We're going to talk about Christ,
the branch of righteousness tonight. Verse 15 of Jeremiah 33. In those
days, that's the days of the new covenant. Jeremiah spoke
of them in detail back in chapter 31. When he talked about the
inward power working of the Holy Spirit in the people of God,
in the new birth. where God revealed that He would
give them a new heart right upon our hearts, the law. That is
the truth, the gospel. Give us a new spirit out of His
sovereign power and grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. And He
spoke of it all through His prophecy of the coming Messiah. And that
in those days it would be a new day. It would be a better day. not because of a better class
of people, but because of the Messiah who is better, as the
book of Hebrews tells us over and over again, better than anything
that ever came before him in the process of time. And he says,
in those days and at that time, the fullness of the time, Galatians
four and verse four speaks of it. God sent forth his son made
of a woman made under the law. And this person is called here
the Branch of Righteousness. The branch there is a messianic
term. It's a term that only belongs
to Messiah. It doesn't belong to King David
of old. It belongs to his seed. He's
called here the Branch of Righteousness to grow up unto David. That's
according to the covenant that God made with David. It's recorded
back in 2 Samuel chapter 7. It's called the Royal Covenant. It speaks of the fulfillment
of a prophecy that was made years and years and years before by
Jacob when he was on his deathbed in Genesis chapter 49 and he
was blessing his sons and he turned to his son Judah and he
made this prophecy the scepter would not depart from Judah until
Shiloh come and that Shiloh there is peace And then again, it's
descriptive of the Messiah. So here's the branch of righteousness. A branch is something that grows
forth from the root. And it speaks of him as being
the branch of righteousness, the branch of David, the root
of Jesse. That speaks of his humanity.
So this person, who is called the branch of righteousness,
would be both God and man in one person. That's the Constitution
as one old writer said of the Messiah's person. If you want
to talk about the person of Christ, you must talk about one person
with two natures. One nature is divine, every bit
God, Emmanuel, and one nature is human without sin. And the
reason that had to be is because that's the kind of person and
the kind of righteousness that we who are sinful need to be
saved, to be justified. I've said it before so many times
in going through these passages that we don't need the righteousness
of man. First of all, we realize that
since the fall of man, man has no righteousness. There's none
righteous, no, not one. But even before the fall, Adam
was righteous, but it was still the righteousness of man. Well,
we don't need that. Adam lost it. You see, he sinned
against God. We need the righteousness of
God. And isn't that so glorious when you understand as the Bible
reveals, God the Holy Spirit reveals that the gospel is the
message of the righteousness of God. That's why it's good
news. It meets our need as sinners
who deserve condemnation, but who will not be condemned because
one is coming, that's what Jeremiah is saying, or in our day, one
has come who is the branch of righteousness. That's the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he'll grow up unto David.
That's the process of time. That's what that's speaking of.
He hadn't arrived in Jeremiah's day, but he's coming. The power
of God's grace was already operative in Jeremiah's day and even before. But the one upon whom all the
grace of God was conditioned, the one upon whom all the salvation
of all of God's elect people was conditioned, is coming and
he's going to fulfill those conditions, how's he going to do it? He shall
execute judgment and righteousness in the land, in the promised
land. That's where he was born. That's
where his human nature was conceived and born. That's where he walked
the earth in his earthly ministry. And that's where he died on the
cross of Calvary in that land. And what was he doing? He was
executing. He was working for it. He was
working out. Judgment. Judgment against the
sins of God's people charged to Him. Our sins charged to Him. Our debt put to His account.
He said, put it on my account. Now He did that before the world
began. That's an amazing thing, isn't it? He did that in the
everlasting covenant of grace before the world ever began.
He was made the surety of God's people. He said, put it on my
account and it was put to his account and he came and he did
the work, that's righteousness. He went under the judgment of
his father and he worked out righteousness, which is the merits
of his obedience unto death. So we stand before God. We who
know Christ, we who are in Christ stand before God, but that's
the union. Now look at verse 16. In those days shall Judah
be saved. The stress here is on Judah at
this point in time, because Judah was the one who was going into
captivity. Judah was the one out from whom
the Messiah would come as the branch of David for the kingly
tribe. David was of the tribe of Judah.
Christ was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.
And so Judah is stressed here because they were the tribe just
about to go into captivity. Sometimes you'll see in these
prophecies of Christ and his church, you'll see them stress
Israel, they called Israel. Later on, we're gonna see the
name Jacob come up again. Also, you'll see the name Israel
and Judah. And what he's talking about is
the people of God under the headship of Christ. But he stresses Judah,
and he says, Judah shall be saved. And there's salvation. Now, there
is a limited fulfillment of this, a temporal fulfillment of this
when Judah comes out of captivity in Babylon, that's true, but
that's not the ultimate, eternal, most glorious fulfillment of
this prophecy. That can only be fulfilled in
the salvation of God's elect out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation. And then he says, Jerusalem shall
dwell safely. Well, the city of Jerusalem would
be rebuilt after the captivity, but again, that's only a limited
sense. The city of Jerusalem would fall
again. So the Jerusalem here that's
going to dwell safely, I believe the fulfillment of this prophecy
is in the heavenly Jerusalem, the dwelling place of the people
of God. We're citizens of a heavenly
kingdom. Hebrews chapter 12 speaks of
it. So it's Jerusalem and Judah shall
be saved. And what will she be called?
This conglomeration, this bringing together the people of God, what
are they gonna be called? This is the name wherewith she
shall be called. Now look back at Jeremiah 23. We've already seen this passage,
already preached from it, but look back at it. Notice in Jeremiah 33 16 says
wherewith she shall be called that's the feminine pronoun she
and She shall be called the Lord our righteousness Now that name
is Jehovah Sid canoe. It's one of the compound names
of Jehovah Jehovah that identifies and distinguishes the God of
the covenant the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the God who
saves by grace, the God who justifies the ungodly, and it says she
shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Back here in chapter
23, verses 5 and 6, you have virtually the same prophecy.
Verse 5, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise
unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper,
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. And that
word justice there is the same word as righteousness. And in
his days, Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. So there you see the emphasis
there on Israel. He's specifically emphasizing
the fact that the whole kingdom is going to be under the headship
of Christ. And this is his name whereby he, the masculine pronoun,
shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Now that, speaking
of Christ himself as the head of the church, over here in Jeremiah
33, 16, that's speaking of his church as the bride of Christ.
Married to Christ. And that's the common way, especially
back in those days, and most of the time is in our days too,
that when a woman marries a man, she takes that man's name. Because
he's the head of the home. set up by God. He's the representative
of the home, as you say, the representative of Christ. That's
what the home is. That's what a marriage is. It's
a type, a picture, setting forth Christ and His church. Ephesians
chapter 5 speaks of that. Well, here it is right here.
Now, look at Isaiah chapter 61. So she takes His name, but there's
more to it than that, and what this speaks of is the union of
Christ and His church. And this is so appropriate in
the fact that we're taking the Lord's Supper tonight. Because
that's what we're expressing when we take the Lord's Supper.
Our own personal union with Christ. We were united to Him. And look
at Isaiah 61, look at verse 10. Remember I told you as we were
going through that chapter 33, it's kind of like a parallel
to Isaiah 61 here. Remember again now, this is the
passage of scripture that the Lord read when he went back to
his hometown Synagogue and they were reading from this passage
and he stood up and and he said today this passage this scripture
is fulfilled before your eyes Look at Isaiah 61 10 He says
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord my soul shall be joyful
my God for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation
and He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom
decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself
with her jewels. That's the union of Christ, the
bridegroom, and his church, the bride. And he says in verse 11,
for as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth
the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord
God will cause righteousness and praise. to spring forth before
all the nations as justification by the righteousness of Christ
imputed and sanctification by the Holy Spirit in bringing us
to faith in Christ and giving us a heart to worship Him. There's
the union. You see back here in Jeremiah
33, this is the foundation and this is the fountain of all the
blessings of salvation that God has for His people. Christ the
Lord our righteousness. And this proves the ultimate
fulfillment of all the blessings stated here in the Church of
the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Covenant in the Gospel Age.
He's going to cause that branch of righteousness to spring forth. The union here is such a beautiful
thing in Scripture because it spans eternity. And I like that. Because it gives me the assurance
of being accepted with God in Christ, despite all that I see
falling apart around me and all that I struggle with within me.
It really does. When we talk about being united
to Christ, let me show you this script. Turn over to Galatians
3. When I preached back in Jeremiah 23, I referred to this, but let's
look at it again. Cause it's worth looking at.
More than once. And in everything in scripture.
But look at Galatians chapter 3. Talking about our union with
Christ. And we could go to so many passages
on this. One that I think of immediately
is Romans 6. That's one of the greatest passages
describing that. But this one's a little shorter
and allow us to look at this within the time frame a little
easier. But look at verse 26 of Galatians chapter 3. Now he says, you are all the
children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Now the point he's making
here is that whether you're a Jew or a Gentile has nothing to do
with being a child of God. Has nothing to do with it. What
is the evidence of being a child of God? Faith in Jesus Christ. Do you believe in Christ? Are you resting in Christ? truly
resting in Him for all salvation, as the Lord your righteousness.
Because if you are, then that's the evidence that you're a child
of God. A child of obedience, a child
of grace, adopted into His family, regenerated by the Holy Spirit. How do I know I've been regenerated
by the Holy Spirit? Because my hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And I cast everything else away.
Dare not trust the sweetest frank, but wholly lean on Jesus name.
I've got nothing else to plead, but Christ and Him crucified.
The Lord my righteousness. So he says in verse 27, for as
many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Now, I've told you before, and
this is very similar to Romans chapter 6, that word baptized,
now I know When we think of the word baptized, we think of the
ordinance of water baptism. And that certainly is a scriptural
truth for the New Testament believers. The Bible teaches, commands us,
Christ commanded us, we who believe to be baptized in water, the
confession, that's an ordinance of confession. where we're immersed
in water, not dipped, not poured, not sprinkled, not get our feet
wet, but immersed in water. Go down into the water and come
up out of the water because it's a picture, it's a symbol of where
we're confessing our union with Christ. That when He died, we
died. When He was buried, we were buried.
When He arose again, we arose again. And so that's the confession
ordinance, baptism. We're gonna take the Lord's supper
tonight. That's the memorial ordinance, continual ordinance,
because we live continually in the truth, all right, of Christ.
But now the word baptized itself literally means placed into. And this is what he's saying.
He's not talking about water baptism here. That's not even his subject.
Now there are places in the New Testament where he does talk
about that. but here he's talking about union with christ he says
for as many as you have has as have been baptized in the christ
placed in the crash now if you're a child of god if you believe
in christ you have been placed into christ now what does that
mean well how have i been placed in the christ first of all i
was placed into christ united to him in divine sovereign election. God chose me. And what does Ephesians
1 say so often? In Christ. In Christ. In Christ. He didn't choose me out arbitrarily. No, He chose me in Christ. Christ
has always been my substitute, my surety, my representative.
I was placed into Him before I was ever born. My name was
written in the Lamb's book of life before this world was created,
before Adam fell. Isn't that the way it is? That's
union with Christ. Some of the old riders, they
call that the representative union or the federal union, whatever
you want to call it. I just know this, God chose me
in Christ. Baptized into Christ. We were
placed into Christ in divine, sovereign, powerful, redeeming
grace. Redeeming grace. And that's the
mainstay of what Romans chapter six is talking about. Christ
didn't die as a private person. Christ did not die for himself. He had no need to die for himself.
I've heard preachers say they had to die for himself. No, he
didn't have to die for himself. You see, he was a substitute.
He wasn't the sinner who needed to be saved. He never became
the sinner who needed to be saved. We're the sinners who need to
be saved. He's the Savior. And our sins, the debt, the demerit
of our sins was charged to Him. Laid to His account. He took
it. And it didn't stop there now. It wasn't just imputation
alone. No. He had to die. He had to
suffer unto death. He had to agonize. But He did
it all for His people. We were placed into Him. He redeemed
His sheep, His church. So that when He died, we are
counted by the sovereign, powerful, omniscient mind of God to have
died with Him. Now some preachers will criticize
that and say, well that's just fake. Oh no! Not in the mind
of God. Maybe in your mind or their mind
it is, but not in the mind of God. That's real salvation, my
friend. That's why we preach Christ and
Him crucified. When He died, I died. I was placed
into Him. He died for me. My sins were
charged to Him, accounted to Him, imputed to Him. And when
He was buried, I was buried. That's a union, you see. And
when He arose, I arose. And I'm right now seated in Him
at the right hand of the Father. You say, preacher, have you gone
crazy? You're standing right here behind the pulpit. I'm talking
about union with Christ. I'm not talking about what you
see with your physical eyes. And don't ever think that it's
not real unless you see it with these physical eyes or unless
you feel it inside. You say, we're united to Christ. I'm in Him right now. That's
how I can say with confidence passages like 1 John 4, 17, as
He is, so are we in this world. Now you can't say that any other
way except as He's your substitute. And if you try to say it any
other way, you just exalt self. That's what you do. He is the Lord, my righteousness. And then, thirdly, We're placed
into him in regenerating grace. And that's when the Holy Spirit
comes and applies spiritual life within us in the new birth. And that's when we're in betrothed
to Christ. Paul said, I've espoused you
to one husband as a chaste virgin. That's what he's talking about.
Look back at Galatians 3. He says in verse 27, for as many
of you as have been baptized into Christ, you've put on Christ. Now that putting him on means
to receive him by faith. Every time you look to Christ
continually, you're putting him on. And that's it, that's symbolic
language. That's not just saying it's some
outside sort of thing or anything like that. We're clothed with
Christ, the scripture says. Like we read over in Isaiah 61,
like a bride that puts on the wedding garment. That's not literal
language trying to tell you that salvation is just something that
happens to you outwardly. No, no, no. People who say that,
they don't understand this union with Christ. No, we put him on
by faith. Listen, verse 28. He says, there's
neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, there's neither
male nor female, for you're all one in Christ Jesus. We're one,
see? He's the head, we're the body.
One in him. And verse 29, and if you literally
belong to Christ, that's a possessive there, if you belong to him,
then are you Abraham's seed. That's spiritual Israel. and
heirs according to the promise. Now that's what this union's
all about. Now go back to Jeremiah 33. God's gonna cause a righteous
branch of David to spring forth. And then what's gonna happen?
Well, look at verse 17. He says, for thus saith the Lord,
David shall never want or lack a man to sit upon the throne
of the house of Israel. Now, you know as well as I do
that the earthly line of David did cease. Now there are some
who say, well, there's going to come another one, you know,
another earthly king. I don't know. The scripture doesn't
teach that. How is it that David's throne
will never be vacant? Well, he's talking about the
spiritual throne of David, and he's talking about David's greater
son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. He'll reign forever
and ever and ever. There'll never be a vacancy on
that throne because our Lord occupies it. I used to hear Brother
Henry say all the time, he said, I could no more lose my salvation
than Christ could be taken off that throne. You know what that
means? That means I can't lose my salvation.
Because Christ will never be taken off that throne. He is
the King of Kings. and the Lord of Lords. What's
Jeremiah doing here? He's assuring the people of God,
the true people of God, of the continuance of the kingly line
through Christ. And then he says in verse 18,
look at this now, he says, neither shall the priest, the Levites,
want a man like a man before me to offer burnt offerings,
that's the offerings of satisfaction, atonement, and to kindle meal
offerings, meat offerings or meal offerings, that's the thank
offerings, and to do sacrifice continually. Now does that mean
that in the end days that the priesthood of Levi is going to
be resurrected and start again? You know there's some people
who believe that. But I want to tell you something, the Bible
does not teach that. In fact, the Bible teaches that
that priesthood is over. Christ abolished it, and he's
a priest now, but not after the order of Aaron and Levi, but
after the order of Melchizedek. Read Hebrews chapter seven. And
he's a priest forever. And his priesthood never ceases.
And in fact, I'll just read you this over there in the book of
Hebrews chapter 13. It makes this statement about
the service of the priest in the tabernacle. And he says this,
he says in verse 10 of Hebrews 13, we have an altar. Now who
is he talking about we there? The people of God. Believers.
And who is our altar? Christ is our altar. You know
what the altar did back in the Old Testament? It set the sacrifice
apart. What set our sacrifice? Who is
our sacrifice? Christ is. What sets him apart?
He himself does. He sanctified the offering. So
we have an altar where they have no right to eat which serve the
tabernacle. So those who serve that earthly
tabernacle, what he's talking about there is those false preachers
who were trying to keep that old covenant in effect and reestablish
these old covenant ceremonies and elements. And he says, we
have an altar, Christ, that they don't have any right to eat at
our table who serve that tabernacle. You know why they don't have
a right? Because they deny Christ. When Christ came, He fulfilled
that and abolished it. To try to bring it back up again
is to deny Him. We don't need the blood of bulls
and goats now. We have the blood of the Lamb
of God. We have the blood of Christ. We don't need an earthly
high priest who is himself a sinner. who needs to make offerings first
for himself and then for them. We don't need that. Because that
didn't put away sin. We have a high priest who offered
himself without spot to God. And his sacrifice is forever
and ever and ever the precious blood of Christ that cleanses
us from all sin. So that's the fulfillment of
it back here in Jeremiah 33. He is simply saying that Christ
is both our king and our priest and we are made priests of God
by Him. We can worship. We continually
present His sacrifice before God. That is what we are doing
in the Lord's Supper. There is no power to save in
the wine and the bread. It is who they represent. It's
the Lord of glory. And we continually plead His
blood. Don't ever stop pleading His blood. His righteousness.
Don't ever stop. Don't ever get your mind on anything
else as far as making you accepted before God. And we have a king. Look at verse 19. The word of
the Lord came unto Jeremiah saying, Thus saith the Lord, if you can
break my covenant of the day, my covenant of the night, that
there should not be a day or a night in their season, then
may also my covenant be broken with David my servant. And he
should not have a son to reign upon his throne, and with the
Levites, the priests, my ministers." What's he simply saying? He's
saying, look, this covenant that he's talking about here, which
provides for the salvation of his people in Christ, cannot
be broken. No more than a human being could
look at the sun and say, now you stop shining. Or the moon,
say, you stop shining. Or the earth, you stop spinning.
You see, we don't have that kind of power. What's he saying? This
covenant is not conditioned on you or me. It's conditioned on
Christ. It's a sure thing. It's a sure thing. So he says
in verse 22, The host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the
sand of the sea measured. So will I multiply the seed of
David my servant and the Levites that minister unto me. God's
people in Christ, united to Christ. A multitude which no man can
number. And yet people try to number
them all the time. But you can't number them. Only God knows the
number. So what are we to do, preacher? Preach the gospel.
Point sinners to Christ. Look at verse 24. He says, Considerest
thou not what the people have spoken, saying, The two families
which the Lord hath chosen, he hath even cast them off. Thus
they have despised my people that they should be no more a
nation before them. He brings out the promise of
God's grace, the perseverance of the people of God, the certain
covenant of day and night. This is the assurance. These
are assurances for that small remnant even back in Jeremiah's
day who are looking to the Messiah, looking to the Lord their righteousness.
And then he mentions these two families. Well, there's a little
disagreement amongst even gospel commentators over who the two
families are. I believe that what he's talking
about is Judah and Levi. That's the context, it seems
to me. He talked about the family of David, that's Judah. And he
talked about the priest of Levi, there's the two families. Levi
was, the family of Levi was pretty much taken care of out of the
Northern Kingdom when they were destroyed and carried away. And
the tribe of Judah, already in Babylon and some about to be
taken. Others just simply say it's a
general way of referring to Israel and Judah, and that could be
so, but what he's talking about is this, is that the destruction
of this nation or these two families will not hinder or stop the fulfillment
of God's promise. That's what he's saying. And
he says in verse 25, Thus saith the Lord, If my covenant be not
with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances
of heaven and earth, been while I cast away the seed of Jacob."
Well, he's not going to cast away the seed of Jacob. His covenants
cannot be broken. And that seed of Jacob there,
I think really puts it in its context. Remember he said in
Malachi, I am the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. He said, David my servant, that's
the Messiah who saves the seed of Jacob. so that I will not
take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, for I will cause their captivity return and have mercy
on them. The sure mercies of David. Isaiah
55 speaks of that. That's just another way of saying
the sure mercies of David. Well, what are the sure mercies
of David? Well, they are the certain mercies to the people
of God that are made sure and certain in and by the Lord Jesus
Christ. All the promises of God in him
are yea, and in him, amen. All right, okay. We're going
to be taking the Lord's Supper, so I'll ask the musicians if
they'll come and get ready, and the men to come up and get ready
to prepare for the Lord's Supper. And anybody who