I think. I love that hymn, though,
that you sang, Blessed Assurance. That's certainly what we as believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ not only can have but are to have
according to God's Word. We have a firm foundation for
our hope. And tonight, I want to preach
to you on that subject. It's a message of judgment and
hope. a message of judgment and hope.
Turn to the last chapter of the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 52. If you've already read this passage, you might conclude that it has
sort of a strange ending. What we have here is kind of
like a historical appendix, kind of going back over the fact that
God has judged Judah. That God has brought His wrath
down upon the nation for their sins. And you know, we've talked
about as we've studied through the book of Jeremiah how Jeremiah
has a lot to say about judgment. In fact, Jeremiah is commonly
known among biblical scholars students as the weeping prophet,
the weeping prophet. And he did weep quite a bit.
He wept over his generation. He wept over the state of his
nation, the state of his people, their sin and their idolatry.
He didn't do it in a self-righteous way. He didn't do it in a way
that says, well, I'm so much better and I just hate that you
folks aren't as good as me. No, that's not what he was saying
at all. But he did it just out of his heart, love for his nation. Jeremiah saw clearly that the
only hope of salvation for any sinner, not only his nation,
the Jews, but also the Gentiles, because he speaks quite often
of the Gentiles, the only hope of salvation for any sinner is
the grace of God. as Jeremiah sought based on the
future, work, and accomplishments of the promised Messiah, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord our righteousness. Jeremiah's whole
life was spent preaching mainly the truth of God to a rebellious
people who hated his message. That's a hard task. That's a
task that takes the grace of God. God gives you a message,
It's a message of mercy and grace. It's a message of hope. But the
people to whom you're preaching, they're going to hate it. Yet
Jeremiah would not change his message. He wouldn't do the popular
thing. The popular thing was just like
the popular thing today. Cry peace when there is no peace.
Jeremiah wouldn't do that. He saw the kings of Judah degenerate
into nothing but idolatry and rebellion and go into obscurity
even though The earthly line of David did not end. And in
this last chapter, he relates four historical events, four
events described here. And what you have here is the
same basic information you'll find recorded in the book of
2 Kings chapter 24 and 25. You can read that as a history
too. This is the time period, 2 Kings 24 and 25, part of 24
and most of 25. But here are the four historical
events. Number one is the fall of Jerusalem. Jerusalem fell. That's the first 11 verses. Number
two is the destruction of the city and the temple. The Temple
of Solomon, that's what it was. And this is the destruction of
that temple. And that's in verses 12 through 23. And then he gives,
thirdly, a summary statement of the several deportations of
the people to Babylon. You know, the people were taken
to Babylon. They were taken from Judea to
Babylon in, I think it was three deportations. And he relates
that in verses 24 through 30. These are all acts of God's pure
judgment against the sin of the people. But the book doesn't
conclude that way. Very interesting conclusion,
and I'm going to major on that tonight. It concludes with a
historical record of the king of Babylon's favor towards Jehoiachin. Now, he was the next to the last
king of Judea, king of Judah. King of Babylon had favor, showed
favor towards Jehoiachin. You remember Jehoiachin? He is
sometimes called Jeconiah or Coniah. We will talk about that
in a minute. But here is a message of God's mercy towards His elect
people pictured in the King of Babylon's favor towards Jehoiachin. But let's just briefly look at
these first three. First of all, Jerusalem, besieged
and broken. He starts off in verse 1, Zedekiah. Now Zedekiah was the last king
of Judea. He was 1 and 20 years old when
he began to reign, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem, and his
mother's name was Hamutal, and the daughter of Jeremiah of Libna.
And listen to verse 2. You'll read passages like this
in the books of the kings, in the books of Chronicles, talking
about the kings of Israel, the kings of Judah. And it says,
and he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord according
to all that Jehoiakim had done. Jehoiakim, his father. And it
says, for through the anger of the Lord, it came to pass in
Jerusalem and Judah, till he had cast them out from his presence,
that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. In other
words, Zedekiah was an evil king. He did not seek the Lord. He
did not keep the covenant that God had given to Israel. He made
and he worshiped pagan gods. He did not feel his responsibility
to lead the people in worship and service to God. And he did
not fulfill his responsibility as the king of Judah to be a
type of Christ. You know, the kings of Judah,
they were to be aware of that. That they were pictures of Christ,
the Messiah to come, and he didn't fulfill that. The Jews saw themselves
as favored of God because of their connection to Abraham,
because of their circumcision, because they thought or they
imagined they kept the law of Moses. They did not. But here,
the people trusted in themselves. They trusted in their city. We're
people of Jerusalem, the city of David, the city of God. They
trusted in their temple, not in the Lord. And just like the
fall of Adam in the garden. What happened after Adam fell?
God cast them out of his presence. That's what happened to them
here. God cast them out of his presence. Alienation from God. There's a good picture or object
lesson of the fall of man. Our fall in Adam for all of sin
and comes short of the glory of God. We sin in Adam. And we're
by nature alienated from God. Well, God will make good on his
threats of judgment. What did he tell Adam? He said,
in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. And that's
what happened, spiritual death. Many false prophets were in Judah
at that time, at the time of Zedekiah and before. Their message
was, as I said before, peace, peace, when there was no peace. But listen, God must punish all
sin. He'll settle all accounts justly. Where sin is imputed, where sin
is charged, God must punish sin and He must punish it with death.
And that's what these next verses relate to us. Judah and Jerusalem
overthrown and King Zedekiah captured. You can read the whole
thing, but look down at verse 10. It says, And the king of
Babylon, verse 10, The king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah
before his eyes. He slew also the princes of Judah
in Riblah, and then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and the
king of Babylon bound him in chains, carried him to Babylon,
and put him in prison till the day of his death." That's the
plight of man by nature. What a picture of sin and the
consequences of sin right there, the destruction of the city,
the death of the king. Anyone who stands in opposition
to God, and that shows us that anyone who stands in opposition
to God and His Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ and His way of salvation,
have nothing to look forward to but condemnation, eternal
death and damnation. That's the lesson that's set
forth there. Now in the next section, it really
is giving a reason, you might say,
a pointed reason of why sinners die in their sins. Why God's
judgment is upon sinners and in this next section he talks
about Jerusalem and the temple destroyed and looted. The temple
of Solomon. The kings and the nobles and
the priests and all the people had spurned the glory of God
revealed in the temple. You know that temple. You think
about it. You think about the tabernacle
before the temple. And then the temple itself. Everything
in that temple was a picture, a type, an object lesson of the
glory of God in the salvation of sinners by His free and sovereign
grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything about that
old tabernacle, that Temple of Solomon, you know, it was all
built around one central piece of furniture, and that was the
Ark of the Covenant, which was covered by the mercy seat in
the Holy of Holies. And you remember what happened,
how the high priest on one day a year on the Day of Atonement
would go into that holiest of all with the blood of a lamb
and sprinkle that blood over the mercy seat. And that was
a picture of how God saves sinners by the blood of Christ. Christ
who is our high priest. Christ who is our sacrifice,
our sin bearer, our lamb. And it's by his precious blood
that our sins are put away. And everything around that temple
related some way to that. Everything in that temple. I
mean, even down to the least piece of equipment, or the least
tool, even the shovel. He mentions here, look at this,
beginning at verse 12. He talks about the fifth month,
the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year. Very
specific historically now. Because these things are not
just pulled out of the air. These are lessons here, but these
are historical events. And it says, Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon, came to Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, which
served the king of Babylon in Jerusalem, and burned the house
of the Lord, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem,
and all the houses of the great men burned he with fire. And
all the army of the Chaldeans that were with the captain of
the guard break down all the walls of Jerusalem round about.
Remember when Nehemiah came back and they were to rebuild the
walls of Jerusalem? This is where they were torn
down. And it says in verse 15, Then Nebuchadnezzar Aden, the
captain of the guard, carried away captive certain of the poor
of the people and the residue of the people and remained in
the city. And those that fell away, that fell to the king of
Babylon and the rest of the multitude, But Nebuchadnezzar Aden, the
captain of the guard, left certain of the poor of the land for vinedressers
and for husbandmen. Now from here on to the end of
this section, it talks about how they took the instruments,
the furniture, out of the temple and took them to Babylon. It
talks about pillars of brass. He talks about the cauldrons,
these were water holders that the priest would wash in. Shovels,
in verse 18, those were shovels that they would clean the ashes
out from underneath the altar, the brazen altar. The snuffers,
that would snuff out the candles, the bowls, the spoons, the vessels
of brass. And it goes on to mention all
of these things, even the most minute tool. Everything in that
temple, number one, was related in some way, connected some way
with that great and glorious picture that God was giving to
His people of how He saved sinners by grace through the Lord Jesus
Christ. The glory of God. The Shekinah
glory of God. And all of these tools, all of
these instruments, all of this furniture was sanctified. Remember we read that back in
the book of Exodus and some in the book of Leviticus. It was
sanctified. That means it was set apart to
be used for one purpose. And that was the service of the
tabernacle, the service of the temple, the worship of God. It
was not to be used for anything else. You couldn't take that
shovel out that is mentioned here in verse 18 and just dig
a hole with it. I need a shovel. Not that shovel
you don't need. That shovel is for one purpose
and that was to clean the ashes out from underneath the brazen
oak. It wouldn't be used for anything else. God sanctified
it. And all of that was a picture.
of how the things of the Lord that glorify Him are to be used
for His glory and not for man's daily work things. All to be used. Now, you remember
over in Daniel chapter 5, this is significant. Remember
Belshazzar? Remember that name Belshazzar?
He was the last king of Babylon before they were conquered by
the Medes and the Persians. And he became puffed up and proud,
as he always was, but even more so. And he decided to throw a
big party. Remember that. Look at Daniel
5. And what did they do to throw that party? Well, it says in
verse 1 of Daniel chapter 5, Belshazzar the king made a great
feast to a thousand of his lords. See, he was showing out, as they
say. And drank wine before the thousand.
Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the
golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had
taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem. And he was
using those vessels, those cups, those pitchers, those things,
for his drunken party. Those things which were dedicated
and sanctified unto the Lord. Now, first of all, it was God's
punishment upon Judah to have those things removed from the
temple. And I thought about this, it's like the gospel. You know,
there have been times in history where the gospel has been preached
in certain places and it was spurned by the people and God
removed it. You can think about the cities
in Revelation, the churches of Revelation, where like, for example,
the church at Ephesus, God said, I'll remove the candlestick,
I'll remove that light. And it shows that one of the
worst judgments that God can bring down upon a people is to
remove from them the gospel of His grace in Christ. I know people
right now, they'll write me letters or send emails and they'll tell
me, they say, where can I go close to where I live where I
can hear this gospel? You know, most people think it's
everywhere. It's not. And you know it's not. It's rare.
They have no place to go to a congregation like this where they can sit
down, like your city, and hear a man stand up and preach the
true gospel of God's grace in Christ. They can hear religion
now. They can hear the name Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and they can be
entertained. They can do all that. They can
have activities. But to hear the gospel, to hear
the glory of God preached in the face of Jesus Christ, they
don't have it. And I see that as a picture here,
these vessels, the temple being destroyed. The Shekinah glory
no longer resides in the temple. You know what the Shekinah glory
is, don't you? That's the highest glory. Where
does it dwell today? It dwells in Jesus Christ, our
Lord, our Savior. And to hear Him preached, to
hear the true Christ preached from the Scripture, according
to the Word, according to the truth, is the same as worshiping
at that temple, seeing the very Shekinah glory of God. Oh, to
have that removed. What a judgment upon a people. But then here is this heathen
king. And he takes those vessels, those cups, those instruments,
and he uses them for unholy purposes. And what happens? Look at verse
25 of Daniel 5. There was a vision come before
him. The finger of God, the hand,
writing on the wall. And this is what it wrote. It
says in verse 25, and this is the writing that was written,
mene, mene, tekel upharsin. This is the interpretation of
that. What does that mean? What does it mean? Mene, that
means God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. That's the same
thing as saying God is Counting your sins unto your charge. You remember David said, Blessed
is the man whom the Lord imputes, not iniquity. This is a way of
saying this is the cursed man to whom God imputes iniquity.
And he says in verse 27, Thou art weighed in the balances and
are found wanting. That's iniquity. You don't measure
up. You don't balance out. You have no righteousness before
God. Your sins are counted too, you have no righteousness before
God. And then verse 28, Perez, that
means thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the
Persians, that's the judgment of God. And then commanded Belshazzar,
and they clothed Daniel with scarlet and put a chain of gold
about his neck, Daniel was the one who interpreted, and made
a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler
in the kingdom. And in that night was Belshazzar
the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Mede, or the Median,
took the kingdom, being about three score and two years old. That very night, that's when
Babylon fell, actually. So look back now at Jeremiah
52. Here's the next thing, beginning
at verse 24. And going on to verse 30, he
tells about the different deportations of the people to Babylon. There
were three. It says in verse 24, the captain
of the guard took Saria, the chief priest, and Zephaniah,
the second priest, and the three keepers of the door. He took
also out of the city and Eunuch, which had the charge of the men
of war, that's the army, seven men of them that were near the
king's person, which were found in the city, that's his bodyguards.
The principal scribe of the host who mustered the people of the
land that gathered them. Three-score men of the people
of the land. These are all people he took out of Judea, out of
Jerusalem to Babylon. Verse 26, Nebuchadnezzar Aden,
the captain of the guard, took them, brought them to the king
of Babylon, to Riblah. And he goes on with that. In
the first deportation, Daniel was taken. Daniel was of the
royal house. You know the story of Daniel.
resided in Nebuchadnezzar's court and became an advisor to Nebuchadnezzar. You also know that Daniel, by
the grace of God, stood in the midst of that idolatry for the
glory of the true and living God. And he suffered for it. You know the story. In the second
deportation, Ezekiel was taken. Ezekiel was a priest. Ezekiel,
when he was in Babylon, he resided with the common people by the
rivers and the waterways in Babylon. He wasn't in the royal house
like Daniel. He was out there with the common people. And he
prophesied. Ezekiel, for example, is the
only prophet you'll find in the Bible that never prophesied in
Judea. His whole prophecy was in Babylon. And so he was there. And then
there was a third deportation. But you see, these deportations
show us that God was not finished with the nation. That God was
still going to be faithful to His promise that He'd made to
Abraham. And lo and behold, by the power and glory and grace
of God, He preserved this nation in Babylon. And what an amazing
thing that is. I don't think there's anything
else like that found in the historical record of mankind. that a nation
was conquered and deported to another country, the conquering
country, and still remained a nation to come out of that even 70 years
later and reform as a nation. I don't think you see that in
history, but you see it in God's history, don't you? God preserved
his people. He wasn't finished with them.
What was he going to do? Well, what did he tell Abraham?
He was going to bring through them the Messiah who would be
the savior of his people. And we see in that a type of
how God preserved us while we lived in spiritual Babylon, don't
we? How God had his hand upon us until he brought us under
the preaching of the gospel and brought us to a saving knowledge
of Christ. Well, look at verse 31. Now, here's the last part
of this. This, I believe, is an amazing act of God's mercy
and grace, of all things, to end the book of Jeremiah this
way. And it is amazing. It's a historical event. Here's
Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, the prophet of doom, and yet
his book, his prophecy, ends on one of the most positive notes
you'll ever find in scripture. And what it is, it's a picture.
of God's free sovereign grace in the salvation of sinners by
Jesus Christ. The same words that you find
written here are also found written in 2 Kings chapter 25 verses
27 through 30. You might have that in your concordance.
But listen to what happens here. It says, It came to pass in the
seventh and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin. Now Jehoiachin, you remember
him. It says that he was king of Judah
in the 12th month, in the 5 and 20th day of the month. Now, if
you read in 2 Kings, it'll say the 7 and 20th day of the month. And what that, there's no discrepancy
there. What happened was, what's going to happen here, it says
the evil, that evil Merodot, king of Babylon, that was his
name, evil Merodot. Evil there doesn't mean evil
in the way of sin, but he certainly was a sinner. I'm not denying
that, we all are. But that's just a way of indicating
this man, his name, evil Merodot, king of Babylon. It says, in
the first year of his reign, on this 12th month and the 25th
day, and in 2 Kings 25 it says the 27th, what happened? He issued
this decree on the 25th day and it was carried out on the 27th
day, two days later. And it says, what did he do?
It says, he lifted up the head of Jehoiachin. King of Judah. Jehoiachin had been in Babylon
in captivity for 37 years at this time. And it says, this
king, evil Merodach, he lifted up the head of Jehoiachin and
he brought him forth out of prison, set him free in Babylon now.
In verse 32, he spake kindly unto him. You might see in your
concordance, it means he spoke good words to him. good things
to him. And set his throne, Jehoiachin,
now what you understand here, in captivity, there were other
kings in captivity there. But he took Jehoiachin and set
his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him
in Babylon, the other prisoner kings. Set this man free and
set his throne above them. And then verse 33, and changed
his prison garments. He didn't wear the clothes of
a prisoner anymore. And he did continually eat bread
before him all the days of his life. And for his diet there
was a continual diet given him of the king of Babylon every
day a portion until the day of his death all the days of his
life. What did you think of when I
read those last two verses? Anybody want to say? He did eat
bread continually. You thought of Mr. Phibosheth
didn't you? I did too. Isn't this amazing? What this
does is it looks beyond the captivity to the restoration of Israel.
First, there's the fact that with Jehoiachin, you know Jehoiachin,
you can read about him, remember back in Jeremiah 22. Now he was
the king. He wasn't a good king. He was
just like Zedekiah. He did that which was evil in
the sight of the Lord. He didn't seek the Lord. He didn't
keep the covenant. He didn't lead the people in
worship and service to God. But he was the king that the
Lord through Jeremiah brought down this judgment that the line
of David through King Solomon would end on the throne of Judah. There would be no more kings
of Judah from that line. Nobody to sit on the throne.
Now understand now, the line of David did not end. The line
of David could not end. That was going to come all the
way down through Jesus Christ, the Son of David. He was born
of the seed of David according to the flesh. But now the line
of David would not be carried through Solomon, but through
David's son Nathan. Now I mentioned this this morning
when we read out of Matthew chapter 1. Now Jesus Christ, His name
shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their
sins. His name shall be called Emmanuel, God with us. He's God
in human flesh. But the line of David would be
carried through David's son, Nathan. And that's the line through
whom Mary was born. Both Joseph and Mary were from
the line of David. And remember I mentioned this
morning how in Matthew chapter 1, you have the genealogy brought
through Joseph. That's why Solomon is mentioned.
Because Joseph was Jesus' earthly father, not in the flesh, but
by legal adoption. Legal adoption. And that, him
being Joseph's son by legal adoption, he wasn't made by the seed of
man, you see. But him being Joseph's son by
legal adoption, that gave him a legal right to the throne of
Judah, as far as that earthly line is concerned. But then you
go over to Luke chapter 3 and you see another genealogy, and
that's the genealogy of Mary. Now it doesn't mention Mary's
name in the genealogy because you just didn't do that in that
Jewish culture. You didn't put a woman in that
genealogy. It mentions Joseph, but it's coming through Nathan,
David's line through Nathan, and that's Mary's genealogy. Christ was born of the seed of
woman according to the flesh without sin. So what you have
is his legal right as God, the divine Son of God, And then you
have his earthly right as the son of man. He's God-man, God
in human flesh. Well, it's through this Jehoiachin
that that line ended, through Solomon, because of Jehoiachin's
sin. You see, God did not promise
David an unbroken monarchy, but an unbroken line, and that's
exactly what it was. But listen to what it says again.
This evil Merodach, in the first year of his reign, number one,
he lifted up the head of Jehoiachin. Now first of all, where was Jehoiachin?
He was a sinner in prison. It's a picture of man falling
in Adam. Under the captivity and the curse
and the bondage of the law. That's where we are by nature.
That's how we're born into this world. We first fell in our representative
Adam, didn't we? We fell into that bondage. We
fell into sin and death. And that's how we're born. Dead
in trespasses and sins. We're born in prison. under the
curse of the law. And then what did this king do
to Jehoiachin? It says he lifted up the head
of Jehoiachin. Now he begins talking about what
we can say is a picture of the blessings of grace in God's providence. And why do you think this evil
Merodach did that? Why do you think he did it? Well,
you can speculate all you want to, and you won't find the right
reason. I can give you one scriptural reason, and it says in the book
of Proverbs, the king's heart is in the hands of the Lord,
to turn it as he will. The providence of God. Think
about it. How do you think a man like Daniel,
a Jew, could end up in the court of King Nebuchadnezzar as one
of his major advisors? I'll tell you how. God did it.
How in the world do you think a woman like Esther could end
up being the wife of an idolatrous king of the Medes and Persians
and still maintain her integrity as a child of God? And through
her and an old fellow named Mordecai, the Jewish nation was preserved
in that captivity. How do you think that happens?
I'll tell you how. God did it. It's not owing to evil Meredith.
It's not owing to Xerxes. It's not owing to Nebuchadnezzar.
It's God's work. It's God's actions to preserve
His people from their sins. And so this king, it was put
into his heart to do this. By God Almighty, he lifted up
the head of Jehoiachin. It means he raised him to a better
position. It means he put him in a better
condition. It means it took him out of a low estate into a better
one. Sometimes it can mean he pardoned him. He pardoned him. Do you know? That's the only
way you can get out of prison. You can either pay the debt,
which in the prison house of sin we can't pay the debt, or
you can be pardoned. That pardoning comes by the blood
of Christ, doesn't it? It also could mean it gave him
a new life. A new life. Isn't that what God does to us
when He brings us to a saving knowledge of Christ? He gives
us a new life. And brother, it's new, isn't
it? It signifies to comfort a person,
to cheer, to make him happy. We read about it in Psalm 3 and
verse 3 there, that you read. Set me free. Bring me out of
the prison house. Lifted up his head. I thought
about Hannah's prayer. He lifted the beggar off the
dung heap. That's the grace of God. And then it says, it brought
him out of prison, setting the captives free. Christ, that's
a picture of how Christ led captivity captive. He that is freed, freed
from sin, justified in Christ. That's a picture of that. This
man was set free out of prison. When Christ redeemed us on the
cross of Calvary, He paid our debt to God's justice. We're
set free. We're justified. We're exonerated. We're given a free pardon from
all our sins. We're righteous in God's sight.
There's nothing against us on our record. It's been wiped clean.
There's no sin to be found in the record books of God. And
then He sets us free by the Holy Spirit when He brings us to a
saving knowledge of Christ and shows us our sin and God's glory
in Christ. How God saves sinners. Do you
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you trust Him for all salvation? For all peace? All righteousness? All glory? If you do, you've
been set free. You've been put out of prison.
And then in verse 32 it says, He spake kindly unto him. Good
words. I don't know exactly what evil
Maradoc told Jehoiachin, but I know this, I know what God
tells us when He preaches the good words of the gospel to us.
When He shows us the gospel of the power of God unto salvation,
good words of grace, good words of mercy, good words of His love
in Christ. The psalmist said, how sweet
are thy words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my
mouth. To hear of being set free to hear of the blood of Christ
to pay for all my sins. And then it says, he set his
throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon.
He raises the poor out of the dust, he lifts the needy out
of the dunghill that he may set him with princes even with the
princes of his people. We have no idea of the reality
of the position to where God has raised us in Christ. You know how I know we have no
idea about it? We have some revelation of it in the Word, but I'm talking
about as to our experience. Because John said, Beloved, it
doth not yet appear what we shall be. You think about the inheritance
that we have. We're kings and priests under
God. We're a royal priesthood, he
said. A purchased people. And then it says in verse 33,
it says, He changed His prison garments. I love that. God, when He saves us from our
sins, He changes our prison garments of legalism and self-righteousness
and self-love and false religion to the beautiful robe of righteousness
which Christ worked for us. The royal robe, the garments
of salvation. When I read that, I thought about
Joshua the high priest in Zechariah 3 who stood before the angel
of the Lord in his filthy rags. That's us by nature. And then
the Lord came along and said, take those filthy rags off of
him and give him a change of raiment. Put on him the wedding
garment. Isn't that beautiful? The wedding
garment, the robe of righteousness, the righteousness of Christ imputed.
That's what we wear before God. Like that bride who makes herself
ready with that white, glistering, literally, garment, which is
the righteous robe of Jesus Christ, worked out by His obedience unto
death. And then it says He did continually
eat bread before Him all the days of His life, just like old
Mephibosheth. You remember David and Mephibosheth.
David said, Is there anyone in the house of Saul that I may
show favor? And his servant said, well, there's
one. He's down there in that house of bondage, and he's lame
on his feet. His name is Mephibosheth. And
David said, you remember what he said? He said, go fetch him.
Go fetch him. Bring him up, clean him up, and
set him at my table, and he'll eat bread continually at the
king's table. I think about that a lot when
I consider salvation. I've never seen this passage,
I've read through the scripture but it just never hit me like
this, you know. Here's Jehoiachin eating bread continually and
it says before him, that means before the king. So evidently
this means he ate at the king's table all the days of his life. In verse 34, for his diet, he
went on a diet. There was a continual diet given
him of the king of Babylon. You know what that means? That
means what the king ate, he ate. And every day, it says, a portion
until the day of his death. All the days of his life. That
portion means just what he needed. No gluttony here. He got just
what he needed. My friend, when it comes to Christ,
that's what we get to. Not just food, but all things
necessary for life and health. God said, My grace is sufficient
for thee. Everything we need for salvation,
eternal life, and glory, He gives us in Christ. Romans 8, 32, He
that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? If
you have Christ, you have all you need. You don't need any
more. 2 Peter 1.3, according as His divine power hath given
unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, blessed
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, Ephesians 1.3. Paul said, God shall supply all
your need according to His riches in glory by Jesus Christ. What
a glorious picture of our hope in Him. What a glorious picture
of His grace given us in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. you