Someone asked me a few minutes ago when we're
going to get to meet Pastor David Ward, and I
said well he has been here But I began to think
that perhaps he hasn't been in the first service.
He's always in the second service this first
hour He's involved in some of the small churches
getting to know people But he will be tonight
leading our prayer time at six o 'clock, and
so if you've not had a chance to meet our newest
pastor. I encourage you to come tonight at six
in room one and pray with us and he will be the
one who will be leading and orchestrating our
prayer time together. I invite you now to open
your Bible with me to Jeremiah chapter 32. God
longs to bless us. God yearns to do us good.
Do you believe that? God is not sparing. He is
not stingy. God is full of grace and generous.
There is absolutely nothing that can keep God
from doing what is good for you. God has already
purposed that everything, everything in your
life will work out in the end for good. He has
promised that what he has begun in you, that
good thing he has begun in you, he will complete
at the day of Jesus Christ. God has willed your
good. A Swedish hymn captures this truth. I'm
not going to try to pronounce the name of the
author of these words, lest it be shown that
I'm not Swedish. Unfortunately, this hymn is
not in the hymnal we currently use, but listen
to how this man of God captures how God has willed
your good in Jesus Christ. Rejoice, indeed! O,
may the thought banish all your sadness that
in his blood you have been freed, that God's
unfailing love is yours, that you, the only son,
were given, that by his death he has opened heaven,
that you are ransomed as you are. If you seem
empty of any feeling, rejoice, you are his ransomed
bride. If those you cherish seem not to love
you, and dark assails from every side, still
yours the promise, come what may, in loss and
triumph, in laughter, crying, in want and riches,
in living dying, that you are purchased as you
are. It is a good every good transcending that
Christ has died for you and me. It is a gladness
that has no ending, there in God's wondrous love
to see. Praise to you, O spotless lamb, who through
the desert my soul are leading, to that fair
city of joy exceeding, for which you bought me
as I am. God has willed your good. He is determined
to bless you. However, this does not mean that
God can bless us with all that He would like
even when we fail to obey or believe Him. God
is determined that everything is going to come
out for good, but in the process, Your obedience
and mine, or our disobedience for that matter,
determines the nature and the measure of what
we experience from God. God desires to bless
us and never more so than when we recognize that
we have gone astray and we repent of our backsliding
and we seek Him anew. God is quick. to forgive
and then to renew us to our fellowship and our
walk with Him. This truth is illustrated in the
text that we're looking at today. We're devoting
our last message in Jeremiah chapter 32 to this
theme that God is mighty in restoration. You
see Israel had sinned. against God. The people
had backslidden. God makes this clear in his
response to Jeremiah. In verse 30, for example,
he says, Indeed the sons of Israel and the sons
of Judah have been doing only evil in my sight
from their youth. And he goes on to express in
words that are strong and yet words that are
filled with pity regarding Israel's disobedience.
Israel had sinned. But one day, God says in this
text, Israel will turn away from its sin and
to Him again. And when Israel does that, He will
do them good. He will give them the blessings
that He yearns even now to give them. Our text
today begins in verse 36 of Jeremiah 32. Follow
along with me in your copy of the Bible as I
read. Now therefore thus says the Lord God of
Israel concerning the city of which you say it
is given into the hand of the King of Babylon
by sword, by famine, and by pestilence. What
city is that? Jerusalem, exactly. He says, Behold,
I will gather them out of the lands to which
I have driven them in my anger, in my wrath,
and in great indignation. And I will bring them
back to this place and make them dwell in safety.
And 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 their children after them.
And 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. And I will rejoice over them, to do
them good. And I 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. And fields shall 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 shall 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 in these
words, God answers the implied question in verse
25. When Jeremiah says, Lord you have ordered
me to purchase this land and it's worthless.
And the implied question is, what's up? Why should
I do this? And now God gives him the answer.
And in doing so, God shows himself to be a God
who is mighty in restoration. He is eager to
bring good things into the lives of those who
fear Him, that is those who respect Him and live
under His Lordship. In His faithfulness, God
will discipline us when we are disobedient, as
He did Israel. But His discipline will be followed
by blessing. When God disciplines us, He never
forsakes us. He is committed to our good. He
is faithful to his word. There are three truths
about restoration that I see in our text today.
The first one is this, that restoration is presaged
in the purchase of the land. The command to purchase
this land that God gave to Jeremiah made absolutely
no sense. And in fact, it was the occasion for
this prayer that we have spent all summer studying.
God told Jeremiah to buy the land, that is to
redeem the land that his nephew offered to him.
And Jeremiah could not understand why. and so
he got on his knees before the Lord. He called
in, he obeyed what God told him to do in buying
the land, and he called in witnesses to the transactions
so that everyone in public would know that he
had done this, and yet Jeremiah didn't understand.
What he is learning now is that what he did in
purchasing the land was like a living parable.
It was a display of God's faithfulness and God's
intention to keep His promises to Israel. That
which was indeed worthless and was Jeremiah bought
would one day be valuable again and that land
would be restored to the right family in Israel,
the one to whom it belonged. and others would
buy land, and deeds would be signed and sealed,
and transactions would take place again in this
land, this land that was now worthless because
of Nebuchadnezzar's armies besieging it. You
see, in this transaction, in this purchase of
the land, there's a presage of God's restorative
intent. God is causing Jeremiah to do this, to
picture in public that this land was going to
be restored to them. The second truth about restoration
I see is that restoration is promised in the
prophecies of the prophets. It is presaged in
the purchase of the land, but it is promised
outright in the statements that Jeremiah makes.
Now, the book of Jeremiah, as I explained at
the beginning of the summary, is not laid out
chronologically. It is more arranged thematically
than chronologically. And in chapters 30 through
33, you have the major statements that God made
to Jeremiah and through him to the nation regarding
restoration. They were not all necessarily given
at the same time, but these are the prophecies
in which God said he would restore the nation.
Now we're going to just dip into these chapters
because I want to show you that the prophecies
that Jeremiah gave were promises. of God's restoration.
But we're actually going to begin in chapter
29 because there is in chapter 29 the record
of a letter that Jeremiah had sent about 10 years
or so before the time when Jerusalem was besieged
and Jeremiah offered the prayer that we've been
studying. As you may recall, Nebuchadnezzar attacked
Israel or Judah on three different occasions.
First in 605 BC, the second time in 596 -97 in
that neighborhood, and then the final time when
he destroyed the nation in 586 BC. Now Jeremiah
wrote a letter sometime after that middle attack.
Exiles had been carried off to Babylon. The nation
continued on as it was allowed to exist and have
a king, a puppet king. But exiles had been carried
into Babylon. And so Jeremiah receives a prophecy
from God and he writes them a letter regarding
what God had said to him. The letter itself,
the text of the letter begins in verse 4 of chapter
29. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel,
to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile
from Jerusalem to Babylon. Notice God is taking
credit for what Nebuchadnezzar did because God
has raised up Nebuchadnezzar to discipline Israel.
And basically what God tells them in the first
part of the letter is Learn to live in Babylon.
Give your children in marriage there. Pray for
the cities where you have been sent in Babylon.
Basically he's saying learn to live as normally
as you can where I have sent you. And be a blessing
to those people, those pagan people that you
must live among as captives and as slaves. And
after saying that, God gives them a promise that
someday they and their children will return.
In verse 10 he says, Plans for welfare and not
for calamity. To give you a future and a hope.
You see, these people did not think there was
a future. They had no hope. But God is sending
them a word of promise. And He says, when 70
years have been fulfilled for Babylon, I'm going
to fulfill my promise. There is a future. I give
you a hope. and I am going to fulfill and restore
you. Verse 12 says, then you will call upon Me
and come and pray. I will listen to you. You
will seek Me and find Me. Verse 14, I will be
found by you and I will restore your fortunes.
So you see, God is sending this promise to encourage
them. The 70 years for Babylon, by the way, may
not be the same 70 years that we talked about
a couple of weeks ago, which were designated
for Israel's captivity. The language here seems
to suggest not only did God outline 70 years
for the captivity of Israel, but God also outlined
70 years for Babylon's existence. And it's interesting,
if you mark off the time of Babylon, you come
up to at least 66 years. from the time that Nebuchadnezzar
became powerful and the time that Babylon fell
to the Medes and the Persians. So God probably
has that 70 -year period that he had enumerated
for Babylon in mind in what he says in verse
10. And you recall it was then when the Medes
and Persians overthrew Babylon that the Jews
were allowed to return under Cyrus. to Jerusalem.
And God's very promise here was fulfilled. Well,
so much for this letter. Let's turn on to chapter
30 to one of the statements, the sermons really,
of Jeremiah to the nation. God is here speaking
to Israel and Judah. And just to taste it a bit,
look at verse 7. He says, There is none like
it. He's talking about the time of awful sorrow
for the people. It is a time of Jacob's distress.
Jacob's trouble. But, he will be saved from it.
Notice. In one of the sermons that Jeremiah gave
in which he announced a time of trouble was coming
for them. But God says he will be saved. Look
at verse 10. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, declares
the Lord. Do not be dismayed, O Israel. For behold,
I will save you from afar and your offspring
from the land of their captivity. And Jacob shall
return and shall be quiet and at ease, and no
one shall make him afraid. For I am with you,
declares the Lord, to save you. For I will destroy
completely all the nations where I have scattered
you only I will not destroy you completely But
I will chase in you justly and will by no means
leave you unpunished And so in this text that
we're reading God says there is a time of discipline
a time of trouble that is coming alas for that
day It will be a day of great sorrow Among my
people, but I will save them and I am with them
even as I discipline them, and I will restore
them," he says. Let's go on to chapter 31, where
we have the basis upon which God will restore
His people given to us. God's restoration is
based upon a new covenant, as He calls it in
verse 31. In our text that we read earlier in
chapter 32, he calls it the everlasting covenant.
This covenant is in contrast to the old covenant
of the law, by which Israel had been related
to God. That covenant being delivered on Mount
Sinai by Moses. It was a covenant that was conditional.
If you do this, God says, I will do that. But
God is here saying there is a new covenant that
He will make. And on the basis of that covenant,
He will ultimately restore His people Israel.
And it's an unconditional covenant. And by the
way, this new covenant that God speaks about
here is the new covenant that was sealed in the
blood of Jesus of the cross. It is the very same
covenant by which you and I have been saved,
who are a part of the church in this age. It
is an unconditional covenant that God will do
us good. Not based upon our works, but based
upon what Jesus did for us at the cross. Jesus
said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
drink it in remembrance of me. It is that covenant
that the Lord has in mind when He says what He
says here. Israel had persistently failed. Now
why is that? Because of a heart problem. There
wasn't a problem with the law, it was good and
holy and righteous, but there was a heart problem
with Israel. And so God in this new covenant
says, that He's going to give them what they
need. Notice in verse 33, He says, I will put
My law within them, and on their heart I will
write it. And so God is saying here He's going
to give them a new heart. In the new covenant,
He's going to give a new nature. One that is
capable of obeying. It goes on to say, I will
be their God and they shall be my people. Those
are covenantal words. Those are words of relationship.
And so he says, I'm going to give you a new relationship
with me. Up to this point, I've been your God,
you've been my people based upon this covenant.
But now, I'm going to be your God and you're
going to be my people based upon this covenant,
the new covenant. Verse 34. He says, They shall
all know me from the least of them to the greatest
of them." And so God promises in the new covenant
there's going to be a new understanding of God.
A more intimate knowledge of God. And then he
says, for I will forgive their iniquity and their
sin, I will remember no more. So the Lord promises,
finally, in this new covenant that there will
be a new cleansing. A new cleansing of sin. Not
just an atonement provided for through the sacrifice
of animals. But God is going to do something
that will remove the record of sin. And of course
we know that that is the work of the Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world. God
goes on to say here that Israel's future is guaranteed
by two very visible material witnesses. Verse
35. Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for
light by day and the fixed order of the moon
and the stars for light by night, who stirs up
the sea so that its waves roar, the LORD of hosts
is His name, if this fixed order departs from
before me, declares the LORD. then the offspring
of Israel also shall cease from being a nation
before me forever." The first witness that God
points to is the immutable order of nature. God
says, here is one evidence I'm giving you that
Israel will never cease to be and that I will
be faithful to this people and will one day restore
them. Look at the order of nature. If that changes,
then I will forget them. And then notice the
next verse, verse 37. Thus says the LORD, if
the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations
of the earth surged out below, then I will also
cast off all the offspring of Israel for all
that they have done, declares the LORD. The second
guarantee is the infinite universe. God says
you can't measure it. Well, we're trying. We're
doing our best. You can't measure it. God says
if it can be measured, and if we can figure out
the foundations of the earth, then I will reject
Israel for all that they have done. So indeed,
God is saying here that because of these fixed
signs, He will restore Israel. And now we've
looked at chapter 32 this whole summer. So now
let's go to chapter 33, where we have in this
sermon of Jeremiah a reaffirmation of the covenant
with David. In 2 Samuel chapter 7 and verse 16,
God said to David, your house and your kingdom
shall endure before me forever. Your throne shall
be established forever. And so God in this chapter
now is telling the people that that covenant
is still in force. And He says, you may not understand
what's happening, but verse 3 says, call to Me
and I will answer you. And I will tell you great
and mighty things which you do not know, which
you cannot know, which you cannot discover. I
will tell you. At the beginning in verse 6, he
says what he's going to do. Now these words refer
to the immediate future. What is going to happen
in the few decades, he says, I will bring you
to health and healing. I will reveal an abundance
of peace and truth. Verse 7, I will restore the
fortunes of Judah and Israel. I will rebuild
them. Verse 8, I will cleanse them. I will pardon
all their iniquities. and it shall be to me a
name of joy." Remember what we said a few weeks
ago when we talked about the name of God? We
said that that represented God's reputation.
So God is saying, I'm going to restore Israel,
and that is going to be for me a reputation of
joy and praise and glory before all the nations
of the earth, which shall hear of all the good
that I do for them. But there seems to be, in
verse 10, a switch. And the words that are spoken
here seem not only to apply, in some sense, to
that immediate future, but to a distant future.
For example, in verse 14, Behold, days are coming,
declares the LORD, when I will fulfill the good
word which I have spoken concerning the house
of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days,
at that time, I will cause a righteous branch
of David to spring forth, and he shall execute
justice and righteousness on the earth." Now,
if you are a student of the Bible, you know that
this is one of the great Messianic prophecies
of the Old Testament. The branch of David is
the Lord Jesus Christ, David's greater Son. And
Jeremiah is saying that God is going to raise
up this Messiah King, who's a branch of David,
and thus a fulfillment of the Davidic covenant.
And he's going to exercise justice and righteousness
on the earth. In those days, Judas shall be saved,
and Jerusalem shall dwell in safety. This is
the name by which he shall be called the Lord
our righteousness. In those days, Israel... or
Jerusalem rather, was not known for righteousness,
but for harlotry, for its unfaithfulness to God.
But in this day of restoration, it will have
a new reputation. Its name will be Jehovah, Yahweh,
Sidkenu, which means Jehovah is our righteousness.
Thus says the Lord, David shall never lack a
man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel.
and the Levitical priest shall never lack a man
before me to offer burnt offerings," and so on.
So God is here reaffirming the Levitic covenant.
But as I said before, we do not see these words
fulfilled in the restoration of Israel under
Cyrus, or in the decades or centuries that followed.
We do not see these words fulfilled in the first
coming of the Messiah. These are among those
many prophecies of the Old Testament that have
a partial fulfillment in that ancient day, with
which can only be fulfilled and explained in
a yet future fulfillment. And so Jeremiah is
talking here about an immediate restoration.
but also one that will come in the future. We
read earlier about Jacob's trouble. The Bible
says that there is yet a future trouble for Jacob.
And though Israel has been restored as a nation,
awful days are ahead for the Jewish people in
the tribulation period. A time of great distress
when God will discipline His people. And as a
result of that, as a nation, they will come to
faith in the Messiah that they have rejected.
And then the branch of David will return from
heaven with his church, I might insert, his glorified
saints, and come to the earth and establish his
kingdom, and will execute justice and righteousness
from Jerusalem over all of the earth. Restoration
is promised in the prophecies of this prophet.
And you can just sense the delight of God in
anticipating that day. God's joy in looking forward
into the future when His people will again serve
Him faithfully and be restored to Him on the
basis of the New Covenant. based upon the blood,
the shed blood of the Messiah at the cross. In
closing, there is a third truth regarding restoration
that I see here, and that is that restoration
is provided in the profundity of the nature of
God. The profundity of the nature of God. Jeremiah
knew what God told him to do, but he couldn't
understand why he was to purchase this land.
And when Jeremiah couldn't understand what he
knew he should do, he did what all of us should
do when we're in similar circumstances. He went
back to what he knew about God. And he prayed.
And I'm talking to some here this morning who
have great questions in your life, and you say,
I don't understand what God is doing. This does
not make sense to me. And I want to encourage
you that Jeremiah was in that very same spot,
and he left you an example of what you must do.
You must go back to what you know to be true
about God and pray. And this whole summer we
have been studying what Jeremiah knew to be true
about God. And he recited that to God and left
God the question and God has answered. And God
will answer you and God will show you when His
time comes. All that God does, He does to glorify
Himself. To make Himself known. To give Himself
a reputation. And God is at work in your life
giving Himself a reputation in what He's doing
in you. And He wants that to be as a reputation
of joy and of glory for Him, for all who hear
about it. Because God is writing a message in
your life, as He wrote a message in the lives
of these ancient people. And His whole purpose
is that He might make Himself known to you and
to others, and get a reputation for the great
and mighty God that He is in this world. The
God who restored Israel and who will again restore
Israel is standing by today to restore anyone
who turns to Him. It may be I'm talking to someone
today who has been, as it were, exiled. You have
come under the discipline of God. and your way
has been difficult. And it's not because God
doesn't love you. In fact, it's because God does
love you that He allows you to experience. He
sent you into that captivity. God waits. He longs
to do you good, and He wants you to turn back
to Him. God wants to restore you. Even we who
are under the new covenant can wander away from
God in backslide and be in need of restoration.
Jeremiah tells us today that God is mighty in
restoration and He waits on our repentance so
that then when we have turned back to Him, He
may do us good and give all the blessing into
our lives. that he yearns to put there. I hope
that the 70 years is up for somebody today. That
you have been in captivity long enough to have
learned your lessons. And that now broken and
contrite, you will say to God, I'm ready to turn
back. I'm coming home to you. The Lord Jesus
Christ, in the last picture we see of Him in
the New Testament, stands among the lampstands
of the churches, among His people, and to most
of His own people, in the New Covenant, He says,
repent. Repent. Isn't that amazing? Tragic. They're
truthful. And so he says to you and me, repent
and be restored, and let me do for you what I
will want. And so he waits. Father in heaven,
I pray that wherever we may be, in our spiritual
journey today, that you will use this message
to effect the kind of response in our lives that
you want. And especially do I pray for those
who are away from you, and who need to come home,
and who are broken. Oh God, I pray that today
that you will put within them that which is needed
of your grace to bring them back that you might
bless them. Before I go on, I just want to say
a word to you with your heads bowed. I am today
pleading with you who need to be restored to
come back to the Lord. I don't know what issue
it may be, I don't know where it started, but
you know and God knows. And as we sing the closing
hymn in just a moment, I'm going to invite you
to take that hard step, but that important step,
to saying, I'm coming back to the Lord. You split
down and come, and I'll pray with all who come
after the service. Say, well, I don't like to
admit this. I don't like to do this in front
of people. Listen, you forget that anybody else
is here. The most important thing is that God
is here, and you're here, and you need to be
with God. Lord, I pray that you will give grace
now to do what we need to do to obey in Jesus'
name. Amen. Would you take your hymnal, please?
We're going to turn together to hymn 341, which
is a hymn written in our day, but could well
have been written and sung by some of those people
in ancient Judah. I've wandered far away from
God, but now I'm coming home. And as we sing
this hymn on the very first verse, I plead, I
urge you to step out and to come. Let's stand
together as we sing.