Sunday Morning, August 16, 2020, AM

Welcome to Sunnyside Baptist Church this morning. We are glad that you are here worshiping with us today. If you're visiting, we're especially glad that you're here with us. We look forward to meeting you if we haven't already done so.

A few announcements as we get started this morning. Some opportunities this week. Come back this evening for evening service. That's at 5 .30 p .m. No nursery yet for that. But nursery does start back up on Wednesday nights in September.

So Wednesday, 6 .30 p .m., Bible study in prayer. And then looking ahead, next Sunday, the 23rd, we will have communion in the morning service together as a church. And then in the evening service next week, truth group for the young adults.

So that is next week, the 23rd. This week, our fighter verse that we're looking at comes from the Psalms. Psalm 34, verses 19 through 22. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

He keeps all his bones. Not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the life of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

So hope-filled verses there. A few more announcements. There will be a TAG meeting. TAG is our Truth and Grace program that we have for our kids on Wednesday nights. After the service today, there's gonna be a TAG workers' meeting immediately following the service in the fellowship hall, just down the hallway.

So if you're gonna be working in TAG, don't forget about that. TAG will start up again September 2nd. That's, again, the children's ministry. There will be nursery available during that time. If you wanna reach out to some of our missionaries, Jonathan and Rachel Wilcock, their address is in the bulletin.

Feel free to drop them a note in the mail. And then finally, still because of COVID concerns, our offering plate is at the back of the auditorium on the table back there. So if you have any tithes or offerings, you can put those in there.

All right, any other announcements that we need to make? Yes, sir. Okay, so No Timothy School and No Truth Group next week. Is canceled this week. That's canceled as well. Okay, so we got that. All right.

Well, we are gonna prepare our hearts for worship together. Time of just reflection and prayer. And then after that, Dad will go ahead and lead us in prayer. As your heads are bowed, I just would like for you to listen to this passage of scripture before I pray from Isaiah chapter 26.

In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. He sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks. Open the gates that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. You keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you.

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. For he has humbled the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust. The foot tramples it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.

The path of the righteous is level. You make level the way of the righteous. In the path of your judgments, oh Lord, we wait for you. Your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul. My soul yearns for you in the night.

My spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. Would you pray with me? Lord, we thank you for this encouraging word through the prophet Isaiah.

And it echoes across the centuries to us today. Lord, may we enter into the gates of the strong city of the Lord. Lord, may we give you glory and honor and praise today because of your grace. May our minds be fixed upon you, stayed upon you.

Increase our faith, help us to trust you, Lord, in these difficult days. And Lord, as we read, it is your name and your renown that are the desire of our souls this morning. Not to us, oh Lord, not to us, but to your name be glory.

May Jesus Christ be praised. Thank you for your goodness and mercy to bring us together here this morning. To you belong the glory forever and ever, amen.

Amen. Well, again, welcome. We're gonna begin by our call to worship. If you're new with us, have you stand and you'll see the call of worship on the screen. And we'll read this in unison together. Take a deep breath, exhale.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swell.

We're gonna begin with hymn number six, tis so sweet. I'm sorry, sing praise to those, to God who reigns on high, hymn number six.

You know, sometimes you open a book and you hear it creak,.

You know, as if it hadn't been opened in a long time. I don't think I heard one, praise the Lord. I would pray that you would wear out your Bible as fast as you can. Don't set it on your coffee table to gather dust.

And when you pick it up and open it, it creaks. Deuteronomy chapter 14, beginning at verse 21. You shall not eat anything that has died naturally. You may give it to the sojourner who is within your towns, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner.

For you are a people holy to the Lord, your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. And before the Lord, your God, in the place that he will choose to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the Lord, your God, always.

And if the way is too long for you so that you are not able to carry the tithe, when the Lord, your God, blesses you because the place is too far from you, which the Lord, your God, chooses to set his name there, then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the Lord, your God, chooses and spend the money for whatever you desire, oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves.

And you shall eat there before the Lord, your God, and rejoice, you and your household. And you shall not neglect the Levite who is within your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance with you. At the end of every three years, you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns.

And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns shall come and eat and be filled that the Lord, your God, may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.

Let us pray. Father, I thank you and I praise you for your great love and mercy. I thank you for your word. What a blessing to have your word, to point us to our savior, to Christ. I thank you for these words we read this morning.

Give us understanding of them. They may seem strange to us as some of your Old Testament laws do. But Father, we know they were for the good of your people and for your glory. And so if we don't understand your word, Father, give us wisdom.

Open our eyes. Help us to see what you have for us. May we learn to feast on your word, to draw up nourishment from it, to taste and see your goodness, to see your son, the Lord Jesus, our savior. In his name I pray, amen.

You may be seated. And if you would, turn to 350 in your hymnal and then in your hymns modern and ancient, your black hymnal, it'll be page 62. Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. Is it not?

Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.

Thank you for those of you who've been praying for my daughter, Sophia and Becca, who's with her right now at the hospital. Many, many answered prayers. So we can give thanks to God for that. And if you just continue to pray for wisdom and skill for the doctors and for God to heal our little Sophia by miracle or by medicine.

And as we're learning, it doesn't, there's not much distance between the two. So just keep praying. It's what we treasure the most. Out of all the different ways you've been helping. And so one of you all sent breakfast to the nurses on her floor.

And don't tell me who it is, but you blessed them. And Sunnyside Baptist has a sweet savory name among the nurses caring for Sophia. So praise be to God for that. Well, let's start with a word of prayer.

Father, I thank you for gathering us here today. I thank you for the treasure that we have in your word. And we pray that you would help us this morning to hear and to rejoice in what you have to say.

Father, we ask that as we submit ourselves to the truth of your word, that you would do what only you can. That as you fill us with your Holy Spirit to receive this word, you've breathed it out through your spirit, that you will show us your son, Jesus Christ.

That as we look at him in this word, you will help us to look like him in this world. We pray all these things for the sake of Jesus Christ, the one with whom you are well pleased, amen. So last chapter of Jeremiah, chapter 52.

Here at the end of our three-year study in Jeremiah, we are offered an historical postlude. It is a terse record of how Jerusalem and her king and her temple, her people are destroyed. We're given an inventory of the cultural debris of Judah and to which dustbins of history they were swept.

As we read chapter 52, it is of the utmost importance that we read it in the context of the previous 51 chapters. And in so doing, we're actually offered definitive proof of Jeremiah's prophetic ministry.

The word of the Lord truly was spoken to and through Jeremiah, or to put it more like the way Jeremiah says it time and again. The word of the Lord who came to Jeremiah spoke his words thoroughly and truly to Jeremiah for the sake of his people.

Now, most of what Jeremiah had prophesied is proven true right here in chapter 52, the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon. And the text is arranged in such a way for us to anticipate that the rest of what Jeremiah prophesied would indeed come true as well.

We are looking in chapter 52 as it were from the theater balcony seats, and we're looking upon the stage and the sets, the stage pieces of the old covenant are broken down. They are broken down, they are taken apart.

It is obvious that they are ready to be removed. They're not removed yet, but they are definitely not what they were. The stage for the new covenant is not exactly cleared and ready, but the need for the new covenant is blindingly obvious.

And this is one of the major points of Jeremiah chapter 52. And it's really the way that God operates in revealing his kingdom through his covenant stories. Adam's story after all tells us that we are in need of a new Adam, a new representative before God.

A new creation is needed. That's made clear in Noah's story. Obviously after the flood, it is proven that man needs to be changed from the inside out, and that the world in which we live needs to be transformed as well.

Abraham's story tells us that we need a new place. And of course we'll need a new people to live in that place. And Israel's story tells us that that people in that place better be holy, evidence by our reading this morning.

David's story tells us that we need a new king who can bring about the right kind of worship. And all these various covenants with their personal and historical details are God's means of preparing his world for the new covenant.

Jesus Christ comes and bears the new covenant in his body and blood. He is the new king with the right kind of worship. He creates the new people who are holy. He makes all things new, preparing the new place, and he is our new Adam before God.

And so that's how we have to read Jeremiah 52 in the context of the previous 51 chapters and in the context of God's kingdom through covenant story told throughout the Bible. This morning we have a lot of text to go through, so I'm gonna read verses 24 and 34 for us and invite you now to stand to receive the words of our savior and sovereign Jesus Christ through his prophet Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 52, beginning in verse 24. Then the captain of the guard took Saria, the chief priest, and Zethaniah, the second priest, with the three officers of the temple. He also took them from the city one official who was overseer of the men of war and seven of the king's advisors who were found in the city and the scribe of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the city and 60 men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city.

Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Reblah. Then the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Reblah in the hand of Hamath. So Judah was led away into exile from its land.

These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away into exile in the seventh year, 3 ,023 Jews. In the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar, 832 persons from Jerusalem, in the 23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, carried into exile 745 Jewish people.

There were about 4 ,600 persons in all. Now it came about in the 37th year of the exile of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, in the 12th month on the 25th day of the month, that Evil-Merodot, the king of Babylon in the first year of his reign, showed favor to Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and brought him out of prison.

Then he spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon. So Jehoiakim changed his prison clothes and had his meals in the king's presence regularly all the days of his life.

For his allowance, a regular allowance was given to him by the king of Babylon, a daily portion, all the days of his life until the day of his death. These are the words of the Lord. You may be seated.

Transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant is crucial to our understanding of the Bible, the gospel, obviously to the book of Jeremiah, and it is brought about through judgment. It is brought about through judgment.

Now somebody can only repair a house so long until a new one is needed. A roof can be patched and re-shingled quite a few times, foundation can be shorn up, windows replaced, interior remodeled, but eventually a new house is going to be needed, whether by demolition or simply replacing everything piece by piece.

Rot and decay multiplied by time proves this to be the case, at least with a house made by human hands. But should God build a house with everlasting, non-decaying, glorified materials, it would never need to be replaced.

He has and he is, and we should rejoice in this glory revealed in Christ. To make this new house, to make this new covenant, God demolishes the rotted and decayed remnants of the old to make way for the new.

The new is not radically distinct from the old, but neither is it simply a repair, remodel and restoration job. It is the same site, it is the same basic blueprints, but way better material, house sits at a new angle.

Oh, and it's a lot bigger, it's a lot bigger. It is of course very difficult to convince anyone that their treasured house needs to be demolished and rebuilt. It is difficult to assure someone who has loved their intergenerational home, that a new house will not only be faithful to the old, but actually far better.

And in fact, they're gonna feel more at home in the new house than ever before. That's a very hard sell, but it is truly the case in the transition from the old covenant to the new. And the path of that transition was laid down by God's judgment.

His judgment included both cataclysmic moments of destruction and grindingly long centuries of diminishment. But the salient point made in the last chapter of Jeremiah is just this, the debris of judgment shows our need for the new covenant.

The debris of judgment shows our need for the new covenant. That was true of the Jews in Jeremiah's day, and it was also true of the Jews in Jesus's time. It is important for us to recognize that the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, back with Jeremiah, is theologically, thematically, prophetically tied to the second destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

The debris of judgment shows our need for the new covenant. That's not only true back then, but it's true in our world today. What does the judgment of God in our world today teach us other than that we need Christ, that we need the new covenant, that we need the good news of Jesus Christ?

I mean, wouldn't you agree that in our cultural debris currently, as God is turning people over to reprobate minds, as he is unleashing all manner of disaster upon our society, that what we really need comes down to three things.

We need a new king, we need a new people, and we need a new place. Isn't that what our society needs? People need to come under the lordship of Jesus Christ. They need to quit with all of the intersectionality and identify in Christ alone, and we don't need to put our hope in any city, but the city that Christ himself builds.

Now, these needs of a king and a people and a place are emphasized in Jeremiah 52 by way of a chiasm. Now, think of a target with, you know, you shoot an arrow into. Now, think of two rings, one outer ring, one inner ring, and a bullseye.

Okay, you have the image. Outer ring, inner ring, and a bullseye. And this is the way that this text functions. On the outer ring, verses one through 11, and in the last four verses, talks about new king, the need for a new king.

The inner ring, verses 12 through 16 and 28 through 30, talks about the need for a new people. And the bullseye of this text, we see the need for a new place. After all, the people of Israel just got exiled from Canaan.

So let's talk about the need for a new king. This is the outer ring, verses one through 11, and verses 31 through 34. In the first 11 verses, we are told why and how God punished King Zedekiah. And then in the last four verses, we were told how God elevated another king, King Jeconiah, even though he was in exile and had been in prison.

Now there's important lessons here for the Jews, preparing them for their Messiah, for the new covenant, but the same lessons matter to us as well. For Christ is the King before whom we all must bow the knee and in whom we all must take refuge.

So the first 11 verses, we find the rejected kingship removed. Now the why of the removal is in verses one through three, and then the how of the removal is in verses four through 11. In other words, verses one through three is the last straw, and then verses four through 11 is how the back of the camel was broken.

The last straw that broke the camel's back. Verses one through three, we hear about King Zedekiah. Now, with the exception of good King Josiah, the last 100 years of Judah's rulers were wicked. Hezekiah ended poorly, Manasseh reigned for 52 bloody years.

His son was so wicked, the people assassinated him almost immediately. Josiah's sons were so bad, they kept getting replaced by others. Foreign rulers kept on replacing them, and Zedekiah isn't even the king who's supposed to be on the throne.

Josiah's grandson Jehoiakim had become king, but he only reigned for three months before he was taken away into exile. And Nebuchadnezzar replaced Jeconiah with one of Jeconiah's uncles, and he put Zedekiah on the throne.

Now, Zedekiah was supposed to be grateful to Nebuchadnezzar for this, and he was supposed to keep the company line and do whatever Nebuchadnezzar wanted him to do, but we find that he rebelled. So it's important for us to notice how this happens.

Jehoiakim, who's Josiah's grandson, who was Messiah's royal ancestor, is taken away into exile, and a puppet king is installed, and his name is Zedekiah. And we find out later he conspired with the king of Egypt, and he was trying to raise up a rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, totally against what Jeremiah told him to do.

So, verses one through three, Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Hamatol, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libna. He did evil in the sight of the Lord, like all that Jehoiakim had done.

For through the anger of the Lord, this came about in Jerusalem and Judah, until he cast them out from his presence, and Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. So Zedekiah is a wicked king, but the last straw that brought down God's judgment was his rebellion against the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar.

Jeremiah had clearly conveyed the warnings to Zedekiah, telling him not to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar, but he rebelled anyway, and this is why Jerusalem was destroyed, and the people were taken off into exile.

But notice verse three, for through the anger of the Lord, this came about. What does that mean? It means that the Lord, in his holy anger, judged wicked Zedekiah, wicked Jerusalem, wicked Judea, how?

By putting them into the hand of their own council to rebel against Babylon. God's wrath was revealed from heaven long before it was wrought upon earth. God turned these idolaters over to reprobate minds, to fully indulge in the courses of action, which would bring about their own destruction.

These people who continually, now notice, the people of Judah, as we've been tracking all through Jeremiah, the people who refused to hear God's word, he cast away from his presence, verse three says.

That is an opportunity to take warning. It is an opportunity to offer warning. He who, after much rebuke, hardens his neck, will be destroyed suddenly, and that without remedy, Proverbs says. So God justly and wrathfully arranged for Zedekiah to self-destruct and take his people down with him, and we see how that works in verses four and five.

And we see how that works in verse four through 11. Nebuchadnezzar had ordered his commander and army to lay siege to Jerusalem. They did this for 18 months. They built a siege wall around the walls of Jerusalem so that nobody could escape.

The Jews suffered from famine, pestilence, and the sword until their numbers were massively reduced. They were more dead than alive in that doomed city. At this point, the walls could do nothing but fall.

You can't defend walls without men upon them even any more than the men can survive without walls. But the point, as Matthew Henry says, you could have the best men and the best walls, but unless God was holding them, then they would not hold.

Verse four. Now it came about in the ninth year of his reign, in the ninth year of his reign, on the 10th day, in the 10th month, that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came. He and all his army against Jerusalem, camped against it and built a siege wall all around it, so the city was under siege until the 11th year of King Zedekiah.

On the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. Then the city was broken into and all the men of war fled and went forth from the city at night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city, and they went by the way of their Abba.

But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him. They scattered the king and they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riv La in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.

The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all the princes of Judah in Riv La. Then he blinded the eyes of Zedekiah and the king of Babylon bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon and put him in prison until the day of his death.

So Zedekiah tried to run. Jeremiah said, it won't work. He told him already. He had prophesied to him that it's not gonna work. You're gonna have to come face to face with the king of Babylon, and he did.

There's no avoiding God's judgment. You know, you could think of the words from Johnny Cash. You can run on a long time, a long time. The sooner or later, God is gonna cut you down. Well, that's a biblical observation.

You can run on a long time, and Zedekiah did. For 11 years, he reigned, did things his own way. He tried to run away from the judgment of God, but he could not get away. He had to come to face to face with God's judgment, and the last thing he saw before his eyes were blinded was the slaughter of his sons.

Now, why is that significant other than just out-and-out cruelty? The point is this. His line is ended. That's the point. His kingship is ended. His line is broken. The rejected kingship is thus removed, and a studious Jew would look at the debris of judgment and say to himself and to herself, we need a new king.

We need a new king. It's in the debris of judgment that we see that we need a new covenant. Well, the promised kingship is promoted at the end of the chapter, verses 31 through 44, and in this way, it is parallel with the beginning of the chapter.

We cannot overemphasize the importance of the contrast offered in this chapter, the doom of Zedekiah at the beginning and the elevation of Jehoiakim at the end. Now, why is that going on? It is because of the covenant promise of God made to David, which is recorded in many places.

One of those places is Psalm 89. I'll read out of Psalm 89, verses three through four. I have made a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn to David, my servant. I will establish your seed forever and build up your throne to all generations.

Now, this covenant that God made with David, like the others, had conditions and warnings, and concerning the descendants of David, God both warned and assured in verses 31 through 37 of Psalm 89, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with a rod and their iniquity with stripes.

Oh, we can see how that is. The descendants of David ruling there in Jerusalem have been wicked for about a century, and here comes the punishment. Here comes the chastisement. Here comes the judgment.

Verse 33, but I will not break off my loving kindness from him, nor deal falsely in my faithfulness. He says, I will not break off my chesed. I will not deal falsely in my emeth. Verse 34, my covenant I will not violate, nor will I alter the utterance of my lips.

Once I have sworn by my holiness, I will not lie to David. His descendants shall endure forever in his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established forever like the moon and the witness in the sky is faithful, Selah.

In other words, as certain as the sun would rise and as certain as the moon would go through its phases, so certain it was that God would establish David's descendants and throne forever, which of course causes great struggle for the psalmist as his patience concerning God's promises grows thin.

I mean, wouldn't yours if the throne in Jerusalem was destroyed and it seems like the line of David has been cut off. Speaking of David's descendant, the psalmist writes verses 44 through 45, or 47 of Psalm 89.

You have made his splendor to cease and cast his throne to the ground. You have shortened the days of his youth. You have covered him with shame, Selah. How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?

Will your wrath burn like fire? Remember what my span of life is. For what vanity you have created all the sons of men. In other words, God, you made these amazing promises about David, about his descendants, about his throne.

When are you gonna keep them? He says, look, God, you know, I don't have much time on this earth. Like, I don't wanna die without seeing the fulfillment. You know, Simeon, remember Simeon in the temple?

He did receive the promise that he wouldn't die before he saw the consolation of Israel and he saw the consolation of Israel in the form of a baby, Jesus Christ, God incarnate. Now, all this is to say that David's rightful heir and Messiah's royal ancestor, when we read and get to the end of Jeremiah 52, here, look, look, there's Jeconiah, also known as Jehoiakim, there he is.

He's the royal ancestor of Messiah. He's the rightful heir of King David. And you come to the end of the chapter after seeing Zedekiah rejected and distorted at the beginning, you come to the end of the chapter and when we see David's rightful heir and Messiah's royal ancestor exalted, our eyebrows had better not remain in fuzzy tedium.

Our eyebrows should lift and say, oh, wow, would you look at that? 31 through 34. Now, it came about in the 37th year of the exile of Jehoiakim, King of Judah in the 12th month and the 25th of the month, that evil Maradoc, King of Babylon in the first year of his reign, showed favor to Jehoiakim, King of Judah and brought him out of prison.

Then he spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the thrones, his throne above the thrones, his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon. So Jehoiakim changed his prison clothes and had his meals in the king's presence regularly all the days of his life.

For his allowance, a regular allowance was given to him by the King of Babylon, a daily portion all the days of his life into the day of his death. Joseph, Daniel, Jehoiakim and Mordecai. Joseph, Daniel, Jehoiakim and Mordecai.

What do these four men have in common? All of them were brought out of a lowly place to be set at the right hand of the ruling power of the world. Each of them was honored with a position of authority.

Each of them related to Jesus Christ biologically as Jews, but typologically as signs. These shadows are easily traced to the substance. Repeatedly, there is a Jew ascended from the depths to the right hand of dominating power.

God is telling his story again and again. We see that once before Israel was a nation, as Jacob's family was heading away from Canaan and heading into slavery, and then three times after Judah is totally subjugated, kicked out of Canaan, the point is made.

In the context of suffering, in the context of no self-rule, when there's no Jewish king on the throne, in the context of God's people in subservience, this type is flashed again and again and again, four times.

Hey, look, there's a Jew at the right hand of absolute power. Are we picking up what God is laying down? In the context of dire news, heard any dire news lately? In the context of dire news, when we're overwhelmed with troubles, when matters are going from bad to worse, behold, there is a Jew at the right hand of absolute power, and his name is Jesus Christ.

This would be made manifest in history again and again, and it matters for our own time as well. It is in the debris of judgment that we see our need for the new covenant. Look around at the judgment.

Oh, we need somebody else in charge. We need new leadership. We need a new king. Well, Christ is king. Christ is king. And those who rage against his authority, God mocks, and those who submit to his authority find blessed refuge in him.

This means individuals, this means families, this means churches, this means nations. Must be under the rule of Christ. Must be under the lordship of Jesus Christ. You can think of it this way. Jesus spoke to the chief priest the night of his trial.

He assured the chief priest personally that he would see Christ's exaltation to the right hand. You will see the son of man coming on the clouds of great glory. He told him that. He's quoting Daniel 7.

You're going to see, you've rejected me as king, but you're going to see proof positive that I am king. And he did see it when Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70. That was proof positive that Jesus Christ, rejected as king, was indeed king, and he brought judgment against those who had raged against him.

Well, we also need a new people in need of a new king, in need of a new people. Why do they need a new people? Well, think of it this way. Twice the people of Israel were numbered in the wilderness marching.

You can read about that in the book of Numbers. The first and second generations were numbered. The first was 603 ,550, and the second one was 601 ,730, and that was only counting the men between the age of 20 and 50, and discounting the tribe of Levi.

They were just counting the men of war, an army of 600 ,000 men both times. That doesn't count the men younger than 20, older than 50, and it discounts all the Levites. So there's a lot of people. We're talking about millions of people.

During the time of David, 1 .1 million men army between the ages of 20 and 50, and this time also excluding Benjamin. So this is a massive number of people. It's a practical fulfillment of God's promises to Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars of the heavens.

But in the last 150 years prior to Jeremiah 52, those numbers have been drastically reduced, and only a remnant is left. Now, this remnant is talked about, spoken of in this chapter. It's a promised remnant.

You can read about the promised remnant all through Isaiah. Isaiah 10 is a good place to go. But in these verses, Nebuchadnezzar, we see, sends one of his important servants, Nebuchadnezzar Radon, he's captain of the bodyguard, the captain of the bodyguard, to come deal with Jerusalem and the people who live there.

Now, Nebuchadnezzar Radon was chief of the bodyguard, the translations give us. Well, in the Hebrew, it's rav, it's chief or it's head, and it's tabach, which some people say, well, it means cook, but it's because the word means slaughterers.

So he's head of the slaughterers. That was his title. And essentially, Nebuchadnezzar Radon was used by Nebuchadnezzar in the bloody siege work of conquering rebellious cities. He was so good at it that his nickname was the butcher.

And his ranks were full of the slaughter men. And he did his work in Jerusalem very efficiently. He chopped up at the temple, he chopped up the palace, he chopped up the houses, he chopped up the walls, and he burned it all.