Jeremiah, like Christ

We'll take a reading, please, in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 16. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 16. Matthew, on chapter 16, verse 13, Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi.

He asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? They said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist. Some, Elijah, and others, Jeremiah. We'll take some readings from the book of Jeremiah.

The book of Jeremiah, please, in chapter 1. Jeremiah chapter 1. Jeremiah 1, verse number 4. Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. Before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, O Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child.

The Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child. For thou shalt go to all that I send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.

Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out, to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down and build, and to plant.

Over who? Chapter 8. Chapter 8, the last verse, verse 22. Chapter 8, verse 22. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.

Over to chapter number 11, a verse in chapter 11, verse 19. But I was like a lamb or an ox that was brought to the slaughter, and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered. Chapter 17.

Chapter 17, verse number 12, 17, verse 12, a glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary, O Lord, the hope of Israel. All that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they shall depart from thee, shall be written on the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed.

Save me, and I shall be saved. Thou art my praise. Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now.

As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee, neither have I desired the woeful day thou knowest. That which came out of my lips was right before thee. Finally, in chapter 31, chapter 31, chapter 31, verse 10, Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the aisles afar off, and say, He that scattereth Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock.

At verse 31, Behold, the day is come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Jacob, not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they break, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord. What is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel? After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws in their inward parts, and write in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people, and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord, and I will forgive their iniquity, and will remember their sin no more. When the Lord was upon earth, he was examined by heaven, and the verdict was, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

He was examined by hell. We know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. He was examined by his own, and they said, To whom can we go but to thee alone? Thou hast the words of eternal life.

He was looked upon by others, and they asked, and indeed he asked himself, Whom say ye that I the Son of man am? Some said, John Baptist. Some said, Elias. Some said, Jeremiah.

Only in Jeremiah is this recorded, like Jeremiah. So the question would be, why only in Matthew's gospel, and in what respect did Jeremiah reflect the glories of the Lord? And when the Lord was upon earth, in what respect did he remind them of the faithful man, Jeremiah? Jeremiah was a chosen vassal. Chapter 1, if you read all the verses, formed thee, sanctified thee, adorned thee, and then verse number 10, set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms.

You see, what God is going to do, he reckons to his servants. He says, kingdoms shall rise and kingdoms shall fall according to thy words, according to the word of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was the spokesman for God.

Why then in Matthew's gospel? Well, Matthew's gospel is the gospel of his words. Mark's gospel is the gospel of his works. Luke's gospel is the gospel of the journeying Savior, the gospel of his ways.

In John's gospel, we discern his worth and the pertinence thereof. Matthew's gospel, those large mountains of teaching. The collector of taxes became the collector of the Lord's sayings.

It has been said, I say unto you. Matthew concludes that great gospel, I as a stately dignity, he stands up on the slopes of all of it before he ascends back to heaven. All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth.

I like to think of the book of Jeremiah like the acts of the apostles. It's a transition period, the transfer in the Old Testament sense from the Jewish system to the time of the Gentiles. The acts of the apostles, there is that evidence of spiritual power.

It's the age of the tongue, the cloven tongues of fire. Jeremiah was a chosen vassal to speak the words of God. Jeremiah sought the healing of the people.

Maybe we're more familiar with the words of chapter 8. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Interesting to study those four why questions. Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? Is there no balm, medicinal, healing? That healing resin that flowed out of the tree when it was pierced. That balm that flowed out.

As to the nation, in a future day as they gaze upon him they'll say, surely he has borne our griefs, carried our sicknesses. My dear brother, my dear sister, we ponder the blessed Savior himself. He wept, he groaned in spirit.

He carried a burden, those miraculous dealings of healing. What do we learn of the blessed Savior? I'm thankful as a schoolboy that I learned. He was wounded for my transgressions.

He was bruised for my iniquities. The chastisement of my peace was upon him and with his sight I am healed. He was pierced, the healing balm of Calvary's tree.

Oh yes, we are ever, ever desirous that we may be kept near the cross. The trials of life, plenty of sin that's wounded. Remember you're here bearing some of the scars of warfare and the difficulties of the day, many weaknesses.

Well, the door to God's dispensary is always open. The door to God's dispensary is always open. Are you here today conscious of weakness? Maybe in a spiritual sense we all suffer from that lack of energy, of appetite.

Maybe we need to learn the lesson that Jeremiah brought, of confession, of healing, recovery. Jeremiah, he's like Jeremiah, you know, chosen vassal. Jeremiah sought the healing of the people.

Third point, Jeremiah wept for the city. Chapter 9, verse 1, oh that my head were waters, that my eyes were a fountain of tears. We speak of Jeremiah as the weeping prophet.

If you approach Jeremiah and think this is a book of doom and gloom, you've missed the focus of the message of this great man. Really the message that Jeremiah had was a message of hope, a message of hope that went unheeded. Ezekiel, Daniel prophesied down in Babylon, but Jeremiah prophesied alone in the city.

He was a lone voice calling the people to repentance. His message was a message of recovery. He was weeping because the message of hope and recovery was going unheeded.

Twelve times he says of the people they have forsaken the Lord. The great grief of this man of God was the destruction that the people were bringing upon themselves. It caused Jeremiah to weep.

Your thoughts are there already. Indeed we sang it today, man of sorrows, what an end for the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to redeem. Hallelujah.

What a Savior. Sorrows. Jeremiah proclaimed the destruction of the temple.

You know when the Lord was upon earth, at the grave he wept those silent tears of sympathy. But over the city, the word is he wept aloud, not a stone left unto thee. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered thee, as a hen does gather her brood under her wings, but you would not.

I have come, I ask, but now your house is left unto you. Jeremiah, like his blessed Lord, had a vision of the needs of the people. What's the lesson? My dear brother, my dear sister, the lesson is that where there's no vision, the people perish.

We're living and dancing in this globe down here. There never was so many billions of perishing souls. Shot the other day at the airport.

Shot a long time. Things were delayed. Oh, perishing souls.

I ask the multitude passing by. It would break your heart, the multitude of them bound for the great eternity and never to be saved. What's the burden of our hearts, little families that are not saved? I ask some families broken up and scattered across the globe.

It would break your heart. We've pondered it already today. My blessed Lord, he shed tears.

He shed his blood. Oh, yes, weeping over the house of God. The people were prosperous.

They had a false peace. We were made a devout and lay at a sea yesterday. Wretched and creased with goods in need of nothing.

Wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, the Savior said. Jeremiah, chosen vassal, sought the healing and the recovery of the people. Wept over the city.

Proclaimed the destruction of the temple. Oh, how close was his ministry to that of the Lord Jesus. The Lord hid Jeremiah.

He hid him. Chapter 36, we didn't read it. Verse 19.

Never ponder those hidden days of Nazareth, Jesus of Nazareth, carpenter's son, way in northern Galilee. Those hidden years that we know so little about. Did he speak with a deep Galilean accent? I don't know.

But I know his lips were as lilies. Dropping sweet-smelling myrrh. In the carpenter's shop, he made wooden things.

Did he make those wooden yokes that he used in those days as agricultural instruments? I don't know what he made in the carpenter's shop, but I do know that without him was not anything made that was made. Yes, my blessed Savior in those days in Nazareth worked with wood in a carpenter's shop. At last they took him outside the city wall and they nailed him to a cross of wood and he made the hill on which it stood.

Remember those occasions in life when just passing through the midst he went his way? How often the Savior, he sought a solitary place that there prayed. Oftentimes making recourse to the Mount of Olives. The slopes of the Mount of Olives, you know, they're like a sacred road that tell the story of the man of sorrows.

How often the moonbeams would shine down through the trees on the slopes of Olivet and they would discern a solitary figure alone in communion with God. You know, God's men are hidden men. Moses.

Moses was hidden. Hidden in the home, hidden in the ark of bulrushes. Hidden in the banks of the Jordan.

Hidden in the backside of the desert. God took him up the mountain and he hid him 40 days. God brought him again up the mountain and he hid him.

God brought him to Mount Pisgah and he hid him. What about the sanctuary experiences, brother? May you reflect, it's soon seen when you come to the platform. Those times of communion.

Jeremiah had those times when the Lord hid him. Jeremiah was the faithful shepherd. The faithful shepherd.

We read chapter 17. Chapter 17 verse 16. I have not hastened from being a pastor.

He was not wanting the work. He's been condemning false prophets. Ah yes, he sees the people.

He sees the need. They're like sheep scattered. He's dismayed.

They're suffering from a lack of food. He desires to see them gathered. He wants to see them led by the waters.

He talks about it in chapter 31 verse 10. As a shepherd gathering his sheep. Savior, your thoughts are there already, aren't they? Remember when he looked upon the people.

He had compassion upon the sheep. They were as sheep without a shepherd. He was himself the good shepherd.

Oh, there was wolves. There was thieves. There was robbers.

There was hirelings. He putteth forth his own sheep. You remember that passage? He goeth before them.

He goeth before them. The sheep hear his voice. Follow him.

What benefit did you get on the conference? Did you hear his voice? As you leave today, follow him. Follow him. Closer.

Closer. Closer. What about the shepherds? They speak sympathetically.

There's nowhere where a lack of experience is seen. As a man gets up and ridicules the shepherds. Well, I was there for 20 years in assembly responsibility.

I know what it's like. Major, there's money in assembly. We have to shake our heads, no shepherds.

There might be businessmen with business cards and have a business meeting. But what about those that would carry the flock, carry that sheep upon their back, feed the lambs of God's people? It's not an office. It's a work.

It's not something that Jeremiah took readily to. The Savior, you know, when he died upon the cross and rose again, left the scene, there was two matters that burdened him. He looked down at John.

He says, John, behold thy ma. When he rose from the den and about to send her to God, he says, Peter, feed my flock. Peter, feed the sheep.

Peter did feed the sheep. If there's one thing needed, our brother was talking about the lack of preachers in North America. We'll get through with the preachers, brethren, but I tell you, many assembly after assembly lacked shepherds, men with a burdened shepherd care for the Lord's people.

Jeremiah, chosen vassal, Jeremiah sought the healing of the people. Jeremiah wept over the city. He foretold the destruction of the temple.

He was the hidden man that God brought forth at the time appointed the faithful shepherd. Jeremiah was like a lamb brought to the slaughter. The book's not, you know this, the book of Jeremiah is not written chronologically.

Chapter 11, it says, I was like a shepherd. I was like a lamb brought to the slaughter. This said as he looked upon Jeremiah, that has cut him off from the land of the living.

What about his blessed Lord? He came. The leaders called for his death. It says they sought to lay hands upon him.

The Lord did die, for he was led as a lamb to the slaughter. As a sheep before her shears his tongue, so he opened not his mouth. The bulls of Bashan, the paw of a Gentile dog, the horns of the unicorn sharp pacing, he was cut off out of the land of the living.

As a lamb to the slaughter. They looked upon him, Jeremiah. They looked upon the Savior.

He said, he's like Jeremiah, chosen. They looked upon Jeremiah. Yes, it's true, he was.

Like his master, led as a lamb to the slaughter. All I know is this. Jeremiah prophesied the good covenant.

It's linked up in my mind today with what we've already had in the Bible reading this morning. We read here when we left off in Jeremiah chapter 31. It says in verse 31, Here through the darkness shines the rays of the coming dawn.

Yes, the Lord withdrew to his promise. And he says, Behold, it is come, said the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Verse 34, Teach every man his neighbor, every man his brother, saying, no.

Already today, our mind has been to the upper room. I will not drink it anew with you until I drink it anew in the kingdom. This is the blood of the new covenant.

You see, the old covenant has been broken. The old covenant has been disannulled. There's different aspects of the new covenant.

But every aspect is based upon the blood of Christ, upon the work of Christ, upon the death of Christ, upon the cross, and supreme in the purposes of God, be it that of the past or that of the future. There is one blessed man that we've remembered this morning. He has far surpassed all that went before.

He left nothing undone for any that should follow. And into the divine sanctuary, he has paid redemption's price. God is satisfied with the work of Christ and a new covenant, a covenant forged in the fires of Calvary and ratified by precious blood.

Jeremiah had a message of a new covenant. We were there this morning. But even before the cross and before the upper room of the Lord's Supper, yes, we've been thinking about it this morning, that covenant.

We learned this morning about those sufferings of the Savior and his death, his body, my body, my blood, strength of assembly, testimony, this due and remembrance of me, the seal of Bible doctrine, this is the cup of the New Testament, the new covenant in my blood. I will not drink it, you, until I drink it, and you with you and the kingdom. My blessed Savior, as we pondered it already, of the institution of the feast, soon to go through the garden and out to the cross, his mind traveled on to a greater feast, to that banquet of both, to the kingdom that was rightfully his, to the ratification of the covenant, to a people renewed unto himself.

You and I this morning have remembered him, strength of assembly, testimony, the seal of Bible doctrine, the new covenant in my blood, and the sweetness of our hope, that we ponder it, show the Lord's death, till he, may we ponder the Lord's coming. But in the meantime, my dear brother, dear sister, what really counts now, what really counts, is likeness to Christ. When the preaching's done, and the meetings are over, and the lights are out, and the conference is over for another year, what counts, is likeness to Christ.

Ah, there was that in the ancient prophet, in a dark day, in a day when the man was misunderstood and aligned. But there was that about the service of Jeremiah, it was likeness, Lord. Down through the passage of time, there's another man.

Ah, yes, each and every one served God in their own day and generation. And Paul says, for me to live is Christ. To die is gain.

As a result of the conference in Blue River, and as our brethren minister the word, and as we leave today, that we might be more like him. That we might serve him better as we approach his coming again. The city's like Jeremiah.

May God bless his word.