All right let's open our Bibles
to the book of Jeremiah. Chapter twenty seven. Jeremiah twenty seven. The title of the message this
evening is salvation in submission. Salvation in submission. We've read several passages of
scripture so far. in this prophecy where God's
prophet preaching God's word, Jeremiah preaching the word of
God, has told the king of Judah, or the kings that he prophesied
to, several, and the people of Judah, to submit, submit to the
revealed will of God. And that's what this message
is about, because there is salvation in submission and those who refuse
to submit and that's the man that's man by nature we'll see
that in just a moment will be destroyed will perish. So there
is salvation in submission and what that means is this all whom
God brings by his power and by his grace to submit to him and
his way especially his way of salvation by grace in Christ.
are those who are safe from the wrath of God and no other. Let's
begin reading here. Jeremiah in this passage chapter
twenty seven he has three oracle. Now you remember back a few passage
a few chapters ago we talked about that phrase the burden
of the Lord. Some of the false preacher Some
of the ungodly priests of Jerusalem were throwing a criticism at
Jeremiah by calling him the burden of the Lord. And of course, Jeremiah
did have the burden of the Lord. It's the burden of the Word of
God. And that word burden is sometimes translated oracle. Now an oracle, you know what
an oracle is. That's supposed to be a word of wisdom, a word
of knowledge. And this oracle, this burden,
if you will, is a very serious, a very weighty, you might say
a very heavy word of truth that man by nature does not want to
hear. This is a word that we need to
hear, but by nature we don't want to hear. Man would rather
hear the message of false preachers. Jeremiah had to deal with that,
and he's going to deal with it Here in Chapter 27, these false
priests and false prophets who told the people not what they
needed to hear, but what they wanted to hear, and spoke peace
when there was no peace. And that's one of the main marks
of a false preacher who follows in Satan's footsteps, to tell
people that they shall not surely die no matter what. But here
in three oracles, it starts off in this first oracle, it's spoken
to a group ambassadors who had come to Jerusalem in representing
several Gentile nations kings and They had come to confer with
the king of Judah who was Zedekiah at this time He was Zedekiah
was the last king of Judah before the destruction of Judah and
Jerusalem when he was taken when he was conquered and taken to
Babylon Zedekiah and There was another man who was put in his
place as a governor, but not as a king. And then the whole
thing was destroyed. But Zedekiah was the last one.
So listen to the first oracle here. It says, In the beginning
of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah,
came this word unto Jeremiah from the Lord. Now this word
came to Jeremiah several years before he's delivering the message
as recorded here in chapter 27. Joachim was a king who had already
been removed, but the word, this prophecy, was revealed to Jeremiah
back then. And it was for this day, the
day of Zedekiah, remember there was Josiah, he was the last good
or godly king of Judah. And then there was Jehoiaz, he
reigned for about three months, and then he was removed by the
Egyptian Pharaoh. And then there was Jehoiakim.
Jehoiakim he was put in there by that same Egyptian Pharaoh
he reigned for about 11 years and during that time Jeremiah
received this revelation here that he's delivering in the days
of Zedekiah Now sometimes it's awful hard for us to keep up
with the time frame there I know but don't let that confuse you
the message here is the issue not the time But Judah and Jerusalem
is about to be destroyed Well, after Jehoiachin comes Jehoiachin,
who was called Canaan, then Zedekiah. So look at it here. It says,
here's the message, here's the oracle, verse 2. It says, Thus
saith the Lord to me, make thee bonds and yokes, and put them
upon thy neck. Now here's another episode of
a prophet of God who is told to perform a certain action in
order to make a point to give a message and So that's what
he was to do like a yoke, you know, what a yoke is That's what
they put on the oxen the oxen the two oxen that were yoked
together and that yoke at wooden yoke put over their neck to make
them go in the same direction and these bonds were Ropes that
tied that yoke to him. So Jeremiah the prophet God says,
you make a yoke, make bonds and yokes, and you put them on your
neck. And then you go and deliver this
message with that yoke upon your neck. Now, what is the message
of bonds and yokes? Well, the message here is showing
that we're under God's sovereign control. Now, that's what the
message is about. God's in control. God is sovereign. We're his subjects. You see,
we're not our own master. We're not independent from God.
We're under the yoke of God's sovereign control. And so we're
to submit to his sovereign will and sovereign way. What happened
in the garden when Adam fell? He was one. You could describe
it in many different ways. You can talk about unbelief.
You can talk about self-righteousness. But basically, Adam was declaring
his independence from God. Well, the men and that's how
that's how man fell. And basically, the message of
bonds and yokes are, no, we're not independent from God. We're
dependent upon God for everything, even the next breath we take.
So you see, this is a message of submission. So he says, Jeremiah,
you put it on your neck, verse 3. Send them to the king of Edom,
to the king of Moab, and to the king of Ammonites, and the king
of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers
which come to Jerusalem, unto Zedekiah, king of Judah. These
messengers from these kings had come to Zedekiah to form a conspiracy
to say, let's not submit to God's judgment, but let's rebel, and
let's declare our freedom. That's what they wanted to do.
Remember, God had told them, you submit to Nebuchadnezzar,
the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar, this is so interesting. Nebuchadnezzar, as you know,
he was called the servant of God. because he was the instrument
of God's judgment upon Judah and these other nations. Now,
Nebuchadnezzar himself was an ungodly, idolatrous, self-righteous,
proud despot. That's what he was, a tyrant. But God chose him. Listen to
what he says. He says, verse 4, "...command
them to say unto their masters," their kings, these ambassadors,
you go back to your kings, And you say, thus saith the Lord
of hosts," that's God who cannot be defeated, invincible, the
God of Israel, that's the God of the covenant, "'Thus shall
you say unto your masters, I have made the earth,' this is God
speaking now, "'I have made the earth, the man and the beast
that are upon the ground, by my great power,' and he says,
"'by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed
meet unto me.'" I gave this land, this world, to whoever I, I chose,
I thought best to give it to, you see. In other words, it's
what's good in God's sight, what's wise in God's sight. We may look
at providence and things that are going on around us, and we
may say, well, I wouldn't have done it that way. Well, I'm going
to tell you something, that's the way God does it. And he does it what seems best
unto him. And you say, well, there's a
lot wrong in this world. You can't accuse God of sin or
mistake, but God works all things after the counsel of his own
will. God does it in a way that ultimately will honor him, and
ultimately in a way that's consistent with his glory, and ultimately
in a way that's going to be eternally good for all his chosen people. That's the way he does it. At
any given moment in time, it may seem evil to us. It may seem
foolish to us. It may not seem right to us.
And from man's point of view, it may not be. But God works
all things for good to them that love him, who are the called
according to his purpose. And so what he's telling Jeremiah
to tell these ambassadors, go back to your kings and say, look,
this thing is not your call. It's God's call. This thing is
not in your hands. It's in God's hands. My friend,
there's no place that we can see that more glaringly than
in the salvation of sinners. Man wants salvation his way.
Man wants salvation based on his works or his free will, which
in essence is doing the same as Adam, declaring their independence
from God. But God says it's my way or no
way, and his way is the way of grace, sovereign mercy and grace. God saves whom he will in his
way. It's not of him that runneth,
nor of him that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy. He
said, I'll have mercy upon whom I will, and I'll be gracious,
compassionate to whom I will. God's in control. This is God's
call. It's not ours. And it's by grace. It's through Christ. It's based
on his righteousness and not our own. The Bible says twice
in the book of Proverbs, there is a way that seems right unto
a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Well, that's
man's way. But God's way is a way of life.
I love that passage in Isaiah 55, where we're commanded in
verse 6 to seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon
him while he's near. And then he says, let the wicked
forsake his way. That's any other way but God's
way. And the unrighteous man, his thought. That's any other
thought but God's thought. And let him return unto the Lord,
and he'll have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon him." Then he says this, listen to this, Isaiah 55, verse
8, "'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your
ways my ways,' saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts.'" There's no man born of Adam who
could have ever conceived the way of salvation that God has
set forth in and by his beloved son. There's no man or woman
born of Adam who could have ever concocted a way that God could
be both a just God and a Savior. But God did. God has. Look at verse 6. He says, And
now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar,
the king of Babylon. God did this. My servant, he
calls him. Now remember now, Nebuchadnezzar
was an ungodly man. He was an idolatrous man. But
God, out of his wisdom and his power, he decided to give all
this land, these lands, into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.
Nebuchadnezzar was an instrument of God's judgment, and he didn't
even know it. That is, that Nebuchadnezzar
didn't know it. And it says, And the beast of the field have
I given him also to serve him, verse 7, And all nations shall
serve him and his son and his son's son. Now that's his son
and then his grandson. Remember his grandson was Belshazzar. Remember the handwriting on the
wall. And that's when the kingdom was taken away from Nebuchadnezzar's
generation. And he says, until the very time
of his land come. That's the time of his destruction.
In other words, I'm going to give it to him and his son and
his son's son. And then there's going to come
a time I'm going to take it away from him. And God did that. But
he said there's a time that I'm going to judge Nebuchadnezzar
right now. The time has come but I'm going to give it to him.
There's coming a time I'm going to take it away from him. And
he says and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves
of him. In other words there's going
to be he's going to be brought down to submit to them not Nebuchadnezzar
personally but in his line. Kingdom of Babylon is going to
fall. Well, you all know the story about how God brought Nebuchadnezzar
himself down, don't you? You remember that? In Daniel
chapter 4, where Nebuchadnezzar lifted himself up in pride and
declared how great he was, and there was no king, no man, not
even no God above him, and that God put him out in the backside
of the wilderness like a wild animal. He lost his senses. His
hair grew long, his nails grew long. You know the story there.
And he came to this conclusion. It's recorded in Daniel 4 and
verse 34 where Nebuchadnezzar said, See, this is submission. God brought him to submission
in this one point. He said, His kingdom is from
generation to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his will in
the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? Old Nebuchadnezzar even came
to know the sovereignty of the God of Israel. Now, you know,
there's a lot of people say, Well, was he converted? I don't
believe you can say that he was from that passage there. I know
that God providentially brought the man down off his high horse
to a point to see the God of Providence but we don't know
we don't see anything in history or the Bible recorded about Nebuchadnezzar
issuing the decree to remove all the idols from Babel. I think
what he has come to see is that well among all these God God
of Israel the biggest he's the strongest And so he kept on. But that's not the issue here.
Back here in Jeremiah 27. Did God give this to Nebuchadnezzar? All these things. Nebuchadnezzar. I've given him these things.
Did God give this to Nebuchadnezzar because of Nebuchadnezzar's goodness?
Well, obviously not. Absolutely not. Nebuchadnezzar. There's none good. No, not one.
That's the way it is. But God did bring him down. Well,
look at verse eight. Here's the message. And it shall
come to pass that the nation and kingdom, which will not serve
the same Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and that will
not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon,
will not submit to the king of Babylon. You understand now,
submitting to Nebuchadnezzar in this way, what's submitting
to God? Not that Nebuchadnezzar was God
or even close to it, but he was God's servant. He was God's instrument
of judgment. And so not to submit to Nebuchadnezzar
in this way, I'm not talking about Nebuchadnezzar's idolatry. Daniel didn't submit to Nebuchadnezzar's
idolatry, but you know he did submit to the rule of God by
Nebuchadnezzar. But to submit to Nebuchadnezzar
as God's instrument of judgment. He sees this, verse 8, that nation
will I punish the ones who won't submit Saith the Lord with the
sword and with the famine, with the pestilence, until I have
consumed them by his hand." They'll be destroyed. That's what he
said. So it's submit or die, basically. Either you'll be ruled over by
Nebuchadnezzar, God's servant, or you'll be destroyed. Submission
to God's judgment. His judgment against sin. His
judgment against idolatry. His judgment against unbelief.
And this submission was equivalent to an admission and a confession
that we're getting what we deserve, that we're getting what we've
earned. You've heard preachers say, take sides with God against
yourself. That's what this submission is
all about. We've talked about it all along in Jeremiah. Lord,
if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, he would say. If
God were to ever judge me based on what I deserve or what I've
earned, what would it be? It would be damnation. That's
what it would be. Somebody says, well, not me. Not me. I don't deserve. You
haven't submitted. I'll show you that in a moment.
You see, it's an admission that God knows what's best for me
and that he'll take care of me in his way and his time. Trust
in the Lord and lean not to your own understanding. Look at verse
9. He says, therefore hearken not
to your prophet. Nor to your diviners, nor to
your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which
speak unto you, saying, You shall not serve the king of Babylon."
See, these false preachers, false prophets, were telling them not
to submit, because they were telling them, Declare your independence,
declare your freedom. Kind of, give me liberty or give
me death. That kind of thing. In verse
10, he says, For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you
as far from your land. and that I should drive you out,
you should perish. But the nations that bring their
neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, those
will I let remain still in their own land, saith the Lord, and
they shall till it and dwell therein." Now, they're going
to be in submission, but they'll live. That's what he's saying. And that's what we're talking
about. That's talking about temporal. Temporal safety. Temporal salvation. Salvation in submission. Well,
here comes the second oracle now. He speaks to the king Jeremiah
you've got this yoke on down these bonds a Yoke and bonds
now you think about that and there he goes up before the king
because Zedekiah and Here's the thing about it if there's any
king That ought to have led the people to submit to the Lord
God He was the king of Judah who sat upon the throne of David.
He's the representative of God. Remember I told you last week,
the king, originally the king that God had purposed and set
up the king of Israel, he was a type of Christ, the king of
kings. And he was to know that. I believe
David knew that. You can read it in the Psalms.
Even Peter, when he preached the Pentecost, he talked about
one of David's psalms. He said David wasn't speaking
of himself, but he was speaking prophetically of another David,
the greater David, the true king of kings. And David knew that.
That's why he said, this is all my salvation and all my desire,
ordered in all things and sure. The true king of Israel was to
lead the people in the word of God, in the ways of God, He was
to tell the people that, look, look, I'm the king, but there's
one greater than me who's truly king, and I'm subject to him,
and you're to be subject to him. God is God, and I'm just his
servant. I'm just his errand boy here
on the throne, leading you in the ways of God. And I'm not
your salvation. There's one coming who's your
salvation. Look to Messiah. The promised
one. That's what the king was to say.
That was to be his message to the people. The king was to always
lead in trusting the Lord. To be totally dependent upon
God, whatever God says goes. And he was always ruling righteousness. First by pointing the people
to Christ, the Messiah, for righteousness, for salvation, for forgiveness,
for eternal life and glory. And then by seeking to rule with
justice. Mercy for all look what he says
here to Zedekiah verse 12 I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah
according to all these words saying bring your necks under
the yoke of the king of Babylon submit Serve him and his people
and live Why will you die thou and thy people by the sword by
the famine and by the pestilence as the Lord has spoken? Against
the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon Therefore
hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto
you, saying, You shall not serve the king of Babylon, for they
prophesy a lie unto you. For I have not sent them to save
the Lord, yet they prophesy a lie in my name." That's the problem,
isn't it? Christ said in the last days
they'll come preaching in his name, but they'll be telling
a lie. He says, "...that I might drive you out, and that you might
perish, ye and the prophets that prophesy unto you." There's the
second order. Well, here's the third one. Here
he speaks to the priest and to the people. Listen to what he
says in verse 16. Now, you know what he's talking
about there when Nebuchadnezzar, The first time that he came and
attacked Jerusalem, that was the first wave of his conquering
that city. That's when he went in and he
took some of the vessels out of the temple, the wash basin. Some say he may have taken the
golden candlestick, things like that. He took those vessels.
Mainly what it was was the serving vessels, the bowls that the priests
used. Wash basins and all of that and
he took them and cups and he took them to Babylon These are
the same vessels remember when Belshazzar Was holding the big
party and he used those vessels in his party to drink wine out
of and have parties Things like that and that's when the Lord
God brought the wrath down upon him well these these priests
were telling the people don't worry about Nebuchadnezzar and
Don't worry about submitting to him. Declare your independence,
for it's not going to be long that Nebuchadnezzar is going
to be defeated and all those vessels are going to be brought
back to the temple. But they were telling a lie. Verse 17,
Harken not unto them. Serve the king of Babylon and
live. Wherefore should this city be laid waste? But if they be
prophets, and if the word of the Lord be with them, let them
now make intercession to the Lord of hosts, that the vessels
which are left in the house of the Lord And in the house of
the king of Judah and in Jerusalem, go not to Babylon. In other words,
instead of telling them a lie, what they ought to be doing is
begging God to leave what's left in the temple there. Now, you
know what? You see what's happening here?
They're saying, no, don't submit. God says, if you don't submit,
you're going to be destroyed, including that temple. Well,
you know that's what happened. They didn't submit. And Nebuchadnezzar
came back the third time. He came back another time, and
then he came back the third time, and he destroyed the temple and
took all the vessels that were in the temple to Babylon. And
what he's saying here is that instead of telling you a lie,
they ought to be praying to God that he spare the city, spare
the temple, and keep what's left there. Well, verse 19. It says, For thus saith the Lord
of the hosts concerning the pillars. There were two pillars. that
were in the temple, in the entrance, concerning the sea. The sea there
was a big wash basin that was set upon oxen. There were like
ten oxen at the base. And they called that the sea.
And then concerning the bases and concerning the residue or
what's left of the vessels that remain in this city, which Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon, took not when he carried away captive Jeconiah,
the son of Jehoiakim. That's when he carried the first
ones away. King of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon and all
the nobles of Judah Jerusalem when Daniel was taken away Probably
Shadrach Meshach and Abednego too And yea thus saith the Lord
of hosts the God of Israel concerning the vessels that remain in the
house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah and
of Jerusalem They shall be carried to Babylon You think God didn't
know what what's going on here he said they shall be carried
to Babylon And there shall they be until the day that I visit
them, when God comes to Babylon with a visit. And that's the
handwriting on the wall. Thou art found weighed in the
balance and found wanting. And he said, if the Lord then
will I bring them up and restore them to this place. Now that's
when Babylon was destroyed under King Cyrus. And then it's recorded
in the book of Ezra, chapter one, how all those vessels were
brought back to the temple as it was being rebuilt. God's plan. And what's the what's the whole
point. Well I want you to turn it to a few scriptures and let
me make this point turn to Romans chapter eight. The whole point
of it is there as I said there's salvation in submission. Salvation in submission. Death
in rebellion. But the first thing we have to
understand about what God word teaches us is that natural man
will not of his own will submit to God. He will not of his own
will do so. The natural man is described
in the Old Testament and in some in the New Testament as being
stiff-necked. It means he will not bow. But
look at Romans chapter 8 verse 5. The Apostle Paul, now I want
Always try to tell remember to tell people that when you read
the book of Romans Read it with Saul of Tarsus in mind That's
how you'll really understand Jew and Gentile Because you hear
language like this look at verse 5 It says they that are after
the flesh do mind the things of the flesh Now what do most
people think of when they hear something like that they that
are after the flesh? do mind the things of the flesh.
Well, most people think of the dregs of society, don't they? You know what I'm saying. They
think about the drunks and the drug pushers, the prostitutes,
the thieves, the murderers. And they are in that number.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not excluding them. Those
are ungodly, unregenerate people. Now, that's true. But how does
that apply to you? How does that apply to me? You
say, well, I've never done any of those things. Well, wait a
minute now. What about Saul of Tarsus? A very religious man,
a very moral man. Clean as a hound's tooth. Trying
to do his best not to sell drugs, but to establish righteousness. Trying to be holy. Dedicated,
sincere, going above and beyond the call of duty. How does that
apply to him? You see what I'm saying? Read
this with him in mind. Read this with yourself in mind. Myself in mind. They that are
after the flesh. What is it to be after the flesh?
Well, the first example in the Bible that we have of people
walking after the flesh was Adam and Eve after the fall putting
on fig leaf aprons to cover their nakedness. And then the next
example is old Cain, who came to worship God, bringing an offering
of the labor of his own hand. That's after the flesh. So they
that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but
they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. What
is it to be after the Spirit? It's to be regenerated by the
Holy Spirit, to be born again. To have a new heart, a circumcised
heart, it's to have a heart for Christ. It's to have a broken
heart, broken over sin, a contrite heart, repentant, a heart that
sees no hope of salvation for this sinner except in Christ
and Him crucified. God's grace and mercy. Now look
at verse 6. For to be carnally minded is
death. Remember he talked about how lack of submission in Jeremiah's
death. Well, that's to be carnally minded.
But to be spiritually minded is life and peace because the
carnal mind is enmity against God. That's opposition and hatred. For it is not what? Subject. Submitted to the law of God. Neither indeed can be. Do you
know what it is to be subject to the law of God? It's to be convinced of sin to
the point of knowing. That if God were to judge me
based on my best efforts to keep the law, I'd be damned forever. Here's people trying to do their
dead-level best to keep the law, thinking that it'll recommend
them unto God. They are not subject to the law
of God. They are not submitted to God's law. To be submitted
to God's law is described like this. By deeds of law shall no
flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge
of sin. What is the judgment of God's law against any and
every sinner? For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. There's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that doeth good. What is the judgment of
God's law against us? That we're sinners and we cannot
be saved by our works. Submit. It takes a work of God
the Holy Spirit to bring a sinner to submit to the judgment of
the law. And so he says, so then they
that are in the flesh cannot please God. You can't please
God in the flesh. I don't care how hard you try.
You can go the extra mile. But your works cannot please
God in the flesh. Pleasing God begins with submitting
to his way of salvation. Think about it. God brings his
people to submit to him and his way of salvation by his grace
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look over at Isaiah 46. Turn
to Isaiah 46. Here's another example where
the Lord uses an idolatrous heathen king an instrument of his judgment,
his justice against sin. This time it's a prophecy of
his judgment against Babylon. Look at verse 9 of Isaiah 46. He says, remember the former
things of old, for I'm God and there's none else. I'm God, there's
none like me. declaring the end from the beginning.
You know what that is? That's predestination. That's
what that is, declaring the end from the beginning. And from
ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying, my
counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. You see,
as I tell you, he's not a cosmic chess player just making his
counter moves to your moves. No, his counsel shall stand.
Verse 11, calling a ravenous bird from the east, that is Cyrus,
king of the Medes and Persians. That's what he's talking about
there, who's going to come after the Israelites or the Jews had
been in captivity to Babylon for 70 years. That's what he's
talking about there. The man that executed my counsel
from a far country. Yeah, I've spoken it. I'll bring
it to pass. I'll purpose it. I'll do it.
Now, what is it all about? What is the purpose of it all?
Is God just flexing his muscles to impress people or what? I
mean, is he just trying to show off? Here's the whole purpose
of it. Look at verse 12 and 13. He says, He says, What is it
to be stout-hearted? It's to be proud. It's the opposite
of humility. It's the opposite of submission.
He said, What's he talking about? He's
talking about Christ. Submit to Christ. Look at Matthew chapter
11. Christ himself spoke of it. Matthew 11, you know the verse
here. Look at verse 28. Christ spoke of yokes. God told Jeremiah, you go put
on, make a yoke and some bonds and yokes, put it on your neck
and you go tell them. Well, look at verse 28 of Matthew 11. Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek
and lowly in heart. Christ himself submitted. He submitted to the will of his
Father. He became obedient, even obedient unto death, the death
of the cross. He submitted to the law, the
judgment of the law. He was made under the law of
the scripture. He's the law giver. And yet he
was made under the law as God-man. To do what? To redeem them that
were under the law. To pay the price. He was made
sin. That's what that means. He was
made sin. He was made under the law. The
law of judgment upon him because of our sin charged to him, imputed
to him. He submitted. And he said it
in the book of John. He's in John chapter 10. He said
I lay down my life. No man takes it from me. He's
submitting you see It was hit listen he did it voluntarily
Submission and he said that I'm meek and lowly in heart and you
shall find rest in your souls My yoke is easy. My burden is
like you see his yoke is not the yoke of law. His yoke is
the yoke of love and grace and mercy and gratitude That's the
difference. I'm telling you, his commandments
are not burdensome because he's not commanding us to establish
our own righteousness, which we cannot do. But he's commanding
us to live in his righteousness, charged, accounted, imputed to
us, and seek to obey him. Not to earn our salvation, but
because he's earned it for us. and giving it to us freely. That's
what it's about. And then look at Romans chapter
10. Romans chapter 10. Now, here's something that's kind
of mind-boggling when you think about man by nature. We talk about man will not submit. By nature he won't. No man can
come to me, Christ said, except the Father which has sent me
draw him. Man will not submit. I wouldn't have submitted. You
wouldn't. Except the Lord bring us down
by his power and his grace by showing us by the power of the
Spirit our sin and our depravity. and our need of Christ, like
that publican, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Here's the
old Pharisee, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men.
That's rebellion. And here's the old publican,
God be merciful to me, the sinner. That's submission, you see. But
here's something that's kind of mind-boggling about ourselves,
before God saves us, or brings us to submit. It's not that we
don't like you, But the yoke that we like, the
ones we want are deadly. Look, look at it, look back up
in verse, in chapter 9, verse 31. Listen to this. Verse 31, it says of chapter
9 of Romans. But Israel which followed after the law of righteousness
hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Wherefore?
Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the
works of the law. We love the yoke of law by nature.
And it's a deadly yoke. You remember, What I, you know,
you know what I call the first Sovereign Grace Bible Conference. You know where it was held? Not
here. Held in Jerusalem. Acts chapter
15. That's when they had, they were
challenged over salvation by grace because of some of the
Judaizers came in and said, now, now if these Gentiles are going
to be saved, Paul is going around preaching to all these Gentiles.
And Peter went and preached to a Gentile, shame on him, Cornelius. And those Gentiles are going
to say, you've got to tell now they've got to be circumcised
to really be saved, to really be righteous, to really be holy.
Well, that was a challenge to the gospel. And you remember,
they met back in what we call the Jerusalem Council. It's recorded
in Acts 15. And I think James spoke. He was the half-brother of Christ.
They say he was the pastor of the church there at Jerusalem.
And then Peter spoke, and then Paul spoke. Or Paul spoke, and
then Peter. I don't know which order. But
Jumeirah Peter made this statement. He said, you Jews, now, he said,
why do you want to put a yoke upon the Gentiles that even we
couldn't bear? The yoke of the law. In other
words, you're trying to bring them down under the law for salvation
as if you think you could have been saved by your law-keeping,
and you couldn't. He said, we couldn't bear that
yoke, and yet you want to put it on them. Paul wrote in Galatians
5, if you be circumcised, that is, for that reason, Christ will
profit you nothing. You're a debtor to do the whole
law. What a yoke. But people by nature love it.
They sought it by the works of the law. They love the yoke of
the law. Now why is that? Why? Because we think more highly
of ourselves than we ought. That's why. We think we're righteous
when we're not. But look over at verse 1 of chapter
10. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
is that they might be saved. I bear them record. They have
a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, for they, being
ignorant of God's righteousness, the righteousness of God, and
going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves to the righteousness of God. Now, here's my question. Have I been brought to submission
to the righteousness of God? Have you been brought to submission
to the righteousness of God? How can we know? We'll look at
verse 4. Here it is. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. There it is.
Where's your hope of righteousness? Where's your hope of forgiveness?
Where's my hope of eternal life and glory? If it's anywhere but
in Christ, and Him alone, and His blood and righteousness alone,
I can tell you right now, you haven't been brought to submission.
Not to the righteousness of God. Now there is salvation in submission. Why is it? Because there's salvation
in Christ. He is our salvation. And then
we can truly sing, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus'
blood and righteousness. All right. Let's sing hymn number
176 as our closing hymn. Break thou the bread of life.
176.