If you would, turn with me to
the Old Testament book of Jeremiah chapter 50, please. Jeremiah
chapter 50. Israel's history at the end of
the time of their kings, the Israelites, they were attacked
and they were captured by Nebuchadnezzar II, who was king of Babylon.
The Babylonian army completely destroyed the temple in Jerusalem
and very much of the city. And the Israelites wound up spending
70 years in captivity in Babylon. The time leading up to Israel's
captivity in Babylon is recorded in 2 Kings and in 2 Chronicles,
during which the Israelites had lived unfaithfully to God by
worshiping false idols and sometimes going as far as sacrificing their
own children to these idols. In Jeremiah chapter 25, God used
Jeremiah, his prophet, to warn his people against their idolatry
and to tell them that they would be captured by Babylon if they
didn't repent. God said, turn ye from your evil
ways. Turn ye from your evil doings. Go not after other gods to serve
and worship them. Provoke me not to anger to your
own hurt. But Israel didn't heed the warning
of God through his prophet Jeremiah, and God did what he said he would. You know what? He always does. I found it very interesting in
reading the 25th chapter of Jeremiah that God himself referred to
King Nebuchadnezzar as his servant. It's true. God will use this
wicked Babylonian king to fulfill and accomplish his purpose in
utterly destroying the nation of Israel. To use God's exact
wording, he said this, he said that he would make Israel an
astonishment He said, and a hissing, that word means a mockery. They'd
be a mockery to those who looked upon them. He said they would
be a perpetual desolation and that they would serve the King
of Babylon for 70 years. And that's exactly what happened.
But after these 70 years were accomplished, I found this very
interesting. God said that he would also punish
the King of Babylon and the nation of Babylon for their iniquity
against Israel. This is what I want you to see.
Wicked men serve the purpose of God, but they're still responsible
for their own actions. Now here in Jeremiah chapter
50, the prophet Jeremiah foretells that in the day when God would
break the power of Babylon, that their captives, Israel, should
return into their own land. This seems to be a very simple
observation, but it's so full of comfort when we remember that
it's symbolic to the people of God. By nature, we are all captives
under the power of Satan, under the power of sin, and even the
power of self. These are the great Babylon that
has carried captive even the elect of God. Just as Israel
found comfort and found hope along with expectation in getting
back to Jerusalem, to the land of promise, you and I can find
great comfort and hope as we desire to escape from the power
of sin, self, and Satan. God has appointed and anointed
them a great champion who will fight and conquer and overthrow
their enemies. And yes, they bruised his heel
as they left him bleeding on the cross. But he, the Lord Jesus,
crushed the head of our enemy. And when he did, he cried, it
is finished. And our Lord broke to pieces
every single power that was against us. How do we overcome? The scripture
is very plain. we overcome by the blood of the
Lamb. All who trust in His great sacrifice
shall become more than conquerors themselves. Child of God, you
may feel defeated this morning, but if you look to Christ and
you trust in Him as your great champion, you yourself are more
than conquerors. Christ has led captivity captive. Christ has triumphed over our
great enemy. And not only was the nation of
Babylon destroyed, but mystical Babylon, which the nation of
Babylon pictured and typifies was and is forever destroyed
for the everlasting freedom and salvation of God's elect. Therefore
Babylon's destruction is for Israel's salvation. The Lord
deals with Babylon in a way of vengeance, and he does so that
he may deliver his own people. You know, when Pharaoh, when
his army was drowned in the Red Sea, Israel was saved. A little
later on, when Israel came up against Sihon and Og, the wicked
kings, God destroyed them and God's people were delivered.
Therefore, when the Lord deals with Babylon here in a way of
vengeance, it's that he may deliver his own people from their sin. A greater than Cyrus has broken
the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron asunder and proclaimed
liberty to the captives. And that is our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. The gospel is all about him,
friends. It's all about what he's done for us. Because of
Christ's accomplished work of redemption, you and I may now
return to our God, and we may freely enjoy being reconciled
to Him forever in Zion, the holy and spiritual kingdom of heavenly
Jerusalem. And every sinner that seeks the
Lord will be certain that they're seeking Him aright. For so long,
like lost sheep, we wandered from mountain to hill and from
hill to mountain, looking for that resting place which belongs
to the sheep of the great shepherd. How we return is what we see
in the passage of Scripture before us here in Jeremiah chapter 50.
Let's begin by looking at verse four, and I pray that the Lord
might be pleased to use these feeble words of mine to once
again point you to Christ and to salvation. In verse four,
we read, in those days and in that time, saith the Lord, the
children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah
together. Now, I want to just pause briefly
there to remind you that between Israel and Judah, there was an
old feud. Though they were members of the
same family, they had long lived in a state of hatred and hostility
one to another. And that's another story for
another time. But here we see that when sinners
are touched by a feeling of their sin, a general remorse and sorrow
over their sin, they'll forget their contention for one another
and come to the throne of love and compassion together. Look
at what it says there. In those days, and in that time,
saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and
the children of Judah together. Friends, Christ is the Lord and
God of both Israel and Judah, and He is who we must come to. Look at verse five. Well, let's
read verse four again with verse five. In those days and in that
time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and
the children of Judah together, going and weeping, they shall
go and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion
with their faces thitherward. saying, come and let us join
ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten. Now, in order for us to understand
salvation, we have to start at the beginning. First, the Lord's
restored ones, by God's grace, were first and foremost mourners. That's what I want you to see.
Israel and Judah came together. It says going and weeping. going
and weeping. You see, with the child of God,
their sense of sin is a terrible thing. Well, that's what makes
the gospel wonderful. God has provided the remedy for
your sin. With the child of God, our sense
of sin is terrible. And the Jews no doubt regretted
the sins which drove them into their captivity. How could they
be restored to God without weeping their former estranged When a
sinner's heart has no mourning over guilt, if they have no grief
that they have grieved God, there can be no acceptance with God.
There must be repentance toward God if there is ever to be any
acceptance with Him. You see, a true heart that is
coming to God feels its sin, feels its guilt, feels its unworthiness,
and therefore it mourns. Did you notice that that word
weeping is sandwiched between two goings? Verse four says,
going and weeping, they shall go and seek the Lord their God.
You see, to seek repentance for sin and then to never go to Christ
for repentance is only a false pretense of repentance. True
repentance always, always, always goes to Christ, our great God,
for the forgiveness of sin. He's the only one who can forgive
our sin. We had better go to Him, hadn't
we? There are many who seek peace.
There are many who seek forgiveness. There are many who seek pardon
for sin. But the sinner who seeks Christ
first and foremost, above all things, will have that peace,
that forgiveness, and that pardon. The Lord himself said, seek ye
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Friends, Jesus
Christ is God's righteousness. The sinner who seeks Christ first
shall have what? All these things added unto them.
All seek the Lord Jesus. You see, the way to repentance
is to have your eye upon the one who was sacrificed in your
room and in your stead. Mark and observe every precious
drop of blood that the Lord shed. Reach forth your finger and put
it into the scars of the hands and the feet and the side of
the Savior's wounds. Be not faithless, but believe. You know, I have more than once
read or heard on the news about a newborn infant being abandoned
and left in a dumpster only to be found by another. That child,
and they pulled him out of the dumpster, was filthy from being
there, naked, unfed, and if you were to ask an expert to make
a list of all the things that child needed, I'm sure they could
come up with a pretty long list. But we could sum up with a word
what that poor infant wants, needs, and requires more than
anything else. It wants, needs, and requires
its mother. If that infant gets its mother,
it has all that it needs. What a poor, wretched sinner
needs is Christ. That's it. And you are rightly
seeking if you're seeking Christ. Nothing short of Him will suffice.
The second thing I want you to see here is that these mourners
became inquirers. Verse five, they shall ask the
way to Zion with their faces thitherward. Now, when the Lord
gives you a sight of your sin, He'll show you the remedy for
it. God gives spiritual sight and life to a sinner so that
they might see Christ. They're not ashamed to confess
their ignorance. Minds that the Lord has touched
are never boastful of their personal wisdom, and they're never ashamed
of their ignorance. God's people are ever desiring
to learn, ever willing to be taught. Is that not right? They
shall ask the way to Zion. They're traveling in the right
direction, but they desire not to be presumptuous. They pause
and they ask away. They're questioning, but they're
still resolved. God's people are resolved, but
they're not supposing. They're confident, but they're
not arrogant. The gospel of salvation, we must
hear because gospel preaching is the means that God uses to
save those that believe. Zion is the beautiful city of
God. You know why? Because that's
where Christ dwells. By God's grace, nothing is going
to turn the child of God aside. True penitents will have Christ
or they'll die. Though they ask the way, it's
not because they don't know where they're going. They ask not the
way to somewhere or other. They ask the way to Zion, not
some blissful shore that man has imagined. They seek the very
dwelling place of God. They ask boldly, for there's
no room for mistake. They're seeking the Lord, their
God. Their inquiry is persistent, and they seek to find the way,
because there's only one. The Lord said, I am the way. These mourners have become inquirers. Seeking the Lord is the great
distinction between true and false repentance. And then thirdly,
I want you to notice that these who inquire become covenant people. They're the people of God's covenant.
In verse 5, they say to one another, come and let us join ourselves
to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.
I just love that word covenant. Don't you? Without this covenant,
friends, there's no peace at all with God. God's covenant
is an agreement which brings about a relationship of commitment
between God and His people. God gave Christ to people before
the world was ever made, and Christ promised. He entered into
a covenant with His Father. He agreed with His Father. He
committed Himself to redeem each and every one that the Father
gave Him. He said Himself, all that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. and he that cometh to me,
I will in no wise cast out." And that is why Christ is the
Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. To redeem all that
the Father gave Him, He must become their righteousness. He
must fulfill God's law in their room instead. He must satisfy
God's justice in their place. We can't do it. He must do it
for us. What a covenant this is. This
can only be accomplished by the shedding of His own blood. Christ
is the Lamb slain. Salvation is Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. Paul said, I'm determined not
to know anything else among you. Do you know how you're saved? Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Redemption is God dying for me. And then fourthly, did you notice
how long this covenant is made? It's a perpetual covenant. It's
a never ending covenant that shall not be forgotten. The covenant
of life requires a lifelong commitment. Salvation is not a terminable
lease. You know, we go to lease a building
for a business or even a lease a place to live and it's for
a certain period of time. But this covenant with God is
not on those terms. No, it's perpetual. It's forever. It's everlasting. It's an eternal
inheritance. It's an immortal, eternal possession
given by God to the sinner through His Son. And those who mourned
over their sin. Has God shown you your sin? Do
you mourn over it? Do you hate your sin? Those that
mourned over their sin, they inquired of their Savior. How
do I get to Zion? How do I get to the city of our
great God? And when they did, they saw Him. They heard about Him. They knew
what He had done for them. And they desire to have a perpetual
covenant that shall not be forgotten. Is that what you desire this
morning? Oh, I desire that for you. I desire that for me. May we pray like the penitent
thief and say, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy
kingdom. But you know what? We're the
ones who are likely to forget, not him. The covenant that the
Lord has made with his people, he never ever will forget. Why, it's written in his own
blood. And then fifthly and lastly, what awaits these former captives? Those who had mourned over their
sin, inquired of God's son, their savior, and covenanted with his
father, their God. Sin is completely removed. We say this all the time. When
God looks at us, why does He not see sin? And we can give
a bunch of scriptural answers to that, but the bottom line
is, we don't have any. Look down at verse 20. Oh, this
is the gospel in a verse if I ever read one. In those days and in
that time, sayeth the Lord, This is the Lord saying that. The
iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none. None means none, doesn't it?
Not some. And the sins of Judah, they shall
not be found. For I, God, will pardon them
whom I reserve. It's good news. That is good
news. Before the foundation of the
world, God loved and chose the people. He set his affection
on them. He determined to save them. He gave them to Christ.
Christ said, I won't lose a one of them, Father. I'll enter into
a covenant with you, and every single one of them will come
and be saved. And this is even a more an astonishing
statement when you consider the great iniquities mentioned even
in this text. Israel was a nation chosen out
of the world to be a peculiar people unto the Lord. They were
not chosen because of anything especially good in them, for
they were, as we know, a stiff-necked and a rebellious people. Their
salvation was for one reason only, God's free and sovereign
grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was for Christ's sake that
He saved these wretched, stiff-necked people. What made Israel's iniquity
and rebellion even more black was the fact that it was committed
in spite of God's free love and deliverance and divine blessings
to them. The Israelites, they were not
an ignorant people. They were not left in the darkness
of nature. They had the fullest revelation
of God that was given to any people in their day. God gave
them a Passover lamb. God taught them something about
substitution. God gave them a law that revealed
His holy nature. And God gave them clear types
and pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, they weren't an ignorant
people. No. While that pillar in the
form of a cloud and fire pictured Christ, the presence of God within,
that manna that fell from heaven typified Christ, the bread of
life. Those that eat of that bread
shall never hunger. He's the bread that came down
from heaven. Christ is. From a rock flowed living water. That rock was Christ. All who
looked to the brazen serpent lived, bitten by the serpent
of sin. Moses held up that serpent of
brass and said, look and live. And those who looked lived. No,
they weren't an ignorant people. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. While the blood of a sacrifice
was sprinkled upon the mercy seat." Friends, Christ is our
mercy seat, and it's His blood that was shed upon that mercy
seat. Yet the children of Israel cast
away their God. You might think to yourself,
how could they? And yet we do so ourselves so
often. They turned aside from God and
they bowed down to Baal. They grieved the Lord and they
went after other gods. Israel, who should have been
the most chaste spouse, played the harlot with many lovers.
Their sins were the most inexcusable. You know why? Because of the
greatness of the privileges that God gave them. They were unmatched
in their guilt. Why, even the other heathen nations
of the world didn't forsake their gods. Even the idol worshipers
stayed true to their idols. The heathen blindly and foolishly
clung to their worthless idols, yet the children of Israel cast
away the true and living God. Often they were chastened for
their sin, but as we saw in the first hour, A dog returning to
their vomit, like a sow that loved the mire, they returned
again and again to their sin. They adopted the very worst forms
of idolatry. Why, as I mentioned earlier,
they burned their little children in the fire, offering allegiance
sacrifice to a false god called Moloch. The crimes of Pharaoh
in Egypt were intolerable. The pride of Babylon shook its
fist at God Almighty. The sins of Nineveh reached the
heavens. The guilt of Sodom and Gomorrah
were very great. But the children of Israel in
the race for the prize of evil won first place hands down when
you consider the light and the love and the favor that God showed
them. yet regardless of all these things. We read again in verse 20. In
those days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none. And
the sins of Judah, they shall not be found. Why? Why? God says, for I will pardon them
whom I reserve. Their idolatries, their lust,
their iniquities were swept away and forgotten. Is that not good
news? Oh, if you see your iniquity
and your lust and all your sin, you'll think so, you'll know
so. Crimes accumulated upon crimes, but they were covered in the
depths of the sea. Should not this give hope to
the very chief of sinners? If God so completely took away
the sin, guilt, and crimes of the very blackest of criminals,
why would He not put away your sin? Why can you not have assurance
and hope that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses you
from all sin? So let me leave you on a high
note, and that's a single note of the Gospel. I speak of the
complete pardon spoken of here in verse 20. The iniquity of
Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none. And the
sins of Judah, they shall not be found. Do you remember when
Rachel hid the idols of Laban, her father? She hid them under
the very seat that she was sitting on. And he came into her dwelling
place. He looked for them, couldn't
find them. She was sitting on them and they were there all
the while. When Laban searched for the idols,
he couldn't find them, but they were there. But it's not so with
our sins. They are to be searched for,
but there shall be none. Look for them with a telescope
or a microscope. They won't be found. They have
so effectually been put away that they shall not be found. They're gone. They're gone. And not only shall they not be
discovered, there are none to be discovered. That's the thing
that's so amazing. We have no sin. They're absolutely
annihilated so that they cease to exist. All things are naked
and opened to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. If there
was the faintest little dot or speck of sin upon us, God would
discover it. But God searches for it and He
finds none. After all, does He not search
the heart and try the reins of the children of man? Can we hide
ourselves anywhere from His presence? Can we hide our sin from Him?
And I know that perfect is something that we really know nothing about.
Oh, we use the word, and as I've said before, we see a young newborn
baby and we say, oh, he's just perfect. To be perfect is something
we really know a little bit about, little about. I have never come
close to experiencing perfection in these bodies of flesh and
death in which we live. But we are complete in Him. Complete in Him. Perfect in Christ
Jesus. For He has put away all our iniquities
and He's cast our sins behind His back into the depths of the
sea, never to be found or discovered again. His own declaration to
each of His redeemed one is this, I have blotted out as a thick
cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins. That's what
God Himself said. Can we believe God? Oh, God,
help us to believe you. He's blotted out our sin. Ask
Mary Magdalene. Ask the thief on the cross. Ask
Saul of Tarsus. They'll all tell you the same
thing. He's put away my sin. And I don't have any. Now in
closing, I want you to listen very carefully to what I'm about
to say. When God pardons His people,
He pardons all their sin, and He pardons it all at once. Their
blasphemies, their lust, their pride, their lying, Whatever
their sins may be, He forgives them and puts away every single
one. You see, the blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, I read it to you a minute ago, cleanses us from all sin. All of it, not some, not most,
but all. And without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. That word means cancellation.
There's no cancellation of sin, no putting away of sin. But friends,
God Himself shed His blood for you. So do you know what that
means? There is cancellation. There is remission with the shedding
of blood. To those who trust in Christ
as their substitute and their sacrifice for sin, there is not
one sin recorded in God's book of remembrance against you. Not
one. Well, let me see. I know there's
a Linda Welburn. No sin. Danny Kavanaugh. There's got to be some there.
No. No sin. not a shadow of iniquity,
past, present, or future. A son steals from his father
and the father forgives him. He pardons his son for his wrongdoing,
yet he cannot fully reinstate his confidence and he won't trust
his son with his money as he does the son who never stole
from him. Well, child of God, being in
Christ, God could not love you more than He does right now.
He's given you the promise of a crown Christ is that crown. He's promised you a share in
His Son's throne. He's made you a joint heir with
Christ. He's given you all that He has. What more could He have done
for you and I? You're perfect in His eyes. And
that's all that matters. Christ has presented you holy,
unblameable, and unreprovable where? In His sight. Christ put
away our sin forever. Oh, the cloud may return after
the rain, but the cloud of my sin comes back no more. The son
of God's mercy never sets once it has arisen. The stream of
divine love never dries up once it begins to flow. There is a
river that flows from God above. Christ is that fountain. Christ
is that river that never shall run dry. If pardoned sin can
come back again, how could any child of God ever have any peace
that passes all understanding? How could we ever have any comfort? How could we ever have any assurance?
Once forgiven, sin is no more charged. That's where I find
my peace. That's where I find my comfort.
Once sin is washed away, the filthiness is gone forever. For
if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the
death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved
by His life." That's substitution. So, without delay, just as you
are, stay in your seat and come to Christ. Come to Him in your
heart. Trust in Him and all your sins,
which are many, shall be forgiven. And like Israel and like Judah,
you shall go your way to Zion. rejoicing in the hope and in
the assurance of the love of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. No longer a captive in Babylon. I've been set free. I've been
made free. And now I have life forever. Forever. Have you ever heard
such wondrous news?