If you turn again to the passage
we read in Jeremiah and chapter 23, we'll read a couple of small
portions from the chapter. Firstly from verse one, through
to verse four, and then verse 23 and 24. Jeremiah 23, reading
from verse one. 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. And I will gather the
remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven
them and will bring them again to their foes, and they shall
be fruitful and increase. And I will set up shepherds over
them which shall feed them, and they shall fear no more, nor
be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord. But
then in verse 23 and 24, we read again concerning those prophets
that have scattered the Lord's people who bring their lies. Am I a God at hand, saith the
Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret
places that I shall not see him, saith the Lord? Do not I fill
heaven and earth, saith the Lord? Can any hide himself in secret
places that I shall not see him, saith the Lord? This weekend, this week, Britain
has had a visit from the leader of the Roman Catholic Church,
known as the Pope. A state visit, as invited by
our Queen, in which Much has been said either for him by those
who follow his church and its teachings and are led captive
by its delusions and false ways. And of course there are many
others who oppose him either rightly so because they oppose
the falsehoods that is taught by Catholicism. And they oppose
the position that the Pope takes as a mediator between God and
man, usurping that one authority and one priesthood which is found
in Jesus Christ. But of course there are also
many others in this dark and evil age in which we live who
oppose his coming because they simply view him as a leader of
Christianity as they suppose. and they hate his stance on moral
issues. They love their liberty as they
think they have. They will be allowed to sin and
to live as they will and have none to tell them that they are
in error, none to tell them that they sin, none to tell them that
they will be judged for that sin. So much of the opposition
we hear is from such quarters. because they see this man as
representing Christianity. But of course the reality is
is that the Pope and Catholicism presents a corruption of Christianity,
a false message, which in such a visit it might hide somewhat
from the great masses and come preaching peace. come mention
in the name of Jesus Christ and his grace and the power of his
gospel to transform lives and to bring peace and goodwill to
a nation, to keep evil at bay, to bring in a more moral and
righteous standards amongst the people, to give people hope,
something to look forward to, an alternative to the wantonness
and the depravity which the atheistic and materialistic and secularist
teachings of the media and of the world today would bring. So this man comes bringing another
message and this sounds appealing to many. But in so doing he hides the
true message of Catholicism. the true message of the idolatry
that it brings, the true message of its corruption, of the truth
of Christianity, of its usurping of the place of Christ with the
place of a priesthood in its place, of mere men to lead you
unto God. It's taken away of the grace
in the gospel and put in its place the works and the will
of man. and in so doing its message has no hope. No hope for if it
depends upon your works or your will to bring salvation to pass,
then you are lost before you've started. It is a message brought
by prophets that say they have a dream, that say they have the
word of God. But they tell people that they
will have peace when they will have no peace. They tell people
that if they follow their way, that they will be saved. When
the reality is on that last day in which the Lord Jesus Christ
comes to judge all men according to the secrets of their heart,
in the secrets of their heart according to his gospel, that
what they hold on to and what they cling on to will be found
wanting. And what they thought would bring
them peace, will bring them damnation. In this passage in Jeremiah,
the Lord has something to say to such as these. 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 doing saith the Lord. In verse 17 he says of what they
say that they say unto people the Lord have said ye shall have
peace and they say unto everyone that walketh after the imagination
of his own heart no evil shall come upon you. But evil will come upon them
for their message does not bring peace but ultimately condemnation. And the Lord has this to say
both to Rome the Pope, all these prophets and preachers, whether
in Catholicism or outside of it, who would bring peace, peace
when there is no peace. And he has this to say to all
men, religious or irreligious, those who welcome this visit
this weekend and those who oppose it. He has this to say to all
men. Am I a God at hand, saith the
Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret
places that I shall not see him? Do not I fill heaven and earth,
saith the Lord? Can any hide himself in secret
places that I shall not see him? Whatever the appearance presented
before men, by whomsoever Whatever the appearance the Pope might
present and Catholicism might present, whatever the appearance
many who profess religion or Christianity might present, whatever
the appearance many in the world who speak of their freedom to
follow their secularism, their humanism, whatever the appearance
they might present, The Lord says to them, can any hide himself
in secret places that I shall not see him. Nothing is hid from
God. Whatever we may hide in our hearts,
whatever we may hide in our message, whatever we may hide in our appearance,
nothing is hid from God. He sees things as they really
are. As they really are. He knows
what message is put behind the PR front that people put on. He knows what is done behind
closed doors. He knows what goes on in your
heart. Can any hide himself in secret
places that I shall not see him? There is nowhere to hide. Nothing
is hid from the Lord God, nothing. There is nowhere to hide for
any of us. There is nowhere for the sinner
with guilty hands to hide what he has done. We may do things
and hide them from other men. We may think no one has seen
us, no one knows. I've not been found out. But
nothing is hid from the Lord God who fills heaven and earth,
who sees all, who understands all and perceives all. All is
known. All is known. When mankind fell into sin in
the Garden of Eden, When Adam and Eve rebelled against the
commandment of the Lord. When he commanded that they could
eat of any tree in the garden, save the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. When the woman was deceived and
led astray by the serpent and then the man followed her in
her fall and in her rebellion. They immediately knew that they
were guilty. And they immediately sought to
cover up what they had done and to hide from the presence of
the Lord God. It says in chapter 3 of Genesis
in verse 8, And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking
in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife
hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees
of the garden. They sought to hide. But the Lord God called unto
Adam and said unto him, where art thou? Where art thou? And Adam said, I heard thy voice
in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid
myself. He knew he was naked, he knew
he was exposed. He knew his sin was not hidden. He knew all was plain to see. And he sought to hide himself. But the Lord God knew where he
was. The Lord God walked in the garden
and found him. Where art thou? Well, where are you? Where art
thou this day? Where are you hiding? What are
you hiding? What do you think that you can
conceal from the Lord God Almighty? Where art thou? There is nothing that can be
kept secret from such a God. You may keep it secret now. You
may keep it secret to the end of your days. But there is a
day coming when we shall all stand before this God, and all
that was made secret will be revealed. As he says in Romans
chapter two and verse 16. In that day, when God shall judge
the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. There
is a day when all the secrets will be made known and will be
judged by Jesus Christ according to his gospel. We can hide now,
but we cannot hide forever. Adam and Eve sought to hide,
but the word came, where art thou? There is no sinner that can hide
from the presence of the Lord. There is nowhere to hide, all
is known and all is seen. And especially the sins of those,
as in Jeremiah's prophecy here of whom we read, especially the
sins of those who think they do the Lord God's service. Woe
be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture,
saith the Lord. Those who think they see when
they are blind. Those who think they are not
sinners like these in the world. Those who think that they serve
the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who think that they will
be saved Those who tell others the way to salvation when they
don't enter in themselves. Like the Pharisees of old, they
rejected the coming of Christ. They were zealous for the law
and the things of God. They would prevent others from
going and hearing this man, Jesus, who came into their midst. They'd
prevent them and they'd make them more the
children of hell than themselves. They'd bring them into destruction. They did not enter into glory
themselves through their unbelief and their rebellion. And they'd
prevent others from coming unto the Lord Jesus. They scattered the sheep of his
pasture. They would destroy even though
they thought they did God's service. They prophesied, they preached
in His name, yet they did not know the truth. These pastors
in Jeremiah's day prophesied and preached in God's name. They
told the people that they would have peace, yet they brought
upon them destruction, for they turned the truth of God into
a lie. They changed it. They twisted
it. They turned away from God and
to their own imagination and they led others astray. They preached but they were not
sent. They pronounced peace, peace
when there is no peace. They tell all men that they will
be saved when they are not saved. They make salvation an easy thing. But they deceive their hearers,
for in reality they provide no salvation. They destroy and scatter,
and yet they have no hiding place. The Lord God sees all. He knows
what's going on. He is not deceived. He is not
led astray. Can any hide himself in secret
places that I shall not see him? Saith the Lord. He says of his
word which will find us all out. Is not my word like as a fire? Saith the Lord. And like a hammer
that breaketh the rock in pieces. Therefore, behold, I am against
the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words every one
from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophets,
saith the Lord, that use their tongues and say, he saith. Behold, I am against them that
prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them and
cause my people to err by their lies and by their likeness. Yet I sent them not, nor commanded
them. Therefore, they shall not profit
this people at all, saith the Lord. My word is like as a fire
and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces. There's no hiding place for those that reject his truth
and his son and his true gospel. for those who would take it upon
their own lips and run without being sent, for those who were
twisted into lies, for those who would lead the people astray.
He sees, he knows. There is no hiding place. Can
any hide? No, they cannot. Consider this
one who asks this question. Who is this from whom we cannot
hide? Why cannot we hide from him? Can any hide himself in secret
places that I shall not see him, saith the Lord? Do not I fill
heaven and earth, saith the Lord? This is the Lord who is speaking,
the creator of the heavens and the earth, the one who sustains
all life, the one who fills the heavens and the earth. He sees
all. He is great. He is mighty. He is almighty. No one can hide
from his presence. He is everywhere. His seven eyes
go into the corners of the earth, seeing all things. His spirit
goes forth. His word goes forth. Nothing
is hid from this mighty Lord God. Nothing, nothing is outside
of his knowledge, nothing is outside of his sight, nothing
is hit, he's too great. We can hide from men, for men
and women are small, they are like us, but there's no place
to hide from one as great as this. Do not I fill heaven and
earth. Do not I fill heaven and earth. You cannot get greater than this.
And yet man thinks he can hide from such a one. Don't be a fool. You cannot hide from this God.
He knows and he sees. He's over all. No, nothing is
hid. None of the sins of men are hid.
None of the wickedness that goes on in this world is hid or forgotten. All will be brought to account. All will be dealt with rightly. We may grieve at what goes on
in our days. We may grieve that this country
should have the Pope visit. We may grieve at the falling
away in the churches, we may grieve at the sin that multiplies
in our nation and its brazenness and openness. We may grieve at
what we see that seems to go on unhindered, unchecked, unjudged. We may grieve that the wicked
seem to prosper and the righteous are trampled underfoot. The people
of God may look and may grieve at these things. They may feel
so weak in the face of such great opposition, such mighty forces
set against them, set against the truth, set against righteousness. We may look on and grieve. And
yet, nothing is hit and nothing will go unanswered. Vengeance
is mine, saith the Lord. I will repay. There is justice. There is a reckoning. There is
an answering. If not now, then in that day
to come. All will be put right. All will
be answered fairly. All will be made plain. We may grieve now, but the prayers
of God's people, the long-suffering prayers, will be answered, all
will be made right, for nothing is hid from he who fills the
heaven and the earth. And in this truth, in this truth
that nothing is hid, that there is no hide in place, There is great comfort for the
people of God. There is great comfort that nothing
is hid, that nothing is outside of the knowledge of God, that
nothing is missed by Him. There is great comfort to know
that nothing that is set against us He is unaware of. There is
great comfort to know that nothing that occurs, nothing that is
said or done against the Church of Christ, against the Gospel
of Christ, against the Lord Jesus Christ, or against any of his
little ones, any of his children, there is nothing that is said
or done that is hid from the Lord God. In this lack of a hiding
place, There is great terror for those who would flee from
an angry God. In this truth that none can hide
from Him, this brings great terror to those who oppose Him and hate
Him. If not now, then it will in that
day when His judgment comes upon them. And yet in this same truth,
for those who love Him, for those who know His mercy, For those
who know His grace, for those who have come to know His salvation,
there is great, great comfort. For He is mindful of His own. He's mindful of His own, He's
mindful of us. He's never complacent, He's never
taken His eyes off His children. He's never careless, He's never
uncompassionate. He's never left them onto their
own. He never leaves them to their
own strength and their own might. Sometimes we will rise up in
our own strength and think that we can find our own way. And
He may withdraw for a moment and leave us to fall to teach
us that we are nothing without Him. That we have no strength
or no might of our own. But in so doing, he's mindful
of our situation, he's mindful of our need, he's mindful of
our trouble. And having shown us our need
of him, he soon comes to our rescue. He never takes his eyes
off his children. He's never unaware. never unconcerned,
he cares, he cares for his own, he cares for his own as those
whom he loves with an everlasting love. I have loved thee with
an everlasting love, he says to all his children, with an
everlasting love. I loved you before I chose you. I loved you before I called you
out of this world of wickedness. I loved you before you were born. I loved you before you came to
hear the gospel. I loved you before you went astray.
I loved you before you sinned. I loved you before you were broken. I loved you before I sounded
the alarm in your heart. sounded the warnings of wrath
to come and of judgment upon your sins. I loved you before
I awakened you by my spirit. I loved you before I convicted
you of your sins. I loved you before I put my terror
into your hearts of judgment. I loved you before I started
to draw you by my spirit unto myself. I loved you before I
caused you to flee unto me, to flee to the cross, to flee to
Christ. I loved you before I declared
the finished work of my Son unto you. I loved you before you fell
down at his feet and cried out unto him to have mercy upon you. I loved you before you heard
his voice in the gospel, crying out, Whosoever shall call upon
me, shall be saved. I loved you before you called,
I loved you before you were answered, I loved you before I answered
you in the gospel, I loved you before I brought you to hear,
brought you to see, I loved you before I put faith in your heart,
before I quickened you unto life, I loved you before you cried
out and were heard. I loved you before you knew my
forgiveness. I loved you before you knew that
blood shed for you upon the cross in your place. I loved you before
you knew the effectual cleansing of that blood upon your heart,
sprinkled within. I loved you before you knew in
experience that you were mine. chosen elect from all eternity,
chosen in Christ, chosen given to my Son to declare His grace
unto you, to die for you, to save you. I loved you before
you knew you were His. I loved you before you were united
under Him. one with Him in your experience. I loved you before you knew that
you were one of His lost sheep, chosen and saved and redeemed
by His blood. I loved you when you cried out
to Him, when you called upon Him, when you were heard, when
you followed. I love you as you follow. I love
you now. I love you in your circumstance
now. I love you wherever you may be. and I will love you in the future. I will love you for all time
and for all eternity. I have taken you in my hand to
save you. I have taken you in my hand to
pluck you off that dunghill upon which you were as a beggar. I
have taken you in my hand to pluck you from the jaws of death,
to take you as a child of wrath and to deliver you from darkness
and to bring you into light. I have loved you to bring you
into everlasting life. I have loved you and I love you
and I will love you forevermore. None shall perish of those sheep
for whom Christ laid down his life. None shall perish. He loves
them with an everlasting love. they are His. If you are Christ
this day, if you know this pathway under salvation, if you have
cried under Him and heard His voice in the Gospel pronouncing
unto you the forgiveness of your sins, calling you under Him by
name, pronouncing peace upon your heart, if you have heard
Him, if you are His and He is yours, if He loves you, then
you will find comfort in knowing that nothing is hid. Nothing
is hid from him. He loves, he cares, and he's
concerned. Nothing that you're going through,
nothing that you experience, none of your trials and difficulties
are hid from him. None of the problems, none of
the worries, none of the concerns. Nothing is hid. He's jealous
for his own. He has bought them at a price. Christ laid down his life for
his own. He suffered a great suffering
unto death because he loves them. And if he loves them, then he's
concerned for them. If he loves you, he's concerned
for you every day. And nothing that you have to
deal with, none of the persecution, none of the trials, none of the
difficulties, none of the worries, none of the concerns are hid
from him who careth for you. What a comfort to know that nothing's
hid. Men oppose you. Men tell lies
about you. Lies that you may find difficult
to put right. They put about false reports,
they turn others against you. You may feel that you're powerless
to correct people. You may feel that the opposition
against you is too strong. But nothing is hid from your
Heavenly Father. Nothing is hid from He who fills
heaven and earth. Nothing is hid from the Lord
Jesus Christ. He knows what goes on. He knows
what is going on. He knows what will go on. And
He is the one who will give you the strength and the grace to
stand in such a day. He is the one who will deliver
you from evil. He is the one who will lead you
safely through whatever the trial, whatever the difficulty, however
deep the waters, however fiery the fires, whatever the fiery
trial of faith that you may be brought to pass through, whatever
the trial, He is the one who is in the midst. He is the one. For not only is nothing hid from
him, not only does he know everything, not only does he know our pathway,
our pilgrimage, our journey, our concerns, but he himself
is our hiding place. He himself is the hiding place
of all his people, all the children of God. Can any hide? Can any hide himself in secret
places that I shall not see him? Well, none can hide themselves
from God. No sin can be hidden from his
sight. No iniquity can be done in secret
that is not known and found out by him and his word. But the
child of God has a hiding place. He has a refuge. He has one to
whom he may flee. He has one in whom he may hide
from all that is against him, all that opposes him, all that
would seek to destroy and scatter. He has a hiding place. Not a
hiding place from God, not a hiding place from Christ and his gospel
by which Christ will judge the secrets of all men, but a hiding
place in God. A hiding place in Christ. We
have a hiding place. The child of God has a hiding
place, a refuge, a strong tower. And that hiding place is Christ.
He is our hiding place. He is the one in whom we may
find refuge from all that is against us. All that is against
us. In Him and in Him alone. In Him
alone, there is a refuge from sin, from condemnation and from
judgment to come. In Him alone, covered by His
blood, there's no refuge in the lies of man. There's no refuge
in the Pope and his deceits. There's no deliverance from condemnation
to come in the eras of false religion. But there is a refuge
in Christ and in his gospel. There is a hiding place from
sin in Christ. There is a hiding place from
condemnation and from judgment to come in Christ and in Christ
alone. For he is a mediator between
God and men. He is the mediator, the one mediator. between God and man, the man
Christ Jesus. He is the one that came to bridge
the gulf between God and man who was estranged by his fallen
rebellion. That gulf that sin opened up,
that gulf of iniquity and judgment, that gulf by which we cannot
cross by our own strength, by our own goodness, by our own
righteousness, by our own works, for all is but sin in God's sight. But in Christ, because he died,
because he came and stood in the sinner's place, because He
stood in the midst of that gulf, because He stood under the condemnation
that was theirs, under the judgment, under the wrath, because He stood. They in Him are spared the condemnation,
spared the wrath, and delivered from the sin. He is their refuge. and their hiding place. This
is your refuge, this is your hiding place. He's a refuge from
the world, a refuge from the enemies of the gospel, a refuge,
a hiding place from the adversary, the devil who goes about as a
roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. a refuge from all
the child of God's foes. Everyone, everyone, nothing can
condemn us if we are in Him. Nothing. For when He died, all
the condemnation was soaked up by Him. All of it. When He died,
nothing was hid. All the sins of all his people
were laid upon him. Nothing was hid. And his father
looked and saw those sins. But instead of judging them in
that people, he judged his only begotten son. Instead of destroying
them, he destroyed him. Instead of slaying them, he slayed
him. He had nowhere to hide. He bore
the wrath and the judgment. He bore our sins and He died
under His Father's wrath. But we in Him, those who believe
on Him, those who have faith in Him, the child of God, in
Him, we were hid, covered. Not one judgment will come upon
us, now or in eternity, because everything was drunk up when
Christ drunk that cup of God's wrath to the drinks. As David
says in Psalm 32 of the blessedness of this knowledge. Blessed is
he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed
is the man under whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in
whose spirit there is no guile. when I kept silence my bones
wax old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night
thy hand was heavy upon me, my moisture is turned into the drought
of summer, sailor. I acknowledge my sin unto thee,
and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said I will confess my
transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity
of my sin. for that sin was covered by Christ's
blood. For this shall every one that
is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. Surely
in the flood of great waters they shall not come nigh unto
him. Thou art my hiding place. Thou
shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance. Say not. Christ was David's hiding
place. Those waters of trouble would
not come under him. For they came upon his savior
instead. There was no condemnation. No
condemnation. He is my hiding place, David
said. My hiding place. As Romans 8 says, whatever happens
in this world, whatever happens... We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them that are the
called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of His
Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover,
whom He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called,
them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Who is he that condemneth? There's no condemnation, for
he is our hiding place, if we are in him. Our hiding place. Why? Because of that everlasting
love. that he set upon us, his children,
that led him to the cross, by which he died, by which he saved
us, and which continues to be set upon us, never to be removed. Nothing can take it away. For
as Paul goes on to say, Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ? Shall tribulation or distress
or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written,
for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted
as sheep for the slaughter. Maybe But nay, in all these things
we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities,
nor powers nor things present nor things to come, nor height
nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing, nothing can separate
the child of God from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ,
our God. Can any hide? Oh, flee unto Christ and hide
in him. May you know what it is to have
Christ as your hiding place. and to never ever, ever be separated
from the love of Christ.