Jeremiah 23, Christ the Lord
our righteousness. I put in your lesson here just
a little bit of a paragraph at the beginning to give you some
of the setting that's coming forth here. Jeremiah prophesied
in Jerusalem and it says through the final five kings of Judah
leading up to the Babylonian captivity, the Babylonian destruction. And that was God's judgment upon
the people for their idolatry, for their unbelief. And there's
a verse back, two verses back in, or one verse rather, back
in Jeremiah chapter two. I've got it listed here in your
lesson. It's Jeremiah 2.13. And what
it does, it describes the sin of the people Metaphorically
by two in two ways and it says in Jeremiah 2 and verse 13 says
for my God says through the prophet He says for my people have committed
two evils Now you think about that? Committed two evils. Well, you know, they've committed
more than two I mean, we're all sinners and being being spiritually
dead and totally depraved by nature the sins There are multiple
sins. We have no way of counting them
But what the Lord is doing here, he's showing that everything
is consummated in these two evils. And he says here, what they've
done is they have first, it says, they've forsaken me, the fountain
of living waters. They've forsaken the Lord. They've
forsaken God's way of salvation. The Bible tells us about the
unbelieving Israelites, how they sought righteousness by the works
of the law and not by faith in Christ as the promised Messiah.
And that's what happened. They forsaken the fountain of
living waters. They forsaken God's way of salvation. And then the second evil, he
says, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns like wells that
can hold no water. So they've forsaken God's way
and they've tried to construct their own way, which is the way
of salvation by works. And everything falls under those
two great evils. When you think about it, all
sin is related to that because when we see that without Christ,
we're nothing but sin. And the only thing we can do
is sin. And so, These two things is kind of a summary of the whole
issue that God has against these people. And he sought, he brought
Jeremiah into the picture to warn them. And you know, one
of the things in Jeremiah's prophecy, you know, they called him the
weeping prophet. The false preachers called him the burden of the
Lord. And the reason they called him that is because he never
had anything good to say about him. and that he was a burden
to them. And what we see here is that
Jeremiah was telling the people that God's judgment was coming,
that they, and he included, deserved God's judgment, and they might
as well accept it. And they were gonna be going
into captivity for 70 years in Babylon. Now when they went into
captivity, Jeremiah himself, he was taken to Egypt and he
died there. So these first few verses of
Jeremiah 23 are a pronouncement of God's judgment upon the people
for their sins. And look what he says in verse
one. Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the
sheep of my pastor, saith the Lord. Now right away, What we see is
that God's judgment is coming down upon them mainly because
they're listening to false preachers. They're listening to false shepherds
who are telling them a false message. And the mainstay of
their false message, think about it this way. Here Jeremiah comes
and he says, God's judgment is coming upon us for their sins.
These false preachers who way outnumbered Jeremiah and any
other true preacher who was there, way outnumbered him, they were
speaking peace. They were saying, peace, peace,
when there was no peace. They were saying, it's okay,
you're all fine, we're the people of God, we're doing well, God's
not gonna bring any judgment on us. So you see the message,
and it's like today. In false Christianity, that's
what preachers do. People don't believe the gospel,
they don't know the gospel. They're ignorant of the righteousness
of God, which can only be found in Christ, and these preachers
are saying, peace, peace, you're saved, you're all right, settle
down. And then God's true preachers
are telling them the opposite, that look, unless you have a
righteousness that equals and answers the demands of God's
law and justice, if you're found standing before God without Christ
and his righteousness imputed, you're gonna perish. And that's
why you need to seek the Lord. So he says these pastors, they're
trying to scatter the sheep of my pasture. I'm sure, and you can read this
all throughout the Old Testament, when it comes to false preachers.
I don't believe these false preachers were had in mind, say, getting
up and preaching that message, and now I'm trying to scatter
and destroy. Look at verse two. Therefore,
thus saith the Lord God of Israel against pastors that feed my
people, you have scattered my flock and driven them away and
have not visited them. Now that visiting doesn't mean
just showing up at their house. That visiting means to preach
a message of comfort and fellowship with them in that comfort that
can only come through Christ. He says, you've not visited them.
Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith
the Lord. I don't believe these false shepherds came along and
said, no, my goal is to scatter the sheep and destroy them. I'm sure they thought this is
the message that God would have me preach. It's kind of like
I've gotten in the margin of my lesson here. The blind leading
the blind, and they all fall in the ditch together. And that's
the situation. False shepherds. Christ spoke
of it in the Sermon on the Mount when he spoke of wolves in sheep's
clothing. ravening wolves. And here's what
he said, here's what Jeremiah said about these false shepherds.
They got about four, five things here. He said they were greedy
and covetous. He said they gave the people
false peace. As we said, peace, peace, when
there was no peace. He charged them with denying
God's judgment against sin. They did. They said, you're okay. God's not gonna, forget you and
punish you. He said their message was not
the word of God, it was their own thoughts, and that's key
to false preachers. They don't preach the word of
God, they preach their own thoughts, their own ideas, and it's a false
gospel. It's a gospel of salvation conditioned
on sinners, it's a gospel that puts forth righteousness and
holiness on a sliding scale, you know how it goes. And then
Jeremiah said, they preached their dreams and visions and
kept God's word for the people. You know, Isaiah had the same
problem, didn't he? He said, let them who have their
dreams, preach their dreams. Those who have visions, preach
their visions. And Isaiah 8 and verse 20, he
said, to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to
this word, there's no light in them. And that's why I noticed
on the television program this morning, I was preaching from
1 John chapter 4, the beginning verses there, where he says,
try the spirits. And I told people on that program,
I said, what we have to do, we've got to listen critically. And
what I mean by that is not that we're trying to listen to find
something wrong. I know people who do that now.
I know people who listen to preachers trying to find something wrong,
trying to find something to argue about, to debate on. And that's
not what I'm saying when I say listen critically. What I'm saying
is listen to know and find and search out, are they telling
me the truth? Are they preaching the word of
God? And that's what Isaiah said to
the law and to the testimony, if they preach not according
to this word, There's no light in them. And that's how we're
to do it. We talk about the Bereans who they heard Paul preach and
they went and they searched the scriptures to see if these things
were true. And that's what we're to do.
We're responsible to do that. We're not just to swallow what
the preacher says hook, line, and sinker without testing him
by the word of God. And that's why on my end of it,
it's so important that I make sure that when I go into the
scripture, That's the word of God. Look back up in chapter
22, verse 29, right before. Listen to what Jeremiah says
here. Oh, earth, earth, earth. I can
just see the anguish in his voice here. Oh, earth, earth, earth. Hear the word of the Lord. Hear the word of the Lord. And
that's what I wanna hear. I've often said that the word
of God is infallible, but our messages are not. But, hold on
to that thought, the gospel we preach is infallible if it's
the true gospel. There's only one gospel. And
look here, go back to chapter 23, look at verse three, he says,
I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries
whether I've driven them, and will bring them again to their
folds, and they shall be fruitful and increase." Now Jeremiah has
in mind, and we know this because of the following verses that
come here, he has in mind the spiritual Israel of God. For example, this didn't happen
to the physical nation. Now we know that after the 70
year captivity, that God brought them back into Jerusalem and
they rebuilt the temple, but there were very few of them.
Somebody said that all total that came back out of Babylon,
there was about 50,000, and the rest of them stayed because they
wanted to stay there. Well, a lot of them had grown
up there 70 years. So they stayed. And so they basically
had forsaken the word of God. But he says, I'm gonna gather
that remnant, and verse four he says, I will set shepherds
over them which shall feed them. That's godly pastors and prophets
who preach the gospel, who preach the word of God. And he says,
they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they
be lacking, saith the Lord. Now how do you know he's talking
about spiritual Israel? Well, hold on to that thought,
because we're coming to the mainstay of this message, because he relates
the gospel here. But it's in every generation,
God has always had an elect remnant, whom he's called out under the
gospel by the power of the Spirit, bring them to be submitted to
the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel, which is Christ's
righteousness, not our own, his righteousness imputed, and brought
them together under that message. And I want to tell you something.
Our thoughts and our attitude toward that ought to be so much
in thanksgiving and humility. We know the truth, we know the
gospel. And where is it found? Well,
look at these next two verses. Look at verse five. Behold, the
days come, saith the Lord. Now he's talking, this is prophecy,
and he's talking about a future day. And what days are there gonna
be, saith the Lord? Well, here it is. I will raise
unto David a righteous branch. Now we know who he's talking
about there. He's talking about Christ. Here's the good news.
And think about it in Jeremiah's setting here. He's telling the
people that their nation's gonna be destroyed, they're gonna be
put into captivity under an idolatrous foreign government for 70 years,
but there's still hope for our souls. There's still hope for
salvation, but it's not in the earthly nation. It's not in the
earthly land. It's not in the earthly temple.
It's in a righteous branch. Christ, this is the Messiah.
And it says, raised unto David. What do you mean unto David?
Well, Christ in his humanity was brought on into this earth
in his humanity, sinless humanity, in the line of David, a branch,
so to speak. And Isaiah, I think, called him
the branch of Jesse, who was David's father. So this is speaking
of the humanity of Christ in the perfection of his humanness,
because that's who it took to save us from our sins. It's this
kind of a savior. that we need. Over in Hebrews
chapter two, it said, it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren. Because our sins had been imputed
to him, and because he agreed to be our surety and to come
and do what was required, meet all the conditions of the covenant,
he had to substitute himself in that humanity to die for our
sins. And it says here, a king shall
reign and prosper. This is his, deity, the King
of Kings. This is the godly King, the Messiah
King, the King Messiah, who is both God and man in one person. And how is he going to save us
from our sins? You know, that's what the whole
issue, his name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save us from
our sins. And how shall he do it? Look
at it. Here's how he's gonna do it. And shall execute operate,
he shall fulfill judgment and justice in the earth. That's
how he's gonna do it. Yes, we can talk about mercy.
Yes, we can talk about grace and love. But to talk about those
things apart from the execution of judgment and justice is empty,
without power. Christ is the power of God unto
salvation because therein is the righteousness, the justice
of God revealed from faith to faith. And he executes judgment
and justice by substituting himself in our place and dying the death
that we deserved and earned. And he became a propitiation,
a sin bearing sacrifice who brings satisfaction to the justice of
God. Righteousness and peace, kissing
each other, coming together. God is both a just God and a
savior. This is the gospel. This is the
righteousness of God. Look at verse six. In his days,
Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. Now he's
talking about the days of the Messiah. And Christ, when he
came into the earth, he didn't save physical Judah or physical
Israel. He saved spiritual Judah, spiritual
Israel. What did Paul say in Romans 2?
He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, and circumcision is
not out of the flesh. He's a Jew which is one inwardly,
and circumcision is that of the heart. Who are the Israel of
God? Paul said those who who testify
that God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Christ
and that cross is his obedience unto death which brought forth
righteousness. This is spiritual Israel, spiritual
Judah, the elect of God out of every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation over all time. This is who Christ came to save.
And he said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And it says,
this is his name, verse six, whereby he shall be called the
Lord our righteousness. Now can it get any clearer? This
thing of salvation. This thing of having a right
relationship with God, this thing of forgiveness of sin, it's all
about righteousness established by the Lord Jesus Christ as the
surety, the substitute, and the redeemer of his people, this
remnant. And this is the ground upon which
we stand before God. Think about that. We stand washed
in the blood of Christ, clothed in his righteousness. And look
over at Jeremiah 33. Almost these exact same words
are spoken here in verses 15 and 16, except there's one little
difference. In Jeremiah 23, five and six,
his name, that's Christ, Speaking of the masculine, his name shall
be called the Lord our righteousness. Well, look at Jeremiah 33, 15
and 16. In those days, and this is Jeremiah's same message to
the people now. In those days, and at that time,
I will cause the branch of righteousness, same person, to grow up unto
David, that's his humanity, and he shall execute judgment and
righteousness or justice in the land, And in those days shall
Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. That's the
heavenly Jerusalem, the city of God. And this is the name
where with she, you see that? She shall be called the Lord
our righteousness. Well, who is the she here? Well,
that's his bride, his church. That's who the church is, the
bride of Christ. The bride of Christ is not some
special group Among Christians, true believers, as I think it's
the landmark Baptist say, you know, that, well, they say, well,
you might be saved, but unless you're with us, you're not the
bride. No, the bride of Christ, his wife, is every true believer
combined collectively the church, which he shed his blood for,
which he gave his life for. And that's the issue, the Lord
our righteousness. A bride, when she marries her
husband, she takes his name, usually. And that's what we've
done when we're married to Christ. And our union with Christ is
oftentimes described in the Bible as a marriage union, a love union
between a husband and a wife. That's why Paul said in 2 Corinthians
11, he said, I've espoused you to one husband. Now, how did
Paul do that? Well, Paul is not saying he's
the originator of that union, that God is. God is the source
of salvation. Salvation's of the Lord. But
Paul was instrumental, used of God, to bring God's elect into
a saving union with Christ, the bride and the groom, in the preaching
of the gospel. So Paul says, when I preach the
gospel to you, not another gospel, not a false gospel, but the true
gospel, wherein the Lord our righteousness is revealed, the
righteousness of God. When I preached that to you,
I, in essence, was like a preacher reading wedding vows. I espoused
you to this one husband. And he said, I want to present
you as a chaste virgin to this one husband. And you're not to
show any loyalty or any love for another. And that's what
he calls the simplicity that's in Christ. A husband and wife
should be singly focused on each other in their marriage union
and not any other. When others get involved, there's
trouble. And that's the way it is with
Christ and his bride. She shall be called the Lord
our righteousness. We take his name. We're his bride. He's the Savior. We're the saved.
He's the bridegroom. We're the bride. He's the husband.
We're the wife. Paul spoke of that in Ephesians
5 when he talked about husbands love your wives as Christ loved
the church. Wives be submitted to your husbands as unto the
Lord. And he said at the end of that, he said, I'm speaking
of Christ and the church. We'll look back at Jeremiah 23.
Now, these last two verses in this lesson, let's just read
them. He says, 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. Now that's Babylon as it pertains
to physical nation. But the North, in the Bible,
the North symbolizes judgment. Judgment coming from the North.
And he says, and from all countries whether I had driven them and
they shall dwell in their own land. Now again, there is a limited
fulfillment of that to the physical nation because he did bring them
out of Babylon, remember through Cyrus. The king of Persia and
brought him back into their land, but that didn't last Okay, that
was just temporal ceremonial temporary but the eternal spiritual
application of this goes to spiritual Israel He delivered us from the
north. Well, what did he deliver us
from the judgment of God? The judgment How did he deliver
us from the judgment of God? He took that judgment for us
on the cross. That's why we're convinced of
judgment, because the prince of this world who accuses us,
he's cast out. No accusation or charge can be
brought against us in the court of God's justice, because our
sins were charged to Christ. And we have a perfect righteousness
charged to us, the Lord our righteousness. So we've been delivered from
the judgment of God. And we've been brought into our
own land. It's not a physical land. It's
not Palestine. It's the heavenly Jerusalem,
the heavenly Israel. We're citizens of a spiritual,
heavenly country. And that'll all be realized in
the end when Christ comes back to glorify us. It says here, they'll say no
more, that they won't speak anymore of the Lord who brought them
out of Egypt. What he's saying there is, when this salvation
comes to spiritual Israel, when we think about Israel's deliverance
out of Egypt, wasn't that a marvelous thing? Think about that. How God brought him out of Egypt
with all the 10 plagues, and then finally the Passover, putting
the blood on the door, and then brought him out with riches,
and part of the Red Sea. Wasn't that, isn't that fascinating?
Isn't that a marvelous thing? Well, what Jeremiah's telling
us is this. When the true salvation, the true deliverance from the
north, from the judgment of God, the true deliverance from the
bondage of Egypt, spiritual Egypt, in the salvation of sinners conditioned
on Christ, when that comes about, we'll see that what happened
back there in Egypt can't even compare to what we've experienced
in our salvation. And so we won't go around talking
about how great it was to be delivered out of Egypt. We'll
talk about how great it is to be delivered from sin. To be
delivered from Satan. To be delivered from the law. How? The Lord, our righteousness. That's God's way. Grace reigns
through righteousness unto eternal life. by Jesus Christ, our Lord. Okay.