May it please almighty God to bless us together this evening as we meditate in his holy word. Let's turn to the prophecy of Jeremiah and chapter 33 and we'll read verses 10 and 11.

The prophecy of Jeremiah chapter 33 and verses 10 and 11. Thus saith the Lord. Again, there shall be heard in this place which ye say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate without man and without inhabitant and without beast. The voice of joy and the voice of gladness voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride the voice of them that shall say praise the Lord of hosts for the Lord is good for his mercy endureth forever and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord for I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first saith the Lord.

Jeremiah was a prophet of the Lord. Jeremiah did not have an easy life, but he was a faithful prophet. And he prophesied those words that God gave him to speak. And as you're probably aware, as you read the prophecy of Jeremiah, you'll find that he wasn't liked for it. He was often put in prison and into the dark dungeon. It was a very miserable and difficult situation. And yet, you see, this man was faithful in that which he was to declare. And that really is the requirement today, faithfulness in the things of God.

And he lived in a difficult age. He lived when Israel were going to be sent down into Babylon. He prophesied and he warned the situation, what would happen, that they would go there for those 70 years and they didn't really believe what he said. And they carried on enjoying themselves in the vanities of this world. But we should always realize that God's word comes to pass. Because the Lord has said, I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. What God says does come to pass. And no matter how we might object to it and think it's not true, we should realize this is the word of God.

And as this chapter commences with a statement, moreover, the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the second time while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying, he was, you see, God can come wherever we are. And here was Jeremiah, faithful servant, shut up in prison. But God knew where Jeremiah was and God knew what he would do and how he would encourage Jeremiah. And so Jeremiah was able then to be faithful and to speak and to say what would happen, what would occur. and how wonderful it is to read such an account like this.

And as we read together in those two verses 10 and 11, the Lord says to Jeremiah, thus saith the Lord again, thus saith the Lord. And what a mercy it is to know that today God still does speak. He still does say, thus saith the Lord. And we shouldn't turn away from it. And we shouldn't think, well that isn't really what I wanted. It wasn't really the word that I expected. God's ways are higher than our ways. We must always recognise that. Because God knows the end from the beginning. We don't. We only know what's happening now. And we often judge things. on a present circumstance, a present situation. And we may conclude perhaps with certain things that perhaps we were wrong, perhaps what we thought or had prayed about and believed would come to pass, it didn't come to pass. And we think perhaps we were wrong perhaps in our assessment of God's word.

But we should not fail to realize, first of all, God always tests the reality of his word in our hearts. and tests our faith because we don't want to be deceived and end up with a wrong interpretation and also God tests us to know that we will. Believe his word. and however difficult it may seem and it was difficult wasn't it in Jeremiah's day to think that they would be taken down into Babylon a long way away from Jerusalem and there for those 70 years but at the appointed time God brought them back and we won't go through it now but it was quite amazing that the king in Babylon actually decreed that Israel should return to Jerusalem and rebuild it and rebuild the temple amazingly also he provided the funds and the materials for this work to be done So we conclude that nothing is too hard for our God.

And often we tend to limit God because we limit Him in accordance with our little world. And we sometimes think things cannot occur. But remember, the things which are impossible with men are possible with God. And so Jeremiah was given this word to speak and what a faithful servant he was. And he tells us, thus saith the Lord, again, there shall be heard in this place. Jerusalem was desolate, desolate. There were very few people who would be left when they were taken captive down to Babylon. And yet you see, God gave him this faith to believe that those words that were spoken to him would come to pass. So he's able to confirm it. And it's always good and important to realize, so often in the scriptures, we have this confirmation. Thus saith the Lord. it's not what you and I think, because our thoughts are earthbound, our thoughts are influenced by the things that we want to occur but God's ways are different to ours and therefore what a blessing it is to have that faith to believe.

You only have to read the 11th chapter to the Hebrews and we have a glorious list there of those children of God who had faith to believe that what God had said would come to pass. Indeed, we can say faith laughs at impossibilities and says, it shall be done. It's good, isn't it, to have faith to believe that and to trust in our God.

Because the great truth is that you and I are on this earth, and I like to often emphasize this, you and I are on this earth for one reason. I wonder if you know what that reason is. I wonder if you young people know why we are on this earth. I'll tell you, it's for the glory of God. Our life on this earth is for the glory of God. It's not to please ourselves. It's not to go along proud in what we've attained and what we are doing. It's to have a realization that God will use us, if it is his divine will, for his honor and for his glory.

And it's a wonderful blessing to observe God's work, to see what he's done and what he's doing. It's a great strength to our faith to trust in him at all times, at all times. not just when things appear to be going well, but at all times.

And so here we have Jeremiah faithfully speaking. And again, there shall be heard in this place, which ye say shall be desolate. You see these people, they only looked at the present and it only appeared to them that it would just be desolate. which ye say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even the cities of Judah and Jerusalem, in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate without man and without inhabitant and without beast. And then he comes and gives this great and glorious statement. The voice of joy. You see, he says here, again, there shall be heard in this place. This is what's going to be heard. The voice of joy. The voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, praise the Lord of hosts. 4 The Lord is good, for his mercy endureth for ever. 5 And of them that shall bring the sacrifice of price into the house of the Lord.

My friends this is the great almighty God that you and I have and what a blessing it is to have such a God as this and a God who has covenanted with his people covenanted with the Church of God and a covenant is a promise that God gives and he refers to it really towards the end of this chapter and he says, and the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah saying, thus saith the Lord again, thus saith the Lord, it's good isn't it? If you can break my covenant of the day And my covenant of the night, God said in the beginning, when the world was created, there would be day and there would be night. And that has always continued. And there should not be day and night in their season. Then may also my covenant be broken, with David, my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne and with the Levites, the priests, the ministers.

Well, that was a promise again to David. And what a blessing to know that that indeed came to pass. It came to pass. And I just, I'm very keen that people have view of God as the great God. And I think we live in a day and age when people don't really understand the greatness of God. I read an article recently, you may have read it, it's in one of the magazines and this was the illustration that was given. I mean you and I look up in the sky on a clear night and we see many stars don't we we see many many stars and we could perhaps sometimes we can just try and count a few of them and but we don't get very far the great truth is that there are many many many stars you may say well how many well we don't know but let me just tell you this if you can imagine on the seashore picking up a handful of sand and counting how many grains of sand there are. One by one, you'd come to a great number, wouldn't you? That's just in a little few handfuls of sand. The truth is that there are more stars than there are grains of sand in the whole world. that's beyond our ability to comprehend really. But what does that demonstrate? That demonstrate the greatness of God because in Genesis in the creation we're told what God created and he made there's just one little line which says and he made the stars also

So you, young people, think of that. Think of that. When you look up at the sky, remember God made the stars also. And there's so many, so many that are there. Well, I was told the math, if anybody is good at maths, the actual number is beyond, if you can imagine, a number of 20 and then 20 noughts past that. That's a very, very vast number. And there's more stars than that number. And that surely demonstrates the greatness of God. And remember that when time shall be no more, all the universe will be destroyed and burnt up, like this world will be burnt up. How great is God.

my friends that should encourage you and me to recognize that the word of God is true and therefore those things which are spoken here which we know came to pass in through Jeremiah's prophecy what he was able to prophesy they did come to pass and Israel came back to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple and rebuilt the walls didn't deserve it did they? They disobeyed God. They'd been told so many times what would happen and they'd ignored the prophets and they'd carried on in their own way and God is faithful and God brought about conquest of Jerusalem and they were taken captive and went down into Babylon but God's promise was fulfilled they were brought back in that amazing way and rebuilt the temple and rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem the faithfulness of our God and then we know here this was fulfilled there would be then which of course Jeremiah had faith to believe there would be this voice of joy once again.

You can imagine it can't you? They'd be blessed with Jerusalem with the capital city and there with the temple where sacrifices were made and God was with them and they'd been 70 years without it. And then God favoured them. He was faithful. He was faithful. There was no requirement really, apart from the fact of His honour and His glory. And therefore He brought this about, that they did return.

It's a long way, many days journey to get from Babylon to Jerusalem wasn't just down the road, it was a long way but God was with them and God brought them back and there was then this voice of joy and the voice of gladness and there was the marriages which occurred there, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride and the voice of them that shall say and this is important Praise the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his mercy endures forever.

That phrase is repeated a number of times in the word of God. And it's good for you and me tonight to realise the relevance of such a statement, because if God does appear And if God does bless us, we should indeed recognize the need to praise the Lord, to praise the Lord, for the Lord, He is good, for His mercy endureth forever.

Now, of course, we have here the physical situation of Israel returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. But you know there is a very wonderful and blessed spiritual application. Because you and I have the word of God. And the word of God tells us how you and I should live our life. It's a high standard. God's standards are high. And all of us have failed to obey the word of God and to keep his commandments, to keep his precepts, to walk in the way that he's directed us in.

So what have we done? We failed. All of us have failed. And what does that mean? We all need God's mercy. We all need God's mercy and that's why we have such a wonderful statement. For his mercy endureth forever. When you and I stand condemned before God and every true believer, every true converted person stands before God as it were and they're condemned and they stand guilty. And they can't say, well, I've done this and done that. We just plead for mercy. We plead for mercy.

And there's a very wonderful short prayer, as you probably know, in the Word of God, and it was spoken by the publican, when the publican was alongside the Pharisee, and there were two prayers which were put up, and they were compared, and the Pharisee was very pleased with his life, and all that he did, and he thought he was much better than the publican. For the publican, all he could do was to look down and to beat on his breast and pray, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

So we have the two examples. And the Lord said, I tell you, this man, that's the publican, went down to his justified house, justified rather than the other. So tonight is a good thing if you and I in our spiritual life. And remember our spiritual life is more important than our natural life. Our spiritual life is far more important than our natural life. So it'll be a great blessing if you and I have been brought before God to stand and confess that we're guilty and we need mercy. And therefore, that prayer of the publican will be very suitable God be merciful to me a sinner.

I don't think it's a prayer that becomes old-fashioned it's not something we think well I've passed that test now and I don't need to pray it again because we do we pray we sin and we sin we need to often pray that God be merciful to me a sinner. Well how wonderful it is then when we know God's mercy when God perhaps speaks to us and perhaps it might be in a similar way to an earlier chapter in Jeremiah which is the 31st chapter of And the third verse tells us, this is what it says, the Lord hath appeared of old unto me. What a blessing if you and I have the evidence of God appearing to us. And by that I mean awakening us to our true condition and speaking to us. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

What a mercy if you and I have known something of God's lovingkindness in showing us What we're like, what we're truly like, we can't think we're a great, wonderful, righteous person. We'll come like that publican and pray to God, God be merciful to me, a sinner, a repentant sinner.

You know, all true believers are brought to repent. That means to be sorry for their sins. And also it means to repent, means to turn around in the opposite direction. You may be going, have been going, you may be going, in a direction which is not good it may be wrong you may be following your own inclination you may be listening to the devil and the devil says that's all right you can carry on doing that whenever that's a an answer to a question you may put you can doubt immediately because such an answer is usually wrong now you and i have the word of god to follow

We have the glorious testimony of so many people in the Word of God, how the Lord directed and blessed them. And so may that be a wonderful favour to be found hearing the voice of the Saviour.

In actual fact, the bride of Christ in the Song of Solomon, gives a wonderful testimony of what the Lord Jesus Christ meant to her. That one who is the only one who can indeed forgive our sins. And it's a great blessing if you and I can enter into the situation which is explained to us in the fifth chapter of the Song of Solomon.

The account is very instructive because In that picture we have the Lord coming and knocking on the door of the house or the bedroom of this bride and asks that, open to me my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled, That's the request. For my head is filled with dew, my locks with the drops of the night. So you and I would think that that would be a question which would be easily answered.

But what is the answer? This bride of Christ, she says, I've put off my coat. How should I put it on? I wash my feet. How should I defile them? couldn't be bothered, couldn't be bothered to listen to the calling of Almighty God. That may be so in our lives. The Lord may speak, he may call us and our response is, I am very comfortable in the things of this world. I don't want to alter things. I want to carry on.

Well, we're told, my beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door and my bowels, that means her heart, were moved for him. I rose up to open to my beloved. And my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet-smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved. What do you think was the result? This was the result. But my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone. Was gone.

You see, God comes and God calls. my friends we should be ready to hear and answer that call and we shouldn't allow the comfort of this life which this person did to stand in the way and then when it's a bit more convenient to think oh well now perhaps I'll listen perhaps I will open the door perhaps I will hear what is to be spoken to me no my friends God has a time And you and I are to listen and to obey His time. And not to put things off.

How sad it was, because then you see when she opened, Christ had departed. He wasn't there. Now then, what did she say? She said, I sought Him, but I could not find Him. I called Him, but He gave me no answer. Well, you may know what that is. Yes, you may have turned your back upon God. And then you think, oh, well, now I'll pray to God and expect an answer. And you don't get any answer.

What did she do? She sought him, but she could not find him. She called him, but he gave me no answer. She asked the watchman, the watchman of course is the preachers, and she asked the preachers. They went about the city, they found me, they smoked me, they worded me. The picture really is that you go and hear the gospel preached and instead of receiving wonderful comfort to start with, you may be smitten and beaten down because of your sinfulness, because of your opposition. to the gracious invites of the blessed Savior.

And so they, and she says, and I charge you, oh daughters of Jerusalem, the daughters of Jerusalem are the church of God. If you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am sick of love.

Well then, the question was put, by these daughters of Jerusalem. And this was the question. What is thy beloved more than another beloved? O thou fairest among women, what is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost so charge us? Well, I wonder how you and I would respond. If I was to ask you that question tonight, What does Christ mean to you more than everything else? What does he mean? It's a good question for all of us to answer. It's not always very easy and you may have to scratch your head and think well I'm really not sure. And my friends, you and I need to be honest in these things. We don't want to pretend. We need to be honest. I won't go through it now, but this is in the fifth of Solomon. And from the ninth verse down to the end, you can read what the bride of Christ, that means a believer, her response to the church of what Christ meant to her. And it's good to just read it. You may have read it many times. You can read it again. And just see how you measure up to the statements that are made, what she viewed the Savior to be to her.

Well, my friends, this is really the center of religion. It's what Christ means to us. And here, no doubt, these people, when they came back to Jerusalem, And the Lord had blessed them, and the Lord had brought them back. And therefore, they did say, as Jeremiah prophesied, they praised the Lord, and were able to say, for the Lord is good, for his mercy endureth forever.

Now that's the response, my friends, of a blessed believer, a true believer. one who desires to truly thank and praise God from whom all blessings flow and if God comes and you've prayed from your heart earnestly seeking the Lord will have mercy upon you and God comes and opens your eyes and opens your heart to receive the Blessed Saviour, then you can come and rejoice indeed, and enter into the spirit of such a statement, and desire to say, Praise the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, We will come, we will say the Lord is good, because He's remembered us, He's heard our cries, He's heard our prayers, He hasn't cast us off, He's been mindful of us.

What a blessing then to have such a God and such a Saviour as this. Yes, well, bless God to come to this position and say yes, praise the Lord, for the Lord is good, for His mercy endureth forever.

and of them that shall bring them the sacrifice of praise you may wonder why that is couched in such phraseology the sacrifice of praise because praise doesn't come easy to us we might think it ought to or so it should but sometimes it means there is a sacrifice a sacrifice to praise perhaps we have to say it to unbelievers Perhaps we say it to our family. And it's not easy to say these things. And that's why it's a sacrifice.

Sacrifice in Old Testament days always involved a cost. Because the people who gave sacrifice, they had to bring an animal or corn or whatever it was. They had to give it. And that's exactly the same for us today, my friends. We have to come and we have to give. the sacrifice of praise into the house of God for I will cause to return the captivity of the land as at the first saith the Lord.

Well what a blessing it is that here we have a prophecy and it came to pass and my friends God still today speaks and those words that he speaks comes to pass and when they come to pass Surely we can truly praise God for these things.

And so how solemn it is to realize that you and I stand before this holy, righteous God, this God who holds our breath in His hand. And I just want to say this, and I just feel it upon my spirit. You and I live on this earth. You and I, every one of us, young and old, one day we'll have to die. One day, you and I will have a last day on this earth. And then, you may say, what will happen then? Well, you and I will then be in eternity.

Now, eternity has no end. Our life on this earth has an end. We can understand it because we live in what we call time. Time has minutes and hours and months and weeks and years and you and I understand what time is. We can't understand what eternity is. You may say, well, why is that? Very simply, our mind is not capable of recognizing how long eternity is. Because there is no length. There's no end. It just goes on and on and on forever and ever.

And the very solemn statement which we read of in the Word of God lets us know that there's no returning to this earth. In any event, this earth will be burned up one day. Once we have passed out of time, you and I are in eternity. Now, you and I will then be on one of two places, either in glory with the Lord Jesus Christ and the whole Church of God, And that will be a very wonderful and a very blessed situation because we shall be eternally happy. There'll be nothing to trouble us, no aches or pains, no lack of anything. And as the Apostle Paul says, to be with Christ, which is far better.

Now, if you and I are to be there, we will have the evidence that we are born again in the Spirit of God, and that the Blessed Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, has died upon the cross at Calvary to take away our sins. You may say, why is that important? Because heaven is a holy place. There is no sin in heaven, not the slightest sin. So all our sins need to be washed away, and we're told The Apostle Peter says, redeemed. That means the price for our sin has been paid, redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.

What a wonderful mercy to know then that your sins and my sins are forgiven. They're washed away. No more to be remembered. And that's the wonderful outcome of those who are forgiven. They'll be found in glory forever and ever. But the other side is to be found not in heaven, but in the place which the Lord Jesus describes as hell. Hell. You might say, what is hell? Well, excuse me. Excuse me, we have a little view. The Lord tells us what it is. First of all, it's a place of utter darkness. There's no light in hell. It's totally dark. So there won't be any getting up in the morning to a new day because there's no more days. Time's finished. It'll be dark. and it's also described as a bottomless pit. So imagine falling into a pit with no bottom in pit blackness and to be in that condition forever and ever. It's a terrible thought, isn't it? And yet you see the word of God tells us about it and it warns us

And yet people today ignore it. Ignore it. They think they're gonna live forever. We will. But my friends, not on this earth. Our souls will live forever. And then the great day of the resurrection, our bodies will be united to our souls. And we will either be in glory And that's a wonderful thought, isn't it? Or in hell, and that's a terrible thought.

Well, my friends, our privilege is that you and I have the word of God that describes to us very clearly the way of salvation. And to know that there is only one way, and that is through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He came into the world, as the Apostle Paul said, to save sinners. And he said, of whom I am chief. And you might think, well, that's a bit extreme. Well, when the Holy Spirit convicts us, we realize that Paul wasn't exaggerating, because we feel like that ourselves. the very worst of sinners. But what a blessing it is to know there is mercy. And that's why we have in this statement here that Jeremiah was able to say, to praise the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his mercy endureth forever.

Well, may you and I know the mercy of God. And may you and I be concerned to praise God if we know that mercy, and to honour Him and to thank Him that He looked upon such an unworthy sinner and caused us to hear His pardoning voice and to look forward to that great day when we shall be forever with the Lord.

Shall we sing our final hymn, number 607 from Gatsby's to the tune 542.

607 Rejoice, ye saints, rejoice in Christ, your glorious head,
with heart and soul and voice, his matchless honour spread.
Exalt his love, proclaim his name,
and sweetly sing the Lamb, once slain.

607 Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

As old as the brookland is land,
And sweetly send a hymn unslain.
of open righteousness, of the incarnate Word,
the wisdom, truth, and grace of your exalted Lord.
to be the saints of God. Rejoice!

God from his hand is a orphan,
covenant of grace. Am I secure enough
From all the chosen race,
And with a solemn, heavenly voice,
Invite and lead us to rejoice.

The whole of deity, with all its great content,
its sweetest form, that solemn joy proclaimed.
Now for the world and spirit's voice,
unite to it that sings, Rejoice!

Now, by the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and the love of God our Father, and the fellowship and communion of the Eternal Spirit, rest and abide with us each, now and for evermore. Amen.