Alright, let's turn back there
to Ezekiel chapter 17. I've titled this message, Covenant
Broken, Covenant Fulfilled. What does the word covenant mean? Believers are saved by the promise
of God. That's what the word covenant
means. It means promise. The everlasting covenant of God
is the covenant that God promised with Himself. It's the covenant God fulfilled
by Himself in the person of the God-man, Christ Jesus, the Son
of God. And it's the covenant that God
reveals in the hearts of His people by Himself, by the Spirit
of God, making them to know that everything that God requires
of His people, God Himself has already accomplished. This word of promise is ordered
by God himself. It's made sure by God himself
so that there remains absolutely nothing left for the sinner to
do. By His grace, when He comes and
He gives faith, we receive this promise, believing that God has,
that He is, and that He shall save us from ourselves, from
our sin. By Him granting us repentance,
we turn from ourselves to Christ. And it's by His faithfulness,
the faithfulness of Christ, that this word is sure. If we haven't
repented from ourselves, from our will, from our works, from
everything about us, we hadn't repented yet. Hadn't repented
yet. But though we fail even to simply
live by faith, And by that I mean unbeliefs mixed with everything
we do. We're constantly turning back to the law. We're constantly
breaking out the whip. We're constantly pointing the
finger at somebody else. Constantly. Though we fail to
simply live by faith, God is faithful to keep us. Not by works
of righteousness, which we've done, but by this, his word of
covenant promise. Understand that? Salvation is
by a promise. It's by God's word. And this
everlasting covenant of God is really the gospel. It is the
gospel. The sure word of promise, the
sure word of salvation accomplished is the law written on the heart
whereby God makes his people to follow Him and makes us to
know He's truly our God. He's done everything needed. That's who God is. One who's
done everything that you, a helpless, impotent sinner, needs. That's
who He is. And I can just tell you this,
if the God of your imagination, how you imagine God to be, depends
on you to do something, that's because He's not God. He's not
God. The God, true God, does everything
for his people. Everything. Now, in this 17th
chapter, what the king of Babylon does in our text, right along
with what the king of Judah does, is the work of evil hearts bent
on making, man making himself as the most high God. That's
what both of these kings are doing right here. But what each
one of these do in our text, and even the wrath of these kings
here, is under the control of the Most High God. And He's using
the wrath of these men. He's using their rebellion toward
each other. And toward Him to teach His elect
remnant then, and His elect remnant now, that God's Word is the only
sure Word of mercy that His people can trust. That's what he's showing
us. All right, let's see it. Verse
1. The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man,
put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel.
And say, Thus saith the Lord God. A great eagle with great
wings, long-winged, full of feathers, which had different colors, came
unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar. You're going
to plant, you're going to take that top plant of the cedar,
snipped it off, he's going to plant it. He cropped off the
top of his young twigs and carried it into the land of traffic.
He set it in a city of merchants. He took also of the seed of the
land and planted it in the fruitful field. He placed it by great
waters and set it as a willow tree. Now this first eagle is
called the Great Eagle. It represents the King of Babylon. But God's the Great One. God's
the Great One. He's the Great One. But this
King of Babylon, he took that highest branch from that cedar.
That is, he took the King of Judah. He took their king. And he planted him. He carried
him to Babylon. And he carried him to a prosperous
land. He carried him to a land full of prosperity. And he took
seed from this cedar. You need to plant seed if you're
going to grow a tree, don't you? He took seed from this cedar.
That means he took many of the children of Judah. Their children. He took them. And he planted
them in a fruitful land. He planted them by great waters.
Not to be a mighty cedar, He planted them there for them to
be a willow tree. Did you see that? He set it as
a willow tree. Which one do you picture as being
greater, a willow tree or a cedar? A willow tree, I mean a cedar.
He set it there to be a humble tree. That's what he did. Now
look at verse 6, And it grew, and became a spreading vine of
low stature, whose branches turned toward him. Its branches turned
toward the king. The roots thereof were under
him. So it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot
forth sprigs. In other words, when he carried
them and took them captive, this king of Babylon, they began to
prosper. They began to prosper. But another eagle comes along.
This says there was also, verse 7, there was also another great
eagle with great wings and many feathers. This one represents
Egypt, king of Egypt. But he wasn't as great as the
king of Babylon. He wasn't as great as the king of Babylon.
And behold, this vine bent its roots toward him, toward this
other eagle, toward this other king. and shot forth her branches
toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation."
Now here's the offense, here's the problem. You think this is
going to rub the king of Babylon the wrong way? Because these
people that he's taken captive now have turned and started looking
at another king? Well here was the offense. It
was planted in a good soil by great waters that it might bring
forth branches, that it might bear fruit, that it might be
a goodly vine. Now here's God's question. Say
thou, thus saith the Lord God, shall it prosper? You think this
vine's gonna prosper? You think this people's gonna
prosper who've done this, who've turned away from this one king
to another? Shall he not pull up the roots
thereof? Shall that king not pull up the
roots of it? And cut off the fruit thereof that it wither?
It shall wither, and all the leaves of her spring. It's not
going to take a great power or many people to pluck it up by
the roots. Yea, behold, being planted, shall
it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither when
the east wind touches it? When just the wind touches it?
It's going to wither. It shall wither in the furrows
where it grew. Now here's the riddle explained.
The Lord's going to explain it. Verse 11. Moreover the word of
the Lord came unto me saying, Say now to the rebellious house.
This was Israel, the rebellious house. And he says, Now you say
to them, Know you not what these things mean? Tell them, behold,
the king of Babylon has come to Jerusalem, and he's taken
the king thereof and the princes thereof, and he's led them with
him to Babylon. That's just what I just showed
you. He took them away. Verse 13. And he's taken of the
king C. Now here's what we're looking
at. He made a covenant with him.
The king of Judah was a man named Jehoiachin. But Babylon's king
took Jehoiachin's uncle, Zedekiah, and made him a king. And he made
a covenant with him. He made a covenant with him.
And he made Zedekiah to make an oath to him. Watch. He made a covenant with him and
he's taken an oath of him. And he's also taken the mighty
of the land. And here's why he did all that.
that that nation would be a willow tree, that it would serve him
in humility, that the kingdom might be based, that it might
not lift itself up, that by keeping of his covenant, it might stand. Nebuchadnezzar promised that
king, he said, as long as you don't look to any of the kings,
and as long as you remain under my power, and look to me only,
he said, You're going to prosper. You're going to be a king, and
you're going to remain a nation. And he said, and you're going
to prosper. And Nebuchadnezzar, the king
of Babylon, made good on his promise. As long as Israel, as
long as that king Zedekiah, they looked to him, he prospered.
But he, look at verse 15, but he, Zedekiah, rebelled against
him, this one who had made this covenant. He rebelled against
him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that's that second
eagle, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall
he prosper? Shall he escape that doeth such
things? If a covenant's been made, and
you've made a conditional covenant, and you've made, and you swore,
okay, I'll keep that covenant with you. and you break it, are
you going to prosper? We're going to prosper. Shall
he break the covenant and be delivered? Here's the answer. As I live, saith the Lord God,
surely in the place where the king dwelleth that made him a
king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he break,
even with him in the midst of Babylon, he shall die. The Lord
said, both of them are going to die. They're both going to
die. And he's going to die right there
with that king he despised. He's going to die with that king
he despised. This is King Nebuchadnezzar trying to make himself prosper
by making a conditional covenant with this king of Judah. And
this is that king of Judah saying, I'm going to make a covenant
with the king of Egypt. Get him to help me. Anybody going
to stand in this thing? by that breaking of covenants. He says, neither shall Pharaoh
with his mighty army in Egypt and great company make for him
in the war by casting up mounts and building forts to cut off
many persons. In other words, Egypt is not
going to help him. Seeing he despised, this is why. Watch
now, this is why. Seeing he despised the oath that
promise that this man had made. By breaking the covenant, when
lo, he had given his hand and had done all these things, he
shall not escape. Now, there's no doubt that the
king of Babylon is trying to be like God. And this king of
Judah is trying to be like God. They're trying to be like the
Most High and rule over everybody and keep all in subjection to
them. even as Satan does, even as the
falsehood, rebellion, Babylon does. But here God's using the
wrath of man to declare again. He's saying that man's great
offense in the garden and our need of God is that God fulfill
everything He's promised. That's what we need. Alright,
here's the first thing. Now you listen to me. Listen
really carefully to what you're about to see here. Man has broken
God's covenant. Look at verse 19. Therefore thus
saith the Lord God, as I live, and this is, now you look past
Judah, and you look past Nebuchadnezzar. Now let's just take the spirit
of what God's teaching here. And this is what, this is where
God's telling you, this is the lesson I'm teaching you here.
Verse 19. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, as I live, surely
mine oath that he hath despised, my oath that he hath despised,
and my covenant that he hath broken, even it will I recompense
upon his own head. Now, when Zedekiah revolted against
the king of Babylon, even though the king of Babylon was a wicked
king, he revolted against the one God put in authority. And
he had given his hand that he was going to serve him. And they
had made this conditional covenant. If you serve me, I shall do this
for you, the king said. And that king of Judah said,
I'll serve you. I'll give you my hand. I'll serve
you. Now let's go back. Let's go back. in the garden
when God said to Adam. God, He sent Adam in a well-watered
garden. He sent Adam in a prosperous
land just like the King of Babylon did right here to the King of
Judah. He put him in a prosperous land and He didn't put him there
for Adam to try to be, say, I'm going to be like the Most High
God and I'm going to exalt myself over Him and I'm going to reign. He put him there to be a willow
tree. He put him there to serve God. That's what he put him there
for. But when he put him there, God
made a covenant with him. And it was a conditional covenant. Now listen to me. The everlasting
covenant that I've started out talking to you about, it's not
a conditional covenant. You know what a conditional covenant
means? It simply means this. Aaron, if you come over here
and help us work on this building, we'll buy you lunch. That's a
conditional covenant. And you say, I'll come help you
build it. Well, if you don't show up, you
ain't getting lunch. Right? Right? Well, when God
made his covenant with Adam in the garden, it was a conditional
covenant. He said to him, Adam, you can
eat any of the trees in this garden. Everything here is yours
to eat. And as long as you obey me, it's
all yours. Every bit of it. But, God said,
in the day you eat of that one tree in the garden, in the midst
of that garden, in the day you eat of that tree, thou shalt
surely die. You'll surely die. He left Adam to fulfill this
covenant Himself. There is a perfect man in a perfect
environment left to now just all you got to do. Don't eat
that one tree. That's all. And you'll live forever. Satan entered that garden and
just as easily as that King of Judah was taken like you just
walked out there And you just clipped the tops off of that
off of that tree And took it away just that easy Adam was
taken away captive I say He rebelled he he took of that one tree and
he disobeyed God and he fell in the garden Well, then, in like manner, as
the king of Babylon made a covenant with Zedekiah, just like he did
with Zedekiah. He took him, gathered him up
to him, and he made a covenant with Zedekiah. And he said, now
listen, if you serve me, you'll be a king, you'll prosper, and
your nation will remain. Just like the king of Babylon
did that to Zedekiah. He gathered up a people and he
said, I'm going to call you Israel. That's what I'm going to call
you. And he gathered them up and he said now, through Moses,
he gave Moses the law and he said, now you go down there Moses
and you tell them this. You tell them, if you'll keep
everything that's written in this law, you'll be my people
and I'll be your God. You'll be kings and priests,
your nation will flourish, and you'll remain a nation as long
as you obey me." That was a conditional covenant. Well, why did God make
that covenant with a bunch of people who had already sinned
in Adam, already died in Adam, already fell in Adam, whose hearts
were already corrupt, who already were sinners, hating God and
hating everything about God, Why did God come and make this
covenant with them? Why did He tell them if they
do all this, they'll be a king? Why did He make this conditional
covenant? Was it that God forgot something? Did God forget what
happened in the garden? No. Was God trying out something
new? No. He gave them 600 plus laws. That's all He did. We didn't keep one in the garden.
You think we're going to keep 600 and something of them? He
gave us all that law of Moses to show us how bad we messed
up in Adam. The greatness of that offense.
We broke every law that's in the Mosaic law. We broke every
law, not just 10 commandments. Although if you want to sum up
all the law, you sum them up in 10. You sum them up in one. Sum them up in one. He summed it up in one when He
gave Adam one in the garden. But He gave them that covenant.
He gave them that covenant to show them and us that we won't
keep God's law. He showed us in Adam. and He
shows us in a whole nation of people. We won't keep His covenant. He gave it to show us that we
need Him to fulfill the promises of God, to justify us from that
one word, that one law, that one promise, that one covenant
that we broke. We need God to make a promise
with Himself to justify us from that broken law Himself, and
to come and make it abundantly clear in our heart, and convince
us in our heart, giving us a completely new heart, that He's done everything,
and we stopped working and trying to please God. That's what we
need. And just like Zedekiah, when
he made that covenant with Israel, you know what they did? Just
like Nebuchadnezzar took him and he put him in a prosperous
land. He put him by mighty waters. God did everything for him. He
gave him everything. He gave him his word. He showed
him, literally. These scriptures are real. He led him by a pillar of cloud. He let them front and backwards.
He fed them. There was a rock that followed
Israel all the days that they journeyed. A rock, a real rock. Everywhere these fellas went,
they looked up and they'd get thirsty and they looked up and
there was that rock again and they could go over there and
get water out of that rock. You believe God did that? He
did it. Wherever they went there was
that rock because he was showing them Christ is the rock Christ
is the one that's going to lead you and guide you and direct
you Christ is the one that's going to save you all that blood
that was shed It was all showing what Christ was going to do,
but just like Zedekiah They turned from God and turned to Egypt
and said I think we can do better if we trust in another worm just
like us." That's exactly what Adam did in the garden. Exactly. God said this in verse 19, He
said, shall he prosper? Shall he escape that doeth such
things? Or shall he break the covenant
and be delivered? God said, I'll recompense it on his own head.
I'll spread my net upon him. He shall be taken in my snare
and I'll bring him to Babylon and plead with him there for
his trespass that he's trespassed against me. Let me ask you something. Would it be Would it be an ungracious
thing for God to slap you in your face, bust your knees out
from under you, put your face down in the dirt, and make you
to see that you are altogether undone before Him? Would that
be ungracious? Would it be ungracious for Him
to entangle you in His net, and drag you to himself and bring
you to himself and make you to see you can't please God because
you died in Adam. Would it be ungracious for God
to give you life in your heart so that you behold everything
that God has done in His Son and behold the glory of God so
that you can say, bless God, I'm saved. He has done everything. And I can rest. I don't have
to do anything. He's done it all. Would that
be ungracious for God to do that? I want you to see something.
Look at Galatians 3.21. Galatians 3.21. God's promise of salvation
is accomplished by the faithfulness of Christ Himself. And it's given
to those for whom Christ accomplished it through faith, through God-given
faith. Look at Galatians 3. And look
at verse 19. Let's start at verse 18. If the
inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise. Now what
I've been talking to you about in an everlasting covenant is
God's promise. If it's of the law, that means
if it's conditional, based on something you did, it's not promise
anymore. If it's done through you making
amends through your keeping of the Mosaic Law, it's not promise
anymore. But God gave it to Abraham, I
promise. He gave it to Abraham 430 years
before he gave the Ten Commandments. Think about that. You trying
to come to God because you kept the Ten Commandments? The rich
young ruler was. He said, I've kept the law from
my youth up. Abraham was saved 430 years before it was given. Wherefore then serveth the law?
What did the preacher just tell you? It was added because of
transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise
was made. Who's that seed that's going
to come to whom the promise was made? Look back up at verse 16.
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith,
not into seeds as of many, but as of one, into thy seed, which
is Christ. I'm telling you, before God ever
made anything, He made this covenant with His Son. He made this covenant
with Himself and His Son. is the one who would come forth
and accomplish this work. Now look over at verse 21. Is
the law then against the promises of God? Is it against the everlasting
covenant of God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. But The scripture hath concluded
all under sin. In Adam, all died. That's me,
and that's you, and that's everybody else. That's the priest walking
around with his collar backwards. That's the man standing up in
any kind of church wearing a big long robe with a bunch of bedazzles
on it trying to make you think he's somebody. That's the man
who's out there groveling in a ditch somewhere, who's puking
on himself and can't even stand up. Everybody, from the least
to the greatest, died in Adam. He died in Adam. How then are
these promises going to be kept? How then are these promises going
to be fulfilled which God made with Himself? Go to the next
verse. Next word. Verse 22. That the
promise by faith of Jesus Christ. Listen. Here is... Let me tell you the difference
between the King James Bible and most every translation you're
going to get. Most every translation you're
going to find is going to change this faith of Christ to faith
in Christ. That's not how the everlasting
promises were fulfilled. They were fulfilled by the faithfulness
of Christ. And then, look at this, they're
given to them that believe. Do you see that? So that when
it's given to them that believe, what's given to them is a finished
work already accomplished by the faithfulness of Christ. Now,
if you try and I try to continue to come to God by our will, by
our works, thinking we've obligated God in some way, that we fulfilled
some promise to God, we need to know that all we are is promise
breakers. Remember just a few, I think
it was around 2003 or something like that. It was a big thing.
Everybody was wearing these bracelets. We're promise keepers. We're
promise keepers. Promise keepers. There's only
one promise keeper. That's Christ the Lord. That's
Christ the Lord. He's the promise keeper. Me and
you are promise breakers. That's what we are. Promise breakers. Well, this is what's going to
happen to a promise breaker. Verse 21. Ezekiel 17, 21, all
his fugitives with all his bands shall fall by the sword, and
they that remain shall be scattered toward all winds, and you shall
know that I, the Lord, hath spoken it. Now, let's look at this second
thing. The second thing. I said to you,
God's covenant is fulfilled by His Son, Christ Jesus, that it's
ordered in all things by God, that it's sure by what Christ
accomplished, and then this law is written on the believer's
heart, and this is all His hope and all His salvation. Look now
at verse 22. Thus saith the Lord God. Now
God sovereignly worked all this He worked with King Nebuchadnezzar
and with the King of Judah, Letting him come and plant, snip that
king and take him away and all that. And now watch what God
saith. Thus saith the Lord God. I will also take of the highest
branch of the high cedar and will set it. I will crop off
from the top of his young twigs a tender one and will plant it
upon a high mountain, an imminent mountain, in the mountain of
the height of Israel will I plant it. The Lord started saying this
was going to come so, going to come true when he brought them
out of Babylon along many, many years path. This king, Jehoiachin,
he was the last one. This was it. And Israel was just
obliterated. You couldn't tell Israel from
Babylon. God was done. He used the nation to make his
point. And it's done. It's done. But
then he began gathering them, bringing them back. Look at Zechariah
6.12. And he gathered up a man, and he said, you go call this
man to your right there. Zechariah is the second book
from the end of the Bible, I believe. Zechariah 6. I'm sorry, second book from the
end of the Old Testament. And he says, you go put a crown
on this man's head. But he said, but tell him this
is what it all pictures, right here. Verse 12. Speak unto him,
saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold, the
man whose name is the branch. We're talking about a branch.
We're talking about a planting of God. We're talking about something
God's planting. The man whose name is the branch,
he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple
of the Lord. Even he shall build the temple of the Lord, and he
shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne,
and he shall be a priest upon his throne, and the counsel of
peace shall be between them both. Well, wasn't long after this,
Christ came. And you know who He came of?
You know where He came from? He came of the top branch. He
came from that house of Judah, that house of David, just like
God said He would. Christ the Lord, the Son of God.
But He came from God. He's above all. above all. And He came forth, He said here,
a tender one. He came forth a tender plant.
He grew up a tender plant, a root out of a dry ground. There was
nothing about Him that would make anybody desire Him. Still
not unless God does something in our heart. But this one came forth in the
mountain of Jerusalem called Zion. You see there in Ezekiel
17? But they're at first sight. Verse 23, In the mountain of
the height of Israel will I plant it. He came forth. But unlike
Zedekiah, Christ didn't turn back. He didn't turn his roots
to some other king. He didn't turn away from God,
His Father. This Holy One, with all His holy
nature, with all His heart, soul, mind, spirit in perfection, He
served God from the womb all the way till He gave up His life
on this earth. And never was any sin found in
Him whatsoever. He fulfilled all the law, all
those laws given in Moses. He obeyed every one of them.
He fulfilled everything that they pictured, that pictured
Him. He fulfilled everything that was written of Him. And
then he went to the cross and there was something else that
had to be done. Every one of the children that God gave to
him, when he lifted up his hand and he said, I give my oath that
I'll save them, that I will redeem them. And God the Father said
to him, you saved them. and you'll have a throne forever.
Your people will reign forever. You'll be my nation forever.
And Christ came forth and as the surety who had stricken hands
with the father, he came forth and he took the sin. of every elect child of God and
bear our sins in his own body on the tree. And when he died,
everything Adam did by his transgression, Christ undid by his obedience
unto death. so that every one of God's people
were reconciled to God in Christ Jesus. Every one of God's people
have been justified by God in Christ, the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. It was all ordered and sure before
the world ever began. You remember back up there in
verse 16, He said, As I live, saith the Lord God, surely in
the place where the king dwelleth that made him king, whose oath
he despised, whose covenant he break, even with him in the midst
of Babylon, he shall die. Well, Christ is the King. And He obeyed, but His elect
didn't. But, obeying the will of God, Every chosen child of
God who broke God's covenant in Adam died together with Christ
the King when He laid down His life in the midst of Babylon. We died with the King who makes
us a king. It had to be so. Justice had
to be satisfied. God won't clear the guilty. But
this is what He says in Psalm 89, 28. Of Christ He said, My
mercy, will I keep for Him forevermore. He said, My covenant shall stand
fast with Him. With Him. Verse 23. Look at the second part. He shall
bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and bear fruit, and be
a goodly seeder. You see, He came forth and served
God as a willow. But he's the cedar. He grew up
a cedar tree. And every one that has been grafted
into him by God's grace is a branch in that vine, in that tree. Every
one of them. And they bring forth fruit by
Christ himself through the Spirit of God. And this is how they
bring it forth. In Jeremiah 31, 31. He said,
Behold, the day has come, saith the Lord, that I'll make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day I took
them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which
covenant they break, although I was a husband unto them, saith
the Lord. But this shall be the covenant I'll make with the house
of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I'll put my law in
their inward parts. and write it in their hearts,
and I'll be their God and they'll be my people. And they'll teach
no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord, for every one of them's going to know me. Every
one of my people's going to know me. From the least of them to
the greatest of them, sayeth the Lord, for I'll forgive their
iniquity and I'll remember their sin no more. What is this writing
of the law in our hearts? What is it? It's when God opens
up the heart that he's made new and he says all the promises
of God are in Christ Jesus, yes and amen unto the glory of God. To the glory of God. And so he makes a man to just
quit fighting against God. And just get under His grace. Get under Him. Trust Him. And this whole church is a goodly
cedar. His people are the goodly cedar
in Him. Look at verse 23 again. And under
it shall dwell all the fowl of every wing, and the shadow of
the branches thereof shall they dwell. That means everyone's
a God's elect, it's not just a Jew, it's not just Jews, it's
not just a physical nation, it's Jew and Gentile, it's fowls of
every kind. They're gonna come and they're
gonna dwell there, and they're gonna know Him. He said, look
at verse 12, all the trees of the field shall know. Every big mighty cedar that thinks
he's a big mighty cedar, he's gonna find out one day that he's
not a mighty cedar. Every little lowly plant that
just goes around so proud that he's so low and he's so abased
and he's so pitiful, he gonna find out one day that that's
just been pride. But God's people are called trees
of His planting. Trees of His planting. Isaiah
60, 21, he said, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands,
trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He might be
glorified. Look at Jeremiah 17, 7, just
to your left there. I want you to see this. Jeremiah
17, 7. We're talking about God's planting.
We're talking about God's trees. We're talking about God's work.
Look at this. Happy, blessed is the man that
trusteth in the Lord, whose hope the Lord is. See that? That means you can't have two
hopes. Either the Lord's your hope or
you're your hope. Either grace is your hope or
works are your hope. Can't have two. But blessed is
that man whose hope the Lord is, for he shall be as a tree
planted by the waters, that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and
shall not see when he cometh, but her leaves shall be green,
and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall
cease from yielding fruit. How can that be? How can that
be? Look at verse 24 in our text.
Here's how. All the trees of the field, all
the trees of his planting shall know that I, the Lord, have brought
down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the
green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish. I, the
Lord, have spoken and have done it. You see, with man, if you
ask him something, what he says and what he does is two different
things. But not with God. What he said
he was going to do before the world began, that's what he does.
That's what he's brought to pass, exactly how he said he would
do it. Adam's sin in the garden didn't
surprise him. He let Adam sin in the garden
because the second Adam would come, his son. And we're either
going to be found in Adam or we're going to be found in his
son. We're either going to be found breaking the law or we're
going to be found obeying it. Either way, it's going to be
by what somebody else did, not by what we did. Verse 23 said there that all
these different kinds of fowl, all these different kinds of
birds are going to come and they're going to dwell in these branches.
I'll tell you how this message came about. This week I was mowing
the yard and you all were out there playing in the front yard
on Saturday and that storm came all of a sudden and it was just
pouring down raining, just raining, raining, raining. Well that happened
to me. I was out there mowing mowing
the yard and it just started pouring down raining. And you
know those big cedars there in front of my house? Big cedar
trees right in front of my house? I was walking back with the mower
trying to get to the garage and I walked under those cedars and
there wasn't a drop of rain falling. And I mean it was raining just
like it was on Saturday. And I went to the garage and
it I'm a little slow. It took that long for it to,
for that to just hit me. I thought there wasn't a drop
of rainfall under those cedars. And I put the mower in the garage
and walked back out there and stood under those cedars. If
anybody would have seen me there and said, Clay has lost it. What
is he doing? I went back out there and stood
under those cedars. And I just stood there and it
was raining all the way around me. And I wasn't getting wet
at all. And I thought about this This
scripture. If you can rest under this goodly
cedar and wait patiently for the promise
of His return by faith alone, you're a high tree that's been
brought low, a low tree that's been exalted, a green tree that's
been dried up. Because this is not only a description
of what God does in his trees of righteousness, in his people.
This is not only what God does, shall do to all his enemies.
This is what God did in Christ. He's the righteous high tree
who came low. He's the low tree who walked
in all humility before God, whom God exalted. He's the green tree
who flourished, who went to the cross and was dried up under
the wrath of God who said, I thirst. But he's been raised from the
dead and he is the tree that's risen and made to flourish. Do
you trust his word of promise? He said, I have spoken. That means he promised. And he
said, I have done it. I didn't just say it and then
depend on you to do it. I've spoken it and I've done
it. God's children rest with King David under this canopy,
like I stood out there under those trees, under this canopy
of God's grace. And we say this, God has made
with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure
and we stand there just as God promised and not one drop of
wrath shall ever fall from God upon us. Now do you believe God? Has He spoken to you? I guarantee
you this, when He does, we're going to know He's done it all. He's done it all. Amen.