Turn with me in your Bibles,
please, to Jeremiah chapter 30. Jeremiah chapter 30. I have good
news for you tonight, and I have some bad news. But I will not
let you choose which one I'll tell you first. Look in Jeremiah chapter 30,
and we'll begin with verse 10. Jeremiah chapter 30. verse 10. Jeremiah chapter 30 verse 10.
Fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord. Neither be dismayed,
O Israel, for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed
from the land of their captivity. And Jacob shall return, and shall
be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. For
I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee. Though I make a
full end of all nations, whither I have scattered thee, yet will
I not make a full end of thee. But I will correct thee and measure,
and will not leave thee altogether unpunished. For thus saith the
Lord, thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous. Therefore, there is none to plead
thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up. Thou hast no healing
medicines. All thy lovers have forgotten
thee. They seek thee not. For I have wounded thee with
the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one.
For the multitude of thine iniquity, because thy sins were increased. Why criest thou for thine affliction? Thy sorrow is incurable. For
the multitude of thine iniquity, thy sins were increased. I have
done these things unto thee. Therefore, all they that devour
thee shall be devoured, and all thine adversaries Every one of
them shall go into captivity, and they that spoil thee shall
be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey. I will restore health unto thee. I will heal thee of thy wounds,
saith the Lord, because they called thee an outcast, saying,
This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after. Thus saith the Lord, behold,
I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy
on his dwelling places. And the city shall be built upon
her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner
thereof. And out of them shall proceed
thanksgivings, and the voice of them that make merry. And
I will multiply them, and they shall not be few, I will also
glorify them, and they shall not be small. Their children
also shall be as aforetime, and their congregations shall be
established before me, and I will punish all that oppress them.
and their nobles shall be of themselves, and the governor
shall proceed from the midst of them, and I will cause him
to draw near, and he shall approach unto me. For who is this that
engaged his heart to approach unto me, saith the Lord? And
ye shall be my people, and I will be thy God." Heavenly Father, we pray, That
as we study your word tonight, that we may see again a new and
a fresh, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to glorify
him tonight. Help us to see Jesus. We pray
in Jesus name. Amen. My text is taken from chapter
30, verse 12. For thus saith the Lord, thy
bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous. The title of my message tonight
is Thy Bruise is Incurable. He for sure is talking about
sin. He's talking about iniquity.
He's not talking about a bruise like you would get on your hand.
He's talking about the bruise of sin in the life. And men try
to cure themselves of this bruise of sin. They sew their fig leaves
together. Sin is what a man actually is. He is a sinner by nature. Your sins have separated between
you and your God that he will not hear you, Isaiah said. There is none righteous, said
in Psalm 14 and Romans chapter three, there's none righteous. No, not one. There's none that
understand it. There's none that seeketh after
God. There are none that doeth good. Now that's what God says, but we kind of think that didn't
we seek after God? Didn't we seek after knowledge?
God says, no. You might have sought the wisdom
of the world. You might have gone after doctors and lawyers
and whatever, but you didn't come after God. You didn't seek
the wisdom of God. You didn't understand the wisdom
of God. You didn't do anything righteous
before God, and there's none that doeth good. Look and hold your place there.
Look at Isaiah chapter one. Going along with this, the bruise,
thy bruise is incurable. Now that's from man's point of
view. I'm gonna show you God's point of view in a minute. From
man's point of view, thy sin, thy bruise is incurable. Isaiah chapter one verses five
and six. Why should you be stricken anymore?
Ye will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the
whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot, even
unto the head, there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither
bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Our Lord says to Moses,
he will in no wise clear the guilty. We are guilty before
a holy God. Death has passed upon all men
for that all have sinned. And men try anything to solve
their conscience, salve their conscience, do something to help
themselves out. They'll try self-analysis. They
try self-evaluations. I remember taking an application
one time, and in that application for the job, there was one whole
section on self-evaluation. I just knew I would fail that.
Self-evaluation, self-improvement, self-help. We have psychologists,
psychiatrists. We have counseling. We have analysts. We have all these things in our
world today. But listen to what God says about
that. Thou will keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. I think I believe God.
I think I'll take God in his word. Now I'm not saying that
all these things are wrong and out of place. I am saying that
if you keep your mind on the Lord, he'll keep you in perfect
peace. Be careful for nothing but in
everything by prayer and supplication. Let your requests be made known
unto God and the peace of God which passes all understanding
will keep your hearts and minds. Where? In Christ Jesus. Men try all kinds of things to
solve their, salve their conscience, solve their problems. They try
new environments. We'll build new buildings, and
we'll put these people in new buildings, and they'll turn over
new leaves, and they'll be just hunky dory. Well, that didn't
work out. We spent millions and billions
of dollars back in the 60s to do that, and it didn't work. Well, we'll put them in jail,
and that'll rehabilitate them. They're still the same in jail,
aren't they? And they're still blaming others
for their faults, for their sins. Well, we'll just, we'll salve
our conscience. We'll start going to church.
As a matter of fact, we'll even join the church and we'll start
reading our Bible and we'll maybe give some offerings here and
there. Maybe even we'll even go through baptism and some other
kind of religious acts. And all of a sudden you find
out they're the same as they ever were. Nothing's changed. Because your bruise is incurable. There's no way you can cure yourself
of that bruise of sin and iniquity that's in you. Look at verse
13, Jeremiah 30, verse 13. There is none to plead thy cause. There's not anybody who's going
to go to bat for you. There's not anybody who's going
to stand up for you. There's not a man. As a matter
of fact, God searched for a man to stand in the gap and he found
how many? None. Not one. Who's going to stand for you? There is none to plead thy cause
that thou mayest be bound up. Thou has no healing medicines. There's not a man-made medicine
that will heal you of the bruise of iniquity. Not one. Not one. Men are only capable
of adding iniquity to iniquity. Know what he says? Your sins
have increased. He said it in verse 14. He said
it in verse 15. Thy sins have increased. He tried stopping it. He said,
I'll turn over a new leaf. I'll be good." And it just keeps
on getting worse. Your sins have increased. Job
said it like this, they drink iniquity like water. They're
gulping it down. That's what quenches the thirst
of those who are bruised with iniquity. They drink iniquity
like water. God said it this way. Just before
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, God said it this
way, man is only evil continually. There's not one good thing that
we can say about ourselves. That's the bad news. That's the
bad news. The good news is found in verse
17. For I, will restore health unto thee. I will heal thee of thy wounds,
saith the Lord. I'll heal thee. The healing,
the cure, comes from the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He paid
for our sin. He put away our sin. He purged
our sin. He pardoned our sins. And by
the way, that's the points that I'll be using here in a little
bit. But that's what he did. You see, Christ is our substitute. Hold your place there. Turn back
to Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah 53. Look at verse 5. Remember, thy
wound, thy bruise is incurable. Look at verse 5. But he, and
he's speaking of Jesus Christ, our Lord, but he was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And with his stripes, we are
healed. That's the good news. There's
healing, there's cure with the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Look at verse 10 of chapter 53. Isaiah 53 verse 10. Not only
is he our substitute, but he is also our satisfaction. Not so much our satisfaction,
but he satisfied God. And because he satisfied God
in him, I have satisfied God as well.
We'll see that. Look at verse 10. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Thank the Lord that there's someone
who substituted himself for me, who satisfied the righteous requirements
of God the Father, who justly, righteously lived his life here
on earth without sin, without fault, and he pleased the Father,
stands before the Father, is the righteousness, is the cure
of every sinful soul for whom he died. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. You know, if somebody found a
cure for cancer, don't you think that the world would rush to
get it? The scourge of the ages, the awful thing of cancer that
just eats away and destroys bodies. Some would rush to get it. Now
some would be skeptical about it, because they're always skeptical
about everything else. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
They lifted up that serpent in the wilderness as our brother
this morning told us about looking to Jesus, looking at him. They
said, look at that brass serpent on the pole. Now don't you know
that there were probably hundreds and hundreds of those Israelites
who were bitten who thought, now that's the most ridiculous
thing I ever heard of. Look to Jesus Christ. He paid
for, He purged all of our sin. He pardoned us. Look to Jesus
Christ. He's the cure. And don't you
know that there's a world out there who are skeptical and say,
that's the craziest thing I ever heard. Now to be sure, some didn't have
a need of it. There are those that are God's
people that he has revealed to them that they are sinners before
a holy God and Jesus Christ is the only cure. There are some
that he didn't. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. And also there was a cure for
cancer found Some may not go after that cure because they
don't know that they have it. They don't know that it's already
eaten away in their body. They haven't found out yet. That's
why the preaching of the gospel, as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up that
whosoever believeth in him would not perish, but have eternal
life. I cannot cure myself. I cannot
cure myself. I have a bruise of iniquity that
is in curable. I can't cure myself because I
cannot clear myself of this guilt. All the world has become guilty
before God, Paul said. Someone must put away my sin. I can't do it. As hard as I try
sometimes, I can't do it. Someone must put away my sin,
else I will remain guilty for all eternity. David had sinned, a grievous
sin before God, we call it, but you know what? Sin of pride was
just as bad as any sin David ever committed. Did you ever
think of that? David committed a grievous sin.
He committed adultery, he had a man killed. And he went on for a few months,
a few years without doing anything about it until one day Nathan
came to him and pointed his finger at him and said, David, thou
art the man. And David said, oh no, I've sinned
against the Lord and the Lord should kill me. David said, the Lord also hath put away thy
sin. David was one of God's chosen
people, no doubt about it. And God had put away his sin
long before he had ever committed that sin with Bathsheba, long
before he had ever killed Uriah. Long before that, God had already
put away David's sin in the person of his own son, the Lamb of God,
before the foundation of the world. Jesus Christ had already
put away that sin. You know, that's why I like covenant
grace so much. It's already done. And it was
done in eternity past. Completed by Jesus Christ when
He said it's finished. And then made effectual in me
when He revealed it to me. It's already done. He put away
my sin. I'm not going to stand for my
sin. You know why? Because He did. As a matter of fact, He bore
them all the way to the cross. Look at Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews
chapter 9. We'll come back to Jeremiah 30
here in a little bit. Hebrews chapter 9. I cannot clear myself of this
guilt. Someone has to put away my sin. Hebrews 9 beginning verse 24. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence
of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy place
every year with the blood of others, for then must he often
have suffered since the foundation of the world. Notice this, but
now. But now, once in the end of the
world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself. My sins are put away. They're
gone. He's the sin bearer. He carried
my sins all the way to the cross, and he carried every one of my
sins upon himself. He was made to be sin for us
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. Isaiah said it this way in Isaiah
53, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone
to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all. He is the only cure. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only cure for that bruise of iniquity. I can't cure myself
because of my guilt. I can't cure myself because sin
permeates every fiber of my being. Everything I am, everything I
say, everything I do, everything I think is tainted with this
body of flesh, with this body of sin. As a matter of fact,
the writer of Proverbs said it this way, even the plowing of
the wicked is sin. What's wrong with that? Without God, without hope. non-righteous, non-seeking after
God. Someone must purge me of my sin,
else I'm a sinner through and through for all eternity. Jesus Christ has purged my sin. Back up in Hebrews to chapter
one, beginning with verse one, Hebrews
chapter one, verse one. God, who at sundry times and
in diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
whom he appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the world, who being the brightness of his glory and the express
image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his
power. In case you don't know, That's a description of Jesus
Christ, his son, God's son. He's the one who is all this
and more. And then notice what he says.
When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high. I need to have my sins purged.
The only cure that I could ever have is that Jesus Christ, my
Lord, purge me of my sins. And that word purge means a deep,
deep cleaning. After David had sinned, after
Nathan had pointed it out, after David told him that the Lord
had put away his sin, in Psalm 51, David writes this song, this
song, this prayer, this confession, and he says in verse 7, Purge
me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be
whiter than snow. You do it, Lord. You're the only
cure. You're the only one who can do
this. Iniquities prevail against me, David said, as for our transgressions,
thou shalt purge them away. Why, the iniquity's there. It's
incurable. But you're going to purge them
away. You're going to go right deep in there and take it all
out. Help us, O God, of our salvation, David said, for the glory of
thy name and deliver us and purge away our sins for thy name's
sake. Isaiah said it this way, and
I will turn my hand upon thee and purely purge away thy dross
and take away thy tin, all thy tin. John said it this way. The blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one who can make me clean. I cannot clean myself when it
comes to this matter of sin, that incurable bruise. So Isaiah
says it this way, come now, God speaking, come now, let us reason
together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. I cannot cure myself because
sin imprisons me. It makes a prisoner of me. I'm
enslaved in bondage to sin and to its effects. Someone must pardon me. Isn't
that what the governor does sometimes? Pardon somebody who's in prison. Somebody must pardon me, but
more than pardon me, he must expunge the record. My kids got in trouble when they
were young once. We had to go to court over it. And when we went to court, since
they were minors, of course, dad and mom had to take the brunt
of any punishment that was meted out, and because they were minors,
They put them on record of what they had done, but said at 18
years old, their record would be expunged. Cleared, wiped clean. He pardoned me. He's wiped it
clean. The slate is clean. Before a
holy God, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. For thy name's sake, O Lord,
pardon my iniquity, for it's great. 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 the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the righteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord.
And he will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon." That's what he's done for me.
That's the cure I needed. Because sin imprisons me. He releases me, he pardons me. Who is a God like unto thee that
pardoneth our iniquity and passes by the remnant of his heritage?
He retaineth not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy. I cannot cure myself because
the wages of sin is death. The result of that incurable
bruise is death. And how am I going to pay that
debt? There's only one way. I have to die. But you know what? If I die in and of myself, without hope,
without God in this world, if I die, I take that sin right
with me all the way to the lake of fire. He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still. I take it right to the lake of
fire itself. How many of you want to pay that
sin debt? The sin debt is death. Thank
the Lord there is a cure. Jesus Christ died for us. As an atom all dies, so in Christ
shall all be made alive. Christ died for the ungodly,
Paul said in Romans chapter 5. Even while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for the ungodly. He died for us. He shed his blood. The ransom price has been paid. He redeemed us from the curse
of the law being made a curse for us. He blotted out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, nailing it to the cross. Jesus Christ our Lord is the
cure. He is the cure. He's the Redeemer. He's the one
in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. God spoke through the writers
of Job and said, I have found a ransom. I've found someone. who can pay
the price. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said of himself, the son
of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give
his life a ransom for many. We had no hope. We were without
God in this world and in the world to come unless somebody
stands and pleads for us. Unless somebody died the death
that we deserve. Unless somebody paid for all
the sin that is in us and that we are. Unless somebody pardons
us from that sin that imprisons us. And our help comes from the Lord. Back to Jeremiah chapter 30. Verse 17 again. For I will restore
health unto thee, I will heal thee of thy wounds. And then
look at verse 22. And ye shall be my people. and
I will be your God. Do you think there's any chance
at all that God wouldn't do any of these things that we've been
talking about? If he were to say, I'm going
to be your God and you're going to be my people, Don't you think
that he has the cure? And don't you think that he has
cured? You see, all these things we
spoke about are past tense. He paid for, he put away, he
purchased, he purged, he pardoned. It's all past tense. Already been done. My help comes
from the Lord. Verse 18, he says, I'll bring
again their captivity. Psalmist David said it this way.
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh
my help. My help cometh from the Lord,
which made heaven and earth. He said, but I am poor and needy.
Yet the Lord thinketh on me, thou art my help. and deliverer. You see, we're talking about
Jesus Christ the Lord, our substitute, the one who satisfied the Father
for us, the one who is our surety, and the one who spoke these words,
barely, barely I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth
on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life, there's the
cure. There's the cure. The Lord Jesus
Christ alone has the cure. The Lord Jesus Christ alone is
the cure. So what should I do? Moses day, they lifted up that
servant and said, look, Jesus said in Matthew chapter 11 come
Come unto me all you that labor and heavy laden. I'll give you
rest Come come unto me Paul said in Romans you come in your heart
and With the heart man believeth unto righteousness. You don't
get up and come to the front of a church. You don't get up
and have to go to some preacher or to some so-called father and bow down before him and say,
Father, forgive me. How many so many things do I
have to say or do? You don't have to do all those
things in your heart. You come to the Lord. You don't
move a muscle. Jesus said, all that the father
giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. The spirit and the bride. Say, Come. Let him that heareth say, Come. And whosoever will, let him take
of the water of life freely. Philip, after he had seen Jesus
Christ that John had said, Behold the Lamb of God, Philip went
to be with him for a little bit. And the first thing he did is
he went to find Nathaniel, his buddy. And went to Nathanael
and said, we found the Christ. Nathanael said, can there anything
good thing come out of Nazareth? We found the Christ, Jesus Christ
of Nazareth. Can there anything good come
out of that? You know what Philip said? Come and see. Just come and see. Come in your
heart. You'll see. Let us therefore
come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help. in time of need. I was guilty with nothing to
say and they were coming to take me away but then a voice From
heaven was heard which said, turn him loose, take me instead. I should have been crucified. I should have suffered and died. I should have hung on the cross
in disgrace. But Jesus, God's son, took my
place. Brad, would you lead us in a
verse or two of Jesus Paid It All? 125, if you need it in your hand. Let's stand together and we'll
sing the first and the last. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray, Find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all, All to
Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Fourth verse. And when before
the throne I stand in hymn complete Jesus died my soul to save My
lips shall still repeat Jesus paid it all ? All to him I owe
? ? Sin had left a crimson stain ? ? He washed it white as snow
? Will you dismiss? We'll meet again Wednesday night.
Brother Obie's gonna be speaking for us. Good night. Yeah. Mhm.