Turn to Jeremiah chapter 49. Jeremiah chapter 49. The title of the message this
evening is God will restore his people. God will restore his
people. There's no doubt about it. When
you consider three things, you understand the assurance that
we who are Our believers in the Lord Jesus Christ ought to have
a solid foundation for assurance. The first thing is God's promise.
God's promise. God promises to save any and
every sinner who comes to him in and by through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Yes, it's true that man by nature
will not come. We know that. And if anybody
does come to Christ, it's because God has done a great, miraculous,
invincible, irresistible work of grace in their hearts. But
the promise stands, the promise of the gospel. God made a promise.
The Bible says that he engaged his oath in that promise. That means he engaged himself.
Think about that. When God swore an oath, He swore
by Himself. That was the seal of the oath,
you might say. The guarantee of the oath. God
engaged Himself. Everything that He is, everything
that He can do, is behind that promise. The promise was revealed
in Genesis. But it was really codified and
revealed in Abraham, wasn't it? Abraham's promise. And all who
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are called the children of promise.
And then the second thing that gives us a solid foundation for
that assurance is God's faithfulness. God, great is thy faithfulness. That's in lamentations, isn't
it? Right after the book of Jeremiah, God will not fail to keep his
promise. He will not lie to you or to
me. Let God be true and every man
a liar. God never has broken a promise. I've broken some promises
in my life. You probably have too. That's
not God, is it? God never breaks his promise.
He never makes a promise that he doesn't make good on. So you
got his promise and then his faithfulness. And then thirdly,
is his ability, his power. He's able to keep his promises. He's able to remove every obstacle
that would hinder the fulfillment of his promise, and he's able
to provide everything necessary to make sure that promise comes
true. He's able. He's able to save to the uttermost
them that come unto the Father by him. I know whom I have believed
and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. He's able. So salvation in no
way is ever conditioned upon the promises we make or even
our faithfulness or our ability. It's all based upon conditioned
upon God's promise, God's faithfulness and God's ability. And nowhere
does that all come together than in the glorious person and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians
1 and verse 20 that all the promises of God are in him, yea, and in
him, amen. Sure and certain, so be it. So don't tell me of a Savior
who's trying to save but can't or won't. That's not the God
of this book. That's not the God of this Bible.
And God, as I said, he's provided every means. Now, in the book
of Jeremiah, the first, I mentioned this the other, last week. In the first 45 chapters, God
has been pronouncing judgment against Judah. He'd already pronounced
judgment against Israel and already carried out that judgment. And
so in the first 45 chapters of Jeremiah, he began to, he's been
over and over again through the prophet Jeremiah, talking about
judgment and wrath, punishment for the sins of the people. And
it shows us once again that judgment begins at the house of God, Israel,
Judah, Jerusalem, even the temple. I think about when the Lord spoke
to his followers and he said, this temple that you're so impressed
with, that's going to be torn down. Three days time, it'll
be rebuilt. He was talking about not a physical
temple made of stone. He's talking about his church.
On this rock, I'll build my church. Talking about his resurrection,
wasn't he? The seal, the establishment of his church. Well, back in
chapter 46, he begins, and this goes all the way over to chapter
51. He begins, God's judgment upon
the Gentile nations. Now you remember chapter 46,
he dealt with God's judgment upon Egypt. Some commentators go a little
further in this when they talk about these countries, these
nations being types of different things, different aspects of
rebellion against God. And there's nothing wrong with
that. For example, we know Egypt is a type or a symbol of bondage.
God's people had been delivered out of Egypt, out of the bondage
of Egypt, the taskmasters of Egypt. And that symbolizes the
bondage of the law, commanding men and women, sinful men and
women, to do that which they cannot do, like Pharaoh commanding
the Hebrew children to make bricks without straw. Somebody said,
well, God wouldn't command us to do that which we cannot do. You see, the problem with that
kind of logic You know the reason people think that way is because
they think it all begins with man. Doesn't begin with us, doesn't
center around us, doesn't end with us. It all begins, center
around, and ends with God. God has no choice, I'll put it
to you that way, but to demand perfect righteousness and holiness.
You know why? Because he's God. And that's
what it takes. And I don't have it, and you
don't have it. The only way we can get it is by His grace through
Christ and His obedience unto death as my surety and substitute. So God brings judgment upon those
in bondage. In chapter 47, He talked about
God's judgment upon the Philistines. And they were infamous, continual
enemies of Israel. And I sort of likened them to
the flesh. And that's how they're kind of
described. They see no beauty. They see no value in spiritual
things. That's the way the flesh is.
That's sinful human nature, the flesh. And that's why we have
to be born again in order to see the glory of God in Christ,
the value and the beauty of Christ, the reality of our sin. And in
chapter 48, we read about God's judgment upon Moab. the Moabites. Remember they were the ones,
the king of Moab. He's the one who paid Balaam
to tempt the Israelites to intermarry and go into idolatry. Moab was
an infamous enemy of Israel. We do see some good things coming
out of Moab because God had one of His elect there one time.
There's a whole book of the Bible that's that is written concerning
her, showing forth the type of the kinsman-redeemer, Christ.
You know Ruth and the kinsman-redeemer. Ruth was a Moabitess. But Moab,
they were known for their pride and their idolatry. They prayed
upon Israel. So you could liken them to any
enemy of God who likes to pray upon the people of God. Well,
that brings us to chapter 49. And he starts off in the first
six verses of chapter 49 with God's judgment pronounced upon
the Ammonites. Look at verse 1, concerning the
Ammonites, thus saith the Lord. Hath Israel no sons? Hath he
no heir? Why then doth their king inherit
Gad, and his people dwell in his cities? Now, all these cities,
as you go through here and you'll see these nations mentioned,
or these territories mentioned, and they'll mention these cities,
And that's the name of various cities within that nation. Those cities, as you know, sometimes
they were known by different names. So don't let that confuse
you at all. It's not put there to confuse
you. It's put there to show how God's judgment is going to be
complete against all these nations. It's not going to be a partial
judgment, but it's going to be a judgment that is total and
complete. doesn't deal in partial judgment
against sin. That's why you remember over
in chapter 48 and verse 10, it says, Cursed be he that doeth
the work of the Lord deceitfully. The word there you might see
in your concordance is negligently. And cursed be he that keepeth
back his sword from blood. You remember King Saul? God told
him to go into that nation and slaughter them all, even their
cattle. And Saul, he took it upon himself
to bring back part of it. You see, that was an incomplete
destruction. That was God's wrath upon these
people, and Saul failed to do it. Well, that's why they mention
all these cities, to show that from the north, south, east,
west of these nations, it's a complete destruction. God does not punish
sin partially. And of course, we see the great
and glorious fact of that at the cross of Calvary, don't we?
Our Lord Jesus Christ as our substitute and surety my friend
he suffered the full punishment of all the sins of all his people
Imputed charged to him and I cannot describe that to you I could
describe some of the suffering and you still couldn't enter
into that Somebody said well, you don't believe there's any
mystery at all about the cross. I believe there's a lot of mystery
and about the cross. Things I can't explain, enter
into, the magnitude of it. I can't even tell you, I can't
even describe the magnitude of the suffering he went through
in Gethsemane. Sweat, great drops of blood. I mean, that's highly
mysterious. But there are things that God
has told us and revealed to us and we need to know those things. And we need to preach those things. And so we do, if we're God's
people. But God doesn't deal in partial
judgment. And our Lord and Savior, He was
totally and completely alienated from His Father. He said, My
God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? And it was because of sin
that was charged to Him, imputed to Him. He suffered for it. He was condemned. How do you
explain that? I don't know. I know it was based
on sin imputed. I know that because God said
it. But how do you explain and describe the magnitude of that? I can't tell you what his thoughts
were other than the seven sayings on the cross that are recorded.
But I know this. I can tell you this without fail. That in all his thoughts, he
never had a sinful thought. He never had a thought of unbelief
or corruption. No, no sir. He remained the sinless
substitute. Sin was upon him. Sin was his,
but it was by imputation. So that's why all these cities
are named. But now here in the first six
verses, there's the judgment upon the Ammonites. Just as Moab,
now where'd the Ammonites come from? Well, just as Moab was
the fruit of the incestuous relationship between Lot and his oldest daughter,
well, Moab, or Ammon rather, was the sinful fruit of Lot's
incest with his younger daughter. Out of that came Ben-Ammi, son
of Ammon. And that's where it come from. When Israel left Egypt, the Ammonites
refused to help them in any way. And God punished them for their
lack of support. You can read about that in Deuteronomy
23. But they were infamous idolaters. And typically they speak of practically
the same thing as Moab, only that they might also suggest
those who pray again upon the true church of God. Look at verse
four. He says, wherefore, glorious
thou in the valleys, thy flowing valleys, O backsliding daughter
that trusted in her treasures, saying, who shall come unto me?
Who's going to hurt me? That's what they thought they
were invincible. There's pride there. Now, from verse, well,
and then we'll come back to that in just a moment. Look at verse
7 all the way down to verse 22. of chapter 49. Now that section
is the pronouncement of God's judgment upon Edom, E-D-O-M. Now the Edomites, and in the
New Testament you'll see the word Edomian or Edomians. Herod the Great was an Edomian.
He was a descendant of the Edomites. But the Edomites were descendants
of a man named, who you know, named Esau. Esau. And you can read about them.
He says in verse seven, concerning Edom, thus saith the Lord of
hosts, his wisdom no more in temen. That was their capital,
I believe. His counsel perished from the prune. Somebody said,
some historian said they were well known for their wise men.
Of course, it was human wisdom, you know that. Is their wisdom
vanished? The answer is yes. Verse eight,
flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan, that's
another city, for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him,
the time that I will busy him. You know the calamity of Esau.
Look over at Hebrews chapter 12 with me. Calamity of Esau. Now we can
talk a lot about Esau, but I'll just give you these verses here.
Jacob and Esau, you remember. The twins. Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. That's what God said in Romans
9. Quoting from the Old Testament.
Look at verse 14 of Hebrews 12. Follow peace with all men and
holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Now what
he's telling us there is we're to be peacemakers. We're not
to be war mongers. We're not to be brawlers. We're
not to go around here picking fights, arguments, debates. But we're to remain separate
from the world. We cannot compromise the gospel. Follow peace with all men and
holiness. That holiness there is our separation
in Christ and his truth. So in other words, we're not
to go around looking for a fight, looking for debates, being warmongers,
but we're not to compromise in order to avoid one. That's what
he means by that. He said, without which no man
shall see the Lord. Looking diligently, lest any
man fail of the grace of God, that means to fall from it, that
means to reveal that he never knew Christ. That's what it's
talking about. Lest any root of bitterness springing
up trouble you and thereby many be defiled, lest there be any
fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of
meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward
when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected,
for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully
with tears. Now you know Esau was a descendant
of Abraham just like Jacob, Isaac's twin sons. And so he heard the
same message that Jacob heard. He had the right of the firstborn,
that birthright. Now that birthright wasn't money
and property. That birthright was the right
for the firstborn male to be the spiritual leader and head
of their family, a type of Christ. And so when he sold his birthright,
what he was saying is he didn't care for that. He didn't care
for that spiritual leadership. He didn't care for spiritual
things. And that's what he's talking about over here in Jeremiah
49, the calamity of Esau. These are, this nation, they
didn't care for the things of the glory of God in Christ. The
things of the beauty, of the promise, the faithfulness, the
power of God in salvation. They didn't have any bent towards that at all. That's
the natural man. That's all of us by nature, isn't
it? You know, as you look at these nations, and even as you
look at Judah and Israel and their sin, all that you see there
is a vast description of the common depravity that we all
have by nature. We're no better than them by
nature. That's why I say when God makes a promise now in these
prophecies of a better future, it's not because there's a better
class of people coming. on the Bible Belt in America,
no. If anybody's saved by promise,
they're saved by grace. That's what it's about. And so
he goes on, the rest of this, he talks about their destruction
and how they're going to their cities, how they're going to
flee. Verse 16, he says, thy terribleness
hath deceived thee and the pride of thine heart. You see that?
O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the
height of the hill. What's he telling him? He's telling him
that there's no hiding place, there's no safety from the wrath of God.
Listen, the only hiding place from God's wrath is Christ. Under the blood of Jesus, in
the cleft of the rock, hide me in the cleft of the rock, that
rock being Christ Jesus, not some mountainous place, because
that won't help. And he says, though thou shouldest
make thy nest as high as the eagle, I'll bring thee down from
thence, saith the Lord. And also, he says, Edom shall
be a desolation. Nothing left. That's destruction.
But you can read all those verses. Look over at verse 23. For verses 23 to 27 is the pronouncement
of God's judgment upon Damascus. Now, you've heard of Damascus.
You know, Damascus is still there. It's been destroyed and rebuilt.
It's been captured and set free. It's still there. You know where
Damascus is? It's old Syria. Been in the news pretty much
lately, hadn't it? Well, Damascus here is emblematic for the whole
nation of Syria. He's talking about Syria here.
And at this time, this nation, Syria, at one point in time,
just right after this, They became one of the greatest powers of
ancient time, not as a nation in itself, but as it was allied
with the Persians, the Medes and the Persians. You remember
the Medes and the Persians, that's the next empire after the Babylonian
empire. There's the one Cyrus, king of
Persia, you know, he's the one, he's the bird from the east,
the ravenous bird from the east that God used to conquer Babylon
and free the people of Judah to go back and rebuild the temple
under Nehemiah and Zerubbabel. Syria was allied with them. But
here he says Damascus is going to be destroyed, and it was.
Now, some people say, well, that's all future because Damascus is
still around. But it was destroyed, and it
was rebuilt. But I'll tell you what, whether it's future or
whatever, it's going to be destroyed. And he tells them, concerning
Damascus, Hamath is confounded, Arpad, for they have heard evil
tidings. They're fainthearted. There's
sorrow on the sea. It cannot be quiet. It's going
to be turmoil. That shows us that the power
of men is nothing. The power of man cannot save
man. The power of man cannot take care of the problem of sin.
The power of man cannot make a sinner righteous. That takes
the grace of God in Christ, doesn't it? And then, beginning at verse
28, and all the way down to verse
33, in this section, 28 to 33. He brings judgment upon two groups
here, Kedar and Hazor. Now they were Arabian tribes. They were a desert people. They
didn't have any nation. They were nomads. They were related
to a man whom you're familiar with named Ishmael. And they're
Arabs. Nomads who claim no city or nation
as their home. They were well known in the ancient
world for being partiers, living at ease, isolating themselves
from everybody else, magnifying their pride and their arrogant
self-confidence. That's what they were known for.
Someone said they picture those who, like Ishmael, are born after
the flesh and who seek to obtain a place of blessing through legal
works, only to find that the son of the bondwoman will not
be heir with the son of the free woman. Paul spoke of that in
Galatians chapter 4, you remember. Ishmael and Isaac. Isaac was
the son of promise. Ishmael was the son of the bond
woman. And that's what Hedar and Hazor represent. It says
that these tribes will be destroyed. Look at verse 33. Hazor, it mentions,
shall be a dwelling for dragons. Some people say that word is
lizard. Some say it's jackals. I don't
know. I looked it up, but you can,
you know, don't ever think, you know, when, when a preacher gets
up here and says that Hebrew scholars and Greek scholars say
this, I understand that Hebrew scholars sometimes differ and
Greek scholars do too. That's not the, you know, that's
not the final word on the matter. I know this, what he's teaching
us here is look at it. Hazor shall be a dwelling for
dragons and a desolation forever. Gone, there shall be no man abide
there, nor any son of man dwell in it. There it is. Destruction. God's wrath against sin. And
then from verse 34 to the end of the chapter, he brings a pronouncement
of God's judgment upon Elam, E-L-A-M. Now they were probably
related to the Persians that dwelt between the Tigris and
the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia. Some say it's like southern Iran
today. But they too were part of the
empire raised up to deliver Judah from Babylon under Cyrus, king
of Persia. And they're a great testimony
of how God is in control. God's in control. Takes a heathen
people upon whom his wrath abides, and he uses them for his glory
and to free up his people. That's amazing. That's amazing. God's in control. Look at verse
37. He says, for I'll cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies
and before them that seek their life. I will bring evil upon
them. That's his wrath now. Even my fierce anger, saith the
Lord, and I will send the sword after them till I have consumed
them. And I will set my throne in Elam. Now God, he's not talking
about a physical throne there. Talking about his sovereignty.
God's in control. and will destroy from thence
the king and the princess saith the Lord." Now there's the pronouncement
of the sin. Now chapters 50 and 51 deal with
Babylon, and we'll deal with that in the next message. That's
a whole other message. But let me give you this. Now,
so you see, first of all, God's judgment against the nation.
Secondly, you see the certainty of God's love, mercy, and grace
to his chosen people. Now, this is why I entitled this
message, God Will Restore His People. You remember, you don't
have to turn there, but back in chapter 46, when he was talking
about the destruction of Egypt, in verses 27 through 28 there,
chapter 46, God spoke of a promise of restoration for Egypt. He
said, I'm going to restore. And then in chapter 48, now he
didn't say anything in chapter 47 about the Philistines, but
most scholars agree, and I do too, that they are included,
and I'll show you why in just a minute. But in chapter 48, verses 46
and 47, God spoke of the judgment of Moab, but then he said in
those two verses that Moab was going to be restored. Talked
about a promise of restoration for Moab. Look over here in our
text, chapter 49. God spoke of His wrath upon Elam,
but look at verse 5 and 6, or verse 6, rather, chapter 49. He said, ìAfterward I will bring
again the captivity of the children of Ammon, saith the Lord.î Now
to bring again the captivity is the same thing he said about
Egypt, same thing he said about Moab. To bring again the captivity
means to restore them from captivity. It means to free them up. Thatís
what it means. And then look down at verse 39. He spoke of his wrath upon Elam. But look at the last verse. He
says, but it shall come to pass in the latter days. Now, when
the Old Testament prophets spoke of the latter days, most of the
time, well, I haven't seen any time. They're always talking
about the time of the Messiah. He said that I will bring again
the captivity of Elam, saith the Lord. Restoration. God restoring
his people. In other words, in the midst
of all this destruction for their sin, there is the promise of
some hope that yet remain for people. And God would at length
show mercy in that nation in some way. Now, the promise given
to Abraham, you always got to go back to that. That's the foundation
of it all, as it's revealed in time. It's always been the same. Remember what he told Abraham,
Genesis 12, he said, I will bless all nations through you, all
families of the earth. And it's clear that God had chosen
but one people to be a father to that one people. And the children
of Abraham, that's who he's talking about, they've got to be viewed
as distinct from all nations. And what does the Bible teach
us about the children of Abraham? Who are the children of Abraham?
Well, you can read about it over in Galatians. Read about it all
over the scripture, but in Galatians chapter three, it says that we're
all the children of Abraham by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Galatians 3, 26, all the way, I think, down to verse 29. The ultimate, we can talk about
partial fulfillments of such things as, for example, when
the Persians got into power, they let some of the Egyptians
go back and occupy the land, but they never had a king. They
never, again, had any glory like that. Some of the Moabites went
back to their land. But those nations were eventually
destroyed or put down or made desolate again. The ultimate
spiritual eternal fulfillment of these promises of restoration
to these nations can only be in the calling of God's elect
out of the Gentiles. Now look over at Luke chapter
2 that I read. That's why I read that chapter.
And Simeon, let me tell you what Simeon had as the Scriptures.
He had the Old Testament. He didn't have the New Testament.
It hadn't been written yet. And I don't even believe he had
all the Old Testament. He had part of it. Probably had the
first five books of Moses. That's called the Pentateuch
or the Talmud. You know, that's the Jewish books
of the law. Had some of the wisdom books,
some of the Psalms. Had some of the prophets, probably
Jeremiah. Isaiah. But what did he say about
the consolation of Israel? That's that promise of restoration.
That's that promise of salvation. And who is the consolation of
Israel? It's Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. And what
did he say in verse 29? Lord, now let us, thy servant,
depart in peace according to thy word. Mine eyes have seen
thy salvation. I've seen Jesus Christ. I've
seen God in human flesh. I've seen the one who's my substitute
and my surety. I've seen the Lord, my righteousness
right there, which thou has prepared before the face of all people.
I like to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people,
Israel, God's elect out of Jew and Gentile. That's what he's
talking about. And then turn the page over,
look over at Acts chapter two, show you something here. This
will help you. You see, Jeremiah had already
prophesied of the coming of Christ and the establishment of the
new covenant in righteousness. He had already talked about that.
That's the main message of Jeremiah. A hope for the future. Not because
there's going to be a better bunch later on who will obey
God and do this and do that, but because the Messiah is coming. Jehovah Sid Canu is coming. And
when God would gather his church from the whole world and unite
them in one body, those who were before scattered throughout the
world, it would include his people out of the Gentile nations. And
remember what I said, Jesus Christ told his Jewish fathers that
even though the nation, the temple would be destroyed, he'd raise
up a greater temple, his church upon that salvation of the Jews. And it would include Gentile
believers. Look at verse four. Now this is the fulfillment of
a prophecy from Joe and it's in Pentecost. It says in verse
four, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, Peter and James
and John. They began to speak with other
tongues, languages, as the Spirit gave them others. Why was that
necessary? Well, there were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men
out of every nation under heaven. That's why I believe the Philistines
are included those others that it wasn't specifically said there.
I believe those promises are for all those Gentile nations
because God has a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation. And it says in verse 6, listen
to this, now when this was noised abroad, the multitudes came together
and were confounded because every man heard them speak in his own
language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another,
Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how hear
we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born? There's
Parthians there, there's Medes. Peter didn't know how to speak
Parthian. He spoke Aramaic. But there's a Parthian standing
there and he heard it in Parthian. Now how is that possible? God! God, the Holy Spirit, there's
Medes there, there's Elamites. Didn't we read about Elam? There's
Elamites there. And notice how they're linked
with the Parthians and the Medes. Remember I told you those Elamites,
they lined up with the Medes. And dwellers in Mesopotamia.
And in Judea and Cappadocia and Pontus Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia,
in Egypt. There's some folks from Egypt
there. And in parts of Libya and Cyrene, strangers of Rome,
Jews and proselytes. Jews, that was the native Jewish,
that's ethnic Jews. The proselytes were Gentiles
who had converted to the Jewish religion. Standing there, hearing
the gospel of God's grace in Christ in their own language.
And look here, verse 11, Cretes, there were Cretans there. Paul
said it's commonly known among you that the Cretans are, what
do they call it? Slow bellies and what was something
else? I can't remember the, but there's
some Cretans there. God saves a Cretan. And an Arabian,
that's Kedar and Hazor, like that. who hear them speak in
our own tongues the wonderful works of God." What was Peter
preaching? Preaching Christ and Him crucified. Preaching the blood of Christ
for the forgiveness of all sins. The righteousness of Christ imputed
as our only ground of justification. The power of the Holy Spirit
to give life and bring us center to Christ. And they were all
amazed and were in doubt saying one to another, what meaneth
this? Others mocking said, these men are full of new wine. Well,
you know what happened there. Jeremiah had already prophesied
of this. And there it is. And you can read in Ephesians
chapter two, read the whole chapter. I preached on Ephesians two,
one through 10 last Sunday, Sunday before, yeah. And after that,
beginning of verse 11, talks about how God has brought Jew
and Gentile together to form one, he calls it this way, he
says, one new man. That's the church. Christ the head, we're the body. And there's no wall of partition
there because in Christ Jesus there's no Jew nor Greek, male
nor female, bond or free. You see what I'm saying? And
what this teaches us is two glorious realities. Number one, this salvation
This restoration had and has absolutely nothing to do with
any goodness, obedience, righteousness, and or faithfulness in any of
God's people. It didn't have anything to do
with that. God saves sinners by His grace based on the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said it this way in Romans
3.9, he said, The Scripture has concluded all under sin, Jew
and Gentile, none righteous, no, not one. What Scriptures
was Paul talking about? He was talking about the Old
Testament. So that if we are saved, it is saved by mercy and
grace. If we are righteous, it is in
Christ, imputed to us. And if we receive it, it is by
God-given faith and the power of the Spirit who gives life.
And so we have nothing to glory in but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's a glorious reality for
us. Based on our best works, we deserve
no more than the wrath that has been poured out upon all those
Gentile nations as a nation. But there is a promise of restoration. God will restore His people.
And that grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began, and we will have it by him. God will restore his people. And then the second reality,
glorious reality is this. God is sovereign, both in salvation
and in providence to bring all of it about. God's working, even
back then, God, you know what he was doing? He was working
all things after the counsel of his own will. You know what,
he's still doing that today, isn't he? All things right now
are working together for good to them that love God, who are
the called according to his purpose. Listen, it's never been dependent
upon the wisdom or the will of man, or the power of man. Never has been. It's always God
alone. He said, I'll do it. I'll perform.
Now somebody may object and say, well, now there's nothing for
me to do then. If God intends to save me and if God does not
intend to save me, then that's it. That's his business. Well,
that's not the way we're to view it. And you know why we're not
to view it that way? I'll tell you exactly why we're
not to view it that way, because we're not God. That's right. You're not God.
I'm not God. I told you about the old heathen
who claimed to be a Christian. After about 30 years of paddling
along in the dark, he told a young boy, he said, the only two things
I know. And the guy said, well, what
is it? He said, well, there is a God, and I ain't him. Well,
I tell you what, we're not God. And for any man to make judgments
like that in opposition to God's revealed word, that is the height
of arrogance, is what that is. If God's going to save me, He
will. If He's not, He won't. Listen. In each case of judgment that
we read about, it teaches us that God holds men and women
accountable. Yet, by His grace, He promises
hope of salvation for all who flee to Christ. So how are we
to look at this? I'll tell you how. I'm a sinner.
I cannot save myself. I need Christ. I must have Christ. and I'm gonna run to him. And
that's the only way I can look at it. And if you don't want
that, it's just because God at this, at some, up to this point
in your life, he just left you to yourself. Isn't that right? He left me to myself for many
years. And then one day he met this old sinner with Christ in
the gospel. And I saw I need him. I must
have Christ. I'm like old Jacob wrestling
with the angel. I'm gonna hold on for dear life. That's all
we can do. We do that by the power of God.