If you're following along on
our daily reading calendar, we have been reading in recent days
the prophecy of Jeremiah. We will finish Jeremiah, the
Lord willing, on Wednesday, or Thursday, rather. But this past
Thursday, the suggested reading was chapters 31 and 32. I want you to open your Bibles
to Jeremiah 31. I'm going to interrupt my exposition of Isaiah
for tonight anyway, and let's look at this 31st chapter of
Jeremiah. Verses 35 through 37 will be
my text. Jeremiah 31, verse 35. Thus saith
the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light
by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for
a light by night, which divided the sea when the waves thereof
roar. The Lord of hosts is his name.
If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord. Then
the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before
me forever. Thus saith the Lord, if heaven
above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched
out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for
all that they have done, saith the Lord. With those words, the
Lord God Almighty assures us of his absolute faithfulness
to his people as our God. That's my subject, the faithfulness
of God. There is nothing that I admire
in men and women like I admire faithfulness. I admire you faithful
children of God. I admire faithful pastors and
preachers. I'm talking about men and women
who are faithful, preachers, pastors who are faithful. They
may not be known for much. Their names may not be known
beyond their own doorsteps, but they're faithful. Faithful. That's another word for just
flat out dogged dependability. Just dogged dependability. Don't you love to have somebody
near you can just flat depend on? You can just depend on them. Oh, hear me now. Our God is God
upon whom you can safely always depend. He's faithful. He's faithful. In this passage,
God is telling us of the absolute security of his elect, the Israel
of God, his church. And he assures us of it by assuring
us of his faithfulness. This assurance is given immediately
following his declaration of the everlasting covenant of grace
in verses 31 through 34. Just as God set a bow in the
sky after the flood, and by that bow said, Noah, every time you
see the rainbow in the sky, remember, I will never again destroy the
earth with the flood of waters. So the Lord God here promises,
so long as heaven and earth shall stand, so his covenant, his grace,
and his mercy toward his elect shall stand and never fail, no
matter what. You can depend on it. You can
depend on it. I said this morning, Jeremiah
is known as the weeping prophet because when you read chapters
one through 29, it is all judgment. It is all sorrow. It is all weeping
and reason for weeping. But when we get to chapter 30,
God brought his prophet to understand the message of mercy in the experience
of his grace and says, you tell my people, my mercy is sure. My people shall be saved. My
faithfulness will stand. My grace is indestructible. My covenant is firm and everlasting. And the Lord here tells us he
will never forsake his chosen. He will never cast them off. He will never reject them. He
will never turn his back upon them, no matter what. What a word. Read these verses
with me again. Verse 35. Thus saith the Lord,
which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of
the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divided
the sea when the waves thereof roar. The Lord of hosts is his
name. If those ordinances depart, if
those ordinances depart from me, from before me, saith the
Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a
nation before me forever. Thus saith the Lord. If heaven
above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched
out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for
all that they have done, saith the Lord. God is here talking
in terms of the grandest, greatest mysteries of the universe. It
is as though he were saying, just suppose any of you could
put out the sun so that its light is darkened. Suppose you could
destroy the moon and the stars and stop them from shining day
and night. Or suppose you could measure
the expanse of heaven or search out the deep secrets under the
earth. If you could do all that, God
says, then I will admit, I will cast off my people. That's extremely
strong, moving language. God is saying, You will never
lose the ordinances of the sun, the moon and the stars. The shining
of the sun by day and the moon and the stars by night. All these
wonders are things I have made. They're mysteries beyond human
understanding. That was true in Jeremiah's day
and is still true today. No scientist of any kind would
ever claim to know the answers to these questions concerning
the sun, the moon, the stars, the expanse of heaven, or the
profundity of the depths of the earth. Every time they think
they measured, we measure now the expanse of the heavens, and
then they, oops, we messed up by a few billion miles. They
just, they can't measure it. They can't measure it. They imagine
they have measured the weight of the earth, but no brilliant
mind has ever begun to do so. These are mysteries none can
grasp. Job said, of our God, he stretcheth
out the north over the empty place and hangeth the earth upon
nothing. There are some who today believe,
as heathen idolaters did in the earliest of times, that the earth
is sitting on some kind of a shelf, it's just a great big plate sitting
out here, and the foundations underneath it, it's got foundation,
got foundation, find them for me. Find them for me. When scripture speaks of the
foundations of the earth, that which holds it together. And
Job says, God hangs the earth upon nothing. There we have suspended
on nothing except the decree, the word and the order of God,
exactly as God would have it. God says, if you can search out
these things, then he will admit that he'll cast off his people.
What a strong affirmation in the negative of His love, His
grace, and His faithfulness. The point is this, God's people
will never cease to be God's people. God's Israel will never
cease to be God's Israel. God's love will never cease to
be God's love. That's the point, no matter what. no matter what. It doesn't matter what we do. Be our sins never so great. God will never, no never, no
never cease to be our God. He will never cease to constantly
be looking after us and caring for us. so that we shall never
cease to be his people. He said, I'll give them one heart
and one way that they shall not depart from me. Why? Why? Let me give you one, just one
reason. Brother N.B. Magruder used to
preach with just one point to his sermons. He'd have a legal
pad and he'd write out one sentence and then he'd come at it from
every angle he could think of and convince you of that one
thing. Well, I got just one reason. Just one reason I want to show
you tonight for God's people being absolutely secure forever,
no matter what. God is faithful. God is faithful. He is faithful. This is what
Paul says, this is a faithful saying. If we be dead with him,
we shall also live with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign
with him. If we deny him, he also will
deny us. If we believe not, yet he abideth
faithful. He cannot deny himself. Of these things, Paul says to
Timothy, put them in remembrance. Charging them before the Lord
that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting
of hearers. Don't be turned aside by anything. Don't be turned aside by anything.
I have said to preachers, I say to preachers, I say to preachers,
what I heard from faithful men. Doesn't matter what Satan gets
you off of. Doesn't matter what he gets you
off on. If he gets you off the gospel of God's free grace, he's
won the day. Don't be turned aside to vain,
empty, meaningless words about which folks are constantly fighting
to the subverting of heroes, but rather to the preacher he
says, study. to show yourself approved unto
God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth, rightly proclaiming the scriptures. but shun profane
and vain babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. Profane religious babblings,
profane religious babblings, profane babblings about the book
of God, they only lead to more ungodliness. But the gospel of
God's grace, that which is the message of this book, It leads
to nothing but faith and devotion and consecration on the part
of God's people. Nothing but comfort and peace
and joy. It is of the Lord's faithfulness
that we're not consumed. Jeremiah said, O Spirit of God,
give me wisdom and grace. Give me power to proclaim the
faithfulness of my God this hour. I cannot begin to tell you how
much my heart and mind is occupied with God's faithfulness. He abideth faithful. From the depths of my soul, I
delight to tell you that for 51 years in the knowledge of
God's grace and goodness, I have found that He abideth faithful. abideth faithful. What a rare
thing in this world, faithfulness. In the business world, with rare
exception, a man's word is no longer his bond. In the social
world, marital infidelity has become something that's expected.
The sacred bonds of matrimony these days are discarded as thoughtlessly
as waste paper. In the political world, With
rare exception, we find elected representatives using their public
affairs for nothing but personal advantage. In the religious world,
the vast majority of preachers, churches, religious leaders who
claim to worship God and serve him, who claim to uphold his
word and proclaim his truth. repudiate the character of God,
deny the word of God, and openly attract the truth of God. Faithfulness
is a rare thing in this world. Even among the saints of God,
among his most faithful servants, we acknowledge there is much
unfaithfulness. Oh, how faithful God has been
to me. How unfaithful I've been to him. How unfaithful we have been to
our Redeemer. How unfaithful to the high privileges
that God's given us, to the light God's given us. Our faithfulness
to God at best is unfaithful, but still he abideth faithful. Let me just read some scripture
to you. You can jot down the references. I've written them
out. Psalm 36, verse five. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the
heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Psalm 89, verses one and two.
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. With my mouth
will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. I have said
mercy shall be built up forever. Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish
in the very heavens. Psalm 89, verse eight. O Lord God of hosts, who is a
strong Lord like unto thee? Are to thy faithfulness round
about thee. Psalm 119, verse 90. Thy faithfulness
is unto all generations. Thou hast established the earth,
and it abideth. Isaiah 25, the Lord God gives
us these words by his prophet. Oh Lord, thou art my God, I will
exalt thee. I will praise thy name, for thou
hast done wonderful things. Thy counsels of old are faithfulness
and truth. God is faithful. This is an attribute
essential to the character of God, essential to his being,
as much so as holiness, justice, and truth, without which he could
not be God. Know ye therefore that the Lord
thy God, he is God, the faithful God, the faithful God. Oh, what
an attribute to ascribe to God. What an attribute by which God
makes himself known. This is the foundation of all
trust. This is the foundation of faith. You can safely, confidently trust
God because He's faithful. He's faithful. Were He not faithful,
you couldn't believe anything written in the Word. You couldn't
depend on any promise. You couldn't trust Him for anything.
God is faithful. He abideth faithful. We have our God's Word given
to us that I find myself most delightful. Let's look at this
one. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 1
Thessalonians chapter 5. verse 23, The very God of peace sanctify you
wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved
blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a
prayer. Now watch the next word. Faithful
is he that calleth you who also will do it. The foundation of God standeth
sure because God is faithful. There will be a performance of
all that God has purposed and all that God has promised because
God is faithful. Faithful is he that calleth you
who also will do it. Now let's look at this in three
or four ways. First, let me remind you of some
illustrations given in scripture of God's faithfulness. They're
found throughout the Word of God. More than 4,000 years ago,
God said to Noah, while the earth remaineth seed time and harvest,
and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night,
shall not cease. What a word. And for 4,000 years,
seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day
and night, have not ceased. Every year furnishes us with
a fresh renewal of God's promise, a fresh witness of God's promise
of His faithfulness. He promised he would never destroy
the earth again with the flood of waters and he set his bow
in the sky. That rainbow around the throne
portrayed in that bow, the bow of God's covenant faithfulness. I never see a rainbow, but what
I don't think about that bow around the throne through which
everything proceeds to us from the throne of God. In Genesis
15, the Lord God told Abraham that his seed would serve as
strangers in a hostile land for 400 years. They're gonna go down
to Egypt and they're gonna be slaves in Egypt for 400 years. But after 400 years, I will bring
them out of the land with great substance. They will be enriched
by their sojourn in Egypt for those 400 years. And as the years went around,
as the centuries ran their course, Abraham's descendants groaned
beneath the taskmasters. They groaned in Egypt. And I'm
certain they began to think to themselves, God has forgotten
his promise. God has forgotten to be faithful. I know that's how they thought
because when God sent His servant to deliver them, they said, leave
us alone. Just leave us alone. Had God
forgotten to be faithful? Oh, no. We read in Exodus 12,
it came to pass that all the host of the Lord went out from
the land of Egypt, just as God said they would. In the days
of the kings of Israel, the prophet Isaiah gave this word of promise
from God Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and
call his name Immanuel. And hundreds of years passed.
Hundreds of years passed. But when the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem them that were under the law. Of our Lord
Jesus Christ, it was prophesied, righteousness shall be the girdle
of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. And
when he came, he faithfully fulfilled all the stipulations of the covenant
with the Father as our mediator and sheriff did. He brought in
everlasting righteousness. He redeemed his people. He put
away our sins by the sacrifice of himself. He ascended back
into heaven, and there he took his place upon the throne of
glory, wearing this name, faithful and true. Faithful and true. He who sits on the throne, our
Savior, is God in our flesh, faithful and true. Second, turn
to Isaiah chapter 59, or chapter 54, verse 9, I'm sorry. Isaiah
chapter 54, verse 9. Not only do we have numerous
illustrations of God's faithfulness in the book of God and in our
own lives, God is always faithful to his covenant, a covenant of
redemption, a covenant of grace, a covenant of peace, represented
many, many ways in the Old Testament scriptures. Here in Isaiah 54
9, the Lord God says, for this is as the waters of Noah unto
me. For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no
more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth
with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart,
and the hills shall be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. Sometimes it appears
that God's covenant has been broken, that it has been nullified,
even destroyed. But that never has and never
can be because God's covenant grace, God's covenant peace is
made between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Ghost on our behalf before the world began. It's a covenant
that depends not in the least, not to the least degree upon
our faithfulness, but altogether His faithfulness. A preacher,
you talk like that God's going to remain the same toward us,
no matter how we behave or what we do. I hope you carry that
home in your heart. That's exactly what I mean to
say. Now I know ungodly religious folks, they'll say, if you preach
like that, that gives people a license to sin. Let us go sin
that grace may abound. I'm talking now not to religious
folks. I'm talking to you who are gods.
God's faithfulness to you does not in any way hinge on your
faithfulness to him. Oh my God. how I thank you that
so. God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ
has been faithful in His obedience to the Father as our covenant
surety and our covenant head. He fulfilled every stipulation
of the covenant. every requirement that Jehovah
had by which God could be just and justify the ungodly. He came
here in our room, in our stead, as he promised to do before the
world was, and he obeyed God perfectly, bringing in everlasting
righteousness, satisfying divine justice. In his death, he finished
the work in faithfulness and took his seat at the right hand
of the majesty on high. restoring us in manhood perfectly
to the image of God. Imagine that. Imagine that. We died in our father, Adam.
Christ came here and brought in righteousness for us, obeyed
the law for us, satisfied justice for us. And then he comes in
time by his spirit in grace and regeneration and makes us to
be body, soul, and spirit again. Breathing into us His Spirit
as God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life. So God the
Holy Ghost breathes into the dead center, loved of God, chosen
of God, redeemed by Christ, life, and makes us partakers of the
divine nature. God the Father has faithfully
given His Son the reward of His obedience. He said, ask of me
and I'll give you the heathen for your inheritance. And God
made him to be Lord over all and promises that at his name,
at his feet, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess
of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the
earth that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
every stipulation of the covenant and God the Holy Ghost comes
in time and works in us His work as the covenant comforter, His
work as the covenant applier, His work of giving us life, regeneration,
faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. When the fullness of time comes,
as God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law
to redeem them that were under the law. So when the fullness
of time comes, God sends forth his spirit into your hearts,
crying Abba Father. When sinners are born of God,
when sinners are born of God, Sinners like you and me lift
our hearts to heaven. We find ourselves by the irresistible,
compelling force of His grace, looking to God in heaven and
calling God our Father through faith in Jesus Christ the Lord.
The salvation of our sinners, of sinners, the salvation of
our souls is altogether a matter of divine faithfulness. God promised
it. And in the time appointed of
God, He speaks peace to His redeemed, peace to His chosen, giving them
faith in Christ, and assures us of perfect righteousness,
complete forgiveness, redemption, acceptance in Christ the Lord,
security, preservation, resurrection, and at last, heavenly glory. than that, God is faithful to
His Word, to everything He's written here. God is faithful. Thy testimonies
that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful. Everything in this book Everything
in this book, let men mock and deride and laugh all they will,
everything in this book is written by divine inspiration and is
absolutely, certainly true. Every word. This is not a book
about history, but when it speaks about history, every word is
exactly accurate. This is not a book about science. Doesn't pretend to be. But everything
it says about science is absolutely true and undeniable. All the
word of God, all his promises are faithful and true. And all
his promised judgments are sure. Never was there a prophet of
God. I'm not talking about folks who
claim to be prophets. I'm talking about prophet of
God. Never was there a prophet of God who gave a word from God
that didn't come to pass exactly as God said it would come to
pass. Read the book. And after you've
read the book, get your history books down and look at it. Every
word of prophecy, though given hundreds of years before anyone
knew what was going to take place, every word of prophecy fulfilled
exactly according to the Word of God. That means when you read this book, no matter how contrary to your thinking, No matter how
contrary to what you think you experience, no matter how contrary
to how you've been conditioned to think when you read this book,
bow everything to the book. Bow everything to the book. And
fourth, I'll wrap it up with this. God is faithful in all
his relations to and in all his works for his covenant people. he can be safely trusted. You can safely rely on him. No one has ever trusted him and
found him to fail. Oh God, teach me to trust your
faithfulness. We commonly judge God's word
and God's faithfulness by our experiences and our circumstances. What a sad fact. We ought to
judge our experiences and our circumstances by God's faithfulness
and God's word. We tend to judge God's word by
what we experience. We ought to judge what we experience
by God's word. We do everything just backwards
by nature. God's faithfulness is seen in
all his dispositions of providence. things work together for good
to them that love the Lord, to them who are called according
to His purpose. We tend to judge God's providence
by momentary things, just momentary things. God forgive us. I've given you this before, but
it serves as well as anything I know to illustrate what I'm
saying. God's providence is a great piece
of machinery, and everything involved in the machinery is
necessary for the machinery's work. Several years ago, some
of you may remember, I had an old John Deere tractor. It was
a piece of junk when I bought it, but I'd work on it for 30
minutes, and I could sometimes mow as much as 15 at a time.
But it looked pretty. It had been painted. And I was
mowing out here one Saturday evening. I was a little later
than I normally am mowing. And I was clipping along pretty good.
And I hit a stump where we cut down on those trees. It wasn't
sticking up far, just a little bit. I hit it. And I just, I knew
I hit it, but I didn't pay attention. I just kept on mowing. And after
two or three passes, I looked back and realized I wasn't cutting
any grass. I wasn't cutting any grass, not
a speck. The mower was running good, unusual for my mower. It
would carry me very well up and down here, but not a speck of
grass being cut. The machine was broke, and it
couldn't perform its purpose of cutting grass. All I did was
broke a shear pin, That's all, just a 10, 15 cent cheer pin.
What'd it cost now, Bill? 10, 15 cents? That's all, just
stripped it out. But that one little pin messed
the whole machinery up. Understand this, everything that
is, has been, and shall be, works together like a machine. A well-oiled, perfectly crafted
machine, crafted according to God's purpose for the good of
God's elect. Because God is faithful. God is faithful. He's faithful
in all that he does, even when he chastens and afflicts his
own. He does chasten, he does afflict,
but he never, never, never, are you listening? He never, never,
never causes his child a needless tear, never, never. When Faith was growing up, I
often caused her pain. The younger she was, the more
I caused, the more she grew, the less I had to cause the pain
as she matured. But whenever she refused to obey
or disobeyed, I would send her to my office to get the paddle. I kept it in my top right-hand
desk drawer, and she would bring it to me, and I'd bend over my
knee, and I would wear her out. I meant to hurt her. I meant
for her to feel the paddle. but only because I loved her. And I made certain that I never
did so when I was angry with her. Not once, not once. I never did so to embarrass her,
ever. Not publicly, not in front of
anybody. That wouldn't happen. And I made certain when I got
done, she sat on my lap and understood that I wasn't angry with her.
And then I said to put the paddle away. And I said, honey, you'll
never have to get it out again as long as you obey. Why would
you do that? because I wanted her to be just
what she is. And God, our Father, never causes
his child a needless tear, never. What he does, he does for us,
even when he appears to be against us. What he does, he does for
us, even when it appears that he's angry, he's but exercising
his love. It is good for me, the psalmist
said, that I had been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes.
One of the hymn writers, I forgot who wrote this, I've written
it down years ago, he said, God in Israel sows the seeds of affliction,
pain, and toil. These spring up and choke the
weeds that would else or spread the soil. Bastards may escape
the rod, sunk in earthly vain delight, but the true born child
of God must not, would not, if he might. God is faithful in
preserving his own. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. If you're
God's, if you're God's, He's going to take care of you. If
you're God's, He's going to preserve you. If you're God's, He will
not let you depart from Him. And when we're tempted, He's
faithful with the temptation to make a way of escape. And
when we fall, He's faithful to preserve us in the midst of our
falls, faithful to restore us, and faithful to forgive us. Micah understood this. He said,
Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord
shall be light unto me. The righteous man falls seven
times in a day, but the Lord raises him up. God is faithful. He's faithful. God, our Savior,
abideth faithful. That means that God's elect are
kept in absolute, infallible security, and when He's done,
our faithful God will present you faultless before the presence
of His glory with exceeding joy. Oh, Spirit of God, Give me grace
so that every time my foot touches the earth, every time my face
feels the warmth of the sun, every time my eyes behold the
moon and stars of the sky, every time I hear the roaring sea clap
its waves against the shore, give me grace. to hear my God
in his promise of faithfulness. Thus saith the Lord, which giveth
the sun for light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and
of the stars for light by night, which divideth the sea when the
waves thereof roar. The Lord of hosts is his name.
If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then
the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before
me forever. Thus saith the Lord, if heaven
above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched
out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for
all that they have done, saith the Lord. Nobody can measure
the heavens. can measure the earth. Nobody
can find the foundations of the earth. He hangeth it upon nothing. Held in its place, suspended
in the midst of space, it hangs there. It hangs there on the
Word of God, who is faithful. And when God Almighty comes in
judgment and burns up this present earth, still he will but make
it new and it will abide forever. And we forever his own because
God is faithful. Oh my God, will you graciously
make us faithful to you. faithful to one another, faithful
to your cause, faithful in this brief thing called time while
we live in this world. Amen.