Suppose, if you can, that a preacher,
let's say this preacher, stood in this pulpit week after week
after week for the past year, year and a half, two years, and
constantly declared to you that Saddam Hussein was God's servant. And he is raising an army, though
you can't see it now, that shall by God's will come against this
nation and take you and me into captivity as his servants. Because God is angry with this
nation. Because the judgment of God is
upon this nation. Because the wrath of God is about
to be poured out. And he will withhold his wrath
no more. And having said that, and having
declared that, I call on you and call on people around the
nation. Go from place to place. God opens
the door. And I declare to them, now the
thing for you to do is recognize that this nation is contemptible
before God. Our traditions, our values, those
things that we hold dear and uphold, those things that make
us think we're superior to others, God Almighty holds in utter contempt. They are an abomination to him,
an offense to him, a stench in his nostrils. And the thing for
you to do, if you want to survive, is to submit to God's providence,
forsake your homeland, and go willingly back to Baghdad and
become servants to a great Babylonian empire and bow down. And then you can imagine such
a preacher might be spit upon, ridiculed. Folks get wind of
it in the news media and they have it on TV so they can poke
fun at Folks mock it, deride it. After a while he's accused
of treason, cast into prison, put into a hole in solitary confinement,
but even there he finds a way to write down the word that he's
been declaring, and he's relentless. He will not recant. And he figures
out a way to get this word written into a book And has the book
read publicly before all the nation? Need not be surprised that folks
seek his life, cry for him to be executed publicly. Now if
you can imagine such a thing, you'll have a pretty good idea
what the book of Jeremiah is all about. Only Jeremiah was
no crackpot preacher. He was the prophet of God in
the land of Israel in his day, the voice of God to his nation. He was, in my opinion, the most
courageous, the boldest, the most valiant for truth man I
know of at any point in history other than our Lord Jesus himself.
No preacher ever faced more opposition. No preacher had to endure such
discouragement as this man did, relentlessly. Enduring discouragement,
facing opposition, and doing this constantly with less to
encourage him, with less to invigorate him, with less to inspire him,
than any preacher I know of in any circumstance in history.
You see, Jeremiah labored all his days with no prospect of
anybody paying any attention to him. He knew when he started
they weren't going to hear him because God told him that was
the case. He knew when he started the people whom he loved, the
people for whom he devoted his life, The people to whom he gave
himself continually would not hear him, because God told him,
they will not hear you. They will not hear you. Jeremiah
began preaching as a very young man. I don't know exactly what
his age was, but he was a very young man. It was during the
days of the godly king of Judah, Josiah. He was God's spokesman,
God's prophet to the nation through the rest of Josiah's reign. and
through the reigns of the four succeeding kings until at last
the Jews were carried away into Babylon by the will of God. He
faithfully served the Lord his God and faithfully served his
generation by the will of God for more than 40 years. Forty
years spent in utter thanklessness. You don't find him really having
but two friends mentioned in these 52 chapters, a fellow by
the name of Barak and an Ethiopian, the only two who seemed to have
befriended him and been loyal to him. I'm sure there were others,
but they're the only two mentioned in these 52 chapters. He faithfully
served his generation and faithfully served the will and glory of
God in the face of relentless, almost universal opposition for
Something better than 40 years at least. I wish I could remember what
I just told you. Next time I get to crying in
my milk. And I wish I could cry it to the housetops to preachers
who whine and cry and whimper because things go so bad for
them. Jeremiah wept much, but not once for himself. His heart was in constant great
heaviness because of the iniquity and the relentless rebellion
of the people to whom he preached, because of God's impending judgment
upon the people, the nation that he loved, for whom he cared so
much. Yet he never flinched from his
duty. He never failed to declare the word that God put into his
mouth. He was imprisoned repeatedly. He was put in public stocks.
He was lowered by ropes into a miry pit. He was derided. He was mocked. He was slandered. He endured strife and contention. strife and contention from the
whole world around him. I'm talking about strife and
contention from the people around him, his family, his neighbors,
from the kings, the rulers in Israel, from the priests, from
the prophets, from the pastors. The whole world was set against
this man. The whole world. Nobody in agreement
with him. Nobody. He was opposed by false
prophets. confronted by angry mobs of religious
people, including, indeed, led by prophets and priests who wanted
his blood, who wanted him dead. They tried every way they could
to have him executed. This man was constantly, constantly
involved in relentless, relentless difficulty, accused of treachery,
accused of betraying God and his people and his country. And
yet, Jeremiah was as relentless as the opposition he faced in
his obedience to the will of God. Unbended. Unflinching. For the glory of God and for
the good of his people, he delivered God's word to the people, whether
they would hear or whether they would forbear. serving God from
the day of his calling unto the day of his death, and never once
complained about it. He faithfully exposed Israel's
sins, called the nation to repentance, warned them of impending wrath
and judgment, asserting that the wrath of God was coming upon
them, and they fully deserved it. All the time, throughout
this book, he's saying, God Almighty is about to punish you. You,
my brothers and sisters, you, my nation, you, your sons and
your daughters, your husbands and your wives, God's going to
punish you, and you have earned it. You fully deserve it. You
fully deserve it. Well, that's not a very nice
way to talk. The only way to talk to folks is to tell them
the truth. To tell them the truth. And the only way you can ever
persuade men and women that they need mercy is to convince them
that they deserve wrath. The only way men and women will
ever be persuaded to seek God's goodness is to tell them they
deserve his judgment. The only way men and women will
ever be persuaded to turn to the Lord is when they're persuaded
that the Lord has every reason to turn against them. So Jeremiah
is relentless. He never ceased declaring that
these folks deserved God's judgment, that the nation deserved to be
destroyed, and yet he never ceased declaring the goodness and mercy
of God. He even denounces Israel's wickedness
and prophesied that the nation would be brought to utter destruction.
He declares the immutable faithfulness of God to his people even in
the exercise of his wrath. He even declares that the very
judgment of God upon the nation is specifically for the purpose
of saving his children among the nation. That's specifically
his purpose. Now let's begin in the next to
the last chapter, Jeremiah 51 verse 4. I want us to begin here because
I want you to see what I've just told you is so. Jeremiah's prophecy
is a prophecy of judgment. Judgment designed to accomplish
grace. It is a prophecy of wrath. Wrath
designed and performed to accomplish mercy. Here in Jeremiah 51 verse
4. Thus the slain shall fall in
the land of the And they that are thrust through in her streets. For Israel hath not been forsaken. Isn't that a strange word? He
doesn't say yet Israel hath not been forsaken. He doesn't say
but Israel hath not been forsaken. He says the slain shall fall
in Babylon. For Israel hath not been forsaken,
nor Judah of his God, of the Lord of hosts. Though their land
was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel. Oh, they
deserved it. They deserved it. And the physical
nation has been abandoned. The physical nation has been
cast off. But God's purpose of grace is to ward a people within
that people. Israel within Israel, Judah within
Judah, Jacob within Jacob. His purpose of grace is for his
elect remnant. And throughout this book, his
eye is upon a remnant. As you read through these 52
chapters, try to mark this. Every time you see that word
remnant, Jeremiah speaks of judgment. He said, but folks who stay in
Jerusalem, God's going to kill them. The only way to escape
this is to go down to Babylon, but when God kills those folks
in Jerusalem, there's a remnant. There's a remnant he'll spare.
Down in Babylon, the nation is going to perish. But there's
a remnant. There's a remnant. And God's going to bring them
back. And they'll go down to Egypt. I tell them, don't go
down to Egypt. And I'll destroy you if you go
down to Egypt. And they're going down to Egypt. But there's a
remnant. There's a remnant. And God's purpose in this whole
thing is to separate the princes from the vile and to save his
own elect. And that's the work of God throughout
history. Come back to Jeremiah 50, verse
33. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
the children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed
together. And all that took them captives
held them fast. They refused to let them go.
Look at the next word. Not even a contraction, not even
a connecting word, not a conjunction. The next word is, their Redeemer
is strong. Their enemies are mighty. They won't let them go.
Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon are determined to destroy them. They
won't let them go. Egypt and Pharaoh are determined
to destroy them. They won't let them go. Their Redeemer is strong. The Lord of hosts is his name.
He shall thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest
to the land and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon. What? What's he doing? Jeremiah, after
these 40 years of prophesying and giving us these 50 chapters
of this book that God commands you to write, you come now to
this 50th chapter and you tell us that God's purpose in all
this is to give rest to his people in the land of his free grace
and to disquiet and destroy Babylon? That's it. You got the message. You got the message. Now the
times in which Jeremiah lived must be understood. Whenever
you read about people in history, if you want to have some appreciation
for what they're doing, you have to understand something about
the times in which they lived. Particularly this is true with
regard to faithful men who serve the cause of Christ. I try my
best to do what I can To be as fully aware of what our brethren
who labor on the various mission fields around the world do, and
what they endure, I try to understand it as much as I can and relate
it to you as much as I can. But you can't possibly begin
to understand it until you go down there and see where they
are and see what God's doing with them. You can't possibly
really appreciate it. Well, to understand what Jeremiah
did, You understand what kind of man he was by God's grace.
Understand the times in which he lived. You remember Manasseh. Though in the very end of his
life was converted by God's grace, Manasseh was a horribly wicked,
wicked king. He set Israel and Judah in a
path of idolatry, unparalleled up to that day. This wicked,
vile, wretched king in Judah, who was the grandfather of Josiah,
brought the nation into its lowest, most debauched condition of all
its history. During the days of Josiah, that
young king who began to reign as just a boy who cleaned up
the house of God where the book of God was discovered and began
to bring about reforms in the nation of Israel. He did bring
about reforms, but they were really just outward reforms.
Throughout this book of Jeremiah, the Lord says to his circumcised
people, you're uncircumcised. He says your heart's uncircumcised.
Your ears are uncircumcised. You're still vile within. Though
you have the outward form, you're still vile within. And Josiah
brought about these reforms and he destroyed the idolaters, the
idolatry and the altars of the idols in the land. But after
Josiah died, very shortly after he died, Israel sank even further. They became even more vile. Josiah's death ended the reforms. They were just a bandage placed
on the surface of a deep-seated cancer, and it didn't last very
long. And God raised up Nebuchadnezzar. Now three times we're told in
these 52 chapters the Lord God says of Nebuchadnezzar. Now remember
who Nebuchadnezzar was. I deliberately used the name
Saddam Hussein in the beginning of this message because Nebuchadnezzar
was his great, great, great, great, great, great forerunner.
That pagan butcher, that man over there, the butcher that
he is, the butcher that he is didn't hold a candle to Nebuchadnezzar. this pagan, butcherous monarch,
ruler of the great empire of Babylon. God says three times,
Nebuchadnezzar is my servant. My servant. I will send Nebuchadnezzar to
Jerusalem. And Nebuchadnezzar is going to
destroy this city. Nebuchadnezzar shall be my Lord
in my hand to chastise my people. Three times he says Nebuchadnezzar
is my servant. Unwittingly this man Nebuchadnezzar
did exactly what God Almighty in his total sovereign dominion
according to his total sovereign purpose predicted by Jeremiah's
words he would do and he did it exactly the way and in exactly
the time God said he would do it. Oh, children of God, hear
me. Your mightiest, worst enemy is
God's servant. Shemai cannot cuss David except
God say to Shemai, cuss David. It can't be done. Do you understand
that? Perhaps the Lord will requite
me good for his evil this day. There's no perhaps to that, whatever.
Whatever comes by the hands of men or from hell itself against
you and me, the Lord is doing us good by that very thing, if
we're his. Have you got that? I know down
here, oh God said it here, no evil shall happen to the just.
Well, Jeremiah lived in this day of utter apostasy. Darkness followed by darkness. Backsliding followed by backsliding. And I'll just pause long enough
to say, when he talks about backsliding and talks about Israel as a backsliding
heifer, he's not talking about folks who are born of God and
they just kind of get carnal and they backslide and they become
vile. No, no, no, no. This is talking
about apostasy. These folks didn't just start
sliding down toward hell, they were running fast as they could
from God all the while claiming to worship Him. All the while.
They didn't abandon the house of God, they brought their idols
to God's house. They didn't abandon the name
of God, they just worshipped their idols under the name of
God. They didn't abandon the sacrifices of God, they just
made the sacrifices of God sacrifices to Baal, and to the Queen of
Heaven, and to the gods of their imagination. All the while doing
the imaginations of their own hearts, fully confident they
were honoring God, and being honored of God. The Lord says,
looks to me like you could blush, but you don't have enough sense
to be ashamed. Looks like you could be confounded, but you
don't have enough sense to be confounded. Looks like you could fall into
the dust, but you don't know you've done anything wrong. I'm
about to show you you have. Now, that's the story of this
book. But what is the message? What
does God the Holy Spirit intend for you and me to learn from
this book? I don't mean to set things in
a negative way. But most everything I've read
here, and most everything I've read in the past concerning the
prophecy of Jeremiah, seems to imply that this is a message
of gloom and doom. Jeremiah was the weeping prophet
because he had no hope. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Nothing could be further. Jeremiah understood clearly what
God was doing because God told him. He was weeping because of
the judgment upon the nation. Weeping as you and I would weep
for our neighbors, our sons and our daughters, as you and I would
weep for those who hear the word and will not believe. I can't
tell you how my heart bleeds for many women who have opportunity
and hear the word of the gospel and choose to despise the fear
of the Lord, because I know what awaits them. But why my heart
bleeds for them? My heart rejoices in this assured
fact. God Almighty is saving his people. He is performing his will. He
is accomplishing his purpose. And Jeremiah's message is not
just a word of prophecy about how never was going to come,
take the Jews into captivity, hold them there for 70 years,
and then they'd be brought back into the land. Those are historic
facts. The message has to do with us. How does it apply to us? Clearly
his message was the message of redemption and grace by Christ.
He himself was a type of Christ. He's referred to as the man of
sorrows. He's referred to rather as the
weeping prophet. And those who were alive during our Lord's
earthly ministry, the very first thing they thought about the
Lord Jesus when he came and appeared on the scene, they saw him, the
man of sorrows. And who is he? He's Jeremiah. First word, that's Jeremiah.
Jeremiah's come back from the dead. No prophet ever was such
a weeping prophet as he. Jeremiah wept over his people
as Christ wept over them. His faithfulness to the will
of God and the glory of God brought him reproach, and rejection,
and sorrow, and suffering, just as our Lords did. Throughout
the book, we see various glimpses of our Redeemer. Let me just
call your attention to a few. In chapter 2, verse 13, our Lord
Jesus is spoken of as the fountain of living waters. God says, you
forsook the fountain of living waters for a broken cistern.
In chapter 8, verse 22, our Lord Jesus is set before us as the
great physician. In chapter 31, he's described
as the good shepherd. Again, in chapter 23, he's described
that way. In chapter 23, he's described as the righteous branch.
He's described as our king in chapter 50, or chapter 30 rather. In chapter 50 he's described
as our redeemer. And he's called the Lord our righteousness in
chapter 23. In this book, turn over to chapter
31 if you will for a moment. The prophet of God even speaks
of our Lord's incarnation. Read the context when you have
a chance later, or when you take time later. Look down at verse
22. How long wilt thou go about,
O thou backsliding daughter? Now in the preceding verses,
the Lord's talking about the call of Ephraim, and his mercy
to Ephraim. In the following verses, he's
talking about the salvation of his people. And here he says,
the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth. The Lord's done
something that's never been done before. A woman shall compass
a man. And he's talking about the redemption
and salvation of his people. He's declaring to us that the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, shall come into this world
through a woman's womb. This one shall come into the
world through a woman's womb, and he shall save his people.
In chapter 32, Jeremiah typifies our Lord Jesus as the kinsman
redeemer while Jeremiah is in prison. he gets a command from
God to buy back the land that his uncle had lost, and to put
it down on public record, and to seal it, and to give public
evidence of it. Because here he has the right
to redeem and he exercises that right. And in exercising that
right while he's in prison. Folks said, these false prophets
Jeremiah said, God's gonna come, he's gonna take you away for
70 years. And the false prophets said, nah, nah, ain't gonna happen. Nah, Nebuchadnezzar's gonna fall
in two years. Two years it'll all be over,
don't y'all worry about it. Pay no attention to him, throw him
in prison and shut him up. Jeremiah said, he's gonna come,
You're gonna take it away, 70 years after that, you'll come
back. And as pledge of that, I'm buying this land. God promised
the land is ours forever, and God will not break his covenant. And no matter what medicine ever
does, this land is bought. It's mine. And then Jeremiah
shows us numerous things with regard to our Redeemer and God's
grace. The message of the book is Christ
and redemption and grace by him. And there's much for us to learn.
In the first chapter, he tells us how he came to be God's prophet.
Look at verse 5. I spoke to a young man last night
on the telephone. Talked to him about preaching.
I said, has God put you in that work? Has God given you the gifts
for it? Has God done it? He said, no. I said, don't you dare let somebody
talk you into it. Don't do it. Don't be pressured
into this. The Lord God says, before I formed thee in the belly,
I knew thee. Before thou camest forth out
of the womb, I sanctified thee, I set thee upon, and I ordained
thee a prophet to the nations. Then said I, O Lord, I've been
waiting on this all my life, I'm ready to go. Here I am, Lord,
I've got it all packed up, where do you want me to go? No? Ah, Lord God. Behold, I cannot speak, for I
am a child." I don't know anything. I have no ability. I have no
gifts. I'm unfit. Hmm. That might just be the fellow
who got a gift. Just might be. Look at this.
But the Lord said to me, Say not, I am a child. For thou shalt
go to all that I send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou
shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces,
for I am with thee, to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the
Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord
said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. Now, when we get down to chapter
23, it talks about prophets who ran who weren't sent. Prophets
who said, the Lord has said, And the Lord said, I didn't say
it. They came and said, I've got a message from God. And God
says, I don't have a message from me. And Jeremiah had a word from
God that he was, at times, because of the incessant opposition he
faced, ready to throw in the towel. They threw it in. He said, I decided to keep my
mouth shut. Just keep my mouth shut I ain't gonna say it again
But your word was fire in me And I couldn't keep it in cause
God put it in there There's a verse 17 Now since you know what I've
done for you Thou therefore gird up thy loins, arise, and speak
unto them all that I command thee, and be not dismayed at
their faces, lest I confound thee before them. For behold, I have made thee
this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls,
against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the
princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against
the people of the land. For they shall fight against
thee, but they shall not prevail against thee. How come? For I
am with thee." And then in chapters 2 through 25, God describes for
us the reason for divine judgment. And I want you to hear this,
hear it well. God never exercises judgment
arbitrarily. Folks accuse us because we recognize
and believe and rejoice in God's sovereignty and divine predestination.
Say, well, you folks been predestination, you folks been predestinated
to hell, they're going to hell no matter what. Oh no I don't. And this book doesn't teach it.
This book doesn't teach it. You won't go to hell except by
the work of your own hands. It won't happen. It won't happen.
Read through this book. The Lord says over and over and
over again, because you, therefore, because you, therefore, I sent
prophets to you. year after year, rising up early
before the day, and prophesying clearly to that which the Son
had said. And you would not hear, you despised my word. You said
it in all my counsel. Therefore, judgment, judgment
is always the just act of God, by which he displays his anger,
his wrath, and his justice in the punishing of sin. And when
he punishes it, he's going to do it in such a way that everybody
says this is right, even the folks who are in hell. The first point of blame then
goes to the people who rebel. But if you read all of them,
you'll see that they're kings, led them in rebellion. And they're
kings, they're princes, they're rulers. hold the greater condemnation. You see, the people willingly
followed them, following the desires of their hearts. But
they did follow them. And their leaders shall suffer
the wrath of God for it. And so it is to this day. But there is another group more
guilty than all. Another group more guilty than
those who took their own children and sacrificed them to idols.
Another group more guilty, more vile, more reprehensible than
those who brought harlots into the house of God, both male and
female. A group more guilty, more vile,
more reprehensible, more horribly, horribly evil, more horribly
wicked, more fully deserving of God's wrath than those who
stoop to the lowest moral debauchery. And that's the pastors, the prophets,
the priests described in chapter 23. God says, you led my people
to err. You taught my people to rebel. You taught my people idolatry. And the same is true to this
day. The greatest evil workers in
the world are those evil workers who lead men away from the worship
of God Almighty to the worship of their own hands. Now, turn,
if you will, to chapter 29. What do we do when God sends
judgment? How often have you said or heard
somebody say, Boy, I don't know how anybody could bring children
into this world. How often have you thought, well,
I received a call from a friend the other day asking about whether
or not they should do business with somebody because they're
Roman Catholic. I said, I responded, and this person, just as sincere
as they could be, I said, let them act like that. We don't.
We don't. We don't treat people evil and
treat them ill because they don't know God. Just don't do it. No, no, no. Well, how do we live
in this world under the judgment of God? When God sends the nation
down to Babylon, how do they live? Down there in that pagan
land. In that pagan land. I'm talking about a land where
nobody had any rights. I'm talking about a land where
everybody was abused. How do you live down there? What do
you do in that land? Look in verse 4. Thus saith the Lord, the Lord
of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all their
carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from
Jerusalem into Babylon, build your houses, and dwell in them,
and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them, and take wives,
and begat sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons,
and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters,
that you may be increased while you are down here, and not diminished. Now watch this. And seek the
peace of that city, whether I have caused you to be carried away
captives, and pray unto the Lord for it. For in the peace thereof
shall you have peace. How do you live in this world?
As the best citizens there are. As the best there are. Seeking
the peace and welfare of those around us. Never once diminishing
from the worship of God and the Word of God, never once compromising
the truth of God, but live at peace with men and live in this
world recognizing this is where God has put me in this my day
to serve and honor Him. If it's in Babylon, so be it. I'll serve Him in Babylon. But
I'll serve Him in blessed hope. Because He's promised to bring
me out one of these days. Look in verse 10 of chapter 29.
Thus saith the Lord, that after seventy years be accomplished,
at the appointed time, when the seventy years of wrath and judgment
are over, when the seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I
will visit you, and I will perform my good word toward you, in causing
you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that
I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, not
of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon
me, and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken to
you, and you shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search
for me with all your heart, and I will be found in you, saith
the Lord." Now, read chapters 31, 32, and 33, and understand
the mystery of providence. In chapter 31, or chapter 30
rather, the Lord God declares, I'm sending you to Babylon. And
I'm visiting this nation in wrath. I'm visiting this nation in judgment.
But look at verse 16 of chapter 31. I haven't forsaken my people. Well, Lord, what are you doing?
I'm saving my people. You can't see it. You don't understand
it. That's what I'm doing. I'm saving my people. Therefore all
they that devour thee shall be devoured. I take care of this. And all thine adversaries, every
one of them, shall go into captivity. And they that spoil thee shall
be a spoil. And all that pray upon thee will
I give for a prey. Oh Lord, what are you doing?
I'm fulfilling my covenant, my purpose. In chapter 33, he says
in verse 14, After describing for us his covenant grace, he
says, I've loved you with an everlasting love, as I make with
you a new covenant, an everlasting covenant, a covenant for my people. And he's not talking about that
physical nation of Israel, he's talking about his elect, the
whole Israel of God. In verse 14 of chapter 33, he
says, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform
that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel
and to the house of Judah. In those days of that time I
will cause the righteous branch to grow up out of date, out of,
grow up underdated, and he shall execute judgment and righteousness
in the land. In those days, what days? These
days when the purpose of God's covenant has come to fulfillment.
In those days shall Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell
safely. And this is the name wherewith
she shall be called Jehovah Zedkinia, the Lord our righteousness. I'm
going to call them by the same name as I called my son, as they
called my son, the Lord our righteousness. And then in chapters 34 through
49, the Lord describes his dealing with the nations, all the nations
of the earth. And Jeremiah goes through here
and names all these vast Gentile nations, and how God's going
to cut them off, how God's going to destroy them. And he still
keeps talking about a remnant. Remnants. God always deals with remnants. Remnants. I have a friend down
in North Carolina. He doesn't have it anymore, I
don't guess, for years. He ran a fabric shop. You know what
he bought and sold? Remnants. You know what remnants
are? That's the throwaway stuff. That's
the stuff the factory can't use for anything else. That's the
trash. And all he dealt with was remnants. That's what God deals with. Remnants. And he has a remnant. He's chosen. And he's purchased. And he's
going to save them out of all the nations of the earth. And
so all Israel shall be saved. And when he gets done, He's going
to destroy them all. And that which stands out preeminently
as the object of God's wrath is Babylon. Oh, but Babylon's
been destroyed a long time ago. Yet this one has. The one that
Jeremiah physically saw has. But Babylon started a long time
before that. Back in Genesis when Nimbod decided to build
a tower to heaven by his hand. built a fortress against the
wrath of God by his works, called Babel. And Babylon, throughout
the history of the Old Testament, represents exactly that evil
that Nimrod had in his heart, all the way until you get to
the end of the book of Revelation, in Revelation 18, and the Lord
says, come out of her, my people. Just as he does here, come out
of her. Come out, lest you be destroyed with her. He's not
talking about a physical city. He's talking about all free will,
works, religion, by whatever name it's given, whereby men
worship the works of their own hands and invoke upon themselves
the wrath of God. And God's going to destroy it
all. God's going to destroy it all. And it bids you come out
of her. Come out of her. Now, look in
chapter 9. I'll give you one more thing,
I'll quit. Chapter 9. have a beautiful picture of God's
salvation and grace. Back in chapter 31, where Jeremiah
dreams a dream about Ephraim, and God says, I've heard Ephraim
bemoaning himself, and I will remember Ephraim still. And in
the last chapter, you have this king who's lifted up out of prison
by the king of Babylon, and the king speaks kindly to him, His
prison garments are exchanged for clean garments. And he sits
down at the king's table and eats with the king continually
all the days of his life. Oh, that's what our Savior does
for us. But here is what God Almighty declares to be wisdom. Jeremiah 9.23. Thus saith the
Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Neither let the
mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches. God's going to take it all away,
snuff it all out, burn it all up. But let him that glorieth
glory in this. And the word glory is not talking
about brag. That's not it. It's talking about trust. It's
trust. Don't trust your wisdom, don't
trust your riches, don't trust your might. But here's his glory,
I pray him glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth
me. Here's my rest. I don't understand
what God's doing. I know Him. Do you? That I am
the Lord, which exercise loving kindness, judgment, justice,
and righteousness. in the earth, in all these things
I delight, saith the Lord. And when I get done, look in
chapter 50 verse 20, in those days, in those days, when I stretch out my hand and
all the kings of the earth