Jeremiah chapter thirty eight. I hope you took the time to read.
This some of you have. Me and some of the men discussed
it with me in the study. It's obvious they were blessed
and just in reading it. Now this these chapters are full
to the brim and. As the time approach for this
message, I thought you should have. You should have broken
this up in the three or four messages. Because there's so
much here, this is so full of types of the gospel of Christ
and types I've never really seen before, and there are plenty
I still don't see. I'm sure of that. But there's
some very clear ones here, very clear, and I think You'll see
them with me. We're given eyes to see. Now,
as I say, there's so many here, we can't dwell on them all, but
chapter 38, the first four verses give us a picture of, and I'll
not read them, I'm not going to dwell on these, but later
on, you'll go back and look at it for yourself and see the picture
there. This is a picture of a gospel
preacher. It's a picture of the preacher
who's warning the people to flee from the wrath to come, to go
to Christ and live. And yet the people accused him
of being a troublemaker. Instead of being the people's
friend, he became their enemy for telling them the truth. That's
what Jeremiah, what they accused him of. And they had him put
in prison for that. He was persecuted for the truth's
sake. There's a picture of Christ here.
It's just as certain as when Christ appeared before Pilate
and the king Committed him into the hands of the people. And
tried to. The fellow named Zedekiah the
king here he tried to wash his hands in innocency and let the
people do with Jeremiah as they would. That's a clear picture
of Christ. There's a story of an Ethiopian
eunuch. Who hears and believes the truth
here. Of all things. The Ethiopian eunuch is found
here. in the beginning of verse seven felony he he did not like. The opium he heard Jeremiah preach
and. And he believed and later on
over after thirty nine. Tales of his salvation. Jeremiah
is a picture of a center in these first several verses verse six
look at that they want you to look at verse six Jeremiah's
picture of an old center So they took Jeremiah, cast him into
the dungeon of Malchiah, son of Hamilech. It was in the court
of the prison. They let down Jeremiah with cords
in the dungeon. There was no water but mire.
Jeremiah was sunk in the mire. There's a picture of an old sinner
sunk down in the mire. And lo and behold, the king sent
orders and had him lifted up out of the mire. And the cord, of all things,
they drew him up with a cord. So there's a picture there of
an old sinner lifted up out of the pit and out of the miry clay
and set among princes. Well, verse 14 is where I want
to begin our studies, though. Verse 14. And I have a twofold
picture here, the two types I want us to see here tonight. First
of all, if you take a note, The first two stories is the first
story here is a story of a man taken captive. A man taken captive. And then
the second story we'll see over later on is a man set free. One man taken captive. Another
man set free or. You could title it this. The
word of condemnation. And the word of deliverance.
Same word had two different things. One was a savor of death. Another
was a savor of life. Same word. All right, look at
verse 14 now. Let's start there. And Zedekiah
the king, Zedekiah the king, sent and took Jeremiah the prophet
unto him into the third entry that is in the house of the Lord.
And the king said unto Jeremiah, and I'm going to ask you something.
I'll ask thee a thing. Hide nothing from. Now back to
chapter thirty seven turn back there and look at verse one who
is this Zedekiah fella. Well this Zedekiah. Is indeed
a king he's the son of Josiah verse one he reigned instead
of Konai the son of Jehoiakim whom Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah. You see he
is a Zedekiah is a king under the king. Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar,
that's the same person. Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar,
the same person. Same Nebuchadnezzar that Daniel
spoke of. Same one, OK? But he's the king
of Babylon. He's the king of kings. Nebuchadnezzar is. He reigns
over all the land. Well, he made this Zedekiah king
in Judah. All right, now you've got to
stay with me or you're going to miss it. Zedekiah here, he
reigned in Judah. Nebuchadnezzar is the king. He
made Zedekiah a little prince, as it were. Now in our story,
Nebuchadnezzar represents God Almighty, who is truly the king
of kings, the sovereign God who reigns and rules The Scripture
says. He giveth the kingdom of man
to whomsoever he will. Right. Now Zedekiah represents
Adam. You see, Adam was placed in the
garden. And Adam was given reign over. He said, subdue the earth. Adam was king in the garden.
That's what Adam was. He was a king, but he wasn't
a king. God's the king of kings. Now,
you know what the name Zedekiah means? Every single name in Scripture
has significance. There's no idle words in Scripture.
God didn't just name a fellow. Well, what's it sound like? Zedekiah
has a good ring to it. No, everything has purpose. Every number in Scripture. If
we had the understanding, if we had the capacity to study
it, We'd see marvelous things in numbers and so on and so forth,
but we don't. But Zedekiah, the name Zedekiah
means the right of Jehovah. The right of Jehovah. And it's the name of six. There are six people in all of
scripture, six Israelites who bore this name. Just happen to
be six. All right. And I told you that
Zedekiah represents Adam, and Adam represents mankind. Six is the number of man, isn't
it? That's what Revelation said. Six is the number of man. That's
the day that God created man on the sixth day. Zedekiah means
the rite of Jehovah. Man is God's by rights. Man owns
God, or God owns man by rights, right? He is, he belongs to the
Creator. OK? You with me? You with me? Erling? All right. OK, look at verse 2 now. But
neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land did
hearken unto the words of the Lord, which he spake by the prophet
Jeremiah. God sent his word to Zedekiah,
and he didn't hearken unto it, and neither did the people, neither
did anybody underneath Zedekiah. Nobody heard the word of the
Lord. And this is a picture of man,
isn't it? Adam, our father, who rejected
God's word, he believed a lie rather than the truth. And all
of Adam's posterity, by nature, The natural man receiveth not
the things of God, their foolishness to him." Zedekiah didn't believe. He didn't believe. You see, the
word that came to Zedekiah was a word of judgment, a word of
warning. In other words, the word was,
this do and live. Don't do it, and you're going
to die. That was the word that came to
this Zedekiah, but he didn't believe it, and neither did whom
he represented, and neither do we by nature, right? The scripture
says, wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world, and
death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned.
Now, God's word had already come to Zedekiah, and he rejected
it. All right? Before this chapter, before chapter
37, God had already spoken. Are you with me? He wasn't treason.
OK, we'll call names. I want you with me here. You're
going to get a blessing out of this if you just gather yourself. God's word had already come to
Zedekiah. He'd already heard it and he'd already rejected
it. And that's that's a picture of Adam who before us rejected
the word of God and God spoke in the beginning. And look at
Chapter 38. Now, the same words of warning
God sent What did God say when he came? He came back through
the prophet Jeremiah. And spoke to Zedekiah again,
what did he say? Something new was a new revelation. Same thing. He told him the same
word, words of warning, words of promise. Salvation, obedience to the way
to the faith, to the word. Condemnation for rejection. All
right, same word. Again, came to Zedekiah, and
that tells me the long suffering of the Lord is salvation indeed.
And that tells me the scripture says God has spoken once. He
ain't twice. And he says the same thing, God
has been saying the same thing from the beginning, hasn't it?
But yet men heed it not. Did Zedekiah believe it the second
time? He didn't believe it the first time. Did he believe it
the second time? No, he didn't. Look at verse 14. We've already
read that. It says he took Jeremiah and
said, Now tell me. I'm asking to hide nothing from
me. But he'd already told me. Doesn't that sound like a Pharisee's
fan who came to Christ and said, Now if you be the Christ, tell
us plainly. He said, I told you. I told you. One time, somebody
said, Now, what is it you're saying? He said, Ask them to
hurt me. Zedekiah said, Don't hide anything
from me. Well, there's nothing hidden.
There's nothing hidden in this book. There's nothing hidden. If the gospel be hidden, it's
hidden to her, hidden to them that are lost, in whom the God
of this world has blinded their mind. God of their belly and
so forth and blinded them. Many are willingly ignorant,
willingly ignorant. Turn their ears. Well, here's
the word. Look at verse 17. Here's the word. Jeremiah, of
God Almighty in mercy, preached the word again to Zedekiah. Verse 17, Jeremiah said unto
Zedekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of
Israel, If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon's
princes, then my soul shall live. And this city shall not be burned
with fire, and thou shalt live, and thine house. Go to the king,"
he saith. You see, this Nebuchadnezzar
is king of kings. He reigns and rules, and he's
coming to conquer the land for his own. It's his. It belongs
to him. It's just a matter of time till he comes in and possesses
it all. And Jeremiah said, and this is the word that Jeremiah's
been saying to all the people from the beginning, he's coming.
The king is coming, and he's going to take his place. And
what he tells this fellow who thinks he's king is, he said,
you better submit to this king. You better bow to this king.
You better give yourself up. Go to the king. Go to the king. Give yourself up, and it'll be
where you live. Give yourself up. Go like, you
remember those fellows over in 1 Kings 20? They said, these
kings, It was King Ahab, of all people. King Ahab had taken the
place, and these kings whose land had been captured, these
kings said, we've heard that the kings in Israel are merciful
kings. So this is what we'll do, they
said. It's over in 1 Kings 20, if you want to read it. They
said, let's put ropes around our necks and go to the king. And maybe he'll have mercy on
us. And he did. He did. So that's how we got to go to
God. There's only one term of peace. There's only one condition of
peace with an angry God. We don't make bargains with God.
We say, if you'll do this, I'll do that. It's unconditional surrender
is what it is. We come with ropes around our
necks. And we don't come pleading what good little kings we've
met. A good little people, we come as guilty. This is what
Jeremiah told him. Give yourself up. Go to the king. Turn yourself in. You see what I was trying to
come up with? You remember that? Brother Gary Shepherd, I called him up
a while ago. He made an unforgettable statement
in Lexington, Kentucky, which I forgot. And I need to tell
that's a bad. I wish you'd come to me right
now. But in effect, this is it that you come. You don't make
bargains. This is unconditional surrender.
You're guilty anyway. You come confessing your guilt. I'm a usurper. What's your name?
What he said to Jacob, wasn't it? That man that wrestled with
him. What's your name? Well, I'm somebody. No, I'm Jacob. And then he changes your name.
You live. See, that's the only way to live. The only way to
live is to die. Is to die. The only way to find
mercy is to be guilty. The only terms of peace with
God are unconditional surrender, not bargains. You remember when
old Saddam Hussein, you know, remember when they had surrounded
his armies and all that? You remember that? They're bombing
him left and right and he didn't have anything left. And they
had just taken his elite guard and all this stuff, you know.
And you remember when he started bartering, started wanting to
negotiate the instead? You remember that? He said, he
sent an emissary or something, I'll negotiate. And the last
real president we had said, no, you won't, you're not negotiating.
Remember that? Unconditional surrender, and
we don't negotiate with terrorists. God doesn't negotiate with sinners
either. Right? Unconditional surrender. That's
the first term of peace, but then we've got to die. Blood
is the next term of peace. We've got to die. And the blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, is the terms of our peace. He made
peace through the blood of his cross. God can't just, Ed, God
can't just declare us forgiven, can he? Our sins have to be paid
for. That's what this world's missing. And the fact that whoever
Christ died for, their sins are put away. That's not just a doctrine. That's how God does things. Whoever Christ died for, they're
saved. Why? It's the blood that makes
it gone. Blood. Blood. Well, so here's what Jeremiah
tells Osedekiah. He said, you be a willing bond
slave to Nebuchadnezzar. Or, you're going to be taken
captive against your will. And that's man. You be a willing
bond slave. You present your ear to the door
post to have it bored through. And be a willing bond slave of
Christ. You come to Christ unconditionally as a beggar before the king,
and you'll live. If not, you're going to... Watch
what happens. Look at verse 18. If thou will
not go forth to the king of Babylon princes, then shall this city
be given into the hand... And these princes represent... Christ said, To his apostle,
he said, He that heareth you, heareth me. Didn't he, John? He that heareth the preacher
of the gospel, believes in the preacher of the gospel, where
he believes the gospel, he believeth in Christ. That's what Christ
said. But here he says, If you don't
go to the king of Babylon, Then shall this city be given into
the hand of the Chaldean, and they shall burn it with fire,
and you won't escape out of their hands. If you don't surrender,
it shall be ill with you. Verse 19, Zedekiah the king said
to Jeremiah, well, I'm afraid of the Jews that are falling
to the Chaldeans, unless they deliver me into their hands.
They mocked me. Zedekiah was afraid of men. He kind of reminded me of Nicodemus
a little bit. He was afraid. He was a closet
Calvinist. That's what Osedekiah was. He
came to him on down here. He said, no, let's not tell anybody
about this conversation we've had. But Osedekiah should have feared
the king and not men, shouldn't he? But he thought, what will
people think of me? He sat down and counted the costs.
Zedekiah counted the cost and he thought I'll lose my reputation.
I'm going to lose my esteem. They're going to mock me. Well,
my family will laugh at me. My workers will laugh at me. You better surrender. If nobody goes to the king, you
better. Right, Joe? If nobody else is going, I will.
Like old Pilgrim in Pilgrim's Progress who ran out of town.
run to that celestial city, fleeing the city of destruction. He put
his fingers in his ears. People were hollering at him,
laughing at him, mocking him, jeering at him, jesting at him. He put his fingers in his ears.
All the while he was running, he was hollering, life, life,
eternal life. Give me Christ or I die. You
can go on to hell if you want to. Not me. That's what this
fellow should have done. Well, he didn't. He didn't. I say that to you young people.
There aren't many young people interested. I know there's a
lot of religion going on and all that, but the gospel that
you're hearing, there are not many. You're blessed to be sitting
in this place, hearing the gospel. And if you declare it, you'll
get pers... you'll get... receive persecution, too. If
you believe it, you'll receive life. And whether anybody else
believes it or not, that doesn't make it untrue. It's your salvation. After the
way they call heresy, Paul said, that's the way I worship. That's
what I believe. Verse 20. Look at verse 20. Jeremiah said,
They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee. Those men won't deliver thee.
Obey, I beseech thee. The voice of the Lord which I
speak unto you, be well with you, and your soul shall live.
Obey, and it shall be well. Believe, surrender, live. If
you don't, verse 21, if you refuse to go, well, that's all I have
to say. That's the word. And that, Sam,
that's it. That's all a gospel preacher's
got to say, really, when it comes to this thing of preaching. If
you've heard him once, if you've heard Jeremiah once, Joe, you've
heard him a thousand times. Same message. Bow, submit, surrender,
live. Don't die. Come to Christ. Bow to God. God's God. He reigns and rules. Christ is
the only way, salvation. Submit to Him, bow to Him, come
to Christ. If not, you'll die. You'll die. That's just it. That's it. That's
the word of the Lord. All right, look over in Chapter
39. Chapter 39 now. Well, Nebuchadnezzar came. I'm
going to say Nebuchadnezzar because I'll get them mixed up if I keep
trying to say Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar came. He came
against the city. Did Zedekiah believe? No. Did the word of the Lord come
true? Yeah. Zedekiah ignored the word
of the Lord? You know, maybe he didn't really
believe. Sam, maybe he didn't really believe. Ah, that's an
old wives' tale. You know, Jeremiah, he's always,
he's been saying that for years. He'd been saying that Nebuchadnezzar
was coming for years. And he had been. Not like the
people outside the Ark. Oh, Noah, man, it's been a hundred,
it's been a hundred and nineteen years now. It's been a hundred
and nineteen years and three hundred and sixty-four days.
Come on. A hundred and twenty years, Noah,
it's been. Seven more days. The same old thing. No, he's
coming. He's coming. Judgment's coming. Maybe he didn't, Zedekiah didn't
believe it was going to happen, and he didn't surrender to the
king. So the king of kings came. He came, just like the word of
the Lord said he would. He came and he broke up the city,
just like the word of the Lord said he would. Verse 4, look
at Jeremiah 39, verse 4. And it came to pass that when
Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, or that is all the king's
men, And all the men of war, then they fled and went forth
out of the city by the way of the king's garden, by the gate
which is two walls. He went out the way of the flame.
But the army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the flame.
And when they had taken him, they brought him to the king. They brought him to the king. And wherefore he gave judgment. The last line in verse five.
He gave judgment on him. Now, we're going to come to the
king. Everyone in here, we read that
in John 5, didn't we? Sunday. Didn't we read that?
He said, we'll all appear before him to receive the things done
in our body, whether good, under life, or bad, under judgment. Everybody in this room, young
and old alike, is going to appear before the King of kings and
Lord of lords, the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? But today, today is the day of salvation.
January the 8th, 1997, is the day of salvation. Today, if you
will hear His voice, harden not your heart. Come to the King
now. Today, tonight, today is the
day of suffering. Come now, for mercy, for grace. Same old word. Same old word.
Everybody in here's heard this before. Everybody in here hadn't
heard this because everybody in here hadn't
come. And it's still the same. God forbid That I should keep this back
at any time come to cry how I think we know. Who will appear before him some
day both not by several tomorrow you don't know what a day may
bring. That they may bring him. In judgment
when Christ comes again the door of mercy shut right. Well, Zedekiah didn't believe
it, and what happened? And just as surely if we don't
believe it, the same thing will happen to us. Look at verse 6.
The king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah, and Adam, all
of them. And also the king of Babylon
slew all the nobles of Judah. Moreover, he put out Zedekiah's Man's in darkness, isn't he? And blinded. And we bound him
with chains to carry him to battle. That's us, isn't it? That's all
of us by nature. Why, we be not in bondage, the
Jews said. Oh, my. Everybody in here is
in bondage to sin until the King of kings sets us free. Well, this was the word of judgment
to this man. It was the savor of death to
this man. Right? This is a man taken captive. All right, now let's look at
a man set free. By the same word of the Lord,
a man set free. One of the king's chosen Look
at verse eleven or verse nine. Start there. Here's another fellow
in this story. Verse eight. Start there. The
child he hath burned the king's house, and the house of the people
of fire. Break down the walls of Jerusalem.
That's man in ruins, isn't it? That's mankind, all his posterity,
all his works, everything about him. Man is in ruins. He's in
ruins. Ruined by the fall. I'm going
to push the three are already have really. Redeemed regenerate. He's really the first man then
you start driving. Remember that man. That means
already in the captain of the guard. This is a different fellow
than that because the names sound familiar though I mean the name
sounds similar. No mere coincidence but they
sound familiar. The Nebuchadnezzar is the king
and Nebuchadnezzar is his captain. What do they mean? You know what
those two names mean? Nobody knows. They're mysterious. That's what
Strong's Concordance said of mysterious origin. Isn't that
wonderful? Call it a name, it's secret.
He's given a name that no man knows. Say he himself and them
to whom he reveals it. These two names have mysterious
origins. Even John Gill, the venerated
Dr. Gill, didn't know. He looked
that up in the Greek Septuagint. He didn't know. No man know. Well, who is this captain? I
think you know. The captain of the guard will look what this
captain did he came in and carried away captive in the Bible and
the remnant of the people who remained in the city. He took
captivity captive. Those that fell away that fell
to him or the rest of the people remain. But Nephews are Adam
the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people. He
had mercy and grace on poor people in the land which had nothing.
Those that had nothing in the land of Judah He gave them vineyards
and fields. These princes and all these people
who were somebody, he led them captive and made a show of them
publicly. Oh, who is that? You know who
that is, that's represents the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is the
Prince of Peace, who is the captain of our salvation, who came and
conquered sin when he had by himself purged our sin, who led
captivity captive, yet he gave to the poor. He said, the poor
have the gospel preached unto them. He said, blessed are the
poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom. Now, Jeremiah here in this story,
Jeremiah is this fellow set free. Jeremiah represents God's chosen,
God's elect. He represents a sinner saved
by grace. Got your attention, Joe Park.
Joe's head popped out. The common people going to hear
this gladly. Those sunk down in the mire, sinners. I read a good article by Brother
Todd Nyberg. He said, whatever it is you need, that's
what you want to hear. Whatever it is you need, that's
the message you're going to want to hear. If you need righteousness,
you're going to want to hear that message of Christ our righteousness. If you need mercy, you're going
to want to hear that message of mercy, sovereign mercy. If
you're an old sinner, you need saving. You're going to want
to hear that about that Savior who takes us out of the pit.
Well, look at what happened here. Look at verse eleven. Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon, gave charge concerning Jeremiah. Gave charge
concerning Jeremiah, not my, to Maybe the redneck and. You can preach this is not a
million here could stand up and preach this right now Jerry come
up now women can't. He gave charge the king of the
king gave charge concerning this one elect chosen fellow down
in the prison he gave charge of this one fellow. Who was a
nobody there by the air. But apparently Nebuchadnezzar
had set his affection on him and gave charge concerning Jeremiah
to Nebuchadnezzar Adam, the captain of the guard. And here's what
he said, verse twelve, Take him, look well to him, do him no harm. Do unto him whatever he asks. Oh my, this is a picture of God
in covenant mercy and covenant grace and in covenant with his
son, with Christ. Gave me to Christ. gave me to
Christ for safekeeping, for salvation, to do well by me. God said to
Christ before the world began, after he set his affection on
an old sinner like me, he said, you do well by him. See that
no harm comes to him. You go down there and you save
him. And whatever he asks, you give it to him. If he asks in
my name, you give it to him. Give it to him. Verse 14. So
they sent Now, where the word of a king is, there's power. And they fetched him. See, this
is what kings do. They don't ask. Not in the beginning. That's not the first thing they
do. They don't ask. But they fetch. Kings do it. Like David. Remember that lame fellow down
in the loaded bar? The king sent and got him. Fetch
him. Any possibility he wasn't coming?
Oh no, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And Christ
came and fetched us, sent the guard to fetch us. And they sent
and they took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison, verse
fourteen. And they committed him to get
a life. Now who's this get a life? Who
does Christ the captain commit us to? Huh? Who does Christ commit us to? Who? Go ahead, sir. That's right,
the Holy Spirit. That's who this represents, the
Holy Spirit. When Christ puts me under, Christ
puts me under the care and leadership of the Holy Spirit. Now, here's
the actual word of salvation. Now, see, the king had already
determined this. Well, I stand, the king said,
no, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to get Jeremiah out
of prison. And he called his captain of the guard, Nebuchadnezzar
Aden, and said, Come here. He said, Now you go down there,
and you get Nebuchadnezzar out, or you get Jeremiah out of prison.
And I'm committing him to you. And you do well by him. See that
no harm comes to him. You bring him out of there. And
you committing after you've brought him and loosed him out of that
pit. Got him out of that prison, you commit him to get a life
for the rest of his day. Here's a good... where the word
of the king is, there's power. It's as good as done. Dictum
factum. Right, Vicki? Dictum factum. The king says,
do it, and it's done. It's done. But Jeremiah had to
hear it. Jeremiah had to hear this word.
Look at chapter forty now. Chapter forty. Here's the word
that Jeremiah heard. The word of his salvation. Look
at verse one. The word came to Jeremiah from
the Lord after the Nebuchadnezzar and the captain of the guard
had let him go from Ramah when he'd taken him bound in chains
among all that were carried away captive in Jerusalem. Verse two. The captain of the guard took
Jeremiah. That's who it was. and said to him. See, Nebuchadnezzar
Adam, the captain's the one that personally spoke to him. He heard
the word of the captain. Christ said, My people shall
hear my voice. You might have heard a preacher
preaching the gospel one day, but it was Christ speaking to
you. You've got to hear him speak, who speaks from heaven. He's
got to be the one who says unto your soul, I'm your salvation.
You got to hear him speak, and Jeremiah heard him, the captain. The captain. And here's what
he said to him. Look at the first thing he said to him. Verse 2,
The Lord thy God hath pronounced this evil upon this place. Judgment.
He convinced Jeremiah of judgment. Verse 3, Now the Lord hath brought
it, and done according as he hath said. Truth, veracity. Truth of the Word, because you
have sinned. He pointed at Jeremiah and said,
you have sinned against the Lord, and have not obeyed his voice.
Therefore, this thing has come upon you. He pointed at Jeremiah. Now, wait a minute. Jeremiah
is a righteous man. Oh, no. There's none righteous. No, not one. Jeremiah is guilty. Right? He's captive. He's independent. All have sinned
and come short. There's nobody, Brother Joe,
there's nobody that doesn't hear this message first thing. Right? There ain't a sinner on topside
of God's earth who God is going to say that he doesn't first
hear him say, you're guilty. Right? A fellow the other day
said to me, he said, have you always been a Christian? I said, well, no. Gracious Saint. But that's their, you know, that's
about what they think. That's what they think of a lot
of people. And people are so religious, have been so religious
so long, they think they've always been. Oh, no. Nobody's found until they're
first lost. Right? Nobody hears the word
of mercy unless they're guilty. Only sinner he didn't come to
call the righteous. Oh, if he'd come to call the
righteous, he'd have got a lot of takers with him. Everybody
thought they were. He came to call sinners, and
he had to make them know that they were sinners. Jeremiah had
to hear that. But he's the preacher. Big deal. Big deal. Jeremiah, you're a
sinner. That's what he heard. You're
a sinner. Oh, my. You remember old Red
Hale's song, When I was bound by sin and shame, And how you
let me take the blame? Blessed Lord, how merciful. You ever wonder why he said that?
You see, it's the mercy of the Lord to show you that you're
to blame. That's the mercy of God, who
was it that said that a sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Spirit
made him so. There are very few sinners out there.
Are there? Have you run into any? I haven't. Have you, Joey? Even amongst truck drivers. Are
there any sinners out there on the road? It's great mercy. Jeremiah, you're
a sinner. You're a sinner. But the king
sent me to save you. Verse four, Now, behold, I loose
thee this day from the chains which are upon thine hand. Oh,
Ed's other song, The Lord Jesus broke down my heart's door one
day, and alien by sin I was bound, yet he loved me and told the
old God of this world. Can you say it, John? Turn him loose, a ransom's been
found. Oh, a ransom was found. Love
paid the price on Calvary's mound. Judgment was met. The law was
satisfied. Mercy was borne when a ransom
was found. Jeremiah, you're a sinner, but
Jeremiah, I'm the Savior of sinners, and I loose you this day. Where
the word of the captain is, there's salvation. There's salvation. All right, look at this. This
is good. Now, like I said, And if you give me five more minutes
I know it's Wednesday night. But I'm getting up early to. The king had already decreed
Jeremiah to be free. He gave him to the captain who
was set to set him free. He had already determined that
Jeremiah would go to this and get a lie and tell there. But
you know what it seems like here? He's offering Jeremiah a choice.
Look at verse four. Now he said, Behold, I loose
thee this day from the chains which were upon thine hand. If
it seem good unto thee to come with me to Babylon, come. I'll
look well unto you. If it seem ill unto you to come
with me in a battle, forbear me all the land before you. Go
where you want to. He's offering him a choice, it
seems like. That's exactly God does that.
He does that with his people. But he gives us no other choice. He makes us willing in the day
of his power, doesn't he? That fellow argued with me about
that. He said man has a choice, but man by nature has one choice. A sinner will choose sin. He'll choose death every time.
Like when Christ, what will you do with Jesus? The natural man,
what will he do? Kill it. That's what we did. All we, we rejected it. That's
what we do. That's man's choice by nature,
all right? But once life has been pronounced,
once salvation has been pronounced, once regeneration has taken place,
once God Almighty saves the sinner and comes to him in his power
and he says, come unto me all you that labor and are heavy
laden. He says, like Abraham's servant
said to Rebekah, will you go with this man? Will you go? Christ
says, come. Will you go? What are they going
to do? Every last one of them. All that
the Father giveth me shall come unto me. They're willing. In the day of his power. That's
called irresistible grace. How could Jeremiah have turned
his back? Such mercy, such grace, such
love, such compassion, such salvation. He wasn't going to turn it down,
but listen to this, look at this, this is glorious, this is marvelous. But he said, now wait a minute,
what he says to Jeremiah in effect is, I've got to go back to Babylon
and really you can't go where I'm going. Where I go, you can't go. Verse
five, while he was not yet gone back, he said, Tell you what
you do, Jeremiah, you go back to get a life. You go to get
a life. The son of Ag-Hicam, the son
of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon made governor over the
city, you dwell with him among the people. That's where you
go. If it seems good to you, then you go and you be led by
this get a life. That's where you ought to go.
And what does Jeremiah say? Jeremiah, verse 6, Then went
Jeremiah to get a life. You see, as many as are led by
the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. That's what Romans
8, the whole chapter, is talking about, being led by His Spirit.
Christ said in John 14, He said, I go to prepare a place for you,
but you can't come with me now. But He said, I'm going to send
a comforter, and the Father has made governor over the land.
He's the ruler. He's the comforter. He rules
and reigns among the people. They're led by him. You go dwell
with him where the people are. Where are you going to find this
kid alive? Where the people are. That's where Old Jeremiah went. That's where he went. He had
no other choice, Joe. He went. Oh, my. Look at verse 5. Verse 5. So the captain of the guard,
last line. Last line of verse 5. The captain of the guard gave
him victuals. Having food and that word, Lord,
there is everything necessary for life. And that's what Peter
said. He said, God has given us all
things which pertain unto life and God. Blessed be God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. In Christ. In Christ. And he
doesn't say rewards. and then saying that look around
you think he's a prisoner said for it. Let him go he let him go he was
a free man who never do. Maybe there's all right and set
free is free indeed. Well. One last thing I remember
seven when all the captains of the forces that were in the field
They and their men heard that the king of Babylon may get alive
a son, governor of the land, and committed unto him men, women,
children, and all that, and the poor of the land. For a sake,
so they came." Well, that's where I want to be. And who's that? Who's these fellows in the field?
Well, who labors in the field? Preachers of the gospel, that's
wherever. How shall they preach except to be sent? And where
are they? Wherever the Holy Spirit is.
He's taken the things of Christ. What do you reckon the people
talked about, Joe? What do you reckon they spent all their days
talking about? That merciful King and that great deliverance,
that great day of salvation. And oh, look at this, one more
thing. Verse 11 and 12, Likewise, when all the Jews heard. Verse 12, All the Jews returned. Sounds like all Israel was saved,
doesn't it? They were. They were. They came together and dwelt
there. And we just scratched the surface
of that. We just waded ankle-deep in the ocean of God's fullness
day in Christ. All right, I hope it's a blessing.
Let's stand. Our Father, we marvel at Your
Word. We go from glory to glory when
we see Your glory in the face of Christ Jesus through the Word.
And it strengthens our faith, O Lord. We know assuredly that
He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He is the captain
of our salvation. We can say when you drive home
the Word in such plain, when we see out of obscurity and we
open our blind eyes to see glorious things, we are made to say with
the apostle of old, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded
he's able to keep that which I have committed unto him against
that day. Lord, thank you for this story,
more than just Jewish history. Oh, this is his story. This is
Christ's story, and a story of Us, all Jews, were saved the
same way, saved by our king's decree and by the captain's blood
and under the leadership and guidance of the Holy Spirit,
under the triune God who saved us. We have met together to worship
and give thanks tonight. In his name we pray. Amen. I don't know Uh huh.