His time is always on time, and
I know that He will raise up men as long as He forbears to
come, as long as He waits in coming. There's never been a
generation without a witness, and God will raise up witnesses
to preach His gospel. And I know when the church is
at its lowest point, Our Lord usually waits till that time
to show Himself glorious and mighty. So pray for God's churches, pray
that God would send men into the ministry. I like that word,
thrust them into the ministry. I imagine there's many a man
like Jonah, don't you? Many a man like Jonah. God always
gets His man. And when God thrusts these men out
and you see it, pray for them. Pray for them, they need it.
We need it. We need your prayers constantly
for us so that we might preach the word to you. Ask your prayers for me this
morning. I have a lot to cover and I know I'm not going to be able
to cover it all. But I do pray that God would bless it and establish
our hearts with this. The Word of God is sure. All these fly-by-night religions,
they come and they go. They change with the seasons.
They change with the times. One thing that does not change
is God's Word. because God doesn't change. And this is something we can
rest our souls on, regardless of what happens, regardless of
what changes we experience. This word is the same. It was the same before you got
here, and it'll be the same after you leave here. It's just so,
isn't it? This has been around a long time.
And it'll be here long after we're gone. This Word will stand,
God says, forever. My Word will stand forever. That's
what Peter tells us, all flesh is grass and the flower of glass.
Grass withered, the flower faded, but the Word of the Lord is what
is going to endure forever. And with this, we can rest our soul, right here. You can lay down on it. What's
the sum of this word? What's the whole sum? It is Jesus
Christ. Every bit of it. It's about Christ. So when I rest my soul on the
Word of God, I am resting my soul on Jesus Christ. The same yesterday, today, and
forever. I hope you If you just fall asleep
now, you got it. You got the message right there.
That's the fastest I've ever preached in my life. So you got the message, and I
hope that the Lord will cause it to swell in your hearts and
grow and flourish. Pray for those that are sick.
I haven't heard from anyone being sick, but I do pray for those
that are sick. those that suffer in this body. One thing about being sick is
that you never escape this flesh crying out. Never do. It just is constant. So, pray
for those that are sick. And I know our Lord understands
that. I don't want you to read the bulletin, but if you read
it later, just keep that in mind. Our God knows what's going on.
He's very aware. If he counted the hairs on your
head, don't you think he knows everything else? When one falls
out and he's aware of it, don't you think he's aware of everything
else? The most insignificant thing, Glenn, is hair. Right? It doesn't really matter. And
yet God counts it. He counts it. It's astounding. So he knows what is going on
with his people. But we should pray for them. And I know God
is able to deliver. Let's go to him in prayer. Gracious
Father, again, we bow before you. We thank you. Thank you.
We praise you. I thank you for this word. When everything else fails, this
word is sure. When I can't reconcile the providence
with the word, I know this, the word is sure. And I know the Word is about
your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I beg you for grace that you
would continually give us who believe faith to lean our souls
wholly upon Him and find Him wholly true. I beg you this morning, give
me the liberty I need. I confess that I do not have
it. I do not have it in myself to preach the Word I plead for help in this matter
of declaring your word. I beg you that it go forth in
simplicity and plainness of speech, that no one can misunderstand
the supremacy of your word. Compared with every other word,
it reigns supreme. I pray, Father, for those that
are sick, that you would lift their bodies up and minds and
hearts. And I ask for healing that they
might, Father, rejoice in the gospel, might hear the word and
receive it with joy and peace. Forgive us our sins. I plead
with you. Be kind and merciful to us today.
Be with us. for this in the name of Jesus
our Savior. For his sake I ask. Amen. Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah chapter 23. Now, as I was studying in Romans chapter
10, we have been studying in Romans 10 for quite a while.
We've come to Chapter 10 and verse 17, where it says this,
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Last few messages I've been talking
about the means by which the Word is conveyed, and that is
preaching. We see the necessity of preaching. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. How shall they believe on him
in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? But
what is the source of all preaching by which faith comes? Faith cometh by hearing through
preaching and hearing by the Word of God. This is the source
of our preaching. Without it, there is no faith. This is the means God chose.
And so this morning I want to talk to us about the supremacy
of God's word above every other word. Now in this chapter of
Jeremiah, the Lord pronounces a woe upon all false preachers. says woe unto the pastors that
destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture sayeth the Lord
therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors
that feed my people you have scattered my flock you have driven
them away and have not visited them behold I will visit upon
you the evil of your doings saith the Lord look at verse 11 of this chapter
he said for both prophet and priest or profane yea in my house
I have found their wickedness saith the Lord. Now what moved
God against these prophets, these priests? Well look at what he says of
them in verse 16. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
hearken not to the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you. This is what he's telling his
people. His people were listening to these people and what God
says, don't listen to them. Don't listen to them. Why? They make you vain. They
speak a vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the
Lord. They say, still to them that
despise me, the Lord said, you shall have peace. And they say
unto everyone that walketh after the imagination of his own heart,
no evil shall come upon you. You hear this? Smile, God loves
you. No, don't worry about it. It's
okay. Everything is going to work out
just fine. It don't matter. All roads lead to heaven. It's okay. I know you're living
in sin, you don't have anything you love for Christ or faith
in God. Don't worry about it. It's ok. Peace. Peace. For who stood in the counsel
of the Lord and had perceived and heard His word? Who hath
marked His word and heard it? false prophets were preaching
according to their visions. This was the problem. They were
preaching after the imagination of their own heart. Now Jeremiah had the Word of
God and he proved it multiple times. He heard the Word of God
and he gave it to them. Notice these people were preaching
against what God gave him now notice who listens to these people
God says they say unto them that despise me now who listens these
people those that despise the Lord Those that walk after the
imagination of their own heart Those are the people that listen
to false prophets And what is the vision of these false prophets?
No evil shall come to you. No evil shall come to you. It's
going to be okay no matter what you believe. As long as you're sincere, it's going to be okay. God had told these men that he
was going to bring judgment. He said, 70 years, you're going
to Babylon. And because of your sin they
will hold you captive for seventy years. Well, they didn't like
that. That was harsh, isn't it? Whosoever believeth on the Lord
Jesus, and whosoever believeth and is baptized shall be saved.
He that believeth not shall be damned. Well, that's too hard.
That's too hard. They didn't believe the Word
of God, but rather they took heed to visions and dreams and
the imaginations of other men. They said Jeremiah's message
was too hard, too grim. They didn't like it. And here's their reasoning. Listen
to the reasoning in verse 19. Look at that. They give a reason
why they don't want to hear Jeremiah. Look at that verse 19, it says, I'm sorry, verse 18. For who
hath stood, who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and
received and heard his word? Or who hath marked his word? In other words, Jeremiah said
this, and these prophets say this, Who can tell? Right? Jeremiah said he heard from God,
and these guys say they heard from God. Well, who can really
tell, right? Flip a coin. It really don't
matter. So how can they tell which one's
right? How can we tell which one is
right, which is of God, and which is the lie? Now let us see that
these false prophets of this day, that they're the same. These
guys haven't changed one bit. Their message has changed, but really they have not changed. They're sheep, they're wolves
in sheep's clothing and they creep in unawares. They come in with such zeal and
passion full of knowledge. They flatter God with their lips.
They boast in their achievements. They preach their visions and
dreams and feelings and opinions and traditions. Why? Because they're more appealing
than the Word of God. The Word of God's too grim. Word
of God is too strict. Word of God doesn't bend, doesn't
move, it doesn't change. That's too hard. They would rather give their
own opinions and their own heart, their own mind, their own experiences. These false prophets give to
the church their experiences, their dreams and visions, listen,
instead of the Word of God. Look at verse 25 of Jeremiah
23. Look at that. God says, I heard
them. I heard what the prophet said,
that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed a dream.
I have dreamed a dream. How long shall this be in the
heart of the prophets to prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets
of deceit of their own heart. Their own heart. These men sincerely believed
their dreams. They sincerely believed what
they were preaching. But they failed to realize this,
that if it comes from your own heart, it is a deception. If your word comes from your
own imagination, your own thoughts, your own opinions, your own feelings,
then listen, the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above
all things. Who can know it? Our Lord Jesus tells us where
all sin comes from, doesn't it? Doesn't it come from the heart?
Remember those Pharisees? They thought it was a sin that
you didn't wash your hands. They saw the disciples eating
that wheat, and they said, ah, they didn't wash their hands,
they're defiled. Because they thought something
outward coming inward makes a man defiled. And our Lord Jesus said,
no, it's just the opposite. It's just the opposite. He said,
those things which proceed out of the mouth come from where?
The heart. Come evil thoughts, murders,
adulteries, fornications, blasphemies. In Genesis, God even testifies
that the imagination of the thought, before it becomes a thought,
The imagination of the thought of the hearts of man is only
evil continually. So then every doctrine that comes
from the heart of man in opposition to this word is false. You understand that? Anything in opposition to this
word is false. And it doesn't matter how you
feel about it. It doesn't matter what you think
about it. Well then preacher, how can we
tell? That's important to know, isn't it? How can we tell what
is the imagination of someone's heart and what is the Word of
God? How can we tell who is true and who is a liar? How can we tell if one's following
the Word of God or the imagination of his own heart? Isn't this
exactly what they're saying? Well, who can know? Who can tell? Who can tell? And when somebody
says that, right? You tell them, this is what God
said. And they say, well, this is what
I believe. Who can tell? They think they
won the argument, right? They think they won. But see, this confusion is where
false religion loves to live. Confusion. False religion and teachers are
able to continue their lies and have men followed after their
dreams so long as there is some kind of question. They say, since
nobody can tell what's true, it really don't matter what you
believe. Isn't that so? They say all road leads to heaven,
all religions are valid. God will accept you as long as
you just believe whatever you believe sincerely. Go to 2nd Timothy, because the
apostle warned of people like this. This was coming. 2nd Timothy,
look at verse chapter 3. 2nd Timothy chapter 3. And look at verse 1. He said, This know also that
in the last days perilous times shall come. And I'm telling you,
they're here, perilous times. How do we know perilous times?
For men shall be lovers of their own selves. You seen that? Is
that true? Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers. Listen to this. disobedient to
parents. You seen that? Anybody recognize
that around? Unthankful. Is that not the generation
we live in? Unthankful? Unholy? Listen, without natural affections.
And that's happening right now with mothers killing their own
children. That's without natural affection,
isn't it? It's only natural for a mother to love her child. And
you watch them, they'll just kill them with no fault. No thought
about it whatsoever. Truth-breakers, false accusers,
incontinent, fierce, despisers of them that are good, traitors,
heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of
God. Now all those wicked things. Listen, the first time when I
read that, my first thought was everybody out there, outside
the church. But look what Paul says. This
is how you know it's perilous. having a form of godliness. He's not talking about people
outside the church. He's talking about people inside the church.
They have a form of godliness, but how do you know that it's
just a form? They deny the power thereof. They deny the gospel of Jesus
Christ. They deny that salvation is by
the grace of God through Jesus Christ alone. That's how you
know. Now they have a form of godliness. They're moral people outwardly. They seem to be But how do you
know that all these wicked things are in them? Listen, they deny
the gospel and they creep in houses, leaving silly women laden
with sins, led away by divers' lusts, ever learning and never
able to come to the knowledge of the truth. In other words,
they're always learning something new. Always learning something,
never coming and bowing to the knowledge of the truth. This
is it, that this is the Word of God. They never bow to the
supremacy of the Gospel. They deny the power of the Gospel. These false prophets will deny
the power of the gospel, and how do they do that? By setting
their traditions, their opinions, and their feelings above the
Word of God, or making them equal. Listen, they come in the church,
they creep in. They don't come in. Name a denomination that
denies the supremacy of the Word of God. When I say that, you
think the Catholics would deny the supremacy of the Word of
God? Ask them. Do you deny the supremacy of
the Word? No, no, no, no. We believe the
supremacy of the Word of God. Ask a Pentecostal or a modern
Baptist. Ask them. If they deny, no, they
all confess that this is the word of God. But you put their
doctrine against it and what do you find? You find that they
take their own feelings and their visions and their opinions and
their miracles and they validate their own gospel as equal with
the word of God, or better. Should not this in one instance.
We just we just they're just they just buried one an Antichrist. They just just burying him That
church consider this one verse. There's one mediator between
God and men What does that do that whole
religion It destroys it completely and obliterates that religion
as false. And what do they do with that
scripture? They say, aha, we have a tradition. Some pope came
along and said, well, that's not right. And he changed it. So what does it do? Traditions,
they take this book, they throw it behind their back. I remember a friend of mine many
years ago, we were best friends. We met about the gospel. Cheryl had talked to him and
said he believed the gospel and we went out to eat together. Man, we prayed together, we studied
together, we worshiped together. And you know, he met a couple
of guys, and they said, oh, that's great. You know, we believe the
gospel too. And then pretty soon, they started
talking to him about his girlfriend wearing shorts, and about going
to movies, and how that was wicked. And then pretty soon, he said,
OK. And so he started trying to correct
his girlfriend. She left him. You know, then
he started making sure he wore long pants, and he didn't wear
any shorts, and next thing you know, that wasn't enough. They said, oh, now you need to
be baptized in the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues. Where do
you find that? You don't. It's tradition. And that man left the gospel.
That man left the gospel. for a false gospel. He left Christ for the lust of
his flesh, for the feelings and experiences of false religion.
Listen to me very carefully. There's only one gospel. There's
only one. There's not many. Paul said,
if an angel from heaven come to you and preach another gospel,
which we have not preached, him go to hell. Leave him alone. Run from him. Run from him. So how do we know the truth from
a lie? The plain and simple answer is
the supremacy of God's word above all others. The Word of God alone
is the sole authority and source, listen to this, of all truth. This book is the source of all
truth. Therefore we say, let God be
true and every man a liar. Anyone who opposes this book
by their miracles, their visions, their dreams, their traditions,
if they stand in opposition to the Word of God, they're liars. Look what God says to them. Go
back to your text and look at verse 28. Verse 28. Jeremiah 23. He said, the prophet that hath
a dream, let him tell his dream. And he that hath my word, let
him speak my word faithfully. You see, this is what God's preachers
are commanded to do. We are to preach the word. That's
what he told Timothy. Preach the word. When? In season
and out of season. When it's popular and when it's
not popular. Preach the word. Not looking to the experiences
of the flesh, the wisdom and reasoning of man for validation. I don't need the wisdom of man
to validate this book. I don't need it. I don't need
historical graphs and charts and figures and facts and archeology
discoveries. I need none of that. This is the Word of the Living
God. And anything in opposition to
this word is a lie. That's it. That's all I need.
I don't need anything else. God said they want to preach
a dream, let them preach a dream. But you, you preach my word faithfully. Why? Because he's going to give
three comparisons. Now look at this. God's going
to compare His Word to dreams. Look what He says, He said, What
is the chaff to the wheat? He said, My Word gives, wheat
gives nourishment, it gives life, it gives refreshment. Now listen, you can have a ton
of chaff, You can eat chaff all day long, and you'll starve to
death. Listen to me. You listen to something
other than the Word of God, you'll starve to death. It's chaff. It doesn't provide life. It doesn't
provide nourishment. You see the comparison? He said,
secondly, my Word is like fire. Their word is darkness, confusion. Who could tell? Who knows? Nobody
really knows. What's truth? Isn't that what
Pilate said? What is truth? Truth was standing right next
to him. And he couldn't see it. He couldn't see that the truth
was standing right there. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man comes to God but by me.
He said, My word's like fire, it's like light. Fire gives light. Isn't that what happened when
the Lord saved us? That the Lord commanded the light
to shine out of darkness? And how did He do that? Somebody
preached the word of God. God said, My word is light. Thirdly, He said, My word is
like a hammer. Religion is nothing but a It's
just hard, it's cold, and you know what God does with a rock?
He just says, my Lord, breaks it in pieces. I just gave you
the illustration of that one scripture that destroys an entire
religion. Isn't that astounding? One scripture destroys an entire
religion, yet they say, ah, who can tell? Well, who's the fool? What are they preaching? They're
preaching their dreams. They're preaching the imagination
of their own hearts. They're not preaching the Word
of God. God says, My Word is like a hammer, it breaks the
heart. Isn't that what He did to you? Didn't this Word break
your heart concerning sin? And so what is our fire? What
is our light? What is our wheat? It is this,
Thus saith the Lord. What gives me any authority to
stand before you and preach? What gives me that authority?
Listen to me. You didn't give me that authority. I didn't give myself that authority. The authority by which I preach
is this. Thus saith the Lord. And if I don't preach that, you
shouldn't listen to me either. Thus saith the Lord. Go to John
chapter 4. We're still on this subject who
can tell between the two look what John says about it seeing
that there are false priest false preachers and Antichrist gone
out into the world look at John chapter 4 in verse 1 What does
he tell every hearer to do this morning? You should be really
discerning what I'm telling you He says this beloved believe
not every spirit Don't believe every preacher. But try the spirits to see whether
they are of God. Why? Because many false prophets
are going out into the world. Hereby know you the Spirit of
God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Christ has come into the world in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth
not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. In other words, what is he preaching? Is he preaching Christ or not? We preach Christ, therefore we
are preaching what? The Word of God. We preach Christ
is coming to the flesh, that Christ has successfully accomplished
the redemption of his people. And anyone that doesn't preach
that, don't listen to them. Don't listen to them. He said
this is the spirit of Antichrist. Anybody preaching anything other
than Christ is Antichrist. They're preaching your feelings,
they're preaching your relationships, they're preaching your psychology,
They are preaching history, they are preaching many different
things. Listen, if they are not preaching
Christ, they are anti-Christ. If they are preaching their dreams,
their visions, their feelings, their opinions, listen to me,
they are anti-Christ. And I desire everyone to try
the message that I preach. If I'm not preaching Christ,
don't listen to me. If I preach to you according
to this, thus saith the Lord, then what does that do to your
dreams, visions, miracles, and opinions? What does that do? If your thoughts are in opposition
to what God says, If I preach, thus saith the Lord,
then all your dreams and miracles and experiences are of no value. They're of no value. Our Lord said, not everyone that
saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven.
Again, name one false church that doesn't say, Lord, Lord.
Name one. Name one church that preaches
traditions and opinions and feelings that doesn't say, Jesus is Lord. You won't find one. But our Lord
said, not everyone that just says to me, Lord, Lord, shall
enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of
my Father which is in heaven. What is that? The will of the
Father? It is to believe on the name
of His Son. It is to believe on Jesus Christ.
That is the will of the Father. And He said, Many shall say unto
Me that day, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? And in
Thy name cast out devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful
works. They make a profession. We preached
in Your name. We've done many wonderful things
in your name. We did miracles in your name. And Jesus is going to make a
profession. That's their profession. But Jesus is going to say this,
I profess unto you, depart from me, I never knew you, you that
work iniquity. So let me ask you, do you desire
to hear the truth? Do you long to hear the Word
of God? Jesus says, only those that continually
do the will of my Father, which is to believe on Christ, shall
enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And so what does the Word of
God declare? Regardless of how men feel, the Word of God declares
plainly that man by nature is only and always full of sin. There, as it is written, there
is none righteous. Now, how many is righteous? None. No, not one. How many people understand There's
none that understand it. How many seek after God? There
is none that seeketh after God. What about all their good works?
They are all together become unprofitable. The truth is, all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. That's the truth. That's
an unpleasant truth, isn't it? Scripture says they miss the
mark of the glory of God. What's that? What's the mark
of the glory of God? Is it not righteousness? They
miss righteousness. What is righteousness? I had
a believer ask me this recently. Tell me what righteousness is. Righteousness is absolute perfection. That's what it is. No sin whatsoever. That's what God demands. How
then can a sinner who is unrighteous be made righteous? What does
religion say? Religion says law. That's what
religion says. Religion says work. Religion
says, I've had a dream. God doesn't really want you,
need you to be totally righteous. You just got to try as hard as
you can. I had a vision. Had a vision. God loves you,
and He wants you to do your best, and it's all going to work out
for you. What does God say about law and
works? He says that the law, He says,
Whatsoever things say it to them that are under the law, that
every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before
God. What's the purpose of the law? Guilt. That's it. That's all it can
do. Convict. When you read the law, what does
it do? Convicts. That's all it can do. Show me I'm guilty. Therefore
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his
sight. So then if man cannot attain
righteousness by the law, What does God say concerning how sinners
attain righteousness? What does God say? It doesn't
matter how we feel about it, does it? What does God say? How is a sinner to be made righteous?
Listen to me. There is only one way. There
is only one way a sinner can be made righteous. There are
not many ways. There is one way. And that is
by the faith and faithfulness of Jesus Christ. He said, for
the righteousness of God is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Listen to me. Unto all and upon
all them that believe. Righteousness must come from
Jesus Christ. Go back to your text and the
Lord is going to give you the gospel, His word. They preach
their dreams and their visions, but God's going to give you his
word. This is what he says. He says,
you've scattered them with your word, but I'm going to gather
them. Verse 3, I will gather the remnant of my flock. What
is God telling us by this? He says, I have a remnant that
I'm going to gather. Behold here the hope of Adam's
fallen dead spiritual race is this, that God has chosen a people. Who are they? They are a remnant. What does that word mean? It
means a small group. That's what it means. A small
group. There's a big group, and out
of that big group, He's picked a smaller group. God has a remnant
of people, and He said this, I will gather them. I will gather them. Wherever
they have be gone, I will gather them. This same thing Paul says
in Romans 11 and verse Five, he says, even so at this present
time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. So what does God's word declare?
God says, I have a remnant. I have a people. These are the
elect. I declare that without any hesitation
whatsoever. God has an elect people. There
is no doubt. The Word of God declares this,
that He chose them before the foundation of the world, not
according to anything good in them. This is the glory of it. And God swears that I will gather
them. He swears that He will save them
and cause them to grow, that they will not fear His wrath.
And they shall not be dismayed because of their sin. God will
give them preachers to tell them this gospel of redemption, righteousness,
holiness, and peace. And what is this gospel that
the preachers... He says, I'm going to send preachers. What
are they going to preach? Look at verse 5. What do true preachers preach? Look at this. Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, I will raise up unto David a righteous
branch. What do we preach? A righteous
branch. Righteous branch. Isn't this the prophecy that
David's son should come into the world to be the Savior? He
promised him that his son would come into the world and be the
Savior. And this branch of David was
not like any other branch. He was a righteous branch. A
perfect man. A holy man. And not only was he to be a holy
man, God says, I'm going to make him a king. A king. That's exactly what those wise
men declared, isn't it? When he came into the world.
Those wise men were king makers. They came from a far land. They knew, they said, where is
he that is born king? Isn't that what they said? Where
is he that is born king? And they found him. And they
acknowledged him to be what God said he would be. The King. What
do we preach? We preach the righteous branch
of David is also the King. God's King. He said, The Lord
said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, so I may make
thine enemies thy footstool. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. This King, he's going to come
into the world to rule and reign and look at this, prosper. Is
this what we preach about Jesus? That He prospered? That everything
Jesus wanted to do, He did? That His work was not quasi-successful? We declare, thus saith the Lord,
Christ saved His people from their sins. He did exactly And
how did He do it? He shall execute judgment and
justice in the earth. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when He
came into the world, He showed forth the justice and judgment
of God by His obedience and by His death. By His obedience,
He showed the righteousness of God. And by His death, He showed
the justice of God and satisfied them both. The only man that's ever do that
is Jesus. He satisfied both the righteous obedience to the law
and the justice of God paying for our sins. And he did this, listen to me,
as a substitute. A substitute. What good it would
Christ come into the world to obey the law of God and to die for himself. He didn't need to do any of that
for himself. God was satisfied with him before
he came. Listen to what Christ did. For
his remnant, he came into this world and provided for us. A righteousness approved of God. His death, He bore our sins in
His own body on that tree. He died for our sins. The justice
of God made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin. Why? That we, who knew no righteousness,
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. This is what God
says about... This is what His preacher is
going to preach. They're going to preach a righteous branch.
They're going to preach that the Son of David is not only
David's son, but David's Lord. They're going to preach that
He came into the world to satisfy justice and judgment. And what
is the result of our preaching? What is the result of, thus saith
the Lord? What is the supremacy of the
Word of God? It is found in verse 6. In His
days, Judah shall be saved. That's our word. When were you saved? Now you were purposed to be saved
from eternity. God purposed it. In the mind
of God it was already done. But it really wasn't done until
He did it. And in His day, listen to me,
Judah shall be saved, and they were. I rejoice to know that I was saved over 2,000 years
ago. God purposed my salvation from
eternity, but Jesus saved me 2,000 years ago. Now I didn't know about it until
he came to me. I didn't know about it, didn't
want it, didn't have any interest in it. Until he came to me and he had
someone tell me what Christ did. Somebody said, thus saith the
Lord, somebody preached the word to me. Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by what? The word of God. And what do
we preach? We preach His success. We preach
His victory. We don't preach a success for
a Savior that only made it possible. We preach a Savior that actually
did it. And listen to this, and Israel
shall dwell safe. Shall dwell safe. You that believe on Jesus Christ,
I want you to know this, you're safe. I know you don't feel safe. I know you don't often think
you're safe. You feel danger all around you.
How many believers feel as though, like those disciples, when Jesus
said, one of you betrays me. How many of us say, Lord is it
me? Will I leave? I've seen so many leave. And
often times I wonder, is it me? But I want you to see that the
Lord says this of Israel. He shall dwell in safety. You are as good as already there. Isn't that what Paul says? I am persuaded that neither life
nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate me from the love of God that's in
Christ Jesus. Isn't that exactly what Jeremiah said? He said Israel's
going to dwell safely. Peter says, we are kept. And who is this righteous branch?
Who is this king that shall reign and prosper? Who is this one
who has not made salvation possible, but actually saved Judah and
makes Israel to dwell safely? Listen to his name. This is the
name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Now according to the word of
God, you child of God, listen to me, you have been robed in
the very garments of Christ, the Lord our righteousness. And I shall not hesitate to declare what makes other men squirm. In Christ, we are now made as
holy as God. That's astounding. With his spotless garments on,
I'm as holy as the Holy One. I was speaking about that new
nature, that nature that's created in us. Now we know the old man
still exists. We can't help but see him constantly.
But the new nature is created, what Paul said, created after
God in what? True holiness. How'd that happen? The Lord our righteousness did
it. What does this mean? Christ is all my righteousness.
And if He's all my righteousness, what kind of righteousness do
I have? Is it a lesser righteousness? Paul says it is the righteousness
of God, isn't it? We have a better righteousness
than Adam. Christ's righteousness is a fine linen, clean and white,
made by the Lord Jesus Christ himself and given to us by the
Holy Spirit. This is the Word of God. Matter of fact, in Jeremiah chapter
33, listen to what the church's name is. You that believe, listen
to me. His name is the Lord Our Righteousness.
You know what your name is? Jeremiah chapter 23, I'll give
you this. Jeremiah 33 and verse 16. This is the name whereby
she shall be called the Lord Our Righteousness. This is the
Word of God. This is the Word we preach. Jehovah
Tiskanu, the Lord, our righteousness. We preach Christ. That's what
it is to preach the Word. It is to preach Christ. Any message
that does not have at its source, its theme, and its subject, Jesus
Christ, is an abomination in its preparation, Its abomination
in its preaching and its abomination in its application if it does
not preach Christ. What are they preaching if they
don't preach Christ? They're preaching their dreams, their
traditions, their experiences, and their opinions. What do we
preach? We preach Christ and Him crucified. We preach Christ and Him risen
from the dead. Why do we do this? Because faith
cometh by hearing. No man saved apart from hearing.
Hearing what? The Word of God. This is where
faith comes from. And you that believe, this is
the source of our continual faith, isn't it? We need to hear these
things again. And by these things, our faith
is strengthened. Our faith is refreshed. Why? Because we believe, thus saith
the Lord, and not the flippant visions or opinions of men. Those are vanity. They're lighter
than air. They're nothing. We preach, let God be true, and
every man a liar. I hope the Lord be gracious to
instill this in your hearts and give you Comfort. This should comfort you, settle
you, when all around you is falling apart. When all around you is
crumbling. Look at me. This is just as firm. This is just as firm as it was
from eternity. Long after we're gone. This word is going to continue. I pray God will help this to
settle you. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Father, dismiss us with your
own blessings and mercies, we pray. Oh, we plead for grace. Settle our hearts and minds on
the truth, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and by so make us to rest, to find comfort and
peace in this life of misery and turmoil, grief. Let Christ be our solace. Let
Christ be our husband. Let Christ be our righteousness,
our sanctification, our redemption, our all. Never let the gospel
be moved from this place. May it always be preached and
declared, we pray in Christ's name.