Sunday Morning, April 14, 2019 AM

and lead us into all righteousness, and we pray for these graces because of our faith in Christ our

Savior, the one with whom you are well pleased. Amen.

I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Jeremiah 27. Jeremiah chapter 27 we'll be looking at verses 1 through 11 this morning.

Last time we were looking at Jeremiah we considered God's unstoppable word from chapter 26 and in this passage the theme so fitting for Palm Sunday we read that God has given all things to his servant.

God has given all things to his servant. I invite you to stand with me as I read

Jeremiah 27 verses 1 through 11. These are the words of our

God. In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah this word came to Jeremiah from the

Lord saying thus says the Lord to me make for yourselves make for yourself bonds and yokes and put them on your neck and send word to the king of Edom to the king of Moab to the king of the sons of Ammon to the king of Tyre and to the king of Sidon by the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah command them to go to their master saying thus says the

Lord of hosts the God of Israel thus you shall say to your masters I have made the earth the men and the beasts which are on the face of the earth by my great power and by my outstretched arm and I will give it to the one who is pleasing in my sight now

I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon my servant and I have given him also the wild animals of the field to serve him all the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the time of his own land comes then many nations and great kings will make him their servant it will be that the nation or the kingdom which will not serve him

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon I will punish that nation with the sword with famine and with pestilence declares the

Lord until I have destroyed it by his hand but as for you do not listen to your prophets your diviners your dreamers your soothsayers or your sorcerers who speak to you saying you shall not serve the king of Babylon for they prophesy a lie to you in order to remove you far from your land and I will drive you out and you will perish but the nation which will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him

I will let remain on its land declares the Lord and they will till it and dwell in it and this is the word of the

Lord you may be seated it is helpful if we can think back to well some of us are gonna think back to the the felt boards of Palm Sunday and we know there's a donkey and we know there's

Christ on the donkey and we know there's palm branches and there's usually the children are on the felt board praising but it was more than children there were all kinds of people praising and glorifying

Christ and this was a significant day the people who were shouting

Hosanna Son of David knew that what was happening had to do with regime change they were they were crying out things that put into their proper political context they were calling for a change in Kings a change in ruling authority in their land the palm branches that they waved they out of a sense of nationalism a few years before just a hundred years before the

Jews were a self -ruling nation they had broken from the tyranny of the

Greeks by the by the insurgency of Judas Maccabeus the hammer and they had ruled themselves for a hundred years and on the coinage of their hundred year long self -rule under the

Hasmonean dynasty on those coins were palm branches so when

Jesus came parading into Jerusalem on a donkey fulfilling

Old Testament prophecy about the King of Israel they waved the palm branches because they were saying here is our king and they were right just not right enough they were ready for Jesus Christ to be king in Jerusalem and king in Israel they weren't quite settled on how he would become king through his death and resurrection and ascension and the scope of his kingdom which was a lot larger than Jerusalem and the land of Israel so on Palm Sunday when we think about the royal entry the royal parade we should remind ourselves of the actual prophetic context

Zechariah 9 verses 9 and 10 rejoice greatly

O daughter of Zion shout and triumph O daughter of Jerusalem behold your king is coming to you he is just and endowed with salvation humble and mounted on a donkey even a on a cult the full of a donkey this they knew this they knew that their king would arrive on a donkey meaning he came in peace the donkey was what you rode in peace the horse is what you rode for war so here he comes humble and in peace to become king they should have kept writing a little bit reading a little bit more to note the scope of the kingdom

I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem and the bow of war will be cut off he will speak peace to the nations and his dominion will be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth so the prophecy in Zechariah envisions what connects very closely what happens between Christ riding into Jerusalem on a donkey as the promised

Messiah as the promised King and Zechariah immediately connects that with Christ's worldwide kingdom which brings about an end to all war bringing everything into eternal

Shalom eternal peace and that's a whole lot of history brought together and concentrated in just two verses but this is what happens

Jesus rides into Jerusalem a royal parade marches right into Jerusalem he begins to act like he owns the place where does he go the temple what does he do you ever think about it that the the youths that are crying

Hosanna son of David Hosanna son of David might have been doing so in time to Christ flipping tables scattering the money changers and the doves and breaking open the cattle stalls and sending everything flying the king has arrived he's cleaning house now this royal parade that marched into Jerusalem and began to to mess things up for the establishment this kind of royal parade we need to recognize is still going on today the royal parade of Christ is still marching marches through the middle of history marches down the center aisle of our church the parade of Christ marches right along with your commute marches through every room in your house the royal parade of Christ marches as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow judging the thoughts and the intentions of our hearts the fact that Christ as the

Bible says in many many places the fact that Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords that he reigns from the right hand does not mean that he is distant and doesn't have anything to do with us and is twiddling his thumbs waiting for his opportunity to come back that's not what a good and righteous

King does he reigns he's involved he's in charge the reign of Christ floods the whole world floods the whole world it's his turf that we're on Abraham Kuyper knew that you see the quote on the front of your bulletin there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which

Christ who is sovereign over all does not cry mine it's his turf we're on his church we're in we are made in Christ Jesus for Christ Jesus the body you possess is his the blood that pumps through your veins is his he's in charge

King of Kings Lord of Lords the reign of Christ floods the whole world and as we read chapter 27 in Jeremiah we are reminded that God has given all things to his servant and as we think about this historical moment in time first of all we should recognize that God's sovereignty in history must not be denied

God's sovereignty in history must not be denied now what is history history is all the stuff that happens it's not just important history you know the stuff that makes it into the textbook it's not just redemptive history what's involved in our salvation it's everything all of history all the stuff that happens

God's sovereignty in history must not be denied the scripture tells us in Psalm 103 19 the

Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his sovereignty rules over all Psalm 115 3 but our

God is in the heavens and he does what he pleases Psalm 135 6 whatever the

Lord pleases he does in heaven and on earth in the seas and all the deeps so his sovereignty in history must not be denied verses 1 through 7 we hear that a regime change is announced and to to give us a little bit of context for this there's lots of regime change going on right now in Jeremiah's life to get caught up in all the comings and goings of the various kings you can read 2nd

Kings 24 there's a good place to go read about what's happening behind this reference in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah all the drama that lies behind that is in 2nd

Kings 24 what happened was the king of Judah named Jehoiakim died in rebellion to the king of Babylon he stopped paying tribute to Babylon because he wanted to use the money for his own special building projects bad idea he dies and then

Jehoiakim his son reigns for three months the Bible says he was an evil king how much do you have to do in three months to be an evil king but he was an evil king and when

Nebuchadnezzar showed up Jehoiakim courageously rode out to meet him and surrendered he and his mother and the king's household and 10 ,000 of the best soldiers and tradesmen of Jerusalem went off into exile at that point

Nebuchadnezzar needed somebody who would sit on the throne of Jerusalem and do what he was told and so he picked

Jehoiakim's uncle Mataniah and said your name is now Zedekiah and so uncle

Zed became the puppet king of Babylon and that's what's behind the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah a lot of regime change when a new king becomes king and he sits on his throne for the first time the surrounding kingdoms tend to reach out they send messengers they want to establish diplomatic relations and so it was that messengers from Edom Moab Ammon Tyre Sidon they all came to meet

Zedekiah and then God says to Jeremiah I told you you would be preaching to the nations he said that in chapter 1 and verses 5 and 10 he said you're gonna preach the nations and here's and here is

Jeremiah's first opportunity and so Jeremiah goes to talk to all of these royal messengers and give them a word from the one true

God all these messengers came from pagan nations who worship their own gods and goddesses and they were going to hear about the one true

God from Jeremiah but before Jeremiah goes and preaches to these royal messengers he gets dressed he puts on bonds and yokes which means that he's putting on chains like he's been arrested that he's been enslaved he puts on a yoke like you would put on an animal but you would tie you put a yoke across the neck of an animal and you would tie it to a plow or tie it to some sort of cart and whip the animal and make them go when a yoke is placed around the neck of a human being it is the universal symbol of slavery and this is the way in which

Jeremiah preached to the foreign messengers and he tells them who

God is verse 4 thus says the Lord of hosts meaning the Lord of everything the

God of Israel so the God of Israel is the God of everything there's not a God of the storms and a

God of the grasshoppers and a God of the rivers and the God of the stars no this is the God of everything the

God of Israel is the one true God so Jeremiah preaches to the foreign messengers and tells them who

God is and he tells them who his servant is and he says

I've given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon my servant his servant

God says Nebuchadnezzar is my servant he's pleasing to my sight now Nebuchadnezzar is the most powerful man in all the ancient world he has the biggest armies he has the most money he has the most land he's top dog and Jeremiah says to all these foreign messengers from these rink -a -dink kingdoms who want to establish diplomatic relations with the new king of Israel he says to them

Nebuchadnezzar is the servant of the God of Israel just how much of a servant is he we've already seen from previous chapters that God says that he will sin for Nebuchadnezzar when he wants him which means he goes come here

Nebby come here Neb Neb and he comes and does what

God says that's how a sovereign God is over history

God says I'm the one true God Nebuchadnezzar is my servant and I've given all the lands all your lands

I've given to Nebuchadnezzar so Moab Edom Ammon Tyre Sidon Judah all your cities all your lands all the wilderness space in between all of your kingdoms everything

I've given to Nebuchadnezzar it's his now so the regime change is announced he gives him the cities he gives him the wild spaces and he gives him time he's gonna have three generations

Nebuchadnezzar his son and his grandson and then I'm going to judge him this is what's going to happen so we see that God a sovereign over all of history and with the regime change being announced there is surrender terms that are issued in verses 2 7 and 11 and verse 2 is simply

Jeremiah gets dressed in the way putting a yoke on his neck putting the bonds on himself to tell the foreign nations we are now going to be enslaved by Nebuchadnezzar like it or hate it these are the surrender terms if we are good slaves we get to stay on our land verse 11 says if we if we cooperate we'll get to stay on our land till it we'll get to keep on functioning of course there's threats if we don't but all the nations shall serve him verse 7 says so this this is the surrender terms it's slavery it's servitude

Jeremiah says you will now live for someone else and then

God knowing what would happen he warns the foolish insurgents not only did he say

I've given him all of your your cities but he also told him he's gonna give them all the wild spaces in between all the beasts in the forest too so here's the thing if you want to successfully strike back at the foreign oppressor who takes over your capital city and your and your armory cities and everything else you go out to the hills into the deep wilderness and you hide out there with your armaments and you you strike again and again and again at the at the at the enemy until finally you wear him out and he gives up and goes home the problem is

God says I've also given all the wild spaces to the king of Babylon including all the wild beasts so even if you do mount an insurgency and you go hide out in the caves the lions are gonna eat you so it's hopeless to resist

God is saying you're not going to beat the king of Babylon in fact if you resist I'm going to use sword famine and pestilence to destroy you so who would be foolish enough to resist that kind of a message those who reject

God's word for a false word and if you're in the habit of rejecting

God's word for a false word I don't like what that Bible says I don't want what God says

I like to hear what these people say over here if that's your habit then it would just be habitual to reject this word too and just listen to whoever tells you what you want to hear and in the end it would be great destruction who might they listen to well we have a list don't we prophets diviners dreamers soothsayers and sorcerers hmm verse 9 but as for you do not listen to your prophets your diviners your dreamers or your soothsayers or your sorcerers yeah but if I get the same message from five different kinds of sources that's got to be true right if CNN tells me the same thing that Wikipedia tells me which is the same thing that my public school teacher tells me which is the same thing that that my friend over on 8th

Street told me it's got to be true I says don't listen to them they prophesy

I'll lie to you in order to remove you far from your land and I will drive you out and you will perish they lie to you when someone lies to you they are at war with you they're against you

God says don't listen to these prophets who say well God told me the diviners who somehow gain access the dreamers who all had a dream soothsayers who say well

I know I figured out the future or the sorcerer who just depends on the dark arts to prevail now

God says there's a regime change here are the surrender terms and if you try to rebel you're going to be destroyed now what if God did that in our day

I mean what if I mean just for example in our day what if he said there's a regime change he announces it he says okay everyone needs to surrender or become the servant the slave of the new person in charge and any resistance it's going to end up in destruction

I mean what if he did that what if he announced who his servant was gave him everything and told us to submit or else

I mean how would you handle it how would you handle it well he has done that he has done that Christ is king of kings he is

Lord of Lords surrendered terms mean taking up your cross daily to follow him recognizing that we are the servants yes the slaves of Christ the one who has purchased us with his own blood all who resist the

Sun will suffer the destruction from God this has actually happened in Psalm 2 at the very end of the psalm the whole psalm is it's worth reading but at the very end of the psalm we have the following instructions now therefore

O Kings show discernment take warning O judges of the earth worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling do homage to the

Sun kiss the Sun that he not become angry and you perish in the way for his wrath may soon be kindled how blessed are all who take refuge in him well

God's sovereignty in history must not be denied God's dealings with Nebuchadnezzar are a little glimpse a microcosm of how he runs the whole thing

God says I've given everything to my servant with whom I am well -pleased submit to him or else what are you gonna do and he has done it he's given everything to Christ God's salvation through Christ cannot be ignored it cannot be ignored the death and resurrection of Christ was powerfully public

Paul said to the king Agrippa the governor Festus he says this has not been done in a corner this was a powerful public thing regime change has been announced the gospel announces regime change why did the early

Christians die for saying Jesus is Lord because they would not say Caesar is

Lord they would not worship Caesar as divine they worship Christ as divine they would not believe

Caesar's gospel and he had many they believed Christ's gospel it was regime change

Christ is God's chosen servant with whom he is well pleased do we believe that he reigns over all we should especially since the

Bible says he does again and again Daniel 7 verses 13 through 14

I kept looking in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven one like a son of man that is Jesus Christ was coming and he came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him this is in Christ's ascension to the right hand of the father and to him was given dominion glory and a kingdom that all the peoples nations and men of every language think

Pentecost might serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away and this kingdom is one which will not be destroyed

Christ is King and this gospel is announced because there's there has to be an understanding of regime change and what does that mean it means that Satan is overthrown and Adam is deposed

Satan is overthrown and Adam is deposed Matthew 12 verses 28 through 29

Jesus responding to the accusation that he was casting out demons by the power of Satan he says that's absurd

Satan cannot be divided against Satan and he says in verse 28 but if I cast out demons by the

Spirit of God which was true then the kingdom of God has come upon you regime change in progress or how can anyone enter the strongman's house and carry off his property unless he first binds the strongman and then he will plunder his house

Jesus overthrows Satan so that the nations are not deceived and kept away from the gospel the gospel goes forth with power and people from every tribe tongue and nation are redeemed and Adam was also deposed so there's no longer

Adam who inexorably defines who we are but Christ is the last Adam the new

Adam replaces him 1st Corinthians 15 it's important that we hear these passages we hear what happens in this regime change 1st

Corinthians 15 verses 21 and 22 for since by a man came death by a man also came the resurrection of the dead for as an

Adam all die so also in Christ all will be made alive when the regime change comes when you are found in Christ you are no longer found in Adam it is not

Adam who defines you for death it is Christ who defines you for life so all who are in Adam die all who were in Christ will live and death itself is undone and sin is mastered and Romans 5 we read about regime change again

Matthew 5 or 17 and 21 verse 17 for it by the transgression of the one death reigned through the one what did death do death reigned in the in the

Greek it's the is the word for King made into a verb for by the transgression of the one death was

King through the one meeting Adam much more those who receive the abundance of grace of the gift of righteousness they will reign in life through the one

Jesus Christ verse 21 so that sin reigned sin was king in death even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our

Lord there is regime change the the old passing away new has come

Revelation 1 verses 5 through 6 Jesus Christ is called the faithful witness meaning the faithful martyr the one who died for us the faithful witness the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth who rules over the kings of the earth

Jesus Christ to him he's the one who loves us and released us from our sins by his blood and he has made us to be a kingdom priest to his

God and father to him be the glory and the Dominion forever and ever amen the

Dominion is to Christ forever and ever what did what did God tell Adam and Eve to do be fruitful multiply fill the earth and subdue it exercise dominion over the earth well

Christ is the one who ends up doing that because he is the image of God and all who are with him participate in that victory the regime change so not only does the gospel now it's regime change but we also find that salvation means unconditional surrender to Christ this is the way that God works he announces his serving with whom he is well pleased

I've given everything to my servant so surrender give up own

Christ as master Jesus himself says this he offers it in mercy listen verse 27 all things

Matthew 11 verse 27 all things have been handed over to me by my father he's given his servant all things all things have been handed over to me by my father and no one knows the son except the father nor does anyone know the father except the son anyone to whom the son wills to reveal him come to me all who are weary and heavy laden

I will give you rest take my yoke upon you the universal symbol of slavery take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I'm gentle and humble in heart you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light what an invitation what an invitation over 30 times in the

New Testament by Matthew Mark Luke John Paul James and Peter Christians are called slaves great word is do loss it's translated in my translation

New American Standard as bond servant bond slave servant variously translated but over 30 times we are described as the slaves of the one master

Jesus Christ who's King of Kings and this is the way that the Christians all these different authors from the

New Testament they understood this is who we are this is what it means we are slaves of Christ salvation mandates unconditional surrender to Christ there must be a new yoke a new yoke taking upon Christ's yoke there's two things about this we need to remember first of all slavery is unavoidable slavery is unavoidable in the

Bible we're either slaves of sin or were slaves of Christ why the slaves of the of the prince of the power of the air or were the slaves of righteousness unto

Christ Romans 6 verses 18 and 20 says and having been freed from sin you become slaves of righteousness here you're freed from sin which means what you're slaves of righteousness verse 20 for when you were slaves of sin you were free in regard to righteousness slavery is unavoidable you're either gonna be a slave of sin or a slave of righteousness enslaved by the enemy or in or the slave of Jesus Christ the

Savior and his yoke is easy and his burden is light and he gives rest he saves so slavery is unavoidable and I think if we're going to take anything away from the message this morning it is this show your slavery show your slavery what did

Jeremiah do before he went and gave the message to these foreigners from from all these different lands around he put on the yokes he put on the bonds and then he went and preached and said the

God of Israel is the one true God the Lord of hosts and he owns everything and he's given everything to his servant but he showed his slavery he put on the bonds he put on the yoke and then spoke the message we need to show our slavery when we have a gospel conversation with someone when you show our slavery

Jesus Christ is my master he bought me with his own blood he died for me he should in this is love that we love

God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation of our sins this this is what

I am I am because of the love of God in his holiness and righteousness Christ has bought me with his blood

I am his I'm the slave of Christ we need to be our personal testimony should be about who is our master we should show our slavery in the context of everyday living parents there's no better way to parent than when you're laying down the rules and when you're offering wisdom and counsel and coaching and so on and so forth to begin with you know

I'm trying to follow Christ here this is what he would want me to do no better way no better way than to to start first with who is an authority over us before we start making authority claims on others so we should show our slavery the third thing we should remember is that unrepentance will be judged and damned if resistance to Nebuchadnezzar met with sword famine and pestilence what do you think rebellion against Christ will get you

Nebuchadnezzar who was pleasing to God because he was an effective hammer to bust down walls and bring judgment but Christ his only begotten

Son with whom he is well pleased resistance to Nebuchadnezzar met with sword famine and pestilence what will rebellion against Christ bring well

John chapter 3 the very beginning at the very end of the chapter John 3 same chapter that reminds us that God loved the world in this way that he sent his only begotten

Son whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life in the same chapter we we hear more about why we need

Christ why we need to submit to Christ John 3 35 and 36 the father loves the son and has given all things into his hand he's given all things to his servant his chosen servant his son

Jesus Christ given him everything therefore verse 36 he who believes in the

Son has eternal life but he who does not obey the Son will not see life but the wrath of God abides on him on Palm Sunday we need to remember that Christ's parade had consequences the crying out of Hosanna the

Son of David was all true but his parade had consequences it ended with the cleansing of the temple the parade of Christ his royal power his his reign today still has consequences still has an impact in everything that we think about everything we say and everything we do if he cleansed the temple in Jerusalem what do you think he's doing with a temple his temple here on earth he's cleansing us right turning us around where we're wrong moving us in the right shaping us shaping us to be the kind of temple that he wants a temple to his glory well

God has given all things to his servant and his servant is Jesus Christ I pray that you would be with me in this that when we cry

Hosanna Son of David today on Palm Sunday it's with an acknowledgement of his eternal and universal authority to which we must submit we pray these things we just pray together and just pray these things in the name of our

Savior Christ father we come before you and we thank you for this truth

Lord we see how you work in history and it's it's a reminder of what you do throughout all of the world that you have given all things to your chosen servant