Now if you take your Bibles now
and turn with me to Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 23. I've entitled
this message, The Supremacy and the Subject of God's Word. The Supremacy and the Subject
of God's Word. Now this passage of scripture
The prophet begins with a woe, a warning, a rebuke. He says
to them, woe be unto you, the pastors that destroy and scatter
the sheep of my pastures, saith the Lord. Therefore, thus saith
the Lord God of Israel, against the pastors that feed my people. And what they had been feeding
them, what they had been preaching to them had an effect. This is
the effect 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. He
says this, for both prophet and priest are profane. Yea, in my
house I have found their wickedness. Now what was the wickedness?
What was the message that scattered the flock? What was it that was
destroying the flock of God? What caused God and moved him
against these priests and these pastors? Look at verse 16. Thus said the Lord God of hosts,
the Lord of hosts. And he tells his people, listen
to this. He says, hearken not unto the words of the prophets
that prophesy unto you. They make you empty, vain. They speak a vision of their
own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. Now, I got
an aside here. You know, the word prophet, you
know what it means? Mouthpiece. That's what a prophet was. The
prophet was nothing more than a mouthpiece for God. And these
were no prophets. They were not speaking for God.
They were speaking out of their own heart. They say, steal unto
them that despise me. This is what they say. The Lord
has said, you shall have peace. This was
their message. Peace, peace. They say, unto
everyone that walketh after the imagination of their own heart,
no evil shall come upon you. For who has stood in the counsel
of the Lord and hath perceived and heard his word? Who hath
marked his word and heard it? In other words, well, who can
really know? Who could really know what God's word is? That's
what they were saying. Say, well, I'm saying this. This
is my dream. This is my vision. This is what
I think God said. And you say, well, that's not
what God said. Well, who knows? You know, your
word's just as good as mine. These false prophets were preaching
according to their own heart. Not like Jeremiah. Jeremiah was
preaching the word of God. His message was very much hated. His message was despised by the
people. But yet we know this, his message
was true. How do we know? Because what
he said happened. He was the mouthpiece of God.
And notice, those who listened to these false prophets, they
listened to them because they had a kinship with them. They
liked following their own imagination, so they wouldn't mind following
somebody else who had their own imagination. So they had kindred
spirits. Everyone that walked after their
own imagination, they followed them. And what was this vision
of the false prophets? No evil shall come upon you. No evil. Isn't this much like today? Well,
just everybody's going to go to heaven some way or another.
We all have different paths, but all paths lead to heaven. God loves everybody. He won't
condemn you if you just do your best. God had by these prophets, by
His prophets said, judgment is coming. Judgment is this was
the prophet of God that you shall be taken captive by Babylon and
you will be in prison for 70 years. That was God's word, not
a very popular message, not one of peace and prosperity, but
one of judgment and justice because they had sinned. They didn't
believe the word of God, but rather gave heed to their visions
of other men, which also fit their own imagination. Well, Jeremiah's message is just
too grim. Well, Jeremiah's message is just too hard. I like this
guy's message. Isn't that what Ahab said about
that prophet? He said, I don't like hearing
this prophet. He speaks bad things about me. I want to hear some good news.
I want to hear all these good things about me. That's what
these prophets were doing, and thus their reasoning Their reasoning
in verse, I believe it's verse 19, he said, Behold, a whirlwind,
a whirlwind of the Lord has gone out in fury, even a grievous
whirlwind, it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.
That was a message. But this was their reasoning.
Well, who, who has stood in the counsel of God or who had received
or heard his word? They said, well, Jeremiah says
one thing, but these prophets say another. Jeremiah says his
visions, we have our own visions. Who's right? How can you tell? How can you tell? Now let us
see that these false prophets of his day are no different.
As you can already tell, they're no different than our day. They're
no different in this day. They're all liars, wolves in
sheep's clothing, who creep into churches unaware. They come in
with such zeal and passion, full of knowledge. These men flatter God with their
lips, but they're declaring His Word. They would rather preach
visions and opinions and thoughts and traditions. They'd rather
preach creeds. I remember going to a Reformed
church one time, and they actually, for their Sunday school class,
went over the confession of faith. That's where they open up your
confessions of faith and we'll... What? They'd rather preach those things.
They would rather give to men their opinions of their own heart,
their own experiences and miracles, prosperity, universal atonement. These are the messages that tickle
the ears of the world. These false prophets give to
the churches their experiences and dreams instead of the Word
of God. They'll tell you what they think.
They'll tell you how they feel. And you know what? What they
think and how you feel naturally is going to jive. It's going
to be together. Well, I think it's like this.
You'll naturally, naturally say, well, that sounds right. And
so they'll go together. In verse 25 he says, I've heard
what the prophets said, they prophesied lies in my name, saying
I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be the heart
of the prophets that prophesied lies? Yea, they, yea, they are
prophets of the deceit of their own heart. Their own heart. These dreamers, now listen, I
want you to understand, these dreamers sincerely believe what
they're saying. I do not doubt the sincerity
of false religion. They are very sincere. They're
very sincere. The problem is they don't know
their own heart. They believe it with all their
heart, but they don't know their own heart. Jeremiah had already
said in this book, in Jeremiah 17 verse 9, the heart is deceitfully
wicked. It's desperately wicked. Listen,
above all things. What is the most desperately
wicked thing in this world? It is the heart of man. That's
what is the most desperately wicked. and deceitful, deceitful. Our Lord Jesus Christ over in
Matthew 15, you know, those Jews, they were really sincere about
washing hands. They would have went right along
with the COVID. They would have been right there with those top
doctors. Washing hands! It's not only
good physically, it's good spiritually. And if you wash your hands, if
you don't wash your hands, and you eat something, you're going
to defile your soul. And Jesus said, are you without understanding?
Don't you understand this? Whatever goes in, goes in the
mouth, goes in the belly, and out the draw. Don't you know
that? Are you without understanding? It's not what goes into a man
that defiles a man. It's that which comes out of
the man. And he said this, but what comes out of the man comes
from where? Where does it come from? It comes from the heart.
Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication,
murders, blasphemies, false witness. And God testified of the man's
heart even long before Jesus said that. He said it in Genesis
chapter 6. He tells us before Noah, he said
this, that every thought of the imagination of what the heart
is only evil continually. So those people who preach from
the heart, who are sincerely preaching the imaginations and
the thoughts and dreams of their own heart, their opinions, They
don't realize that their heart is desperately wicked and so
is their message. So are their dreams, their visions.
And so then the question is, how can you tell? How can you
tell who is who? Who's the liar and who's speaking
God's word? They say, well, who can know
God's word? I've had that happen to me so many times. They think
they win the argument by saying that. They just say, well, who
could tell? And they walk off like they won
the victory. No, I can tell. I can tell. And you are believers. You're
going to be able to tell. And by that statement, what they
mean by that statement is this. They want to breed confusion
because liars thrive in confusion, in questions, These false prophets
and teachers are able to continue to tell their lies and lure men
after them by this confusion, by their feelings and dreams. But the apostle warns us of such
men. Go to 2 Timothy. Look at this.
The apostle warns us of these men. In 2 Timothy, look at verse,
chapter 3. 2 Timothy, chapter 3. And look at verse 1. He said
this, This know also that in the last days perilous times
shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous,
boasters, proud, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, unthankful,
unholy. without natural affection, truce
breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that
are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure, more than
lovers of God. Well, preacher, I'd see those
kind of people way off. Nope, you can't. Look what he says about them
in the next verse. having a form of godliness, having a form of
godliness. These men, they are all of these
things, these evil things, but the distinction is this, there's
no, you can't tell them apart. Outwardly, you cannot tell them
apart. All of these things that he mentions don't always have
to be expressed outwardly, they're inwardly. So outwardly, yet they
have a form of godliness. But here's the distinction between
God's people, because God's people, they have a form of godliness.
God's people desire to honor God and serve him and not sin. What's the distinction? Here
it is. They deny the power thereof. from such turn away, for of this
sort they creep into houses and led silly women laden with sins,
led away by divers lust, ever learning and never able to come
to the knowledge of the truth." These people outwardly come in. They creep in. But here is their
message. This is the message that they
will portray, denying the power of true godliness. denying the
gospel of God's grace. The power of salvation is of
God, and they deny it. They believe that the power of
salvation and godliness is in the man's will, is in the man's
obedience, is in the man's ceremony or ritual or something he does
outwardly. And they never, ever learning
and never coming to the truth. You know, I've I've been around
people before and I've preached the gospel to them. It's just
like, have you ever talked to somebody that's like a brick
wall? They nod their head like they understand. You know, they
don't have a clue what you're saying. They're ever learning, but they
never bow. They never believe it. They just,
they say, well, that sounds good. Yeah, I like, sounds great, sounds
great. Goes off and does not bow to it, does not believe Christ. To deny the power of godliness
is to deny salvation by the free grace of God, or that it's without
works or will or merit of man. They deny the word of God to
be the authority, and they deny the salvations of God. Notice
these. They're seen coming, but they
creep in. You see that? They creep into
houses. They creep into houses. In other
words, they're not open about what they believe. They creep
in. They try to get people to their
side. You ever seen that? I've seen
that happen in churches. I've seen these these evil men
creep in and try to try to persuade others and go to their house
and they say, man, did you hear that? That's just not let me
tell you what I think. They try to, and they do, they
lure these, what he says, silly women laden with lust. In other
words, those ruled by emotion. What he's trying to tell you.
These people draw people by sheer emotion, laden with passion. These hear the truth and nod
their heads and they say salvation's by grace. Now listen to me, you
can go to You go to your family, and you're Catholic, you got
Catholics in your family, you go to them and ask them, is salvation
by grace? Well, of course it is. We believe salvation is by
grace. Go to a Pentecost, CB said that.
Salvation is by grace. They don't mean that. Salvation is by grace. You mean
salvation is by unmerited favor? Well, that's not exactly what
I meant. Grace is something that just hovers above everybody,
and you got to reach out there and grab it. You got to earn
it. You got to marry. Well, you just ruined the whole
word of grace. That's not what it means. So they nod, they say
that, then they go in privately trying to lure people away from
the gospel of Christ, lead them away. I had a friend. I had a friend. I thought he was a dear brother.
We spent a lot of time together. We would study the scriptures
together, and I don't think I've ever met a man that I thought
was as close to me as this man was, and we loved talking about
the Word of God together. We both professed that it's salvation
by the grace of God, and this man, he had something he was
always antsy about. He said, you know, just don't
feel like he was working hard enough. I don't feel like he
had to do more. He said, I've got to do something
more. I feel all this sin and this
guilt. And he said, you know what? I
got to try to be better. And I was a young Christian.
I thought, well, man, that sounds good. Maybe we should try to
be better. And when I saw what he meant by that was not coming
and confessing his sin before Christ, but trying to obey some
rules that he started setting up for himself. And sure enough,
it wasn't long, he met some charismatic fellows that come in and said,
well, you know what? Your problem is that you've not had a second
anointing of the Holy Spirit. You just need to, you need to
be baptized in the name of Jesus. And then you need to start speaking
in tongues. And that just thrilled him. There
was something more. He said, there's got to be something
more than just faith in Christ. I said, I can't walk with you
anymore. because there is nothing more. Christ is all. Christ is all. And he left the
gospel and went after the foolish lust of his flesh. He abandoned
the simple faith in Christ for feelings and experiences in religion. And that's what false preachers
do. They try to lure you away by experiences. I mean, you see
these football stadiums filled with people. Is that not alluring
to your flesh? It is. It's exciting. I like
a football game, don't you? Well, that's what they try to
make religion like. They get the flesh stirred up, the flesh
excited, and they call that spiritual. He abandoned the gospel for something
fleshly. But you remember what Paul said
in Galatians, he says, though an angel from heaven preach to
you another gospel, let him go to hell. Though he preach another
word, another gospel, let him be anathema. Anathema, accursed. So how do we tell the truth from
the lie? Simply this, it's simple and plain. The superiority of
God's word above thought and feelings and experience. God
is going to distinguish these false pastors from his own prophet
simply by this. We preach, thus saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. The Word
of God alone is the sole authority and source of all truth. All
that oppose the Word of God are liars. And we say this, let God
be true and every man a liar. That includes you and me. That
includes them. If we say or they say anything
opposed to this word, let them be a liar. Let God be true. This is the sole source of our
authority, the Word of God. The experiences of man, the tradition,
miracles, dreams, visions, imaginations of men are no indication of the
truth. Look at verse 28. Go back to
your text in Jeremiah 23. Look at verse 28. He said, the prophet that had
a dream, let him tell the dream. What is that going to do? Nothing.
Let them babble. I'm not trying to stop them from
babbling. Why? It's not going to do anything.
If they have a dream, let them tell the dream. Listen, but he
that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. We do not look to the experiences
of the flesh or the wisdom or reason of man, but we faithfully
preach the word of God. That's what he told Timothy.
Preach the word. Be instant, in season, out of
season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering. Preach
my word faithfully. You that have my word, preach
my word. Don't worry about them and their
dreams. He said this, what is the chaff to the wheat? Imagine you have a chaff piled
high, so much chaff. If you ate it all, it would not
help you. Chaff cannot nurture you. Chaff cannot sustain life. Only the wheat can give life. Only the wheat can nurture our
bodies. And so it is with God's Word.
Only God's Word can give life. Only God's Word can nurture the
souls of his people. What is the chaff to the wheat?
The chaff is good for nothing but to be burned and cast out. The wheat is precious. The wheat
is what's important. He said, it's not my word like
fire. God's word is a lamp unto our
feet, a light unto our path. God's word is a fire. It warms
our hearts. Fire's good, isn't it? Fire is good. It warms us. It gives us light. That's what
God's word does. It gives us light. Light to the souls of men. And
when this word is applied to the heart, it burns out the lies. Doesn't it? Just as you turn
on the light, darkness must flee. When God's word is faithfully
preached, the lies are exposed. They're exposed. And they have
nowhere to hide when God's word is preached faithfully. Behold, the lies cannot And he
said this, my word is like a hammer that breaketh a rock into pieces.
What can break a sinner's heart? You can put on a play, you make
a bunch of people cry. Can't break their heart. You can't convince men of sin
except by the word of God. It is the only thing that convinces
the sinner of his sin and his need of Christ. It's the Word
of God. That alone. That alone. Therefore, John says, Beloved,
believe not every spirit. Don't believe every preacher
you hear just because they say they're a preacher. I love you. I don't ever want you to take
me at my word. I want you to believe God's Word.
I want you to hear what God says. Don't try every spirit. He said,
Hereby we know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confessed
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. Well, that's
packed with meaning, friends. That's just not somebody confessing
Jesus came in the flesh. That's not what it means. It
means he came as a representative man. It means that he came and
died and and provided righteousness as a representative man that
he was successful. It has all that in there. I tell you, try the men that
preach by their message. And what is the grounds of your
test of my messages? What is the ground of your test
of all my messages? What is it? This If I said something
this didn't say, don't listen. This is the ground and test for
everyone that preaches the word of God, the word of God. If you condemn my message based
on your thoughts, feelings based on some vision or experiences,
your test is vain. I don't care. That doesn't bother me. If you
test my message by this word and prove me wrong, then I should
change my message to whatever this says. But I don't change based on how
you feel about my message, or what you think about my message,
what you think about me. The Word of God has supremacy,
friends. If I preach according to this,
thus saith the Lord, All the dreams and visions and miracles
that oppose this word are empty. They're vain. There are many who profess to
preach the gospel, they profess to believe, but they don't preach
according to this word. Jesus said this, not every man
that say it to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. Well, who will? Listen, he that
doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven. Understand
this, who is going to heaven? Those who perfectly, constantly,
continually do the will of the father in heaven. Anybody? Anybody? Now, there's some men
who say this in that day, Lord, have we not preached in your
name? No. Did you do the will of my father
always, continually, perpetually? Well, we cast out devils in your
name. No. Did you do the will of my
father continually, perpetually, constantly? Well, Lord, we did many wonderful
works. Did you obey my father continually,
perpetually, constantly? He will profess to them, depart
from me, I never knew you. You work iniquity. All of what they thought would
please God was nothing but iniquity. And if we are sincere, if all
of us are sincere, Have we done the will of the Father constantly,
perfectly, perpetually? What does the Word of God say
about that? Well, our conscience says no. If you're honest at
all, your conscience would say no. But what more than our conscience? Again, it's not how we feel.
What does God say? Here's what God said, Romans
chapter 3. Here's what God said about us
and our obedience. Romans chapter 3 and verse 10.
There is none righteous. No, not one. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. They're all going out of
the way. They're all together become unprofitable.
There's none that doeth good, no, not one. So then we must conclude this
about ourselves. We all have sinned and missed the mark of
the glory of God. That's what God says. Again,
we're not talking the same thing based on traditions or feelings
or anything. This is what God says about us. What are we missing? Righteousness.
Jesus said, except a man be righteous, he's not going to enter the kingdom
of heaven. You can say to me, Lord, Lord, all you want to,
but if you're not righteous, you shall not enter the kingdom
of heaven. God demands perfect, spotless righteousness. And so
what does the false religionist do then with this? He takes it
and he says, well, I'm going to start doing righteous. I'm going to start being righteous. There you go right there. I think
that maybe I should start trying to clean up my life. I think
that, well, the law is a good place, isn't it? Ten Commandments.
That seems like a good place to start. I think if I just obey
this, then God will accept me. There's a problem with that.
God doesn't say that. Matter of fact, in that same
text in Romans 3, he said this, now we know in verse 19, we know
that what sort of things the law saith to them that are under
the law. You want to be under the law? Anybody? Anybody want
to be under the law? Listen to what it says. Thus
saith the Lord to you that want to be under the law. Here it
is. That every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty
before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. Why? For by the law is only the knowledge
of sin. It cannot save you. It can only
condemn you. That's what God says. That's
the word of God. You are a sinner and you cannot,
by obedience to the law, merit righteousness. So then how could any son of
Adam be accepted? The answer does not come by dreams
or visions or feelings, but plainly stated in the word of God. We're able to see it even from
the text in Jeremiah. Now I could take you there in
Romans three, but I want you to go back to your text. Now look at
this. Look back at your text and see that where this salvation
comes from. Is there any hope for Adam's
race according to the word of God? You can't trust your feelings
and thoughts and opinions and men and traditions. What does
God say about it? God says you're a sinner. You
can't merit it. So where's the hope? Well, the
hope is found in verse three. Look at what God says. He said,
these people didn't preach my word, but here's my word. Listen
to this. This is God saying this. He said, I will gather the remnant
of my flock. out of all the countries whither
I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds,
and they shall be fruitful in increase, and I will set up shepherds
over them, and they shall feed them, and they shall fear no
more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith
the Lord." God says, I'm going to gather who? I am going to
gather the remnant of my flock. What does this mean? Remember,
these evil men, by their false lies, had scattered God's people,
tried to destroy them, cast them out. God says this, you, by your
evil, cast them out. But listen, they did exactly
what God said. He said, I drove them out. I did it for a purpose
so that I might gather who? The remnant. This is the doctrine
of God's electing grace. Here's the hope of man, that
God has a remnant that he will gather. The hope of Adam's fallen
race is seeing that we have sinned and died spiritually. What then
is our hope? Is this, that God has a remnant
and God swears to gather them. God says of all Adam's race,
he said, wherefore is by one man sin entered in the world
and death by sin. So death passed upon all men
for all, have sinned. Therefore, we could not, by our
works and merits, ever please God. But God in grace, before
the world began, chose a remnant of people. The same language
is used in Romans chapter 11 by the Apostle Paul. He says
concerning Elijah, he said, I'm all by myself. There's nobody
else. And you remember what God says?
He said, I have reserved for myself 7,000 men that have not
bowed the knee to Baal. Even so, at this present time,
there is also a remnant according to the election of grace. Behold, the grace of God towards
his elect We have sinned, we have rebelled, yet God in grace
testifies that there is a remnant. There is a people he will save. Consider the grace of election,
that if there were no election, there would be no hope. There would be no hope. But here's
the hope, that there are, there is an election, there is a remnant.
He later on is in that in that chapter, I think it's in I think
it's Romans chapter nine. He said this. He said that if
God had not left a remnant, we would be as Sodom and like into
Gomorrah. There'd be no hope for us had
God not left a remnant. Yet in our text, God says, though
these though these false preachers have scattered, listen, I'm going
to gather who the remnant, the elect. But how shall God, a holy God,
gather such a remnant of unholy people? How shall he gather his
flock? How shall he increase these sinners?
How will he set up shepherds among them so that they have
no fear or lack nothing? The answer is in the gospel of
Jesus Christ. This is the answer. Look down
in verse 5. Here's the gospel with which
he will draw his remnant. This is the gospel that his men
will preach faithfully. Here it is. Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, and I will raise up unto David a righteous
branch. A righteous branch. And a king shall reign and prosper
and execute judgment and justice in the earth. Who is this righteous
branch? Righteous branch of David, this
king, it is none other than Jesus Christ. Is he not the branch of David?
Is he not the offspring of David? I like when our Lord asks them
that question. Idiots. That's all I can say about it. They thought they knew everything,
didn't know anything. He said, whose son is Christ? And they
immediately said, well, he's David's son. You're right. He's David's son. He's David's
son. But how then did David call him
Lord? They didn't understand he was
God. God was to be manifest in the flesh. David's branch was
not just any son. He was the righteous branch. He was a holy son. He was the son of God. He was to come as David's lion
for this reason, to be a representative man. The gospel is that Christ
should come as a man. Have you ever asked why he had
to come as a man? Why did Christ must come as a man? Simply because his people needed
someone to represent them. How did sin come in the world? By a representative man. That's
what Paul says in Romans 5, 18. Wherefore, by the offense of
one, judgment came to all men to condemnation. Even so, by
the righteousness of one, the free gift upon all men to justification
of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. But all men forsake the lies
of false prophets who claim the fall only bruised man. The fall
killed man. When our father sinned, we sinned. When he died, we died in a representative. And this is how God chose. This
is how God chose to save his remnant, to gather them, is by
the representation of another man, Christ. When Christ, he
is the righteous branch. He is the righteous branch. This
means that he was to come and honor the law of God in the stead
of his people. He came specifically for his
people. And Christ, in obedience to the
law of God, merited righteousness. He fulfilled all righteousness
for his people. That's what he said to John. Remember when he came into baptism,
he said, Suffer to be so now. It behooves us to fulfill all
righteousness. That's what he came to do, fulfill
righteousness. To fulfill both the law and the
prophets, Jesus was always doing the will of the father. But notice this, he will not
only be a righteous branch to fulfill righteousness, but he
shall be a king. he shall be a king. Christ shall
be king and he shall reign. David, the Lord said this, he
said, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand till
I make thine enemies thy footstool. This one who was David's son
was also to be a king, to be a righteous king. And he said
this, thy people, thy people, Psalm 110 in verse three, thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power. The Lord of David, David's son,
was given a kingdom, a people. He was to rule over those people,
and those people were to be subject and willing to believe on him. Jesus, therefore, is king over
all flesh for this purpose, to give eternal life to as many
as the Father gave him. This is the word of God, that
Christ, when he came down into this world to obtain righteousness,
he was successful. So that you being sinners, what
do you need most? You need righteousness. You cannot
enter the kingdom of heaven unless you continually, perpetually
obey the will of the father. But to us that God gathers, what
is our righteousness? Who is our righteousness? Christ
is our righteous. He's not some of my righteousness.
He's all of our righteousness. He is the righteous branch of
David. He came as a representative man
for his people and was so victorious that God set him up to be king.
And now as king, he is ruling over all things to do what? To
gather his people even as he promised to do in his word. I
will gather them. I will gather them. gives us righteousness. But not
only this, he gives us redemption. Christ not only as a righteous
branch provided righteousness, but redemption. God could not accept us except
justice and judgment be satisfied. Look at what he says. He shall
be a king and shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment
and justice in the earth. What does that mean? He is going
to satisfy the justice and judgment of God against His people. He
is going to execute judgment and justice. Is that not what
happened at the cross? Judgment and justice were executed
on Him. We're just saying that, I saw
one hanging on a tree in agony and blood. He fixed His loving
eyes on me as near His cross I stood. Oh, can it be that the
Savior should die for me? And that's what He did on Calvary's
tree. He executed justice and judgment. God made Him to be
sin for us. Who knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God and Him. And this is what
we preach. Paul says this, that all things
are of God who have reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ
has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. And we are
ambassadors of God as God did beseech you by us. Be you reconciled. Why? Because Christ paid for
our sins, because Christ God reconciled us to God by Christ. This is what the sinner's problem
is. If he's a real sinner, this is a problem. How in the world
is God going to accept me? On what grounds can God accept
me? In the religious world, they're like saying, well, God must accept
me. But a true sinner knows this, that he can't be accepted on
anything he's not. What grounds do I have to come,
preacher? I want to come. I want to be
saved. How then can I be saved? What
grounds may I approach God on? For God hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin. That you, filthy sinner, might
be made something that you weren't. The righteousness of God in him. This is the message of reconciliation.
And listen, this message is only for his sheep. Our Lord said
this, the good shepherd giveth his life for who? Sheep. Look at your text in verse six.
In his days, every man shall be saved and all the world shall
dwell safely. Is that what it says? Read it. Is that what it says?
Nope. In his days, Judah shall be saved,
and Israel shall dwell safely. The elect, God's people, in that
day when he came into this world, he saved Judah. He saved Israel. And when he
comes in power to save experimentally, in that day we know that we are
saved. You believe on Christ. Are you
saved? Are you saved? How do you know that? How can
you just be so sure? In his days Judah shall be saved. Are you Judah? How do you know?
Do you believe on the Son of God? Has he gathered you so that you
lack nothing? What are you lacking? I'm not
lacking anything because of Christ. You listen, and this is his name,
whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Listen to this. When free grace
woke me by light from on high, then legal fears shook me, I
trembled to die. No refuge, no safety in self
could I see. Jehovah Tizka knew my savior
must be. My terrors all vanished before
the sweet name. My guilty fears banished with
boldness I came. to drink at the fountain, life-giving
and free. Jehovah-Tizkanu is all things
to me. Jehovah-Tizkanu, my treasure
and boast. Jehovah-Tizkanu, I ne'er can
be lost. In thee I shall conquer by flood
and by field, my cable, my anchor, my breastplate, my shield. Even
treading the valley, the shadow of death, This watchword shall
rally my faltering breath. For while from life's fever my
God sets me free, Jehovah Tizkanu my death song shall be. Jehovah Tizkanu, the Lord, our
righteousness. That is his name. What does that mean? That means
he is all my righteousness. You see the difference between
the false prophets and the true gospel is this. Christ is all. Christ is all. The false gospel is Christ plus
something. That's nothing but a dream of
a vain man's imagination. This is real. This is the word
that is like a hammer, that's like fire, that's like the wheat. I will gather my people, and
when I gather them, they'll lack nothing. How is that possible?
Because the righteous branch has come. Christ, our representative,
who lived a righteousness for us and died a perfect death,
executing justice and judgment, And now is a risen king and he
has saved Judah. He has saved Israel. And to us,
we know his name, the Lord, our righteousness. This is the word
of God. This is the word we believe.
This is the word we preach. Christ is all. And any other
gospel is no gospel at all. I pray God will bless this to
you. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.