Well, we've been reading in our
daily readings. We're going through Don Faulkner's
book, Discovering Christ Day by Day, and it's daily reading,
so you read the whole Bible in a year, and the current readings
are in the book of Jeremiah, which we've just finished this
morning. But as we've been going through, some texts have been
really striking me, and I want to spend a few weeks looking
at some of those texts. And the first one is in Jeremiah
23 verse 6. His name whereby he shall be
called the Lord our righteousness. In recent weeks we've been looking
at the little epistle of Jude. which was telling us about ungodly
men. Ungodly men abound in religion all around us. Religion all around
us. That which calls itself Christianity,
respectable, is filled with ungodly men. Because what they're teaching
people is not what this book teaches. about how is a man just
with God, right with God. They deny God's gospel, good
news of salvation. They give false hope. Think,
this is true. They give false hope to eternity
bound sinners. There's nothing new in this because
Jeremiah several hundred years before Christ came. I don't know
exactly how many, six or seven hundred years before Christ came.
Jeremiah spoke about these false prophets. He pronounced against
the false prophets and the pastors. Jeremiah 23 verse 1, Woe be unto
the pastors, that destroy and scatter the sheep. They're meant
to look after the sheep, but they destroy and they scatter
the sheep. And their message, the message
of these false pastors who were there in Jeremiah's day, and
they're just as rampant in our day in all aspects of religion,
Their message is what Isaiah calls, in 28.15 of Isaiah, he
calls it a refuge of lies. They have made a covenant with
death and an agreement with hell. Do you know what that means?
It means that they have this false gospel, this refuge of
lies, but they say, oh that's going to keep us out of hell.
That's going to be well with us when we die. When we die,
everything's going to be fine. They've made a refuge of lies,
a covenant with death, an agreement with hell, and they peddle a
man-centered message of religious falsehood to gullible people,
who in their sins listen to them. It looks respectable. It looks
popular in places. It looks widely held in the world. There's a lot of mutual support.
You hear those around here who talk about Bible-believing churches
in our area. They're all peddling the same
message in one sort or another. They're all mutually supportive.
They use biblical language, but yet they err. They go into error. They teach falsely. They teach
falsely concerning the nature of God. They teach falsely concerning
the righteousness that God requires. They teach falsely concerning
the only source of the righteousness that God requires. and the only
source of true comfort for those who believe him. Jeremiah 23
pronounces woe on false pastors but asserts clearly how God will
save his people from just condemnation. He asserts it's clear, absolutely
clear, behold the days come Behold, those days come when righteousness,
the righteousness that God requires, will be established and will
be for his people. Pronounces clearly about it how
God will save his people from just condemnation and lead them
and feed them with true pastors, not false pastors. So what is
it about this message of falsehood? They're wrong about the nature
of God. The nature of God. You know,
philosophers have mused on what is the nature of God. You know,
we live in an age where the God of this age is the God of materialistic,
atheistic, evolutionary science, so-called. Pseudo-science, quack
science. ban any thought. They say it's
irrational to think about things like, is there a God? And they
rule out all of those sorts of things. And so to them, there
is no God at all. What we are is just a result
of a big bang and a random collection of molecules coming together.
I used to teach my school kids, I wouldn't be allowed to do it
today, but in the 1970s I used to teach them because, do you
know the likelihood of even one living cell happening by a series
of process chances. Do you know how likely? It's
a lot less likely than this. Imagine you've got a builder's
yard. You know, we've got Chaslow in Nedworth. Builder's yard,
there's sand, there's cement, there's bricks, there's all sorts
of stuff. There's all the things you need
to build a house, isn't there, in Chaslow's yard in Nedworth.
And somebody sets a bomb off, a great big bomb, boom! And all
the bits fly up in the air, and guess what? They all come down
to and you wander down Nedworth High Street and there's a beautiful
mansion with a lovely tiled bathroom. And is it plausible? Of course
not. Yet the very thought is absolute
madness. But that, I'm sorry, but man
in his fallen state, you know, Because he doesn't want to retain
God in his knowledge, as Romans 1 tells us, that's what he believes!
That everything around us which screams with the intelligent
design of the God who has made everything, oh no, it can't have
happened. Can't have happened. We don't want to... Why? They
will not have this man to rule over us. As that biology teacher,
dear lady, once told me, she hopes evolution is true. She
hopes evolution is true. Why? Because she said, because
if it isn't, Because if it isn't, it means I am answerable to a
God for everything that I have done, and the thought of that
appalls me. That's what she said. She didn't
believe it for scientific reasons. She believed it because the thought
of there being a God to whom she's accountable appalled her.
How can we know anything about the nature of God? Apart from
creation all around speaking to us. Romans 1 tells us, you're
without excuse, you can see it. It's everywhere. It's in us.
I am fearfully and wonderfully made. It's everywhere. How can
we know anything? We can't know anything. really,
other than by the word of God, other than by the scriptures,
other than by the book of God that we have, this treasure,
this greatest treasure earth affords, only a scripture reveals
it, because flesh constantly makes a mistake. It errs by thinking
wrongly about God. The psalmist said this, Psalm
50 and verse 21, He's talking to people in general. You thought
that I, this is God, speaking via the psalmist, you thought
that I, God, was altogether such and one as yourself. You just
thought, don't we? What's God like? Always like
an old man sitting up in the clouds looking down. You thought
that, but that isn't true. God is not like that. God says
in Isaiah 55 verses eight and nine, God says this, he says,
This is God speaking to us. My thoughts are not like your
thoughts. God says my thoughts are not
like your thoughts. God doesn't think like we do.
Neither are your ways my ways. We don't act like God acts because
he's holy, said the Lord. Four, how much of a gulf is there?
How wide is the difference? As the heavens are higher than
the earth. as the heavens are higher than
the earth. He's talking about millions of
light years. So are my ways higher than your
ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah was God's prophet. Isaiah was God's prophet. Wonderful
book, we've looked at it before. The gospel is there throughout
the book of Isaiah. Isaiah was God's prophet, but
in chapter six, He saw Christ in the temple, in all of his
glory. He had a vision of what God is really like. John tells
us it was Christ that he saw, the pre-incarnate Christ. He
saw him there, his train filled the temple, the manifestation.
No man has seen God at any time. the word that was made flesh,
he has made him known. He saw Christ in the temple.
John 12 tells us that. And he, who was God's prophet,
bringing God's word in the early chapters of Isaiah, when he sees
God, he doesn't go, oh yes, you know, like people think they
can breeze into the presence of God. Oh yes, I'm doing a good
job as your prophet, aren't I? No. He saw who God really was. And he cried out, woe is me.
That wasn't just you know, weak words. That was heart-rending. Woe is me, I am undone, for I
am a man of unclean lips. Why? He's seen him. My eyes have
seen the Lord. I've seen the holiness of God. Woe is me. Job was unrivaled
in moral uprightness. Even God said that. Compared
with the uprightness and righteousness of men, Job was unrivaled. Job was unrivaled, but when Job
saw who God really was in his holiness. Job said this, whereas
before he thought he was an upright man, he said, I abhor myself,
I am vile, I repent in sackcloth and ashes. The prophet Daniel
carried away into Babylon. Daniel is perhaps the only, he's
one of the very few anyway, where the scriptures, you know how
the scriptures are so honest about Noah and about Abraham
and their faults and David and all the rest of them, but Daniel,
we don't see anything recorded which is a negative comment about
Daniel's conduct in any way whatsoever. We just see nothing other than
as man counts uprightness, we see nothing other than utterly
upright, dedicated, devoted behavior. And yet when Daniel had his vision,
by the river. I think it's Daniel 9, isn't
it? He sees who God is. He sees how holy he is. He fell
at his feet as though he were dead. Read Revelation chapter
1. The same. The Apostle John. You
know who the Apostle John was? The apostle, he says, whom Jesus
loved. And he used to lean on his breast.
He used to get up close to him. He so loved the Saviour in the
flesh. And Christ is crucified, and
John sees it happen. And then he's risen from the
dead, and John sees the risen Lord Jesus Christ. And he's there
with the other disciples. He was there on the Mount of
Transfiguration with Peter and James, and he saw him transfigured
into what he really is. Not just a man in whom there
is no comeliness that we should desire him, but the God of the
universe. And he saw him there. And he
was there when Christ ascended back to glory. And then he goes,
and he's an old man, maybe 90 years old, and he's on the island
of Patmos in exile in the Mediterranean. And he has the vision that we
call the revelation of John. The revelation that God gave
to him. The last book of the Bible, written by the last living
apostle of the apostolic age. And you read chapter one, the
one who leaned on the breast, As I might go up to Michael and
put my arm round him, he's my grandson, I love him, and you
know. Like that was how John was with Jesus as he walked this
earth. And when he saw the risen, glorified
Lord Jesus Christ, he fell at his feet as dead. Words couldn't
express what he saw. It's all in picture language.
This is the nature of God. This is the one. thrice holy. The angels that Isaiah saw cry,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord. Holy, holy. He dwells in what
the scriptures call unapproachable light. He's perfect in righteousness. Perfect. Habakkuk chapter 1 verse
13, he says, the prophet says of him, thou art of purer eyes
than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. God is
of altogether different nature to us as sinners. This is the
God with whom we have to do. This is the God with whom we
are. And we have to do with this God. For it is appointed to man,
Hebrews 9.27, to die once. We know that for all of us. It
is appointed to man to die once. And then, the judgment. We must
all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And Hebrews 10.31,
it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God, in your own strength, in your own sins, because our God,
our God is not gentle Jesus, meek and mild. Hebrews 12.29
tells us our God is a consuming fire. What is required of man? That's the nature of God. They're
wrong about it. These false pastors give false
hope. They're wrong about Him. That's
the nature of God. I haven't begun to describe the
holiness and purity of God. What is required of man? Jesus
told us. When he walked this earth, in
the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5, verse 21, Jesus says
this, I say unto you, talking to his disciples and those gathered
there with them, that except your righteousness shall exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no
case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Hold on, what, what,
what? To them? The best practitioners
of holy religion were the scribes and Pharisees. There was none
like them. They were unique in their ability
to do that which the people thought was obeying the law of God and
satisfying the demands of God. And Jesus says, unless your righteousness
is much better than that righteousness of them, you're not coming into
the kingdom of heaven. He'll say on that day, it doesn't
matter how much you've said, Lord, Lord, haven't we done this
in your name? And Lord, Lord, haven't we preached?
And haven't we gone to church? And haven't we stopped smoking? And haven't we stopped going
to these places? Depart from me, I never knew
you. Accept your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness,
the best righteousness that we know religion can do in fleshly
terms. You shall not enter, in no case
enter the kingdom of heaven. God requires holiness. God requires
absolute holiness. Leviticus 20 and verse 7, sanctify
yourselves therefore. Make yourselves holy, set yourselves
apart, and be ye holy. Why? For I am the Lord your God. If God is the God of his people,
he requires holiness in his people. First Peter, chapter 1, verses
15 and 16. As he which hath called you is
holy, that's God, by his spirit, he's called his people. He says,
as he which hath called you to salvation is holy, so be ye holy
in all manner of conversation, because it is written, be ye
holy, for I am holy. But who is holy, as God requires? As God requires holiness. Who
is holy? The Psalms tell us. The whole
book of God tells us there is none righteous. No, not one.
Look at Romans chapter 3. Just turn over there if you can.
Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3 and verse 10. This is what God says. Romans chapter 3 verse 10, as
it is written about mankind, you and me individually and mankind
in general, there is none righteous, no not one. There is none that
understandeth, by that he means understands truly, true spirituality,
true relationship with God. There is none that seeks after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. For there is none that doeth
good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. A stinking grave is what that
means. And their tongues, they have used deceit. With their
tongues they've used deceit. The poison of asps, of snakes,
is under their lips. This is talking about you and
me, by the way. This is God's words, judgment
on us. Whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is
no fear of God before their eyes." Is that not at the root of it?
There is no, you know, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.
is the beginning of knowledge, is the beginning of the knowledge
of the way of salvation, the fear of God, the fear of God.
But mankind in general, there is no fear of God before their
eyes, no fear of God. Yet we all must meet Him, and
He's holy, and He's higher than we are. In Adam's fall, we all
lost the righteousness, the righteous nature required by God. We lost
all trace of legal righteousness in that fall. In standing before
the justice and judgment of God, we have no righteousness, for
there is none righteous, no not one. In his sufferings, Job learned
the vivid reality of his true state and cried out, how should
a man be, they're saying you're like this because God has judged
you and he's saying but I've done this, I've done that and
he starts to question and he says how then should a man be
just with God? In God's own estimation he was
way ahead of his peers, certainly of those comforters concerning
righteousness worked in the flesh, yet still vile. still an abhorrent
thing compared with the holiness of God. He was destined, he knew,
for the pit. For he cried out, Job 33, 24,
when he knew something of how God would save, he said, this
is what happens, there's the pit which is the destiny, that
horrible pit, that pit of hell, and he said, deliver him from
going down to the pit. Why? Why can he be delivered?
for I have found a ransom." God requires a ransom. Job learned
this. That's the nature of God. That's
what's required of man. What's the error of the false
shepherds? Look in Jeremiah 23 verse 1.
Woe be unto the pastors, the shepherds, that destroy and scatter
the sheep of my pasture. Jesus called his people, his
church, he called them his sheep. The sheep of my pasture. Woe
be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture,
saith the Lord. Therefore thus saith the Lord
God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people. ye have
scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited
them. Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings,
saith the Lord." He's against the shepherds. They destroy and
they scatter the sheep. Look at verses 13 and 14 of the
same chapter. Verse 13, I have seen folly in
the prophets of Samaria. That's in the north Israel. They
prophesied in Baal. They prophesied. Oh, they were
using the name of God, but actually their prophecy was the prophecy
that was in Baal, which is that false religion of man's reasonableness,
of fleshly reasonableness. They've caused my people Israel
to err. Verse 14. I have seen also in
the prophets of Jerusalem in the south, in Judea, a horrible
thing. They commit adultery. The adultery
he's talking about, I believe, is spiritual adultery. Going
after other gods and walking lies. They strengthen also the
hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness.
They are all of them, unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants
thereof as Gomorrah." Do you know I believe that those two
towns once knew the gospel of God's grace. Lot went to live
there. And yet, in their fleshly evil,
in their fleshly perversion, they went away from the things
of God. And God holds them up as an example of those who go
away in their own wickedness. And he says these false prophets,
however much like true religion they sound, that's what they
become like to God. They're like the inhabitants
of Sodom and Gomorrah. This is what God says about these
people. Their message, as we were reading
in Jude last week, has been that of Cain. What's the message of
Cain? Works religion, compared with the message of Abel, which
is the message of a substitute, a fitting substitute that God
would accept. God was pleased with the offering
of Abel, but Cain's he wouldn't accept, and so Cain slew his
brother. It's the message of Cain, that
there is something, however small, there is something you can and
that you need to contribute, because your salvation in Christ
is not good enough as it stands. Why do they do it? They're motivated
by the greed of Balaam. Are they interested in proclaiming
the truth as God has declared it? Or are they interested in
having a congregation that's viable enough for them to get
enough money to employ a pastor that they can use as a puppet
on a string to speak the words that they want to have spoken?
They're motivated by the greed of Balaam. They will do anything,
putting a veneer of holiness on it, they will do anything
to build their own little fiefdoms of religion. They say that their
brand of fleshly righteousness is good enough for God. That's
what Korah did. The error of Korah, when he objected
to Moses and Aaron being God's true prophets, he said, we're
all holy, look at us, we're holy enough as we are. Our brand of
fleshly righteousness is good enough for God. And God showed
whose righteousness alone was acceptable by the ground opening
up and swallowing them, every single one. These false prophets,
these false shepherds, they've promoted filthy rags righteousness. Peter mentioned it in his prayer.
Filthy rags righteousness, Isaiah 64 verse 6. All your righteousnesses,
all your righteousnesses in the flesh are filthy rags, obnoxious
filthy rags. As the Judaizers that came to
Galatia, when Paul was writing to the Galatians, Judaizers had
come in. He'd been and preached the gospel,
the pure gospel of salvation in Christ, and these Judaizers
had come in. And Paul calls them, writing
to the Galatians in chapter 2 verse 4, he says, their false brethren,
unawares, brought in, who came in privily, secretly, privately,
to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus. Because
in the Gospel, if the truth shall make you free, you shall be free
indeed. The liberty that we have in the
Gospel, they came to spy it out, with one objective, that they
might bring us into bondage. That they might bring us under
the bondage of the law, like those today, false shepherds,
who preach that the law of Moses is the true believer's rule of
life, when it isn't. Not at all. The law is our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. It's not our rule of life. Christ
is our rule of life. Christ is the rule of life of
his people. In Galatians 3 and verse 3, Paul says to them, having
begun in the Spirit, being saved on this road of salvation in
the Spirit, are you now doing works of the flesh to be made
perfect? Are you adding works of the flesh?
Are you sewing on patches of filthy rags righteousness onto
that seamless robe of the righteousness of Christ to be made perfect?
No. They promote legal bondage. These
false shepherds, they promote legal bondage as marks, and they
call it, it's marks of gospel fruit. Oh yes, as believing people. The epistles are full of gospel
precepts. The results, you know, therefore
don't lie to one another. All of those things, you know,
mostly the epistles are the doctrinal part and then the application
of it. The people who believe that word do not openly do all
of those things. We sin, we sin constantly. But,
you know, they promote, these false shepherds, they promote
their brand of legal bondage as marks of gospel fruit. They
mix, in what they say, they mix Calvary and the blood of Christ
for justification of his people with Sinai and the giving of
the law for the sanctification of his people. And God pronounces
this. God's word pronounces this. What
does he say about it? Woe unto them. Woe be to those
pastors. Just like Paul says about those
Judaizers coming in to Galatia. If any man preach any other gospel
to you than that which has been preached, let him be accursed. But he doesn't leave it there.
He promises his people true shepherds in all ages. He will give his
people true shepherds. Look at verse 4 of Jeremiah 23.
Well, verse 3, I will gather the remnant of my flock. He's
talking about an elect remnant, an elect. He's talking about
a particular people, out of all countries whither I have driven
them. That's talking about the days coming, the gospel days,
when he will call his people from every tribe and kindred,
as Revelation tells us. And I will bring them again to
their foals. What are their foals? The church,
to Zion, to the new Jerusalem. And they shall be fruitful and
increase. And I will set shepherds over them, which shall feed them,
and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall
they be lacking, saith the Lord. This is what God has promised,
to feed that they don't fear anymore, that they're not dismayed,
that they don't lack. God has promised it. How has
he promised it? Verse 5. Look at verse 5. Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord. What days are they? Gospel days. We're living in gospel days.
The Old Testament saints were living in gospel days. They were
looking forward, we look back. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will raise unto David. David? Symbolical of that
line from Abraham right the way down, the line of the seed. And
Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, the city of David, of the line
of David, in Judea, a righteous branch. Branch? What's that? A branch. Think about a tree
growing out of the ground. He's talking about his flesh.
That this one promise will come as a man in the flesh. But he'll
be a king. A king shall reign and prosper. A king shall reign. There are
very few kings who genuinely reign. You think of the world,
you know, we talk about President Obama being the most powerful
man in the world. But in actual fact, he's got
very, very limited power. He's very limited in what he
actually can do. There are no real leaders who
genuinely reign. This king shall reign and prosper
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. He'll establish
it. Judgment and justice in the earth.
In his days, Judah. Judah? The people of God. The
people of the promise. Judah shall be saved. And Israel? princes with God, shall dwell
safely. And this is his name. Whose name? The branch, the righteous branch,
the king, the one that shall come. This is his name, whereby
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. The Lord our righteousness. Therefore, behold, the days come,
saith the Lord. And he goes on to say it's not
just about bringing Israel out of Egypt, he's talking about
calling his people from all lands and from all nations. So, Judah
shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. Why? Because his
name shall be called the Lord our righteousness. God's people
need righteousness. Follow holiness, without which
no man shall see the Lord. We need it. You won't see God
unless you've got it. But where do you get it? He's
it. This is the name whereby he shall be called, the Lord.
The Lord, our righteousness. This branch raised unto David
shall be called all the righteousness we need for justice to be satisfied
in him. For the law of God to say, justice
is satisfied, it has no more case against you. For in him,
his name is the Lord our, his people's righteousness. And true
shepherds that God has promised preach nothing other. than the
Lord our righteousness. In answer to Job's question,
how should a man be just with God? The Lord our righteousness
is how a man should be just with God. They preach nothing else.
Like Paul, they determine not to know anything among those
they preach to than Jesus Christ. I don't want to preach about
morality. I don't want to preach about political things. I don't
want to preach about fairness and unfairness in society. I
just want to preach this. Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
The Lord our righteousness. They echo what Isaiah proclaimed. Isaiah 45 verse 24, Surely shall
one say, this is the prophecy of Isaiah concerning the state
of the believing people of God, concerning their righteousness.
And you know, on the internet, on Facebook, there's the line
of the Grace Fellowship that various people post things on
and you know people are saying this surely shall one say in
the Lord have I righteousness and strength even to him shall
men come and all that are incensed against him for they are all
these false shepherds are incensed against the truth of the gospel
of particular redemption of God's grace in him all that are incensed
against him shall be ashamed shall be ashamed in the day of
judgment shall be sent away into outer darkness in the day of
judgment. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified
and shall glory. Who does he justify? All the
seed of Israel. Is that not very particular?
Is it just that country in the Middle East today? Of course
not. It's all believing people. It's all who are brought to believe
the gospel of God's sovereign grace, to trust in Christ. Isaiah
61 verse 10, this is what they say. This is what the people
of God say. I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God. I've been thinking about eternity.
I've been thinking about how do I stand before the judgment
seat of Christ. But I greatly rejoice in the
Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God. Why? Because He has clothed me
with the garments of salvation. I didn't dress myself. you know,
that little boy that you can hear through there, he doesn't
dress himself yet, hopefully he'll get to that stage one day,
but people help him, people put his clothes on. You clothe him.
He doesn't do it, he can't do it, he doesn't know, he's not
coordinated, he can't, doesn't know how to do it. God has clothed
his people with the garments of salvation. He has covered
me with the robe of righteousness. I haven't tried to sew patches,
which so many of these false shepherds preach. Oh, you need
to work up righteousnesses and then add them to that The seamless
robe of Christ is okay up to a point, but you need to sanctify
yourself. They're trying to sew patches of their own filthy rags
righteousness onto that robe of God's righteousness in Christ.
How is it then that he can be the Lord our righteousness without
violating his justice? Is God not just? Is God a just
God? Yes he is. Can he look upon sin? No. He's a pure horizon to behold
iniquity. How can he be a just God and
yet a saviour of sinners? How can he be just and the justifier
of the one who is in Christ Jesus? It's because of this. We are
made, those who believe, are made the righteousness of God
in him. He says in 1 Corinthians 1.30,
Sorry, sorry, in 2 Corinthians 5, 21, you know it so well. For
he hath made him, our Lord Jesus Christ, to be sin for us, the
sins of his people. He took them. They weren't swept
under the carpet, he took them. I don't know how, I don't understand
how, but it says God made him sin. He was never a sinner, but
God made him the sins of his people. That in him, his justice
might be satisfied, in his shed blood, as he died on that cross
of Calvary. Him who knew no sin. Why? That
we, believers, might be made, made. There's a lot in that word,
much more than at first appears, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him by a strict legal transfer, the just for the unjust
to bring us to God. We're made the righteousness
of God in Him so that 1 Corinthians 1.30 says, of Him are ye in Christ
Jesus who of God is made unto us everything we need, wisdom,
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. God requires
nothing more. So Paul says in Colossians 2
verse 9, Ye are complete in him, for in him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And what comfort that gives.
I'll finish with this. Comfort in God's righteousness. I've
already said that these shepherds preaching that gospel will feed
them. When you hear this message, if you're a child of God, you
don't want to hear any other message. I read an account, I
think it was in Paul Mahan's bulletin, that somebody had written
that there's a particular comedy show that's doing the rounds,
and that the same performers performed it to a thousand different
audiences, and every single audience had never heard it before, and
they all laughed heartily at this show, and it was very successful.
Then on to the next town, and they performed it a thousand
times, and every time it was a different audience. But he
said, the preaching of the gospel of God's grace is this, that
every time it's the same audience of the people of God listening
to what? The same message. And do you know something? Every
time you hear it, there's nothing warms your heart more than that
same message of comfort. That same message of soothing
comfort. Feed them, they'll fear no more,
they'll not be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking. This message
constantly feeds. They'll dwell in their own land,
verse 8. They'll dwell in their own land.
What's that land? It's Zion. What's Zion? It's
the church. They're married to Him, whose
name is the Lord, our righteousness, the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Now turn over. I know I've shown you this before,
but, you know, You're the same audience hearing the same message
again. Jeremiah 33, and verse 15. We will get a very, very
similar set of statements to the ones we've read in 23. In verse 15 of 33, in those days,
and at that, in those gospel days, and at that time, will
I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David, and he
shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall
Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this
is the name whereby she, she shall be called the Lord our
righteousness. There's a marriage. You know,
I know there's a lot of liberal thinking that says the woman
shouldn't take her husband's name, but you know, marriage
is such a picture of Christ and his church, and that girl over
there that I married 45 years ago yesterday, stopped being
what she was, Christine Kettlewell as she grew up, and she became
Christine Jellett, and she was happy to do it. She took my name.
What's this saying? The people of God are called
by the name of their husband, the Lord our righteousness. That's
what we're called, the Lord our righteousness. God, the righteous
judge, calls his believing people the Lord our righteousness because
he's married us to him. And when he judges, for we must
all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, this is what
he says, again it's from Jeremiah, Chapter 50 and verse 20, this
is what chapter 50 of Jeremiah says, verse 20. In those days,
those judgment days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for You read Jeremiah, there's an
awful lot of iniquity in that nation called Israel. The iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none. And
the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, for I will pardon
them whom I reserve. God has saved his elect from
their sins. This is it. The legal papers
are signed. They're sealed. They're delivered
for all eternity. Do you have a will? Do you have
the deeds of your house? Do you have whatever it might
be? You know, legal papers that matter and you don't want to
lose them, but a fire could come. A flood could come. There could
be some sort of loss. People put their things in bank
deposit safes thinking that they're safe forever and we know that
recently there was that heist in London where huge great holes
were drilled through massive thick concrete walls and they
stole what was inside it. But these legal papers are beyond
the reach of anyone, of anything, of Satan himself. No fire, no
flood, no loss, no forgetfulness can change it. These legal papers
are signed. God has said, the iniquity of
Israel shall be sought for, and the sins of Judah, and there
shall be none, and they shall not be found. because I will
pardon them whom I reserve, just God, but yet a Saviour, because
he's done it in Christ, the Lord, our righteousness." Does that
legal paper, that eternal legal paper, that book of God, does
it have your name on it? If you believe the Gospel, this
is the only evidence, if you believe the Gospel, and you trust
Christ alone, you can be sure it does.