Let's open our Bibles to Jeremiah
13. Jeremiah 13. We're going to begin
in verse 15 this evening in our study of the prophecy of Jeremiah. Let me begin this way. Most of
you, if not all of you, but most of you, I know, you're familiar
with what has historically in church history come to be known
as the doctrines of sovereign grace. That's what this church is built
upon because they're the doctrine of Christ. You know, John spoke
of that in second job. He spoke of abiding in the doctrine
of Christ, the teaching that God has for us concerning the
person and work of Christ. And that's really what the doctrines
of grace are. the doctrine of Christ. And these
glorious doctrines, you know, some people like to label them
negatively because they don't believe them. Man by nature doesn't
want any part of this teaching. But they're godly doctrines,
they're scriptural doctrines, they're gospel doctrines. That's
the way I see it. These are gospel doctrines. The
gospel is good news to a sinner, the scripture says. And the doctrines
of grace begins that way. We talk, you're familiar with
the acrostic of TULIP. Most people, it's a good way
of remembering. T standing for total depravity. The title of the message tonight
is the total depravity of man. And I'll show you why in just
a moment. But total depravity, you know what the doctrine of
total depravity teaches us? It teaches us why we need salvation
by God's grace in Christ. We're sinners. We cannot save
ourselves. And even our best is not good
enough or powerful enough to save us or to make us holy. even our best. Man at his best
states altogether vanity. You know, that's just another
way of stating the doctrine of total depravity. Man at his best
state. Vanity. That means worthless. Man hates that because he thinks
too highly of himself. Somebody says, well, I'm not
perfect, but I'm not as bad as some. The doctrine of total depravity
does not teach that everybody is as bad as we could be. Well, what a world we'd live
in if everybody was as bad, including us now as we could be. And then the U stands for unconditional
election that God chose a people before the foundation of the
world in Christ. Put all of the responsibility
of our salvation upon his son is the surety of the covenant.
People hate that because they want to think salvation is the
difference between saved and lost is their choice, not God's.
But this is what the Bible teaches. And the L stands for limited
atonement. That means Christ died for his people and he saved
every one of them and they're going to be brought to him. He
paid the price. Some people don't like the word
limited because they think it It's saying that the atonement
is limited in its power, but that's not what it means at all.
It's limited in its scope, but not its power. So some prefer
the term particular redemption. I like either one. I mean, it's
fine with me. I know this, Christ said, all
that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh
to me, I will no wise cast out. He said, this is the will of
him that sent me that of all which he had given me. When did
he give him to him? He says it before the foundation
of the world. Their names were written in the
Lamb's book of life from the found before the foundation as
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And then the I stands for irresistible
or invincible grace. That's the power of the Holy
Spirit in his in his work of regeneration and conversion the
new birth. where he powerfully and invincibly
and irresistibly sent of the father and the son to impart
life and knowledge and grace and faith and repentance and
all those things that are applied to us. It's what I've been preaching
on Sunday mornings on the spiritual realm of salvation, the washing
of regeneration. The washing of the word, there's
the giving of the new heart. If you've got a new heart, you
won't resist the grace of God. That old heart will. The circumcised
heart, the cleansed heart, the cleansed conscience. And then
the P stands for perseverance of the saints. Some say preservation,
they go together. God preserves his people and
his people persevere. They cannot lose salvation because
they will not and cannot leave Christ. And he won't let us go. Now here in Jeremiah 13, there's
three chapters here. This is the conclusion of those
three chapters, chapter 11, 12, and 13, where Jeremiah As he was verbally and inherently
inspired by God to preach to his nation, Judah, the nation
going down the tubes. And he's in these three chapters,
what he's been prophesying of is the curses of the broken covenant. 11, 12, and 13, the curses of
the broken covenant. And we've talked about that covenant.
How that Israel in the land of Palestine, the promised land,
they were under a conditional covenant, conditioned on the
nation. And they broke it. They broke
it. And in breaking that covenant,
which God knew they would do, this didn't take God by surprise
now. This was foreordained of God.
In breaking that covenant, they incurred the curses of that broken
covenant. And the curses was the land would
dry up, the crops wouldn't grow, the people would be, they would
suffer, pestilence, sickness, all kinds of things that they
went through. And ultimately, they'd be taken captive. Ultimately,
even in the future, they'd be destroyed. The nation would be
destroyed. And so what Jeremiah is actually
doing in these three chapters, and as we bring this to a close,
you'll see this even more graphically, he's been exposing, by revelation
from God, the total depravity, the total sinfulness, the total
depravity, not only of Israel, the nation Israel, but of all
of us by nature. Summed up in chapter 13 in the
first few verses here, look at verse 10, it says, this evil
people, chapter 13, verse 10, this evil people, which refuse
to hear my words. Now what he's describing there
is not just the dregs of society, not just the perverted of the
society, but even the highest. He's describing the priest. and
even the false prophets, the religious majority in Israel,
this evil people which refuse to hear my words. You take a
religious man or woman who's doing their dead level
best to keep the Ten Commandments, let's say, I had a man tell me
one time he had a bracelet on his left wrist and he had the
Ten Commandments written there and I was trying to talk to him
about salvation and by the grace of God and he looked at me and
he said, he said, right there is my salvation. Talking about
the Ten Commandments. Now do you know what that is?
That's total depravity. A man can't, that boggles man's
mind. Natural man, he just, Preacher,
what are you talking about? Are you crazy? That's what Jeremiah is saying.
Jeremiah, you're crazy. And you remember his family,
his hometown folks, and Anathos said, now you don't speak that
way anymore or we'll kill you. That's how bad it got. Look at
verse 11. He talks about, in the last phrase
of verse 11, he says, but they would not hear. They wouldn't
hear what? They won't hear the word of God.
They won't hear the gospel. They don't want to hear about
their own sinfulness and depravity and their need of salvation by
the grace of God in Christ. That God alone saves sinners. They don't want to hear that,
you see. Why? That's total depravity. Right
there. He sums it up over in our text
here in verse 23. Look at it. We've quoted this verse for years,
haven't you? You've heard it for years. Jeremiah 13, 23. Can the Ethiopian change his
skin or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that
are accustomed to do evil. Now I'm going to get to that
verse in just a moment, but here's what, here's the answer to the,
it's a rhetorical question because the answer is so obvious. in
the Word of God. It's not obvious to the natural
man. Can the Ethiopian change his skin? No, he's born that
way. Can the leopard change his spots?
No, he's born that way. Then can you that are accustomed,
can you do good that are accustomed? No, we're born that way. We fell
in Adam. This world and all of its inhabitants
is ruined. Ruined. So wherein lies the total depravity
of man? Now, when you think of that word
depravity, as I said, and I want to emphasize this, when most
people hear the word depraved, what do they think of? They think
of the dregs of society. They think of the child molesters,
or they think of the drug pushers, or the prostitutes, and people
like that. These two guys that blew up that
bomb in Boston, it's who you think of. And let me tell you
something, they're right. That is total depravity. That
is. Awful, awful things of which
we're all capable were it not for the restraining hand of God. But if you want to see The essence
of total depravity. What it means and how it shows
itself. I want you to look here at these
verses. The essence of it now. Now this is the essence of it.
And this is an offensive message to the natural man. I just warned
you beforehand. But listen to the word of God.
Now, first of all, he deals with natural man's rejection of the
light of God's glory. That's the first thing. Look
at verse 15. He says, hear ye and give ear. Now they'd already
said, they will not hear. Sorry. He said, they refuse to
hear my words, but yet God commands now hear ye and give it. God told Jeremiah to go preach
to him, but you know, he said he told Isaiah about a hundred
years before this to go preach to him. But you know what he
said? He said, they won't hear you. They won't hear you. Hear ye and give ear, be not
proud. Now we've already seen where
their pride lay. My people have committed two
great evils. Jeremiah two, remember. You said
this evil people over here in Jeremiah 13, they've committed
two great, they've rejected, they've rejected the fountain
of living waters. That's Christ. He's the, didn't
he say that to the woman at the well? In John chapter four, he
said, he that drinketh the water that I give, it'd be like fountains
of waters flowing up. He's the fountain of living waters,
God in Christ. The water, he said, the water
of life, you see. He's the water that cleanses
us from our sins. He's the water that quenches,
blessed are they who thirst, hunger and thirst after righteousness.
You see, he's the one who feeds that hunger and quenches that
thirst because he is our righteousness. So he says, be not proud. They've
rejected the fountain of living waters and they've hewn out for
themselves cisterns that'll hold no water. That's their works. That's man religion. You see,
he says, for the Lord has spoken. Now you see that this is very,
very important here now. You know, whenever we refuse
to hear what God says, that's pride. You see the colon there
after the word proud? He says, be not proud. Well,
what do you mean, Jeremiah? Well, the Lord's spoken and you
won't hear him. That's pride. You think you know
better than God? Do I think I know better than
God? When God speaks, that settles it. I've told you several times
about the marquee outside of a church I saw when I was driving
through a particular town down south. And it said, God said
it, I believe it, that settles it. And I told the man whose
way I said, they need to remove that middle line, I believe it.
Because your belief in it and my belief in it doesn't settle
anything. God said it settles everything. Isn't that right? It should be
God said it, that settles it, I believe it. You see, our belief
doesn't settle anything. Our believing doesn't even settle
our salvation. Now what, preacher, are you saying
we don't have to believe? No, I'm not saying that at all.
Our believing doesn't settle it. You know what settled the
salvation of God's people? Jesus Christ and Him crucified
and risen. He's the surety. You see, I'm
not the surety of my salvation. My believing didn't put into
effect or enable or empower His work on the cross. He's the surety
of my salvation. Look at verse 16, now here's
the key. Give glory to the Lord your God. Now total depravity has to be
viewed and defined in light of the glory of God. And let me
tell you when total depravity really shows itself, it's when
sinners fail to glorify God. whether they're in a religious
edifice with millions of people on their knees praying or whether
they're down in the dregs of society doing something awful
in the sight of man. When sinners fail to give glory
to God, look at it, verse 16, give glory to the Lord your God
before he calls darkness and before your feet stumble. You
see, without the glory of God, there's nothing but darkness.
There's nothing but stumbling upon the dark mountains. And
while you look for light, he turned it into the shadow of
death and make it gross darkness. We've already seen the problem
of pride within us all by nature. God has spoken and we won't listen.
Remember we read last time over Matthew 13, when the disciples
asked the Lord, why do you speak in parables? And let me just
read you this. This is Matthew 13, 15, just
to refresh your memory. He said, for this people's heart
is waxed gross. The heart starts out hard and
spiritually dead, and then it just gets harder and harder.
And their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they've closed
lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear
with their ears. Now there's willful blindness,
willful deafness, and should understand with their heart,
willful ignorance and should be converted. And I should heal
them. They don't want to be converted.
Now, what does that mean? All right. When the gospel of
God's free and sovereign grace is preached to in Israel or in
Judah or to our group or to anybody man by nature, he doesn't want
to be converted. Well, why wouldn't anybody want
to be converted? Well, what does that mean? That
means you've got to let go of your works, of your righteousness,
of your false hope, and you've got to turn to Christ and him
alone for all salvation. That's what they don't want.
I'm not going to let go of my experiences and my past and everything
that I've done and worked so hard for. Huh? That's what it is, isn't it?
The light, remember John 3, 19 and 20, this is the condemnation
that light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather
than the light because their deeds are evil. Man doesn't want
to be converted in this sense. He doesn't want to admit that
all my deeds are evil. In other words, if Lord, if thou
Lord, should us mark iniquities, who would stand? If God were
to judge me based on my best, not my worst now, I know, I know
about my work, but if God were to judge me based on my best,
that I would deserve and earn eternal damnation. I want any
part of that. That's the natural man. It's
Christ alone. Isn't it for salvation? Christ will not save, save centers
who want to bring in their baggage with them and conversion won't
do that. This is why the preaching of
the cross is foolishness to man by nature. You want to see total
depravity? First Corinthians 1.18, the preaching
of the cross is foolishness to them that are perishing. That's
where total depravity is shown forth and evidenced in all of
its darkness is in a sinner's reaction to the preaching of
the cross. That's right. Well, what's the answer? Well,
he says it here, give glory to the Lord your God. That's the
answer. Well, how are we going to give
glory to God? Turn to Romans chapter 4. Let me tell you about
Abraham. He's set up by God as a prime
example of a sinner saved by grace, God justifying the ungodly,
and of the faithful. And look there at verse 20. It
says that he there is Abraham, Romans 4.20. He, Abraham, he
staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Do you know the worst
thing that you can do unto God is to not believe him? That cast,
listen, that cast reproach upon every attribute of God's care.
Here's God who promised to save sinners by his grace through
Christ and engaged his glory and swore an oath. And he will
not take it back. He said, and we don't believe
him. This is the maker, the God who
created this universe, the God who is in control of it all,
and we don't believe him? Well, it says Abraham believed
God. And he gave glory to God. And verse 21 says, and being
fully persuaded that what God had promised, God was able to
perform. Now obviously he's speaking of
the sending of Isaac there, but that doesn't stop with Isaac.
Isaac was the progenitor of the human body of Christ, the humanity
of Christ. He would come through that seed.
And Christ himself said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he
saw it and he was glad. And he says in verse 22, and
therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. What was imputed
to him? What God promised him. was imputed
to him. What did God promise him? A Savior,
who is Christ the Lord, who is the consolation of Israel, who
is Emmanuel, God with us. That's what God promised him,
salvation by the blood and the righteousness of Christ. That
righteousness was imputed to him. And he says, now it wasn't
written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for
us also to whom it shall be imputed. If we believe on him that raised
up Jesus, our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses
and was raised again for our justification. That's how you
give glory to God. Looking to Christ, who is the
embodiment of the glory of God, whose work on the cross is the
glorification of God in its manifestation. In other words, you'll see every
attribute of God honored and magnified in Christ on that cross,
redeeming his people from their sins, putting away sin, establishing
righteousness. And I'll tell you, until we see
our natural depravity, we will not believe the Holy Spirit.
You know what? In John 16, there was talk where Christ is talking
to his disciples about the work of the Holy, the convicting work
of the Spirit. Give him three things there,
John 16, eight through 11. He said, what's the first thing
the Holy Spirit convinces us of, of sin, because they believe
not on Christ. That's where total depravity
is sent. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? If you don't,
right, there's the total depravity. You may be the most religious
person in town. You may be the most dedicated.
They may give you the key to the city tomorrow, but if you
don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, total depravity right
there. You say, well, preacher, are
you saying I might as well go out and blow up people? No, sir,
I'm not. I'm just telling you the truth
of how God sees things. We'll look back at Jeremiah 13.
I look at verse 17. The next thing he brings forth
is natural man's love for bondage. You wouldn't think anybody loved
bondage. Natural man does. Listen to this. In verse 17,
he says, but if you will not hear, my soul shall weep in secret
places for your pride. This is Jeremiah the prophet
weeping for his people. And mine eyes shall weep sore
and run down with tears because the Lord's flock is carried away
captive. Now that's his flock of Israel
under that old covenant in a temporal ceremonial way. This is not talking
about the sheep of Christ in John 10. Well, look at verse
18. He says, say unto the king and
to the queen, and that was probably King Jehoiachin at this time,
also known as Jeconiah in the Bible, second Kings. And, uh,
and the queen there is probably Nehushtah, a woman named Nehushtah. She was the widow of Jehoiakim. All of that just to show you
that this was very, very close. It's about 597 BC, probably very,
very close to the time that Nebuchadnezzar is coming down with his army
to start the process. And it says, he says, humble
yourselves, sit down for your principalities, that is all the
things that you rule over, shall come down, even the crown of
your glory, man's glory, whatever it is. Paul wrote in Galatians
6.14, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if we glory, boast, have
confidence of salvation in anything but Christ and him crucified,
that's total depravity. Did you know that? That's total
depravity. Man's glory, let not the wise
man glory in his, let not the rich man glory in his riches.
Let not the mighty man glory in his might. Remember that in
Jeremiah nine, verse 23. He says, verse 19, the cities
of the South shall be shut up and none shall open them. Judas
shall be carried away captive, all of it. It shall be wholly
carried away captive. Now, the whole picture here,
is man in bondage, the bondage of sin, the bondage of self-love,
the bondage of pride, the bondage of self-righteousness, the bondage
of darkness, and he doesn't know it's bondage. But he still loves
it. And he says in verse 20, lift
up your eyes and behold them that come from the north, that's
Babylon, where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful
flock, where are they now? He says, what wilt thou say when
he shall punish thee, for thou hast taught them to be captains
and his chief over thee, that is the Babylonians will be their
captains and their chiefs now, shall not sorrows take thee as
a woman in travail? A woman in childbirth, that pain
and sorrow, all of this. You see, the Lord God alone is
the glory of Israel. And here they were, headed toward
bondage but they were already in bondage and they loved it.
It's the bondage of self-righteous religion. It's the bondage that
Christ delivers his people from. That's why Paul wrote in Galatians
5 and verse 1, Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke
of bondage. That legalism. That religion
of man's works and efforts, trying to earn his way into God's favor,
trying to establish a righteousness of his own, that's bondage. He
thinks it's freedom, but it's bondage. That's what man desires by nature
because it gives him pride. That's the bondage of pride.
But they're headed toward it. And then look at verse 22. Now
here's thirdly, natural man's inability to save himself. He
says, and if thou say in thine heart, wherefore come these things
upon me? Now, why is this happening to
me? That's what that's. And when it happens, they're
going to look at themselves and they're going to say, why is
this happening? All right. Well, he says for the greatness of
thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered in thy heels made
bare. And what this is going to do,
what he's saying here, and I'll say a little bit more about this
in a few minutes, but it's all, everything's going to be exposed.
Their guilt, their shame, their efforts, their false message.
You remember the message of the false prophets, peace when there
was no peace. Well, that's all going to be
exposed. They're going to, their nakedness. They thought they
were righteous in God's sight. They had no righteousness. That's
what it means. The skirts discovered. Like Adam and Eve's fig leaves
stripped off and their nakedness exposed. And their guilt and
their shame, just like those in Matthew seven, Lord, haven't
we prophesied? Haven't we cast out demons? He
said, iniquity, iniquity, all that's going to be gone. And
it'll be exposed. But look at verse 23. Can the
Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spot? Then may
ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil. Now I want you to
notice something about this. Now this, what I'm about to say
is very offensive to the natural man, but it's just the truth.
He does not speak of unwillingness here. He'd spoken of that before. Is man by nature unwilling to
come to Christ? Yes. But that's not what he speaks
of here. You know what he speaks of here?
Inability. Now wherein lies man's inability? Now the natural man, he has a
heart. What is the heart? It's the mind,
the affections. He's got a mind, he's got affections,
he's got a will. He's got passions. Paul wrote
of that in Romans seven, when we were in the flesh there, he
said the passions of sin, the desires, he was passionate, which
were by the law. Paul's talking about his religion,
his false religion. Man has ears to hear and he can
hear some things with understanding. I mean, you think about it. There's
people who have PhDs and scientific degrees. They can understand
a lot of very complicated things that I can't even begin to think
of to understand. I went into a, my dad, when I
was in college, he wanted me to major in civil engineering.
I didn't want to, but I did try to just once to please him. I
went into a calculus class. The first day of class, the professor
got in there and he wrote a big formula that reached from one
end of the board to the other. And he turned around and he asked
the whole class, he said, now how many of you know the answer
to that? And everybody in that class raised their hand except
me. I said, this is not where I'm supposed to be. So I had to get out of there.
God just didn't give me a mind like that. But you see, the natural
man, he can understand a lot of things. But wherein lies his
inability, his ignorance? It's in spiritual things. Turn
to Romans 3. That's what Paul describes here.
He's spiritually dead. Now, he's not spiritually half
dead. He's spiritually all dead, spiritually
speaking. Look at verse 10 of Romans 3. As it is written, there's none
righteous, no, not one. That's in God's sight, according
to God's standard of righteousness. The best of men, the worst of
men. There's none righteous, no, not one. Verse 11, there's
none that understandeth. Now what is it that none understand?
The way of God's grace, the way of salvation. Man cannot figure
that out. How God can be just and justify
the ungodly. Where'd that come from? Einstein
didn't think about it. He didn't come up with it. Thomas
Edison didn't come up with that. No, no man has. That's of God. That's the gospel of God. Paul
said, this gospel that I'm preaching, I didn't get it from man. I received
it from God. It's the gospel of God. He says,
there's none that seeketh after God. Now notice he didn't say
there's none that seeketh after a God, but the true and living
God. Verse 12, they are all gone out
of the way. What way? God's way. Christ is the way,
the truth, and the life. He says, they're together become
unprofitable, the best and the worst. And he says, there's none
that doeth good, no, not one. That is in God's sight. That's what Jeremiah is saying.
Can the Ethiopian change his skin? Can the leopard change
his body? Then how are you going to do good? In the sight of God
now. Not in the sight of men, but
in the sight of God, who are accustomed to doing evil. Man
cannot do good in God's sight. He's a sinner. And this speaks
of sinful man's inability to do good in God's sight. It speaks
of sinful man's inability to save himself from sin. We can't
do that. No amount of progress. I heard
a couple of fellas talking down south. They talked about how
the scientists are saying that in the near future that people
will live to be 150 years old. That's nothing compared to Methuselah. And he died. Man cannot conquer
sin. He cannot conquer depression.
This speaks of sinful man's inability to make himself righteous before
holy God. You can't do it. Wash it clean. Go to church. Wear your knees
out praying. Get baptized a thousand times
in the Jordan River. You cannot make yourself righteous
before God. If there's any righteousness
with us, it's from God in Christ by His grace. This is sinful
man's inability to give himself spiritual life. Man's spiritually
dead, he can't raise himself from the dead. This is sinful
man's inability to see the glory of God in Christ. And here's
where what we naturally see is a tension. Now this is the way
we think of it. A tension between God's sovereignty
and man's responsibility. And that's where this shows forth.
And to be honest, we do not have the logical answer within our
own limited puny minds to figure that out. We don't. Both truths
are set forth in the Bible. God is sovereign. Man is responsible. Now, man by nature either denies
one or the other, or by the grace of God, he bows to both. That
right? The Bible tells us that God works
all things after the counsel of His own sovereign will in
His way by His power to His glory. There are secret things that
God doesn't let us in on. They belong to Him. There are
revealed things that God commands us to do. They belong to us.
God is not somewhere behind the scene cleaning up the messes
that He did not intend for us to make. He's not behind the
scenes altering His plans to accommodate and fix what went
wrong. He's not countering our moves
with alterations in his own plans or enacting some kind of plan
B. And the greatest testimony of that is the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Peter said it at Pentecost, talking
about Christ being delivered by the determinant counsel and
foreknowledge of God. But he says, you took him and
with wicked hands, you crucified him and slain him. In Acts chapter
4, he spoke of the whole world rising up in opposition to that
holy, holy child, Jesus, whom God had anointed, and he said
to do whatsoever God's hand and God's counsel determined before
to be done. Acts 4, 28. You see, God is sovereign, man
is accountable. What's the point of it all then?
Well, the point of Jeremiah's prophecy is this. It's to show
forth that salvation's of the Lord and not of man. totally
of God's sovereign mercy and grace, and that God alone is
glorified in our salvation, to show us our need of the grace
and power of God in Christ for all of salvation, to show the
need for the new covenant, remember he preaches on that later on,
to humble us so that we glory in nothing but Christ. Oh, I
tell you how we ought to be so thankful. If we know Christ, If we're resting in Christ for
all salvation, do you realize how much of a miracle of God's
sovereign grace that is? Look at verse 24. He says, therefore,
I will scatter them as stubble that passeth away by the wind
of the wilderness. You see, this is sinful man's
deservedness of punishment, wages of sin. Man's accountable now.
You can't change it, he says. No more than the Ethiopian can
change his skin or the leopard his spot. But he said, I'm going
to hold you accountable. You say, well, that doesn't sound
fair to me. I'm going to tell you something. This is God doing
this. It's fair. It's just, it's right. Verse 25, this is thy lot, the
portion of thy measures from me when God measures it all out.
When God measures it all out at judgment, how in the world
am I, a sinner, going to be found righteous in his sight? Paul
said it, that I may know him and be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God, which
is by faith. This saith the Lord, verse 25,
because thou hast forgotten me and trusted in falsehood. Verse
26, therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that
thy shame may appear. That's what he said back up there
in verse 22. Sinful man's shame and guilt,
man's righteousness will be exposed as filthy rags. His works as
iniquity. Oh, how we need Christ. He's our only hope. In verse
27, I've seen thine adulteries and thy names. That word there,
you think about a horse name, but what he's talking about is
the strong desire and passion for these things. The lewdness
of thy whoredom and thine abominations on the hills and the fields,
that's where their idolatry was. Then he says, woe unto thee,
O Jerusalem, will thou not be made clean? When shall it once
be? The sense is this. And what he's
saying is, how long before you're made clean, oh Jerusalem, is
there any hope for you? That's what he's asking. When
will Israel be made clean? I'll tell you exactly when. When
Christ comes to put away our sins. Speaking of spiritual Israel. Oh, Zachariah, you remember,
he was a prophet in the return. 70 years later when they returned, And he said this in Zechariah
13, 1, he said, in that day, there shall be a fountain open
to the house of David, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for
sin and uncleanness. And who's he talking about? He's
talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. When will Israel be clean? When Christ comes to do his great
work of putting our sins away and establishing righteousness
for us. That's when. All right.