Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the chapter that we read,
Jeremiah chapter 4, and we read from our text the first part
of the first verse. Jeremiah chapter 4 and verse
1. If thou wilt return, O Israel,
saith the Lord, return unto me. Jeremiah 4 1 And if thou wilt
put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou
not remove. in the previous chapter there
had been an expression of a willingness to return by Judah unto the Lord
and so it is following that willingness to return where they are saying
behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God that
then there is this following in our text, if there is going
to be a return, make sure it is unto me, and that is implying
that there can be a returning that is not unto the Lord, it's
an imitation, it is not a real returning, and so it is a searching
word for us here as well, especially when we're anticipating, thinking
of returning in an outward way to the house of God, but is that
a real returning? Or is it that we should be really
mindful are we returning unto the Lord. Sometimes we can put
things in the place of what is a real returning, a real repentance. Now Jeremiah he prophesied in
Judah during the 41 years that led up to the destruction of
the temple in 586 BC and He warned the people. He was
the prophet that was the last one that was sending these messages
of repentance and of the coming judgments of God. And yet the
people they were not listening, they were not hearkening, we
know that the temple was destroyed, the people were carried away
into captivity, but God was justified in that Jeremiah and God through
Jeremiah had very clearly warned the people and directed them
as to what they needed to do, highlighted their sins and we
can see this as we look from chapter 2 in Jeremiah and in
verse 6 we have a people that are not looking After the Lord
that brought them up from Egypt, neither said they, Where is the
Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that brought
us through the wilderness? They are not looking back towards
that God. And it's interesting in this
that we're going right back through the kings, right back through
the judges, right back to where the Lord formed them into a nation. And they are not to forsake that
God that at first begun with them. This is one of the charges
with the churches of Revelation that they had left their first
love and it's a message to each that have truly known the Lord,
go right back to when the Lord first began with you, first drew
you unto himself, and what the Lord was to you then, and the
people of Judah here, they were not asking after that God that
had begun with them. And not only them, but in verse
8, even the priests, even those that were the leaders, we might
say, the ministers, the deacons, the elders, those that should
be the leaders of the people spiritually, they are not saying,
where is the Lord? And those that handle the law,
he says, they knew me not. They did not know the Lord. It's
the most solemn thing. When there is an outward professing
church and those are leading the church, do not personally
know the Lord. We fear that that is the case
in many, many churches. It may not be so with us. In
these times of pandemic, the judgment shall begin at the house
of God. And the Lord often has a lot
to say. to us in the ministry, the letters in the Revelation
are firstly written to the pastors and written to those that will
lead others and so this is what was said concerning Judah and
then in verse 13 we have in chapter 2 that the people have committed
two evils, one that they have forsaken me, the Lord says, the
fountain of living waters, but not only forsaken the Lord But
they've hewed them out, cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold
no water. So they've found a substitute
from the Lord. They've got something else, but
it is not a true work at all it is an emptiness and that which
shall not profit them at all and then in verse 19 we read
that there was no fear in the end of that verse my fear is
not in thee there they were committing wickedness and backsliding and
they weren't fearing the Lord he wasn't a real God to them
that saw that heard that took knowledge of their ways at all.
They acted as if he had no power to do good or evil, to bring
the rod, to bring correction, to stay the hand of the nations
that were going to be used as a rod for them, or to cause them
to come as a judgment. He causeth it to come. And there are even the people
then that When the Lord was setting before them through his prophets
that there was hope, there was a way of escape, there was repentance,
and you can't help but thinking with the Assyrians when Jonah
was sent to them, to Nineveh, all we read of is that he was
preaching that in 40 days the city would be destroyed, But
God gave them repentance, and they did turn from their wicked
ways, and they did turn unto the Lord. And the Lord turned
away his anger and his wrath from them, and he did it not. And yet here is Israel being
set before them, not only the judgment, but that there is hope,
and there is a way of escape. And yet they are saying, and
in verse 25, 3 That thou saidst, There is no hope, no, for we
have loved strangers, and after them will I go. 4 Very often
those that are so intent on their wickedness and on their sin,
they will lay the blame on the Lord, and they will say, Well,
there is no hope. it's not worth me turning or
turning unto the Lord because He's still going to punish, He's
still going to deal, there is no hope at all so I might as
well just continue on in my sin and really that's what they want
to do but they want to shift the blame unto the Lord And so
this charge was said, remember this is Israel, this is God's
ancient people, those that he'd done so much for, those that
he knew of all nations upon the face of the earth, equivalent
in a way to those that have been truly called, those that have
been taught of God, who have known the Lord. And then we have
in verse 30 that, In vain have I smitten your children, they
receive no correction. Your own sword hath devoured
your prophets like a destroying lion. And that is so if you read
back in 2 Chronicles, you read in chapter 36 there, verse 16,
how that they mocked the messengers. and that they misused the prophets
that were sent to them. Certainly they did that with
Jeremiah as well. And so that was another aggravation
of their sins. Then when we come to chapter
3, again the Lord is using these types of that he was married
to them, they were like a wife to him, but they've departed
from Him, they've gone and had many other lovers, they've been
joined to idols, they've been worshipping them instead of the
true and the living God. So from verse 20 down to the
middle of 22 in chapter 3, He says, Surely as a wife treacherously
departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with
me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord. And how that they have
perverted thee way. He says in verse 22, Return,
ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. It's a beautiful promise in that. Now we might think, well, we
need to heal our own backslidings first and then we'll return but
the Lord says no return I will heal your backslidings I will
do that work for you and that is the gospel voice for a sinner
and The response of Israel then was in this way, in the middle
of verse 22, Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord
our God. An expression of that willingness
to come, and it's in the light of this that we have the words
of our text, If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return
unto me. If it is going to be a returning,
a right returning, then it must be unto the LORD. And so I want
to look with the Lord's help at this word, three points. Firstly, a returning but not
to the Lord. What would it be to actually
have that form of returning, but it be an imitation, it be
not a true returning. And then secondly, a returning
to the Lord. What it is in a right way. And then lastly, what a returning
sinner will find in Christ. Firstly, I want to look at it
in this way, returning but not to the Lord. There is a most solemn account
in the word of God in the case of King Saul when God through
Samuel bade him to go in the early time of his kingship to
go and destroy Amalek and he told him specifically that Amalek,
because they came out against the children of Israel when they
came out from Egypt, and he said that their name should be put
out from remembrance and that King Saul was to utterly destroy
the people, the sheep, the oxen, everything of Amalek. and we read that then when King
Saul executed that in 1 Samuel chapter 15 we read that Saul
smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur which
is over against Egypt then we read and he took Agag the king
of the Amalekites alive utterly destroyed all the people with
the edge of the sword But Saul and the people spared Agag, and
the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings,
and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy
them, but everything that was vile and refuse, that they utterly
destroyed. Now the Lord then sent Samuel
to Saul, and when Samuel comes to him, Then Saul, he says, blessed,
in verse 13, blessed be thou of the Lord, I have performed
the commandment of the Lord. Now, whether he believed it or
not himself, he is testifying, this is what, in his eyes, he
thought that he had done. He'd performed the commandment
of the Lord. And Samuel then asked this, what
meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears and the
lowing of the oxen which I hear? There's evidence that you haven't
destroyed everything. But Saul, he puts a construction
on it that he says the people, it was them that spared the best
of the sheep and the oxen. And it was for a good reason,
it was to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God. The rest we've
destroyed. But, you know, Samuel, he says
that hath the Lord as much pleasure in sacrifices and in oxen, delight
in those things. 22 As in obeying the voice of the
Lord, behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken
than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin
of witchcraft, and stubbornness as iniquity. And so in this what
Saul did, that he testified he had performed the word of the
Lord, Samuel identifies it as disobedience. as rebellion, as
Saul deciding what is better and what is not, what is the
way of serving the Lord and what is not the way of serving the
Lord. And we see a case of how close
one can go to thinking that they are doing right, thinking that
they are obeying the Lord. And yet not at all. And the Lord
rejected Saul as being king over this matter. And you transfer
that to what is before us here, of returning unto the Lord. As Saul said, I have performed
the word of the Lord. We may also say, I have returned
unto the Lord. I have repented. I have returned. But the Lord said, no. you may
have returned but you have not returned unto me and it's a very
very searching word dear friends I find it so I hope you do as
well because we do not want to come short in this we do not
want to deceive ourselves in this and there are many that
do many that are happy to but there are many that may inadvertently
do so, and that is why the Word is brought, and why we bring
the Word before you this morning. So, what is a returning but not
unto the Lord? Well, I think of the expectation
of returning to the house of God, a good thing, a right thing,
we're forbidden to forsake the assembling of ourselves together
as the manner of some is, and when it is safe to do so, for
each one individually, then we are to return to the house of
God, we're not to forsake that. But are we just going to make
it that, well the main thing in our mind is that we just get
within the walls of the building, is that going to be a returning
and that's all it is and we say well now we're back in the house
of God and we're not looking at all are we returning to the
God of the house of God remember Jacob when he was blessed with
the stones for his pillow at Bethel there was no house there
then at all but he called it Bethel as the house of God this
is none other than the house of God the gate of heaven But
later on he comes, where is the God of Bethel? Where is the God
of the house of God? And we can very easily come back
and go back to a building, but we're not returning to the Lord. We are not going there seeking
the Lord. Our heart's more on an outward
building, an outward place, than the Lord himself. The Lord Jesus
Christ. True religion is a relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour. It is reconciling God
and man. It is bringing man from a rebellious,
far-off position to be brought nigh by the blood of Christ. This then can be something that
takes the place of what really is needed, and at this time when
various stages rearing of our churches is going back to the
house of God, may we really think well in our returning Do we really
return unto the Lord? Is our eye upon the God of the
house of God, or just to the house? What is the house to me,
unless the Saviour I can see? May that be our uppermost thoughts,
when in the will of the Lord we may return to the house of
God. we may have a return that is
a returning unto doctrine in one sense the children of Israel
are turned away from the true and pure doctrine sadly there's
many churches but many individuals who will turn away from the truth
and turn away from true doctrine and they may then be aware of
that and decide whether they're going to return to that doctrine
But is that a returning to the Lord? May be a necessary part
of it, to return to the doctrines of truth and the doctrines of
the Word of God. There's many that will be a change
from an Arminian persuasion, free will, and change to a Calvinistic
position. But is that really conversion
on its own? just to change from one way of
belief and one way of thinking? Let us not deceive ourselves
as to that is returning to the Lord if it is just that. But then there is a returning
but that is not leaving a wicked and sinful ways, and if thou
wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou
not remove, if thou wilt return unto me. Israel were very good
at this, trying to return to the Lord, but still cling to
their sins, and still cling to their idolatries, as if by casting
his name in the scale or doing rites, say, on the Lord's Day,
or attending the services and seeking the outward worship,
they could then continue in the week with all their other abominations
and living as the ungodly. And so a returning but not unto
the Lord is a partial returning still cleaving to our sins, still
cleaving to that which is abominable unto the Lord. And another way
of returning is return to the people of God, but not to their
God. We don't want to just be like
the people of God, we want to be the people of God. We don't
want just to be with the people of God, we want to be them, a
solemn thing, to be even like Judas that was numbered with
the apostles, that heard the Lord, that walked with them,
and yet his heart was not with them, his love was not to the
Saviour at all, but still was a love of the things of this
world. a solemn thing, to be amongst
the people of God, returned, yes, and a sad thing would it
be for our churches if during this time there were those that
were awakened to how they've departed from the truth and from
the ways of the Lord, they'd left the churches, they'd gone
into the world and they thought we're going to return we're going
to be found amongst the people of God so they come to the houses
of prayer and they come amongst the people of God but they're
not returned to the Lord and they end up being real troublemakers
amongst the people of God wolves amongst the sheep In the letters,
in the New Testament, Jude especially, but Peter as well, he warns of
those that shall be amongst the people of God, that shall bring
in errors. We have it with the letters with
the churches of Asia as well. Those that held error, those
that taught error, those that were not fully with them, among
you shall be those. those that may have returned,
but not returned to the Lord. Yes, they're in the house of
God, and we may at first, as churches and the people of God,
we rejoice to see those who once never darkened the doors to come
back. But that rejoicing would turn
to great sorrow if they come back and they have not really
returned to the Lord, but they've returned as amongst God's people,
but as troublous amongst them, a returning but not to the Lord. Then we can have a returning
which is a returning but failedly. We have this in the third chapter
with Jeremiah here and verse 10 and it is said here yet for
all this her treacherous sister Judah that's she seeing what
Israel and what had happened to Israel, but then Judah had
not turned unto me with her whole heart, but failedly, saith the
Lord." That is in falsehood, pretending. And you know, in
one sense, that is actually known by that person. They are deliberately
seeking to deceive the Lord deceive his people just by pretending
to be what they are not that is what a hypocrite is and may
we be delivered from that to be a subtle person that is actually
setting out to just be an imitator No, the scribes and the Pharisees,
what they did with their long prayers, with their fastings,
defiguring their faces, it was to be seen of men. He says, Verily
ye have your reward. But when ye pray, enter into
the closet, shut the door, God who seeth in secret shall reward
thee openly. And the Lord points to a secret,
true religion, a union between that soul and the Lord. So there can be a returning,
but in a pretend way. There can also be a returning,
but a following not of the Lord's prescribed way, but of the heathen
or of man's prescription. We think of David when they sought
to bring the Ark up and to bring it to Jerusalem, that at first,
instead of following the way of carrying that Ark on the shoulders
of the Levites, they imitated what the Philistines did when
they returned the Ark upon a cart pulled by oxen. Then the Lord
smote Uzzah, who put forth his hand to steady the ark when the
ox shook it, and he slew him. And David then greatly feared
to bring up the ark. It went to the house of Obed-Edom.
But then the Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom. When David
brought it up again, he charged the Levites, ye did it not at
the first, ye should carry that ark on your shoulders. And so
we can have a returning, but instead of returning according
to the Word of God and seeking to regulate our worship and what
we do and how we seek the Lord according to that, we think we'll
do what we think, or we'll imitate what others have done, and we'll
worship the Lord in that way. In a sense, it's an extension
of what King Saul did. He'd been told what to do with
Amalek, but he takes what the Lord had told him to do, and
he decides how he'll execute that, how he'll walk it out.
Now, often the Word of God is very specific as to what is actually
required. Very difficult at this time in
practical way in returning to our chapels, the government has
listed out all sorts of guidance and each church has got to look
at that and try and interpret their guidance, what is required. Some churches feel they can sing,
some they can't, some have the Lord's Supper, some they don't.
Very, very difficult. There's a lot of interpretation
of what the law requires and what is safe and what is not.
seeking to take care in that, in returning at Cranbrook, and
no doubt each church is. But when we come to the Word
of God, we need to be very, very careful as to how we interpret
the commands of the Lord, or how we implement it, realising
we have a deceitful and evil heart that is so prone to make
allowances, and so prone to turn aside from a clear direction
of the Lord, and put something else in his place." Well, why
couldn't it be a cart instead of on the shoulders? The Ark's
still being brought up. It's still being brought to the
house of God. We need to be careful in that. Then there can be a returning
as Nehemiah and those that return to Jerusalem, from captivity
found, there were those that returned, and their desire was
all the time for merchandise. In fact, when it came for the
Lord's Day, then they were still letting the merchants come in
from all other nations to buy and sell, and Nehemiah commanded
the doors to be shut. And how easy it is! Our Lord,
when He was upon earth, He comes into the temple, and what does
He find? he find the buyers and the sellers. They needed doves,
they needed things for the sacrifices and so they set up their stalls
and they took the opportunity to sell all these things and
to make money off it. The most solemn thing were those
that return or come to the Church of God thinking, oh have a nice
salary, when I have a nice pension, when I have a nice living, and
it is just in a monetary way of following the Lord, but following
Him for what can be got out in a spiritual way, the most solemn
thing, to have churches whose pastors are millionaires, who
are walking in the lap of luxury, so different than their people,
really, If you had a congregation of twelve families, and each
one tithed the tenth, and two of those tithings was used to
repair and look after the house of God, and the rest of those
tithings was used to pay their minister, then the minister would
have an average of the earnings of his congregation, in one sense. and really that would be the
right way to do not to have those in the poorer congregation thinking
well there I'm really struggling to make ends meet and there's
my minister he's in the lap of luxury how can he preach to me
in my need and we don't want that with the deceitful heart
that is the love of money is the root of all evil that actually
then enters into the Church of God and it's amazing how many
will actually so willingly support such a ministry or churches in
that and as if money was the end of it and that was what they
were seeking after and so the buyers, the sellers, yes they
were there right in the very temple So there are many ways
that we could actually be returning and we are there, we appear to
be the people of God, the service of God is there, the worship
is there, the gathering is there. But what a solemn thing if it
was said, but him they saw not, the Lord was not there. and the
returning was unto all of these other things but not unto the
Lord so what is it then to return unto the Lord? well the first thing then in
this second point returning to the Lord is to desire to return
in truth You know, what was said of Nathanael, when Nathanael
was coming to him, remember that Philip said to him, we have found
him of whom Moses and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth. And Nathanael had said, can any
good thing come out of Nazareth? And Philip said, come and see.
Well, when Nathanael was coming, the Lord said, behold an Israelite
indeed, in whom is no guile. In this man, there's no subtleness,
there's no deceit, there's an openness of desiring the Messiah,
the God of Israel there's no... what you see is what you get
with this man and he is not feigning what he is, here
I am and that is so vital if we are to be returning to the
Lord then we are to do so in a really a sincere way a real
wanting to and if that is your case this morning then may you
hear this word you know Paul when he writes to Titus he speaks
of faith unfeigned." What? Can you have faith that's really
just an imitated faith? Something that is subtle and
deceitful? Well, he gives warning about
that, that we do not have a faith that's just an imitation one.
Peter, when he writes in his first epistle, chapter one, he
speaks about unfeigned love of the brethren. Could we actually
be professing that we love the brethren, love the people of
God, and actually in our heart we don't, we don't like them
at all? Again, this is what is being
exhorted to the New Testament Church. Peter in his second epistle,
he speaks of feigned words, using words, and yet our heart is not
going with them, they're not really sincere at all. And so
the very first thing in returning to the Lord, is to actually be
open and honest and sincere, and that we're not in any way
wanting to find some little way out, that we can still cleave
to our sins, that we can still go on our way, and we're quite
happy to deceive the people of God as well, and really deceive
our own hearts, but we won't deceive the Lord. So the first
thing returning to the Lord is returning in truth, and Israelite
indeed, in whom is no guile. The second is that in prayer.
That was how the Lord began with Saul of Tarsus. It was, Behold,
he prayeth. The Lord begins in teaching in
prayer, and wherever there is a returning from backsliding,
and far off from the Lord, it is a returning in prayer, coming
again to the throne of grace. not just saying, well, I've had
my five minutes of prayer, or I've had my time of prayer, even
if it be an hour of prayer, but actually obtaining the Lord,
gaining His ear, and wrestling like, dear Jacob, I will not
let thee go, except thou bless me. And in coming in prayer,
it will be in much confession. Lord, I feel my deceitful heart,
Lord, I feel my cleaving to my idols and my sins. And there'll
be a confession of those things that we are returning from that
still seek to drag us back, and our need of the Lord. Remember
the Gospel is that there is a provision, a blessing in the Lord for the
people of God. It is for sinners, it is not
for the whole that need the physician. And so in prayer, A real prayer
is actually squeezed out from the heart, what we actually feel,
what we see in ourselves, what we need of the Lord. And in prayer,
this, our first point, in truth, we'll be open before the Lord
in prayer, not seeking to hide everything. Like the woman with
the issue of blood that pushed through the crowd to touch the
hem of his garment. When she was found out, she came
and told him all the truth, laid her heart there before him. Then there'll be, in this chapter,
there are several things, several pointers in the first verse there,
put away abominations. What are those things that we're
doing that the Lord has shown us and conscience tells us these
things should be put away, put away from us. Then there is in
verse 3, break up fallow ground so not among thorns. You think
of ground that's just been left fallow, there are thorns, there
are weeds on it. What would you think of a farmer
that just got his seed drill out and started to put seed on
that instead of getting his plough and ploughing it up and then
the rotavator and cutting it up fine and preparing a nice
seed bed and then putting in the seed. how easy it is for
us, we think we just add the seed to the word, we just put
the word in, but everything is just the same, there's no preparing
of the word, there's no preparing of our hearts, there's no readiness
to receive the word at all, it's a sad thing. where people can
cut off from the ways of the world, sometimes even coming
into the house of God. Before the services they're full
of the world and full of the talk of the world. The minister
comes and stands at the foot of the pulpit and that talk stops
and the sermon goes on and after the service then it's as if the
pause button is released from the tape recorder and the world
goes on. and there's no preparation, there's
no readiness to receive the Word at all and so there's to be a
preparingness of this. Then in verse four we have the
pointing to circumcision, not of the outward but of the heart,
that which is an inward one and Paul speaks of that in Romans,
that circumcision is that of the heart and not of the flesh,
that there's to be a softening, there's to be a taking away the
veil, and there's not to be a rebelling against the word of the Lord. Circumcised unto the Lord. And then we have in verse 14,
the heart and the thoughts that are set forth. O Jerusalem, wash
thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved how
long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee. If you and
I are returning to the Lord, we will be mindful of our heart
and mindful of our thoughts. We have in verse 22 of a people
that did not know the Lord, and if we are returning to the Lord,
our desire will be to seek that we might know Him, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Thy beloved Son, whom
Thou hast sent. That is eternal life, to know
the Lord and seek to actually know Him, to learn of Me, for
I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your
souls." So the whole emphasis in returning is actually to a
person, to a dear Redeemer, a Saviour, one that suffered for our sins,
one that was lifted up above the earth. we are to look upon
Him whom we have pierced, and to mourn for Him, and to be in
bitterness for Him. All true returning, it returns
to the cross, it returns to where sin was dealt with, where sin
is seen in its most bitterest case, and returning unto the
Saviour Himself, return unto Me. And may that be our object
May it be the thought with us that when time is no more with
us, when we enter into death, the blessed promise to the Lord
is, I will come again and receive you unto myself. And in there,
that beautiful promise all hangs upon this, his person coming
to us. He's receiving us to himself. What is heaven without the Lord? Are we seeking for a heaven without
the Lord? If we are truly seeking Heaven
and to see Him as He is, absent from the body, present with the
Lord, then surely here below our desire is also to be with
the Lord. If it is after death to be with
Christ, which is far better, is it not walking with Him by
faith here, and that we desire to see Him in the Word, Christ,
in all the Scriptures, We see not yet all things put under
him, under man, but we see Jesus. And that is the desire of a soul,
that we might see him and have that glimpse of him. I want to
look then briefly at the last point, what a returning sinner
will find in Christ. And we have the beautiful account
of our Lord telling of the parable of the prodigal son and we have
that picture of the son that went from his father's house
and was filled with all the things of this world using all of them
until there came a famine and then he had wasted all his substance
right as living and he was given the job of feeding the swine
and he would have rather had something to eat even from what
they were eating no one gave unto him and then he thought
of his father's house and he thought of returning so far away
he says i will arise and go to my father you know the lord uses
uses the things like the covid19 the pandemic the trials associated
with it to bring those to think where they have taken their fill
of this world and then the Lord uses these things to blight those
things and then that desire to return and may it be an encouragement
to any that are in this position that are desiring to return but
to return in the right way but you might think I'm so far off
And the prodigal son was pictured here saying that he would return
and say unto him, Father, I have sinned against thee, against
heaven and before thee, no more worthy to be called thy son.
Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he rose and come to his father.
I think one of the most beautiful things is this. But when he was
yet a great way off, his father saw him, had compassion on him.
You know, a poor returning sinner doesn't have to go far. The Lord
knows, and really it is the Lord's work in bringing about that returning,
but the Lord knows where there is that sincere desire to return,
and He's met in it. And the welcome that He received
by His Father, the love that was shown, the willingness to
receive Him, It is such an encouragement to any poor sinner returning
unto the Lord. We read of there is a fullness
in Christ. It hath pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell, a fullness of grace, a fullness
of faith. He is the author of it. He is
the bread of life sent down from heaven, all that a poor sinner
can need. is found in Christ. You know,
it's not just hearing of it, but it's coming to partake of
it. And it's proving what is in Christ
for a poor sinner. And we spoke of the circumcising
and that exhortation in the passage there, but in Deuteronomy we
have in Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 6 a promise and the Lord
thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed
to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart with all thy
soul that thou mayest live the Lord will do it there's a special
promise in that and in the gospel of what the Lord will do and
Paul he speaks of in Colossians chapter 2 that a circumcision
not made with hands God's work done in the heart of the people
of God and we have the beautiful word in Ezekiel Ezekiel chapter
36 where there's wonderful promises there to aim to Israel this time
when they're in captivity what the Lord will do for them when
he shall bring them back. Then will I sprinkle clean water
on you. He will sanctify them. Verse 26 of that 36th chapter,
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I
put within you. I take away the stony heart out
of your flesh. Verse 27, I put my spirit within
you. 29 I will also save you from
all your uncleannesses. 30 I will multiply the fruit
of the tree, and then in confession shall you remember your own evil
ways, your doings that were not good. 31 The Lord is exalted
to give repentance and remission of sins unto Israel. 32 Thus saith the Lord God, I
will yet for this being quieted of by
the house of Israel, to do it for them. Now those that came
in the days of our Lord's flesh upon earth, they came to him
in all their sickness and all their need, and they came to
be helped, to be healed. The lepers came as lepers, but
they went away healed, came with the issue of blood, and they
came with that issue staunched. They came having great need and
the Lord fulfilled that need, answered that need. And this
is what is the beautiful invitation and attraction for a poor returning
sinner because of what is in Christ for them. We're not to
look for it in ourselves, but we're to look for it in Christ.
We're not to look for it in a building or in doctrines or in men or
in an imitation. But those that seek the Lord
in truth, those that truly come before Him in all their sin and
all their shame and all their need, Lord, I am sick. Lord, heal me, save me, restore
me, restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation. You read Psalm
51, and David after he'd sinned in the matter of Bathsheba and
Uriah, and he'd been forgiven, He so desires these blessings,
take not thy Holy Spirit from me, restore unto me the joy of
thy salvation. And it is in that way we return
unto the Lord who is able to do exceeding far above all that
we can ask or think. You know when the Lord does these
things it will endear us to Him, it will endear Him to us. It
will cause a bond one to another. The Lord will look upon us and
see the work of His own hands. We'll look upon Him and we'll
see all the provision that we've had from Him. It will be a soul
then that will be able to testify of their need of Christ, how
they so depend upon Him for everything. And so this word may be a word
of very clear direction to us in returning, in repentance,
in being restored. If thou wilt return, O Israel,
saith the Lord, return unto me, and may the Lord deliver us from
being deceived in any returning that is not unto the Lord. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.