It's Oh turn back in our scriptures to
Jeremiah chapter 31. You might recall that this passage
of scripture is repeated twice in the book of Hebrews in chapter
8 and chapter 10. And this is the Lord speaking,
Behold the days come, verse 31 of Jeremiah 31. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by
the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant
they break, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord. But
this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my law in
their inward parts and write it in their hearts, and I will
be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall
teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of
them unto the greatest. their sin no more. While I was
there in Ezekiel 31 I just wanted to spend some time contemplating
those words and looking at the hope of Israel and I want us
to look at the fact that in the story we read in Joel we see
the big picture of God ruling and reigning over the nations
of the earth and gathering his people out of them and protecting
his people from all of his enemies. But the glory of the gospel,
and it's in those words there, aren't they? He says, I will
be their God and they shall be my people. The glory of the gospel
is in personal pronouns. He's my God. He's our God. And he calls his people my people. In verse 18, I just wanted to
look at this because this ultimately comes to us personally, privately,
and powerfully, the words of our God and his activities. He
reigns over nations, but he reigns in the hearts of his people.
And he says, surely, I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself
thus. Thou hast chastised me, and I
was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Turn thou me, and
I shall be turned, for thou art the Lord my God. For surely after
that I was turned, I repented, and after that I was instructed,
I smote upon my thigh, I was ashamed, yea, even confounded,
because I did bear the reproach of my youth. And then God's response
is, is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child, delightful
child? For since I spake against him,
I do earnestly remember him still. Therefore my bowels, my heart,
are troubled for him. I will surely have mercy upon
him, set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps. Set thine heart
towards the highway, even the way which thou wentest. Turn
again, O Virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy It's a remarkable thing, isn't
it, that God not only does enormous wonders
in this world and reigns and rules over all this creation,
but he's intimately personal in his dealings with people.
And what a remarkable thing is, if you followed us last week, One of the themes that went through
the book of Jeremiah is that the people didn't ever hear,
did they? They didn't hear the warnings of Jeremiah. They closed
their ears as the people speaking with Paul in Rome did. They closed their ears of their
own volition. They were active in their unbelief.
They were active in their rebellion against God. And several times
in the book of Jeremiah And yet, he begins this word
to Ephraim. Ephraim means double ash heap. It's remarkable, isn't it? It
also might mean double fruit, but it is a picture of all of
God's children. He says over in verse 9 of this
same chapter, they shall come with weeping and with supplications. Will I lead them? They'll come
weeping and they'll come pleading. Will I lead them? I will cause
them to walk by the rivers and waters in a straight way, wherein
they shall not stumble. For I am a father to Israel,
and Ephraim is my firstborn. often is pictured as the ten
tribes of Israel and often pictured as Israel in rebellion, but here
it's a picture of God's mercy to someone who is a double ash
heap. The most useless things we have
in our house are ashes. You have to be really, it's annoying
getting them out of the fireplace at home because they just fly
everywhere and cover everything. A double ash heap. It's remarkable,
isn't it? But God hears. It's a remarkable thing, isn't
it? That God hears the cries of his people. God's people will
be caused to cry in this world and cry out to him. And what
an extraordinary mercy it is that God actually hears. God
hears. He says to his people in Exodus,
One of the reasons he goes down there, obviously the time has
been fulfilled, but God says in Exodus chapter 3, He says,
I've seen. I've seen what they're going through. I've heard their
cry. And then He says, I know their
sorrows. I know their sorrows. God is
moved. He's heard. He's heard. And He says, my heart, my What a contrast between Ephraim
and the Jews. The proud Jews in Paul's day,
in the days of the Lord Jesus Christ, boasted of their relationship
with God and they boasted of their confidence in the fact
that God must honour them because of all their religious duties
and things. The Jews in Jeremiah's day had a great confidence They
thought that they had fellowship with God. They thought that they
were safe. They thought that their being part of that chosen
race, being Abraham's children, was going to give them security.
And whenever they could see the temple standing, they felt that
they were safe there. And both in Jeremiah's day and
in the days after Paul had spoken those words, the people flocked
to Jerusalem. And what they thought was the
safest place on earth was actually the most dangerous place. Ephraim here is pictured as someone
who's in relationship with God. So there are multitudes that
say they have fellowship with God and the prophets throughout
the Old Testament, the false prophets throughout the Old Testament,
claimed that they were speaking for God, didn't they? And we
looked at it last week. Who do you believe? Do you believe
Jeremiah? You can do all sorts of things to Jeremiah. Or do
you believe these people who are dressed in these fine robes
and have all the numbers of people with them? It's a shocking thing
that the Lord speaks of the church in Sardis. He says, you have
a name. You have a name that you livest
and art dead. May God preserve us and protect
us from having a name to live. And we are but dead. May God
be merciful. and assure his people of who
they are, and part of that assurance is the situations and the work
that he does in the hearts of his people. I've surely heard
Ephraim, back to Jeremiah 31.18, I've surely heard Ephraim bemoaning
himself. So many people are boasting about
what they have done and what they can do, and they want other
people to join with them in boasting, but Ephraim was bemoaning himself.
He was mourning for himself. When you go to a funeral, you
mourn. You mourn for someone who is dead because there's nothing
you can do for them anymore. There's nothing you can do. It
is a picture of helplessness, isn't it? Ephraim saying that
all my sin is all of my fault and that there's nothing I can
do to fix the problem. He's bemoaning himself. He's
not bemoaning others. He is a picture of the fact that
the Lord Jesus Christ, our great God, lives amongst his people. I love how he describes the children
of God in Zephaniah 3.12. I'll just read it to you. He
says, I will also leave in the midst of thee, in the midst of
the professing church, an afflicted and poor people, and they shall
trust in the name of the Lord. People who are afflicted and
people who are poor have nowhere else to look than unto God. Ephraim
bemoaning himself. And he has a reason for it, hasn't
he? Because of God's hand upon him. He says, Thou hast chastised
me and I was chastised. I'm bemoaning myself because
of the hand of God upon me. Thou hast chastised me and I
was chastised. Your hand was heavy upon me.
for what I am. What a blessing for God to show
us what we are in his presence and by his presence. To be exposed
before him is to be humbled. That's what Peter said, isn't The Apostle John meets the Lord
Jesus Christ in heaven and he falls down as a dead man and
all that are humbled are raised up by the Lord. He says, I was
chastised by you and it's led me to be bemoaning myself. The
Lord is able in grace and mercy and love to
meet with these people and to cause them to see that in themselves
and of themselves they are nothing but sin. And that sin, as Paul
says, is mixed with everything they do. They don't have any
good works to boast of. They don't have any good attitudes
to commend themselves. As the psalmist says in Psalm
39.11, Daniel was one of the most remarkable
men in the Old Testament. There's nothing said contrary
to the character of Daniel. Remarkable and he was honoured
in so many remarkable ways. But when he met the Lord in Daniel
10, he says, my comeliness, my beauty turned in me into corruption. So when God meets with his people,
personally and individually, he reduces them to beggars, to
mercy beggars, on an ash heap. That's where he found Job, didn't
he? Job was reduced to that. And in Job's defense of himself,
he actually started to accuse God. And then a lie who came, What's Job's declaration? What's
his declaration of himself? One moment he's proclaiming his
righteousness and he wants to come before God and have a debate
with him. The next minute he says, I am
vile. Behold, I am vile. Ephraim's picture here is a picture
of all the children of God. But Ephraim has a hope, doesn't
he? He says, I was chastised, I was a bullock, unaccustomed
to the yoke. But then he says, turn thou me. Turn thou me, and I shall be
turned. If you do a work of grace in
my life, you have to turn me, for thou art the Lord my God. You've chastised me, and I'm
pleading with you to turn me to you. turn me. So Ephraim is saying that God
must do everything. You've got to do everything.
You can't go to God in faith, you go to God for faith. He is the source of everything.
He must do everything. He must begin everything. And
when he begins, he continues right to the end. The good work
that he's begun is the work that he's promised to carry out. I
love what that word means, turn thou me. In Psalm 23, David says,
he restoreth my soul. In Psalm 35.17 it says, rescue
my soul. Turn me, you've got to rescue
me. Psalm 51, you might well know, is David's cry, like Ephraim's
cry. He says, restore unto me, restore,
turn me, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. It needs to be converted. He
says in that same Psalm in verse 13, and sinners shall be converted
unto thee. He says, turn us again. turning all the time. We need
turning away from ourselves. We need turning away from the
world. We need turning to God. Turn us again Psalm 80. Turn
us again and cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved. It's repeated in Psalm 85 and
it means to be brought back. Brought back to God. Turn me,
bring me back to you. It means to revive What a glorious picture of someone
who cries out to the Lord. It's a picture of a sinner. It's a picture of a sinner. Turn us again. Turn me again. Turn me now. Turn me again. Turn me to you. me. Your hand is heavy upon me and
I see what I am. Isaiah says, for we have sinned
and in that there is continuance. Is that your experience? We have
sinned and in that there is continuance. Ephraim needs to be turned. He can't look within himself
for any reformation. He can't look within himself
for any assurance of his salvation. All he ever sees within himself
is ashes, isn't it? He can't look within. His salvation
is utterly dependent upon God's work and the work of grace. It's a constant theme throughout
the scriptures, isn't it? Turn thou me. You do the turning. You draw me back to yourself.
That's what the Shulamite said in the Song of Solomon. She said,
draw me after you and I'll run after you. You do the drawing,
I'll do the running. But you have to do the drawing
first. And she says at the end of that extraordinary song of
relationship, of glorious relationship between a husband and a wife,
she says, cause me to hear your voice. You cause me to hear your
voice. I know others are hearing it. You cause me to hear it. Draw
me and I'll run after you. Where did this prayer come from? Where did these prayers come
from? Have you prayed that prayer? Are there Ephraims here? See, whatever, it's a glorious truth
of the scriptures, isn't it? Whatever the Lord intends to
do for you, he'll cause you to ask him. Whatever the Lord intends
to do, he'll cause you to ask him. and you'll keep on asking. You know that refrain through
the scriptures, doesn't he? Just ask of me, seek me, look
unto me, the ends of the earth, and be ye saved. God's children
are asking children, they're pleading children. He leads them,
doesn't he? With weeping and supplications,
they're pleading to him all the time. If you're going to receive
promised blessings from God, One of the passages of scripture
that was very significant to us in our early days of this
witness that the Lord has brought to himself here was in Ezekiel
36, and I remember in discussions with people in Bible studies,
I used to love quoting this passage over and over again, and I love
the I wills. I love the I wills of the promise,
and it's the New Covenant. It's Ezekiel's rendition of the
covenant that we read in Jeremiah 31. He says, then I will sprinkle
clean water on you, verse 25, and you shall be clean. God's
doing it all. From all your filthiness and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you, and
I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within
you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep
my judgments and do them, and you shall dwell in the land that
I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will
be your God, and I will save you from all your uncleannesses.
Not just one, plural. And I will call for the corn
and will increase it and lay no famine upon you. And I will
multiply the fruit of the tree, and increase the field, that
you shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen."
Look at all the amazing promises of God. Then, verse 31, then
you shall remember your own evil ways, and your doings which were
not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight. Ephraim is
bemoaning himself for your iniquities and for your abominations. And
it's not for your sakes that I do this, saith the Lord. Be it known unto you, be ashamed
of being confounded for your own ways. He does everything
for his holy name's sake. But I want us to look at verse
37 and see that it's the same theme,
the same essence of what we saw in Jeremiah
31 verse 17. For thus saith the Lord, for
I will yet be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it
for them. Whatever God intends to do for
you, What remarkable promises. And
what happens in the hearts of God's people, I will yet for
this be inquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them. And I love how he finishes. He
says, and I will increase them with men like a flock, as a holy
flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in all her solemn feasts. So
shall the waste cities be filled with flocks, and they shall know
that I am the Lord. They've been brought to know
what they are by the very presence of God and his spirit coming
and revealing to them who he is and then in that sight they
see who they are. And then they call. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord, says Peter, whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. What a glorious
promise. See, God causes his people to ask for promised blessings. Religious people are presumptuous,
aren't they, in the presence of God. But God's people called
upon him. And look what happens in Jeremiah
31 verse 19. He says, surely that after I
was turned by God, not by anything I did, I repented. And after that, I was instructed. After that, I was given knowledge. And I smote upon my thigh. He's
bemoaning himself and now he smotes upon his thigh. Do you
ever do that? When you've behaved in such a way that you're aware
that this is nothing but folly? After that I was instructed and
I was ashamed, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach
of my youth. That is a reference to all sorts
of things we are. We are in our youth most proud
of our abilities and most inclined mean that as David said that
he was shaped in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceived
me. Sin is right we're with us all the time isn't it? Sin is
something that we are born into and only God's children ever
know what that they are. Only God's children. It's a mercy
from God to reveal these things. Note God's order. He has an order
isn't he? So after I was turned I repented. After I was done that word repentance
means a change of mind, but in the Old Testament repentance
is almost always translated as comfort. You might recall that
verse in Isaiah 40 which is the command to all God's preachers.
You comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Tell them that their
warfare is accomplished. Tell them that the battle is
over. Tell them that the victory is won. Tell them that the Lord
Jesus Christ cried out, it is finished. It is finished. After I was turned, I repented. After I was turned, after you've
been turned to the Lord Jesus Christ, that's when you're comforted. There's no comfort outside of
the Lord Jesus Christ in this world. What glorious comfort
there is in the person in the character of our great God. He's
merciful and gracious. His love is an infinite everlasting
love. This chapter has that remarkable
verse in it that we read often, isn't it? He says, The Lord hath
appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved you with an
everlasting love. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. That means that there is a love
of God for His It never had a beginning. The
source of that love is in himself. We love him. Why? Because he
first loved us. And his everlasting love is an
efficacious love. It's a powerful love, isn't it?
It's stronger than death. He says, I've loved thee with
an everlasting love. Therefore, as a result of his
everlasting love, with loving kindness, have I drawn thee. When we're turned by As I noted last week I think,
that word double means to be covered over, to be folded in
half. Imagine all of your sins laid
out clearly before you and more clearly before the Lord and it's
folded over and they're gone. They're gone. By the justice
and holiness of God when he poured out his wrath on his sons. to your heart. See, it's only
comfort for an Ephraim, isn't it? The great comfort of the
Ephraims of this world is that salvation is in the Lord and
it's complete and it's done 100% by Him and there's nothing left
for us to do. That's what worship is, isn't
it? You don't do stuff in worship. Worship is to gaze upon Him while
He does all the work. That's what Jehoshaphat did.
He led those people out in worship and they worshipped the beauties
of holiness. They weren't to go out and do battle. They were
out to go out and watch the Lord doing battle. Ephraim is turned
to Christ. It is finished. Iniquity pardoned. God's Ephraims are aware. present with them all the time.
That was Paul's testimony, wasn't it? Whenever I wish to do good,
sin is right there with me. But all of the sins of all of
the Ephraims of this world is all pardoned sin. It's forgiven
sin. It's forgotten sin. It's blotted
out sin. It's cast behind God's back.
It all comes from the Lord's hand. Comfort. After I was turned, I was trumpeted. It's comfort. Comfort for the
children of God. After I was turned, after I was
repented, after I had knowledge, he smote upon his thigh all the
sin. All of his sin is all of his
own fault, and he's got no one else to blame. But it leads to
a cry for mercy, doesn't it? I was ashamed. because I was
guilty, I was confounded, and because I was humiliated. And
you have been gracious and merciful. I smote upon my thigh, I was
ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach
of my youth. And what does God, how does God
respond? When he does this work, when
he does this work of chastising, when he does this work of exposing
sins, God's response is, in verse 20, just read it with me, is
Ephraim my dear son? See, he's lost none of the wonder
of relationship with God by the exposing of what he really is.
Is Ephraim my dear son? Is Ephraim my beloved son? Is
Ephraim, is he a pleasant child? Is he a delightful child? For
since I spoke against him, I do earnestly remember him still. He remembers you still, brothers
and sisters. I love quoting that Description
of our Lord Jesus Christ, he's touched with the feelings of
our infirmities. He's moved, isn't it? God says
he's moved. He says, therefore my bowels
are troubled. His heart is moved, his heart yearns for him. And he says, surely I will have
mercy upon me. See, he's not unknowing. He's
not lacking in empathy, and he's not lacking in sympathy, and
he's not lacking in understanding of all of our circumstances.
He's caused the pain. He's brought the wound. He wounds
that he might heal. He breaks that he might mend.
He kills that he might make alive. He's a dear son. He's a dear
son. And he's a pleasant child. And the response is you set up
waymarkers. You set up markers, don't you?
You lay down Ebenezer's saying thus far, the Lord has been faithful
to me. You make high heaps, you make
a way, you think of the city of refuge where if you'd been
guilty of manslaughter you could run to the city of refuge and
at every junction on the road there was a sign saying this
way to the refuge and as soon as you got to the city of refuge
you had a place prepared for you and you had safety from the
avenger of blood. You set up way marks, you make
high heaps, you mark the way. You set thine heart towards the
highway, even the way which thou wentest. Turn again, turn again,
O Virgin of Israel, again to these thy cities. Turn again. Have you been backsliding? Verse
22, how long wilt thou go about, thou backsliding daughter? For the Lord created a new thing
in the earth. You return. What are you going
to return to? You're going to return to the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's a picture, isn't it? That's
one of the glorious pictures in the Old Testament of the virgin
birth of the Lord Jesus Christ when he entered Mary's womb. A woman shall compass a man. How long will you go about? What's
the great hope of Israel? That God has made this eternal
covenant. The covenant is in His Son. And all that God looks to from
any of us, His children, His Ephraims. He can't find in Ephraim.
He can't find it. And Ephraim can't find it himself.
Everything that God requires, He finds in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And He's satisfied. He says, I'm well pleased with
Him. and if he's well pleased with him, he's well pleased with
all of us who are in him. I do love quoting Colossians. I love being reminded that the
Lord led us into this book all those years ago. He says in verse
21, And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, hath he now reconciled in the body of
his flesh through death to present you. This is the work of that
one, that new thing that Jeremiah was talking of, that new thing
that is the cause of great hope, the new thing that is the cause
of great turning is the Lord Jesus Christ. He has reconciled
in the body of his death to present you. This is the work of this
glorious husband of all of the Ephraims of this world. unblameable and unapprovable
in his sight. The new covenant is a covenant
in his blood. It's the covenant in the blood
of the great shepherd. He says, and if you continue
in the faith grounded and settled and not moved away from the hope
of the gospel, which you have heard, which was preached to
every creature, which is under heaven whereof I, Paul, am now
made a minister. What comfort! Turn over to Colossians
chapter 2 verse 6. See, as you receive him, how
did you receive him? You receive him as an Ephraim.
You receive him turned by him to know what you are and to know
his comfort and to know his presence and to know his promises. He
says, as you have therefore received him, you receive him as a sinner.
You receive him as nothing but a sinner. You receive him as
a beggar, a beggar pleading for mercy. You receive him as an
Ephraim smoting upon his thigh and bemoaning himself. As you
receive him, so walk ye in him. As you begin, so do you keep
on walking. why? The glorious covenant of
our God knows no improvement because it's always perfect.
It's always perfect. He says in verse 10 of Colossians
chapter 2, and you are right now complete in him. You are complete in him. in the previous verses, in the
Lord Jesus Christ, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him. Nothing but
a sinner, and nothing but perfectly complete. As he is, Norm's favourite
verse, as he is, so are we in this world. That's complete. Is he holy?
Is he perfectly acceptable before his father? Does he have any sin? Turn me. to God, turn me. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Paul persuaded those men. He
persuaded them to believe. He laid out the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ in all of the scriptures before them and in
all of the beauty of his incarnation and he persuaded them. We don't
offer the gospel to everyone. but it's our great delight to
present our God in both who he is and in both what he does in
the hearts of his people. And they cry, turn me, turn me,
turn me, turn me, restore me, revive me, turn me back to you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we thank you for your promise that we cry, turn us. and we
will be turned by you. We cry, draw us to yourself,
and you will draw us. You have promised to come and
be the comforter of your bemoaning people, our Father. We thank
you that our Lord Jesus Christ is touched with the feelings
of our infirmities. And because of that, we have
boldness to come to the throne of grace and to seek mercy in
time of need. Make us needy, our Father. Make
us needy of your dear Son and his righteousness. Make us needy
of your holiness. Make us needy of our sins being
put away and buried and washed clean in the blood of your dear
and precious Son. Bless your words to the hearts
of your people, Heavenly Father, and cause us to know who our
Saviour is, and cause us to know trials we go through in this
world are ordained by him that we might remain mercy beggars
and that we might be beggars who have found bread and seek
to show that bread that we might feast with others on the manna
from heaven. Bless your words to the hearts
of your people, our Father. Show us the Lord Jesus Christ.
Reveal him. Reveal him in his glory. that
we might know that we are found in him. And Christ in us is our
only hope of glory. For we pray in Jesus' name, heavenly
Father, in his glory. Amen.