Alright, let's look back at Jeremiah
31. Now tonight I want to basically
just read through these first nine verses and talk to you a
little bit about the sovereign power of God's love. The sovereign power of God's
love. What I do when I study, read
and I study the Scriptures, to prepare a message. I try to seek
the Lord's will in prayer and study and reading to see what
the Lord would have for us. What He would have me to emphasize
and to preach. I try to develop some sort of
a plan. Sometimes those plans work and
sometimes they don't. But I want you to bear with me
as I go through chapter 31. Forty verses here. The portion of Scripture, as
I've told you since we started back in Jeremiah 30, these chapters
here, chapters 30 through 33, are sort of an interlude of comfort
and assurance pointing the people of Judah to Christ, the coming
Messiah, the future. Showing them that while they're
in captivity, they're not to give up hope and not to come
to despair because God still saves His people. from their
sins. And as we read in Romans chapter
8, the Apostle Paul wrote, nothing can separate the true people
of God, His spiritual Israel, His elect, from the love of God
in Christ. Not even being captive in Babylon
can separate you from the love of God. Whatever you're going
through in your life, if you're a true child of God, rest assured
it cannot and will not separate you from the sovereign power
of God's love in Christ. And so, I want to deal justly
and rightly with these verses. So, what I want to do tonight
is just sort of read through and comment on each of these
verses because they're full of symbolism. And then I want to
come back in the next message and preach one whole message
on verse 3, on the everlasting love of God. And I want us to
go into a little bit more detail on what the Bible says about
God's love. Probably, more than any other
subject, you might say faith, but you could take those two
subjects today, in religion, that comes in the name of Christianity,
and you could say faith and love are most, most misunderstood
and misguided and misspoken. And so I want to deal with that.
But again, here's the book of Consolation. And Jeremiah is
prophesying here of the New Covenant. And we'll see that in glaring
technicolor in verses 31 through 34 of this chapter. When he openly
speaks of the New Covenant. But what he's dealing with here
in the first verses are New Covenant blessings that can be fulfilled
eternally and spiritually only in Christ. These blessings that
he is talking about here, which we see in all these symbols that
we are going to talk about, were never fully, finally, ultimately
and eternally fulfilled in the nation Israel, the physical nation. And I don't believe they ever
will be in the physical nation. I believe what he is talking
about here is eternal life and salvation that comes to undeserving
sinners by God's grace through Jesus Christ the Lord. Now the
nation Israel in many ways typified these blessings, in many ways
they didn't. But all these blessings are conditioned
upon one thing and that is the sovereign power of God's love
in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. None of them are conditioned
on us. If they were, they would fail. If they were, there'd certainly
be no security of salvation and there'd be no assurance except
for the assurance that they all would fail if they were conditioned
on us. And that's why it's so important
that we understand the reality of the sovereign power of God's
love. All the blessings and all the
benefits listed here are the result of God's sovereign, powerful
love to His chosen people in Christ. And it starts off that
way. Look at verse 1. At the same
time, now the same time that he's talking about here is the
day that he'd already mentioned. The day that's coming. He mentions
it again down into this verse when he speaks of the day of
the gospel. The day of the new covenant.
And he says, at the same time saith the Lord, there's the covenant
God now, that's the name Jehovah, Or as some translations put it,
Yahweh, that's okay. But that's covenant God, the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So God is speaking in His identity
as the one who saves sinners by grace, through covenant love. And He says, will I be the God
of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.
And this is that love language. His people here. My people, He
says. Who are God's people? Well, that's
His church. That's the ones He chose before
the foundation of the world in covenant love. That's the one
whom Christ would, in Jeremiah's time, whom Christ would come
and redeem. In our time, it's the ones whom
He has redeemed. We were fallen in Adam, ruined
by the fall, but we've been redeemed by the blood of Christ. And that
blood is the condition that was met by Christ according to the
love of God. And then where the church is
the ones who are called out by the Holy Spirit, the new birth,
regenerated and converted. So he's speaking of God's elect.
Now, it could be here that he's specifying for the people of
his day, God's elect among the Jews, and that's okay. God has
a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue and nation. Nothing
wrong with giving comfort to Jewish believers, isn't that
right? Nothing wrong with giving comfort to Gentile believers,
but it includes his elect out of the Gentiles too, because
I believe you can trace this back to the promises that he
made to Abraham. Let me read you the first promise
of the covenant that God gave to Abraham after he brought him
out of the year of the Chaldees. It's in Genesis chapter 12 and
verse 2. I'll just read it to you. And
what he tells Abraham is this, and I want you to notice that
what he says here is not conditioned on Abraham. You see, Abraham
is a classic example, according to the Bible, of God justifying
who? The ungodly. Those who don't
deserve to be justified. Those who haven't earned it.
And he says in Genesis 12 and verse 2, he said, I will make
of thee, Abraham, a great nation, and I will bless thee and make
thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And in verse 3
he says, I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that
curseth thee, And then he says this, and there's a little colon
after that, which means that what he's going to do is explain
what he's talking about. And he says in verse 3, he says,
and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Now,
who are the people of God? Well, over in Galatians chapter
3, the Apostle Paul, we could spend a lot of time right here.
I've preached so many messages on this. Whenever one of these
messages gets out on television or it comes on sermon, I get
a lot of response from it. Because people just don't want
to accept, I believe, the truth of the scripture. But listen
to what the Bible says in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 26. He says,
for you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Now who are the children of God?
Those who by God's grace believe in Christ Jesus. He says, for
as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, that is placed into
Christ, united to Christ, have done what? You've put on Christ. Now to put on Christ is a way
of simply saying you've believed in Him, you've laid hold of Him.
You wear him as a garment, that doesn't mean this isn't a heart
work or just something outside, but it's just a way of describing
saving faith. You believe in Christ, you rest
in Christ. And he says in that, verse 28,
there's neither Jew nor Greek. That means Gentile, there's neither,
it was a Greek world back then. In that, there's neither Jew
or Gentile. He says, there's neither bond nor free, there's
neither male nor female. See, those distinctions mean
nothing as to whether or not you're a child of God. There's
only one thing that means anything, and that's Christ. Are you in
Christ? And he says, for you are all
one in Christ Jesus, and if you be Christ, now that's a possessive.
It means this, if you belong to Christ, then are you what? Abraham's seed, Abraham's child,
and heirs according to promise. That's a child of God. So, that
settles it. To me, there is nothing else.
He says, my people. And look back at Jeremiah 31.
Now this goes back to verse 22 of chapter 30. Where he says,
and you shall be my people and I will be your God. That's like
a wedding union. God uniting himself to his people. Christ the bridegroom, his church
the bride. And there is a union there. It
will be described even more in chapter 31. Look at verse 2.
He says, Thus saith the Lord, chapter 31 verse 2, Thus saith
the Lord, the people which were left to the sword found grace
in the wilderness, even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.
Now, first of all, he says, what did they find? They found grace. And what he is talking about
is how God deals with people. in His covenant. He deals with
them in grace. There's no mention in any verse
of the scripture within the boundaries of the covenant of grace, the
covenant of mercy, the covenant of love, that God deals with
His people on any basis of merit. It's not there. In other words,
God never puts Himself in a position where He owes us anything. What God owes, He owes to Himself. Because He's God. When God swears
an oath, who does He swear by? He doesn't swear by you. He doesn't
swear by me. He doesn't swear by the church.
He swears by Himself. He owes it to Himself. He gets
the glory, you see. And there's no mention of merit
here. In fact, they find grace. God deals with His people not
by merit, but by grace. And what he says, look at what
he says, the people that were left of the sword, in other words,
they didn't fall under the sword. In other words, they didn't get
what they deserved. Remember those who, back here
in Jeremiah's day, those who stayed in Jerusalem, God said,
you're gonna fall by the sword, you're gonna get what you deserve.
But those who left and went to Babylon, as God commanded them,
they submitted to God. And that's a picture of salvation,
of repentance, taking sides with ourselves against God. And he
says he withheld what they deserved, those who left by the sword.
They found grace in the wilderness. And of course, you can see there's
a reference back to the Hebrew children coming out of Egypt
and in the wilderness. All right? They weren't slain
by Pharaoh and his army. And they found grace in the wilderness,
even Israel. And when I went to cause him
to rest, he gave them rest. In other words, he gave them
what they didn't deserve. And that rest is a picture of
salvation in Christ. It's a picture of our salvation
by God's grace in Christ who is our rest. So this is all about
grace now. When I read that, the first thing
that popped into my mind was, no, I found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Let me tell you something, if
you're a sinner saved by grace, you found it. And you weren't
even looking for it. Isn't that right? You weren't
looking for it. I didn't even know what grace
was until I found grace. I didn't even seek the Lord until
he sought me. And so he says in verse three,
the Lord hath appeared of old unto me. That's eternal language. Saying, yea, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love. That's not just love into the
future. That's eternal love. What he's
talking about here is love that has no beginning, no end, and
it never changes nor diminishes. It cannot be taken away. He says,
therefore. Now, look at it. If God has loved
you with an everlasting love, what's the result? Therefore,
with loving kindness, have I drawn thee. Just like drawing water
out of the well. Just like throwing out the dragnet
and drawing the fishes in from the sea. What is he saying here? This is everlasting love. Salvation
is the product and fruit of God's sovereign, everlasting, powerful,
covenant love that ensures the salvation and eternal well-being
of all its objects. If He loved you, If He loves
you, He's going to draw you. That's what He's saying. You
see, this is God's eternal love for His elect in Christ. It's
not that weak, well-intentioned love that most speak of today
when they say to all without exception and without distinction
indiscriminately, smile, God loves you, or God loves you and
has a wonderful plan for your life. I don't know if God loves
you and has a wonderful plan for your life or not. I know
this, if you're in Christ, He loves you and He has a wonderful
plan for your life. That's all we can say. It's not
the love whereby God wants to and is trying to save you but
cannot or will not because you won't cooperate of your own free
will and bow to Him. That kind of love wouldn't save
any sinner, according to the scripture now. You see, that
reduces God's love to a mere sentiment patterned after human
emotion. And here's the thing, for people
to imagine that God does not love everyone without exception,
they say, well, that's just unjust and unfair. Now, you know why
people think that way? Why would anybody say, well,
the fact that God does not love everybody is unjust and unfair?
I'll tell you exactly why they think that way. It's because
by nature, we all think we deserve God's love. But you know what
the Bible teaches? That none of us deserve or can
earn God's love. That's what this book teaches.
You see, this is love that never changes, never diminishes. This
love was always and is always unearned and undeserved. It's
unconditional love towards the sinner. When the Bible speaks
of God foreknowing, his foreknowledge of his people, you could just
as well say he foreloved them. And it's not on the basis of
foreseen faith, because that wouldn't be unconditional love.
That wouldn't be covenant love. He says, yea, I've loved thee
with an everlasting love, therefore, with loving kindness, and that's
God's loving kindness as revealed in the gospel of Christ, have
I drawn thee. I've drawn thee. Christ said no man can come to
me except the Father which hath sent me draw him. Now here's
the question we need to consider as individuals. Have I been drawn
to Christ? Now you're going to be drawn
to something in your lifetime. Whatever it is, you'll be drawn
to a lot of things. But when it comes to salvation and acceptance
with God and blessing from God and eternal life and glory, To
whom or to where or to what have you been drawn? You might have
been drawn to religion, drawn to Christ, or drawn to the baptismal
book, but have you been drawn to Christ and Him alone? Have you been drawn by the grace
of God? Let me tell you something, if you've truly been drawn to
Christ as the Lord your righteousness, through the blood of the covenant,
to wash away all your sins and justify you before. If you've
truly been drawn to Christ as he's identified and distinguished
here, you've been drawn by sovereign love and grace. Because you wouldn't
come to that on your own. None of us would. It's what this
book teaches. Well, as I said, I'm going to
preach a whole message on that verse, so let's move on. Look
at verse 4. He says, and again I will build thee, and thou shalt
be built, O virgin of Israel. Thou shalt again be adorned with
thy tabrets. Those are like symbols. They
might be small symbols like on their fingers or something. You've
seen those. And shalt go forth in the dances of them that make
merry. Now, first of all, the word built.
Well, we've already seen in chapter 30 Christ the great builder.
Remember we saw Christ as he is identified and distinguished
as the great physician, the great builder, and the great liberator.
He said, the church is the building of the Lord. Upon this rock,
I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail
against it. And then he uses another symbol,
O Virgin of Israel. Now, what is this virgin? Who
is this virgin? Well, it's not the physical nation
of Israel because they have already adulterated themselves. That's
why they're in captivity. And you might say, well, who
could it be talking about? Because virginity means purity. That's what it's talking about.
And here, what he's talking about is spiritual purity. Well, turn
in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. 2 Corinthians chapter
11. Now, what he's talking about,
this virgin, is his bride, his church. That's who he's talking
about. Made spiritually pure in Christ. And that's really the only purity
we can talk about now and be honest. I mean, you think about
that. Sunday we were talking about
the pure heart. Well, the pure heart is the heart cleansed by
the blood of Christ. It's not a heart that has no
impure thoughts because we all have impure thoughts. Now be
honest. That's what conviction of sin
is all about. That's why we have a warfare within. So where is
our purity? It's in Christ. That's right. I wear the robe of His righteousness.
I'm cleansed in His blood. And that's what, look at Paul
here in verse 2 of 2 Corinthians 11. He says, For I am jealous
over you with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one
husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. You see, this is speaking of
purity in Christ and loyalty to Christ as our husband. We
have no other husband but Christ. Look over at Romans chapter 7. And listen, you know what we're
doing here, don't you? We're looking at the Old Testament
through New Testament eyes, aren't we? But you know, there's enough
passages in the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms, that
can prove this without a doubt. But look at Romans 7 and verse
4. He says, wherefore, my brethren,
you are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. That means
dead to the law's charges. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputes not a name. The law can't charge you. And
the law cannot condemn you. That's what it means to be dead
to the law. The law cannot hold anything against the children
of God. Now why? Because of the body
of Christ. Christ died as our substitute,
as our surety, as our sin offering, our sin bearer. Our Lamb sacrificed. He satisfied justice. He paid
the debt in full. Our sins imputed to Him. His
righteousness is imputed to us. And we wear it like the wedding
garment. We'll get to that in just a moment. He says, that
you should be married to another, even him who's raised from the
dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. See, we're married
to Christ. And that's what this virgin is
back here. Virgin of Israel. Look back at verse 4. Jeremiah
31. He says, Thou shalt again be
adorned with thy tabrets, thy symbols, and shalt go forth in
the dances of them that make merry. You know what's going
on here? It's like a wedding feast. A virgin. A young woman of marriageable
age, as the scholars would say. That's right. That's his bride. And she's adorned in the wedding
garment of Christ's robe of righteousness imputed to her. We have a wedding
garment. And the graces of the Holy Spirit
in the new birth bringing her to do what? To rejoice. Joy and
peace in believing. She's dancing. She's making Mary. Why? Because of her husband. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. And
that's what we're doing. This is a wedding feast. Look
at verse 5. Here's the next symbol. He says,
Thou shalt yet plant vines. A vineyard here. upon the mountains
of Samaria of all places. That was the capital of the northern
kingdom. And you know what? You know how people looked at
Samaria when the Lord arrived on the scene in his earthly ministry? How did they look at Samaria?
The Samaritans, they were the most hated people. They were
the half-breeds. They were the mixed bloods. And he says, upon
the mountains of Samaria. And he says, the planters plant
and shall eat them as common things. Now the vine, the vineyard,
is a symbol of fruitfulness. The fruit of the vine. And it's
the fruitfulness of the gospel ministry in Christ. There's going
to be some fruit here. And not only to the Jews in Judea,
but to Gentiles, even Samaritans. Christ said in John chapter 4
and verse 4, or it was said of Him, He must needs go through
Samaria. Why in the world does he have
to go through Samaria? There's some fruit there. An
old adulterous woman at the well. And he met her. He had to go
get her. He said in John 10 and verse
16, he said, other sheep I have which are not of this foe, this
Jewish foe, them also, he said, I must bring. He's gonna buy
them and pay for them. And they shall hear my voice,
and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. You see that? The
mountains of... Even Gentiles like that. Even
the worst of the worst. Christ Jesus came into the world
to say what? Sinners. Real sinners now. Not
just those who are less perfect than the others. He came into
the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. He shall save
his people from their sins. And it goes on, it says, the
planters shall plant and shall eat as the common things. These
planters partake of the blessings of God's grace in Christ. Those
are the witnesses of the gospel. Those are those who preach Christ,
testify of Christ. Not just the man standing behind
the pulpit, but the church too. You're witnesses. And you'll
eat of those fruits too. You see, we're all partaking
of the fruits of God's sovereign, powerful, loving Christ. That's
what we're doing, salvation and all the blessings of it. And
notice he says here, they shall eat them as common things. Now
you may have in your concordance that word eat or eat them as
common things. You may have the word profane
there. What I believe in looking this
up, Back in Leviticus chapter 19, talking about the vineyard
and the vines and eating as common things. What that means is they'll eat
them all year round and it won't be unlawful for them to do so.
That's all the blessings and the benefits of the sovereign,
powerful love of God in Christ. the benefits of what Christ has
accomplished for us and given to us spiritually, we can partake
of those benefits and those blessings all year long, all the time,
and it's not unlawful for us to do so. Like those things common,
not meaning those things that are ordinary, but those things
that we can partake of all the time. And the reference is back
here, I believe, in Leviticus chapter 19 verse 23. since it's a vineyard. And listen
to what he says here in verse 23. This is under the Old Covenant
law now. It says, when you shall come into the land and shall
have planted all manner of trees for food, and that includes vineyards,
then you shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised. Now what does that mean? It means
unclean. Here you plant a vineyard or you plant a tree and it says,
You shall count the fruit as uncircumcised, as unclean, for
how long? It says three years shall it
be uncircumcised unto you. In other words, that fruit, when
you plant that vineyard, or you plant that tree and that fruit
comes out, you're to count that as being unclean for three years. Now that's what he commanded
them to do when they come into the land and they planted those
things. And actually, there was nothing impure about the fruit
of it, but they were to count it that way. That's how they
were to think of it. That's the assessment they were making.
Why? Because God said so. And then it says here, he says,
you shall count three years it shall be uncircumcised or uncleaned
unto you. It shall not be eaten of. You
can't eat it. Like the common fruit, like the
fruit you eat every day. You can't eat that fruit that
way. And then he says, but in the fourth year, all the fruit
thereof shall be holy to praise the Lord with all. Now what that
means, in the fourth year of the growth of that fruit, it
was all to be given as a thank offering to God, like the first
fruit. Now there was nothing inherently
holy about the fruit, but they were to count it that way because
God said so in the fourth year. And then it says in verse 25,
and in the fifth year, you shall eat of the fruit thereof, that
it may yield unto you the increase thereof. I'm the Lord your God.
You can eat it in the fifth year. That's what I believe this reference
is to. Now, I personally do not believe that anything is in the
word of God at random or by accident. I believe it's for a purpose.
I know what the numbers of the Bible stand for. Somebody said,
well, why three years? Counted unclean for three years.
You say, well, how many days did it take our Lord as he was
counted unclean? He wasn't unclean in himself
now, but he was imputed with our sin. How many days did it
take him to cleanse us from our sin? Three days. And he arose
on the third day. And then what about the number
four? Well, the number four is the number of the earth. North,
south, east, west. Who did he do it for? For God's
people all over the world. God has an elect people all over
the world. And then you have the number
five. That's the number of grace because it's for earth. And what did it take to save
the earth? Save God's elect one, Christ. Five is the number of
grace. The fifth day they could eat.
Now that's what it's all about. I don't think we're reading too
much into it to say that. But go back to Jeremiah 31. What's
the point of the whole thing? Will you agree with me or not
on all that? Here's the point of it. We have an abundance of
the blessings of all of salvation in Christ and there's nothing
that hinders us from partaking of those blessings. There's no
law that can stop us. Sin cannot stop us. That's been
taken care of. Sin has been put away. Christ
died for our sins. And out of His death comes our
life. We're righteous in God's sight through Him. And we have
a right to partake of all the goodness of the vine. Christ
said, I'm the vine. You're the branches. You'll bear
fruit. Look back at Jeremiah 31. Look at verse 6. Now he says
in verse 6, there shall be a day. Now there's the symbol of a day.
That's the coming day. That's the entire gospel age. And he says that the watchmen
upon the mountain. Now watchmen are God's ministers. God's preachers. Watchmen in
the tower. The watchmen upon the wall. We're
entrusted with the responsibility of watching for our souls. And
that's why we should be so careful in how we deal with the Word
of God and how we deal with the people of God. And he says that
the watchman upon the Mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye and let us
go up to Zion unto the Lord our God. Here during this gospel
age, God's preachers preaching the gospel, calling people, calling
the people of God unto God in Christ. The whole gospel age
that day It's called a day because it's made so by the rising of
the Son of Righteousness. That's when the day begins, isn't
it? When the Son comes up. Well, when the Son of Righteousness
comes up, when Christ comes on the scene. It's when this day
begins. And then when Christ who is our
light and the light of the Gospel breaks forth in a glorious, powerful
way, as it is given by the sovereign power of God's love, And it'll
be a clear and powerful day. And you know what happened? Many Jews would be converted
and then many Gentiles. To the Jew first and to the Greek
also. And what is Zion here? Zion is
the church. It's the mountain of the Lord
fixed upon Christ. That's it. Come to Zion. They'll
be called into the fold. Not only the lost sheep of the
house of Israel, they will be, but the lost sheep of the Gentiles
too. And they'll be called into the fold. And then look at verse
7. He says, For thus saith the Lord, sing with gladness for
Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations, publish ye, praise
ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.
There's Jacob. He's a symbol. Hit me. Sinner
saved by grace. I'm the Lord, I change not. Therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Aren't you glad you're a son
of Jacob? Sons of Jacob won't be consumed. They are not just
sinners. Jacob was a sinner. But it is
not just sinners, Jacob. It is sinners saved by grace.
Their name has been changed. Our name has been changed to
Israel. Those who have prevailed with the Lord. How do you prevail
with the Lord? By pleading the blood and righteousness
of Christ. And then he says the remnant
of Israel. Who is Jacob? Who is the remnant of Israel?
It is the remnant according to the election of grace. That is
God's elect in Christ. That's who he's talking about.
And all of that, shout among the chief of the nations, the
most prominent of all nations, whoever it is, it doesn't matter,
God's people, the remnant of Israel will be brought into the
fold. Isn't that a blessing? And then in verse 8, he says,
Behold, I will bring them from the north country. That could
be Babylon, but it could also refer to the Gentiles. and gather
them from the coast of the earth, definitely referring to the Gentiles.
And with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and
her that travaileth with child together, a great company shall
return thither. Bring them and gather them. This
is the effectual, invincible calling of the Holy Spirit in
the preaching of the gospel. And the blind and the lame and
the woman with child, what is he talking about? It doesn't
matter what condition we are in, by nature we are dead spiritually
in trespasses and sins, aren't we? We can't see and we can't
walk spiritually. That's why Christ said you must
be born again or you cannot see the kingdom of God. You must
be born again or you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Dead spiritually. No desire to come to God. Blind,
lame. Like a woman in travailing with
childbirth. Something better is coming. That
is what he is saying there with the woman in childbirth. Christ
came to give sight to the blind. To make the lame walk. To raise
the dead. All of that, you see. Now when
does that happen? When the Holy Spirit comes in
power according to the sovereign power of God's love and brings
us to Christ. And look at verse 9. Here it
is. They shall come with weeping and with supplications. Will
I lead them? They're going to come crying
and begging. That's what that means. Remember the old publican? God be merciful to me the sinner.
That's what he was doing. He was crying over his sinner.
Blessed are they who mourn. They'll be comforted. And they'll
be begging, God be merciful to me the sinner. That's the supplication. It says favors there. Well, that's right. We want God
to favor us. God be merciful. God be gracious to me. I don't
have any claim upon you. I don't have anything to recommend
me to you. I don't deserve the least of
your blessings. I haven't earned them. All I
can do is weep and cry and beg. A mercy beggar. That's what I
am. And it says, he says, and that's
the way I'll lead them, he says. What's he talking about? He's
talking about true conversion here. He's talking about repentance,
heart conviction. He's talking about the broken
and contrite heart. And listen to what he says there.
Here's how it's going to work itself out. Here's how it's going
to be brought out. I will cause them. to walk by
the rivers of water in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble."
Do you see that? Zechariah, the prophet, he said this. Zechariah 12 and
verse 10, he said, I will pour on the house of David and on
the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications. And they shall look on me whom
they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for
his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that
is in bitterness for his firstborn." You see, this whole thing is
going to be viewed as it relates to Christ and His death on that
cross. Because if you want to see the
greatest sovereign power of God's love for His people, You just
look at that cross. You look at the one hanging on
that cross. Saying, Father, forgive them.
They don't know what they do. Saying, it is finished. What
power. The power of the blood. The power of righteousness established. The power of the cross. And He
said, they'll go by rivers of waters. Blessed are those who
hunger and thirst after righteousness. They'll be filled. He's the fountain. Come to the
fountain of water of life freely. He that is a thirst, whosoever
will, anybody that wants it, let him take of the water of
life freely. There is a river, the psalmist wrote. Well, here
it is. It's Christ. And in a straight
way, that's the right way. That's the way of Christ. It's
a smooth way. It's an uncluttered way. It's
not cluttered up with our works and our religion and our experience.
It's Christ and Him alone. His blood alone, His righteousness
alone. I'm the way, the truth, and the
life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. It's a new
and living way, not a dead way. Any way we go by our own and
of our own will, by our own works, is a dead way. This is a new
and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, the way to
God. And then He says, wherein they
shall not stumble. There's no losing salvation here.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. There's
no stumbling here. There's nothing to trip us up.
It's a clear way. It's a perfect way. It's a paved way. You know the
Old Testament says that? I forget where. I'd have to go
back and look it up. I think it was one of the minor prophets. Like
a paved road. And here's the conclusion of
these blessings, for I am a father to Israel and Ephraim is my firstborn. Now Ephraim there, that could
be the 10 tribes no longer severed from Judah, in which he might
be emphasizing here a united kingdom under Christ. The reference
could go back to Joseph, whose younger son Ephraim, remember
Ephraim and Manasseh when he brought him to Jacob? And Ephraim
was preferred to Manasseh, and Manasseh was the elder. This
is in Genesis 48. Ephraim was preferred. And that
proves that God's sovereign love and choice of his people, it's
his choice, God's choice, not ours. The elder shall serve the
younger. Remember Jacob and Esau. It simply could be another way
of referring to the whole body of the Jewish nation, representing
God's spiritual Israel. But I'll tell you exactly what,
it's certainly a reference of the security that God's people
in Christ have of the sovereign power of His love in Christ to
save us and to keep us.