Jeremiah chapter 17. I've entitled the message this evening,
The Curse of Sin and the Blessing of Righteousness. The Curse of
Sin and the Blessing of Righteousness. And I have about probably somewhere,
yeah, it's four divisions of this passage of scripture these
first eleven verses because I really wanted to to present these as
as I preach to you as much as I can in the description
that he gives of what it is to be cursed and what it is to be
blessed I wanted to be able to describe that as well as I can
in biblical terms because you know I think about this chapters
like this this this chapter here this whole chapter even what
we're going to deal with the next time when it starts off
there a glorious high throne in verse 12 talking about the
throne of our Lord this chapter was kind of a shock
to my system And you know that's the way it is when the natural
man hears a preacher of the gospel explain or proclaim, however
you want to say it, the realities of the word of God. That's what
it is. It's a shock to our system. And that's why the natural man
receiveth not the things of the spirit of God. It takes the spirit
of God to enter in and give us life. and convict us of sin and
raise us above what we naturally think. Because when I used to
read scriptures like this, my thoughts ran something along
this line. Well, those terrible, terrible
people. Surely he must be talking about
a low class of people there. And then when I heard a preacher
say that he's talking about me too, I didn't like that. Now, I don't know about you.
I didn't care for that at all. And that was offensive to me.
That word offensive in scripture, incidentally, means you trip
over it. It's kind of like a trap, like a trapped animal. You can't
get away from it, but you don't like it. And so it takes the
power of the Spirit of God in giving us a new heart. We're
gonna be talking about the deceptive heart here. For us to receive
this, in the humility that God gives and brings us to in order
to drive us to Christ. And he starts out here in the
first four verses with the reality of the problem of sin. The reality
of the problem of sin. And he brings out two things
that I think, I know, show us the devastation of sin. And it's
just like, I was talking to somebody before the service. We really
don't even know what sin is until we're taught by the Spirit of
God as it stands in relation to Christ. Christ Himself is
the measure of all sin and righteousness. He's the standard. And then when
the Spirit of God teaches us of the reality of this problem
that we all have. And all of us have it. We've
all sinned and come short. We'll quote scripture. And I
used to do that all the time. I'd quote scripture. But I didn't
really see the grip of it. You know what I'm saying? The
grip of what that really meant applied to me. Because a lot
of these things I used to cast off on other people. Couldn't
be me. I'm an American. I was born on the Bible. In the
Bible, in fact, I was born on the buckle of it. And surely
couldn't be talking about me, but it was and is. And so these
things, they're just a shock to the system, but thank the
Lord for shocking us, for bringing us to our senses. That's a work
of grace, that's a miracle. But listen to this, he starts
off, listen, he says, the sin of Judah, is written with a pin
of iron and with the point of a diamond. Somebody said diamonds
are forever. And what he's teaching us there
is that sin cannot be erased in two ways. He says, first of
all, here he said, it's graven upon the table of their heart
and upon the horns of your altars. And then he says, whilst their
children remember their altars and their groves, Now their altars
and their groves there by the green trees, that's idolatry.
Mark that down, that's idolatry there. That's opposed to the
worship of God prescribed at the temple where the glory of
God, the Shekinah glory of God dwell. And so by the green trees
upon the high hills, that's idolatry. And what he's showing is two
things about the devastation of sin. Number one, sin cannot
be erased from the books of God's justice. It cannot be erased
from the books of God's justice. In other words, what he's saying
is that sin is so embedded in the human race, in our fallen
Adam, by the offense of one, By one man, sin entered into
the world. And death by sin, so that death
passed upon all men for that all sin. It says all have sinned. And some people take that little
word have and they say, well, see there, I'm not a sinner until
I commit the sin. No, it says all sin, literally,
in the original. And we fell in Adam, he's our
representative. And so what he's saying is that
sin cannot be erased from the books of God's justice. It's
written with a pin of iron and the point of a diamond. Sin,
and here's the point, sin must be punished unto death. And that's the only remedy. And
a sinner's death will not remedy that because a sinner's death
will not satisfy the justice of God. Now you think about that
problem. That's a real problem. It cannot
be ignored. Sin cannot be ignored. What is
sin? Well, there's a lot of words
for sin in the scripture, but we could talk about it several
ways. It's rebellion against God. It's transgression against
the law. It's a sin not to believe God,
the scripture says. Isn't that right? When God says
something, it's true. And it's a sin not to believe
him. That's why we talk about the sin of unbelief. That's why
sin cannot be ignored. It cannot be denied. It cannot
be just wiped away by some emotional, sympathetic God. And that's why
I can really enter in, I quote these verses all the time, because
I can really enter into this, and I believe you can too, you
who know Christ. Where the psalmist David, as
he was quoted by the apostle Paul in Romans four, he said,
blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works.
but it cannot be erased from the books of God's justice. Secondly,
here's the second point of devastation of sin. Sin cannot be erased
from the natural heart. Listen to what he says again.
It is graven upon the table of their heart. It's graven there. Sin is an inward problem. It's
not just in the action. But it reaches to the motives
and the thoughts and the intents of the heart. We'll see that
in just a moment. So much so that it affects even
man's religious efforts. Look at it. It's engraven. It's
graven upon the table of their heart and upon the horns of your
altars. You know what the horns of the
altars. You know the brazen altar where the sacrifice was killed
and the blood was caught in the basin. and the flesh was burned,
it had four horns on each corner. And that, obviously the four
horns on each corner represented how God has a people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. Even that was a testimony to
Israel under the Old Covenant. Even though God had a special
relationship under that Old Covenant with them for a while. It was
a testimony of God from the very beginning that through Abraham,
all families of the earth would be blessed. And so you had Northeast,
Southwest, the four corners of the earth and the horn represents
power. And that power was God's power. God's power to deal with this
issue of sin. You see what Jeremiah is telling
you is you can't deal with it. You can't erase it from the books
of God's law and justice and you can't erase it from the human
heart. I can't do it. And it's so engraved in our hearts
that it reaches even unto our religion, even unto our efforts
to please God. And this graven upon the table
of the heart also indicates that man of his own will will not
submit to God's will and God's way, he will not repent. He will not repent. We just won't
do it. That's the problem. That's the
devastation of sin. We're born spiritually dead. And it reaches unto our religious
efforts, our attempts to approach God. Look at Cain. He approached
God. seeking to recommend himself
unto God by his works. That's sinful. That's iniquity,
inequity. It's not righteousness. And how deceived in this issue
of sin are we? How much is it engraved in us?
Well, we even teach it to our children. Listen to verse two
again. Whilst their children remember
their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the highest,
they even taught their children idolatry. Now you know that a
person, a person really believes something is true concerning
religion and salvation and forgiveness when they teach it to their children.
And that's what they were doing. Bible tells us to train up a
child in the way that he should go. What's that? What way should
he go? He should go the way of grace,
the way of Christ. That's how we should train up
our children. Most people raise their children to be little Pharisees.
Now that's so, and I'm not just being trying to be mean or anything
like that. I want my children to be moral, fine, upstanding
citizens. I want them to be. But I want
them to know this, there is absolutely no way that we as sinners can
be saved and blessed and justified by our works and our efforts
in any area, in any way, to any degree, at any time. I want them
to know that Christ is our only hope of salvation and righteousness. So what is the point here? Well,
to be saved we need two things. Number one, we need freedom from
condemnation. We need to be justified. And
to be justified we must be redeemed. And so we sing, what can wash
away my sins? Nothing, but the blood of Jesus.
That's what we need only the blood of the God-man Can take
care of the devastation and problem of sin when it comes to condemnation
And that's what we read there in Romans 5 as sin had reigned
unto death That's that sins realm is death even so might grace
reign through righteousness. Who's Unto eternal life by Jesus
Christ our Lord In order to be freed from this devastation of
sin that is so embedded in the books of God's justice and in
our heart, we must be redeemed by the blood of Christ. We must
be justified by his righteousness. He must stand in our place and
die for our sins. That's the only way it can be
taken care of. And then secondly, we need freedom from spiritual
death. That's taken place in regeneration
and conversion. That's the new birth. Man cannot
change his own heart. He cannot do it. Man by nature,
we're all spiritually dead by nature. We have no heart for
God. Now don't misunderstand me. I didn't say we didn't have
a heart for religion. We do. Man by nature is a religious
animal. Some people spend their lives
denying that and fighting against it, but he is. He's by nature. Everybody wants to know about
the afterlife. What do you suppose that is?
Why do you suppose that dogs and cats aren't sitting around
wondering about what happens after they die? because they weren't created
after the image of God. And they didn't fall into sin
like we did in Adam. They didn't have that urge that
the book of Ecclesiastes talks about, that connects us with
the eternal in some way, which man by nature will deny and try
to fill up with what? His own works or materialism
or something other than Christ. So a man by nature is a religious
animal. I hesitate to say animal because
I don't put us in that class. But he's religious. But he has
no heart for the true and living God. And that's why Christ looked
at a religious man like Nicodemus. And even one who was humble in
the eyes of the world now. And he said, you must be born
again. Or you cannot even see what I'm talking about, the kingdom
of heaven. That word see there means to understand it. You must
be born again or you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Look on, he says in verse three,
he says, oh my mountain in the field. Now he's talking about
Jerusalem there. Some people say this is a reference
to the temple directly and it may be. They'd even perverted
the temple. But he says, oh my mountain in
the field, I'll give thy substance and all thy treasures to the
spoil. you're going to be the spoils of a conquering enemy. And thy high places for sin throughout
all thy borders, and thou even thyself, not only your substance
but your person, shall discontinue from thine heritage that I gave
thee. Now this is punishment for sin. This is the plight of the natural
man under a conditional covenant. He had that heritage given him
and he lost it. And that's the way it is. That's
why our salvation is not under a conditional covenant that is
conditioned on us. But it's a covenant of grace
all conditioned on Christ. So that it's given to us and
we can't lose it. And I will cause thee to serve
thine enemies in the land, which thou knowest not, for you have
kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn forever, saith
the Lord. Burn forever, that's punishment
for sin. Now, the second thing that the
prophet brings out here, beginning at verse five, is the root of
all sin. Now, what is the root of all
sin? Well, you know what it is, it's unbelief. What was Israel's
problem? What was Adam's problem? Let's
go back to Adam. What was Adam's problem? He didn't
believe God. What'd God tell him? Adam, in
the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. What was
the first thing Satan did when he deceived Eve? He questioned
God's word. Hath God said? Hath God said? See, that's why people aren't
too interested today in what the word of God teaches, more
so they want to know what some man, what some man's opinion
is. And so the root of all sin is
unbelief. What was Cain's problem? He didn't
believe God. What did the Lord tell him when
he approached Cain? He said, you know, if you do well, Cain,
you'll be accepted. What is it to do well? Bring
a lamb like Abel. That's what it was to do well.
Bring the blood of the sacrifice. That's a picture of Christ. That's
a picture of God's grace in him. That's what it is to do well.
You only sum up doing well in the eyes of God. Living a life
in total dependence and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for
all salvation. That's doing well. And no man's
gonna do that but by the grace of God. So the root of all sin
is unbelief. Why couldn't Israel enter the
promised land, that first generation that was brought out of Egypt? Hebrews chapter three, they could
not enter in because of unbelief. He says, take heed, brethren,
that any of you be like them and found an evil heart of unbelief. What is evil? What is sin? What
is the root of it? Unbelief. Now he says, look at
it, verse five, he says, thus saith the Lord, Be the man that
trusteth." Now this trusting has to do with a sense of security. And what he's talking about is
whatever your claim of salvation is, whatever your boast of salvation
is, whatever your security of salvation is, if you have any
assurance at all of salvation, what do you trust or in whom
do you trust and he says curse be the man that trusteth in man
and Maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departed from the
Lord Now this cursed here Listen to this this cursed here is a
state of existence that is only Determined and revealed by God's
Word You can't understand or determine or see or judge anything
about cursedness by outward circumstances. You see, we read it this morning
where the Apostle Paul wrote, we walk by faith, not by sight. You see, things we see can be
deceiving. And so this cursedness is defined
right here. Do you wanna know what it is
to be cursed? Right here is the definition that covers it all.
It's to trust in man. It's to trust in the flesh. It's
to trust in our works or our will. That's what it is to be
cursed. And then he says, whose heart
departed from the Lord. The sin of Israel was sin against
light. They'd heard better. They had
the word of God. They had the privilege. You remember
Paul brought that in Romans chapter 3. Quite a bit. Who is Israel? What are all the advantages they
have? Well, they departed from the
Lord. They heard the prophets. They heard the word of God. They heard the law. And yet they
departed from it. They left it. So what he's talking
about here is willful unbelief. It's not just an accident of
ignorance. It's willful unbelief. And that's what is in man by
nature. And here's what he says. Now, those who trust in man,
Verse six, he says, he shall be like the heath in the desert.
That heath there is like that old bramble bush, that old, what
is that, that blow? What is it? Tumbleweed, yeah,
that tumbleweed that just goes through the desert. And that's
what he's like, the one who trust in man. And he shall not see
when good cometh. He's not gonna see when good
cometh. Now hold on to that thought just a moment here. He says,
but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness. This
is a dry land, a thirsty land, no growth. And in a salt land,
not inhabited. Salt lands where nothing will
grow. You all have heard of the Bonneville salt flats? That's
what it is. It's just like a desert. And
that's what it is to be cursed. And so think about this, you
see, sinning against the light, unbelief is the root of all sin. But now look at verse seven.
Here's the root, here's the third thing. Here's the root of all
righteousness. And it has to do with faith in Christ. He says,
blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord. Now, as I've told
you in your King James versions there, you see the word Lord,
the name Lord, all in caps, that's Jehovah. That's the God of all
grace. That's the God who justifies
the ungodly, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of
promise, the God who reveals himself through Christ. And he
says, and whose hope is the Lord. Now again, remember that trusting
is a sense of security now. Where is my security? It's in
the Lord. It's not in man. It's not even
in myself. It's in Christ. And he says in
verse eight, and this blessedness is a state, just like cursedness
is a state of existence only determined by God's word, not
by outward circumstances, blessedness is the same way. So what it is,
what is it to be cursed? Here's the definition, to trust
in self, to trust in our works, to trust in man. What is it to
be blessed? Here's the definition, to trust
in the Lord, to trust Christ for all salvation. To trust in
the Lord, in Christ the Lord our righteousness. And these blessings from God,
now to trust in the Lord as he's identified and distinguished
here means this. This blessing, this state of
blessedness from God is not earned or deserved. It's grace. It's mercy. And these blessings
from God are in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1, 3,
we're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. But look at verse eight. Now
it says, for he, that is this blessed one, shall be as a tree
planted by the waters. You see it? And that spreadeth
out her roots by the river and shall not see when heat cometh,
that is when the destruction, the dryness, that which destroys
the fruitfulness. And he says, but her leaf shall
be green and shall not be careful, that is anxious, what he's meaning
there, not be anxious in the year of drought, neither shall
cease from yielding fruit. So that blessed, now the cursedness
of unbelief, the cursedness of sin means unfruitfulness. The blessedness of righteousness,
the blessedness of grace, the blessedness we have in Christ,
that means life and fruitfulness all by the grace of God. What
did Christ say to his disciples when he was teaching them? For
example, in John 15, he said, I'm the true vine, and my father's
the husband. Husband, every branch in me that
beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth
fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. And
he says, now you're clean through the word which I've spoken and
you abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can you except
you abide in me. Christ is the vine, we're the
branches. And turn to this verse, Romans
chapter seven. I refer to this one quite a bit,
but I like to teach this over and over again because I think
this is one of those passages It really puts things in perspective
for us. But you see, we don't produce fruit, we bear fruit. You understand that? We bear
the fruit. Christ is the producer of the
fruit. We're just fruit bearers, all
right? So look at Romans chapter seven,
verse four. He says, wherefore my brethren,
You also are become dead to the law. Now, what does that mean?
That means I am no longer condemned. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. I don't owe a debt to God's law
and justice. My debt is paid, all right? I don't owe anything to God's
law and justice in order to attain or maintain salvation. That's
a done deal. Now, how did I get that way?
Uh-huh. How did it come that way? What
does the Bible say? Most people say, well, by believing. No,
you don't get that way by believing. Do you believe? Yes. Yes. You say, don't misunderstand
me. Faith is necessary. But faith doesn't pay the debt.
You understand that? I'm not just splitting hairs
up here, am I? This is vital, isn't it? Faith does not pay
the debt. Repentance does not pay the debt.
I mean, I've told you the story about the preacher on television
who was talking about the forgiveness of sins. And he said, the forgiveness
of sins comes at the cost of repentance. And the clicked right
in my, oh no, oh no. The forgiveness of sins comes
at the cost of the blood of Christ. And you know what the fruit of
that is? Repentance. There's the fruit, you see. So
it says we're become dead to the law. How? Look at it, by
the body of Christ. That's his death. He paid the
debt. Jesus paid it all. You see, he's
satisfied by his obedience unto death. Righteousness is established
by his death. He died for my sins, charged
to him. He gives me his righteousness. It's charged to me. And then
it goes on, it says that, or you could say in order that,
you should be married to another, married to Christ. Not married
to the law, not married to the church. You see, married to Christ. And that marriage, that betrothal
takes place when God brings us to faith in Christ. Even to him
who's raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto
God. You see that? Now listen to verse
five. He says, for when we were in
the flesh, now that means unregenerate here, unbelieving, controlled
by the flesh. That's the natural man. That's
all of us by nature. When we were in the flesh, were
you ever in the, some people say, well, here's a believer.
And when he's going to church, he's in the spirit. And then
when he's doing something bad, he's in the flesh. We can get
into all kinds of different things there, all right? And I think
most people are very sadly confused on that issue. But I want you
to know right here what he's talking about. What Paul's saying
is, when I was an unbeliever, when I didn't know Christ, when
I was in, and to prove that to you, you go over and read Philippians
chapter three, and he tells you. He said, when I had confidence
in the flesh, you know, that's what he was talking about, his
religion, trying to work his way into God's favor. But when
we were in the flesh, when we were without Christ, without
saving knowledge, without faith, and he says the motions of sins,
that's the passions of sins, that's what sin, that sin in
us caused us to desire to do, which were by the law, What does
it mean by that? How would the passions of sin
be stirred up by the law? Alright, I'll show you two ways.
It did work in our members to bring forth what? Fruit unto
death. Now the passions of sins in an
unbeliever, which are stirred up by the law, it's in one of
two ways. It's either in a passion for
out and out rebellion against everything that God commands,
And you can look at our society today, and that's common, with
criminality, with perversions, with everything, just going against
God's word, stirred up, man by nature. Or secondly, it can be
a passion for religion, seeking salvation by works. Now that's
how it affected Saul of Tarsus. Saul of Tarsus had a passion
for his religion. Again, read it in Philippians
chapter 3. He said, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees,
touching the law blameless, concerning zeal, persecuting the church.
He was on fire for his religion. And that was the passions of
sins. Because my friend, anything that doesn't bring a sinner to
confess his sins and trust Christ alone for all salvation is sin
in the sight of God. And all it could be is fruit
unto death. Man at his worst, think about
it this way. Man at his worst, fruit unto
death. Man at his best, fruit unto death. Man without Christ, fruit unto
death. He has no righteousness. He has
no forgiveness. He has no life without Christ. But look at verse six of Romans
seven. He says, but now we're delivered from the law. that
being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness
of spirit and not in oldness of the left. We should serve
Christ, not to be saved, but because we already are. Serve
with the motive of love and grace and gratitude rather than that
old legalism. Now that's what he's talking
about here. Go back to Jeremiah 17. And look at verse six again.
I want to make a point here. I want you to see this. He's
talking about the cursed man here. He trusts in man. He doesn't trust Christ. It's
either without Christ or Christ plus something. It says in verse
six, he shall be like the heath in the desert and shall not see
when good cometh. Now what does that mean? I'll put it to you this way.
It means he will not see when Christ cometh. That's what he's
talking about. Because if you want to talk about
goodness, what did the Lord himself say? You remember the rich young
man who approached Christ and he said, good master, what good
thing must I do to inherit eternal life or to have eternal life? And this man approached Christ
as a great teacher. He's kind of like some today
who don't believe that Christ is God in human flesh, that he's
Immanuel, which he is. But he was just a great teacher.
And that's the way the rich young man was approaching him. He's
a good master, rabbi. And the Lord looked at him, knowing
this man, knowing his heart, knowing his thoughts, knowing
that this man did not believe him to be Immanuel, God with
us. And he said, well, why do you
call me good? There's none good but God. None good but God. The scripture
teaches that among man by nature, there's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that doeth good, no, not one. And here comes
goodness incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ. The only good thing
that ever came to this earth, the only good person rather who'd
ever came to this earth since Adam. And man by nature doesn't
sing. Look at John chapter 1, verse 11. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. They didn't see when good cometh. But verse 12 says, but as many
as received him, to them gave he power. That means the right
or the privilege, not the ability now, but the right to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Now,
what's the difference between those who received him and those
who received him not? What's the difference? Well,
those who received him are better people. No. Here's the difference, verse
13. Those who received him and believed
on his name were born, not of blood, that is not a physical
birth, physical heritage or pedigree, nor the will of the flesh, that's
the works of man there. The flesh represents the works
of man, the will of the flesh. And nor the will of man, that's
man's will, man's desire. What people call the free will,
it's not there. nor the will of man, but they
were born of God. You see that? Now that's our
only remedy. We come to see the glory of Christ. The Holy Spirit convicts us of
sin and of righteousness and of judgment. And then look back
at Jeremiah 7. Look at verse 9. Now here's the
last point. Here's spiritual heart disease
and its remedy. Spiritual heart disease and its
remedy. Now he says, the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked who can know it. Now he
doesn't just say the heart is deceitful and the heart is wicked. He says the heart is deceitful
above all things. In other words, the greatest
deceiver that you, listen, the greatest deceiver that we have
to deal with is our own heart. Think about that. And then, he
doesn't say the heart is wicked, he says the heart is desperately
wicked. There's a desperation there. What is the heart? It's the mind.
It's the affections. It's the will. And what he's
teaching here is that man's heart, natural heart, at its worst and
at its best, is deceitful and desperately wicked. And in what ways is the heart
deceived? Well, the way in which he's talking
here, the issue that's in the forefront here has to go back
to this issue of being cursed and being blessed. He's not talking
about matters of finance here. He's not talking about matters
of even health. You know, the natural man, he
can know a lot of things. about a lot of things and not
be deceived in a lot of areas. But there's one area in which
all natural people, all unregenerate people are deceived. And it's
in this matter of cursedness and blessedness. And that's what
he's talking about. I think about the Lord when he
was speaking to the Pharisees in Luke chapter 16, and he made
this statement in verse 15. Listen to it. He said to them,
you are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your
hearts. Now that's the desperately wicked,
deceptive heart. And here's what he said. For
that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the
sight of God. What's he talking about there?
He's talking about religion. He's talking about their way
of salvation. And he's saying that the way
that the natural man sees it, that he highly esteems and applauds
and boasts in and takes confidence in, is an abomination to God. What's he talking about? Anything
that a sinner trusts in or boasts in or has assurance in, but Christ
and Him crucified and risen again. Man at his best is vanity. And
so we learn two things here. Number one, God's judgment of
men goes to the heart. Let me read you Hebrews chapter
four. Listen to this. Hebrews four and verse 12. For
the word of God is quick, that means alive, and powerful, and
sharper than any two-edged sword, cuts both sides. piercing even
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints
and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart and Neither is there any creature that is not manifest
in his sight But all things now think about all things are naked
and open Unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do you see
you're going to have to deal with God ultimately I'm going
to have to deal with God ultimately All things are open unto his
eyes. Now, what does he say after that?
Listen, verse 14, seeing then we have a great high priest.
You know, once you realize that every thought and intent of your
heart is open to God, the first thing that ought to be on your
mind, on your heart, let's say it this way, is the fact that
you need and have a great high priest. that is passed into the
heavens, literally passed through the heavens. What is that talking
about? It's talking about his death,
burial, and resurrection of Christ. What he accomplished in putting
away our sins and giving us righteous. Jesus, the Son of God, God in
human flesh. Now let us hold fast our profession. What is our profession? Christ
and Him crucified. The Lord our righteousness. Because
we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin. So let us therefore come boldly,
confidently, freely unto the throne of what? Throne of grace. That we may attain mercy. I need
mercy. I need mercy today. I need mercy
right now standing behind this pulpit. and find grace to help
in time of need. You see that? God's judgment of men goes to
the heart. And secondly, the only way we
can know, now listen to it, the only way we can know the true
state of our heart and not be deceived is in verse 10. Look at verse 10 of Jeremiah
17. He says, I the Lord search the heart, I try or test the
reins, even to give every man according to his ways and according
to the fruit of his doings. Now God searches the heart, how? By his word. It's not by our
feelings, it's by his word. And what does his word teach
us? It teaches that we're sinners who are in need of a righteousness
that we cannot produce, that without one we're condemned forever,
And that the only place that we're going to find righteousness,
the only one in whom we can find righteousness is the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what it teaches. You won't
find it anywhere or in anyone else. Not in yourself, it's in
Him alone. And that's what the word of God
says. It's not in our feelings. You know the old poem by Martin
Luther, feelings come and feelings go, feelings are deceiving. My
warrant is the word of God, not else is worth believing. Though
all my heart should feel condemned for one of some sweet token,
there is one greater than my heart whose word cannot be broken. So I'll trust in God's unchanging
word till so embody sever, for though all things shall pass
away, his word shall stand forever. I the Lord, I search the heart. What will he find when he searches
my heart? Will he find trust in the Lord,
faith in Christ? The word of God always exposes
me for what I am. I'm a sinner. But it always points
me to Christ as the savior of sinners. And it says here to
give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit
of his doings. That's not what we've earned.
What is our way? Our way is the way of grace.
Our way is the way of Christ. He said, I'm the truth. I'm the
life. I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. And then this last verse, listen
to what he says here, verse 11. He says, as the partridge sitteth
on eggs and hatcheth them not, so he that getteth riches and
not by right or justice shall leave them in the midst of his
days, and at the end shall be a fool. This partridge was a
bird that gathers a brood of eggs that she did not hatch. And she sits on those eggs, and
when they hatch, the birds realize that that's not their mother,
and they leave. And he's saying, like the partridge that gathers
a brood that she did not hatch, so is he who gets riches, but
not justly. He doesn't get them justly. In
the midst of his days they'll leave him, and at his end he
will be a fool. Now we can see that. If he were
talking about finances here, we could readily see that. People
steal money all the time. They get riches, but unjustly.
And that's so. But is that what he's talking
about here? No, that's not his issue here. What's he talking
about a person who gets riches unjustly? He's talking about
a person who claims salvation and to be blessed of God in an
unjust way. That's what he's talking about.
And what is that? That's a sinner who boasts of
salvation, who boasts of having a right relationship with God
without Christ, who is the just one. You see, any claim that
we have of salvation must be according to God's righteousness,
God's justice. And the only claim of salvation
that will fit that bill is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. None
other will do it. If I claim salvation because
I did this, or I did that, or I experienced this, or I experienced
that, or I felt this, or felt that, or dreamed this, or dreamed
that, or done this, or done that, that's claiming riches, that's
getting riches unjustly. You see, somebody said one time,
said, when I get to heaven, or when I get to the judgment, they
said, I don't want justice, I want mercy. Well, let me tell you
something now. I know, you know, I don't mean
to be just getting on what people say, because a lot of times people
say things they don't think about. I know that. But there's no such
thing in God's kingdom of salvation of mercy without justice. There's
no such thing. I'll prove it to you. Look up
the word propitiation and find out what it means. He's talking
about God's wrath and mercy being turned away based on what? Justice
satisfied. Payment being made. And see,
our hope is not having mercy without justice. Our hope is,
as the psalmist said, that mercy and truth mercy and righteousness
kiss each other. That they come together. And
how's that going to happen? Only in Christ. Only by his blood
and righteousness. That's what we need. We need
a God who is both a just God and a Savior. Look unto me and
be ye saved. All the ends of the earth. I'm
God. There's none else. All right.