Well, you might remember that
the opening reading that we had last week was some of the verses
from Jeremiah 17 that were read earlier. And in thinking about
it, I thought that we needed to come back to this. I felt
led to this. So our passage this morning is
Jeremiah 17 and verses 5 to 8. And I've entitled it, Under God's
Curse or His Blessing. You see, the majority of people
don't like to think that there is such a thing as the curse
of God, that there is something where God does not look on favour
equally with all people, but that's the message of God's Word.
God's Word is absolutely clear. Humanity is divided into one,
the majority, whose lives are spent under the curse of God. under the curse of God. To not
have the blessing of God is to be under the curse of God. That's
one party. The other party is the little
flock, as Jesus called them, who live under the blessing of
God. Under the blessing of God. And
what a stark contrast that is. To live your life, to live this
life on this earth, either under the benign, divine care of God,
or not. You're either under the divine,
benign care of God, or you're not. And if you are, what a blessing
that is. To be without it is, as the scripture
puts it, to be without God and without hope in this world. If
you haven't got God, if He is not your possession, you're without
hope. What an empty existence it is.
But contrast that with what it says of the people of God. If
God before us, who can be against us? If God, the sovereign, the
omnipotent ruler of the universe, is on your side, is looking out
for you in everything, who can possibly be against you? Can
the most powerful empires, can the most powerful earthly rulers,
can the most evil people, can Satan himself be against you?
Answer, no, no, no. If God is for you, who can be
against you? You see, your eternal well-being,
if you're blessed of God, is guaranteed by none less than
Almighty God. That's a good name, isn't it?
Almighty God. It's essential to know what makes
the difference. It's essential to know where
you stand. You know, you want to be confident
of the truth, you don't want to be deluded into thinking that
you're in one camp when really you're in another. You know Jeremiah
earlier on in his book in chapter 8 verse 11 says this, for they,
and the they he's talking about are false preachers, false prophets. They, these false prophets, have
healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, made them
feel better a little bit. What did they do? They said,
peace, peace, when there is no peace. They professed peace with
God, when there was no basis for any peace with God. That's
what preachers do today. loads and loads of preachers
today. They profess to their congregations, to those that
will listen to them, they profess peace, peace with God, when there
is no peace, because they do not profess that peace in the
only way and in the only person that there is peace, for they
do not preach and lift up the Lord Jesus Christ, for He alone
is our peace with God. And those who do not preach Him,
preach a false gospel. They say, peace, peace, when
there is no peace. Be in no doubt, there is no middle
ground. This isn't something where you
can have one foot leaning on God's promises for the times
when it suits you, and the other one taking comfort from the world. You just can't. Jesus said exactly
the same. He said you cannot serve God
and mammon. You cannot be devoted to the
kingdom of God and devoted to the kingdom of the world at the
same time. You just cannot. They're mutually exclusive. The
one excludes the other. You just cannot. You cannot.
So just read with me verses 5 to 8 again of Jeremiah 17. Thus
saith the Lord. This is the words of the prophet,
inspired by the Spirit of God. This is what God says. Thus saith
the Lord. Cursed be the man that trusts
in man. and makes flesh his arm, and
whose heart departs from the Lord. Because he shall be like
the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes,
but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in
a salt land not inhabited." Contrast it with this. Blessed is the
man that trusteth in the Lord. He's blessed, he's under divine
benign favour. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is. For he, unlike that
heath in the desert, he shall be as a tree planted by the waters,
and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see
when heat cometh. But her leaf shall be green,
and shall not be careful, shall not be worried, shall not be
concerned in the year of drought. The year of drought won't bother
her, because her feet are in the water, neither shall cease
from yielding fruit." The difference is what you trust in, isn't it?
Verse 5, cursed be the man that trusts in man. Verse 7, blessed
is the man that trusts in the Lord. One puts confidence in
self, confidence in others around us, in society, in governments,
in the things of this world, the things of man and his rules,
and the other trusts and hopes in the Lord, hopes that in the
Lord who is over all those things, the heart of one, the man who
trusts in man, departs from the Lord, departs from the Lord. The other takes all confidence
and comfort from the Lord, cleaves to the Lord. wants to be with
the Lord, wants to be guided by the Lord. His being, His person,
God's being, God's person, His attributes, His word, His Spirit's
presence are the things that the one who trusts in the Lord
looks for from God, the things to guide him, to give him confidence.
You know, Israel, the symbolical people of God throughout the
Old Testament, Israel was taught to trust in the Lord and to lean
only on the Lord. You know, lean not unto your
own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge
Him and He shall direct your paths. But Israel frequently,
as we know, departed from him and trusted in idols and trusted
in alliances with Egypt. When they saw enemies coming,
rather than seeking the Lord and inquiring of the Lord what
was going to happen and what they should do, they would go
and seek alliances with Egypt, which, what was Egypt? It was
the symbol of that fallen world, the kingdom of Satan, out of
which God had brought them with a strong arm. They sought alliances
with Egypt and let's not look down at them because is that
not always the case with us in the weakness of our flesh? Don't
we all slip back into trusting flesh? As many of you know, we're
in the process of relocating and the moving house process
in the United Kingdom can be a very, well certainly in England
at any rate, can be a very tortuous process, and we always like to
look for things we can see, and evidence that we can touch, and
people that we can reason with, so that we can present our arguments
to move things along. And, you know, I'm not saying
that we should be totally fatalistic and never think that we ought
to try to do anything to make things happen. If that was the
way that you managed a project in business, you'd never get
anything done. You have to be proactive. It's fine up to a
point, but we lose sight of God's sovereignty over everything,
and His intentions of good to His people. God intends good
to His people. God's determination if I may
speak that way, is to bring his people to glory. That's the key
objective of this life. The key objective is to attain
to eternal glory in Christ, to that intimate blessed state of
sinless communion with the One who has redeemed us from the
curse of the law by His shed blood on the cross of Calvary,
paying redemption's price in the middle of time for the sins
of His people, that His people might be qualified to be those
that justly are seen in heaven. That's the key objective. That's
the eternal purpose of God. It's throughout the scriptures.
And in Isaiah 42 and verse 4, you know, in life things are
either going to happen or not, depends what turns out. But regarding
the redemption of his people, it says of Christ, he shall not
fail nor be discouraged. Of course, He shall accomplish
it. Nothing. If God be for us, who can be
against us? There is nothing that can work against the eternal
purposes of God. I will never leave you nor forsake
you, says God to His people, whether it be in matters of business,
or relationships, or family, or friends, or neighbors, all
those things are fleeting compared with eternity and the purposes
of God. And all are truly beyond our
control. If you trust in the arm of the
flesh, if you trust in flesh, you trust in man, truly it's
all beyond our control. I don't care how powerful you
are. I always remember when I was growing up, a Prime Minister
for many years was Harold Macmillan in the 50s and early 60s. And
I remember a reporter asked him what could possibly derail his
government's plans. You know, you've got these plans,
Prime Minister, what could possibly derail these plans? And he famously
said, events, dear boy, events, events. Things you can't... do
anything about it. Nobody, no human being can. But
God uses the things that happen. God uses the things that happen
in our experience to teach us. If we're truly His, He uses the
things that happen to teach us to trust Him. You see, He may
allow us to try trusting in the arm of flesh. He may allow us
to try leaning on the arm of flesh in order to learn its impotence,
its utter incapability of doing what we want it to do, so that
having learned that, we might learn more to rest in Him, to
trust in Him. You see, God is so powerful that
He can do everything, but He's benign to His people. You know,
in the powers of this world, the ones that generally are immensely
powerful are more often than not immensely evil and malicious
in their intents. But God is supreme over all,
He's powerful over all, but His power is exercised in benign
ways to His people. Listen again what He says in
Jeremiah 29, verse 11. This is God speaking to His people.
If you're a child of God, if you believe the Lord Jesus Christ,
if your trust is in Him, this is what He says to you. He says,
I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord. Thoughts
of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. What
a blessed hope that is, isn't it? If you're under the blessing
of God, as opposed to being under the curse of God, which is left
to your own devices, if you're under the blessing of God, the
God of the universe, who is over all, has thoughts of peace toward
you, not of evil, to give you an expected end. What is that
expected end? To be with him in his kingdom.
I pray, Father, prayed the Lord Jesus Christ, that they, my people,
might be with me where I am. that they might behold my glory,
that they might see me where I am. That's the expected end.
And God, who is over all, will give his people that expected
end. He does indeed, as we so often
quote, He does indeed, as Romans 8.28 says, cause all things to
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose. I've put an article in the Bulletin
by Gabe Stolnicker, which you really should read. It's very,
very good. We so often say it, we say we
believe it, but When the events of life come along, it's so easy
to lose confidence. It's so easy to look elsewhere
and to turn away. So God teaches his people to
trust him through the trials of life. And there are many,
many the trials of life. Family afflictions, personal
hardships, sorrows. How many people in these days
are suffering issues of health, issues of financial hardship,
you know, the reaction to this pandemic has caused so many such
great torment and anguish. He teaches his people to trust
him, because we tend to try the arm of flesh and it fails. and
then we learn during the failure, by the failure, to depend on
God and His promises. He teaches us not to live by
sense and sight, how big is this thing that's facing me, but by
faith. Faith is the sight of the soul.
Where do we look? Where do we exercise that sight
of the soul, which is faith? Looking unto Jesus, says Hebrews,
the author and finisher of our faith. We run the race set before
us, looking unto Jesus. We live not by sense and sight,
but by faith. Think of a couple of examples
from the Old Testament. In the Medo-Persian Empire, you
know there were these great empires that came along, and they were
all manifestations of the attempts of Satan to produce a kingdom
without the justice and righteousness of God being satisfied. There
was the Egyptian one, then there was the Assyrian one, then the
Medo-Persian one, then the Greek one, then the Roman one. You
can read all about them in ancient history, and you read all about
them in the Revelation, where God opens to John the whole book
of his eternal purposes. But there were, in those days,
the Medo-Persian empires, these were potentates. These had absolute
power over all flesh. They had absolute power. There
was nobody could say, anything against them. If you went into
the presence of one of these potentates without being specifically
summoned, it was a death sentence. You would be killed. And there
were two of God's people, Nehemiah and Esther. Slightly different
times, but nevertheless the same situation. Medo-Persian potentates. And for the good of the kingdom
of God, they had to go before them. And Esther said, well,
I've got to go. I can't do other than this. And
she said, if I perish, I perish. Meaning, if I perish, it's the
God of the universe that has willed it, and I'm in His care,
and I'll be taken into His kingdom. You see, Nehemiah, likewise,
why are you looking sad, Nehemiah? Because of my people. But before
he did that, he prayed to his God, Lord, help me, give me the
words. Because of my people and the state they're in. Because
he knew And Esther knew that the god that they served held
the hearts of these Medo-Persian emperors in his hand. The heart of the king, says Proverbs
21 verse 1, the heart of the king even, the heart of the most
powerful human person, the heart of that one is in the hands of
God. He turns it wherever he wants
to turn it, and that's the trust of the people of God. That's
the blessedness of being in the care of God. Blessed is the man
that trusts in the Lord. He teaches his believing people
that he alone is worthy of our trust. You see, there's no point
in trusting anyone or anything that is not renowned for being
worthy of trust. Is there? What's the point? You
come across people, you come across suppliers of services,
and you soon learn, just don't use their services because they'll
let you down. They won't deliver what they say they'll deliver.
They won't do it in the time scale they say they'll do. Just
don't trust them. Go and find somebody trustworthy.
Well, why should God's people trust him? Why do God's true
people trust God? It's because of his omnipotent
power, who he is. Jesus said, and you know, he's
God over all. Jesus said at the end of Matthew's
Gospel, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. What
you mean, a lot of religious power? No, all power. Power over
everything, over every event, over every outcome is given to
me in heaven and in earth. That's the promise of the One
who is our Saviour, our Lord, our Friend. He has all power. All of creation's resources are
His. What need we to fear? All creation's
resources. You know what it says in the
Psalms? He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. And you can
apply that to absolutely everything. The silver and gold are all His.
All of it. All of it. It's His creation.
He made it. All of creation's resources are
His. What can He not do? Listen to what Ephesians says,
Ephesians 3 verse 20, Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the
power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory. He's able to do
far above what we can ask or think. For example, What do we
need in this life in order to qualify for heaven? We must pursue
holiness, follow holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.
What do we need to qualify for heaven? How should a man be just
with God? We need pardon for our sins,
which would separate us from God. And he's done that in the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's paid the debt. to the offended
justice of God. We need to be counted just before
Him. How should a man be just with
God? In the justification that Christ has accomplished for His
people. For by Him we are justified. From all things that we could
never be justified, said the apostles, by the works of the
law, by trying to keep the law of God, we can never be justified.
Why? Because the law is wrong? No, because the flesh is weak
and cannot do it. We need forgiveness before God. You know what it is to be forgiving
and to forgive? We need forgiveness before God. The kingdom of God, you want
to come down to the things that are the absolute marks of the
kingdom of God. What did Jesus say he was? He
who is ultimately, above all, preeminent. That it pleased God
that in Him all the fullness should dwell. That above everything,
He should have the preeminence. That He should be, there should
be nothing greater. There's no greater name. His
name is above everything. Right, so what did He say when
He came to this earth? I am meek and lowly of heart. I am humble. I am meek. The one
who is above all is the most humble. I am meek and lowly of
heart. No strutting around, exerting
authority, though he had all power and all authority, but
humility and forgiving, forgiving of sins. What was it he came
to do? To forgive sins. You know, forgive
us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.
Forgiveness, forgiveness. humility and forgiveness, fundamental
marks of the kingdom of God. Righteousness, pursue righteousness,
without which holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.
All of it is accomplished by Christ for his people, as the
substitute for his people, on their behalf, in their place,
satisfying eternal justice, qualifying for eternal glory, so that we
stand before the judgment seat of Christ, without sin upon us,
and hear that there is therefore now no condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh
but according to the Spirit in Him. That's the confidence of
the people of God. He is able to do and He has done
exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. He
gives us currency. His currency, in His shed blood,
is that which has paid redemption's price. And it's currency which
is honoured. You know, you can go to places
where you present currency that might work in some courts, but
it doesn't work in others. You go and try and spend some
euros even in a shop in this country and you'll get turned
away because people don't want them, they want pounds, sterling.
You go in America and try and spend pounds, you won't buy anything
because they want dollars. It's currency that is honoured,
and that currency is the blood of Christ. honoured in the court
of divine justice, paying the ransom price, paying the liberty
price from the curse of the law for his people. And so we have
hope. In Jeremiah 17 and verse 7 it
says this, Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and
whose hope the Lord is. Hope. You trust in the Lord,
and the Lord is your hope, and it's a good hope. The scripture
speaks of a good hope. You see, You can have all sorts
of hopes. I hoped a few weeks ago that
our house move would have been completed by the middle of May,
and it hasn't been, and it's not going to be, because it was
just based on what I thought at the time would be my preference.
But no, the hope which is the good hope of Scripture, of eternity,
of the Kingdom of God, is a confidence and an expectation. Confident. No doubt it's going to happen.
No doubt. There's no shadow of a doubt
hanging over it, for everything is accomplished. It is totally
founded on absolutely solid principles that nobody can undo. And therefore,
it's a hope that you can expect. You don't know when, but you
can expect. All things in this life are subject
to, as Macmillan said, events, events. Are you going to be able
to do this? I don't know. If this occurs, I might not be
able to do it. But in the kingdom of God, everything is done. There's
confidence about it. There's an expectation that the
end will be accomplished, that God's people will be in eternal
glory in his kingdom, with him, where he is, beholding his glory.
And we have this hope, says Hebrews 6, 19, we have this hope as an
anchor for the soul. You know this life tosses you
around, you watch a rough sea and you see a little boat out
in the sea and it's lost its rudder and it's lost its sail
and it just goes wherever the waves take it because it hasn't
got an anchor. and it hasn't got anything to
steer it or secure it. But this hope in this life of
stormy seas we have as an anchor for the soul. It keeps us. The
anchor is of use in the storm. When everything's calm and still
you don't need an anchor, but in the storm you need an anchor.
We have this hope, this hope of eternity, this confidence,
this expectation, this good hope as an anchor for the soul. What
a blessed condition to be in. Blessed is the man that trusts
in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is. But oh how cursed to
be without it. You say the language sounds so
insulting to those that are not believers. It's not insulting,
it's not meant to be insulting. It's just pointing out a fact.
that to live this life under the divine favor of God, who
controls all things for your eternal good, is such a blessing
that not to have that, surely it's a curse, is it not? To what
can it be compared? Look in verse eight. The one
who trusts in the Lord shall be as a tree planted by the waters
that spreadeth out her roots by the river. The one who trusts
in man In the arm of the flesh, verse 6, he shall be like the
heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh, but
shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt
land and not inhabited. Salt isn't great for the vast
majority of plants to grow. It speaks of barrenness, it speaks
of that which is contrary to life. You use salt to stop putrefaction
by bacteria. The one whose trust and confidence
and hope is centered in the Lord is as healthy as a well-watered
fruit-yielding tree, is what verse 8 says. Is as healthy as
a well-watered fruit-yielding tree. The one who trusts in man,
the cursed one, by contrast, is as a parched heath in an unfruitful
place. You know, you see these scrubs
in a desert place, you get these occasional little bits of growth
going, but it's very meagre, poor growth. It's got no nutrition
in it, it can barely sustain a goat and they can tolerate
most things. And what's the difference between the tree planted by the
river and the heath in the desert? What's the difference? The answer
is water. Water. Obviously, water. Remember
what we saw last week? John 4 verse 14, Jesus said to
the Samaritan woman, whosoever drinketh of the water that I
shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give
him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. What's he talking about? What's
the water? The woman thought he was talking
about physical water, H2O, that which quenches the thirst, that
which supports life. No, he's talking, it's just a
metaphor for spiritual life. Water, in this, represents the
Word of God. Christ is the Word of God. It
represents Him, applied by the Spirit of God within the soul.
It represents the Gospel Word of Christ. It represents the
redeeming grace of God manifested in Christ. It represents that
manna which came down to the Israelites in the wilderness,
symbolizing the manna from heaven which is Christ himself. Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word, the manna
from heaven that proceeds from the mouth of God. It's nourishing
for the soul. It's life-supporting. That which
makes for good ground seed, you know in the parable of the sower?
Good ground seed, which gets well-rooted, not shallowly rooted
amongst stones and thorns and thistles, well-rooted. It's constantly
refreshed and nourished. It's constantly taking in that
life-supporting water from God. Good ground seed. It's tolerant. of heat. When the heat comes,
because this tree's got its feet in the river, the water, it's
tolerant of that heat. It's thriving in the heat. It
doesn't go brown and withered. It's green and verdant. It's
constantly bearing fruit of the Spirit of God, because that water
from God, from His Spirit, is in the soul. And the roots spread
out. It says there in verse 8, she
spreads out her roots, this tree, which is a simile for the one
that trusts in the Lord, spreads out the roots by the river, and
shall not see when heat cometh. Heat will come, but the roots
are in the water, so it doesn't hurt. The leaf stays green in
the heat, it becomes more prosperous, shall not be careful, shall not
be worried when there's a drought, as things come and go, shall
not, as events happen, shall not be worried, neither shall
it cease from yielding fruit. That's like the believer drinking
in the ministry of God's Word. The believer growing and thriving,
producing fruit that God will have, for God will have fruit
from his people, from the trees that he plants. John 15, verse
2, every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. And
every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring
forth more fruit. But the one who trusts in man,
verse five, he's like the tough old, verse six, he shall be like
the heath in the desert and shall not see when good cometh, but
shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness in a salt land
and not inhabited. Tough old heath plant in a desert
place. where there's no water, it's
brown and it's dry, it's barely clinging to life, it's unable
to nourish a goat. Remember, he's saying that those
that do not have the blessing of God upon them, the saving
grace of God upon them, can be compared to that heath plant
without water. Unable to nourish a goat, which
as I said before is a pretty tolerant animal of some fairly
unnourishing things to eat, in a place that doesn't support
life, unaware of good things from God that pass him by on
the broad way leading to destruction. That's a vivid comparison, isn't
it? The tree by the waters and the heath plant in a desert place. So what makes you to differ?
What makes us to differ? Those who are blessed In what
way do they differ from those who are cursed? Is it a question
of your character? Is it a question of your personal
goodness? Or your diligence? Is it a question of these things
that makes you to differ from another? What maketh thee to
differ, says the scripture? No, for look at verse 9. The
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? He's talking about the heart
that's in all flesh, all flesh. The heart of all is by nature
deceitful and wicked and is as likely to be judged fit for heaven
as a camel is to pass through the eye of a needle. So who then
can be saved, asked the disciples of Jesus when he used that parable
to them. And he said, yes, it looks impossible. And it is impossible with man
and with the things of man. But with God, all things are
possible. Why? Why is it possible with
God? Look a few verses down. Verse
12. A glorious high throne from the
beginning is the place of our sanctuary. God is sovereign. God is sovereign over all things.
O Lord, the hope of Israel. He that trusts in the Lord, he
that hopes in the Lord, the hope of Israel. All that forsake thee shall be
ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the
earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living
waters. This is it, flesh going away
from God. But look, here's the prayer.
Here's the prayer, and with this I'll finish. Heal me, O Lord,
and I shall be healed. Save me, and I shall be saved,
for Thou art my praise. What is it? It's not by strength
of anything we do in the flesh, it's by the sovereign grace of
God that we are healed and that we are saved. And the distinguishing
mark, if there is one, is this. that the child of God, the one
ordained to eternal life, to the blessing of God, is brought
to call upon the Lord, to call upon Him. Heal me, O Lord, and
I shall be healed. Save me, and I shall be saved,
for Thou art my praise. Confirm me in Your eternal blessing,
for we grasp the promise of Christ. Ask, and it shall be given. Knock,
and it shall be open to you. Seek, and you shall find. That's
it. Oh, I was clearly excluded from
it. Did you ask? Did you knock? Did you seek?
God says he will not turn any away. All that the Father brings
to him shall come to him. And he that cometh to me, he
said, listen, he that cometh to me, whether you know your
state or not, he said, I will in no wise cast out. Amen.