Let us turn once more to the
Word of God. We read in Jeremiah chapter 32. Turning to the following chapter
now, chapter 33. Jeremiah chapter 33 and I'll
read the first three verses. 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, Thus saith the Lord, the Maker
thereof, the Lord that formed it to establish it, the Lord
is his name. Call unto me, and I will answer
thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest
not. I want, with the Lord's help,
to take those words at verse 3. and consider them for our
text this evening. Call unto me, and I will answer
thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest
not." Jeremiah 33, 3. We're told in the opening verse
how God's Word, the Word of the Lord, came unto Jeremiah the
second time. And the reference, of course,
is to be understood in terms of what we have in that previous
chapter. Remember the beginning of chapter 32, the word that
came to Jeremiah from the Lord, in the 10th year of Zedekiah,
king of Judah, which was the 18th year of Nebuchadrezza. So God's word had come to him
there in the previous chapter and God's words now comes again. And on that previous occasion
we see the consequence when God's word came to him ultimately how
the prophet himself moved to words and he turns to the Lord
God in prayer here in verse 16 of that 32nd chapter. I pray
unto the Lord, saying, Our Lord God, behold, Thou hast made the
heaven and the earth by Thy great power and stretched out arm,
and there is nothing too hard for Thee. Thou showest loving
kindness unto thousands, and recompense the iniquity of the
fathers into the bosom of their children after them. The great,
the mighty God, the Lord of hosts, is His name, great in counsel,
mighty in work, or thine eyes are open upon all the ways of
the sons of men, and so forth. So he is moved. Having heard
God's word, having received that word from the Lord, he has moved
himself to address the Lord in his prayers. And interestingly,
Again here, we see that as God's word comes to him, so that word
is really a call to prayer. And that's what we have, of course,
in the words of our text. Call unto me, says God. Call
unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty
things which thou knowest not. And so, to consider this call
to prayer, the call prayer. And I want us to examine it in
a two-fold fashion. First of all, we have here the
command of God, we have this exhortation to pray, but then
also we have the promise of God. God doesn't just give his people
bare commandments, but so often he graciously comes with something
more, even a promise. And the promise of God, of course,
is the encouragement to pray. And that's the division that
I want us to follow as we look at the text. The command, the
exhortation to pray, and then secondly, the promise and the
encouragement that comes by and through the promise. First of
all then, to consider the commands. And we see here that it is the
Lord God himself who is the speaker. Moreover the word of the Lords
came unto Jeremiah the second time. And the fact that it's
the second time is surely indicative that it is a gracious word. It
is ever a gracious word when God comes and addresses His people,
addresses you and me and He comes again and again and again and
again. Isn't it a mercy that we can
gather together Lord's Day by Lord's Day and even on the week
evening and turn to the Word of God and look to the Lord as
that One who will speak to us by His Spirit in His work. Think of the gracious way in
which he dealt with the prophet Jonah. When God's word came to
him initially, how disobedient he was. How he thrust God's word
from him and instead of seeking to act in obedience to the command
and travel to Nineveh, which was to the east, he deliberately
goes far west. He goes on ship seeking to go
all the way to Tarshish at the western extremity of the Mediterranean
Sea, he was a disobedient man. And God pursued him. We've considered
in times past something of the experience of that man how God
pursues after him and restores him. And what does God do? Ultimately,
we're told how the word of the Lord came onto Jonah the second
time. It's a mercy when God comes to
us with His Word, not just once, but time and time again. Who is the speaker here? It is
the Lord, and we see how it is in fact the Covenant God, as
we see so many times here in the Old Testament Scriptures.
It's Jehovah. It's the Great I Am That I Am. And see how He speaks of Himself.
in the second verse, thus saith the Lord, the maker thereof,
the Lord that formed it, to establish it. The Lord is his name. What is his name? He is Lord,
Lord, Lord. Does he not remind us of the
great truth of God himself, the very doctrine of God, the doctrine
of the Triniton? He is Father, He is Son, He is
Holy Ghost. And yet not three gods, not three
lords, but one God. One glorious Jehovah God who
subsists in those three persons. But how this is the name, of
course, that we associate with God's covenant in particular.
Oh yes, when the Prophet addresses God previously, there in verse
18 of chapter 32, he is mindful of His greatness, the Great,
the Mighty God. The Lord of Hosts is His Name.
But this Mighty God, this Majestic God, this All-Powerful and Sovereign
God, is also the God of the Covenant. And that's what this name, this
threefold name in verse 2 so much reminds us of. There is
a covenant and that covenant is rooted of course in the very
doctrine of God. There's an inter-trinitarian
covenant. There's a covenant that was entered
into by the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost concerning the
salvation of the sinful sons of men, the purpose of the Father,
that eternal purpose. And then that which was accomplished
in time when the Son is sent to accomplish salvation, to procure
salvation, the purchase of people by the shedding of His precious
blood, and then the blessed work of the Holy Spirit as that one
who will take that work of Christ and make it a reality as He brings
it home into the experience of the sinner's soul. Oh, this is
the covenant, the inter-Trinitarian covenant. And here we read of
the covenant, God is the one who is speaking to his servant,
the prophet. Thus saith the Lord. The word of the Lord came unto
Jeremiah, I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Well, Jacob's sinful sons must
be consumed before the holiness of this God and yet in his mercy
how God deals so graciously. You see this is very much a gospel
word that we have in the text. What does God say to the sinner?
He says call on to me. What a word this is that God
should utter such and address himself in this fashion to a
sinner. Call unto me. It is so much a gospel word that
we have there. What does the law do? We know
that God has a law and that law is holy, that commandment is
holy, it's just, it's good. The law itself is a revelation
of God. But what is the ministry of the
law? The law silences the sinner. That's what the law does. It
silences the sinner. That's what the Apostle says,
is it not, there in Romans 3.19? We know that what thingsoever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before
God. All the law does that, it stops
the mouths of men, it silences men, when it comes in all its
great condemning power. And remember how in Hebrews chapter
12 The apostle there draws a contrast between God in the law and God
in the gospel. He speaks of Mount Sinai and
Mount Zion as he draws that comparison. And what does he say of Sinai? It's blackness, darkness, tempest,
the sound of the trumpet, the voice of words. And other people
tremble and even Moses there at Mount Sinai trembles. Oh,
when God comes in His holy law, what can sinners say? They're
dumbfounded. They're silent. They have nothing
to say. They're guilty sinners. And that's
the ministration of the law. It's a ministration of condemnation. It's a ministration of death.
But this is gospel. God says, here, call. Call unto
me. Take with you words, turn to
the Lord, say, take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously. Come now, and let us reason together,
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow,
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as warm. For He
is God, you see, when He comes to the sinner, and that is such
a command as He is called. unto me. And what is it to call
upon God? It's interesting, isn't it? Amazing, really, when we go back
to the beginning. Do you remember those two sons
of Adam and Eve? How they came, slew his brother
Abel. And there we have the two seeds,
you see, the godly seeds. in Abel, the ungodly seed, in
Cai, and then another son is born, Seth. And then Seth has a son called
Enos. And what do we read at the end
of Genesis chapter 4, upon the birth of Enos, then began men
to call upon the name of the Lord. Then began men to call
upon the name of the Lord. That's the mark. That's the mark
of the godly seed. They call upon the name of the
Lord. And where are the godly seed
today? Well, isn't that what the Church
is, or what the Church should be? When the Apostle dresses
himself to the church at Corinth, there in his first epistle, yes,
he addresses himself to a particular church situated there, in the
city of Corinth. But remember what he says. It's
not just to them he says this, it's with all that in every place
call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours. It's not just addressed to Corinth
and it's addressed to all in every place who are calling upon
the name of the Lord. Of course, those New Testament
epistles that Paul addresses to particular churches are part
of the canon of Scripture. This is God's word to his church.
And what is the church made up of? It's made up of those who
are callers upon the name of the Lord. Again, the apostle
writing to Timothy speaks of them that call on the Lord out
of a pure heart. them that call on the name of
the Lord out of a pure heart. None of us have a pure heart
by nature. Surely if there is that sincere calling upon the
name of the Lord, it has come about because of the gracious
work of God in the sinner's heart. It's the evidence of a new heart.
It's God fulfilling the promise of the covenant. A new heart,
he says. Oh, I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh, I will give you a heart of flesh. Them
that call on the name of the Lord out of a pure heart. This
is what God has promised to do in that New Covenant, and we
read it. We read it there in the previous chapter at verse
39, is it? I will give them one heart. That's what God says, verse 39,
I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me
forever for the good of them and of their children after them
and I will make a neverlasting covenant with them that I will
not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear
in their hearts that they shall not depart from me." Oh, what
a heart is that! And that's the heart that the
Apostle is speaking of there in 2 Timothy. Them that call
on the name of the Lord out of a pure heart. It's what God has
done in the soul of that sinner. So God comes here. He is the
Speaker. He utters these words of exhortation. this word of command call unto
me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things
which thou knowest not now I've said something with regards
to the person who speaks it's the word of God it's the voice
of the Lord who is the one spoken to? well this is a word that's
very personal because it addressed to a particular man. Moreover
the word of the Lord came on to Jeremiah. It came on to Jeremiah. And what are we told concerning
this man? He was shut up in the court of
the prison. It comes to a man who is a prisoner. And we read, of course, the previous
chapter and saw what the circumstances were. There, in verse 3 of that
chapter, said Hekiah, king of Judah, had shot him up, saying,
Wherefore dost thou prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord,
Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of
Babylon, and he shall take it. The king hates him because of
his faithfulness in proclaiming the word of God. He's speaking
of God's judgments and so Zedekiah has taken him and shot him up
in the prison because he so hates the message that he is proclaiming.
It's a personal word. It's to one who is seeking to
be the faithful prophet in his day and generation, but he's
a prisoner. But we must always remember this,
how all these things happened unto them for examples, and they're
written for our learning, upon whom the ends of the world are
come. Isn't that a tremendous thought? What Paul is saying
there in 1 Corinthians 10-11, all these things, he's been speaking
of the Old Testament, in particular he's been speaking of the days
of Moses, but it's It embraces all that we have in the Old Testament.
All these things happened unto them for examples. Why are they
written? For our learning. He's telling those Corinthians
all these things are for our learning. For the learning of
all those in every place who are calling upon the name of
the Lord. Or there's something to be learned here. And so We'd be very wrong simply
to consider the word in that historical sense and think only
in terms of Jeremiah. It's the word of God. And it's
the word of God that he addresses to those who like Jeremiah are
shut up. Now there are not times in our
experience when we feel that we're shut up. We're shut up
to what we are, we feel it. We shut up so often to our situations,
our circumstances. There seems no way out. Or when
the Lord begins with us, doesn't he shut us up to what we are
as poor sinners? Makes us feel it. The awful truth
of the total depravity of man. Now the psalmist knew it, I am
shut up, he says I cannot come forth. I can't help myself, I
can't release myself, I can't free myself in any sense. Job
says he shutteth up a man and there can be no opening or when
God is dealing with us you see and bringing us to the end of
ourselves, bringing us as it were to our wits end as we have
it there in Psalm 107 and isn't that the way in which God deals
with us certainly at the beginning in the early days of our experience before faith came Paul says before
faith came we were kept under the law shut up to the faith
which should afterward be revealed we have to learn that we cannot
of ourselves produce that faith or could I but believe then all
would easy be I would but cannot Lord relieve my help must come
from Thee it's only God if we want Real faith, we know there's
only one place where we can ever find that sort of faith. It's
God himself, it's that looking onto Jesus, who is the author
and finisher. It's looking to that God who
was said, by grace you are saved through faith. And that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God. It is that faith that comes,
as we read there in Colossians 2.12, it comes by the operation
of God. And God has to bring us to that.
Oh, here is the one spoken to then, it's that poor soul, who
is so shut up. He can do nothing to release
himself up, but what is he to do? He is to call. He is to call upon God. And when
God speaks, when God speaks, there must be that response. when God says call there must
be a response where the word of the King is there is power
or doesn't God come and say awake awake thou that sleepest arise
from the dead Christ shall give thee light when thou sayest seek in my face
my heart said Lord thy face will I see That's the language again
of the Psalmists, Psalm 27 verse 8. He says to his God, when thou
sayest, seek in my face, my heart said, thy face, Lord, will I
seek. Or when God says it, if God would
just come and say that word, speak that word of command, call
unto me, there must be a response. Even though we feel so shut up,
can we not be those who would just cry to him? Maybe that call
in us sometimes is little more than a sigh, a groan. That's
how we feel. We can't really utter words.
We just have to sigh it out before the Lord. But it is the exhortation. It's an exhortation to prayer.
It is a call to pray. The Lord has said men ought always
to pray and not to faint. And we're so prone to faint and
so slow to pray. But we're to pray. We're to call
upon the Lord. But it's not only the command
of God here. We also have the promise, the
promise of God. And isn't that a tremendous encouragement
to pray? What does He say? Call unto Me
and I will answer thee. There's the promise straight
away. Not just a bare commandment, but the promise so sweetly attached
to it. I will answer thee. Again we
have it there in Psalm 91 and verse 15, He shall call upon
me, and I will answer him. Some of us just last week were
directed to the ministry at the Dicker, last Lord's Day, and
Mr Field on that occasion preached two sermons from that very verse,
Psalm 91 15. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him." And what
language it is? Oh, what language it is! It's
the language of the covenant again. He shall and I will. It reminds us of words that we
have at the end of that long 16th chapter in the book of Ezekiel
the prophet. There at verse 62, God says,
I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know
that I am the Lord. I will, thou shalt, I will establish
my covenant, thou shalt know that I am the Lord. And so, we see it here, God says,
He shall, and I will. Or we sang it, didn't we? In
that lovely hymn of William Cooper's? That were a grief I could not
bear, Didst thou not hear and answer prayer? But a prayer hearing,
answering God, Supports me under every load. The God that we have
to do with doesn't just hear our prayers, He answers our prayers. And that's how we're to pray.
with that spirit of expectation that God will answer our prayer
and in faith then we should be looking and watching and waiting
for the return of all those prayers I said not under the seed of
Jacob seek in my face in vain he says well they're not vain
words When God gives His commandment and adds such a promise, call
unto Me, He says, I will answer them. He answers prayers. And how the Lord Jesus Christ
emphasizes this so much in His own ministry. Ask, He says, and
it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock
and it shall be opened unto you. Everyone that asketh, receiveth. He that seeketh, findeth. to
him that knocketh it shall be opened everyone that's what the
Lord says everyone that asks and then it's more personal he that seeketh findeth he that
knocketh the singular you see it shall be opened or the Lord
is the God who has given us this holy ordinance of prayer and
he will honor it and He is able to do exceeding abundantly above
all that we ask or think. What does Jeremiah say previously? In that chapter that we read,
that 32nd chapter, he's speaking very much of course of the exile,
the 70 years that they're going to have to endure there in Babylon. But God will, in His appointed
time, deliver them. And he says as much. He says
as much. There in chapter 29. After 70 years be accomplished
at Babylon, verse 10, I will visit you and perform my good
word toward you in causing you to return to this place. For
I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts
of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then
shall you call upon Me, and you shall go and pray unto Me, and
I will hearken unto you, and you shall seek Me and find Me,
when you shall search for Me with all your hearts, and I will
be found of you, saith the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity,
and I will gather you from all the nations and from all the
places. Whither I have driven you, saith
the Lord, and I will bring you again unto the place whence I
caused you to be carried away captive." Oh God, you see, He hears and
answers prayers. That's the assurance of His promise. all those exceeding great and
precious promises and they're all yay and they're all amen
in the Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of God it's all for the
glory of God it's all by us as God answers our poor prayers
He is glorified and yet well if we're honest if I'm honest
I have to say so slow to pray ye have not because ye ask not
says James ye have not because ye ask not ye ask and ye receive
not because ye ask and miss that ye might consume it upon your
lusts and yet God is that one who watches to pray who watches
to pray doesn't he how the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous
how his ears are open unto their cry His eyes are over them, His
ears open to them. And it's interesting the connection
isn't it? His ears are open, we have the ear of God, He hears
us when we pray and His eyes, His eyes are open, His eyes are
everywhere. The eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through
the whole earth we're told. The seven eyes which are the
seven spirits of God sent forth into all the world. God looks, Oh, God answers the prayer. And
how does He answer the prayer? He looks and He attends to all
the needs of His people. That's the way God is. That's
His promise. Where to call, He will answer.
He will answer. God answers prayer. That's the
promise. But more than that, God really
promises to reveal Himself. What does He say? I will answer
thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest
not. Great and mighty things which
thou knowest not and He's going to show His people. He will show
them these great and mighty things. What are the unknown mighty things
that are being spoken of here? Well, of course historically
in the context it is clearly the restoration from Babylon. Verse 6, Behold I will bring
it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto
them the abundance of peace and truth. I will cause the captivity
of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build
them as at the first. And then again, in verse 11 he
says, the voice of joy, the voice of gladness, the voice of the
bridegroom, 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." Or Jeremiah will go on of course to lament, we have
his book of lamentations, lamenting over the desolations of Jerusalem. But what of it? Oh, what of it?
Well, it says here at verse 2, "...the maker thereof, the Lord
that formed it." It's referring to Jerusalem. The Lord formed
it at first. The Lord established it. It was
there that Zion was set. It was there that He had His
special dwelling in the midst of the tabernacle and the temple.
And it's all going to be restored. Now, as we've seen, In a sense,
Jeremiah already had that promise. Remember those words that we
just read back in chapter 29? There, at verse 10 following,
he already had that promise. Surely here, if these things
are written for our learning, upon whom the ends of the world
are come, We must recognize that there's a spiritual blessing
here. These are the deep things of
God. God says He's going to show great
and mighty things which thou knowest not. Now Jeremiah already
knew about restoration, chapter 29 as I say, verse 10 following. What are these other things?
These are spiritual blessings. This really concerns the New
Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem, a spiritual building, that that
would descend, as it were, from heaven itself. All remember how
it's spoken of there at the end of Scripture, Revelation 21 and
verse 10, John says, He carried me away in the Spirit to a great
and high mountain and show me that great city, the Holy Jerusalem,
descending out of heaven from God? This is something great
that God is going to do. And where does it begin? And
when does it begin? It begins, it begins under the
Gospel. It's that that God does at the
ends of the earth the last days look at what we're
told in the book of the prophet Isaiah there in the in the second
chapter of Isaiah and the second verse it shall
come to pass in the last days that's the ends of the earth
that period that Paul is speaking of there in 1 Corinthians chapter
10 when he speaks of those things
that are written for our learning upon whom the ends of the world
are come. It shall come to pass in the
last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established
in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the
hills, and all nations shall flow into it. And many people
shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain
of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will
teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths, for out
of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem." This is the Gospel you see. Here we have that law that goes
forth out of Zion. Oh, I remarked just now of how
the contrast is drawn in Hebrews 12 between Mount Sinai, the law,
and Mount Zion, the Gospel. And here we have that that goes
forth from Zion, the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. It's
a Gospel promise. It's a Gospel promise. And that's
what we're to understand here, in what it says at the end of
our text, God showing the great and mighty things which thou
knowest not. The word mighty, you see, in
the margin it says hidden things. Hidden things. Oh, it's that
new covenant. It's that that's spoken of later. In verse 20, thus saith the Lord,
If ye can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the
night, and that 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 my ministers. Whilst there is
day and night, as long as the earth endures, God's covenant
stands. that's the covenant of grace and what or what is grace? Grace is that glory in the blood
in the bud and glory heaven is that full grace or grace in the
full flower we might say or it's gospel that's being spoken of
here and God has to reveal it how can anyone know the gospel
except the Lord God Himself reveals it to them. That was Paul's experience. He
pleased God, he says, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me. It's a revelation. God revealed His Son in Saul
of Tarsus, and he became Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles.
Remember the words of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, there in
Matthew 11, 25. Oh, we thank the Father. I thank
thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast
hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed
them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto
me of my Father. And no man knoweth the Son save
the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son. And he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal him. Those are the words of the Lord
Jesus. There must be that revelation. The Father revealing the Son,
the Son revealing the Father. How was it that Peter could make
his great confession? Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. Flesh and blood hath not revealed
it unto thee. But my Father, which is in heaven,
it's the revelation of the Gospel, showing great and mighty or hidden
things which thou knowest not. We know nothing of it when we're
dead in trespasses and sins. That's our condition, ignorance. How the mind is darkened. How
we're in blindness. Oh, but what is this message
of the Gospel? Well, it's the cleansing of sin. The sati will cleanse them from
all their iniquity whereby they have sinned against me. and I
will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned and
whereby they have transgressed against me." It's a promise of
the forgiveness of sins, the purging away the transgressions,
all in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a
clothing. It's a clothing with robes of
righteousness. What do we read? Verse 15, in those days, and
in that time, you see this expression again, the last days. In those days, at that time,
will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David, and he
shall execute judgment and righteousness in the Lord. Who is the branch
of righteousness that grows up unto David? Isn't this David's
greatest son? the branch out of the root of
Jesse, David's father. He shall execute judgment and
righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be
saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the name
wherewith she shall be called the Lord our righteousness."
What is Jerusalem going to be called? Jehovah Sidkenu, it says
in the margin, the Lord our righteousness. That's her name. And that is
also, of course, as we see previously in chapter 23 and verse 6, that
is His name. This is the name whereby He shall
be called. He is the Lord our righteousness,
and she also is the Lord our righteousness. Well, this is
the promise. It's the great promise of the
Gospel. And how do we come to partake
of that blessed promise? Well, we go back to the beginning
of the text. Call. Call unto me, says God. Or if
we would, but seek Him. Ask, it shall be given. Seek,
ye shall find. Knock, it shall be opened. Call! And there's an answer. And the
answer is all that fullness of grace laid up in the person,
the blood, the righteousness, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and
mighty things which thou knowest not. May the Lord bless his word
to us. Amen.