Hello and welcome to the Sovereign
Grace Baptist Church of the Dalles Bible Class. And today our text
comes from Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 2 and 3. Our message today
is entitled, Grace in the Wilderness. And boy, what a glorious chapter
we have in this Gospel of Jeremiah. And we find that 20 times or
more in this chapter, the Lord speaks of what he will do for
the church, what he'll do for his people in delivering them
and the actions that he takes in their behalf. And so today
we look at chapter 31, verse 2 and 3. If you turn there in
your Bibles, please. We'll read that. Jeremiah 31-2,
Thus saith the Lord, The people which were left of the sword
found grace in the wilderness, even Israel, when I went to cause
him to rest. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee. with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee." So it's important that we look at a few key words
here, and of course, those that were left of the sword expresses
a remnant, a remnant according to the election of grace, as
Paul writes in Romans in his gospel in Romans. And grace is
nothing more than and nothing less than unmerited favor based
in eternal electing love. And of course the wilderness
often in scripture pictures the world and sometimes referred
to as the wilderness of sin. And Israel here, spiritual Israel,
they are not all Israel which are of Israel, we find in the
book of Romans there. So today's message expands on
elements of some previous messages that we've gone through in the
book of Hosea, and especially in chapter 11, verse 4, where
Hosea writes at the direction of the Holy Spirit, I drew them,
that'd be spiritual Israel, I drew them with cords of a man, a man,
Christ Jesus, with bands of love. And I was to them as they that
take off the yoke on their jaws. And I laid meat unto them." What
a glorious picture of the Lord, what He does for His people.
He draws them. If we come to Christ, it's because He's drawn
us with bands of love. And He was to them as they that
take off the yoke. He says, come unto me, you that
are heavy laden, that are burdened, and I'll give you rest. My yoke, mine is easy. annihilated meat unto them. And
so it's a clear declaration of God's love for the church. And
again, the topic of today's message is this unmerited favor, this
grace in the wilderness. And this everlasting love that
we were talking about, this eternal love is what that means. Everlasting means eternal. According
to the manifold wisdom of God and bestowed because of God's
eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus. We find that
in Ephesians chapter 1 in chapter 3. The second thing is that even
at this present time there's a remnant according to the election
of grace. Find that from Romans chapter
11 verse 4 and 5. And here it's called a remnant
or a people which were left of the sword in Jeremiah 31-2. We'll look today at this cause
and preparation and the effect of that eternal electing love
that's the basis for all things in the church. And most notably
I'd like to call attention to a truth. that could only exist
in God who changes not and whose compassions they fail not. That comes from Lamentations
3, to it is the Lord's mercies that were not consumed because
his compassions fail not. And we have that wonderful hymn
that expresses that sentiment, that truth about God, great is
thy faithfulness. And this could only exist in
God because in the fall man lost the spiritual ability to to love
spiritually and unconditionally. And that's how God loves the
church, spiritually and unconditionally. And so, as we look at that, that
it can only exist in God, and as we look at these scriptures
that talk about His eternal love and grace that He applies to
us in the wilderness, We could look at these in Hebrews chapter
12, verse 3, it says, Consider him, that's Christ, that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied
and faint in your mind. And this brings us to what I
would call our when we were verses. If you'll recall some of our
previous lessons from Ezekiel 36, we have what we call the
I will verses from God. He says, I will give you a clean
heart. I will save you. I will wash
you and clean you and all those things that God says He will
do. And then when that happens in regeneration, then we find
that we'll look at ourselves and loathe ourselves for our
ways which were not good. We'll have repentance about sin
that we didn't have before. We'll have a view of it that
we didn't have before. Today we'll be looking at these
when we were verses that express how we were prior to that regeneration,
prior to that miracle work of God in our souls. In Romans 5, 6 it says, for when
we were yet without strength, In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. In Romans 5.10, for if when we
were enemies, enemies against God, we were reconciled to God
by the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we should
be saved by his life. And Ephesians 2.5, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace
are you saved. So in each one of these cases
where it says when we were and it lists a chief sentence about our inability,
our inability, our lack of capacity. When we were yet without strength,
when we were enemies, when we were dead, then coupled to that
directly is God's action that remedies that. When we were yet
without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. When we were
enemies, we are reconciled to God by the death of His Son.
When we were dead in sins, he hath quickened us or made us
alive together with Christ. By grace are you saved. And so
these when we were expresses how we were before regeneration,
before we're born again, before he works in us a miracle work. You know, Romans 8, 7 says the
carnal mind is enmity against God. It's so far from him, it's
enmity. And the turn love that God applies
to us and that the church should exhibit toward him and one toward
another. And it's been so trivialized
in today's society that the true meaning of love has been set
aside and replaced with conceptions which incorporate everything
from infatuation to slang terms which are really disingenuous
to the true meaning. We say, well, I love chocolate,
or I love this truck, or I love this sports team. And it's expressed
a fondness or enjoyment that we have there, but it doesn't
really express the true meaning of love. Sometimes it's used
as a synonym for lust, and occasionally it is used in somewhat the correct
context, where a man or a wife may say, I love you, or a man
may say to his wife, I love her, and she says, I love you, and
we love each other. And the true basis for love really
is found in God himself. The very nature of God is love
toward his church and is bound with all his eternal attributes,
his eternal sovereignty, his eternal almighty power, his eternal
immutability, his I change not, his compassions they fail not,
his eternal love. All these things, all these attributes
of God's nature are focused on his church, on his people. And
even when we are dead in sins, even when we are in a condition
of enmity against Him, even when we were without our own ability,
without strength and were dead in sins and trespasses, He has
always had this love for His people that we read about in
Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 3, The Lord appeared of old unto
me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. And so we
look at that with such wonder because it exhibits such grace
to the church in the wilderness. You know all of man's, in natural
man's nature is not focused on love of or to God. It's as it
said in Romans there, it's enmity against God. You know, Jesus
has loved us eternally and He was the Lamb slain from before
the foundation of the world for His people. There's no greater
love that a man hath than he lay down his life for his friends.
And that's how He views us even when we don't view Him that way. He still looks at us and sees
beyond our sin and sees that His blood covered it all. Revelation
1 5 says from Jesus the faithful witness unto him that loved us
and Washed us from our sins in his own blood How wonderful is
that to find out you know? And we just don't have a glimpse
of that until till we we've been born again and John it says Unless
a man be born again. He can't see the kingdom of God
can't see it and Can't know it, can't understand it. 1 John chapter
4 verse 7 says, Beloved, let us love one another, for love
is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth
God. But he that loveth not knoweth
not God, for God is love. And this is the manifestation
or the making known, the love of God toward us, because that
God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might
live through him. Instead of being dead in sin
and trespasses, we might have life eternal. Here in his love,
1 John 4.10, here in his love, not. that we loved God, not that
we were the initial cause of that, but that He loved us and
sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, the payment, the
trade, the imputation of our sins to Him and the imputation
of His righteousness to us. There in verse 8 of this 1 John
chapter 4, the end of that sentence is, God is love, and it's an
eternal quality expressed. In 1 John 3.16 it says, Hereby
we perceive or understand the love of God because he laid down
his life for the brethren. He laid down His life voluntarily. He sacrificed Himself in our
place because of His eternal love. And this eternal quality
of His love is expressed in so many ways. And He's demonstrated
His love to and for the Church both eternally and in time. And
the greatest expression of God's love is Him, as we just read,
Him sending His Son to die in our place, the root of the Gospel. hearing his love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. First Peter 3.18 says, Christ
suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust. What good news!
He suffered in our place, the just for the unjust. And so His
love is expressed eternally as we read in Jeremiah 31, 3, For
the Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love, or an eternal love. And
therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee." Remember
we read he draws us with the cords of a man, with the cords
of love. And that's what Jesus expressed
in John 6.44. He says, No man can come to me
except the Father which sent me draw him. And that's what
has to happen. And we find out that when we
do come to Him, that's because He exercised His sovereign will,
His sovereign grace upon us. We find that His eternal love
is expressed in time in Galatians 4. When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. When the fullness of time as
we know it was come. He came and dwelt among men and
went to the cross in our place. It's expressed in abundance,
God's love and grace for the church expressed in abundance
in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love, wherewith he loved us, rich in mercy for
his great love. Because of his great love wherewith
he loved us. Isn't that a wonderful thought
for us to take to the bank every day? God who's rich in mercy
because of his great love wherewith he loved us. God's love is expressed
in grace according to his eternal purpose. In Ephesians chapter
1 we read that. We like to read this whole chapter
because it's so linked together, but we'll just read an excerpt
here from verse 4 through 11. According, as he hath chosen
us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy. And without blame, before him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches, of His grace, wherein He hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known
unto us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure,
which He hath purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the
fullness of time He might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even
in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being
predestinated according to the purpose of him, who worketh all
things after the counsel of his own will." All those things that
we've looked at here, expressed in time, expressed in abundance,
expressed according to his purpose, all contained in that little
block of scripture there in Ephesians chapter 1. And we find it's expressed
without merit. His love and grace for the church
and the wilderness is expressed without merit. And in fact, it's
expressed in spite of a lack of merit. And we read from Romans,
the ninth chapter, and we usually take a look at Romans 9, 11 through
15 here, but the earlier part of Romans 9 is just as valuable. in Paul's writing here about
his concern for his brother and he expresses there in verse 7, he tells us that not
because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children,
but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. They that are the children
of flesh are not the children of God, but the children of the
promiser accounted for the seed. So they're not all Israel, which
are of Israel, he says there in verse 6. But as he gets up
to verse 11, he expresses this truth about grace being grace. It's unmerited favor for the
children not being yet born, neither having done any good
or evil. that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand not of works, but of him that calleth. Everything is rooted
in his eternal electing love, and not according to any works
that we might do, or we did do, or that we might do in the future,
or any evil works that we might commit. He loved us before all
that transpired. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. For by grace are you saved through
faith, in Ephesians 2, 8, 9, 10. You're saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. So as he says here that it was
according to electing eternal love and unmerited favor, and
is there unrighteousness with God, he says, He tells us in
the scripture, He has not the pot or power over the clay to
make whatever He wants out of it. It all belongs to Him. And
if He chooses not to make something out of one, but chooses to make
something out of another, that's His sovereign right. It's His
sovereign purpose that He can do that. And the thing made doesn't
have anything really to say about it. It just turns out the way
He purposes it. So in Romans again, 5, 6, when
we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. When we were without strength,
that unmerited favor, that grace in the wilderness. So we'd like
to just close out there for the day and hope you have some things
to think about there and to rejoice in. Jesus who gave Himself for
us. The Lord who loved us and gave
Himself for us. Grace in the Wilderness. Thank
you for your attention. Until next time, as always, be
free.