Well, it's good to be with you
again. I hope you had a good day today. Let's turn in our
Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 24. Jeremiah 24. Let's read these verses together. The Lord showed me, and behold,
two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the Lord.
After that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had carried away
captive Jokonai, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes
of Judah with the carpenters and smiths from Jerusalem had
brought them to Babylon. One basket had very good figs,
even like the figs that are first ripe. And the other basket had
very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.
Then said the Lord unto me, what seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said,
figs, the good figs, very good, and the evil, very evil, that
they cannot be eaten, they are so evil. Again the word of the
Lord came unto me saying, thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel. Like these good figs, so will
I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I
have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for
their good. For I will set mine eyes upon
them for good. and I will bring them again to
the land, to this land, and I will build them and not pull them
down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up, and I will
give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord, and they
shall be my people, and I will be their God, for they shall
return unto me with their whole heart. And as the evil figs which
cannot be eaten, they are so evil. Surely, thus saith the
Lord, so will I give Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his princes,
and the residue of Jerusalem that remain in this land, and
them that dwell in the land of Egypt, and I will deliver them
to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt.
To be a reproach and a proverb. a taunt and a curse in all places
whither I shall drive them. And I will send the sword, the
famine, and the pestilence among them till they be consumed from
off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers." Now,
the Lord gives a parable here of some good figs and some bad
figs. And in these figs we have an
illustration for us of the only two kinds of people there are
in this world. There are the children of God
who are represented here by the good figs and there are the children
of the devil who are represented here by the bad figs. There's
only two kinds of people in the world. There's those who are
attempting to be saved by their works Rejecting Christ, these
are represented by the bad figs. They're those who God just won't
take no for an answer. Those he shall save. And he does
all the saving, and they're represented here by the good figs. In amongst
the good, you had Jeconi, the son of Jehoiakim, who had been
the king of Judah. And you had many princes of Judah
with the carpenters and the smiths. And Nebuchadnezzar carried them
from Jerusalem down into Babylon. He carried them into captivity. And then you had, represented
here by the bad figs, verse 8 says you had Zedekiah who was now
the king of Judah. He's still in Jerusalem. And
you had his princes. and the residue of Jerusalem.
There remained some people still in Jerusalem. And then there
was them that dwelled in the land of Egypt. Some of these
people fled and went to Egypt. They left and went to Egypt for
refuge. And you have these here represented by the bad figs.
Now, these are the two kinds of people there are in the world,
just two kinds. Now, what makes these that God
calls good? What makes them good? We'll make
some good. You see, in these people that
we have listed here, really there's three groups of people listed
here. And we see every kind of sinner there is in this world
in these three groups. Now there's only two kinds of
people, but amongst those two kinds of people we see three
kinds of sinners here. First of all, there are those
who are God's elect. But the problem here is these
that represent God's elect, these ones that were good, they were
carried away captive by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon. And that's so of
me and you who by nature fell in Adam, though we were chosen
of God before the world was made, in time the devil entered the
garden and when he deceived Eve, Adam sinned with his eyes wide
open and plunged us all into sin, and we became the captives
of the devil, carried away into Babylon. You remember Ephesians
chapter 2, whenever Paul said, you that were sometimes dead
in trespasses and sins, has he quickened? But what were we? We were just like everybody else. We were under the power of the
prince of the air. We were children of wrath even
as others. We could do nothing to free ourselves
from that captivity whatsoever. So that's one kind of sinner
in the world. They're chosen of God, but they're
still taken captive of the devil by nature. And then you have
another kind of sinner in the world which is somebody that
Brother David read about in that Psalm who are worldly sinners.
They live for the world. Now, you may fall into more than
one of these categories, you know, by nature, but here's somebody,
you have these ones in Jerusalem that Nebuchadnezzar left there.
They weren't carried away captive in the Babylon, but they were
captives. They were captives. He hadn't
finished with them yet. This is just his first trip to
Jerusalem. He's coming back two more times.
When he gets done, he's going to destroy Solomon's temple.
But right now, he's left them there. And do you know that this
one here that he's talking about is Nebuchadnezzar. Did you know
that Nebuchadnezzar is the one who put him in the position of
being a king? When he took Jeconi, who was
the king of Judah, and took him down into Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar
picked out who he wanted to be the king of Judah and he promoted
Zedekiah and made him the king of Judah. The king of Babylon
made the king of Judah. There's a lot of folks in this
world who appear to be prospering and prospering and getting promotion
after promotion. And just like that psalm that
we just read, they just prosper. They just prosper. But God has
permitted the devil to give them that promotion. and to give them
that prosperity. Don't you know those that were
still in Jerusalem that weren't carried down into Babylon? Don't
you know they looked down their nose at those folks that were
carried off and they thought, boy, we're in a lot better shape
than they are. They weren't. They were captives,
too. They were captives, too. There's
a lesson in that. We ought not to look at people
who appear to be the most captive in sin. And then look at those
who appear to be prospering and think, well, those that prosper,
they're just better folks than those that are captive in sin.
The ones here God's going to say were those that were carried
captive in the Babylon. And then you have a third type
of people here. All these people are in captivity
under the devil. I mean a picture of being in
captivity under the devil because they're all captives of the king
of Babylon. You have a third type of people here, those that
were left in Jerusalem and they decided when they saw opportunity
they took refuge in Egypt. They went to Egypt. And they
picture people in this world who take refuge in religion.
Go to Isaiah 30, let me show you that. There's some people
in the world that are worldly, they live for the world, they're
promoted in the world, and then there's other people who take
their refuge in religion. And that's what we see here in
these that went to Egypt. It says in verse one, woe to
the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel,
but not of me, that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit,
that they may add sin to sin. at walk to go down into Egypt,
and have not asked it my mouth, to strengthen themselves in the
strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. Therefore
shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust
in the shadow of Egypt your confusion." They're picturing, he says, later
there in Isaiah 30, their strength was to wait on me, the Lord said.
Their strength was to return to me, and wait on me, and trust
me. So this is a picture of people
who left the Lord and went and took refuge, a false refuge,
like folks in religion do. But you got this one group, it's
God's elect, they're captive, it's obvious they're captive
under the King of Babylon. Then you got these others that
represent worldly sinners that are up in Jerusalem and they're
prospering and everything's going well for them. And then you got
this third group that fled into Egypt, representing those taking
refuge in sin, but all of them were under captivity of Nebuchadnezzar.
He had them all captive. They were all his captives. It
doesn't matter where you are in this world. It doesn't matter
which one of these categories you fit into by nature. Our first
sin problem is this, we're all captives of the devil. Our second sin problem we see
here is sin has separated us from holy God because of our
guilt before the law. Now, you see this one group here
that God calls the good figs that are carried down into Babylon.
Well, Canaan, they carried away from Canaan to the land of Chaldea,
the Chaldeans. They were there where the temple
was, where the holiest of holy was, where the mercy seat was.
They've been carried away from that, separated from that. They're
down in Babylon now. You got a picture of a people
here who've been separated from God. You know what separated
them? Sin and idolatry. That's what
separated them. That's why they're down there
in Babylon, because of sin and idolatry. And brethren, our sin,
when we sinned in Adam, we became guilty before God and a holy
God can't have anything to do with a sinner. He said in Isaiah
59 too, your iniquities have separated between you and your
God. And that's true of me and true of you by nature. Our first
problem is we're captive of the devil by nature. Our second problem
is we've sinned against God, we're guilty, And we've been
separated. We can't, we can't, we can't
bridge that gulf. We can't come back in and be
one with God of ourselves. We're guilty. We're the offender.
Can't do anything about it. And then there's a third thing
here that we see is our sin problem. God says later in this chapter,
when he brings these folks back from Babylon, he said, I'm going
to give them a heart to know me. That means they don't know
him right now. They don't have that heart right
now. And that's our third problem. By nature, we have a corrupt
heart, and we don't know God. We're religious as we can be
by nature. It's nothing for a man to take
on religion by nature, but we don't know God by nature. We
don't know the true God by nature. And this nature is so corrupt,
God's not gonna use anything about it. He's just gonna make
a new one. He's gonna create a new spirit
in us and a new man in His people. This thing's all new, made of
God. You know, He spoke that first
creation into existence. He didn't use anything to make
the first creation. Well, He's not gonna use anything
of us to make the new creation. He's gonna create it. It's all
gonna be made from Christ, by Christ, and in Christ, what He's
done for His people. So this is our three problems
here, brethren. Captives of the devil, we're
separated from holy God due to our guilt and sin, and we got
a vile, wicked, sin nature, and we don't know God. That's what
Paul said in Romans 3. He said, verse 10, as it's written,
there's none righteous, no, not one, there's none that understandeth
There's nobody that understands God by nature. There's none that
seeks God. Nobody seeks after God by nature,
not the true and living God. They all gone out of the way,
they together become unprofitable. There's none that even doeth
good, not one. Now that's, you see here, you
got these people summed up right here. All of them, it's in this
story, that's their condition. And that's a picture of us right
here. We all fit into this category right here, sinners. Well, seeing
that's the case, if we're going to be different, if God's going
to make us to differ from other sinners in this world, then that
means God's going to be the one that has to do it. God alone
is going to be the one to have to do it. Because you and me
and every other sinner in this world can do nothing to change
our condition. So I want to show you now how
God makes his people to differ. I want to show you. First of
all, it's God's electing grace. It's God's electing grace. It
begins with God choosing whom he will. Look here in verse five.
Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, like these good figs,
so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah. Acknowledge means to be acquainted
with, to take care of, to have respect unto. God didn't say
he was gonna acknowledge those others, But he said of these
people that were carried captive down there into Babylon, I'm
going to acknowledge them. That's God choosing whom he will,
choosing whom he will to care for and to acknowledge and passing
by whom he will. And that's what he said. He said,
Paul said in Ephesians 1 that all this was before the world
was made, that God chose his people and blessed us with all
spiritual blessing in heavenly places, in Christ, and all of
it was according to his good pleasure, by his grace, by his
grace. He chose his people in Christ. And that's what made the difference.
He acknowledged his people. And so those are the people that
he says he's referring to here as the good figs. The goodness
is not of us. It's all of God. He chose his
people. He acknowledges his people. The
foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth
them that are his. He makes the difference. All
right, here's the second thing we see. The difference is made
by God's predestinating providential grace. He says here in verse
5, I will acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah,
now watch this, whom I have sent out of this place unto the land
of the Chaldeans for their good. For I will set mine eyes upon
them for good. You see, when the devil entered
the garden, that wasn't by accident. He wasn't tricking God. That
was according to God's purpose. It looked bad, and it was bad. What the outcome ended up, it
was a bad thing, but it was to bring about God's good for his
people. You know it looked bad when these
folks got captured by King Nebuchadnezzar and they were carried captive
down into Babylon. I bet you there wasn't a bunch among them
that would have said that was a good thing. God said, I sent
them there for their good. I sent them there for their good. And everything that comes to
pass in this world is for the good of God's chosen people. I don't care how bad it looks.
I don't care if you and I can't see a silver lining in it nowhere,
and we think it's just terrible. If we're his, he's doing it for
our good. He's doing it for our good. You look at Calvary's cross,
you look at the cross and you say, that's the worst thing ever
happened in the world as far as just a display of man's wickedness
and man's sinfulness, what we did to God in human flesh. They were just doing what God
purposed before to be done. And look at the good God brought
out of it. Now, if that's the case with
what we see as far as our hands are concerned, the most wicked
thing man ever has done in the history of the world, and look
at the good God brought out of it. That means whatever God's
doing with you and me right now, Whatever, however bad it looked,
he's bringing good out of it for his people. He said, whom
I did foreknow them, I also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of my son. He did it for his son, that his
son might be the firstborn among many brethren. And so everything
God's working, he's not only working it for your good, he's
working it to glorify his son. And that's what he's doing here.
He's bringing these people through this route they gotta go, down
into Babylon, into captivity. But it's gonna be to bring them
out and to bring them to Christ and show them Christ. That's
what it's gonna be about. To glorify his son. That's what
God's doing. Everything in this world is to
glorify God in the person of his son. Everything. It's appeared bad for Daniel
and Ezekiel and Jeconah, all them that was carried down there
into Babylon. It looked bad for them. Do you know what God did
down there? God raised up Daniel to great
honor in Babylon. In Babylon, he raised Daniel
up to great honor. You know what he's doing right
here in the midst of this Babylon, for those that are his? He's
raising up his people and giving us the honor of being the trophies
of his grace. That's what he's doing. Some
of them got down there and he gave them nice homes and just
riches like you wouldn't believe. You know what he's doing in the
midst of this babbling? He's giving his people the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Riches like you wouldn't believe.
God made them see their sins He granted them repentance all
while they were in Babylon and turned them from idolatry and
brought them to the Lord while they were still down there. That's
what he's doing for his people right here in the midst of this
Babylon, right now. So one, we're made to differ
by God's electing grace. Two, we're made to differ by
God's predestinating grace. And three, by Christ's redeeming
grace, by God's redeeming grace. Look here, now we saw that them
being separated, them being carried from Canaan, them being carried
from the holiest of holies, them being carried from the mercy
seat, that's a picture of a sinner being separated from God due
to our sins. How are they going to be brought
back? If they're brought back, that's
a picture of us being brought back into communion with God.
How are they going to be brought back? Look here at verse 6. God
says, And I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will
bring them again to this land. And I will build them and not
pull them down. And I will plant them and not
pluck them up. There's only one way you and
I are going to be brought from the land of separation back into
God's heavenly cane. And only one way we're going
to be separated from our sin and brought back into communion
with the holy God. Only one way we're going to be
brought from separation and brought to the holiest of holies, and
that's going to be through the blood and righteousness of our
Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to have to come. He
said they were captives down there of Nebuchadnezzar, just
like we're captives of the devil. Why'd he send his son? As much
as the children were flesh and blood, he took part of the same,
that he might deliver us from the captivity of the devil. We
were all our lives fearful and in bondage because we saw our
sin and we, you know, it's like a treadmill. You see your sin
and your conscience bothers you and you try to do something to
soothe your conscience. And then the devil just accuses
you. of that and you go right back in and try to do something
again and it's just a never-ending cycle of bondage because you
fear death. What's going to have to happen
to not have that conscience of sin anymore? Christ is going
to have to put it away. If there's no sin before God,
there's no ammunition for the devil to accuse you with. That's
what Christ came and did. He came and took the sin of his
people and he went to the cross and he paid all the debt we owed
to divine justice. So that now God says, he says
of, be going to Romans 6, I want to show you this. He says now
our old man of sin is dead and we're a new A new man, risen
in Christ, holy. Now I want you to look at this.
This is one of my favorite scriptures right here. Verse six, look at this. Knowing this, that our old man,
it's as if it's crucified with him. No, it is. It is. It's crucified with him. that the body of sin might be
destroyed. That means our body of sin is
destroyed in Christ. We're not talking about the sin
you and me see in ourselves and acknowledging ourselves. We're
talking about our guilt and our sin before God. Our body of sin,
that old man that did the sinning, he's been crucified. Look at
this. He says here, that we henceforth
should not serve sin, for he that is dead is freed from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ
being raised from the dead doth no more, death hath no more dominion
over him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Now
watch this good news from that. You and me You remember how Levi
was in the loins of Abraham when he met Melchizedek? And so what
Abraham did, Levi did it. He really did it. He paid tithes
in Abraham. He was really in Abraham. Well,
when Christ died unto sin once, we really did it. His elect did
it. We died unto sin once. When he arose, we really arose. Now look at this emphatic language
that Paul uses. It's like he's trying to just
make this as clear as he can possibly make it for us. Look
at verse 11. Likewise reckon ye, impute ye
also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. That's how God imputes
it. He says, now you impute it the
same way. Dead to sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal bodies, you should abate in the lust thereof, but
yield to God. Listen, brethren, before God,
how are we gonna be brought back into communion with him? Before
God. We were crucified in Christ. That was me hanging on that cross,
just as real as that was me in the garden that sinned. That was me on that cross that
died under the wrath of God. That was me that arose out of
that grave and went to the right hand of the Father and sat down.
Isn't that what Paul's just said? He says in Colossians 3, set
your affection on things above where Christ is seated at God's
right hand for you are dead and your life is hid with God in
Christ. There's where we are. We really
sat down right there. That's how we're brought back
into fellowship with God. God said there, he said, I'm
going to build them up. The scripture says you're built
upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ
being the chief cornerstone. He said there, I'm gonna build
them up, they won't be pulled down, I'll plant them and they
will not be plucked up. Christ said the Father sent me
to do this work that they might be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified. That's
how we're brought back into this land. of communion with God,
Christ did it all. Now here's the next thing. God's, the Holy Spirit's regenerating
grace. This makes us to differ right
here. Now look at verse seven. And I will give them a heart
to know me, that I'm the Lord. Now he said, we saw our first
problem was we were taken captive by the devil. Christ took away
his ammunition. Christ took away our sin. He
got nothing to accuse us with now. We saw our problem was we
separated by the guilt of our sin. Christ took us out of that
land and brought us back into communion with God. But we still
got this nature. If we're gonna know him and know
what he did for us and thank him and praise him, we gotta
be giving a new heart, don't we? So look what he said. Who's gonna give it? God says,
I will. I will. I will give them a heart
to know me, that I'm the Lord. And what'll be the result? Anybody
gonna resist this? Anybody gonna fight against this
so that they keep it from happening? And they shall be my people,
and I will be their God. Here's why. They shall return
unto me with their whole heart. There's two natures in us. One of them don't believe God
and the other one does. But I'm gonna tell you this, God looks
on the heart, isn't that what the scripture says? And he looks
on the heart of his child, that heart that he's made, and he
says, and they return to me with their whole heart. Their whole
heart. And we do, we come to him with
our whole heart. That's the only part God acknowledges.
I'm starting to learn from these scriptures, God don't acknowledge
that he ain't created. Don't you see that? What he's
created, that's what he acknowledges. And he says, they gonna come
to me with their whole heart. Now, so who makes us to differ,
brethren? It's God's electing grace. It's
God's predestinating grace. It's God's redeeming grace. It's
God's regenerating grace. And you can add his keeping grace,
his growing grace, his glorifying grace. He's gonna bring the last
headstone shouting what? Grace, grace unto it. Beginning to end, grace, grace,
grace. So that's what Paul meant when
he said, Who makes you differ? What do you have that you didn't
receive? He gave it all to us, didn't he? Amen. Amen.