Jeremiah chapter 33 I've entitled the message this evening After one of my favorite hymns
Come thou fount of every blessing Come thou fount of every blessing
Because that's just exactly what this chapter is about this is
the conclusion of a continuation and the conclusion of the Book
of Consolation. And our consolation, the consolation,
the comfort, the peace, the assurance of salvation for anyone who truly
knows our sinfulness is stated out plainly in verses 15 and
16. And that's a prophecy. This is
a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And everything that is
listed here and what we have here is almost like an inventory
of blessings. The blessings of salvation. And
they all hinge upon verses 15 and 16. The coming of the Messiah
in those days and at that time. will I cause the branch of righteousness
to grow up unto David as David's greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he shall execute judgment
and righteousness in the land. That's how he saves his people
from their sins. And in those days shall Judah
be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the
name wherewith she shall be called. Now you know that's significant,
isn't it? You remember this same prophecy is stated back in Jeremiah
23. Jeremiah 23 verses 5 through
6. And it's virtually the same wording,
there's a little difference, but in that former Prophecy it
says he shall be called there was a masculine pronoun there
Speaking of Christ himself in the masculine as the one substitute
surety and representative of his people And his name shall
be called the Lord our righteousness, you know, that's that's one of
those great blessed compound names of Jehovah Jehovah Sid
Canoe But here it says, wherewith she shall be called. It's a feminine
pronoun. She shall be called, the Lord
our righteousness. And of course, the reference
there is to the bride of Christ, the church. For when we're married
to Christ, we take His name. When we're married to Christ,
we're one with Him. And so all these blessings are
in Christ. This speaks of the blessings
of the church, or on the church, of Christ in gospel times, of
which the return of the Jews from captivity and the benefits
following on that were types. They were types of the church
in the blessings. And you know every type is limited.
Every type is physical. Every type is temporal. And also
remember that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who is the fountain
of all blessings, that's why I titled this, Come Thou Fount
of Every Blessing. He's the foundation. He's the
cause. He's the fulfillment of all conditions,
requirements, stipulations, however you want to put it. It's all
in Him. And so He is the fountain of
all blessings and salvation for the people of God. And it would
come through that little nation, Judah, Don't we thank God for
Israel? I do. I think Paul, I know the Apostle
Paul was, that's one of the main points that he was making in
Romans 11 concerning the Gentiles. Don't ever be proud and puffed
up and look down on Israel. Oh, they were a great sinful
people, but so are we. And God saves, if He saves any
of us, He saves us by His grace in spite of ourselves. But aren't
we so thankful that God used them in such a miraculous way
to bring our Savior into this world? For if he hadn't, we'd
all be lost. God is faithful and able to fulfill
his promises. But that's what this is all about.
We're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. Notice how it begins. I'll just
start at verse one and we'll go as far as time allows us and
then I'll quit and pick up Lord willing the next time. But this
is what it's all about right here. It's about Christ and what
we are so blessed with and what we have in him. That lost sheep
that he goes to find because he died for him. Here's Jeremiah,
where is he when he gets, when he receives this word? He's in
the same place that he was back a few passages ago in prison. Moreover, verse 1, the word of
the Lord came unto Jeremiah the second time while he was yet
shut up in the court of the prison. You know, our circumstances in
this life have absolutely nothing to do with our blessedness in
Christ. And I know that's a hard, hard
lesson for any of us to learn. I know it's hard for me to learn.
I just somehow naturally think, you know, well, if I'm blessed
so much in Christ, that my life here on this earth ought to reflect
that in some way. And it should in my obedience,
in my worship, in my service. But some of God's choice servants
went through some of the hardest trials And I know I've, you know,
I think of myself, I say, well, I've gone through some hard trials.
You know, I haven't even touched what Jeremiah's going through
here. They haven't yet put me in prison, or you either. The
writer of Hebrews, who I believe was Paul, but mainly it was the
Holy Spirit, he told them, he says, you've not yet suffered
under blood. You're not yet being killed for
the faith. But here's Jeremiah in prison. And listen to what
he says in verse 2. This is how God reveals Himself.
Thus saith the Lord, Jehovah. That's who's speaking. That's
what the word Lord there. There's the covenant God of all
grace. This is the God of salvation. And the only way He saves a sinner
is by grace, through mercy, through the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus saith
the Lord, the Maker. There's God the Creator. He made
it. Thereof the Lord that formed it. He formed it. The Lord to
establish it. He established it. The Lord is
His name. The Lord God identifies Himself
because the fulfillment and the certainty of all the promises
of salvation and the blessings thereof rest upon Him, who He
is. His name is His glory. You know,
His name is His reputation. His name is His honor. His name
is His character, His power, His wisdom, His goodness, His
faithfulness. Everything that He is, is in
that name. And it's all, His whole name
is engaged behind the fulfillment of this promise to save His people
from their sins in Jesus Christ. And notice it says, Jehovah made
these things. He's the maker of it. He certainly
is the maker of the earth. He's the creator. But let me
tell you something, He's the maker of salvation. He's the
maker of His people. He's the maker of the church.
I think about Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8 where it says,
For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are in Him. We are His creation. We're created in Christ Jesus. We're His work. His handiwork. created in Christ Jesus unto
good works. The Bible says that the same
God who created this world is the God who reveals the light
of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
And I love that prophecy in Isaiah chapter 54 and verse 5 where
it says, Thy maker is thy husband. The Lord of hosts is His name.
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole
earth, shall He be called." So what's happened here? He's engaging
Himself, His glory behind all this. It says He formed it. What
that means is this, it means that whatever the church is going
to be, it's what the Lord intended it to be, to look like what He
wanted it to look like. We're not going to do that ourselves.
We don't have anything to do with that. And what did God determine
that the church would look like in its form? Well, He's going
to work all things after the counsel of His own will to bring
His people as He predestinated them to be conformed to the image
of Christ, to the image of His Son. And that's His glory. And then it says He established
them. That establishment here is the
fixed order of things. God made it. God formed it. And he ordered it in all things. David said that in 2 Samuel 23,
5. Remember he said, God has made a covenant with me that
is ordered in all things and sure. And this is all my salvation
and all my desire. God ordered it. So when we get
discouraged, just like Jeremiah here in prison, God ordered it. God's working all things after
the counsel of His own will. We get so upset when things don't
go the way we think they should go. Well, they're going the way
God ordered it. Now, that doesn't make Him the
author of sin, but it makes Him the sovereign, the sovereign
establisher, if you will, of all things. For what purpose? To bring His people to salvation.
And it's all in Him, and all by Him, conditioned on Christ,
not on sinners, and that's the assurance of its success. How
do you know it's going to turn out okay? Because His name's
involved. Look at verse 3. He says, Call
unto Me, and I'll answer thee, and show thee great and mighty
things which thou knowest not. God's being here, His nature,
who He is, and His promise gives us the assurance of hearing from
Him, and Him hearing us. And this verse here, I believe
it's a sign of the New Covenant. It assures us that he's talking
about the New Covenant in Christ. You see, under the Old Covenant,
God hearing them was conditioned on their obedience, and they
failed. That's why in the book of Isaiah,
chapter 1, you remember he talked about, he said, when you lift
up your hands and you pray, I won't hear you. He said, I won't hear
you. That's the plight of a sinner
under a conditional, works-based covenant. God will only hear
you if you keep the law. Well, none of us keep the law.
None of us keep the law. He even told Jeremiah earlier,
he said, don't pray for him. He said, I won't hear you. Just like sin drove Adam and
Eve out of Eden. away from God, just like Cain
was driven into the land of Nod because he brought the works
of his hands. It now drove Judah out of the
promised land. God wouldn't hear him. You see,
when people forsake God, there's no remedy for sin and there's
no communion with God. But now under the new covenant,
it's not like that. How can we be assured under the
new covenant that God will hear us? Well, it's through Christ.
is through Christ that's why we're commanded to come to the
throne of grace in time of need to find mercy and help because
we have a great high priest we're to have confidence even boldness
to come into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus and we
have the assurance from God himself according to his honor and his
reputation that he'll hear us that doesn't mean we're going
to get everything we want as we think we need or even wanted. But he hears his people, he communes
with his people. He told them, he told them that
back in the old covenant. He said, above the mercy seat,
on the basis of the blood, that right there, I'll commune with
you. But they rejected it. They wouldn't have it. And this
is true, especially in the matter of salvation of sinners. He says,
look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for
I am God. He said, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. How do you call upon the name
of the Lord? Through Christ. Through sacrifice. Through the
blood and righteousness of the Messiah. Through the Lord our
righteousness. That's how you call upon the
name of the Lord. He told Jeremiah here, he said, I'll show you
great and mighty things which you know not. Well, he certainly
showed Jeremiah some things concerning his providence in dealing with
the nation and their captivity. Great and mighty things. But
more than that, I believe he's speaking of the things of Christ
and his grace that we don't know by nature concerning the salvation
of sinners. How God saves a sinner. Do you know? To our shame. All of us. Do you know we take
that knowledge for granted? We do. And we should. If you
know. If you have a Revealed powerful
saving knowledge of how God really from his words saved sinners
in Christ That is a miracle. He has shown you some great and
mighty things That you knew not You know Christ To know it's
even listen. It's even a great miraculous
revelation from God for us to even know in some degree ourselves,
isn't it? to know our sin our ruination
in Adam because you know as well as I do that every person on
God's green earth by nature naturally thinks that if I do well enough
then God's going to accept me and receive me and bless me now
you know that's so and that's a lie according to this book
it is if that were true then God would not have had to have
sent his son to establish that righteousness which he is known
by. God would not have to have sent
his son to be the good shepherd and give his life for the sheep
if that were true. It's not true. But God has shown
us great and mighty things which we knew not. He's taught us.
Oh, we've got a lot to learn. And we'll continue to grow in
grace and knowledge of Christ. And I believe even in glory we'll
spend eternity learning more and more. But just think about
what a treasure of knowledge He's already shown us in the
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation. Now in verses
4 and 5, here's what He's got to say about the destruction
of Jerusalem. All these great and glorious
things now, they're marvelous. But that doesn't let Israel or
Judah off the hook for their sins. God must punish sin. Look
at it, verse 4. For thus saith the Lord, the
God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning
the houses of the kings of Judah. Now these are things that are
going to be destroyed, which are thrown down by the mounts.
Those are those, remember those mounds that the Babylonian army
built up against the walls of Jerusalem to tear them down.
and by the sword as they attack. They come to fight with the Chaldeans,
that is the kings and the people. But why did they do it? Well,
here's the result. It's to fill them with the dead
bodies of men. Remember he told them, he said,
if you fight against them, you're going to die. He told them, he
said, the only way you're going to save yourself is to submit
to God's judgment in these things because that's what we deserve.
Remember that great picture of God bringing his people to take
sides with God against ourselves. That's what we do in repentance,
isn't it? When God shows us our sin, what do we learn? We learn
that God, if you were to judge us based on our best efforts
to keep the law, we'd be doomed forever, and deservedly so. That's
what we earn. So those who fight against God's
judgment, in fighting against the Chaldeans, the Babylonians.
Why is it for? Well, it's to fill them with
the dead bodies of men whom I have slain in mine anger and in my
fury. Now do you notice how God puts
this? It was Nebuchadnezzar and his army that drew the sword
against those who were left in Jerusalem and who fought against
him. But listen to how God puts it. He says, whom I have slain
in mine anger and in my fury, and that for all whose wickedness
I have hid my face from this city." It was God's doing. And it wasn't sinful or wicked
or unjust or unfair. It was simply the God who is
holy and just and righteous giving man what he deserves and what
he earned. And that's an amazing thing because
Why doesn't He give me what I deserve, what I've earned? He doesn't. Why? Well, He says it over here
later on. He said, His mercy endures forever.
That's what He's talking about. Now, beginning at verse 6 and
on through the end of this chapter, He sets forth all the blessings
of the new covenant upon His spiritual people in and by the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now there is an application.
I always make sure that people understand there is an application
of the restoration of physical Jerusalem from the captivity,
but that's a limited thing. It's a temporary thing. It's
a faint foretaste of something greater, something more beautiful,
something eternal. And that's the establishment
of the heavenly Jerusalem, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we can view what happened in physical Jerusalem as a type
of the fulfillment of that which we can only find eternally and
finally and fully in Christ. And listen to what he says, verse
6. He starts off with healing and health. We're sin-sick sinners. We have a leprosy that works
from the inside out. It's called sin. We fell on Adam. We're born dead in trespasses
and sin. We have this disease. We can't
cure it. Man can't cure it. Man's religion
won't cure it. But look at verse 6. Behold,
I will bring it health and cure. Christ, the great physician.
The great physician heals the sick. Christ, the great physician. Malachi called Him the Son of
Righteousness arising with healing in His wings. And then he says
in verse 6, he said, I will cure them and will reveal unto them
the abundance of peace and truth. The revelation of abundance,
of peace and truth. Christ said in Isaiah 61 and
verse 1, and you know one thing, I'll give you a little exercise
to do. Go back over and read this and
read it with Isaiah 61. You remember Isaiah 61. That's that passage that when
the Lord went back to his hometown in Nazareth, and he went into
the synagogue, and the rabbi there was reading Isaiah 61. That's the one that starts, I
think it's recorded in Luke chapter 4 for example. And it starts
off, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath
anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. And the Lord looked
at him after he'd read a portion from this and he said, Today
this scripture, this portion of this word is fulfilled before
your eyes. What he was telling them is whoever
this Isaiah, this prophecy, Isaiah speaking, and Isaiah wrote this,
he wrote this about 750 years before the coming of Christ.
About a hundred years before Jeremiah. And the Lord said,
whoever he's talking about here, you're looking at him. And you
know what happened. What man by nature does with
a revelation like that. He just rejects it and begins
to hate it. That's why they wanted to throw
him over a cliff. Remember, he walked down. Well, this Isaiah
61 is pretty much parallel to this Jeremiah 33. So he said he's going to bring
healing. Well, over here in Isaiah 61, he says, he's anointing me
to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted. That's the healing. Bind up the
brokenhearted. The great physician. I think,
you know, anytime I think about that, I think about the woman
with the issue of blood, who for so many years was sick
and sought healing from all kinds of human doctors and spent all
that she had and found no cure, but she was worse off. That's
what the scripture says. I think that's in the book of
Mark. It says she was worse off than before. You ever been in
a situation like that? You get sick, you go to the doctor,
they don't know what's wrong with you and you end up worse
off than you were before. That's frustrating, isn't it?
That's a picture of human works salvation. Man goes to religion
thinking he can be cured of this sin sickness, this terminal disease
that will bring only death and destruction. And he ends up worse
off than before. The only problem with that is
he doesn't know it until God wakes him up. And remember what she said. She
said, if I can just touch but the hem of his garment, I know
I'll be healed. I don't believe she was talking
about any magic in his robe. You know that book they wrote
in the movie they made called The Robe? That's not what it's
about. It's faith in Him, the Great
Physician. He's the Great Healer. And then
look back here at Jeremiah 33. He says in verse 7, so healing. Healing, a cure for sin. The ointment is His blood shed
on the cross of Calvary to put away my sins. The bandage is
His righteousness imputed. That's not just speaking that
it's an outward thing or a covering thing, but what I'm saying is
you're justified in Him. Stand before God, holy and righteous. As He is, so are we in this world.
So that's one of the blessings. And then a peace and truth. And
then he says in verse 7, I will cause the captivity of Judah
and the captivity of Israel to return and will build them as
at the first. Here's liberty for the captives.
We read that over in Isaiah 61. He said he's going to proclaim
liberty to the captives in the opening of the prison to them
that are bound. Set free. Christ sets his people
free in two ways. Number one, it's freedom from
condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ. How did he accomplish that? He
was condemned himself in our place. That's how he accomplished. He was made sin for us. Christ who knew no sin. He was
made a curse for us. He came under the judgment of
the law. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. That's how he did it. Our substitute.
Our surety. Our sin bearer. Our sin offering. Our lamb. Our sacrifice. That's how he did it. He's the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Christ
is our righteousness. We're free from condemnation.
We cannot be condemned. We cannot be charged with our
sin. What liberty that is! And I'll
tell you, we don't realize that enough. We don't realize the
reality and the glory of that enough. I hear some men talking
about how that's a fake one or some kind of illegal. They don't
know what they're talking about. I'm telling you. Listen, stand
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and
be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage, works-based
religion, trying to work your way out of condemnation and work
your way into God's favor. It won't work. Works won't work. That's what he's saying. But
He sets us free. That's what he's saying. I'll
cause the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem and Israel to return.
And then secondly, He sets us free in the way of regeneration. That's a freedom. He speaks here
of the building of the church. He's going to build His church
here in Jeremiah 33. You know, that's the work of
Christ. But He sets us free from condemnation, and then He sets
us free from death and darkness. How does He do it? He sends His
Spirit to impart spiritual life to our deadness. We're literally
resurrected from the dead spiritually. Now what it is? You know, when
you were born again, and you didn't even know, and I didn't
know until we came to know and believe in Christ, you were resurrected
from the dead in a spiritual way. That's freedom. Freedom
from the grave. and resurrected or freed from
darkness. Because before God revealed Himself
to us by the power of His Spirit under the preaching of the Gospel,
what were we in? We were in spiritual darkness.
Blinded. Satan blinded the minds of them
which believed not, lest the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God should shine in unto them. That's liberty. Liberty. That's a liberation. And that's
how he builds his church. Over in the book of Isaiah 64,
Isaiah prophesied about that. He said, they shall build the
old waste, they shall raise up former desolations, and they
shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.
Now how are we going to do that? Preaching Christ, the builder
of the church. He told his disciples, upon this
rock I'll build my church. The gates of hell will not prevail
against it. Look at verse 8. He said, I will cleanse them
from all their iniquity. Wow. I will cleanse them from
all their iniquity whereby they have sinned against me. I will
pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned and whereby
they have transgressed against me. Now why was that not done
under the old covenant? Did you hear what he's saying
there? What's happening to Judah here? Well, they're being sent
into captivity. They're being punished for their
iniquity. as a nation under the terms of the old covenant, that
works-based conditional covenant towards the sinner. Here he says,
I will cleanse them from all their iniquity. He didn't say
now I'm going to save them because they're a group of better people
or they're a class of people who are just not as stubborn
as this bunch here. That's not what he says because
that's not true. We're not a better class of people
than those who are going into captivity here. We're just as
sinful and wretched by nature as they. But he says, now I'm going to
cleanse them from all their iniquity whereby with they have sinned
against me, and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby
they have sinned and whereby they have transgressed against
me. Now why didn't he do that under the old covenant? I'll
tell you why. Because the blood of bulls and goats can never
take away sin. That's why. There was no satisfaction to
God's law and justice under that old covenant. There was a picture
now, don't get me wrong, there's a picture there, a type, but
that covenant in and of itself could never take away sin. That
high priesthood, that priesthood and that high priest going into
the to the holiest of all, one day a year with the blood of
an animal. That was a picture, that was a type, but that could
never make the comers thereunto perfect to where they have no
more conscience of sin, guilt of sin. You see that? It did accomplish the purpose
for which God sent it, to separate that nation in a physical ceremonial
way, but it could not take away sin. Only one thing that can
do that, and that's the blood of the Lamb of God. That's the
righteousness of Christ. He's talking about free, full,
unearned, unmerited forgiveness of all my sins. Can you get hold
of that? Can I get hold of that? Christ
paying my debt to law and justice. That's how He's going to cleanse
us. By the blood of Jesus Christ. Righteousness established. Righteousness
that we can't even begin to get started to fulfill in any way
whatsoever. All of our vain attempts to make
ourselves righteous before God leave us in the negative. Did
you know that? They drive us farther away from
God. But here He speaks of a righteousness
established by the Son of God Himself, who is the Lord our
righteousness. These are blessings of the New
Covenant. Now, what he said, I'll cleanse you. Over in Isaiah
61, he talked about appointing unto them that morning sun to
give unto them beauty for ashes. You know what those ashes are?
That's our best. You know what our beauty is?
It's Christ. Oil for joy. The oil of joy for mourning.
He says, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
that they might be called trees of righteousness. Trees of righteousness. That's
what he calls us. Trees of righteousness. I don't even feel like a tree,
let alone righteousness. How about you? I feel like the
least good strong wind comes along and blows me over. But
he says a tree of righteousness. That's something that cannot
be uprooted. That's what he's talking about
there You're not talking about a little twig. He's talking about
a tree And this is what he said. This is Isaiah 64 in verse 3
trees of righteousness the planting of the Lord That he might be glorified he
planted you see what God plants can't be plucked up now what
man plants will be plucked up I tell you what, any church that
man builds will be destroyed. But the church that Christ builds
cannot be destroyed. That's what he said. What does
God do here in the salvation of a sinner? He justifies the
ungodly. He has mercy upon those who don't
deserve mercy, for mercy cannot be deserved. Here he talks about,
do you know, in verse 8, Mark this down. It's just good for
your study. Every Old Testament word for sin is used here. He
said, I'll cleanse them from their iniquity. You know what
iniquity is? That's inequity. That's the judgment. What that's referring to is God
judges. God judges and His judgment is based on equity. And if you
don't measure up, if it doesn't balance out, what do you deserve?
Eternal death. And that's us by nature. That's
man presenting his best to God. It's iniquity. Well, how's it
going to balance out? How in the world can I balance
out on that scale of righteousness only to be found in Christ? Not
having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ. And then he says, whereby
they have sinned against me. That's missing the mark. No matter
how high we try to go, no matter how high we try to shoot, we
miss the mark. We'll never measure up. We'll
always miss it. Do everything you can do all
your life, from the first breath you take to the last, and you
will not make it. You will not measure up. You
will not hit the mark. That's why you need a Savior.
That's why you need the righteousness of God. That's why we need mercy
and grace. And then he says, pardon iniquities,
the same word, whereby they have sinned, same word, and whereby
they have transgressed against me. That's rebellion. Not only
man does not measure up, doesn't balance out, not only does he
miss the mark, but he rebels against the only right way to
do so. Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Now what's God saying here? In Christ, He's going to cleanse
us from the iniquity. He's going to pardon the iniquity
and our sin and our transgressions. It doesn't look to me like He's
waiting for a better class of people here. How about you? It
looks to me exactly what Paul said so simply when he was writing
to Timothy. When he said, Timothy, this is
a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation. Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Aren't you
glad that Jesus Christ came to save sinners? But he had to do
it now in a way that honors and justifies God in doing so. That's
why he had to be called the Lord, our righteousness. Let's sing,
Look to the Lamb of God. Hymn number 216 is our closing
hymn. Look to the Lamb of God.