Alright, let's turn to Jeremiah
chapter 38. Jeremiah 38. Now, the title of the message
this evening is Obedience and Salvation. And that title came
from verse 20. Jeremiah 38 verse 20. Jeremiah
delivering God's message to the people, specifically to King
Zedekiah. And he says here, Obey, I beseech
thee, the voice of the Lord, which I speak unto thee, so it
shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live. Now what
I want to do is just read through these verses, make a few comments
as I go along, and then I want to give you five reasons Concerning
this issue of obedience and salvation. I want to show you why obedience
in the kingdom of God Obedience in salvation by the grace of
God is not optional It is not optional You know some people
accuse us of saying that because we believe all of salvation from
beginning to its final culmination in glory, is all of God's free
and sovereign grace, all conditioned on Christ. None of it is conditioned
on us, but all on Christ. They accuse us of preaching that,
well, then obedience has no place in salvation, or that obedience
is not necessary. But it does have a place, and
it is necessary, and we're going to talk about that. But let me
just read through this. We'll see as we read through
this, very interesting story of history here. And we'll see
some pictures here. We'll see some illustrations
as we go through this. This is Jeremiah, the prophet
in chapter 38. It says in the first six verses
here, look here, it says, then Shephatiah, the son of Matan,
and Gedaliah, the son of Pasher, Jucal, the son of Shalemiah,
Pasher, the son of Malchiah, heard the words that Jeremiah
had spoken to all the people. Now those are Hebrew names. Just
wait till we get to the next chapter and you read those Chaldean
names, they're even worse. But these were all men of Judah. We're not told exactly, for some
of them we may know, talking about their positions, but they
were noblemen. Verse two, thus saith the Lord,
he that remaineth in this sea. This is what Jeremiah preached.
or part of what he preached. He that remaineth in this city
shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.
But he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans, that's the Babylonians,
shall live. And remember we've talked about
that. What that's speaking of is submission to God's judgment. Jeremiah wasn't being a traitor.
He wasn't being a weakling. He wasn't even being a pacifist
here. He was simply saying that we
deserve, we Judeans, because of our sin as a nation, we deserve
God's punishment. And so what you have there in
that submission is an emblem of repentance. That's what happens
when a sinner is convinced of sin by the Holy Spirit. We take
sides with God against ourselves saying, God, if you were to judge
me, based on my best efforts, I would be damned forever. And
so God says this punishment is coming and he says, for he shall
have his life for a prey and shall live, those who submit
to God's will, revealed will. Thus saith the Lord, verse 3,
this city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of
Babylon's army which shall take it. Now listen to what happens,
therefore the princes, those men that we read in verse one,
the princes said unto the king, we beseech thee, we beg you,
let this man be put to death. This Jeremiah, this preacher,
this prophet, this burden, this doomsday prophet, let him be
put to death, for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that
remain in this city. He's not giving them the right
pep talk. He's preaching negativity. And he says, in the hands of
all the people, and speaking such words unto them, for this
man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt. Now
the opposite's true, isn't it? But the false preachers, the
false prophets, the false professors, they can't see it. They don't
have ears to hear and they don't have eyes to see. And verse 5,
Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he's in your hand, for
the king is not he that can do anything against you. Well, there
you see Zedekiah, he was a very weak king. He said, I can't do
anything against you. Well, he could have, but he wouldn't. He was a weakling. It sort of
reminds me of Pontius Pilate, when he turned Christ over to
the Jews and he washed his hands of the matter. He didn't want
to make that judgment. And then it says in verse six,
then took they Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah,
son of Hamilech, that was in the court of the prison. And
they let down Jeremiah with cords, they put him in a hole. And listen
to this, in the dungeon, there was no water but mire, it was
mud. So Jeremiah sunk in the mire. Well, what you see here
is a great illustration of the total depravity of man. That's one thing that's brought
out here. Man's natural hatred for the truth. Man's natural
hatred. Those who stay in Jerusalem will
die. You can compare that to men who
seek salvation by their works. If you stay in that kind of thinking,
that kind of religion, you will surely die. The wages of sin
is death. These men here, they thought
they were saved. They were God's people. They
were Abraham's children. They were circumcised. They kept
the law of Moses. They imagined themselves to be
righteous. And they just didn't want to
hear a man come along and preach of another righteousness, the
righteousness of Jehovah, that without which man would perish.
Man's natural hatred of the gospel. Paul asked the Galatians, he
said, am I your enemy because I tell you the truth? Well, for
most men, all men by nature, the truth is their enemy. John
spoke of it in John chapter 3, when he spoke of those who do
not have Christ are condemned already. And he said, this is
the condemnation that light has come into the world, truth, Christ
has come into the world. And men love darkness and hate
the light because their deeds are evil. The preaching of the
righteousness of God in Christ, the only way that God can be
just and justify the ungodly, based upon the righteousness
of His dearly beloved Son, that which is imputed to His people
and received by faith, that's an enemy to the works of men. It shows us that our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags before a holy God. That we cannot save ourselves
by our best efforts, to keep the law, that we must depend
totally upon God's grace that we do not deserve and cannot
earn. We have no hope. And therefore
the message of the gospel is repent or perish. That's what
Jeremiah is telling King Zedekiah. That's what he's telling these
people. Submit to God's will and God's way. God's will and
God's revealed will by way of commandment and God's way of
salvation is Christ and him crucified and risen. That's what Christ
said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh under
the father, but by me. But there's also hope given.
It's not a totally negative message. He told them here in verse 2.
He said, those who go forth to the Chaldeans shall live. Those
who submit to God's justice. And that's a point of the gospel. You see, when a sinner is brought
by the Holy Spirit to submit to Christ as the Lord his righteousness,
that's what he's doing. He's submitting to God's justice
against his sin as paid for and put away by Christ on the cross.
That's why the Bible says Christ is the end of fulfillment of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. And
I thought about this too. Here's Jeremiah, the prophet
of God, just like we read there in Psalm 40. He's sunk in the
mire. He's in a deep pit. Our Savior
went down into a deep pit for our sins, didn't He? He went
under the wrath of God. He was made a curse. Christ Jesus, the Son of God,
who never knew sin and never committed sin and was never contaminated
by sin, was made a curse. And what's those last two words?
For us. That ought to make us just, just,
that ought to send chills up our spine. For us? That's what
he did. And here's Jeremiah for preaching
righteousness. We read in that psalm, I preach
righteousness. I've not hid righteousness in
my heart. I didn't keep it a secret. I preached it out boldly. That's
what Jeremiah did. Our Lord himself is our righteousness. And he, he brought that out boldly
in his earthly ministry. And yet Jeremiah, what happens
to him? Well, they put him in a muddy hole and he sinks down,
and literally he sinks down to his armpits. See that in the
next section. That's a good picture of a sinner
in sin. That's what we are. We're drowning
in a sea of sin. We're in a miry, miry mud pit
of sin. And then what happens? Well,
look at verse 7. From here to verse 13, we see
something that is truly spectacular. And I want you to notice this.
It's kind of like one of those things you would read and you'd
say, who would have thunk it? Here's a servant of the king
comes to save Jeremiah. And look at who he is. Now look
at this. It says, now when Ebed-Malik, the Ethiopian. Ebed-Malik. Never heard of this fella before.
He's never brought up before. He comes back up again in chapter
39. But you know what his name means? Servant of the King. That's
what the name means. Ebed Melech, and he's a Gentile. He's an Ethiopian. Probably one
of the, what do they call them, the Kushites, or that race of
people. And he says, Ebed Melech, the
Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs, which was in the king's house,
heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon, The king then
sitting in the gate of Benjamin. Now here's the king in the gate
of judgment. He's passing judgment. And it
says in verse 8, Ebed-Melech went forth out of the king's
house and he spoke to the king saying, My lord the king, these
men have done evil in all that they've done to Jeremiah the
prophet. They've done evil, Ebed-Melech says. This Ethiopian, this Gentile. You know what they would have
called him? This dog. Not a pure bread with papers,
but an old cur dog. That's the way they referred
to the Gentiles. Be aware of the dogs, Paul said. That's what
he was referring to. He says, they've done evil to
Jeremiah the prophet, whom they've cast into the dungeon. He's like
to die for hunger in the place where he is, for there's no more
bread in the city. There's no bread. Remember back
up there in verse six, there's no water, no water, no bread. That reminds me of the fact that
there's no Christ. Christ, too, is the water of
life. Christ, too, is the bread of life. That's the state we're
in before God saves us. We're sunk in the deep, miry,
muddy pit of sin without any water and without any bread,
spiritually speaking. That's where God finds us, isn't
it? We sing a hymn like that, don't
we? He lifted me up from the deep, miry clay. But when He
finds us, He gives us water, the water of life. Remember what
He told the woman at the well, He gives us the bread of life.
We'll never thirst and hunger again. That's why He said, blessed
are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, they'll
be filled. That's what that means, that's believing in, looking
to, resting in Christ, feeding upon Him. Verse 10, it says,
Then the king commanded Abed-Malik the Ethiopian, saying, Take from
hence thirty men with thee, and take up Jeremiah the prophet
out of the dungeon before he died. Now, there's a couple of
things. This Ibn Malik, there's a little
bit of an argument between scholars. Was he a true believer or was
he just a compassionate man? Well, I know this, whatever he
was, he's certainly a picture of God's true servants, isn't
he? He's certainly a great illustration of those who truly love the Lord
and love His truth and love His people. The passage that I preached
on a couple weeks ago, when Christ said, in that you've done this
to the least of these my brethren, you've done it unto me. But over
in chapter 39 and verse 18, here's what is said of Ibn Malik, just
to give you an idea. The Lord through Jeremiah speaking
to Ebed-Melech says, for I will surely deliver thee, and thou
shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a praying
of thee, because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord. That's Ebed-Melech. I believe
he was one of that remnant according to the election of grace. And
he was a Gentile. God has a people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. a Gentile, spiritual Israelite. He wasn't an ethnic Israelite,
but he was a spiritual Israelite. He was a spiritual child of Abraham,
wasn't he? Sinner saved by the grace of
God. Somebody said, well, this Ethiopian,
he couldn't change his skin, but God did change his heart.
Isn't that something? That's something. Here's what
happens. He goes, Zedekiah. Now we see Zedekiah has a little
compassion here too, but we know he didn't trust the Lord. Look
at verse 11. So Abed-Malik took the men with him and went into
the house of the king under the treasury, took thence old cast
clouts. That's old, dirty, rotten cloths. That's what that is. Old, rotten
rags. Let them down by cords into the
dungeon to Jeremiah. And Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian
said unto Jeremiah, put these, now these old cast clouts and
rotten rags under thy arm holes, that's your armpits. Because
he couldn't get them around his waist, he was sunk in the mud.
Under the cords, and Jeremiah did so, so they drew up Jeremiah
with cords and took him up out of the dungeon, and Jeremiah
remained in the court of the prison. Lifted him out of the
deep miry clay. What a picture of the grace of
God who reaches down to us with cords of love. And those cords
of love is represented in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the one who was charged with our sins so that we might have
righteousness to live before God and to live whole. It's a
picture of our redemption and deliverance in and by Christ.
Someone said that in these prisons, that there was usually a great
stone or bars that sealed up the prison, and when that stone
was rolled away or those bars were let loose, then that's the
picture of our justification before God, for we're not condemned
in Christ. By His blood and righteousness,
we're set free. By His righteousness, we're declared
not guilty. Isn't that right? were declared
whole before God. And then the light is let in
and they were brought out. That's a picture of our regeneration
and conversion. Well, the rest of the chapter
speaks of the necessity of obedience to God's Word. Let's just read
some of it. Then Zedekiah verse 14. The king
sent, he took Jeremiah the prophet unto him into the third entry
that is in the house of the Lord. And that's the temple. And the
king said unto Jeremiah, well, I ask thee a thing, hide nothing
from me. Just be honest, tell me the truth.
Well, Jeremiah had already done that. And then Jeremiah said
unto Zedekiah, if I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely
put me to death? And if I give thee counsel, wilt
thou not hearken unto me? So Zedekiah the king swears secretly
unto Jeremiah, saying, as the Lord liveth that made us this
soul, that created us, I will not put thee to death, neither
will I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy life.
And then said Jeremiah to 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 thy soul shall live, and
this city shall not be burned with fire, and thou shalt live
in thine house. Now that was the command of God.
That was the conditional commandment. Now it wasn't fulfilled. Zedekiah,
none of the people that were left in the city obeyed God.
We see there a picture again of sinners under a conditional
covenant failing, failing. So that if we know that if salvation
were ever conditioned on us, we'd fail. We're sinners. But
he says in verse 18, but if thou will not go forth to the king
of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand
of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt
not escape out of their hand. And Zedekiah the king said unto
Jeremiah, I'm afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans,
lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me. Well,
what do you got there? That's the fear of men. He fears
men, but he doesn't fear God. There's no fear of God before
his eyes. Well, look at verse 20. But Jeremiah said, They shall
not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice
of the Lord which I speak unto thee, so it shall be well unto
thee. and thy soul shall live." Here's
Zedekiah. He's a double-minded man. You
can see in his dealings with Jeremiah that he wants to hear
the truth, but then he doesn't want to hear it. He's a double-minded man. He's
a hearer of the Word, but he's not a doer of the Word. He's
one who fears men, but not God. He halts between two opinions.
He tries to cover. His disobedience and good intentions. But what does Jeremiah tell him?
Jeremiah tells him the same thing that he has always told him.
The message has not changed. God's Word does not change. Obey
the voice of the Lord. Period. No matter what you see,
no matter who pressures you, no matter what your peers do,
obey the voice of the Lord. That's the only way to go. God
has spoken. There's nothing left to say.
Obey Him. Apply that to the gospel of God's
free and sovereign grace in Christ. My friend, there's only one way
of salvation. There's no other way. And if
that way of salvation, being preached, exposes my way or your
way as being a way of death, The message isn't going to change.
Now, we can deny it. If my way does not line up with
God's way, then my way is a way of death and destruction. And
that's not going to change. God says there's one way, and
it's the way of Christ. You know, you hear so many verses
in the Scripture where the Lord said, keep my commandments. The natural man looks at verses
like that and he says, well, that means I've got to keep the
Ten Commandments. And that's not what it's talking about at
all. I could read you a bunch of them. John 14, 15, If you
love me, keep my commandments. And that love is first there,
you see. In other words, it's not, I'll
love you if you keep my commandments. In fact, it says in John 15,
10, if you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, continue,
even as I've kept my father's commandments and abide in his
love. Listen to this one, 1 John 2 and verse 3. Hereby do we know
that we know him, that we know Christ, if we keep his commandments. You see, the keeping of his commandments
there is not an option. He that said, I know him and
keeps not his commandments is a liar. And the truth is not
in him. But whosoever keeps his word
in him truly is the love of God perfected, that is, reaches its
goal. And hereby know we that we're
in him. 1 John 4, 19, we love him because
he first loved us. Now, if a man say, I love God
and hates his brother, he's a liar. He that loves not his brother
whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
1 John 5, 2, By this we know that we love the children of
God. When we love God and keep His commandments, for this is
the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments
are not grievous or burdensome. Christ said, Why call ye me Lord,
Lord, and do not the things which I say? All of these You know
the precedent for keeping his commandments was set down back
in the book of Genesis. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God
and brought death and destruction upon the whole human family and
sought to cover their nakedness. And that nakedness as you know
is an emblem of no righteousness. being under the wrath of God.
Sought to cover their nakedness with fig leaf aprons, which is
emblematic of man's works. What did God do? He slew an animal
and made coats of skin. He established right there in
Genesis 3.21 the fact, He had already told it to Adam, that
the wages of sin is death and that without the shedding of
blood there is no forgiveness of sin. Justice has to be satisfied. He established right there the
sacrificial system of worship to relay a message to mankind. And that message is that there's
only salvation by God's grace in the promised Messiah, whom
they knew as the seed of woman, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb.
And you remember Cain disobeyed God after Adam and Eve. He brought
the works of His hand, the labors of His hands to be accepted before
God. And you remember what the Lord
told him in Genesis chapter 4 and verse 7. He said, Cain, if thou
doest well, if you obey, if you keep His commandments, shalt
thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin
lieth at the door. Now what is it to do well according
to the context of Genesis 3 and 4? Let's do what Abel did. Come
to God as a sinner seeking mercy in the blood of the Lamb. You say, well, let's keep His
commandments. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ never commanded
any sinner to seek salvation based on their works. He forbid
that. And that was established early
on. The obedience that he's talking about here is submission to God's
revealed will and God's way and we can apply that to the gospel.
The gospel is a command. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. It's the command of faith. It's
the command of repentance. Repent or perish. It's even the
command to love God and to love the brethren. That's the gift
of God. It's obedience to the gospel.
And that obedience is not optional. Look back at Jeremiah 38. Verse 21, he says, But if thou
refuse to go forth, this is the word that the Lord hath showed
me. Behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah's
house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes.
For those women shall say, thy friends have set thee on, and
have prevailed against thee. Thy feet are sunk in the mire,
and they are turned away back. What he's talking about is they're
going to be humiliated. So they shall bring out all thy wives
and thy children to the Chaldeans, and thou shalt not escape out
of their hand, but shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon,
and thou shalt cause this city to be burned with fire. Now listen
to this. Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah,
let no man know of these words, and thou shalt not die. Let's
keep this a secret. But if the princes hear that
I've talked with thee, and they come unto thee, and say unto
thee, declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the king,
hide it not from us, and we will not put thee to death also what
the king said unto thee. We want to know what you and
the king were talking about. Then thou shalt say, verse 26,
unto them, I presented my supplication before the king that he would
not cause me to return to Jonathan's house to die there. That is,
that prison. And then came all the princes unto Jeremiah. They
asked him. He told them according to all these words that the king
had commanded. So they left off speaking with
him for the matter was not perceived. They didn't understand what was
going on. So Jeremiah bowed in the court of the prison until
the day that Jerusalem was taken. And he was there when Jerusalem
was taken. Now we see there the providence of God in watching
over his servant, Jeremiah. Because he did take care of him.
Even though he was in prison, he certainly wasn't in the mud
up to his armpits. And he did have bread and water.
What is this illustrating to us? Well, again, the fact that
obedience is not optional. It's a necessity. Now, why? Well,
it's not because we're saved by our obedience, because we're
not. We're saved by the obedience of Christ. That's right. His obedience unto death. He
became obedient, even the death of the cross. He's our salvation. It's his doing and his dying
that saves a sinner. And it's not because we earn
God's favor and blessings by our obedience. We're blessed
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. We heard a lot about that over
the weekend, didn't we? Isn't that good? And it's not
because we're made holier or more righteous by our obedience,
because we're not. Our obedience, our attempts at
obedience are not good enough to make us righteous before God.
If they were, you'd have every right to plead your works at
judgment. I told of a fellow who sat down
with a piece of paper with me one time, and he said, now here's
the way the Christian life is. He drew a scale. He said, you're going up, up,
up, up, and then all of a sudden something bad really happens,
and boom, you go down. Then you start going up, up,
up, up, up, and boom, you go down. He said, that's what holy
living's all about. And I said, well, let me ask
you a question. I said, when you're on the top pinnacle there,
one of those top pinnacles that you think you reach, Is there
anything you do? Let's say a prayer that you prayed.
At the top now, not at the bottom. But you're at the top now and
you pray a prayer as you're inspired by the Spirit of God. Is that
prayer good enough for you to plead it at judgment as you're
right entitled to enter heaven? He said, oh no, oh no. I said,
well then how can you call it holiness? He took his paper and left. You see, obedience is necessary,
but not because it makes us holier or more righteous. Listen, we're
as righteous as the Son of God, based on His righteousness imputed.
How much more do we need? Nothing. Why is obedience necessary? Let me give you these just briefly.
And I'm going to do some messages on these later on. Number one,
obedience is necessary because it's foreordained of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Let me tell you something. If
God ordained it, it's necessary. Secondly, obedience is necessary
because it's the fruit of God's power and grace. It's the fruit
of faith. It's the fruit of love. Paul
wrote about that, he said, when we were in the flesh, in Romans
chapter 7, he spoke of when we were in the flesh, we brought
forth fruit unto death. But he says, but now we're delivered
from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we
should serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
In other words, now we bring forth fruit unto God. Christ
is the vine, we're the branches. Thirdly, obedience is necessary
because it's the work of the Holy Spirit within us. God works
in us. In Galatians chapter 5, it's
called the fruit of the Spirit. Paul said in Galatians chapter
2 and verse 20, it's Christ working in him. God who begun the good work will
bring it to its perfection, the scripture tells us. Obedience
is necessary because it's a desire within our hearts given us by
God. You say, I wish I had more of
a desire. My friend, the fact that you have any desire at all
is a miracle of God's grace. I wish I had more of a desire
too. But he said it. He said in Jeremiah 31, said
in Ezekiel 36, I'll give him a new heart, a new spirit. That's
a heart of grace sprinkled by the blood of Christ who rests
in Christ desiring to be like Christ. Why? Because of God's
grace. Not because we want to make ourselves
righteous by our works, but because we are righteous in God's sight
through Christ. And then fifthly, obedience is
necessary. Because it's part and parcel
of the liberty we have in Christ. One more verse. Look at Romans
chapter 6. It's part and parcel of the liberty that we have in
Christ. Listen to this. Romans 6 and
verse 17. I already talked about that we're
freed judicially when Christ died on that cross and we died
with Him. We're free from condemnation.
And he says over in Romans 8, 1, there is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ who shall anything
to the charge of God's elect. Look at verse 17 of Romans 6.
But God be thanked that you were the servants of sin. That's the
unregenerate, unbeliever, spiritually dead. But you've obeyed from
the heart. Obediency. You've obeyed from
the heart. Now what heart is that? That's
not the natural heart. That's not the stony heart. That's
the circumcised heart. That's the new heart. That's
the heart cleansed by the blood of Christ. You've obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you, which
was preached to you, but literally which you were delivered to.
God brought you under the preaching of the gospel. And it has made
the power of God into salvation. Being then made free from sin.
Free from sin in what sense? From the darkness of sin. from
the darkness and ignorance of unbelief because He gave us the
gift of faith, you became the servants of righteousness. What
is a servant of righteousness? It is a servant of Christ. It
is one who rests in Christ and who follows Him in the obedience
of grace and love and gratitude for that which God has freely
and unconditionally given us in Christ.