All right, let's look at Jeremiah
23. You know, there's two verses here that we read quite often. Beginning at verse 5, which is
a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says, Behold, the
days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise up unto David a
righteous branch. And we know that's Christ. And
he says, A king, a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute
judgment and justice in the earth. That refers to the redemptive
work of Christ on the cross to satisfy the justice of God on
behalf of the sins of his people imputed to him, whereby, as the
book of Daniel chapter 9 says, he brought in everlasting righteousness. And it says in verse 6, in his
days Judah, that's the southern kingdom, that's where Jeremiah
was, 600 years before Christ. Jeremiah prophesied in the southern
kingdom of Judah, whose capital was Jerusalem, and Israel, that
was the northern kingdom, that was already gone by this time.
It had already been conquered and destroyed and sent forth
by another empire, the Assyrian Empire, so it was gone. But according
to the terms of this prophecy, he says Judah and Israel shall
dwell safely. And what he's talking about is
the kingdom of God under Christ. He's not talking about an earthly
kingdom. He's not talking about an earthly land here. He's talking,
and what he's, the point is, is that, you know, after Solomon,
the kingdom was divided, the northern kingdom and the southern
kingdom. But under Christ, this will not be a divided kingdom.
It'll be a united kingdom. It'll be spiritual Israel. made
up of God's elect out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
And the best commentary you can read on that subject is the book
of Romans. Because Paul, throughout the book of Romans, he deals
with Romans chapter 2, Romans chapter 9, and Romans chapter
11. He talks about the reality of spiritual Israel. And the
reality of spiritual Israel is the reality of salvation by God's
grace alone, based on the blood and the righteousness of Christ.
This one, this one who's in the line of David. And he says, Judah
and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is his name whereby
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. That's the title
of this, the Lord our righteousness. Jehovah Sid Canoe. So it's a
kingdom that is united under Christ as the Lord our righteousness. And of course that's talking
about the righteousness of God revealed in Christ, established
by Christ, which is imputed, charged to every one of the citizens
of this kingdom. Now, like I said, we read those
verses quite often, and I want to read them again, but I want
you to see the context of it. Look back up at verse 1 of Jeremiah
23. He starts out, he says, Woe be
unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture,
saith the Lord. Now what's he talking about there?
He's talking about false preachers. And they destroy and scatter
the sheep. How did they do that? It's by
their ungodly doctrine. It's by what they preach. They
do not represent and preach the true and living God. They preach
another gospel. They preach a gospel of salvation
by works, which is no gospel at all. Paul wrote about it in
Galatians 1, about those false preachers who came preaching
something other than the Lord our righteousness as our whole
salvation. And this scattering of the sheep,
I'll tell you, that's an important matter. dividing the sheep. Well, you see, that's the way
works salvation does. It divides people because there's
nothing scriptural about it. And that's why you have so many
false denominations, false religions, because that kind of salvation
is not a uniting factor. It's a dividing factor. For example,
if we all claim to believe salvation by works, It would be different
works for each one of us in some way or some, you know, different
groups. There are some groups that say,
well, you've got to be baptized to be saved. That's the work,
you know. There are other groups that say,
well, you've got to keep a Sabbath, keep a day to be saved. That's
their group. Others say, well, you just have
to walk an aisle and accept Jesus as your personal Savior. That's
the, whatever it is, but it's going to divide people, you see.
The only thing that can unite the people of God is submission
to the Lord our righteousness. Paul spoke about that in Romans
chapter 10 and verse 4 when he said, Christ is the end, the
fulfillment, the completion, the perfection, the finishing
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe. And
that's what it boils down to. What is it that makes me righteous
before God? What is it that makes me acceptable
to God? What is it that gives me a right
and title to enter into the presence of God? Is it baptism? Is it
keeping a day? Is it walking an aisle? Is it
going on a missionary journey? Is it getting baptized in the
Jordan River? What is it? Well, if it's anything
other than Christ and Him crucified, it's going to divide. And that's
what these false pastors were doing. He said in verse two,
he says, therefore, thus saith the Lord God of Israel against
the pastors that feed my people, feed them with false religion.
You've scattered my flock and driven them away. Now he's talking
about national Israel here. And you understand now they were
under the old covenant still at this time. They weren't believers,
the majority of them were, but they were under that covenant.
And that covenant was revealed in that law, which was to be
a schoolmaster to lead them unto Christ, the Lord our righteousness.
Well, they've driven them away and have not visited them. That
doesn't mean didn't go to their house or didn't get to their
hospital room, you know, or call them every time they stumped
their big toe or something. That's not what that's talking
about. Visiting there has to do with salvation. It has to
do with bringing the gospel of peace. That's what that's talking
about. Many times in the Old Testament,
it'll talk about God's visitation. Sometimes it's a visitation of
wrath. The minor prophets spoke of this
quite often, you know, how God's going to visit you. That's a
visit you don't want, though, because that was in wrath. But
other times it talks about God's visitation of grace. And what
he's talking about here is bringing them the gospel of grace, the
gospel of Christ. And he says, behold, I will visit
upon you the evil of your doing, saith the Lord. Salvation by
works is evil in the sight of God, period. Righteousness by
works is evil in the sight of God. He says in verse three,
and I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries. Now there's the remnant. That
theme of the remnant runs all the way through the Old Testament
scriptures that deal with the Old Covenant. The majority of
the nation Israel rejected God, but there's always a remnant. Isaiah spoke of it about 100
years before Jeremiah. In Isaiah chapter one, he said,
except the Lord of Sabaoth, which is the Lord of, that speaks of
the invincibility of God. When you see the Lord of host
or the Lord of Sabaoth, that's the Lord of a great army that
cannot be defeated. You cannot defeat, his purposes
cannot be defeated. That's what that means. And what
he's saying there, except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a
seed. That is an offshoot, a generation
there. We would be a Sodom and Gomorrah. And then he speaks of the remnant.
You know what a remnant is? It's a small piece. It's a small
part. So even in God's judging of Israel
and Judah, there was always a remnant of believers. Remember Elijah,
he learned that. Remember Paul spoke of that in
Romans chapter 11 where Elijah thought he was alone. Is there
anybody else that believes this message? Lord, have I gone crazy?
Have you ever thought that? I do. Have I gone crazy? And is everybody,
you know, am I the only crazy person in the world? And you
remember what the Lord, that's the Elijah syndrome. That's what
I call it. And the Lord revealed to Elijah,
he said, I've got 7,000 who've not bowed the knee to Baal. So
the Lord revealed to him that there were more. Well, he says,
I will gather the remnant of my flock, verse three, out of
all countries, whether I have driven them, and will bring them
again to their folds, and they shall be fruitful and increased. Now, how's that gonna happen?
Well, is Jeremiah, and I'll tell you
what, when you get into the Old Testament and study the prophets,
it's a fascinating study. It really is. I mean, you ought
to set your mind to do this. It's just a fascinating study. But here's Jeremiah. Now, he's
not speaking on his own. He's a prophet of God. He was
called as a very young man. Jeremiah was a priest and a prophet.
There was another fellow who was a priest and a prophet. Ezekiel
was. But he was a priest and a prophet, both. And he was called
as a very young man. He knew he was inadequate for
the task. I think any true preacher does
know he's inadequate for the task. To stand up before people
and tell them this message. It's good news, but the majority
of people don't want to hear it. Well, nobody by nature wants
to hear it. And so, here he is speaking to
the people. They're in idolatry. At this
time, Judah, the kingdom of Judah, was in much disobedience. Jeremiah prophesied up until
the time that the kingdom of Judah was conquered and taken
off into the Babylonian captivity. And Jeremiah was alive at that
time when that happened. He told the people that God was
going to bring His wrath down upon the nation, that God was
going to visit them with punishment. And he stood against a lot of
other preachers who kept telling people that everything was okay.
Peace, peace, when there is no peace. That's what they were
saying. In fact, Jeremiah mentions that twice in Jeremiah 6 and
Jeremiah 8. Well, let's just look at one
back in Jeremiah 6. In Jeremiah 6, if I can find
it here. Oh yeah, verse 13 or verse 14. of Jeremiah 6. He says, they
have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly. And how did they do that? They
said, peace, peace, when there is no peace. Now who's he talking
about? He's talking about false preachers.
And what he's talking about is like this. It's like if you would,
you know, they say melanoma cancer is one of the most dangerous
cancers. And I guess it has different symptoms, but like if you had
a place pop up on your skin that was a melanoma cancer, they say
the earlier you get it, obviously, the better off you'll be. But that can go inside and spread
throughout the whole body. What if somebody, what if you
went to a doctor and said, I need to get that checked out, and
he'd said, I've got the cure, and he got out a Band-Aid and
put on it? where you can't see it. That's
what Jeremiah said. They've healed the hurt of the
daughter of my people slightly. It's like putting a band-aid
on. It doesn't take care of the problem. It leaves you open to
death. And that's what it is when a
preacher cries, peace, peace, when there is no peace. Jeremiah
wouldn't do that. He knew the problem was sin.
This is the problem. And the people were in idolatry.
The people were going other ways, other than the way of grace,
the way of the promised Messiah. And so he told them the truth.
He said, that's death. But he had a vast majority of
false preachers standing against him who would cry, peace, peace,
when there is no peace. And there were times that Jeremiah
just, he got so frustrated that he just wanted to quit. He just
wanted to just put it down. put down the mantle. One time
he did and he said well he couldn't stop though because the Word
of God burned within him like a fire. In other words that he
was so convinced of this truth that he couldn't quit. Well here
he is back here in chapter 23 now. He's talking about a remnant
and he says this remnant will be called back into the fold
And this remnant, they're going to be fruitful and increased.
Now, how's that going to happen? Well, is Jeremiah talking about
a remnant of people, a small group of people who are just
better than everybody else? You suppose that's what he's
saying? Or a group of people who are just less obstinate and
less rebellious than everybody else? That's really what's being
preached today in the majority of places. In fact, I've often
said this, that really, in most churches today that call themselves
Christian, they would have to adopt the accept me doctrine
when they read the Old Testament. Because when they read the Old
Testament and they hear about the rebellious people of Israel,
the sinful people of Israel, They would have to say, as far
as their theology goes and the way they think God saves a sinner,
based upon that sinner's decision and cooperation and will, they
would have to say when they read about rebellious Israel, oh,
except me. My people have forsaken me, God
says. They'd have to say, except me.
My people have gone the way of idols. They'd have to say, oh,
except me. And then when they get into the New Testament and
they read passages like Romans chapter 3 that says, there's
none righteous, no not one, they'd have to say, except me. There's
none that doeth good, there's none that seeketh after God.
They'd have to say, oh, except me. Won't do, will it? I was reading in the book of,
I think it was Zephaniah, where he talked about how that the
nation of Israel was a nation of undesirables. By nature, that's
what we are. We're citizens of a nation of
undesirables, sinners, who deserve and have earned nothing but death. We can't say except me. And yet,
God says there's a remnant here who's going to come back into
the fold and they're going to prosper and they're going to
be fruitful and they're going to increase now that's in order
for that to take place that has that has to to deal with this
issue of sin it has to be dealt with and if you think if you
think about it now in Jeremiah's time now they're getting ready
they're going to go into captivity in Babylon and They're going
to be there for 70 years. In fact, Jeremiah was the prophet
who told them it would be 70 years that they would be in captivity
in Babylon. And then there was going to be
a great revival, and people would come back into the kingdom, and
they'd rebuild the city of Jerusalem, and they'd rebuild the temple.
But now that, listen, read about that sometime. The book of Zechariah,
and the book of Habakkuk, and the book of Malachi. It wasn't
a group of people who were just zealous for God and just had
no problems with that issue. I mean, they came back and they
started, they got discouraged, they quit, and they let it go
for a long time. And then they had to be stirred back up to
rebuild. So it was still a nation of undesirables. And then when they rebuilt that,
they reestablished to a point the worship of God, but it didn't
last long. And then you have that 500 years
of silence between Malachi and Matthew, and all we know about
that is what man's history tells us, and there's nothing really
significant about Israel there. We know out of that came a line
of kings from an ungodly line, not the kings of Judah. Herod
was king when our Lord came upon the scene. We know out of that
came the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Zealots, all of that mess. Works, works, religion. So we
know this, that this being fruitful and increasing didn't come through
the nation during that time. That nation itself never did
prosper again, really, as a nation. They never did get out from under
foreign domination. What's he talking about here,
this remnant? He's not talking about a nation. on this earth. He's not talking about a physical
nation. He's talking about the kingdom
of God in Christ. That's what he's talking about.
Look at it in verse 4. He said, and I will set up shepherds
over them which shall feed them. Who's that? That's preachers
of the gospel. Who preach the gospel? He says,
and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall
they be lacking, saith the Lord. That cannot apply to the physical
nation Israel. Now, there's people who say,
well, it's coming later on here, because they're going to rebuild
the temple, and they're going to reestablish the priesthood,
and somebody's found the red heifer, and, you know. Now, you
think about stuff like that. It's not scriptural. Christ said,
my kingdom is not of this world. Isn't that what he said? That
ought to be enough said. What's he talking about? Well,
here it is, verses five and six. Behold. Now listen, here's how
it's gonna happen. Here's how all that's gonna come
about and who it applies to. The days come, saith the Lord,
that I will raise unto David a righteous branch. Now he's
not talking about King David, of Israel. David's dead. What's
he talking about? He's talking about the one who
came out of the line of David according to the royal covenant,
2 Samuel chapter 7. That one who was made of the
seed of David according to the flesh. He's talking about the
humanity of Christ here, the Messiah. He's talking about the
child who is born, Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6. He is man without
sin. He's talking about the humanity
of Christ. Why did Christ have to take on
human nature without sin? Well, to redeem his people who
were partakers of that nature. He was not made after the seed
of angels, but after the seed of Abraham. That's what he's
talking about, Hebrews chapter 2. And then it says, "...and
a king shall reign and prosper." That's His deity. This person
who's going to accomplish all this for the remnant and bring
them all back and make them increase and be fruitful, He's God-man. He's Messiah. He's the Son given,
Isaiah 9.6. The government of this kingdom
has been placed upon His shoulders. I love that scene in Revelation
5. where the book, the seven seal
book, is in the father's hand and the son, the lamb, goes up
and takes the book out of the father's hand. And right then
and there, a shout goes up from the four beasts, which are four
living creatures, and the 24 elders, which represents the
patriarchs of the Old Testament and the apostles of the New Testament.
Combined, they represent the whole church of God. every one
of God's elect, because being sinful and knowing that there
was no man found worthy to open the book when the Lamb took that
book out of the Father's hand, they knew then that their whole
salvation was conditioned on the Lamb. And that shout went
up. There's hope now. There's salvation
now. It's like Simeon, mine eyes have
seen thy salvation. I'm ready to depart now. And
that's what this is all about. He's God-man, and he'll reign
and he'll prosper. He cannot fail. He's able to
save them to the uttermost that come unto the Father by him.
Paul said, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that
he's able to save them, to save all his people. He's able to
keep that which I've committed unto him against that day, and
against the day of judgment. Now, how's he going to do it?
Well, it says, he shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
He's going to bring back this remnant, this remnant of sinful
people. Not because they're better than
everybody else, because they're not. But he's going to do it in a
way that will enable God to be true to himself. God's going
to have mercy. God's going to be gracious, but
not in a way that denies or ignores judgment and justice, but in
a way that honors judgment and justice. And it's going to be
done in the earth, he says. Well, where was it done on the
earth? It was done on the cross, when
Christ Jesus came into this world and obeyed unto death. He was
made sin. Christ who knew no sin for us
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. All of this was
accomplished on Calvary's cross. That's right. The salvation of
all of God's people, this remnant, was accomplished by this God-man,
this Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, who executed judgment
and justice in the earth when he died for the sins of his sheep. He became responsible for our
sins and gave us his righteousness. And verse six says, in his days
Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. This is the
combined king. This is the Israel of God. Paul
spoke of the Israel of God in Galatians chapter six. And this
is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. For he is our righteousness.
We have no righteousness but him. He says in verse seven and
eight, let's read those. 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." Now that's the past. You see that? He says in verse
8, they'll say, 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. That's the future. In other words,
he's showing them, he said, this remnant, they're not going to
rely on their past. They're looking to the future.
They're looking forward to Christ's coming, the Lord our righteousness. You see, the fact that God delivered
the Hebrew children out of Egypt, that was a great thing. But that
wasn't done so that they can constantly look back to their
past and be proud. It was done to show them that
they were to look to the future of the coming Messiah. Now, we
look to the past, but we look to the past to an eternal work,
a work in the past that has eternal implications, and that's the
death of Christ on the cross. But see, that hadn't happened
yet here. It was effectual unto the salvation of all the Old
Testament saints, and unto their justification, because it was
sure and certain to happen. That's why David said, the Lord
hath made a covenant with me, which is ordered in all things
and sure. And he said, this is all my salvation. This is all
my hope. Look to the future, he said.
Turn to Jeremiah 33. This same prophecy is brought
up here in Jeremiah 33. And he's talking about, again,
it's in the same, basically the same context. How Israel had
forsaken God for their idols. But there is a remnant. And he
says in verse 15, look at Jeremiah 33 verse 15. He says, in those
days and at that time will I cause the branch of righteousness.
Now, remember he said to grow up under David. He just puts
it a little different, but it's the same thing. A branch of righteousness,
a branch of justice. a branch of justice to grow up
unto David." That's Christ's humanity, including the work
that he would perform, and he shall execute judgment and righteousness
in the land. Remember he said in the earth,
same thing. And he says, in those days shall
Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. He specifically
mentions Jerusalem, the capital of the southern kingdom, But
Jerusalem is talking about the heavenly city here. This is the
prophecy, not an earthly city. And he says, and this is the
name wherewith she. You notice here it said, back
in 23.16, or 23.6, it says, this is the name whereby he shall
be called. Here it says, this is the name
wherewith she shall be called. And that's a good translation
of this now from the original. the Lord our righteousness. What's
he talking about here? He's talking about the church.
He's talking about the people of God. Well, how could we be
called the Lord our righteousness? Well, in the Bible, a common
symbol for the great and glorious and gracious union between Christ
and his church is Christ is the bridegroom and his church is
the bride. Christ is the husband, his church
is the wife. And when a wife, when a woman
marries a man, she takes his name. He becomes fully responsible
for her well-being. And when Christ is united to
his church, what do we do? We take his name. You know, we
say Christian, that means followers of Christ, but here it says,
the Lord, our righteousness. He's our husband. We're his bride,
we're his wife. We wear the robe of his making. The book of Revelation speaks
of it when we come to, when the wedding feast, how the bride
comes in a white robe. And you know, most people when
they go to those passages in Revelation, And I don't have
these marked. I don't have these scriptures
marked. I should have marked them and turned to them. But I'll do that sometime
later. But it says that she appears
in a robe that's pure white. And I've heard several preachers
make this statement about that pure robe of white. They say
that's the righteous works of the saints. No, it's not. Because earlier in Revelation,
you know what it says about that white robe that we wear? That
wedding garment that we wear? You know what it says about it?
It says it's a robe that is washed in the blood of the Lamb. The
only reason that robe's white is because it's washed in the
blood of the Lamb. If it was of our making, even
our righteousness, you know what the Bible says it would be? In
Isaiah 64, verse 6, it says a filthy garment, filthy rag. But because it's the garment
that Christ worked out for us by His obedience unto death and
imputed to us It's the white robe wherewith there's no fault
found, no sin. So, in that our name is the Lord
our righteousness, we stand before God having no sin charged to
us, having no transgression. The books of God's law, the law
books in our case is wiped totally clean. For who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
it's risen again.