by Pastor Bill Parker
Saving faith also is believing God's Word as opposed to
outward appearance, reputation, or any other thing that might oppose God's
testimony. Believing with the heart then is believing God's truth revealed
in the Gospel, submitting to it, loving it, living and judging by it --
Those who truly see the value of Christ's righteousness
are dogmatic. We have believed from the heart that Christ's righteousness
is the only ground of salvation and that His righteousness alone entitles
us to the whole inheritance of eternal life. We confess with our mouths
that we have not worked unto righteousness. We have believed unto righteousness,
and we are assured that this righteousness merits all of our salvation.
When we confess with the mouth salvation based on Christ's righteousness,
we renounce every other way of salvation and every other ground of salvation
so that we cannot speak peace to anyone who is either ignorant of or not
submitted to Christ and His righteousness as the only ground of salvation
(Rom. 10:1-3). It is at this very point that we will learn
what the prophet Jeremiah meant when he said --
I. THE APOSTASY OF JUDAH --
The people on the whole were religious but lost. God had
commanded His prescribed way of worship in the terms and elements of the
Mosaic Law. His way was precise and specific. But the people and their
leaders did not see the importance of being so precise and particular.
God had prescribed the Temple to be the place of worship and sacrifice.
It was here God promised He would receive them into His fellowship temporally
and ceremonially. But other prophets, not sent of God, had told them that
it was alright to worship elsewhere, at other altars, in the groves, where
there were green trees upon high hills (17:2). This was disobeying
God's commandment. It proved they had no fear of God. They rejected God
and corrupted His prescribed worship. They had devised their own ways and
this was idolatry.
There was no denying their sin (17:1). This
is even worse when we consider the privileges they had. God had delivered
them as a nation and had given them the land of promise. He had protected
them, destroyed their enemies, provided for them. And all of this was due
to His sovereign, free, unmerited favor, mercy and goodness. None of Israel's
privileges and possessions were conditioned on them. All were by promise
given to Abraham hundreds of years before. In return, they were to trust,
worship, and honor God, not trying to earn His favor, but in gratitude
for His temporal mercy, goodness and faithfulness. The first act of obedience
God required was for them to admit they were sinners, unprofitable servants,
totally dependent upon God's mercy and goodness and power to preserve them.
Someone said that they were to keep the Ten Commandments. They were to
try to keep them, but they were to admit and confess that they could not
keep the Ten Commandments because they were sinners. They were look to
the Ceremonial law and its elements for relief. They were to confess that
they needed the blood of sacrifice to appease God. This blood of an animal
was an emblem of God's free, unearned, undeserved, temporal mercy and goodness
towards that nation. This is what they rejected, and God pronounces temporal
wrath upon them (17:3-4).
The whole Mosaic Economy was ultimately to be their "schoolmaster"
to teach them and lead them in the way of eternal salvation through
the promised Messiah (Gal. 3:24; Heb. 9:9-14). Instead of
trusting God in both temporal and eternal matters, they turned the whole
system into a self-righteous religious exercise that was an abomination
unto God. As a result they began to reason that sacrifice was better than
obedience. They rejected the God of redemption, the one who justifies the
ungodly based on the righteousness of the Messiah and chose their own ways.
II. GOD'S THREAT AND GOD'S PROMISE --
B. (17:7-8) -- As an
encouragement for them to repent of their evil ways, God reveals the opposite
way, the way of blessedness. Those who put their trust and confidence in
the power, goodness, and mercy of the Lord, who have no hope but that which
is in God alone are blessed of God. They will grow and prosper. Remember,
this blessedness was the product of an absolute and unconditional promise
from God concerning their temporal prosperity in that land. Although it
was true that their temporal prosperity was conditioned on their obedience
under that Mosaic Law, they were to trust in the Lord, not to their own
power. Always consider that the first act of obedience prescribed under
the Mosaic Law was for them to admit that they were sinners, unprofitable
servants, who could not earn the least of God's favor and blessing. They
were to admit that they were totally dependent upon God and that their
hope was in the Lord. All attempts to obey the law were to be motivated
by gratitude for God's mercy and goodness towards them. When the leaders
and the majority of the people were in obedience, there was temporal prosperity.
When God's wrath fell upon other nations, Israel was spared in these times.
III. THE DECEITFULNESS OF THE NATURAL HEART --
There were other prophets, prophets of the groves (17:2).
They outnumbered Jeremiah. Their message was different from Jeremiah's.
They called Jeremiah the prophet of doom because he exposed their lost
state and the wickedness of their best efforts at religion (cf. John
3:19-20). Jeremiah would not speak peace to them, but the false
prophets spoke peace to the people, told them a lie, and the people loved
to have it so (Jer. 5:31; 6:14; 8:11; 23:17).
It is in this context that God reveals how their hearts
by nature were deceitful and desperately wicked, so much so that they could
not by nature know the condition of it. This was a specific area concerning
their relationship with God and ultimately the salvation of their souls.
The false prophets and the people made their judgments in these areas based
on outward appearance, reputation, self-righteousness, and self-love. As
a result they spoke peace to themselves and others when there was no peace.
This is the specific area in which all men and women by nature are
deceived, even God's elect before true conversion. There is no other area
in which we can say that all without exception are deceived. This
is the main evidence of the total depravity and the spiritual deadness
of all who are in a state of condemnation and guilt.
Consider this -- Even though the Mosaic Law in and of
itself had no bearing on eternalsalvation or eternal damnation.
The ultimate purpose of that covenant was to reveal the message the Gospel
-- eternal salvation conditioned on the Lord Jesus Christ, the coming Messiah.
Everything about that covenant was given to expose their sin and point
them to Christ for righteousness and life. The Ten Commandments exposed
their guilt and defilement. The Ceremonial brought relief for the nation
from that guilt and defilement but only in a civil, temporal, and ceremonial
way. The blood of animals did relieve the civil guilt and defilement of
the nation in a temporal and ceremonial way (Heb. 9:13),
but they could never relieve the guilt and defilement of sin in a spiritual
and eternal way (Heb. 9:9-10; 10:4). They were intended to
point sinners away from themselves for spiritual and eternal salvation
and point sinners to the Lord Jesus Christ, His blood and His righteousness,
as the only way of spiritual and eternal salvation (Heb. 9:14).
Judah's disregard for the temporal and ceremonial aspects
of that covenant reflected their disregard for the honor of God's character
revealed in eternal salvation based on the righteousness of Christ.
It reflected their unbelief of the Gospel and that salvation of grace provided
by God based on the imputed righteousness of Christ. Trusting in themselves,
they sought righteousness and eternal life in the ceremonial law and by
deeds of the law (Rom. 9:30--10:3). They were deceived. Their
deceit was in matters concerning the glory of God revealed in the ground
of salvation and how a holy God could be just and justify the ungodly.
Here is a picture of where every sinner by nature is deceived.
Judah had a lot of truth. People today have a lot of truth. They have a
Bible. They go to church. They claim to believe salvation by grace. Many
claim to believe salvation by sovereign grace. Many have an intellectual
understanding of the Gospel and the imputed righteousness of Christ as
the only ground of salvation and yet are still lost. How can we know if
their understanding is merely intellectual? How can we know that they are
yet lost? It is in this specific area where the heart is deceived and desperately
wicked. They will not come to the repentance that would make them admit
that before hearing and believing THIS Gospel (God's promise to save and
entitle sinners to the whole inheritance of eternal life based on the righteousness
of Christ), they were lost and their deeds were evil. They insist on making
their judgments of saved and lost based on Satan's lie (outward appearance,
reputation, self-love, self-righteousness). They refuse to judge these
matters based on God's doctrine, the doctrine of the Gospel, the doctrine
of Christ. They insist on speaking peace to themselves and to others while
either ignorant of or not submitted to the imputed righteousness of Christ
as the only ground of salvation.
There are a lot of areas our hearts do not deceive us.
But in this one specific area the natural heart always deceives us into
thinking that we ourselves and others are saved when we are either ignorant
of or not submitted to Christ and His righteousness as the only ground
of salvation. The wickedness of which Jeremiah spoke is the wickedness
of speaking peace to ourselves and others in a false refuge of religion.
Literally, this tells us that the natural heart is "desperately sick."
And this refers to a spiritual disease which no man can cure. Only God
can cure it, and He cures it, not with mysticism and ignorance, but by
revealing His truth, His Gospel, to our minds and understandings so as
to reach our affections and our wills (cf. Rom. 6:17-18; 10:9-10).
After this He continually renews our minds with His truth as we see more
and more of the particulars and implications of this (Rom. 12:1-2;
2 Cor. 10:5).
We who are justified cannot speak peace where there is
not peace. The reason we cannot speak peace where sinners are ignorant
of the only ground of peace is that we know that God is so holy and righteous
that He cannot justify any sinner based on anything other than the imputed
righteousness of Christ. Our desire is that sinners see their disease and
seek the remedy. Fallen man's spiritual disease is revealed in his ignorance
(2 Cor. 4:3). "There is a way which seemeth right unto
a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Satan takes
God's law, which is holy, just and good, and uses it along with the natural,
deceived, and wicked hearts of fallen sinners to keep them in a state of
condemnation. What Satan and the natural heart does not tell a sinner is
that because God's law is holy, it can only pronounce its curse upon the
best efforts of obedience in the best of sinners. As long as we seek any
part of salvation based on anything proceeding from our persons, we are
only bringing forth "fruit unto death."
The natural heart can never discover that the first and
foremost design of God's law towards
sinners is to slay us from
having any hope of any part of salvation based on anything other than the
imputed righteousness of Christ. No matter how religious and moral a sinner
may be, as long as he does not possess a righteousness that equals the
demands of God's law in every respect, as long as he is either ignorant
of or not submitted to Christ, God's law can only curse him, pronounce
him guilty and defiled. This holds true for every lost sinner no matter
how they appear and no matter what their reputation.
IV. THE ONLY REMEDY --
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