May God be pleased to bless us
together tonight as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
prophecy of Jeremiah, chapter 31, and we'll read the paragraph
from verse 10 to verse 14. Prophecy of Jeremiah, chapter
31, and reading from verse 10 to 14. Hear the word of the Lord,
O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off and say,
He that scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a
shepherd doth his flock. The Lord hath redeemed Jacob
and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than
he. Therefore, they shall come and
sing in the height of Zion and shall flow together to the goodness
of the Lord for wheat and for wine and for oil and for the
young of the flock and of the herd. And their soul shall be
as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at
all. Then shall the Virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men
and old together. For I will turn their mourning
into joy and will comfort them and make them rejoice from their
sorrow. And I will satiate the soul of the priest with fatness
And my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord. Jeremiah was a prophet of the
Lord. Jeremiah lived in a difficult
time in the history of Israel. He lived in the reign of Josiah
and others. And there was generally the disregard
for the word of God. Disregard to follow the prophets
who spoke so clearly as to the sinful way that Israel were walking
in. And yet there was that time when
the prophecy of Jeremiah came to pass. Israel were taken captive. Israel did have to endure 70
years of captivity. But the Lord did redeem them
and he did bring them back to Jerusalem and he was with them
and he did restore them and he did give them cause to thank
the Lord and to rejoice in his wonderful goodness and mercy. Now the truth is we today worship
the same God. My friends today what we read
in the prophecies is typical of the church of God and it's
typical really of us as individuals and it's a sad reflection so
often that we fail to recognize the truth of God's word And we
fail to follow the Word of God. And we somehow think that there's
an exception made for us. That we somehow don't need to
conform to the Word of God. But we can continue in our own
ways. Well, that's one of the problems that we face today.
And that's one of the situations which exists. And what's the
result? Loop warmness. far-offness from
God, opposition to the ways of God, and leanness in the souls
of his people, a famine of the hearing of the word. All these
things you see come together and we find ourselves no better
than ancient Israel. But as ancient Israel were delivered
and brought back to Jerusalem. So may we have faith to believe
the Lord will come and he will revive his work and he will remember
his remnant, that we may still be able to come and to rejoice. As we read in this 13th verse,
I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and
make them rejoice from their sorrow. Now, the path of Israel
was to bring them into a situation where they acknowledged their
sin. They acknowledged their shortcomings. My friends, they only did it
because of the grace of God towards them. And it would be a blessing
for us today to acknowledge before God our shortcomings, to acknowledge
before God our sinful propensities, our sinfulness in so many ways
and to not try and brush them under the carpet as though they
didn't exist. It is a blessing to be able to
confess our sins. It's a wonderful favour if we
come crying unto the Lord We have the wonderful example, don't
we, that the Psalmist refers to when we read the 107th Psalm. And there are those examples
of Israel turning again to the Lord, we are told. because they rebelled against
the words of God and contemned the counsel of the Most High.
That means they set it in naught. They didn't really want to follow
it. Therefore he brought down their heart with labour. They
fell down and there was none to help. Desolate. And my friends,
it is a good thing when we come like that. It's not very comfortable. We don't really like it. But
the effect is good because it makes us come down. and fall
down before our God. And what was the result? What
did Israel do? And what did the church of God do? And what do
we do? What do you and I do? Well, here
is the example. Then, and not until, then they
cried unto the Lord in their trouble. And he saved them out
of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness
and the shadow of death and break their bands in sunder. The goodness
of God, the love of God, the favour of God. And the psalmist
then goes on, oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness
and for his wonderful works to the children of men. What a blessing
in our lives if we have the evidence of the gracious, glorious, wonderful
work of God. A sovereign work It's a real
work. It's a blessed work. And the
psalmist goes on to say, for it's broken the gates of brass
and cut the bars of iron in sunder. We may have perhaps felt like
that. There we are. We're like gates of brass. There's
no way out. We're in captivity. We're in a dungeon. And we can't
get out. And we know we deserve to be
there in that dungeon. Because people are put in a dungeon
when they disobey the law. And so God's people are put in
a dungeon in darkness sometimes when they disobey God. And it's
not a very comfortable or happy situation. Because God hides
his face. Our prayers bounce back at us.
We don't make any headway. We realise we've offended Almighty
God. So here we have this statement. Then fools because of their transgressions. And my friends, Israel were foolish. The people of God have been foolish.
And you and I are often foolish. We have to say we are fools.
We haven't listened to the Word of God. What have we done? We've
listened to the devil. because he's put before us something
attractive to the flesh to our natural mind and we've fallen
into the trap just like Adam and Eve lovely bit of fruit put
before them look good and they partook of it they disobeyed
God that was the real problem and that's a problem with us
today no different from Adam and Eve no different from Israel
but you see The blessing is when the Lord has mercy, because the
psalmist goes on there, saying, abhorreth all manner of meat.
We might think of that in a spiritual way. When we're in darkness,
when we're hard-hearted, the gospel isn't very pleasant. We
don't really love going to chapel to hear the sermons. We wish
they finished. We wish we didn't have to go.
Hardness of heart. Abhorreth all manner of meat.
Spiritual food is turned away from. And we partake of the poor
things of time. But what does the word say? And they draw near unto the gates
of death. Well, in that situation, as Israel
of old, so today God's people are blessed. And this is what
happened. Then they cry unto the Lord in
their trouble. And he saveth them out of their
distresses. And how was it done? Just note
this. He sent his Word, the Word of God, and healed them and delivered
them from their destructions. What a gracious and kind God
they had. What a kind and gracious God
we have. And so the psalmist then says,
and it's good to notice this, and we should notice it, then
and then he said oh that men would praise the lord for his
goodness and for his wonderful works for the children of men
well when did we last praise god for his goodness and for
his wonderful works toward us when did we last Praise God. When we last praised God so that
the people knew about it, it wasn't just some silent little
murmuring to ourselves. It's good to testify of the Lord's
goodness and mercy and blessing. And so Jeremiah says here, hear
the word of the Lord. O ye nations, the word of the
Lord is given to us to hear it, Not to ignore it, not to think
it doesn't have any reference to our life. The Word of God
always has reference to our life. Our problem is we're so ignorant
so often that we turn away from it and don't actually recognize
what it is. And here we have what Jeremiah
told Israel, And declare it in the isles afar off, and say,
He that scattered Israel will gather him and keep him. as a shepherd doth his flock."
Well, what a promise that was. Try and imagine, now they were
scattered abroad, scattered around in Babylon and other places,
far off from their homeland, far off from Israel, far off
from Jerusalem rather, far off from the temple. They knew they'd
have been destroyed. Now they were in a desolate country
with no facility. to worship God as they had been
able to. And here Jeremiah gives this
prophecy. You can imagine, I hope we can
imagine, there they were in Babylon and they pick up this prophecy
and they read it and they're encouraged to believe that it
has a reference to them. And that which Jeremiah had said
so far had come to pass. They'd gone down into captivity
and now they were looking forward to what Jeremiah was saying here.
He that scattered Israel will gather
them and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock. You see a shepherd
looks after his sheep. Now you children this morning,
Sunday school. What did you hear this morning
in Sunday school? Can you remember? I asked you all, could you remember
what you heard in Sunday school? Well you heard about the Good
Shepherd, was that right? You heard about the Good Shepherd
and it's a wonderful thing to know that we have a Heavenly
Shepherd who looks after us. What a blessing it is and these
people in Israel, they were told They'd wandered away from God.
See, a shepherd is to keep the sheep together. These had wandered
away from God, and yet the Lord says to them that he will keep
them as a shepherd doth his flock. Well, the Word of God is very
full and very comprehensive, and it's good that we can understand
a truth like that. And then the prophet goes on
to say four, The Lord hath redeemed Jacob. Jacob, of course, means
Israel. It means his people. It's another
name for Israel. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob
and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than
he. That means they were recovered. And that was true with regard
to Israel. And my friends, it's true with
regard to the true Church of God. And what a blessing today
if you and I can trace out in our hearts the blessed work of
the Spirit of God to know that the Lord has redeemed us and
that he's ransomed us. That means he's paid the price
for our freedom. Now, it is very important that
you and I understand the need for this in our spiritual life. Because all of us needs to be
redeemed. We need to be brought back to
God. And my friends, you and I cannot
do that ourselves. As much as we may try to, because
by nature we are enmity with God. But this proves the greatness
of God. and we should desire and may
we desire and may we pray that we may have great views of God,
a God who is so kind and so gracious that he indeed has redeemed our
souls We're now not talking about our natural body. Our natural
body will die. Our soul will live forever. And that soul needs to be clean. It needs to be freed from all
the sins that we commit, all the sins that we've ever committed,
and all the sins that we shall commit. And you and I cannot
redeem ourselves. It is impossible and we need
therefore to be redeemed for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob. The Lord has redeemed his people. What a blessing then today as
we can realise we have a great glorious Redeemer. Who is that? I wonder if you young people
know who our Redeemer is? I wonder if you know who he is?
Well, he is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is the only one that can
save our souls, the only one who can redeem us, the only one
who can indeed bring us back to him. And here we have this
word spoken to Israel with regard to their natural returning to
their their home and to be able to come and worship. But the
Lord redeems his people so that they may be taken to their eternal
home. Are we looking forward to our
eternal home? Are we looking forward to being
found in heaven at last? Or do we not want to go there? Do we want to stay on this earth?
You want to stay and enjoy, as we read in the Hebrews of Moses,
but he didn't, to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. You see,
if we spend our time in this world just looking after ourselves
and in trying to enjoy ourselves in the things of this world,
one thing is certain, we have to leave them all behind. when
we die. You won't be able to take anything
out of this life. Nothing. The Word of God tells
us that we came into this world with nothing, we were naked,
and we go out of this world with nothing, we're naked. Nothing. So you won't be able to take
anything with you. So therefore let us not concentrate on the
things of time. Let us concentrate on the things
of eternity. And here we have this truth,
the Lord hath redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand
of him that was stronger than he. So may we be urgent before
God that we may know that we are those who are redeemed. That
means we've been brought back to God and the price has been
paid for our redemption. And a wonderful price it was.
And the price was the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's good just to stop and think
of that. The only way that you and I are
to be saved from our sins is through the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And again, let us try and put
it in context. Jesus Christ, the great God,
the creator of all things, the very true God, so wonderfully,
amazingly condescending to come into this world and to die for
the specific purpose to redeem his people from all their sins
and fit them that glorious habitation to be with him forever. Surely
it is a most amazing consideration and especially if God shows you
and me how unworthy we are of any notice and definitely not
worthy of anybody dying for us and definitely not worthy of
Almighty God dying for us. He might have said, oh what matchless
condescension of Almighty God to come down and to die in our
place. My friends, if there was no Saviour,
there'd be no salvation, there'd be no heaven. These people needed
to be redeemed from Babylon. You and I need to be redeemed
from a deserved hell. And so what a blessing it is
if we have an understanding of the cost it was to redeem our
souls. The Lord Jesus Christ gave himself. Oh, may Christ appear very attractive
to you and me, as we think of him as the friend of sinners,
the glorious saviour who so willingly died to take away all of our
sins. And we weren't any better than
the Israelites. We sinned against lighter knowledge,
We disobeyed God, we hardened our heart, just like they did,
and yet the mercy of God to them, and yet the mercy of God to us.
Oh, rejoice in it tonight, friends. Therefore, they shall come and
sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness
of the Lord, wheat and for wine and for oil and for the young
of the flock and of the herd and their soul shall be as a
water garden and they shall not sorrow any more at all. You see the wonderful blessings
which are to be known with the knowledge of the Saviour redeeming
us. This must put a song in our heart. This must put praise upon our
lips. And therefore, such words are
very relevant to us aren't they? Therefore, says Jeremiah, they
shall come. And you and I will come. And
we must come. Because of this great salvation. Because of this great redemption.
because of this glorious ransom. What a saviour. My friends, never
weary, never weary in meditating on our great salvation and never
weary in considering the cost of it and realise the reason
we have therefore to come and sing in the height of Zion and
that really means surely Zion of course was the place of worship
and the church of God and seeing in the height of Zion in the
church of God to show forth his praise and to the goodness of
the Lord. Well do you and I know this goodness? I hope we do and if we don't
I hope we'll pray for it earnestly that we might be the recipients
of it and bless God. And you see, there was a fullness
here. They were going to be fed with
that food which was so wonderful and suitable for them. And so
it is with the Church of God. They're fed, spiritually fed
from His Word. My friends, do you and I feed
upon the Word of God? Yes, and feed upon, as the blessed
saviour says, except you eat the flesh and drink the blood
in a spiritual way, there is no life in you. Don't think you're
a spiritual person. Don't think you're a saved person,
unless you rejoice in what Christ has done in his death and resurrection. There, my friends, is eternal
food. And that's what you're rejoicing.
And that will be life to you. And it will be reality. And you'll
bless God for it. And you'll be able to come then
and feed as these people were promised, as they were to return
to Zion. And then he says, then shall
the Virgin rejoice in a dance, both young men and old together.
You see, grace brings people together, young and old, different
races, different nationalities. It's a great leveler. It brings
people together, old and young, man and female. They're all one
in Christ Jesus. And what a blessed thing it is
to be able to come and to rejoice together. And then says Jeremiah,
for I will turn their mourning into joy. Now, the church of
God do mourn. No doubt about it. If you and
I true believers who will mourn over our sin, but it won't stop
there, and after Him, the blessed Redeemer. And so we have this
truth, the Lord will turn mourning into joy, because true mourning
is before God. That means we are really sorry
for our sins. It doesn't mean we forget them
and push them aside. It means we're sorry for them.
It means we confess our sins. It means we mourn over them.
Is that true? Am I speaking the truth? Do you
understand what I'm speaking? Do you believe what I'm speaking?
Do you know what I'm speaking? And the Lord said, I will turn
their mourning into joy. No mourning, no true joy. Can't be, can there? I will turn their mourning into
joy and will comfort them and make them rejoice from their
sorrow. And make them rejoice. Yes, the
Lord does it. And what the Lord does, my friends,
is done forever. And as Isaiah said, when he wrote
the 40th chapter of Isaiah, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith
your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received the Lord's hand double for all
her sins." Oh, what a gracious God we have, don't we? What a
wonderful God we have. A God who grants His comfort
to His people and the joy which comes. He will comfort them and
make them rejoice from their sorrow. Yes, to rejoice in what
Christ has done. Rejoice in forgiveness. Forgiveness is a joyful sound,
as the hymn writer said, to malefactors, that means offenders of the law
of God, who are guilty before a holy God. It's good news. My
friends, it will be good news to you and to me tonight and
at all times. if we are blessed with this wonderful
evidence that God has forgiven us. There is therefore now no
condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit. That's the confirmation
of God's Word. And it is true. Wonderful, isn't
it? No condemnation. However bad
we've been, however bad we are, no condemnation because Christ
has died. He rather is risen again. So, says the Word, and will comfort
them and make them rejoice from their sorrows. So, what do we
conclude? There must be rejoicing. There
must be praise to Almighty God. My friends, the Church of God
are there to show forth the praise of God. And what a mercy it is
when you and I have something to praise God for. Well, tonight, look into your
heart. Have you got anything to praise
God for? If I gave you a paper and pencil
tonight and said, write down The things that you've got reason
to praise God for. Well, would there be a big long
list? Or would there be nothing? Now, my friends, that falls into
two categories. The praise to God for natural
blessings, for help in natural things. Perhaps you're youngsters
in passing exams. There's reason to praise God
for that, very much so. Provision of jobs, very much
so. Reason to praise God. But greater
than that is to praise God for His work in our souls. To realise that He's blessed
us with heavenly blessings. And that we're a new creature.
Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. And that is greater reason to
praise God. And my friends, we all need to
be there. We all need to have reason to praise God for spiritual
blessings. And if you haven't, if you haven't
earnestly pray to God that you will have. Because we will have
cause to praise God. before we die, if we are to go
to heaven, we won't go to heaven without praising God. We won't
go to heaven without the knowledge of salvation in our souls. And
what a favour then to know that Lord has given us to rejoice
and make them rejoice from their sorrows. is turned into joy. But there will be sorrow, there
will be mourning, there must be sorrow, there must be mourning,
otherwise there is no joy, otherwise there is no rejoicing. The two
go together, but they do go together. And what a mercy it is when you
and I are participators of this wonderful blessing. And then
finally in this little section he says, and I will satiate satisfy,
soakers it were, the soul, the priests with fatness, and they
shall be able to preach the gospel, set forth a glorious gospel,
and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord."
Well that's a wonderful statement isn't it? To be satisfied with
the goodness of the Lord. David said, didn't he, in the
23rd Psalm, and I'm not sure if you had it this morning, but
you may have done the 23rd Psalm, you youngsters, where David says,
surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life. And I will dwell in the house
of the Lord forever. There was a good prospect. There
was a good end. And his confidence was in God. And so may our confidence be
in God. You see, the Word of God, as
I often say, is very positive. Bless God for that. And my people
shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord. The Lord is speaking,
not man. God is speaking. And my friends,
you and I can rely upon the Word of God. Don't rely upon the Word
of man. Rely upon the Word of God. And bless God today. that
we have the Word of God to go to, the
Word of God to read, the Word of God to meditate upon, the
Word of God to be corrected, the Word of God to be constructed,
the Word to be encouraged, and the Word of God to bless. Well,
my friends, tonight ponder these thoughts in the prophecy of Jeremiah
to Israel of old, but equally to us today. so that we may be
able to come to mourn over our shortcomings, our sinfulness,
and yet to rejoice and enjoy in the goodness and blessing
of almighty God. Amen.