a Samaritan woman, he said this,
barely, barely I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth
on him that sent me hath everlasting life. and shall not come to condemnation,
but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto
you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear
the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live."
Listen, when God speaks, His people live. Now when I speak,
that's nothing. If all you're hearing is me,
you won't, you'll remain dead if that's all you hear is me.
But if you hear God, what's going to happen? You will live. You will live. The dead shall hear you. The voice. of the Son of God, and they that
hear shall live. And listen, he says this, I'm
gonna bring them to their own land. I like this. The land of
Israel, the land of, notice that in verse 12. The land of means
possessive, doesn't it? It's the land of Israel. What
is heaven? It's the land of the elect. It's
not the land for everybody. It's the land of God's people.
It's the land prepared for them. God says, come, you blessed of
my Father, inherit the kingdom of heaven prepared for you. When? From before the foundation
of the world. This is the promise of God. Now listen, are you born again
of the Spirit? That's exactly what this is,
a new birth. This resurrection is the new birth. Have you believed
on the Son of God alone? Not according to your works,
but according to the will of God. I'll tell you this, all who are
born again know this. Verse 14, I will put my spirit
in you and you shall live and I shall place you in your own
land. Then shall you know that I, the Lord, have spoken and
performed. Is your salvation of God or your will? Is your salvation of God or of
your worse? My people shall know that I spoke
it, I said you would live, and I performed. That's what I know. I know this, salvations of the
Lord. 100% of God and none of myself. All God's people know that. Why? God said you would. He said you
shall know. You shall know. The living know this. And so
now then, let's see this second part, this second one here. Verse
15, he said, The word of the Lord came to me again, saying,
Son of man, take thee one stick and write upon it, for Judah,
and the children of Israel, his companion. And take another stick
and write upon it, for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and all
the house of Israel, his companions. And join them one to another
into one stick, and they shall become one in thine hand. Now this picture here, God commands
His prophet. The other one was miraculous,
wasn't it? This is just simple. This is
very plain. It's not a miraculous thing He's
going to do. He's going to pick up a stick
off the ground, He's going to pick it up and He's going to
write some names in it. He's going to take another stick
and He's going to write some more names in it. He's going
to put both sticks in His hand and hold it up. He puts the sticks
together and He holds them. Not a very miraculous thing that's
being done here, but it is a picture of something. Well, what is this a picture
of? Well, when the prophet walks
around with two sticks in his hand all the time, people are
going to get kind of inquisitive. And God said, they're going to
ask you. He said, when the children of
thy people shall speak to thee, verse 18, Will thou not show
us what thou meanest by these? Sayeth them. This is the meaning.
Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand
of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his fellows, and put
them with him, even the stick of Judah, and make them one stick,
and they shall become one in my hands. Okay, let's go back again to
basic principles. Who is he talking about? He says,
talking about the children of Judah and the children of Ephraim.
Who are these? If you remember, at this time,
the houses were divided. Israel was divided into two distinct
nations. The nation of Israel were the
ten tribes of the north, who had already been destroyed by
the Assyrian army. The two tribes of the south,
Judah and Benjamin, were called Judah. And God swears by this
thing, He's going to get Israel, who had been destroyed, and He's
going to get Judah, and He's going to put them together and
make one nation again out of them in His own hand. Here God promises the reconciliation
of two nations by His own hand. Naturally, this was done in the
hand of Zerubbabel. You remember, that was the guy
that God chose to bring all the nations together to build the
temple again and to restore the worship of God. Physically, that
was done by the hand of Zerubbabel. But remember, this is much more
than that. This is a spiritual meaning. Let's see the greater meaning.
Israel and Judah, again, are a picture of who? All of God's elect. Israel
is a picture of the Gentile nations. Remember, Israel is the ones
that forsook the worship of God in Judah. Forsook the law of
God and worshiped the other gods. That's a good picture of all
Gentiles, isn't it? And Judah represents all of the
Jews who maintained that ceremonial worship of God. But as God takes these two sticks... Now, what do you know about a
stick? A stick is something that has
been torn off or fallen from a living tree. A stick by nature
is what? Dead. Dead. So it didn't matter. Jew and
Gentile both are represented by dead, lifeless, fruitless
sticks. A stick by definition is fruitless
and useless except for one thing. Burning. Now listen, we all are
as useless as a stick. We're as helpless. Could the
stick put itself into the vine or the tree? Could it give itself
life? Could it produce any fruit in
itself? No. Does it have any strength
or power in itself? No. Neither did we. Neither did
we. We were separated from the living
God. How fitly does this describe
Paul the elect? And we by nature were no different
than the Jews, fruitless in goodness or righteousness, useless and
helpless to save ourselves. But God in grace commands him
to take the sticks, to take the sticks into his own hand. It was the sovereign will of
God and purpose to take dead sticks and put them in the hand
of Christ. So as to give them both union
with Him and life. So the picture The picture here
now turns and we see him doing something with these sticks.
What does he do? He begins to write the names of the tribes
of Israel on one stick. And he writes the names of the
tribes of Judah on the other. All this is the picture of sovereign
election. God writing the names of His
people. in the Lamb's Book of Life before
the world began. That's God's, that's the picture. He has inscribed the names of
all the elect that He will save. I remember in Luke chapter 10,
you remember He sent out those 70 disciples to preach and they
came back and they were so amazed, they said, even the spirits,
the devils are subject unto us. But remember our Lord said, don't,
that's nothing. That's nothing to even rejoice
in. That's just trivial what I've given you. But rather rejoice
in this, that your names are written in heaven. That's something to rejoice in,
isn't it? If my name is written in heaven, I have something to
rejoice in. If it's not, you have nothing
to rejoice in. You can do all. Judas was one
of those. You know that? He was one of
those that did those miracles. Yet his name was not written
in heaven. He died in his sins. These names were recorded before
the world began. Listen to this. And all that
dwell in the earth shall worship him, the beast, whose names are
not written in the book of life, of the lamb slain, from the foundation
of the world. I'm so thankful that God has
chosen some. You mark it down. If men would
have their way and do away with election, they would do away
with all salvation. Because had He not chosen us,
we never would have chosen Him. Had He not first set His love
on us, we would have never loved Him. Why? We were dead sticks. useless and only fit for the
burden. And notice this, all of these
elect are to be reconciled in his hand. Look at that in verse
19. And he says, Behold, I will take
the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the
tribes of Israel as fellows, and will put them with him even
the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall
be one in my hand." Now I want us to see whose hand we're in. This is beautiful. I want you
to see in whose hand all the children of God are in. That
is the hand of Jesus Christ. We were given in this covenant
to the hand of Christ. To the hand of Jesus Christ. Salvation is all of all of the
elect of God is according to the power and will of God. Salvation, as I've said, is something
God has done before our calling. Something He has done even from
eternity purpose, and in Christ has it accomplished. And all He has saved, He will
call with an effectual call, and they shall come even because
we are given to Christ. We have been put in. I'm sure
of this. All the elect will be saved.
All the elect will be saved. How do I know? Because they are
put in the hand of Christ. Because this is the one who is
to do all the work. Now look at all the elect of
God who's by nature are dead and inscribed by God and see
that they are put into the hands of Christ and all who are given
to Him and put in union with Him are put into his hand. Now when the Prophet took these
sticks, now look, those sticks lay on the ground, he couldn't
do anything for himself, he picks them up, he writes the names,
he puts them in his hand, and now they look, they have animation.
They move, don't they? The sticks move. When his hand
moves, the sticks move. When he decides to use the stick,
the stick then is profitable, isn't it? When? When it's in
his hand. Outside of His hand, it's nothing but a stick. In
His hand, it's useful. It's living. And that's what
all the elect are in the hand of Christ. They have become useful
and living. When God put all His elect in
union with His Son, He actually became their surety. Their surety. He became their representative. He became their mediator. He became all their strength
in life. What's assurity? Assurity is
a guarantee. Remember when Judah Judah became surety for Benjamin. Joseph told him, go back, get
Benjamin and bring him up. His dad said, no, I ain't letting
him go. And Judah swore. He said, look,
my life for his. If I don't bring him back, then
I'll bear the blame. That's what a surety is. He's
guaranteed. Jesus Christ became surety and
the Father gave all his elect to Christ and Christ said to
him, I swear, I swear I'll save them all. And the Father said,
okay, they're in your hand. You have now become responsible
for all their salvation. seeing the Father trust in Christ
to be a surety, and seeing that if he brings them back, he will
bear the blame, the question then is asked, was he victorious? Was he successful? Did he restore Israel? The only answer in scripture
is yes. Did the prophet pick up the sticks
and write them? Now, how hard was that for him
to do that? It was simple, wasn't it? I tell you, it was the same
for Christ. He did it with such power and
grace. God said this, my servant shall
not fail nor be discouraged. Listen, I tell you if Jesus came
and died like false religion says, died for all men, and I'm
telling you this, there would be no hell. If Christ died for
everyone, there would be no hell. But we know there is. And we
know men are there now. So what does this mean? It means
that Christ did not die for all men, without exception. He died for Israel. He died for
those that were in His hand. And what does He say? Let's close with this one. This
should give comfort. Are you in the hand of Christ?
Go to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. Some are not in the hand of Christ.
I tell you, they're in His hand as far as being the God of justice. They will not escape His hand
of justice. I'm talking about the hand of
mercy. Are you in the hand of mercy?
John chapter 10 and look at verse 25. These Jews were complaining.
If you be the Christ, tell us plainly. Verse 25, Jesus answered,
I told you, but you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. But you believe not. Now why? Why did they not believe? Because you are not of my faith. As I said, who are his sheep? Here they
are, my sheep. Hear my voice. And I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of Oh, the covenant in the hand
of Christ is sure to all the saints. named in the covenant of grace. God says, I will gather you. I will sprinkle you with clean
water. I will put a new heart in you.
You're going to get a new heart. I'm going to put it in there.
And you're going to love me and believe on me. And when you do,
you'll know I did it. And when I did it, I raised you
from the dead. That's what you're going to know
by experience. I raised you from the dead. And
I reconciled you to myself. by the hand of my Savior, Jesus
Christ. I tell you what, I am thankful.
Thankful my name has been written. I'm thankful that my salvation
is not in my own hand. Oh, how many claim and want that. They want salvation to be in
their own hand. I don't. I'm just a dead stick. I want to be in His hands. All
are in His hands. Nobody can take you out. Nobody can take you out. I pray
God bless you.