Sunday Morning, October 20 2019 AM

Prayer together. Father, I thank you for already pouring out upon us gifts of grace and blessing this morning, helping us to worship you, to give you honor and praise, that we would with our brothers and sisters in heaven say with one accord, salvation belongs to God and to the

Lamb who is on the throne. I pray this morning that as we spend time thinking about the words that you have given us in your holy word, these unfailing truths without any mixture of error, that by your

Holy Spirit unfailingly reveal your son Jesus Christ. As we look at the scriptures today,

Father, have your way in us. Press us into your mold.

Conform us to your son. We pray all these things looking only to Christ, the one with whom you are well pleased.

Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles, turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 32.

I'll be reading the last portion of this chapter for us this morning. Jeremiah 32 verses 36 through 44.

Jeremiah 32 verses 36 through 44.

The title of the sermon this morning is Ami and Rukhama. And what that means, we're going to talk about in a moment.

It comes from Hosea. And we're not in Hosea, we're in Jeremiah. But this passage is one of those that reminds me of those names

Ami and Rukhama from Hosea. It would be important to remember the situation that Jeremiah finds himself in.

It is the last year of Jerusalem's siege, under siege by the Babylonians. It's the last year that Zedekiah will reign.

Jeremiah is in prison. He's in jail for preaching the truth that God told him to say.

So he is under guard by the royal guard, the palace guard are keeping watch over him because he's been preaching things to the king

Zedekiah does not want to hear. And he doesn't want to hear it, and his soldiers don't want to hear it, and the priests don't want to hear it, and the false prophets don't want to hear it, and most of the people don't want to hear it.

And so they've got Jeremiah in jail where very few will have to hear it.

But meanwhile, Jeremiah is a faithful prophet of the Lord, and God has told him your cousin is coming from Anathoth, and he wants you to buy his field.

Jeremiah says okay, and his cousin came, and he bought his cousin's field, which he has not seen, which he will never visit, which he will not be able to use, and will make no profit off of as he stays in jail.

And nonetheless, he does what God tells him to. So he walks by faith rather than by sight.

And after doing this, he then begins to pray to God, and in his prayer we can hear his consternation.

Why am I buying a field when the Babylonians are about to overrun the walls of the city and utterly destroy everything?

What's the point of me buying this field? And God is assuring him of the significance of the importance of Jeremiah's continued obedience.

And Jeremiah is upset, and he's a bit angry. But God has responded to Jeremiah in the previous verses, and in a sense,

God acknowledges the fact that Jeremiah is upset, but then tells Jeremiah, God tells

Jeremiah that God has far more reason to be angry and upset.

That God sees all the sin, not just that which affects Jeremiah. God has been bearing with this rebellious people for many generations, long before Jeremiah came around, and that God has far more reason to be angry than Jeremiah.

And if Jeremiah is going to be angry about sin, and not sin himself, he needs to understand

God's perspective on the matter. Now we come to our passage, verses 36 through 44.

I invite you to stand with me as I read God's word, as we hear the word of the prophet

Jeremiah, the spirit of Christ who spoke through Jeremiah, speaks to us.

Now therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning this city, this city of which you say, it is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence.

Behold, I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have driven them in my anger, in my wrath, and in my great indignation.

And I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in safety. They shall be my people, and I will be their

God. And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me always for their own good, and for the good of the children after them.

I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good.

And I will put the fear of me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me. I will rejoice over them to do them good, and will faithfully plant them in this land with all my heart and with all my soul.

For thus says the Lord, just as I brought all this great disaster on this people, so I am going to bring on them all the good that I am promising them.

Fields will be bought in this land of which you say, it is a desolation without man or beast.

It is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. Men will buy fields for money, sign and seal deeds, and call in witnesses in the land of Benjamin, in the environs of Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the

Negev. For I will restore their fortunes, declares the

Lord. And this is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. The language of the previous passage, in which we hear repeatedly that God is provoked to anger.

The language of the previous passage, which in more than one way describes how angry

God is with the people of Israel and with the place that he gave them.

The language which describes judgment upon judgment, great disaster, expending his holy wrath upon them.

That language contrasts incredibly sharply with the language here in this passage.

Wherein there is compassion and loving kindness, where there is promises of hope and restoration.

And this kind of contrast brings a story to mind. A story that happened generations before Jeremiah, the prophet by the name of Hosea.

God came to the prophet Hosea and told him to go marry a wife. Not just any wife, but a wife who would become a harlot and have children through harlotry.

Why would he tell his prophet Hosea to go marry someone who would become a harlot and have children that did not belong to Hosea?

Because God was in that situation. God had committed himself faithfully to Israel.

He had not only called Israel his firstborn son, but he had also called Israel his bride, that he was wed to her.

And that he was calling her to be faithful to him as a wife would be faithful to her husband.

And so Hosea, the prophet, goes and marries a woman by the name of Gomer.

And then she bears some children. The name of the first child was Jezreel.

And this was a name that would signify judgment as God would avenge all the blood spilt by Jeroboam at Jezreel.

So you name your firstborn son after judgment. And then

Gomer bore a second child, Lo -Gurama. Her name, the name of this little girl, means no compassion, no mercy.

And God says, name her that because I will not have compassion. I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel that I would ever forgive them.

This is talking about the northern kingdom, the one that had split off from Judah and had nothing but bad kings time and time again.

And then Gomer had a third child, a son. And God said, name him

Lo -Ami. Lo -Ami, which means not my people.

A fitting name for by this time, obviously, Hosea knows that Gomer is having children not with him, and this is not his son.

And so the child is named Lo -Ami, not my people. The daughter is named

Lo -Gurama, no mercy, no compassion. And the eldest is named Jezreel, a name which should remind and anticipate judgment.

And this is startling language. This is severe language. And then the text turns in verse 10 and hear this promise of God.

Yet, even though not my people, not compassion, judgment.

Yet, verse 10, the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered, just like he told

Abraham of old. And in the place, in the very place, where it was said to them, you are not my people, it will be said to them, you are sons of the living

God. B 'nai El Hai, sons of the living

God. What a name. And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together and they will appoint for themselves one leader and they will go up from the land for great will be the day of Jezreel.

Verse one of the next chapter, say to your brothers, Ami, and to your sisters,

Ruhama, say, my people, say, mercy.

And that kind of turnaround from no mercy and not my people to mercy and my people from being utterly judged to being called sons of the living

God, that kind of turnaround, that's what's really happening in our passage here in Jeremiah 32.

From all of the judgment being declared and all of the anger of God being on display in the previous passage.

And then to hear this passage at the end of the chapter, where there is forgiveness and restoration and things that were utterly wiped out and destroyed will be restored and rebuilt.

That those who were exiled and given no place will be brought back to their place. That those who would be cast away as God's people would be called

God's people again. That those who would have known no mercy would be recipients of mercy.

That's what's happening here in our passage. And I want us to think about that for a while.

I want us to think about these names, Ami and Ruhama, names, names.

Why do we name things in a certain way? Adam named the animals and God named

Adam. We have names for our children. We have place names.

Why do we name things? One reason is we're made in the image of God. That's why we name things.

But also we name things in a certain way so as to remember what they are.

To remember what they are. And we have a need to remember. That's why it's so excellent what the tag children last year were doing in learning the names of God.

To remember all the different qualities of God. The character qualities of God. Who he is in his greatness and in his perfections.

What are we supposed to remember? What is Jeremiah to remember? What's going on in his time?

What he needs to remember is God. What he needs to remember is

God. Jeremiah has a lot of problems. He's in jail. He just bought a piece of property he can't use.

He has very few allies. Those people willing to talk to him only do so because they want some money. He's got a lot of problems.

His cup is full of sorrow and suffering. What is he going to need to remember in this time?

He needs to remember God. And God begins to tell him things in verses 36 through 44.

And everything that God told him, he had already told him. Everything that God tells him in this passage,

Jeremiah has already been told by God and Jeremiah has preached it in the gates and in the crossroads of Jerusalem.

But God tells him anyway because Jeremiah has a need to remember. There are 12 statements of God in these verses in which

God says, I will. 12 times

God says, I will. Let me read them for you. This is what

God says. I will gather them out of all countries.

I will bring them back to you. I will cause them to dwell safely. They shall be my people and I will be their

God. I will give them one heart and one way. I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

I will not turn away from doing them good. I will put my fear in their hearts.

I will rejoice over them to do them good. I will assuredly plant them in this land.

I will bring upon them all the good that I have promised them. I will cause their captives to return or I will restore their fortunes.

Listen to what God will do. That's what Jeremiah needs to remember. He needs to remember what

God has promised. He needs to remember why God has promised these things. And he needs to remember that God who can do all the things he said he's going to do.

God needs, Jeremiah needs to remember God. He most of our submitting to God is remembering him.

That's where the real battle is. Most of our submitting to God is remembering him.

Jeremiah is protesting in his prayer that he's bought this land and yet the Chaldeans, the Babylonians are overrunning the city.

Why is that? Why am I having to buy this property when the when the city is about to be destroyed and these fools who have me in prison are the reason why the

Babylonians are here in the first place because it's judgment. It's hard to submit to God sometimes, isn't it?

It's hard to say along with Christ, not my will, but your will. It's hard to say that and really mean it.

But most of our submitting to God begins with remembering God, remembering him.

Because there are things that God will tell us to do. Things that rub us wrong just like it did Jeremiah.

When we protest forgiveness, I don't want to forgive them.

That doesn't make any sense. They're just going to do it again. They don't deserve forgiveness.

They've struck out with me. When we, when God calls us to patience, to long suffering, to waiting, to enduring, that doesn't make sense.

It's time for a change. I can't wait around forever. When God calls us to a lowly path of service,

I'm much more qualified than that. I shouldn't have to be doing these small things. When God calls us to our own need of repentance, that we need to confess our sins, be on God's side about our own sins, and turn away from them.

When that happens, when we protest, I don't really, it's their fault, not mine. When we protest what

God is calling us to do clearly by his word, how do we submit to God?

How does Jeremiah supposed to submit to God in the path that God has called him to walk? It begins with remembering who

God is. Who is this God? What is his purpose? What are his promises?

And we also remember his power as well. First, let's remember the purpose of God. Remember the purpose of God.

In our passage, in verse 41, God tells

Jeremiah in the midst of all of these I wills, all these promises that he's going to do for his people, he says,

I will rejoice over them to do them good.

In midst of all the other promises he's made, three times in this passage, he says, I will do them good.

I will do good to them. And that this is his aim. When we consider the purpose of God that is expressed, not only is it that he does good to his people, that his purpose in the way that he's acting is for his people's good, but he's doing it and he rejoices in it with all his heart, with all his soul, he does, he plants them faithfully in the land.

So what he does for the good of his people is an absolute agreement with his most deep desire.

Whatever is most at the center of God's soul, in his heart, that's what he does.

God always has his purpose in view. He always has his purpose in view.

He's told Jeremiah this, and he's coming back to that theme, but at the end of verse 18 of the same chapter, at the end of verse 18, we read,

O great and mighty God, the Lord of hosts is his name, great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, giving to everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds, who is signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and even to this day, both in Israel and among mankind.

And why does he do all of that? And you have made a name for yourself as at this day.

That's his purpose. That's his purpose. Isaiah 48 verse 11 says,

For my own sake, God says, for my own sake, I will act and I will not give my glory to another.

This is his purpose. The reason why he does anything is for his own glory, and anything less would be the impossible, would be the impossible act of idolatry.

For if God would act for the glory of another, he would be committing idolatry.

Now, this purpose has stayed the same forever, because God has stayed the same forever.

Psalm 90 in verse 2 says, Before the mountains were born, or you gave birth to the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting, you are

God. Psalm 100 in verse 5 says, For the Lord is good, his loving kindness is everlasting, and his faithfulness to all generations.

So when we talk about God, it's safe to use the term always. We're cautioned against using that term always when we're in a heated discussion with others.

You always do this, or you always... Well, no, that's not really true. But it is true about God that he always acts in accordance with his purpose.

He always has his purpose in view, to glorify himself, and he always sovereignly acts in agreement with that purpose, meaning he's the very definition of integrity.

Five and a half years ago or so, my first Sunday morning here, after being called as pastor,

I think Brother Ralph preached the sermon that morning, and he gave a quote from one of the founding fathers of the country in which it was a definition of integrity.

And what is integrity? When what your mind thinks, and what your mouth says, and what your hands do, when those three agree, that's integrity.

I've never forgot that. When what your mind thinks, and your mouth says, and your hands do, and all those three are in agreement, that is integrity.

And God is the very definition of that. What he desires, whatever the

Lord pleases, he does in heaven, and in earth, and in the seas, and all the deep.

Psalm 135 verse 6. Job 23 verse 13.

But he is unique, and who can turn him? And what his soul desires, that he does.

For he performs what is appointed for me, and many such decrees are with him. Whatever God desires, that is what he says, and whatever he desires and says is exactly what he does.

And Jeremiah needs to remember that. As he's sitting in jail, with the Babylonians surrounding the city, and about to come pouring over the walls, as he's sitting there with a deed to property he's never going to use, he needs to remember that although all this has come about, there is no variation or shifting shadow with the

Father of Lights. He doesn't change in his purpose, and he always sovereignly acts in agreement with his purpose.

And so Jeremiah needs to remember that. We need to remember that. And God always acts for his creatures with regard to himself.

And so in verse 39, in verse 39, he says, I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me always for their own good, and the good of their children after them.

So he's acting for the good of his creatures, good of his people.

Verse 40, I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good.

I'm always going to act in agreement with my intention, which I will always do them good, he says.

Verse 41, I will rejoice over them to do them good. I will rejoice over them to do them good, and will faithfully plant them in this land with all my heart and with all my soul.

Verse 42, for thus says the Lord, just as I brought all this great disaster on this people, so I am going to bring on them all the good that I am promising them.

So it's important to put that into context. So we hear that God is going to do good to his people, good to his people, good to his people.

But what's the ultimate reason why? To bring himself glory, to make a name for himself.

And that's the controlling desire of God. So often in our

Christian books and literature and Christian radio and so on, there is the emphasis that God is all about your good, period.

And it's a whole short circuit not bringing to bear who our

God is, that his primary desire, his passion, his primary purpose is to bring glory to himself.

And thus, that particularly defines what kind of good he does us.

It's the good that reveals his glory and brings us to the place of glorifying him, that kind of good.

So Jeremiah is given some context for the anger of God. God is definitely going to bring all this judgment, but he's going to act for the good of his people.

And it is all meant to bring him glory. God is glorifying himself in salvation through judgment, but more than anything in Jeremiah's distress, he needed to remember

God, to remember God's purpose. God always has that purpose in view, that God is always sovereignly acting in agreement with that purpose.

And whatever he does for his creatures, he does ultimately with regard to himself.

What Zedekiah and Nebuchadnezzar meant for evil, God meant for good.

What good did God accomplish in wiping out his idolatrous people, in informing the exiles already in Babylon of what he was doing there in their homeland?

What good was God accomplishing? He was cleaning house. He was cleaning house.

Remember that Jesus cleaned house, his father's house. Well, God was always jealous for his house and the filth that some may bring into it.

And so God cleaned his house. He cleansed the temple. He cleansed Jerusalem. He cleansed the land.

He cleansed it all in his judgment. And as he did, and as the people came back, according to his promises, they came back with a sharper, clearer hope and understanding of the new covenant.

Because they came back to a place that wasn't the same as it was before.

It wasn't as grand as it was before. There wasn't as much gold caked on the building as before.

The priest lineage was fuzzy. There was no king upon the throne.

The Ark of the Covenant was suspiciously missing from the Holy of Holies. And so they come back to the second temple to try to go back to the ways that God had taught them.

But they have all these handicaps. They have all these gaps in the way that they're supposed to live.

And every single time they run into one of those, it's time to remember a promise of God about what he's about to do next.

So God is doing good, ultimately. This morning, we read from Ephesians, Kyle read for us from Ephesians 1.

And it's important for us to remember God's purpose. It's important for us to remember

God's purpose. I'll just read verses 7 through 10 of Ephesians 1. In him, in Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.

Do we understand what that means? The absolute most fair and just and righteous thing for God to do, spiritually, socially, nationally, whatever.

The most righteous and fair thing for God to do about our trespasses is to judge us everlastingly in hell.

And the most unfair thing in the world is forgiveness.

That is utterly unfair. In Christ, we have redemption through his blood.

It was not fair. It was not fair that Jesus suffered the wrath we deserve, that we would know the grace that he deserves.

And yet in Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished on us.

Lavished on us. So we come to the most unfair thing in all the world, and it's lavished on us.

Not, you know, dripped out a little bit because we know too much unfairness is bad. It's lavished on us.

In all wisdom and insight, he made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his kind intention, which he purposed in him, with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times.

Meaning what? The summing up of all things in Christ.

Things in the heavens and things on the earth. In other words, God's purpose to glorify himself and to make for himself a name.

His purpose in which he does good to his creatures while bringing glory to his name is completely and utterly summed up in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

So when we are in trouble, when we're in a problem, and we need to remember

God, and we need to remember his purpose, we need to remember particularly his son,

Jesus Christ. His purpose is summed up in him. When obedience is difficult, we need to remember

God and his purpose. There's an old saying about, he who has a full cup must walk carefully.

Probably read that in a fortune cookie somewhere. That's just common sense.

When you fill your coffee cup a little too close to the brim, you can't race to your favorite easy chair in the morning.

You have to walk carefully. And usually it's applied to those who are rich.

Those who are wealthy. This particular proverb. That those who are wealthy and rich have a full cup and thus they must walk very carefully.

The insinuation is that they have far more burdens and are far more sorrowful and unhappy than those who are poor and have an empty cup.

And they can skip all they want and frolic with joy because their cup is empty. I think the truth is that we all have a full cup.

We all have a full cup. At any given time, our cup is full to the brim. It may be full of sorrow.

It may be full of doubt. It may be full of happiness and joy. It may be full of, it may be full of riches.

It might be full of struggles with poverty. But whatever it is, the cup is full. It's full to the brim.

Jeremiah had a full cup. We've got a full cup. And so in those times we need to remember

God and God's purpose. The only way we can endure suffering or steward riches or grieve a loss or rejoice in a new venture and to do it right is to see how it's all summed up in Christ.

My new business. Well, what of it? Well, all things will be summed up in Christ.

I have cancer. Well, all things are summed up in Christ. If we don't make the connection about what we do in our lives with our full cups and everyone has one, if we don't understand how that relates to Christ, then we're not remembering

God. We're not remembering God and we need to remember God because submitting to God, most of it begins with remembering him.

We also need to remember God's promises along with his purpose.

Now, everything here that God promises in these many I wills, he has already said before, but he's bringing

Jeremiah back to the basics. He's saying it all over again because Jeremiah has this need to remember and the father knows our needs before we even ask.

I think there's some story about a football coach talking to his team who seemed to be having a really difficult time and someone's going to know the name of the coach and the story and so on, but I don't remember that.

All I remember is the coach stood before his team and held up the football and said, men, this is a football because sometimes you need to be reminded of the basics and here are the basics.

God promises the same covenant themes that he's been promising all along and dealing with all along in the scriptures and will forever work with.

The three ingredients of God's covenant with man are simple. God's people in God's place, blessed under God's rule.

It's the way it was in the garden, the way it was with Noah, the way it was with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Israel, and he reaffirms it here in verses 36 through 44.

Consider the promises of God's people. Verse 37, I will gather them out of all countries.

They're in exile, but I'm going to gather them, bring them back together. Verse 38, they shall be my people and I will be their

God. Verse 40, I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Verse 44,

I will cause their captives to return. Then there's the theme of God's place. He says,

I will bring them back to this place. Verse 37, he says, I will cause them to dwell safely.

Dwell meaning to abide, to reside safely in that place.

Verse 41, I will assuredly plant them in this land. God's rule.

Verses 39 and 40, I will give them one heart and one way. Verse 40,

I will put my fear in their hearts. You see, God's people in God's place, blessed under his rule.

And God has already said all of this. He's already made these new covenant promises in the previous chapters, but he brings it all up again because Jeremiah is having problems.

He's upset. He's afraid. He's on edge. And so God says, you need to remember.

You need to remember the bigger picture. You need to remember the promises that I have made. So he says, I will.

I will. I will. I will. I will. God affirms his commitment to his people.

God brought us people out of Ur. That was where Abraham was from. Abraham was from the land of Ur.

The land of the Babylonians, the Chaldeans. God brought his people up out of Ur.

And then he brought them up out of Egypt when Abraham went down there. And then he brought them up out of Egypt again when they had become slaves there in the beginning with the time of Joseph.

And then he brought them, and he says here, he's going to bring them back from the exile, which means he's going to bring them again out of Ur.

So there's a little story for you. God brought his people up out of Ur, and then out of Egypt, and then out of Egypt, and then out of Ur.

But he keeps on bringing them back to this same place. Keeps on bringing them back to this land that he had promised, which is why we call it the promised land.

He brings them back to this place so they will dwell safely and stay there because he has things he wants to do with them there.

And one of the things he's going to do with them is he's going to change what's inside them.

There's going to be a spiritual heart surgery where he's going to give them one heart where they're in agreement, no longer in civil war and inter -tribal conflict.

He's going to give them one heart so they would, one way, so they would worship God and God alone rather than being tossed about by every new idol and their affections splintered this way and that.

He says, I will put my fear in their hearts so they will reverence him and worship him alone.

How's God going to do all of that? Well, as he's already told

Jeremiah, and it's just now in the process of reminding him, he's bringing all the people back to this land for it is in this land, it is in this land from this people that their ruler will come forth,

Christ born. There he would be born. There he would live.

There he would minister. There he would teach. There he would die. There he would be raised from the dead.

From there he would ascend to the right hand of the father. To there, to his infant church, he would send his

Holy Spirit. From there, the gospel to the Jews first and then to the Gentiles. From there his kingdom spreads.

God's reminding Jeremiah, this is what I promised. And what

God promises, that is what he performs. When the cup is full, we need to remember

God so we can submit to him. We need to remember his purpose and remember his promises. Second Corinthians 1 .20,

for as many as are the promises of God in Christ, they are yes. They are yes.

As many as are the promises of God in Christ, they are yes. And so we need to remember

God so we may submit to him, to who he is and what he has said.

And if we're going to remember him, we need to remember his promises. And if we're going to remember his promises, we have to have to remember

Christ. God's promises are manifestly focused on Christ and only resolved in Christ.

Prophecy works this way. The Spirit of Christ was in the prophets, speaking the things that were yet to come.

And sometimes they didn't even understand what they wrote down. But it's Christ is the one who gives the prophecy.

Christ is the one who fulfills the prophecy. And Christ is the one who interprets the prophecy.

So we can't remember God's promises unless we're thinking of Christ. There is a tendency for readers, for us, to make everything in the

Bible about ourselves and to ourselves. We're the star of the show, right?

The KMV, the King Me version, somehow it's really all about me.

Promises that God made to Israel, readers appropriate personally.

Promises God made to Christ, we tend to insert our names. The most popular devotional books out there today are written as if God is speaking to you and you directly because you're the most important thing on the face of the planet.

I think the truth is that some author in his basement on his second shot of whiskey and probably get three of those pages done in no time at all, with no problem at all, pretending to be

God speaking to someone, telling them exactly what they want to hear. By the time he finishes his cigar, he'll probably get four or five more done and by the end of it he'll probably feel good and feel enlightened and feel pretty good about himself and probably have done himself more good than the people who read the bilge scum that he wrote down on the paper.

Because the distilled corn is Christ's and the tobacco is Christ's, but the lies of the devil do not belong to Jesus.

I'd rather have a guy drinking whiskey and smoking a cigar than have any one of my parishioners reading heresy and false teaching and feeling good about it.

We cannot make the scriptures about us as if we are the apple of God's eye.

He says of one person and one person alone, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased, just one person.

We cannot make the scriptures about God delighting primarily in us.

Oh, he certainly is committed to our good and we can praise him for that, because precisely of what who

Jesus Christ is and what he has done. We, in our need to submit to God, we must remember

God's promises. We must not be wise in our own eyes, citing Bible verses all the way, making them all about us.

If we're reading scripture, but it's not bringing, if the way that we're reading scripture is not bringing us into submission to Jesus Christ, we are not reading the

Bible correctly. We're using it in some other way. But we need to remember

God's purposes, we need to remember God's promises, and we need to remember God's power. When you look at what

God says he's going to do, we have to do our best to understand the miraculous power of it.

Now, therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning this city of which you say, it is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence.

And that was the case. Read the book of Lamentations and you'll see how thoroughly, awfully destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the whole land was.

God says, behold, I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have driven them in my anger, wrath, and great indignation.

I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in safety. So much so that fields will be bought and sold again.

This land was absolutely devastated, destroyed, burned to the ground.

Nobody wanted to live in it. The jackals took it over. It was nothing but wild animals and rotting corpses.

This was a desolated land. And God says of the people that he sent hundreds and hundreds of miles away to live as slaves in a foreign land,

I'm going to bring them back, bring back their descendants, bring them back, plant them here, and they're going to live safely.

They'll have no king, no army, no walled city. But when they get back there, he's going to make sure that they're safe.

And going to provide for all of their needs. They're going to even be able to work the land and buy and sell property.

Not only that, but God promises that this sword and famine and pestilence is not going to afflict them, but they are going to live in peace.

He's going to restore their fortunes, bring back the captives. How miraculous would that be?

How wondrous is that going to be? And yet, God has said repeatedly throughout this chapter, is there anything too difficult for the

Lord? Is there anything too wondrous for the Lord, miraculous and powerful, too difficult for the

Lord? No. In our times of trouble, we need to remember

God. It's hard to submit to God sometimes. We need to remember who He is. Remembering God is the very first step to submitting to Him.

We've got to remember what purpose He has in mind, what the promises are that He made. And remember God's power that backs it all up.

That what He says He will perform, because what He says He absolutely can perform.

What would it take to return the people, restore the land, rebuild the city, repopulate the nation after such a devastating judgment?

I mean, what kind of power is that? Well, what does it take to redeem a dead sinner?

What does it take to save a sinner dead in trespasses and sins, born of Adam, hating

God? What does it take? It takes the power of God in Christ by His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead to bring such a sinner like me and like you to new life.

The hymn in our hymnal, it took a miracle. All kinds of miracles in creation and in history, but a miracle of salvation.

So, Ami and Ruhamah, those who were not my people, I call my people.

Those who I said no mercy, upon them I will have mercy. And we say, that's not fair.

They deserve it. Maybe in an honest moment, we say that's not fair. We deserve the rejection of God.

But doesn't the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

I mean, what if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction like you and I.

And He did this to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory.

Even us whom He called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. As He says in Hosea, I will call those who are not my people, my people.

And her who was not beloved, beloved. And in that place, and it shall be in that place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there they shall be called sons of the living

God. Praise be to God. Salvation belongs to God and the lamb who's on the throne.

And we're reminded in Peter, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him.

Right? And that is ultimate purpose, to bring glory to His name, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

For you were once not a people, but now you are the people of God.

You were once low on me, now on me. Now, now, sons of the living

God. You are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Let us glory in that mercy. You see, whatever our cup is full of, we need to remember

God. We need to remember God. And may your cup be filled with the kindnesses of God.

For the kindnesses of God lead us to repentance, both the saint and the sinner.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the time we've had in your word this morning.

Help us to remember. We forget so easily, we are distracted so easily. Help us to remember you and what you're all about.

Help us to be faithful. Help us to be faithful to submit to you, even when it's difficult.

thank you for loving us for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, and it is in His name that we pray. Amen.