Alright, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Jeremiah 32. Jeremiah 32. We're going to be
in the first 15 verses here. We'll just start at verse 1 and
go a little bit and come in as we go. Jeremiah 32, verse 1. The word that came to Jeremiah
from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, which
was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. These are two opposing kings
here. King of Judah, he was supposed to be God's king, and then you
had Nebuchadnezzar. And it says, for then the king
of Babylon, that's Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon's army besieged
Jerusalem. The king of Babylon's army had
Jerusalem completely surrounded. They had them shut up, they had
them confined. Every person in that city, every
person inside that city and in that land was surrounded on all
sides by the king of Babylon. They were starved, they were
plagued with pestilence, and they were about to feel the sword.
And verse 2 says, And Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the
court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah's house. Jeremiah is a prophet of the
Lord. He's not in a Babylonian prison. He's in prison in the
court of the prison in the king of Judah's house. Reckon how
he got there. Think it might have had anything
to do with the rejection of the Word of the Lord? Let's see. Verse 3. 4 Here's why. Zedekiah king of Judah had shut
him up, saying, Wherefore dost thou prophesy and say, Thus saith
the Lord? Now here was what he was offended
about. This is what the Lord said to him, Behold, I will give
this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall
take it. And Zedekiah, king of Judah,
shall not escape out of the land of the Chaldeans, but he shall
surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.
and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall
behold his eyes. And he shall lead Zedekiah to
Babylon, and there he shall be until I visit him, saith the
Lord. Though you fight with the Chaldeans,
you shall not prosper. The king Zedekiah, he sees this
preacher walk in there. to wherever he was at in his
palace. And he goes in there and he starts
telling him this word of the Lord, saying, Thus saith the
word of the Lord. All Zedekiah heard was a man
who was preaching against his country, a man who was preaching
against his countrymen, a man who was preaching against his
king. That's what most men hear when
they hear the gospel preached. That's what they hear. And they
respond just about like Zedekiah responded. He shut up Zedekiah
saying, how dare you preach something like that to me, telling me that's
the word of the Lord. How dare you? They won't shut
me up in prison today. Not yet. Probably not too far
off, but not yet. But they'll just leave and come
in now and then and do whatever they can to shut their ears,
not to hear. Let's read on now. Then God commanded Jeremiah to
do a very, very odd thing. Look at verse 6. And Jeremiah
said, The word of the Lord came unto me. The word of the Lord
came unto me, saying, Behold, Hanumel, The son of Sholom, thine
uncle, shall come unto thee, saying, Buy thee my field, that
is in Anato, for the right of redemption, that's the title,
the right of redemption, is thine to buy it. So Hadomel, mine uncle's
son, came to me in the court of the prison according to the
word of the Lord. and said unto me, Buy my field,
I pray thee, that is in Anato, which is in the country of Benjamin.
For the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption
is thine. Buy it for thyself. And then
I knew that this was the word of the Lord. Now you get this. Get this picture now. The land
is surrounded. completely surrounded by the
enemy. The king of Babylon's army has this whole city and
this whole land and everybody in it besieged. And God said,
in no uncertain terms, God said, I will deliver it into the hands
of Babylon. And then he turns around and
he says, now Jeremiah, you go into this besieged country and
you buy you a piece of land. You go into that country, you
buy a piece of land. That sound foolish? That sound
foolish? That sound like a foolish thing
to do? To part with valuable silver,
probably everything he had to his name, to part with this world,
to part with everything this world calls valuable and precious,
to buy something that's worthless? to buy something that the enemy
has conquered, to buy something, invest in something that you'll
never set foot on, you'll never see it in your lifetime. That
is utter foolishness. Well, that's exactly what God
calls on you to do every time you hear the Gospel. He calls,
in this general call, it's going forth, God calls and says, Look
to that cross and believe on that one right there who in your
mind's eye was condemned and conquered by the enemy and died. Believe on Him. Invest your all
in Him. Part with this world. Invest
everything in Him. Sight unseen, just like Jeremiah. He couldn't get out of that prison
and go look at that land. You can't look at Christ either.
He said, buy it, sight unseen, sight unseen. God says, he that
hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and
milk without money and without price. He says, buy the truth
and sell it not. Now, is that foolishness to you?
Is that foolishness to you? The natural man hears the Word
of God like Zedekiah heard it. He hears it and he says, how
dare you declare that I'm ruined in sin? How dare you declare
that I've been taken captive by the king of Babylon? How dare
you preach such a thing to me? How dare you say that I won't
prosper by my fighting? And so he shuts him up and says,
I'm not hearing that anymore. He hears Christ was born of a
virgin. And He's holy. Separate from sinners. Unlike
any other man that ever walked this earth. The God-man. He hears that. He says, that
just sounds foolish to me. That sounds absurd to me. Just
utter absurd. He hears all this message about
him being the God-man, but all he sees is a poor carpenter's
son, just a mere man. Just a mere man who was despised
and rejected of men. And he says, you expect me to
believe on him? That's foolishness. He looks
to Calvary, looks there at Calvary, and all he sees is a land given
over to the king of Babylon's army, besieged and conquered,
nailed to a bloody cross. And he looks there at all that
and he says, you want me to believe on him? That's nonsense. He looks there and he sees that
lifeless body laid in a tomb. He says, I have never ever seen
another man rise from the dead. You expect me to believe he was
raised again for our justification? That's foolishness. Paul said
in 1 Corinthians 1.18, the preaching of the cross is to them that
are perishing foolishness. It's foolishness. They look at
it, everything we're preaching, and they think, that makes about
as much sense as a man going over into a war-torn country
that he can't even step foot in, and buying a piece of land. What good is that? What good
is that? But, that same scripture says
unto us, which are being saved, It is the power of God. This same word, this foolishness
to one man is the power of God to another. You see, Zedekiah
rejected it. Zedekiah said, I'm not going
to have you say that I'm captive. I'm not listening to that. Jeremiah
hears the word, telling him, you go buy a piece of land, buy
a piece of property in this condemned land, and he obeyed. He saw something
Zedekiah didn't see. He heard something Zedekiah didn't
hear. What did he hear? Look down at
verse 15. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this
land. Now, what's all this mean? What's God doing here telling
Jeremiah to go buy that piece of property? Well, God did this
a lot of times with His prophets, and He did it with Jeremiah. God would give them something
like this to do to draw a picture, to paint a picture, to show us
what He was doing. And when you go on and read past
verse 15, the rest of the chapter and the next chapter declares
to you exactly what He's showing in the picture. I'm just going
to try to hit the highlights of it today and show you what
He's declaring here in the picture. It's to show the redemption that
Christ accomplished by His offering at Calvary whereby all His people
are saved from our sin. That's what it's to picture.
Now, first thing we see here We see that Christ is wisdom
to us who believe. Here's why. Because it was in
Christ that God eternally purposed to save all His elect. It was in Christ that He eternally
purposed to do it. Look here now at verse 6. And
Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Behold,
Hanumel the son of Shalom, thine uncle, shall come unto thee. It shall come unto thee, saying,
Buy thee my field that is in Anatoth, for the right of redemption
is thine to buy." Notice, God told Jeremiah what was going
to happen before it ever happened. He told him what God had purposed
before it ever came to pass. You see, He said, Behold, Hanamel
shall come unto thee. He's telling him the end from
the beginning. And that's in Christ. God declared the end
from the beginning, and from ancient times, from before the
foundation of the world, the things that are not yet done,
saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.
That's what God did. Don't you like that? I like a
God who can tell you ahead of time, this is how I'm going to
do it, right here. And then do it, just like He
said He's going to do it. That's a sovereign God. That's
a powerful God right there. He don't have to be carried around
by a man. That's a powerful God. All right,
before it came to pass, before it ever even came to pass, God
chose Jeremiah to be the Redeemer. He chose Jeremiah to be the Redeemer.
Well, in eternity, that's what He's showing. In eternity, God
chose Christ, His Son, to be the Redeemer. And then before
it came to pass, God chose the object to be redeemed. He said,
a field in Anatole. This is before it even came to
pass. That's exactly what God did before the foundation of
the world. He chose the objects of His redemption. He chose His
people. You see, this redemption was
for Jeremiah's kinfolks. It was for Jeremiah's kinfolks.
You see, that land in Anatole, that's the land of Benjamin.
That's one of those cities that God chose to give to his chosen
priests and said, this is your inheritance. This is yours. And
so that's what God did for his people. He chose his people in
Christ. He makes his priests in Christ. And he says, now,
the land that I'm going to give you, that's your inheritance. And you're my inheritance. That's
what he tells his people. And the redemption, so then,
here they're coming to him and they're saying, look, the enemy's
coming in and he's fixing to take the priests off the land.
This was for Jeremiah's kinfolks. It was for his kinfolks, because
the whole point of him giving this land was so that it would
stay in the hands of the rightful one whose inheritance it was.
It would never pass from anybody else's hands. But when this enemy
came in, it's fixing to pass from their hands into somebody
else's hands. So he comes to Jeremiah, and he says, you redeemed
this property. The right of redemption is in
your hands. Well, God chose his people from
eternity. Chose us in Christ. And he said
to Christ, the right of redemption is yours. You're a near kinsman.
You've got the right of redemption. You know what Hannah Mill means?
All these words, when you come across a name, take out a strong
concordance and look it up and say, what does this name mean?
Hannah Mill means God is gracious. That's what it means. God is
gracious. God graciously yields. That's what His name means. In
eternity, God blessed His people with all spiritual blessings
in Christ to the praise of the glory of His grace. He did it
all to the praise of the glory of His grace. Now look at this.
That word Sholom, that name Sholom, it means retribution. Retribution. Punishment for sin. Now look,
Hanumel, Grace, and the son of Sholom, take these two names
here, He says, they shall come unto thee. Here you've got grace
and you've got justice. And who are they coming together
in? They're coming together in the Redeemer. That's who they're
coming together in. From eternity, God's purpose,
grace and truth are going to come together. They're going
to meet together in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to be
gracious to His people and at the same time He's going to be
just, satisfy His law and justify it. He's determined it from eternity. Then God our Father foreordained
for Christ to be the Redeemer and He gave Him the right of
redemption then. He said here to Jeremiah, Thine
is the right of redemption. God declared it. That's why Christ
in Him crucified is wisdom and power, the wisdom and power of
God to believers. Because we see our God who ordered
salvation, made it sure from the very beginning He didn't
have a thing in the world to do with us except for us just
getting saved. That's all. By him. So that means
he's not going to drop us. He's not going to change it.
He said, I've determined it. Who's going to dis-annul it?
Alright? Here's the second thing. Now,
is that foolishness to anybody here? Is that foolishness? Do you want a God that can't
do anything but what a man lets Him do? What kind of God do you
want? If that's foolishness to you,
for a God that can determine the end from the beginning, then
what kind of God do you want? Alright, secondly. Christ crucified. It's a power and wisdom of God
to us who believe because Christ lawfully redeemed us. He came
here and lawfully redeemed His people. All right, look at verse
8. So Hannah Meal, grace came to
me. Grace came to me in the court
of the prison. In the court of the prison. When
Jeremiah was brought into the lower part of the earth, prison's
not exactly the place that you want to call home and say, hey
mama, guess where I'm at? That's sort of the lower part
of the earth, isn't it? Grace came to him while he was in the
lower part of the earth. Where'd Christ come to? The lower
part of the earth. And what'd grace say to him?
Came to him according to the word of the Lord, just like God
purposed from eternity, and he said unto me, by my field. That's what grace said to him,
buy my field. I pray thee, that is in Anatoth,
which is in the country of Benjamin, for the right of inheritance
is thine. The right of inheritance is thine. And the redemption is thine.
The right of redemption is thine. Buy it for thyself. And then
I knew, this was the word of the Lord. I read things on that,
every man saying different things and just couldn't figure out
how could Jeremiah have the Word of the Lord tell him this and
then get to this point and say, then I knew this was the Word
of the Lord. Well, it's a picture. It's a picture. Just like when
he said go down to the potter's house and watch him do a work
on the wheels. That was a picture. When he said take a vessel and
put it in a glass bottle and then go break the bottle. That
was a picture. He was showing What he was going to do? I'm
going to shatter him. Well, that's what he's showing
here. When Christ came into this world, he came into this world
as the servant of God. He came into this world trusting
God, looking to God, waiting on grace to come to him and tell
him what it was to do and tell him where to go, just like a
believer does, because he was serving God. He had all power
over heaven and earth. He's God, but he came here as
the servant of God. And when God spoke to him, then
he knew. Then he knew. Look here now. And I bought the field of Hannamel.
I bought the field of grace that was in Anatoth, and I weighed
him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver. Christ is
our near kinsman. He's our near kinsman. The right
of inheritance, the right of redemption, belongs to him. This is what God said in the
law. It's in Leviticus 25, 25. Leviticus 25, 25. God said this. If thy brother, if thy brother
be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession,
and if any of his kin come to redeem it, the possession he
sold away, and his near kin come and say, I want to redeem that,
then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. All God's elect,
all Christ's brethren, all his family. Jeremiah's going to Anatole,
or not going there, but he's going to redeem it because that's
his brethren, that's his kinfolk. Jeremiah's from the tribe of
Benjamin. That's his family. That's his tribe. He's going
to redeem it. Well, Christ came and he's going
to redeem his brethren. He's going to redeem his family.
Why? Because we wax poor. We sold
our possession. What possession did we sell?
Look back at Isaiah 52. Just to your left a few pages.
Isaiah 52 and look at verse 3. Thus saith the Lord, you have
sold yourselves. You've sold yourselves. That's
being in debt. That's waxing poor when you sell
yourself to be a servant. to be a servant. And you did
it for nothing. You did it for nothing. You got
duped. The devil beguiled you and tricked
you. You didn't get anything. You
just sold yourself into servitude for nothing. And you shall be
redeemed without money. You shall be redeemed without
money. The right of redemption means this. Christ had the right
to redeem that which is brethren's soul. Our whole person. Our whole person. Our whole person. Scripture says, you are not your
own. You are bought with a price.
The whole person bought with a price. Now the purpose of redemption
is so that the inheritance, like I said, so it will remain in
the family. So it will stay in the family
to which it belongs. Listen to Deuteronomy 32, 9.
Listen to this. The Lord's portion His inheritance
is His people. That's His inheritance. You see,
that was the purpose of redemption, is so that the inheritance won't
be lost. The inheritance would go to the
rightful heir. And the Lord says, My inheritance
is My people. And Jacob's the lot of My inheritance,
He said. Well, here they are. They've
sold themselves. They've sold themselves. And
Christ is not going to have that. They're His inheritance. He's
going to redeem them. He's going to get them back.
He's going to have them because they're His. Redemption is to
keep all God's elect in the family. It's to keep all God's house
together. To keep us out of the hands of
the law. To keep us out of the hands of Satan. To keep us out
of the hands of sin. To keep us out of the hands of
the world. To keep us out of the hands of death. That's the
purpose of redemption. So God said to His Son, what
He said right here in this text, you go buy, go buy it for thyself. It's your inheritance, you go
buy it for yourself. You got the right of redemption,
and it's your inheritance, go buy it for yourself. God's own
grace and justice. Hannah Mill, the son of Shalom,
God's grace and justice said, go buy it for yourself. Christ's
own love for his brethren said, go buy it for yourself. Go buy
it for yourself. Remember Christ's parable? Turn
to Matthew 13, 44. Matthew 13, 44. Again, the kingdom of heaven
is likened to treasure hid in a field. The witch, when a man
hath found it, he hideth, and for joy thereof. He goes and
he sells all that he has, and he buys that field. He buys that
field. Christ near Ken are the treasure
hidden in that field. You see, He's redeeming Anatole,
but the ones He's really redeeming, in the picture here, is the priests
in Anatole. That's who He's redeeming, the
people in Anatole. Christ's near kin are the treasure
hid in the field, His people, and for the joy that's set before
Him. What joy is that? Coming to the Father and saying,
Behold, I and the children you've given to Me, here they all are,
and to spend eternity with them in His house, that He might be
the firstborn among many brethren. This is the joy set before Him. And for the joy set before Him,
what did He do? He sold all that he had and he
bought the field. For the joy set before him, he
endured the cross, despising the shame. What's this field? This field is the church of God. This field is the church, His
church. And every individual elect child
in that church is the treasure hidden in that field. His inheritance,
His people. Now, look here back in our text,
Jeremiah 32. Christ not only had the right
to buy it, He had the ability to redeem us. Look at Jeremiah
32, 9. And I bought the field of Hannah
Mill, my uncle's son that was in Anatoth. I weighed him the
money, even seventeen shekels of silver. I bought the field,
He said. I bought the field. You know
what it required? In order for Christ to buy His
people, to redeem His people, you know what was required? He had to be perfectly holy.
He had to be perfectly holy without sin, being that last Adam, made
flesh just like His people. And He had to be eternal God.
Eternal God. Christ had the right of redemption
and Christ was able to redeem. He met all the qualifications
so He could redeem. But the debt we owed was far
greater than these 17 shekels of silver. Far greater than that. Far more expensive than a corrupt
thing like what silver could redeem. Far more valuable. We owed eternal debt. Eternal death to satisfy eternal
justice. That's what we owe. That's what
we owe. The man who's outside of Christ,
you want to be accepted of God in the Day of Judgment, all you
got to do is satisfy eternal justice by giving it eternal
death. That's all you got to do. You come right on in the
Kingdom of God. He paid the full exact price. He paid everything that was owed.
His precious blood. He laid down His life for His
brethren. Let's look at some scripture. 1 Peter 1.18. I read this one
to you Thursday night. Let's do it again. 1 Peter 1.18. They grew up telling those children,
telling them all about how God brought them out of Babylon.
Because he sent Jeremiah over there to Anatoph, paid 17 shekels
of silver, and God brought us out of Babylon. The kids grew
up thinking that was the gospel. Because it was something a man
did, just a common man did it. So they just gave all their shekels
and everything else. Hey, they tell them the story
about how, oh, if we were going to be first born, had to be redeemed
and the shekel of the sanctuary had to be paid. And we built
the foundation of the tabernacle from the shekel of the sanctuary.
Redemption was covered that whole foundation with redemption money.
So they just gave and gave and gave all the shekels they could,
trying to redeem themselves all the way to God, never seeing
that that redemption was a picture of the redemption, the foundation
of Christ we stand on, complete. Well, look right here. It says,
verse 18, For as much as you know, you were not redeemed with
corruptible things like silver and gold from your vain The conversation
that was handed down to you by the tradition of your fathers?
Here's what that pictured, the precious blood of Christ, as
of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Look over at Galatians
3.13. Galatians 3.13. I tell you, these
things, when the Lord starts showing these things to me the
first time, And I'll tell you, they just thrill my heart as
much right now as they do the first time. I mean, I just started
seeing this and thinking, this is absolutely wonderful. Look
here, Galatians 3, 13. Christ hath redeemed us. What did He redeem us from? From
the curse of the law. How did He do it? Being made
a curse for us. Being made a curse for us. For
it's written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. See,
here's what God's showing us by this picture. This is the
good news of the gospel. This is why Christ is the power
and wisdom of God to every true child of God. Look at Isaiah
44, 22. Here's the good news. This is
what He's showing us. Isaiah 44, 22. I have blotted out. I've blotted
out. Let me show you a picture of
what blotted out is. You ever take one of them big
ole mops, you know, that you use to put down in barbecue sauce
and mop your chicken with it or mop your ribs with it on the
grill? It just blots a big old bunch
on there, you know. He's saying here, I blotted it
out. I blotted it out. What's he blotted
out? As a thick cloud. Look at a cloud
in the sky, you can't see the sun, you can't see. I blotted
it out as a thick cloud, thy transgressions. And as a cloud,
thy sins. Return unto me, he said, for
I have redeemed thee. That's what he said. Look here,
verse 23. Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord
hath done it. Shout, ye lower parts of the
earth. Break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forests, and
every tree therein. All his people in all these different
places. He gonna make them start singing
and break forth into singing. Why? Because the Lord has redeemed
Jacob and he's glorified himself in Israel when he did it. That's
why. I love the story Brother Henry
used to tell. I just love this story about
the old preacher and the field birds. You ever heard that? There
was this old preacher walking along one day and there was this
little boy coming along and he had a cage and had two little
old field birds in that cage. Just old worthless field birds.
And the preacher just happened to catch a glimpse of those field
birds when he walked by and he said, How'd you get those field
birds? He said, I trapped them. And
he said, well, what you gonna do with them? He said, I'm gonna
play with them. I said, what you gonna do with them after
that? He said, nah, I think about feeding them to the cat. And
the preacher said, how much you want for those field birds? He
said, you don't want these field birds, preacher. They can't tweet,
they can't do nothing, they can't sing, they ain't worth nothing.
You don't want these field birds. He said, no, I want them. How
much do you, how much do you want for them? What's the price?
And the little boy said, it's going to cost you $5. He said,
I'm paying it. I'm paying it. I want it. I want them. And the little boy
said, here, you can have the cage and all. He sold him the
cage and all, $5. And the little boy walked off
down the sidewalk, and the preacher went off the other direction.
And every now and then, the little boy looked back at that preacher,
thinking, what in the world is he going to do with those field
pairs? That foolish preacher paid that money just to buy some
worthless field birds that ain't worth nothing. Why did he do
that? And he stopped them, and he saw that preacher doing something,
he stopped, and that preacher opened up the cage. And those little field birds
saw that door open, and they took off through that door. and they went to flying up into
the sky. For the first time ever, the
field birds were singing, redeem, redeem. That's our song. Redeemed how I love to proclaim
it, redeemed by the blood of the lamb, redeemed through his
infinite mercy, his child and forever I am. His child and forever
I am. That's the last thing I want
to show you. Forever His child. This is why the preaching of
Christ crucified is the power and wisdom of God. Is this foolishness
to you? These things I'm telling you
foolish. I wouldn't want to stand in front
of a father on this earth who loved his son dearly, and I called
his son a fool. I wouldn't want to stand before
that man. I sure wouldn't want to stand before God the Father
calling his son a fool. All right, let's look. This is
why he's the power and wisdom of God to the believer because
his work cannot be undone. It cannot be undone. The payment
and the transfer of this ownership here when Jeremiah went and bought
this land, the ownership of every child in that land, The ownership
of it switched over to Jeremiah. And God said, now you make sure
you do this in a way so that it's unchangeably witnessed. It's written, it's witnessed,
it's unchangeable, it can't change. And this is picturing what Christ
did for us. It's unchangeable, it cannot
change. Look here, Jeremiah 32, 10. I subscribed the evidence. That means he took a book and
wrote down every condition in it of this purchase. He wrote
down the price. He wrote down what was paid.
He wrote down all the facts and who was redeemed and everything
about it, what was redeemed. He wrote it down in a book, subscribed
it in a book and sealed it. I sealed it and I took witnesses. And I weighed him the money in
the balances, right there in front of the witnesses. The picture
is of this purchase being witnessed and registered and in a book
and sealed. And this is the sealed book.
This is the sealed book, subscribed. It was actually written by the
witnesses. So you had the witnesses who
saw it, but they're the ones who wrote the book and wrote
all the, subscribed everything about the evidences in the book.
This is a sealed book. You can't see this book. You
can't look into this book. It's sealed. Our triune God,
our triune God wrote the names of every child of God in a book
that's called the Lamb's Book of Life. and the book. It's called the book of life
of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It's called the
book of the living where his where the his people's names
are written with the righteous. That's where they are. God, our
triune God, who witnessed the transaction, who witnessed it,
wrote this in the book, everything about it. Listen to this, Revelation
20, 12. It says, I saw the dead, small
and great, stand before God. And the books were opened, plural,
the books were opened. And it says, and another book
was opened. There's only one that had the
right to open that book, break that seal and open that book.
And that book was opened, it said, it says, which is the book
of life. It's this book we're talking
about, the book of life. Now the dead, those that came
before Him spiritually dead, never believing on Christ, they
were judged out of those things that were written in the books.
ever thought they ever thought that was sinful, every deed they
ever did that was sinful, everything about them that was sinful. Things
they didn't even know was sinful. He's in the books. And there's
all these witnesses against them. And it says, according to their
works, according to everything, that's how they wanted to be
judged, that's how they're going to be judged, according to their
works. And he says, and whosoever was not found written in the
book of life, was cast into the lake of fire, That means they
wasn't one of those written in that book of life cast into the
lake of fire. Not one of them. Not one of them. That's what
God's showing us. He says, I brought them out of
there and I put them in their own land and they didn't obey
me. They went to sinning against me and He said, I'm sinning and
babbling in there. They're going to take them down there to the
land of babbling and captivity and they're going to keep sinning
against me down there. He said, that ain't going to change the
fact I'm bringing them back. I'm bringing them back because
this thing's been written in a book. It's been written in
a book. He's using a whole nation to
show what he does for all his elect people. All right, look
here now. There's another book that the witnesses wrote. It's
an open book, an open book. It's open for all to read. And
it tells all about this transaction being complete. You see it there,
look there in the text. He says, and I subscribed the
evidence and sealed it and took witnesses and weighed them in
the money and the balances. And look down at verse 11. I
took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according
to the law and custom, and that which was open. See, there's
two different books. One's sealed, one's open. In
this open book, it was all written in this open book too. Christ
is being witnessed in the open book. Who's he being witnessed
by in the open book? Now the righteousness of God
is manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
Here's the open book right here. The open book's right here. You
can open this book and read it. Have you opened and read it?
You think that's foolish. This is the open book. Everything's
written right here about that transaction and how it's finished,
finalized, and all the witnesses right here bearing witness to
it. All right, now look, to make this purchase even more unchangeably
secure, it's sealed somewhere else. It's not just sealed in
this book, it's sealed somewhere else. Look here, verse 11. I
took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according
to the law and custom, and that which was open. I took both these
books, and I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch.
His name means blessed. The son of Neriah, that means
the lamp of the Lord. The son of Messiah, that means
the work of the Lord. And it says, in the sight of
Hanumel, God's grace, my uncle's son, and in the presence of all
the witnesses that subscribe the book of the purchase, before
the triune God, before the prophets in heaven, all those witnesses
that wrote the book that's sealed and the book that's open, God
and all his prophets that he used to write the book. And he
says this, and before all the Jews that sat in the court of
the prison, what's a believer? Paul said in Romans 2, he's a
true Jew, which is one that's born of God. It's been circumcised
in the heart, not in the letter. That's a true Jew. And where
are we right now? Well, we're in this body of death
right now. That's sort of like a court of the prison, isn't
it? And it's done, this thing was done, wherever he's going
to seal this book, he's doing it in front of these folks, too.
Before all our brethren, true Jews, according to Romans 2.
And I charge Baruch before them, saying, Thus saith the Lord of
hosts, the God of Israel. Take these evidences. He's charging
that blessed one. that one who's the lamp of God,
that one who's the work of God. He's charging him, now you take
these evidences, both the one that's sealed and the one that's
written in the book, they're both the same message. He says,
you take these, both which is sealed and the evidence which
is open and put them in an earthen vessel that they may continue
many days. And so here we are today, we're
opening the book that can be opened, and we're hearing the
witnesses declare this truth about this purchase, that Christ
really did accomplish it. He accomplished redemption. And
by God's grace, now and then, the blessed lamp shines. And
by the work of the Lord, the evidence of the purchase is put
into an earthen vessel, sealed in an earthen vessel. Like Paul
said, God commanded the light to shine out of darkness. He
commanded the lamp to shine. Spirit of God, and He shined
in our hearts, and He gave us the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God. This redemptive work I'm telling
you about, that's the glory of God. That's God's glory. He's showing us the light of
the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. And He says,
but we have this treasure in earthen vessels. in these bodies
of death, these old clay pots that we're living in. That's
where we got the treasure, that the power may be of God and not
of us. If there's an earthen vessel here today, listen to
me carefully, if there's an earthen vessel here today and you're
hearing this message for the first time, you're hearing the
record of our Redeemer for the first time, and you're hearing
about this finished work of redemption, And He's put this record, this
seal, these two books, and He's put them in your heart for the
first time. Here's what God calls on you to do. He says, part with
everything you've got and go by the field. Go by the field. The right of the inheritance,
the right of redemption which Christ accomplished is for those
who believe on Him. It's for those who believe on
Him. I want you to think about this for a minute. Do you remember
how the right of inheritance, how the right of redemption passes
to a man? Do you know how that happens?
If his kinsman before him waxed poor, and he himself is enriched so that he can part with this
world's possessions, lay hold of that inheritance and buy it.
And then he can buy it. He's got the right of redemption.
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the kinsman
that came before. Though he was rich, yet for your
sakes he became poor, that through his poverty you might be made
rich. I put an article in the Bulletin. I talked to Don about
this a couple of days ago. And he said, I don't know about
that. And I said, I think, I think
I'm on to something here. And he went and looked and he
found he said, Oh, he sent it to me just came on the next day. He said, I've never heard a man
use the word right of redemption. And he said, Robert Hawker, Robert
Hawker, I put it in the bulletin today, the right of redemption.
He said, beyond all doubt, the poorest believer is equally interested
in all the blessings of Christ in right of redemption. in right
of redemption. God calls his child and he says,
now you look at that land, just like Jeremiah is looking at that
land. You look at that land that you once looked at and thought,
it's besieged, it's conquered. That thing, that's foolish to
buy that thing. He says, you look at that same land now. And
he says, for the joy of the treasure that's in that field, you part
with your silver and gold and you buy that field. You buy that
field without money, without price, sight unseen, by faith
alone. You believe on Christ, and you
confess Him publicly, just like Christ did when He redeemed us,
just like God told Jeremiah here to do. You make sure this thing's
done publicly. He says, now you believe on Him,
you purchase the field, and you confess Him publicly. He said
in Isaiah 48, 20, Go ye forth of Babylon. That's what he's
saying. Get out of Babylon! Flee ye from the Chaldeans with
the voice of singing. Declare ye, and tell this, do
it publicly, utter it even to the end of the earth, and say
ye, The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob. David, what are
you dancing for? The Lord redeemed me. That's
why I'm dancing. Phil Burns, why are you singing?
The Lord redeemed us. That's why we're singing. Sinner,
why are you singing? The Lord redeemed me. That's
why I'm singing. But He doesn't redeem you and
say, stay in Babylon. He redeemed you and says, come
out of Babylon. You go to Anato. Why? Why go to Anato? Jeremiah 32,
15. Look there. For thus saith the
Lord of hosts, the God of Israel houses the eternal dwelling places,
and fields where you find bread, and vineyards where we get the
wine of rejoicing, all of them picturing Christ, they're going
to be possessed again. Where? In this land. In this land. And Christ is going
to see to it that your inheritance won't be taken from you. Look
here, Ephesians 1. If you believe on Him, Christ
will see to it that your inheritance won't be taken from you. Look
at Ephesians 1.13. Remember after He did that redemption, He sealed
it, made sure that it would never be changed at all. Well, look
here. Ephesians 1 13, In whom, in Christ,
you also trusted after that you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed,
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. And what is
that Holy Spirit of promise? It's the earnest of our inheritance. It's the down payment on our
inheritance. unto the redemption of the purchased
possession unto the praise of his glory. What's that purchased
possession? His people. His people. What's this redemption?
That means he's going to come back and we're going to go back
and possess the land. That's what it means. We're coming
out of the grave one day, just like he did. That sound foolish
to you? We're going to be with him in
glory. That sound foolish? We're going to possess the land,
Christ our inheritance, and whatever else he's got to give us. I don't
think we're going to be too much interested in that whatever else,
but Christ to have our full focus. See, this is why he's wisdom
to us. This is why he's the power of
God to us. Now, you leave here today and
you think, you gonna go on calling him foolishness? You gonna go
on looking at them and saying, that's foolishness? Ain't a man
anywhere could have wrote that story. He couldn't have made
that up. This is God's story. This is his story. That's what
history is. It's his story. Amen.