That was special, wasn't it? Thank you so much. Thank the
Lord for Alan and Gail and Jessica, the whole family. Thank God for
you that you're our brother and our sisters in Christ and that
the Lord has given you the message of his gospel of grace in Christ
and laid it on your heart to where you can sing from the heart.
And that's our desire. tonight that we worship from
the heart in spirit and in truth. Now let's look back at Jeremiah
32. I hope and pray that tonight's
message will be as special to you as it has been to me in studying
it. I look at passages like this
and when I read and study these passages and it seems the Lord
is pleased out of His sovereign goodness and power to give us
some light. And I just sit back and I think
what a God we have. What a Savior. Hallelujah. You
know that hymn. Hallelujah. What a Savior. And that's what
this is about. I've entitled the message, The
Rite of Redemption. The Rite of Redemption. I've said this in the introduction
as we began back in Jeremiah chapter 30 with this section
of Jeremiah's prophecy, the word of God through the prophet Jeremiah.
That from chapter 30 all the way to chapter 33 is commonly
and I believe correctly labeled by biblical students, the book
of consolation. Because it is so comforting to
read these words. And I could just imagine one
of Christ's little lambs going through the troubles and the
trials that Judah is going through in this time of their history.
And not being able to figure out the providence of God. But
just hearing these words of the prophet of God concerning the
coming of the Messiah. the coming of Christ, that nothing,
nothing will hinder or stop the fulfillment of God's promise
to send Christ into the world for the salvation of His people.
And that's one reason I read this Psalm 111 back here, especially
this verse 9, where it says, He, that is God, sent redemption
to His people And it says, he hath commanded his covenant forever. Holy and reverend is his name.
And that's a special, special revelation. But this is the book
of consolation because it is a book of Christ. And Christ
is the consolation of Israel. The consolation, the comfort,
the assurance and security and peace of spiritual Israel, the
church. the nation of God. The first
two chapters in this book of Consolation, chapters 30 and
31, which we've covered, describe God's new covenant with his people. And what a glorious reality that
is. That none of salvation is conditioned
on sinners. Because if it were, And this
is a great testimony of the old covenant. If it were conditioned
on sinners, it would be failure. It would be failure. But God
has conditioned His new covenant, which, as I've often told you
now, that's the establishment in time, process of time. It's new in time. It's not new
in the purpose and mind of God. It's the everlasting covenant
of grace. But it's the establishment in time and the fulfillment in
time, the accomplishment in time of that everlasting covenant
of grace. But God's new covenant is all
conditioned on Christ. And he will not fail. He will
not fail. Now beginning here in chapter
32, And then really going on over to chapter 33, this passage,
this portion describes a symbolic act that God commanded His prophet
to do, which assures His people of God's fulfillment of those
promises. All the promises of God, Paul
wrote in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 20, are in Him, in Christ,
yea, and in him, amen. And this thing that God, this
strange thing, you know, we, we, this is a strange, one of
God's strange works. God working in mysterious ways,
his wonders to perform. And in this strange act, he assures
the people of God of their future restoration And it would be fulfilled
in a limited sense after they would go into captivity in Babylon. One preacher said Babylonian
concentration camps. That might have been true for
some of them. Tell you what, it wasn't true for Daniel, was
it? But he was in captivity. But it would be fulfilled in
a limited sense after the nation had spent 70 years in captivity
in Babylon. And then they would return to
their their homeland. Verse 15 says that houses and
fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land. But it will be fulfilled in an
eternal sense, in a spiritual sense, in a complete sense only
in the salvation of spiritual Israel in and by the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's what this book is
all about. Look at the first five verses and think about Jeremiah's
situation. Listen to what he's going through.
It says, the word of the Lord, the word that came to Jeremiah
from the Lord in the 10th year of Zedekiah, Zedekiah the king
of Judah, which was the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar. And it
says, for then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem. Now
the enemy is at the gate. That's what's taking place here. The Babylonian army is about
to overtake the city of Jerusalem. They're outside the walls of
Jerusalem. Those walls are going to be coming
down. This is when Nebuchadnezzar's
army overruns Jerusalem and the city is destroyed, the temple
is destroyed. And where's Jeremiah, God's prophet?
It says in verse 2, Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the
court of the prison which was in the king of Judah's house.
He was in the king's prison. So he was in jail. You'd think
that the king would want to hear from the prophet of God. But
he didn't want to hear from him. Look at verse 3. Zedekiah king
of Judah had shut him up, saying, Why do you preach? Why do you
prophesy? That's what that's talking about.
Wherefore dost thou prophesy? Why do you prophesy these words? Saying, Thus saith the Lord,
Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of
Babylon, and he'll take it. Zedekiah king of Judah shall
not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely
be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, The king
won't escape and shall speak with him mouth to mouth. That's
just an old way of saying face to face. This is a face to face
encounter. Zedekiah is going to come face
to face with Nebuchadnezzar. And we learn from the scriptures
in 2 Kings chapter 25 that Zedekiah's family was put to death before
his eyes. And then his eyes were put out,
blinded. And he was taken into exile.
That's what happened. He said, his eyes shall behold
his eyes. He's going to see Nebuchadnezzar,
but it won't be a long sight. Verse 5, and he shall lead Zedekiah
to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him. God's visitation
of wrath upon the king, saith the Lord. And though you fight
with the Chaldeans, now the Chaldeans, that's just another way of referring
to the Babylonians, you shall not prosper. You're not going
to win that battle. So what was happening here? Well,
Jeremiah was in prison for preaching the word of God. Jeremiah was
in jail for telling the truth. Jeremiah would not cry peace
when there was no peace, like those false preachers. Jeremiah
was being persecuted for righteousness sake. Our Lord said, blessed
are you when your men shall persecute you and say all manner of evil
against you and revile you for righteousness sake. The natural
hatred of the natural man, the carnal mind, which is enmity
against God, was coming out in Zedekiah and his court. The Bible
says that man by nature loves darkness and hates light. Man
loves to be cloaked in darkness. His natural flesh loves the comfort,
the false comfort that darkness gives. But the light of Christ
exposes us for what we are. The light of the gospel shows
us what we need and how it's impossible for any of us to be
saved and to have peace with God through any other way but
the way of God's grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. So
here we see it, the gospel message. Will not speak peace where sinners
are either ignorant of or not submitted to Christ. And his
righteousness imputed as the only ground of salvation. This
is why Cain hated Abel. That's why he murdered Abel,
his brother. There is peace for sinners, but
only in Jesus Christ. So Jeremiah, that's what's taking
place here. Remember, Jeremiah told him,
he said, submit to the will of God in this matter. You're a
sinner, you deserve what you're getting. Take sides with God
against yourself. And Zedekiah said, I'm not going
to do it. I'm going to put you in prison. And that's where Jeremiah
was. Well, from verse 6 to verse 15,
here's God's strange work. Here's the commandment of God.
Listen to it. God, it says in verse six, and
Jeremiah said, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, this
is God's commandment now. And he says, behold, Hannah Meal,
the son of Shalom, thine uncle. Now Hannah Meal, therefore, was
Jeremiah's cousin. So Jeremiah's cousin shall come
unto thee, saying, by thee my field, that is in Anathoth, Now
you remember, Anathoth was Jeremiah's hometown. It was northwest or
northeast of Jerusalem. I can't remember which direction,
but it was north of Jerusalem. And it was outside the city walls.
Now understand now, the Babylonian army is about to lay siege to
Jerusalem, so everything that surrounded Jerusalem was where?
It was already in Babylonian hands. It's already been conquered.
Anathoth included. It was already besieged by the
Babylonians, the whole country. And he says, now Jeremiah, your
cousin is going to come to you who lives in Anathoth, who owns
that land, or did own that land. He's going to say, buy my field. That's in Anathoth. And listen
to the next line. For the right of redemption is
thine to buy it. So, verse 8. So Hannah Meal,
mine uncle's son, came to me in the court of the prison according
to the word of the Lord. And said unto me, by my field
I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin,
for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption
is thine, buy it for thyself. Buy it for yourself, Jeremiah.
And Jeremiah said, then I knew that this was the word of the
Lord. Now you think about this. How strange. What a commandment. This doesn't make any sense at
all to us, does it? It doesn't make any sense at
all. The land is already in Babylonian hands. If you think about it,
old Hanamel, he doesn't really own it now. It's been taken away
from him. And Jeremiah is in prison. He says here, look at verse 9,
it says, Jeremiah said, Then I knew that this was the word
of the Lord. And it says in verse 9, And I
bought the field. Jeremiah bought the field. bought it from jail,
the field of Hanamel, my uncle's son, that was in Anathoth and
weighed him the money, even 17 shekels of silver. Now the construction
of this kind of says that this is everything Jeremiah had. He
wasn't rich. He's in prison. And he bought
it for 17 shekels of silver. So Jeremiah purchased and he
paid the price. And then what did he do? Well,
look at verse 10. He said, and I subscribed the evidence. Now that word subscribed, it
says, you may have it in your concordance, it means write it
in a book. And it comes from the Old Testament word where
we get the word scribe from. Somebody records something in
a book. What's happening here? He's making a deed. a title deed
to the land because Jeremiah had the right of redemption and
he paid the redemption price, which was 17 shekels of silver. Silver, you remember, is a symbol
for redemption in the Old Testament. That's the medal of redemption.
And it says he subscribed the evidence, he recorded it in a
deed. And then he sealed it. You know how they did? They had
scrolls and they wrote it all down and then they rolled it
up and then they sealed it. Probably with a waxy material.
But it was sealed. And it says, and he took witnesses.
They had to do it before witnesses. And he weighed him the money
and the balance. It had to be witnessed that this was equal
to the task. That it was equitable. That everything
was done in a just and right and equitable manner. There could
be no cheating here. There could be no, you didn't
give one penny more or one penny less than what the right of ownership
required. So the payment price had to be
equal to what it required. So the money was weighed in the
balances. In verse 11, look at it. He says,
so I took the evidence of the purchase, took the deed. And listen to this, both that
which was sealed, there was another copy made. There was one that
was made that was rolled up and sealed according to the law and
custom. And then there was another deed
that was, it's an exact copy now of the deed, that which was
open. Now the sealed deed represented
ownership. The open document represented
a public declaration. of that ownership. It was open
for everybody to see. It was a public document. But
the sealed document represented the right of ownership. And he
says in verse 12, I gave the evidence, the deed, of the purchase
unto Baruch. Now, Baruch, this is the first
time I think this name has come up, but he's widely known as
Jeremiah's scribe, or Jeremiah's secretary, you might say. He's
the one who recorded the whole book of Lamentations. that was
dictated to him from Jeremiah. This Baruch, the son of Neriah,
the son of Messiah, in the sight of Hananiel, my uncle's son,
that's the one he's buying it from. Remember that word, that
name Hananiel, you know, we saw the tower of Hananiel earlier,
and here's a man named Hananiel, they mean the same thing, God
has favored. The name describes the grace
of God. And it says, and in the presence
of the witnesses that subscribe the book of the purchase before
all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison, the king's
court. Now all of this, this strange
work, here's Jeremiah purchasing it, he paid the price, he confirmed
it legally before witnesses, committed the documents to Baruch,
his scribe, And then later on, look at verse 13, I charge Baruch
before them saying, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of
Israel, take these evidences, take these deeds, this evidence
of the purchase, both which is sealed and the evidence which
is open, and put them in an earthen vessel. What do you think of
when you think of earthen vessel? I think about what old Paul wrote
in 2 Corinthians 4, 7 about the gospel, when he said we have
this treasure in earthen vessels. This was a way of preserving
documents back then. It really was. In fact, you've
heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some of those Dead Sea Scrolls
were found in clay pots, earthen vessels. And that's the way they
would preserve them. And he says that they may continue
many days. For thus saith the Lord God of
hosts, the God who is invincible, the God of a great army that
cannot be defeated, the God of Israel, The God of those who
have prevailed with God. How do you prevail with God?
Through Christ. Houses and fields and vineyards
shall be possessed again in this land. They're coming back. Such
a strange work. Why so strange? Well, as I said,
the Babylonians were laying siege to Jerusalem. Anathoth had already
been seized. The people were going to be exiled.
Why did God command this? Let me give you three reasons. He made this work, he commanded
this work, number one, to assure the people, as I've said before,
that his promise of salvation by his grace through the promised
Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, could not and would not be made
void because of their captivity and not even because of their
sin and punishment. The scepter would not depart
from Judah until Shiloh come. And this was a commandment of
God that sealed that. The giving of the law did not
make God's promise of salvation by grace through Christ of none
effect. The breaking of the law did not
make that promise of none effect. The destruction and punishment
of Israel and Judah, even Jerusalem and the temple did not make that
promise of none effect. It's impossible for God not to
fulfill his word. Great is thy faithfulness and
great is his power. The second reason is that God's
pledge that the scepter would not depart from Judah until the
Messiah came, and Jeremiah's faith in the promise of God was
a testimony to the gift of God, which is His grace and the faith
of His elect. 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. In fact, this is just another,
this is just another episode of the hall of faith, even though
Jeremiah himself is not mentioned in Hebrews 11. But think about
Abraham. God promised Abraham and Sarah
a son. And time went on, time went on,
and they didn't have a son until Abraham and Sarah both were way
past the age of conceiving a child and bearing a child. And yet
the scripture says Abraham believed God. Well, we could just as well
in this little episode say Jeremiah believed God. He believed God. God saves his people and gives
them faith to believe. But now here's the third reason.
I believe this is put in here specifically to provide a picture,
a type, a shadow of that great salvation that God freely provides
by grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Do you
know what you have operating here in this rite of redemption? It's the law of the kinsman-redeemer. That's exactly what it is. The
law of the kinsman-redeemer. That's what that rite of redemption
down here in verse 7 and verse 8 is all about. This was Jeremiah's
family. He was born in Anathol, raised
there. And God said, Hannah Meal, your
uncle, or Hannah Meal, your cousin, the son of your uncle Shalom
is going to come and say, buy my field. I've lost it. I don't have it anymore. I need
a near kinsman. That's described in the book
of Leviticus chapter 25. It's beautifully pictured in
the historical book of Ruth, isn't it? The law of the kinsman
redeemer. And that's what's going on here.
The rite of redemption that's alluded to in these passages
is often called the rite of the goel, g-o-e-l. That's the kinsman
redeemer. It's important to remember for
Jeremiah to accomplish this symbolic act of consolation and hope.
The closer the fall of Jerusalem came to reality, the more Jeremiah's
prophecy turned to the hope of restoration. And boy, what a
beautiful picture this is. What did the kinsman redeemer
have to do? Well, first of all, he had to
be related. He had to be a near kinsman. And what a great picture
this is of Christ, the near kinsman of his people. Turn over to Hebrews
chapter 2 with me. Christ said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. Who was it that God, the Father,
gave to Christ, his Son? Well, look at Hebrews chapter
2. And look at verse 10. Back up
in verse 9, he talks about how Christ should taste death for
every man, or every one, or every son, literally. In verse 10 it
says, For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom
are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory. Who are those
sons? That's God's elect. Chosen in
Christ before the foundation of the world. Sons of God. Now we fell in Adam and we were
overtaken by spiritual Babylon, as it were, just like Anathoth
and its inhabitants. And so we need to be redeemed
from the justice and wrath of almighty God, which we earned
and deserved in Adam and by our own sins. But we're still eternally
speaking as we are considered in Christ called many sons. That's an amazing grace in and
of itself. That we who by nature are so
sinful and rebellious, even enemies of God, are still called the
many sons. And it says to make the captain
of their salvation perfect through suffering. That's not talking
about moral perfection in Christ. That's talking about Christ completing
the work, perfecting the work of redemption through His suffering. What's he doing? He's paying
the silver. He's paying the cost with the
price of his own blood. And he says in verse 11, For
both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all
of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. Christ is the near kinsman of
his people. And you know what? This is an
amazing thing too. He's not ashamed to call us brethren. I think
all the time of families who have family members that they're
ashamed to call brethren for whatever reason. Maybe a right
reason, maybe a wrong reason. But I can assure you that Christ
is not ashamed to call a sinner like me his brother. Now that's
amazing because I've done enough to make him ashamed. That's right. We've all done enough to make
him ashamed. But he's not ashamed. And the reason he says in verse
12, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the
midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. He's going
to declare his name. What's he going to declare? That
he's our kinsman redeemer. He's going to declare through
an open document the preaching of the gospel His right of ownership. A book that only He has the right
to break the seals thereof. And show that ownership. He says
in verse 13, again, I will put my trust in Him and again, behold,
I and the children which God hath given me. You see, He is
our near kinsman. Verse 14, for as much then as
the children are partakers of flesh and blood. Human beings,
sinful human beings. He also likewise took part of
the same. that is flesh and blood yet he
was without sin that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death that is the devil there's the redemption
price his death his blood redeemed with the precious blood of Christ
and deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage just like Anathoth is in bondage to
Babylon we were in bondage to sin and to Satan under the curse
of the law but Christ in His incarnation, in His obedience
and death as our near kinsman. What did He do? He paid the redemption
price. And you know He's the only one
who had the right of redemption. Nobody else had it. For verily
He took not on Him the nature of angels, but He took on Him
the seed of Abraham. There's His kinsman, there's
His brethren, the seed of Abraham. And verse 17, Wherefore in all
things it behooved Him. I've told you that word behooved
is the Greek word for debt. He was indebted to be made like
unto His brethren. It was His obligation. Why? Because He's our near kinsman
and He's willing. The near kinsman had to be willing
to redeem what we've lost. And in our case, it was ourselves,
our very souls. And He paid that debt. That's
what this doctrine of imputation is all about. That Christ took
our debt The wages of sin is death. That's what we deserve.
That's what we owed. And Christ took our debt. He
became accountable for it. He became obligated to it as
a near kinsman who had the right of redemption to pay that debt. And in order to do it, He had
to become man. The Word had to be made flesh
and dwell among us. He had to have a human body and
soul without sin to be qualified to pay that redemption price.
And so it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren that
he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining
to God to make reconciliation or propitiation for the sins
of his people. That's what a near kinsman is.
And back over here in Jeremiah 32, he paid the 17 shekels of
silver. That's all he had. Well, Christ
gave all he had. He gave himself, didn't he? He gave His life as the complete,
full, final payment for all our sins. And it was sealed in a
book, the book of God's wisdom, the book of God's eternal purpose. He was sealed, his right of ownership
from the very beginning before the foundation of the world.
That's why God sent redemption unto His people because He remembers
His covenant forever. This deal was struck between
the Father and the Son before the world ever began. And then He took witnesses. That's
His people and He weighed them in the money and the balances.
Did Christ pay the full price or did He leave some for us to
pay? No, sir. None for us to pay.
His redemption is complete. His work is full. He finished
it. He's the end, the fulfillment
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He
paid every farthing, every penny, everything that God required
for the salvation of sinners, His people, His brethren, was
fully paid, fully filled up, fully finished, perfected and
completed. by the work of Jesus Christ. He didn't do his part, now you
do yours. No sir. If he did, then our part is impossible
and we are lost forever. He paid the full price. It all balances out. It equals
righteousness. Nothing we do, nothing we do
with or without the help of God equals righteousness. Everything
he did equals righteousness. You see the difference? And then
he took that evidence, it says, both the sealed document, the
deed, and the open one. And he gave it to his secretary,
just like he gives it to his church, his preachers. Seals
it in their hearts that they belong to him. We're not our
own. And we publish it out in the preaching of the gospel of
God's grace in Christ. We tell the world that there
is hope. There is salvation for sinners. That Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom we are the chief. And then it
says that all of this was placed in an earthen vessel. That's
his preachers. That's his people. All that he did and all that
he accomplished. He made the lawful purchase of
this inheritance, verse 9 says, for himself. Remember, Hannah
Meal said, for the right of inheritance is thine, the redemption is thine,
buy it for thyself. He didn't buy it for you. He
didn't buy it for me. He bought it for himself. For
the glory of God. The glory of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. And he holds the evidence of
the purchase, the deed of purchase was registered with his own blood
and presented in the holy place before God, proving that we belong
to him. He paid the price. He took our
sins and drank damnation dry. And he made us the righteousness
of God in himself. And the evidence of that purchase
is both sealed and open. sealed in the hearts of His people
by the power of the Holy Spirit and open in the preaching of
the Gospel. Now turn with me to Revelation chapter 5. This
rite of redemption is stated over here in the book
of Revelation in a beautiful way. Revelation 5 and verse 1. John the Apostle He said, I saw
on the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written
within and on the backside sealed with seven seals. I saw a strong
angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who's worthy to open the
book and to loose the seals thereof. For the purposes of our study
tonight, we could ask it this way. Who has the right of redemption?
Who has paid the price? Who has the right of ownership?
Who holds the title deed to this? And he said, no man in heaven.
Now, if I understand the scriptures correctly, those who are in heaven
are already perfectly conformed to the image of Christ in themselves. They don't have their glorified
bodies yet. But they are without sin even
in themselves. But they still don't have the
right of ownership and redemption. You see what I'm saying? And
he says, nor in earth. Well, we can understand that. And neither under the earth.
I believe he's referring to hell itself there. Satan doesn't have
the right of ownership or the right of redemption. In fact,
he has nothing to do with it. Did you know that? Some preachers
act as if when Christ offered Himself up on the cross, He was
offering Himself to Satan. Oh, no. It pleased the Lord to
bruise Him. Satan didn't have anything to
do with it except fighting against it. That's it. But He said, none
of these were able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
And John said, I wept much because no man was found worthy to open
and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the
elders saith unto me, Weep not, behold, The lion of the tribe
of Judah. Remember the scepter will not
depart from Judah until Shiloh come. The root of David. Jeremiah referred to him as David's
son, didn't he? David's greater son. hath prevailed
to open the book and to loose the seven seals therein." There's
the right of redemption right there. There's the right of ownership.
Here's the one who paid the price. Here's the one who holds the
title deed that's sealed. He's the only one who can break
those seals and open it. And he says, and I beheld, and
lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, in the
midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain. There's
the price paid. Having seven horns, seven eyes,
which are the seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the
earth. And he came, and he took the book out of the right hand
of him that sat upon the throne. That's the king. That's God the
Father. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and
four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every
one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are
the prayers of the saints. And they sung a new song, saying,
Thou art worthy. And you remember, what's Jeremiah
talking about? The new covenant. I'll put my law in their hearts,
my spirit, life within. They sung a new song, saying,
Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,
for Thou was slain and has redeemed us to God. by thy blood out of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and has made
us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth."
That's Christ, the Lamb of God. See, all those beautiful pictures
and symbols of Christ that all line up for the rite of redemption,
the kinsman redeemer, who bought us with the purchase price of
his own blood. who's worthy to open the seals
and claim ownership of his people. All right. Hymn number 163. Open my eyes that I may see if
we are closing hymn. 163.