Alright, let's turn to Jeremiah
16. Jeremiah chapter 16. The title of the message tonight
is Destruction and Restoration. Destruction and Restoration. But before I get into this chapter,
I want to I want to say a few words and I want to read some
scripture to you. You don't have to turn to these
if you want to write them down. Uh, because you might not, you
won't have time to get to them all. Just a few, but I wanted
to say this by way of introduction because of what we're about to
get into here, especially in the last part of this chapter
concerning the restoration. He's talking about the destruction
of Judah and Jerusalem. He's been talking about that
quite a bit. That's why Jeremiah was called the prophet of doom,
but he's going to be talking about the restoration of Israel,
the restoration of the people of God and how that applies. But one thing we need to understand
as we go through these Old Testament passages is that we today have
an advantage. And that advantage is that we
view the Old Testament through the light of the New Testament.
You remember Brother Mahan's books on those lessons on through
New Testament eyes. That's a good way to look at
it. We're a New Testament, a New Covenant people. We live on the
other side of the cross as far as time. Jeremiah and all the
Old Testament saints, they lived on that side where they looked
forward by promise to the cross to come. And yet they knew the gospel. The gospel, simple message of
how God saves sinners, how God justifies the ungodly, has always
been the simple message from the very beginning revealed in
Genesis 315, Genesis 321, through Abel, the Lamb of God, the grace
of God, the Messiah, the woman seed who would be God with us,
and who would by his obedience unto death put away our sins
and establish righteousness for us. The message of God from the
very beginning since the fall of man has been that man cannot
make himself righteous and worthy. of His blessings and of salvation
and eternal life and glory by His works. But it was always
to be through a God-sent substitute who was known in the Old Testament
as Savior, the Messiah. But they only knew certain details
by progressive revelation. Now again, they knew the gospel.
In John chapter eight and verse 56, listen to the Lord's words
here. He told the Pharisees, he says, your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and he was glad. Abraham
saw the day of Christ. He told the Pharisees in another
place in John chapter five that Moses wrote of him. So what he
said, Moses wrote of me. And let me read you this one
over in 1 Peter. This is 1 Peter chapter 1. And he's talking about the revelation
of God here. In 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 10,
talking about salvation. The salvation that we know and
have experienced. He said, of which salvation the
prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied of
the grace that should come unto you, searching what, or what
manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them, see
the spirit was in them, just like he's in us, did signify
when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. So they knew about the sufferings
of Christ and the glory that should follow. How could we deny
that and read passages like Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53? They knew about that. But he
says here in verse 12, he says, unto whom it was revealed that
not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things.
In other words, they were serving us in those things, which are
now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel
unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which
things the angels desire to look into. So they saw the essential
truths of the gospel of God's grace in Christ. Over in Hebrews
chapter 11, listen to this. This is the hall of faith, verse
13. He says, these all died in faith,
not having received the promises, that is the actual coming of
Christ into the world. They didn't live during that
time. But he says, they received the promises, but having seen
them afar off, they saw the promises, but afar off, and were persuaded
of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers
and pilgrims on the earth. So they knew the gospel. Jeremiah
knew the gospel. But as I said, there were certain
details that God did not reveal in the beginning that He progressively
revealed throughout the Old Testament. I'll give you an example of that.
God revealed to Adam and Eve. that the Messiah would be the
seed of woman and he would be the sacrifice, the Lamb of God. But it wasn't until later on
that God revealed to Abraham that he was going to come from
the line of Abraham according to the flesh. Adam didn't know
that, you see, in his lifetime. That wasn't revealed until later.
And then later on, Abraham didn't know that he was going to come
through the line of Judah. That was revealed by Jacob on
his deathbed. So these details were progressively
revealed. But they did know the gospel.
Now we have the advantage of living in the new covenant after
the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ. and so we recognize
when we read the scriptures that we do have that advantage but
now jeremiah he had more information than abel had you see what i'm
saying there and uh... uh... later prophets had more
revelation than jeremiah had but sometimes you'll hit through
a passage of scripture that is so clearly a revelation of god's
grace in christ that That it's, you just can't deny it. And of
course I know, and you know, that if we don't have eyes to
see, we won't see it. If we don't have ears to hear,
we won't hear it. And we're coming to one of those
passages here tonight in Jeremiah 16. Now let me just give you
what's going on here. The first 13 verses of this chapter
speaks of the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, right in
line with what Jeremiah has always been saying. God is going to
punish them for their sins. They're going to be brought into
captivity. And it starts out, look at verse 1. It says, The
word of the Lord came also unto me, saying, Thou shalt not take
thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this
place. So Jeremiah is forbidden to marry, forbidden to have children. Why? He says, for thus saith
the Lord concerning the sons and concerning the daughters
that are born in this place and concerning their mothers that
bear them and concerning their fathers that beget them in the
land, they shall die of grievous deaths. In other words, if you
marry and have children, you're just birthing them to death. What an awful thing. He says,
they shall not be lamented, and that's because there'll be nobody
left. You need to understand that this country was going to
be devastated. He says, neither shall they be
buried. There'll be nobody around to bury them. But they shall
be as dung upon the face of the earth, refused. They shall be
consumed by the sword and by famine, and their carcasses shall
be meat for the fowls of heaven and for the beast of the earth. Somebody might say that sounds
like a cruel, cruel God, but he's not. That's a just God,
a just God. We're all born into death by
nature, aren't we? Born dead in trespasses and sins.
And our only hope of salvation is by the grace of God that brings
life through Christ. He's forbidden, Jeremiah's next,
forbidden to mourn for Judah. Look at verse five, he says,
for thus saith the Lord, enter not into the house of mourning,
neither go to lament nor bemoan them. Don't go to the funerals,
that's what he's saying. For I've taken away my peace
from this people, saith the Lord, even loving kindness and mercies.
Now what you have there is the plight of sinful man under a
conditional covenant, remember that. That's the plight of any
sinner under a conditional covenant, a covenant conditioned on the
sinner. You see, we need peace and mercy that can never be taken
away, don't we? That's what we need. That's why
I love those passages in the Psalms and in other places where
it repeats over and over again how God's mercy, talking about
His mercy in Christ, the mercy seat, endures forever. Here he's
talking about peace, loving kindness and mercies that he's taken away.
Why? Because he's conditioned on the sinner. And that's a failure. That's a failure. He says in
verse 6, both the great and the small shall die in the land,
doesn't matter what your station is, how important you are, how
noble you are, how much money you have. Death is the plight
here. They shall not be buried, neither
shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves
bald for them." That's referring to the heathen practices of mourning. In the Bible, the practice of
mourning was shown forth by tearing their clothes and putting dust
on their... Here, they're cutting themselves
and shaving their heads. to mourn, to show their mourning.
That's a heathen practice. That was idolatry. That was forbidden.
You can read about that in Deuteronomy 14, how that was forbidden of
the people of God. That's what they were doing.
And he says, Jeremiah, don't you do it. See, Jeremiah was
a prophet of God. He was an ambassador of Christ. So he was to be separate from
all of this. And look at verse 7, it says,
neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort
them for the dead, neither shall men give them the cup of consolation
to drink for their father or for their mother. No consolation,
you see, no comfort. Verse 8, thou shalt, he says,
thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting. Anytime there's
merriment, Don't join in with them. You see, Jeremiah, you
stay separate from those whom God is going to destroy. That's
what he's talking about. To sit with them to eat and drink,
verse 9, for thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes
and in your days. This is going to happen in your
days. The voice of mirth, the voice of gladness, the voice
of the bridegroom, that's the feast at the wedding, and the
voice of the bride. Those happy times will be gone
and there will be no happiness. Some might equate that with Christ
being the bridegroom and the church being the bride, but you
know that will never quit. The happiness and joy that the
bridegroom and the bride have together, Christ and his church,
that will never quit. Look at verse 10. It even brings out the justice
of God in punishing them even more. It says, and it shall come
to pass when thou shalt show this people all these words.
And they shall say unto thee, wherefore or why hath the Lord
pronounced all this great evil against us? Why is God doing
this to us? Or what is our iniquity? You
see, that's man's natural ignorance of iniquity, of sin. That's why
in salvation, We have to be convicted of sin. We have to be taught.
We have to be convinced of sin because by nature we don't see
it. We see some things that are wrong and some things that are
right, but we don't know the sin of depravity. That there's
none righteous, no not one. That there's none that doeth
good, no not one. That if God were to give us the
least anything, or He were to judge us rather, based on our
best efforts to do right, we'd still be people of iniquity and
deserve damnation. They say, Or what is our sin
that we've committed against the Lord our God? Verse 11, Then
shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me,
saith the Lord, and have walked after other gods, and have served
them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have
not kept my law. And you've done worse than your
fathers. You've stepped right in line and gone the nth degree
of what your fathers did. For behold, you walk every one
after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not
hearken unto me." That imagination there, is close to the word stubbornness. Stubbornness. And Jeremiah is
going to talk a little bit more about that in chapter 17. That's what false religion is.
That's what man of the world is. It's the imagination of his
evil heart. What is an evil heart in the
scripture? It's an evil heart of unbelief. Unbelief. that will not hearken unto the
Lord. That's evil in God's sight. Just
not to hear God's word is evil. There's the definition of it.
And we could talk about other things about it. But that's where
it all begins. They will not hear what God has
to say. And you think about where God's
highest glory is in the gospel of salvation by His grace through
Christ. To not hear that, that's the
highest evil. That casts shame and reproach
upon every attribute of God's character and nature. It's calling
God a liar. When a person hears the gospel
and refuses to believe it, that's the equivalent of calling God
a liar. And verse 13, he says, therefore
will I cast you out of this land. I'll hurl you out, literally.
Hurl you out of this land into a land that you know not. neither
ye nor your fathers, and there shall you serve other gods day
and night, where I will not show you favor." Now there's the destruction. There's man in sin without God,
without grace, without Christ. That right there describes the
plight of all men and women by nature in their sin. Isn't that right? And that's
why we need the grace of God in Christ. Well, over here, remember
in Psalm 85 that I read in the opening. He asked this question, in verse
5, he says, Will thou be angry with us forever? Will thou draw
out thine anger to all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again,
that thy people may rejoice in thee? Show us thy mercy, O Lord,
and grant us thy salvation. Well, the answer to that question
is no. God will not be angry with his
people forever. And that's where we come to the
restoration of Israel. Now, I want you to look back
at Jeremiah 16 and look at verse 14 and 15. Listen to what he
says. He says, therefore, behold, the
days come, now this is speaking of the future, saith the Lord,
that it shall no more be said, the Lord liveth that brought
up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. And that's
what he's talking about, is that generation is going to be destroyed.
But it says in verse 15, but the Lord, here's what's going
to be said, the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel
from the land of the north, That's from Babylon. And from all the
lands, not just Babylon now, but from all the lands whither
he had driven them, and I will bring them again into their land
that I gave unto their fathers. And what he's saying here is
this, God will bring his people back to the land that he gave
to their fathers. Now when he says it that way,
when he says, I'm going to bring you back to the land that I gave
to your fathers, what he's making sure they understand is that
the reason God is bringing you back to the land has nothing
to do with their goodness or what they deserve or what they've
earned. It was the land that he gave to their fathers. And
how did he give it to their fathers? Who were their fathers? Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob. That's their fathers. How did
he give the land to Abraham? Did Abraham earn it? No. Did he deserve it? No. What about
Isaac? Same thing. He didn't earn it or deserve
it. What about Jacob? He certainly didn't earn it or
deserve it. What was it? God made a promise to Abraham. He made a covenant. He made a
covenant promise to Abraham. And he made many promises to
Abraham. Some of them were temporal and
dealt only with the nation Israel as Abraham's descendants. Some
of them were eternal and spiritual and dealt with Abraham's descendants
in the spirit, the faithful. But God made a promise to Abraham
and then he reconfirmed that promise in Isaac and then he
reconfirmed it in Jacob. Now, there was a temporal fulfillment,
a temporary fulfillment too. of this word, of that promised
Abraham, when a small remnant of the nation returned home from
Babylon 70 years after this. Remember that Jeremiah tells
you, you're going to be in captivity 70 years and then a small remnant,
somebody said barely a thousand people. And the reason that most
of the others stayed is because they wanted to stay. But barely
about a thousand people came back 70 years later, they returned
home according to God's promise. He brought them back to the land.
But that was a very small scale and nowhere near the final and
great fulfillment of this promise that dated all the way back to
Abraham. And what did he say? He said
in verse 15, the Lord liveth that brought up the children
of Israel from the land of the north, from all the lands whether
he had driven them, and I will bring them again into their land
that I gave unto their fathers." Now there's a revelation here
from God and he's telling them that he's not given up in his
dealings with the nation yet. They're going to lose that land,
they're going to go into captivity seven years, but he's going to
bring them back. But what is the ultimate purpose for all
of that? Well, I want you to turn to Jeremiah
23. He reveals some more later on. And right here in the book of
Jeremiah. Remember what I told you about this is a progressive
revelation of these details. The gospel is still the same
now. The Messiah is still the same. Sinners are still the same. What God's going to do in saving
sinners has always been the same. It's been the simple message
of God's grace in Christ. But here's some details that
are being revealed. All right? Now God had already
said back in Genesis 49 that the scepter, the kingdom, the
rule would not depart from Judah until Shiloh come. That's a prophecy
of the Messiah. You know that. Genesis 49, 10.
I don't know if any of these people knew that. They didn't
study the scripture. Jeremiah knew it. But he says
now God's going to bring his wrath down. He's going to destroy
this nation because of their sin. That's the plight of every
one of us in our sin. But there's hope for the future.
And that hope is going to begin to be seen in the fact that God's
gonna bring his people back to that land 70 years later. And
even though they'll be under a foreign government for the
rest of the time, there's still hope in that scepter. But it's not gonna be fulfilled
in a literal throne on earth through David's descendants,
a literal throne. It's one of David's descendants,
obviously. but not a literal earthly throne. Let me show you
what I mean. Look at verse 1 of Jeremiah 23. Woe be unto the
pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, saith
the Lord. Therefore thus saith the Lord
God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people, you've scattered
my flock, driven them away, you've not visited them. Behold, I will
visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord, and I
will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither
I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds,
and they shall be fruitful and increase." Now there was, on
a small scale, a temporal fulfillment of that in the land, but it didn't
last long. But he says in verse four, he
says, I will set up shepherds over them, which shall feed them,
and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed. Neither shall
they be lacking, saith the Lord. You can think about Nehemiah.
You can think about, what's the book, Esther, Nehemiah, what's
the, Ezra. You can think about Ezra. Others
like that, Zechariah. They were faithful men who pointed
centers to Christ. But I want you to look at the
next two verses. Now see how this all is going to ultimately
be fulfilled and in whom. Verse five, behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous
branch. And a king shall reign and prosper
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. And in
his days, Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely.
And this is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord our
righteousness. Now, who's that talking about?
That's not talking about Nehemiah. It's not talking about Ezra.
It's not talking about, it's talking about Christ. But hold
on, read on, look at verse seven. Therefore, behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth
which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of
Egypt. But the Lord liveth which brought up and which led the
seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from
all countries, whether I had driven them, and they shall dwell
in their own land." Same verses right there that he spoke over
here in verses 14 and 15 of chapter 16. And what is he saying? What's the lesson? Every bit
of this is ultimately connected to and fulfilled in the promise
of Christ coming to save His spiritual nation. The elect of
God among the Jews and among the Gentiles. And you're going
to see that, just go back to Jeremiah 16 here. He said in verse 16, now look
at this. He says, Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith
the Lord, and they shall fish them, and after will I send for
many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain,
and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. He
says, For mine eyes are upon all their ways, they are not
hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine
eyes. Now some commentators will say that this verse 16, these
fishers and hunters and all of that, That that refers to the
Babylonian army coming to fish the people out and hunt them
down and kill them. I don't believe that's true because
the context here is not the destruction. It's the restoration. He'd already
talked about the destruction up to verse 13. Now he's talking
about the restoration. And what he's talking about,
I believe, is the equivalent of gospel preachers who are fishers
of men who are hunters for the people of God, going throughout
all the world, beginning at Jerusalem, beginning in Judah, beginning
in Israel, to the Jew first and the Greek also, preaching the
gospel of Christ and God calling out His people, not ignoring
their sin. He says, for mine eyes are upon
all their ways. Who does God say? Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. And he says, they're not hid
from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from my eyes. And
look at verse 18, he says, and first I will recompense their
iniquity and their sin double. Now, when you read that, you
say, well, you mean God's going to punish them more than what
they deserve? No. How is it in the scripture
that God always says He's going to recompense their iniquity
and their sin double? How does that happen? Remember,
what is it, Isaiah, I didn't write this down, believe me or
not, I should have. But what is it, Isaiah 40? Let
me turn over and I'll take a glimpse at this. In Isaiah 40, yeah, Isaiah 40
in verse one, look at it. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sins. What's that? Her sins are put
away, forgiven, pardoned. How? By the blood of Christ. And I'll tell you something,
in Isaiah 40 past, you know it's not talking about physical Jerusalem
there. Because they were anything but
peace in peace. They were destroyed here in Jeremiah.
Almost a hundred years after Isaiah. The Lord had given her
double for what? Pardon for all her iniquity by
the blood of Christ and righteousness in him to be justified before
a holy God. Double for all her sins. Look
back at Jeremiah 16 verse 18. And first I will recompense their
iniquity and their sin double, because they have defiled my
land, they have filled my inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable
and abominable things." And that's a good description of all of
us by nature. You see, the Lord will punish
Judah But look on, he says in verse 19, oh Lord. Now this is
Jeremiah's response. He says, oh Lord, my strength
and my fortress and my refuge. This is how he addresses the
Lord. This is how he identifies the God of the covenant. The
God who saves sinners. He's my strength. He's my fortress. He's my refuge. The power of
God in Christ. He is the power of God. the fortress
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect my refuge
we're hidden in the rock Christ Jesus in the day of affliction
look look at the next line now verse 8 and verse 19 in the day
of affliction what the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the
ends of the earth now when Judah returns from the Babylonian captivity
70 years later the Gentiles are not coming in to the kingdom
No, they're not. The only Gentiles that show up
are the Samaritans that tempted the people to intermarry against
the law of God. And that's the beginning of that
hated half-breed race of the Samaritans that were so obnoxious
to the Jews in the New Testament. So there weren't any Gentiles
coming into the kingdom. But here he says, the Gentiles
shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth and shall say,
now here's what they're going to say, listen, surely our fathers
have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no
prophet shall a man make gods unto himself and they are no
gods. Now you know what that is? You
know what he's just described? He's describing repentance there. Oh, I didn't believe anything
but a lie. And vanity, no profit. What did Saul of Tarsus say when
he came to repentance? Paul recorded it in Philippians
3. I count all things but loss, vanity, unprofitable. Those things
that I thought were gain, I count all things but loss for Christ.
And do count them but dung that I may win Christ. You see, that's
the same language here. It's the language of repentance.
I want to show you another verse. Turn over to Micah chapter 5,
though. I want you to see this. Now, here's what's happening.
The Lord is showing these people that even though they're going
into captivity, He has not broken His promise that He gave to Abraham. Oh, no. The Messiah is coming,
and He's coming through this nation, the Jews. And I'm going
to bring the people back to the land, you see. That's going to
be fulfilled. He's going to bring them back.
They're going to come back. They're going to rebuild Jerusalem. They're
going to rebuild the temple. But it's not going to last long.
It's a very small scale. It's not going to last long.
But all of that is to set forth this right here. Now look at
Micah chapter 5 and verse 2. Here's why, here's the reason
for it all. But thou Bethlehem Ephratah, now that's, you know
what Bethlehem is. Ephratah is just another name
for Bethlehem. Though thou be little among the
thousands of Judah, Yet out of thee shall he come forth unto
me, that is, to be ruler in his. Christ had to come out of Judah,
not just the tribe, but out of the land in Bethlehem. Now here's
another piece of information about the Messiah that's revealed
progressively. Abraham didn't know where the
Messiah would be born. Micah did, Bethlehem. And he
says, whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting. That speaks of his deity. And
he says, now look, verse 3, Therefore will he give them up until the
time that she which travaileth hath brought forth, then the
remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. There's the restoration under
the headship of Christ. You see that? Incidentally, back
here in Jeremiah 16, you understand that Babylon Later on, this is
New Testament, becomes a symbol for all false religion from which
the Gentiles come out of as they're brought by the grace of God to
repentance of dead works and faith in Christ. So the Lord
will punish Judah, but he will draw the Gentiles to his grace
and by his grace. He speaks of spiritual Israel,
the ministers of Christ, sowing forth the word of God in the
gospel, seeking Christ's sheep. And they're all sinners who deserve
death, but God has had his eye of grace upon them in Christ
before the foundation of the world. And he gives them double
payment, not meaning they get more than they deserve. We don't
deserve anything. It just means God's justice will
be fully satisfied and righteousness established by the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so Jeremiah worships. Listen
to verse 21. He says, Therefore, behold, I
will this once cause them to know I will cause them to know
mine hand and my might. This is God causing them to know
his hand and his might. Who is his hand and his might?
Christ is his hand and his might. He said, and they shall know
that my name is the Lord. They'll know the covenant God. They'll know that salvation is
by grace. They'll know the mighty Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord our righteousness, as Jeremiah
prophesies of Him in chapter 23 and chapter 33. They'll know
that righteousness is not in them or by them, but in Christ
alone. And that's the hope of the remnant.
God has a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
And they're all saved one way, by one ground, and that is the
Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified and risen.