid. But this is what Joseph said, But as for you, you thought evil
against me. But God meant it under good to
bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. Everything God does before time
and in time He works it for good to these particular bad people. And then, He comes to earth in
human flesh. He comes, God the Son, This same
one who stood for this people as their surety, as their representative,
as their covenant head. And he lived a sinless life showing
himself to be the perfect and only sacrifice. And then men took him and murdered
him and hung him on a cross, the only good man and crucified him. Somebody said,
well that's surely bad. Our race, and that's how it's
viewed, not just those who drove the nails in, not just that one
who put the spear in, not just that one who crowned him or the
one who commanded it to be done, but our whole race. That sounds bad. Nope. If you had been, or if that man
himself that thrust that spear into the side of Christ, or that
man who in anger at that moment and wretchedness He crushed that
thorny crown on his head. If Christ at that hour was dying
for them, you can count on it, they've
received good. That doesn't sound right, does it? that they brought, at least by
their outward doing, to an end on that cross. If that life was
a life laid down for them, they'll only get good. I don't care how bad they were. I don't care how bad we think
they are. People look at Lot. They look
at old Lot and they really lay Lot low. You know what the Bible
calls him? New Testament. Righteous Lot. Righteous Lot. How in the world?
In Christ? By grace? Because God determined
to do him good? You see, this is all God's will
that's taking place here on that cross. This is the mission of
Christ. He came to suffer as the substitute
of this people that He loved. And this was essential to their
eternal good. If He hadn't got the bad, we'd
have never got the good. Romans 5 again, for when we were
yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Again in Romans 5, for if when
we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. He was taken by wicked hands
and He was crucified according to the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God. Peter said all the kings, all
the priests, all the people, all the Romans, all of them gathered
together to do Whatsoever the Lord had commanded aforetime
to be done to the Lord Jesus Christ. God was in him reconciling. He was making peace with God
on behalf of some bad people by the blood of His cross. He
was saving some bad people. He was suffering in the place
of these bad people. He was enduring what they were
due. And He was redeeming these bad
people from the curse. Bearing their sins in His own
body on the tree. Establishing, showing the only
ground of their justification. Actually, as Paul said, making
them the righteousness of God in Him. That's good. And then in time, the Holy Spirit
brings to them this news, reveals to them this gospel. And in the light of the truth, of their sins and helplessness
and sinfulness and wretchedness and guilt, which at the first
seem so bad. When the Spirit of God first
begins to reveal to us what we are as sinners, that seems bad to us. And I know that the one thing
that is absolutely essential to make any preaching of even
the truth effectual, or enable any sinner who hears it to believe
it, is the work of God's Spirit. And when He first begins to work, when He begins first to shake
us from all our earthly hopes and runs us from our false refuges
and keeps us from being able to rest and find peace in anything
that we've done. That seems bad. But He's doing us good. He's doing us eternal good. Because He reveals Christ to
us, and He gives us faith and repentance, and brings us out
of darkness to light. And when He does, we see that
all good is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's only in Him. But if God be pleased, if He
determined, to do good to me." In Christ, I'm good in His sight. In Christ. I know that in my
flesh, that is in me, dwelleth no good thing, but in Christ. He looks at His bride and He
says, Thou art all fair. There is no spot in thee. And then they live the rest of
their lives in this world. They feel their badness day in
and day out. They're like Paul. Oh, wretched
man! Not that I was, but I am. They feel this wretchedness. And as they live in this world,
what might appear to so many, and even to them on occasion,
as bad things that happened to them. That's bad. But, in the midst of all the persecution
they may endure for the gospel's sake, in the midst of all their
sicknesses and afflictions, in the midst of all their trials
and troubles, which in the midst of them they
seem really bad. Paul said this, We know that all things work
together For good. To them that love God, to them
who are the called according to His purpose. All of them. It's good. And then
one day they'll lay down. To some it may be just suddenly.
For some it may be a languishing time on a sickbed, but they all
come to that one dreaded end. Death. Death. You say, death's a bad thing.
No, it's a good thing. Because to be absent from the
body is to be present with the Lord for these people. And they'll be entered into His
presence, and at that appointed time, be changed. And they won't be bad people
in any sense for all eternity. And so man's ideas, man's philosophy, False image of himself will be
proven wrong. And here will be a bunch of people,
a number that no man can number, and there will be a testimony
to this. Good things have happened to
bad people. By grace, and in Christ alone, Good things have happened to
some bad people. And that's why the gospel is
good news to some bad people. That's what they are in themselves.
But it's the good news of the good things that God has blessed
them and made them to be in Christ. And I'll tell you, I don't know
if you noticed it when we read our text there in Jeremiah 32,
in spite of all that they were, in spite of all their enemies, God said, I'm going to do the
good to them and for them that I promised. And that's what God will always
do for His people. Though they be bad in themselves,
He always does us good. He always gives us good things. And we thank Him and we praise
Him for it. Father, this day we give You
thanks and praise. Nothing like You deserve. But Lord, we thank you that in
our own souls you have proved that good things do happen to
bad people in Christ. And though we be weak of voice
and body this morning, we pray that we might be enabled to rejoice
in Him. to count even our afflictions
to be good. We pray that You would bless
Your people wherever they are as this people that were described
scattered throughout the world, scattered in the fall. We pray that You'd help us, enable us to glorify You For we pray and ask all things
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.