If you will open to the book
of Jeremiah chapter 50. Jeremiah chapter 50. Now when we talk about the grace
of God, we're not always talking about the same thing. Or more
importantly, when the scriptures mention the grace of God, it's
not always talking about the same thing. Sometimes when we
speak of the grace of God, we're talking about God's compassionate
nature. one of the qualities of his being. He said to Moses in the book
of Exodus chapter 34, when Moses says, show me your glory and
God said, I'll cause all my goodness to pass before you and I will
declare the name of the Lord. And God appeared to Moses and
said to him, the Lord, the Lord, compassionate and gracious. Now there are many qualities
of God. But here's the one on which we rely, that he is a gracious
and merciful God. Sometimes when we speak of the
grace of God, we are speaking of the principle by which the
gospel operates, that is, that we are saved by grace and not
by works. Every scheme of acceptance with
God, other than the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, is based
upon what men do. It requires something from men
in order to gain something from God. Of course, what is required
by God, if you're going to get his blessing, if you're going
to get his approval by what you do, then the standard is this,
absolute perfection. Perfection from the moment you
are conceived until the moment you die. That not once in thought,
word, or deed you transgress the law of God. Well, there's
one thing for certain. As the scriptures say, there
are none who are justified under the law. By the law shall no
one be considered righteous in his sight. So the only other
option open is that God receive people entirely upon the principle
of his free favor. That he gives to us whatever
it is we receive that we get it without us doing anything
to earn or qualify for it. And then sometimes when we talk
about the grace of God, we're talking about the abilities that
God gives to each member of his church for the building up of
the church. Paul said, by the grace of God,
I am what I am. And what was he talking about? Well, he was an apostle. So you're
saying, by the grace of God, I'm an apostle. And he said,
unto me is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles
the unsearchable riches of Christ. Paul realized that the preaching
he did was not made effective by any quality within himself. It was the working of God's grace.
And then sometimes when we're talking about God's grace, we're
talking about God's active work in the hearts of his people to
reconcile them to himself. And it is that that I want to
talk about this morning, the experience of grace. We must be careful that we do
not allow our belief in the absolute sovereignty of God to make us
think that within the scope of our lifetimes we do not actually
experience something. Now, there are some people that
draw that conclusion. There's a group of Baptists down
in the Southeast, or primarily in the Southeast, primitive Baptists. And they believe in the sovereign
grace of God like we do. They believe God chose a people
whom he would save, that he sent his son as a sacrifice to put
away their sin, and that he sends their spirit to them. But here's
the thing. They say, well, because God has
chosen his people, he's absolutely sovereign. Because he's chosen
them, they're going to be saved whether or not they believe.
They're going to be saved whether or not they ever hear the gospel.
Wait a minute. The scriptures have never taught
that. It's true that everyone whom God chose shall be saved,
period. We know that. But that doesn't
mean that he's not going to do it through the means he has established.
which is through the sacrifice of his son, through the preaching
of the gospel, and through the power of the Spirit of God, which
makes the preaching of the gospel powerful and effective in the
hearts of his people. What I'm saying is this, for
every one of the elect of God, there comes a time in their life
when they pass from death unto life, when by the grace of God,
they go from darkness to light. God's grace is never without
effect. It always accomplishes something.
And so here in Jeremiah chapter 50, we see some examples of this.
God works in us to will and do of his good pleasure, Paul says. And here in Jeremiah, we see
what that looks like. What kind of things happen when
God begins a work of grace the hearts of his people. Now the
very nature of God's work is simple, he gives and sustains
spiritual life in the hearts of his people. When the Bible
says God works in us to will and do of his good pleasure,
that's how he does it, he gives us spiritual life. When our father
Adam sinned, God had told him, in the day you eat of it, dying
you will die. Now wait a minute, Adam went
on and lived another 900 and some years. Yes, he lived 900
and some years in his body, but the day that he sinned, spiritually
speaking, he died. He lost the capacity to know
God. He lost the capacity to love God. He lost the capacity
to understand God or believe God. He was spiritually dead. and every one of Adam's posterity,
and that's everybody, everybody is born spiritually dead and
physically dying. And unless God does a work of grace, a work
that he doesn't ask permission to do, a work that he's not waiting
for the sinner to allow him to do, Unless he does that work,
which the Lord Jesus called being born again, unless God does that work, we
remain in our condition of spiritual death. We don't know God, or we know
there is a God, but we don't know him. We don't understand
him. Because when men don't know God,
when women don't know God, they go about and try to establish
their own righteousness before God, which proves they don't
understand the holiness of God or they give up. They give up. They don't understand the mercy
of God, they don't understand the grace of God, that he freely
gives his blessings. But the moment a person is given
spiritual life, they begin to know, love, and believe God. And so God creates that life
and he sustains it. But what does it look like when
it happens? Well now here in Jeremiah, Jeremiah the prophet
is of course making prophecies about when Israel would be sent
into Babylon, what's called Babylonian captivity, because of their idolatry,
because of their rebellion against God, because they would not rest
and rely on him. He sent them into captivity. And there they remained for 70
years and he brought them back. Now that is a picture, that is
a picture of what God does in the salvation of people. You
see, to the Jews, that promised land
was their paradise. And God gave them and planted
them in that land and caused them to flourish in that land.
But in that land they rebelled against him, so God cast them
out of that land. That's what the captivity was
about. He cast them out of their paradise. But there was, as there
always has been, there was a remnant according to the election of
grace, and God brought them back. and put them back in paradise,
their paradise. Of course that is a picture of
what God did because when God made man there was a time when
the whole human race was in that paradise called the Garden of
Eden. Of course at that time the whole
human race amounted to two people, Adam and Eve. But the whole human
race was in paradise. But the whole human race rebelled
against God. And what did God do? He cast
them out of paradise. But as is always the case, there
is a remnant, according to the election of grace, whom God will
save and bring back to paradise. What the book of Revelation calls
the paradise of God. Now when God begins this work,
look at verse four in Jeremiah chapter 50. In those days, at
that time, declares the Lord, the people of Israel and the
people of Judah together will go in tears and seek the Lord
their God. They will ask the way to Zion
and turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves
to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten. The grace of God, the working
of the grace of God, in the heart of a man or woman always results
in that person seeking the Lord. Always. There is no such thing
as God doing a work within a person and it not being effective. We
believe a doctrine which theologians call the doctrine of irresistible
grace. That's not really a very good name for it, but we do believe
in the doctrine of, shall we call it, omnipotent grace. If
God gives spiritual life to a person, that person has life, and from
that life they seek the Lord. There's no such thing as a person
who has experienced the grace of God, yet does not seek God. God's grace, in this case or
in this form, is not merely an offer. God does not come and
say, well, if you'll let me, I'll give you life. Well, what
good would that do? That would be like the Lord Jesus
coming to the tomb of Lazarus and having them roll the stone
away and the Lord saying to Lazarus, if you'll let me, I'll raise
you from the dead. What kind of response would the
Lord have gotten? None at all. The dead don't respond. But when
the dead are made alive, they respond. What's the first thing
that Lazarus did once the Lord had given him life? He came out
of the tomb to the Lord. And the moment God gives spiritual
life to a person, they come out of that death, they come out
of that spiritual death and that darkness and that blindness,
and they seek the Lord, they come to him. They will seek the
Lord. They will come in tears. When
God invades the heart, and I use that word because that's exactly
what God does, He invades the heart. People misuse that scripture
in Revelation chapter 3 verse 20 where it says, behold I stand
at the door and knock, and they'll say, Jesus is knocking at your
heart's door. Well if that's all He does, He's
wasting His time. because the man inside is dead,
and he's not coming to the door. That scripture has nothing to
do with God's work with individuals. If it's work with individuals,
he does not knock on the door, or so long as all he does is
knock, nobody answers. Rather, the Lord Jesus Christ
comes, and he knocks down the door, and he comes in, and he
says, this heart is now mine. I take up my throne here. I bring life and light here. It's an invasion of man's heart
and it's an invasion he resists with all his might until, until
the Lord declares victory and then he rejoices at what the
Lord has done. When God's grace invades the
heart, The man or woman who he invades begins to seek the Lord
God himself. Until God works in grace, men
will seek religion. They'll seek morality. They'll
seek church membership. They'll seek heaven. They'll
seek victory over this or that sin. And you know what? All their
seeking will be highly esteemed among men. Men will say, isn't
that wonderful? Look at so and so. He is so devoted. But the Lord Jesus Christ said,
that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to
God. See, we're so dead by nature. We've got this thing completely
turned around about what pleases God. And even some of those who
claim to believe in the free and sovereign grace of God will
then tell people that here's what you have to do in preparation
to receive the grace of God. Friends, if there's any preparation
necessary to receive the grace of God, then the grace of God is useless.
The grace of God is the preparation. By grace, God prepares his people
to gladly receive him. Know all the things that we do
up until the time that God invades our hearts and takes up his throne
there. Everything we do up until then
while it may be highly esteemed among men is an abomination to
God because it's things done in the flesh. Now when it says that men seek
God, it necessarily implies that they were formerly cut off from
God. As I said, this is that picture
of us being cast out of paradise. And man by sin has been separated
from God. He's been cut off from God, been
cut off from all the goodness of God and all the blessings
of God. If you die, you're cut off from
everybody in this world that you knew, right? Well, we died
spiritually and that cut us off from God. But when we are made alive again,
we begin to seek Him. Why do God's people seek Him? Well, they seek Him because their
hearts have been made to long to desire Him. Zechariah chapter
12 verse 10 I'll just read it to you says, and I will pour
out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem
a spirit of grace. See here we're talking about
the grace of God this is when God pours out the spirit of grace
which is his spirit operating in grace, a spirit of grace and
a spirit of supplication. What does that mean? Well, that
means when the spirit of grace works in them, it works in them,
they begin to, we don't use the word supplication very often,
but it means to ask for, to pray for. So it's a spirit of grace,
and it produces a spirit of prayer within God's people. It says,
they will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will
mourn for him. as one mourns for an only child
and grieve bitterly for him who's one who grieves for a firstborn
son. Now why does he put it this way?
I thank God that I have never lost a child. My wife gave birth to three children.
All three of them are still alive. I don't know how people bear
with the grief of the loss of a child. I've known people who've
lost children. And you stand there and you don't
even know what to say to them. It is a deep, deep wound. Why? Because they long for the one
that was lost. They want them back desperately.
And if there was any way to get them back, they would do it.
They would bankrupt themselves if that would get them back.
they would surrender their own lives if it would bring their
child back. That's how much they long for them. And what the prophet
Zechariah is saying, when God pours out his grace upon his
people, they long for him like a parent longs for a child they
lost. Have you ever wanted God that
much? Have you ever desired him with
the kind of desire you would have if one of your children
was taken from you. The grace of God produces such
desire in the heart. Now it's true that we do not
always go around with that level of emotional desire and you know
why? These bodies couldn't take that.
I mean, we couldn't go around with such a longing in our hearts
that we feel emotionally all the time. And in fact, I'm not
necessarily even talking about an emotion here because all of
us are made up differently when it comes to our emotions and
how we feel and respond to things. But this is what the scriptures
is telling us, that when the grace of God is at work in a
person, that person longs for God with all his heart. and it
is in his heart that he will have God if he has nothing else,
nothing else. They must have him. They seek him for they know that
since it is he against whom they have sinned, it is from him they
must receive the forgiveness of sins. In the book of Psalms chapter
51 that great psalm of repentance David pouring out his heart before
God over the sin he had committed with Bathsheba adultery and murder
and he said this against you and you alone have I sinned and
done this evil my sight." Man's religion makes him try
to hide from God. Man's religion makes him try
to hide his sin from God. God's grace causes a person to
go to the God against whom he sinned and seek forgiveness from him
knowing that no other forgiveness will do. Now if I wronged you, if I cheated you, and I wanted
forgiveness for what I'd done to you, would it do me any good
to go to your neighbor and ask him to forgive me? He doesn't
have the authority to forgive me for what I did to you, right?
And no one else has the authority to forgive you for what you've
done against God. No one else but God himself. God's grace causes us to quit
trying to hide from God. What's the first thing Adam and
Eve did after they sinned? Well the first thing they did
is try to cover their nakedness. They thought they could hide
from God the fact that they were naked. They made themselves some clothes
out of leaves. Well, we know how well that works.
But you know what they did next? They hid themselves from God. That's what men do, they hide.
Thinking that when God comes that he won't know where they
are and he won't know what they've done. And they'll get into heaven
on the sly. Well, I know this. You cannot
hide your sin from God. You cannot hide yourself from
God. And if God ever begins a work of grace in you, the first thing
you'll do is give up trying to hide. And you'll come to him
and confess what you are. And you'll seek his forgiveness
because you will realize, like David did, that even though he
sinned, in some sense sinned greatly against Uriah, in taking
Uriah's wife, and then even more greatly sinned against Uriah
by taking Uriah's life to cover up his stealing his wife. David
knew that even though he had offended Uriah greatly, that
in all reality, all of that sin was against God and God alone. And it's from him, from God,
he must find forgiveness. How do they seek Him? If you're
following along in your Bibles, turn back to Jeremiah chapter
29, verse 13. Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 13. You will seek me. you will seek me. Now when's
he talking about? Well to the Jews he's saying
in verse 10 he says when 70 years are complete for Babylon. So
he's saying at the end of your banishment then you will seek
me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. How do God's people seek the
Lord? With all their hearts. They hunger and thirst for Him. And you know, if a person is
truly hungry, in the United States of America, we really don't ever
get the opportunity to be truly hungry. Our stomach may growl,
but we don't get hungry like people back then could when they
had, in times of famine, and there just wasn't any food. And
they begin to waste away. The Lord says, blessed are they
who hunger and thirst after righteousness, which in truth is the same thing
as hungering and thirsting after God. To hunger like that, to thirst. Here in the modern age, we get
a little bit thirsty, we just go get a glass of water, don't
think twice about it. Well, spend a whole day out in
the desert with no water and you find out what thirst really
is. those in whom God has done a
work of grace, hunger and thirst for him with all their hearts. When a person seeking after God
is not a work of grace, he'll only seek God half-heartedly
as it is written, as it's said. When a person says, you know,
he's going to try to fit God into his life, or if that's what's
in his heart, he has not sought the Lord with all his heart.
And whatever seeking he's doing is just so much as seeking after
religion. When grace prompts a man to seek, the attitude of that person's
heart becomes, I must have him. And you know something? It doesn't
let up. Philippians chapter 3 verse 13 this is the Apostle Paul now
the Apostle Paul spent a lot of time as a religious man and
he was very successful as a religious man but he was not seeking the
Lord but the Lord sought out Paul whose name at that time
he went by Saul the Lord sought him out the Lord
gave him life and from that moment on Saul of Tarsus, later known
as Paul the Apostle, sought the Lord with his whole heart. And
as he's in a Roman dungeon writing the book of what we now call
the book of Philippians, he's nearing the end of his life and
for 20-30 years he has sought the Lord and he has found him. And yet what does he say in Philippians
chapter three, verse 13, forgetting what is behind, I press on to
lay hold of that for which God laid hold of me. And what was
that? Union with God, knowing God. If a person ever stopped seeking
the Lord, it's proof he never really started
seeking the Lord. Seeking the Lord is a result
of a work of grace and God never, once he does a work of grace,
he never stops in that work, therefore the results never stop. They seek with tears. Now it's
not our place to determine whether a man's attitude toward his sin
and rebellion against God is sincere. I can't tell. You could
come to me with tears streaming down your face and say I've done
awful things and you could look like the most repentant person
that ever lived and yet all it be is crocodile tears or what
Paul calls the sorrow of the world that leads to death. We
can't judge another person's repentance but we can We can
see an example of it, now turn over to Psalm 51, and I'll show
you what the Bible says repenting people talk like, what
kind of things they say. When God's done a work of grace
in the heart, and a person repents and seeks the Lord with tears,
what kind of things does that man say? Psalm 51, have mercy
on me. God. Now because of the nature
of the English language, our translation begins with the
word have, but the way Hebrews written, this psalm begins with
the word mercy. I think that tells us something.
When David, when he felt the guilt of his sin upon his conscience,
The first word out of his mouth to God was mercy, mercy. He didn't want to say anything
else until mercy had taken the stage. Brethren, if God ever gives you
a sense of sin, if God ever teaches you in your heart what you are,
This will come to your mind, I need the mercy of God. Before I ask for anything else,
mercy's gotta be there. Before I come any closer to him,
I've got to put before me a banner that declares mercy, have mercy
on me. Oh God, according to your unfailing
love, according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and
cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions. My sin is
always before me. Against you, you only, have I
sinned and none what is evil in your sight, so that you are
proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely
I was sinful at birth. What don't you hear? And I'm
not gonna take the time to read the whole psalm, because we have
limited time. But one thing you'll never find David saying is, Lord,
I messed up. I'll try harder next time. I'll
do better next time. Those in whom God's grace has
been at work, They come with the tears that declare not only
that they are sinners, but they have come to a realization that
they have no power to be anything else. People think that repentance,
when the Bible talks about repentance, that it's talking about changing
our ways. Brethren, if we could change our ways we wouldn't need
a Savior. If we could be better than we
are, we wouldn't need somebody to save us. If we could actually
be righteous, we wouldn't need someone to be our righteousness.
Repentance is turning from our own works to his works. That's
what repentance is. Repentance is not saying, oh,
I'm so sad about the sins I've done. It's coming to the realization
I've never done anything else other than sin. And I'll never be able to accomplish
anything but sin. Repentance is turning from self
to God. It's turning from reliance upon
what I can do and vows that I can make and fulfill. It's turning
away from that. It's turning away from ceremonies,
turning away from religious observances, turning away from Bible reading,
thinking that impresses God, or prayers. It's turning from
everything I do and relying entirely upon what Christ has done. And
that's a repentance nobody can do. unless God works grace in
their hearts. And if he does, they will. This would seem so strange to
the ears of religious people, but when God's grace works repentance
in the heart of a person, that person quits trying to be righteous. because he knows he can't. Everything other than the gospel
says try harder. The gospel says give up. Give
up. Quit trying to render a righteousness
to God and receive a righteousness of God. Receive the righteousness
from God. as a gift. David said in Psalm 51, he says,
a broken spirit and a contrite heart you will not despise. The human heart is the only thing
that is improved by breaking it. and God's the only one that
can break it. The human heart is so hard with
pride, nothing but the grace of God can shatter it to pieces. But it is written that God will
not despise such a heart. What is it to be heartbroken
over sin? It's not simply to be sorry that you've sinned, but to realize that you can't
do anything else. that you are nothing more than
a mercy beggar in the sight of God, that your only hope is David's
first word, mercy, mercy. So the first thing when God's
grace is at work, and that was the foundational thing we had
to spend more time on it, but when God's grace is at work the
first thing is men seek the Lord and they seek the Lord with all
their hearts. Secondly, When God's grace begins a work in
the heart, there is a search for sin, but none will be found. Look at verse 20 now, Jeremiah
chapter 50. In those days at that time declares
the Lord. What days is this? When the time
of banishment is over. When the Lord will bring his
people back. So for individuals, as we apply
this to individuals, we're talking about that point in time when
God gives spiritual life to a person. It says, in those days, at that
time, declares the Lord, search will be made for Israel's guilt,
but there will be none. And for the sins of Judah, but
none will be found. For I will forgive the remnant
I spare. I want you to think about that.
It's not saying the preacher's gonna search for sin and not
gonna be able to find any. It's meaning God will search
for sin in them and none will be found. Now, if I stood before God and there was an angel and he
says, Joe, A search for sin, for your sin has been made, but
none has been found. My natural response will be,
well, I can tell you where they are. I can tell you where they are.
They're in my history. My history's full of it. I have memories that go back
to when I was two or three years old. Charleston, South Carolina. And you know what I can remember
about me back then? I was a sinner. I remember what I was, and I
know what I am. And for the 60 or 61 years that
have passed since my early memories, nothing about my sin has changed. My history is full of it. But it says in 2 Corinthians
5, verse 17, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. And I've heard preachers say,
now this means that if God saves you, you're gonna be a changed
person, and you're gonna not be like you were before, and
you're gonna get new friends, and you're gonna have new desires,
and all those old friends and old desires and all that are
gonna be gone. If that's what that verse means, I've never
met anybody in Christ. Never. If it means that when
a man is in Christ, he no longer desires sin, he no longer desires
anything that's against God, if that's what that verse means,
I'm not in Christ and I've never met anybody that's in Christ.
Do you know what that scripture's saying? It's saying if any man
is Christ, that by virtue of him being in Christ when Christ
died, was buried, and raised from the dead, That old man has
died with Christ and he's been raised as a new man. And everything
about that old man is gone. All the sins that condemned him
to death are gone. He's no longer under the jurisdiction
of the law that condemned him to death in the first place.
It says if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. If you're
part of the old creation, who are you in? You're in Adam. And
in Adam, all die. But in Christ, they're all made
alive. In other words, this new man
is not talking about a change right now in our fleshly character
and nature, nor even conduct. What it's saying is, is from
God's viewpoint, you died. And the person standing before
him is not the person that died. The slate is clean. Now if I told you my history
honestly, it would be a tale of one sin after the other. But
if you ask God what my history is, he would say he's never done
anything wrong. He's always done what pleased
me. In fact, it was his very sustenance to do my will. Where are my sins? Well, they're
in my memory. Are your sins in your memory?
I tell you, I've got, I certainly don't remember all my sins. There's
not enough room in my brain to remember all of them. But I remember
some of them. When I did them, they didn't
seem so bad. Now I can't believe that I ever did these things.
I remember them. I remember things from very young
years. And I'm finding the same wickedness
that was at work in me as just a child is still at work in me. And apart from any restraining
work of God, I do the same things. Oh, they're in my memory. I can't
forget them. But the Lord said this, their
sins and iniquities I will remember no more. No more. Yes, he knows they happen because
God knows everything. But my memory of sins reminds
me that I'm a sinner. My memory of my sins makes me
feel bad. But God says, when he says, I
will remember them no more, he says, I'm never gonna bring them
up again. They're no longer part of the equation of how I deal
with you. Brother David Plager put it this
way. What we can't seem to forget, God refuses to remember. Where are my sins? They're in
my history, they're in my memory, they're on my conscience. They weigh heavy there. They
weigh heavy because they accuse me and reveal to me what I am
and I don't like what they say about me. If I wasn't me, I wouldn't like
me. I mean, if I was somebody else and knew me, really knew
me, I wouldn't like me. I'd say, I don't want to be around
a person like that. And knowing what I am, if I must
appear before God on my own, oh, the weight of sin that would
be upon my conscience in his presence. But it is written. that by the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ and a work of grace in the heart that convinces us of
the value of that sacrifice that we are made perfect as pertains
to conscience. That doesn't mean that we don't
realize our sins are awful, doesn't mean we don't feel bad about
it, it's talking about us before God. We are taught We are taught that in his sight
we have no sin. None. Whereas my sin, they are by nature
before the Lord. David said, against thee and
thee alone have I done this evil in thy sight. Men think they
can hide from God. Men go somewhere with some mischief
on their minds. I think it's kind of funny how
you walk in a bar, it's dark. I've never seen in my life a
well-lit bar. Not that I've been in a lot of bars, but I've never
seen a well-lit bar. Why? Well, folks don't want it
to be known what's going on in there. Now, you may be able by darkness
to hide from men what you're doing, but you cannot hide from
God. The darkness is light unto him,
says the scriptures, and whether it is in the darkness of the
bar or the darkness of false religion or the darkness of a
corrupt conscience, whatever it is, Men may hide their sins
from other men, but they can't hide them from God. Our sin is
in the sight of God, but the Song of Solomon, chapter 4, verse
7, when it's expressing God's love for his people, Christ's
love for his church, he says regarding you and me who are
in him, I see no spot in you. We all want to look good to our
spouse. When we're young trying to find one, we look the best
we can. And I'm going to say we put on
makeup. Us guys don't. Looking back,
I wish we could have. Might have helped. But that's
not a man thing. But we'll get whatever haircut. goes with the day and we'll try
to make ourselves look physically fit or whatever. And the ladies,
they put on the makeup and they put on the clothes that do all
they can to attract them. But you know what we're doing
with makeup and clothes? We're covering up what we don't
want them to see. God sees his people with neither
makeup nor clothes. And he says, I don't see anything
wrong here. Isn't that amazing? Jesus Christ, our husband, looks upon us and
he says, you are altogether fair, my love. I see no spot in you. What grace, what grace. And then the third thing, a work
of God's grace causes a discovery and a reliance upon the strength
of our Redeemer. Now looking at Jeremiah chapter
50, verse 33. This is what Jehovah Almighty
says. The people of Israel are oppressed,
and the people of Judah as well. All their captors hold them fast,
refusing to let them go. Have you ever tried to get free
of your sins, your captors? Doesn't work, does it? Won't
let you go. Verse 34, yet their Redeemer
is strong. Jehovah Almighty is his name.
He will vigorously defend their cause so that he may bring rest
to their land but unrest to those who live in Babylon. You say,
my sins won't let me go. Yeah, that's difficult. It's hard to bear. But understand
this, your Redeemer is strong. And if your sins won't let you
go, If the enemies of your soul won't
let you go, if Satan, that accuser of the brethren, won't let you
go, don't fret. Your Redeemer is able to make
them turn loose. Their Redeemer is strong. You know why we as
believers don't have to fret over our weakness? Because our
salvation is no longer depending on us. We have been taught by the grace
of God we have no strength. and therefore our strength is
irrelevant, and once we've learned that our strength is irrelevant,
so is our weakness. And why is that? Because we have
a Redeemer, one who takes up our cause for us. And we don't
have just any Redeemer, our Redeemer is none other than Jehovah, God
Almighty, and there's nothing that can stand in His way. That's
why Paul could say in the book of Romans, if God is for us,
who can be against us? There is no single power or the
collection of all the powers in the universe standing against
God that could be successful in taking from him even one whom
he has determined to save. How can you know if there's been
a work of grace in your heart? Have you ever been made to seek
the Lord with all your heart? Have you ever been had some time,
at least some time, when you understood I've got to have Him.
My heart longs for Him. One old-timer said, give me Jesus
or I die. Has the Holy Spirit ever taught
you that by the blood of Jesus Christ you have no sin? that God has made a thorough
investigation for your sin and found none because the blood
of Jesus Christ has cleansed you from all sin. And have you
ever been made to see that Jesus Christ, your Redeemer, he's the
Lord Almighty and he is strong. And there is no one that can
stop him from saving you, not even you. Can't stop me.