Take your Bibles and open up with me back to Jeremiah this morning to chapter 24. Occasionally as I'm studying to preach and I've talked to other pastors as they study to preach, occasionally you come to a text and you think, this is a short one. Only 10 verses in Jeremiah 24, and actually really relatively simple vision that's laid out before Nebuchadnezzar. But I want to make sure that we do justice to the passage, get into the background, the history, the timing of the passage to see what it is that God is saying and showing Jeremiah and to see how it actually did come to pass. What we find here in these 10 verses is the future of Judah. This is the future. of the people of God. It's predicted through a vision here that Jeremiah sees of two baskets of figs, one that is very good and the other that is completely rotten. But what we find is that even those represented as the good figs are sinful people. because there aren't any other kind. So what's the difference? How do we know the difference between the good figs and the rotten figs? And the difference we're going to come to discover in the text, the difference between the two is just simply God's sovereign grace. I said in Sunday school this morning that Spurgeon commented that it's all of grace. And the question is, what's all of grace? Everything. It's all of God's grace. And that's what we find in these short verses. To date the passage, we start in verses 1 through 3. After Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had taken away into exile Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the officials of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon, Yahweh showed me, behold, two baskets of figs set before the temple of Yahweh. One basket had very good figs, like first ripe figs, and the other basket had very rotten figs, which could not be eaten due to rottenness. Then Yahweh said to me, What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs, the good figs, very good, and the rotten figs, very rotten, which cannot be eaten due to rottenness. As this vision is given, we're given the timeline. This is when King Jeconiah is involved with the first deportation of people to Babylon. What we have to understand is this is in 597 BC. This is 10 years before the fall of Jerusalem. In fact, at this point, Jerusalem is not even under attack directly. It's going to be nine years before Jerusalem is directly attacked by Nebuchadnezzar. The siege ramps are beginning to be built, and it took well over a year to get over the walls and into the city when then the city was destroyed, burned, and there was a second deportation of exiles. We read about the history in 2 Kings. In 2 Kings chapter 23, Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamitol, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libna. And he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that his fathers had done. And Pharaoh Necho imprisoned him at Ribla in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem. And he imposed on the land a fine of 100 talents of silver and one talent of gold. Then Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz and brought him to Egypt, and he died there. So Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land in order to give the money at the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, each according to his valuation, to give it to Pharaoh Necho. Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king. He reigned 11 years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Zebediah, the daughter of Padiah of Rumah. And he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that his fathers had done. What we're finding in 2 Kings 23 is the end of the reign of Josiah. Josiah is killed in battle with the Egyptians. His son becomes king, but Pharaoh doesn't want him in charge, and so he captures him and deports him to Egypt as a prisoner. where he died and appointed one of the other of Josiah's sons to be king. He reigned for 11 years. He did for the Pharaoh whatever he wanted. But then there came a point, as we go on into 2 Kings 24, in his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up. and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. Jehoiakim had a habit of rebelling against anybody that tried to conquer him. He would play along for a little while, for years at a time, but then he would rebel. This time Yahweh sent against him marauding bands of Chaldeans, marauding bands of Arameans, marauding bands of Moabites, and marauding bands of Ammonites. So he sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of Yahweh, which he had spoken by the hand of his slaves, the prophets. We just read about this in reading through Ezekiel, where the prophet is told to make a signpost. And I can take you back to this and make this real for you. You remember in the cartoons, Whenever you wanted to get somebody to go the wrong way so you could win the race, you'd put up a fake sign and you'd put an arrow going that way, and if they followed that, it was actually a detour and you'd get stuck and you'd lose the race. Well, Ezekiel was going to go put two signs out, one pointing to Jerusalem, one pointing the other way, and here was the trick. Whichever way Nebuchadnezzar went, God's judgment was going to be done in Jerusalem. And as He does this, as a graphic example to tell the people, why are you putting up a road sign, Ezekiel, to direct the sword of the Lord. Now Nebuchadnezzar did that, we read, by divination, by seeking after the help from household idols. But ultimately, who was behind the choices he was making? It was God sending His judgment upon His people. And now this is being described. This is what's about to happen. Nebuchadnezzar is going to come up and there's going to be a first deportation of people from Judah into Babylon. It says there in verse 3, "...Surely at the command of Yahweh it came upon Judah to remove them from His presence because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that He had done, and also for the innocent blood which He shed, for He filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and Yahweh was not willing to pardon." Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah? So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin, also known as Jeconiah, became king in his place. And the king of Egypt did not go out of his land again, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt, from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates. Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Nahushta, the daughter of El Nathan of Jerusalem. And he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh." You hear the pattern there with all of these kings? All in David's line. All in the line of Jesus, but they're ruling and doing evil. At the time, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, went up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege. And Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came to the city while his servants were besieging it. Then Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, went out to the king of Babylon, he and his mother and his servants and his commanders and his officials. So the king of Babylon took him captive in the eighth year of his reign. And he brought out from there all the treasures of the house of Yahweh, all the treasures of the king's house, cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon, king of Israel, had made in the temple of Yahweh, just as Yahweh had spoken. Then he took away into exile all Jerusalem, and all the commanders, and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None were left except the poorest people of the land. So he took Jehoiachin away into exile to Babylon, Also the king's mother and the king's wives and his officials and the leading men of the land he led away into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Now all the valiant men, 7,000, and the craftsmen and the smiths, 1,000, all the mighty men who could wage war, and these the king of Babylon brought into exile to Babylon. Then the king of Babylon made his uncle Madaniah king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah. Zedekiah would have been, and now we'll see, the last king in Judah. Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutah, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libna. And he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. For through the anger of Yahweh this came about in Jerusalem and Judah, until he cast them out from his presence, and Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. In this twisted story of these kings and these battles and these nations fighting with one another, We see one king that's taken to Egypt as a prisoner, and he dies there. Someone else is propped up in his place, and he tries to fight for a little while and then dies, and then his son becomes king. And as he's reigning, Nebuchadnezzar shows up from the other side, Egypt from the south, Babylon from the north, and now the Babylonians are taking prisoners. Again, this is 597, and again, Zedekiah reigned 11 years, so all the way up to the end in 586 BC when Jerusalem fell and was burned. Now what we find in the description of these baskets of figs and this vision that appears to Yahweh is God revealing the bad theology that His people had. Jeremiah has now been preaching for 30 years about the coming wrath of God. consistently over and over and over telling them exactly what was going to happen. All the false prophets were saying, that's not going to happen. It's not going to be that bad. It's going to be peace, peace, peace. God's going to spare you. Just wait. Nebuchadnezzar is coming to usher in your best life now. Just hang on. It's coming. Well, what we find here is that there were these that were taken, the king, his family, his servants, all of the great workers and engineers, all of the artists and creators, all of the people who had positions within the kingdom, all of the mighty men and the leaders of the army, 10,000 of them were taken. This actually is probably about the time that Daniel, Hanani, Mishael, and Azariah were taken in this first deportation. And they, of course, were put to work in the king's court to be trained to serve as the king's servants. But what happened was that when this happened, Jerusalem was left and there were all these people left in Jerusalem, and the people who were left behind thought they had been spared. They thought, well, he's taken all of these captive and left us, we dodged a bullet. The people who got taken, they were the bad ones. They were doing evil. They're being punished by going to exile. But because we didn't go into exile, God's blessing us. God's taking care of us. God's providing for us and prospering us. Now, what they didn't understand at all was that in God's sovereign grace, He's going to tell us that that first group that was actually taken into exile, they were going to be sent back home a faithful remnant at the end of the exile. In fact, what we find, and this is what I like as I study Scripture, I like it every once in a while to see a commentator's brain get fried. I love it. People who spend time writing biblical commentary, sometimes what they find just blows their minds. And here's what blows their mind from this passage. God has threatened judgment after judgment after judgment after judgment. He's threatened the exile that's going to come. He's talked about the horrible things that are still yet to happen in Jerusalem where the people are going to starve. They're going to be eating their children. They're going to be doing all sorts of horrible things. But what we find out in those who are first taken into exile, God, through the midst of that judgment, is providing a gracious redemption to preserve His people. Now we see them taken into captivity and we think, well, I mean, that's gotta be the worst thing ever, right? To be taken out of your land, to be stripped of your land and your job and your position and your power and your money and everything, and to be put to work for a foreign government in a foreign land, and to be told, if you don't do what we tell you to do, we're gonna kill you? Does that sound like a blessing and like grace? But what God is telling Jeremiah is, it is. God, through the midst of judgment, is providing a gracious salvation. We talked about it in chapter 23 last week when he talks about bringing back the remnant of my flock. There are going to be a couple of remnants that we see this morning. One is that remnant in captivity that's going to come home. The other is the remnant left and the horrible things that happened to them. It's described for us in Jeremiah 29, Thus says Yahweh concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who live in this city, your brothers who did not go with you into exile. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, Behold, I am sending upon them the sword, famine, and pestilence. and I will make them like split open figs that cannot be eaten due to rottenness. I will pursue them with the sword, with famine and with pestilence. I will give them over to be a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse and an object of horror and of hissing and a reproach among all the nations where I have banished them because they have not listened to my words, declares Yahweh, which I sent to them by my slaves, the prophets, rising up early and sending. But you did not listen, declares Yahweh. This destruction is coming. There is already now a deportation. And so in the vision, 1 and verses 4 through 7, we learn about the ripe figs. Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, Like these good figs, so I will recognize as good the exiles of Judah. Notice, He does not say there, they are good. He says, I will recognize them as good. You know what just popped out of this page here in the Old Testament? In the Old Testament, Prophet Jeremiah, justification by faith through the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. I'm going to realize them as good, meaning I'm going to see them as good, even though they're not. There's only one way for that to possibly happen, and that's God's grace and the atonement of Jesus Christ. So like these good figs, so I will recognize as good the exiles of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will return them to this land, and I will build them up and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am Yahweh, and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart." Now compare that to the rotten figs. In verse eight, but like the rotten figs which cannot be eaten due to rottenness, indeed, thus says Yahweh, so I will give over Zedekiah, king of Judah and his officials and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and the ones who inhabit the land of Egypt, I will give them over to be a terror and an evil for all the kingdoms of the earth as a reproach and a proverb, a byword and a curse in all places where I will banish them. I will send the sword, the famine and the pestilence upon them until they come to an end from being upon the land which I gave to them and to their fathers. When we look at figs, I don't know if you like figs. My first encounter with figs was a fig tree in the backyard where I grew up, and all I knew was that if you cut it, it bled milk, white and sticky. The other thing I learned is I did not like figs. I don't know if they were in season or not, and I doubt very seriously I should have picked it up off the ground to take a bite out of it. I didn't like even Fig Newtons. I was not a fan of figs. But when you get figs at the right time, Super sweet, super nutritious, super good. Now, there are two times that you harvest figs here in Israel. The first is harvested in June, and these are early figs, but they are considered a delicacy. You will not find better figs on the planet. There is a second harvest in August, but you run the risk of them falling off the tree and rotting. And by the time they let loose of the tree, they're done. It's gross. You don't want to eat it. You can't eat it. It's nasty. So here we have the first harvest and the second. The first deportation and the second. But the question is, God says, I'm going to realize that they were good. The question is, does God consider them good because they were good? If we look at the difference between the ripe figs and the rotten figs, there's really only one difference because kings taken in the first deportation did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. The very fact that these people were taken into exile was because they refused to listen to the word of the Lord. They continued to sin, continued to commit idolatry and to commit unfaithfulness to the Lord. And so they were taken into exile as a judgment for their sin. The rotten figs were led by kings who did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They did not depend upon the Lord to defend them. When Egypt came, they ran to Babylon and said, Save us. When Babylon came, they ran to Egypt and said, Save us. They went everywhere but to God, to the point that they fled into Egypt and even further to get away from what was coming, trying to escape the judgment of God. Now, if you want to find out if you can escape the judgment of God, just spend a little time in the book of Jonah. You cannot escape the will of God or the judgment of God. Now, as God is going to do this now, we have evil people, iniquitous people, idolatrous people. They are all rotten. There is none good. No, not one of them. Why in the world is it that God is going to see one as good and the other as bad? And the answer is simply grace. As you understand, it's not amazing that God saw one as good and one as bad. It's amazing that God would consider any good because they were all bad. Now, why is it that God, in His sovereign grace, would set these evil people up? They're sent into exile as judgment for these heinous, horrendous sins. How is it that they then could be put in a position where God says, I'm going to watch out for you. I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to realize that you are good. I'm going to perceive you as good by my own declaration, not based on your fitness, but based on my grace. Why would God look at those evil people in exile and preserve them? because that's what he promised to do. He promised to preserve the remnant of his flock. to keep that nation, so that even while they were in exile, when they came back, they were going to be led, for the first time since Josiah, by godly men, a godly priest, a godly king, godly Nebuchadnezzar and Ezra, as they came back into the land. In fact, the one who was supposed to be king wasn't appointed as king, but he should have been. He was governor, but he was a godly man. He sent godly shepherds to them. Did they deserve godly shepherds and good shepherds? They wanted the evil shepherds. You understand, that's the problem with false teachers. The problem with false teachers is not that people are fooled by what they're saying, it's that people are seeking to hear what they are saying. They're driven by itching ears. They want to be told lies because they refuse to believe the truth, even though deep down they know it. That's the curse on false teachers. They're going to give an account for that, even more so those who come and listen to them, because the only reason false teachers exist is because people want to hear false doctrine. So there's very little that's praiseworthy here. Now, what we see in the exile is God doing exactly what He promises. I'm going to recognize you as good. I'm going to set my eyes on you for good. I'm going to return you to this land. I'm going to give them a heart to know Me, He says. We see that manifest in the life of Daniel. and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We see these godly men raised up at these times of need and of crisis. Men who everybody else in the kingdom knows. You want to figure this spiritual mystery out? Go talk to these guys. They know the Spirit of the living God. To take Nebuchadnezzar, who first comes into Jerusalem by way of divination, and then by the time he meets Daniel, praises God as the only ultimate sovereign God of all that is. This is God unfolding His will according to His grace. He could have judged them. He could have wiped them all out. He could have killed every one of them, not left a remnant at all. And God would have been completely justified to do that. The amazing part of the message of salvation that we preach is that we all deserve judgment and that's it. And yet by grace, we get mercy. We get forgiveness. We get pardon. When God does this, He does not do this because they were good. He does it because He is good, and He promised to preserve a remnant and bring back a faithful people to the land. God was going to work a change in their hearts through this exile that was ultimately going to prove to be not only redemptive, but to preserve the nation of Judah, to fill the promises, to bring them back so that they could be there those many years later when Jesus of Nazareth was born in Bethlehem. 1 Corinthians 1 reminds us, verse 26, for consider your calling, brothers, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may abolish the things that are, so that no flesh may boast before God. When we get into this doctrine of the sovereignty of God, of God's elective purposes, of God's providence, we learn very quickly that if you believe, if you truly and really believe the doctrines of grace, there is no space for boasting. There is no space for harshness or for hatred of others. There is no space to boast and to think we are better, that God chose us because we were better, smarter, more theologically astute, that we were more teachable or more willing to submit and to surrender. We have to be reminded of this, and sometimes we need to remind one another of this. Not many wise, according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. He's chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. This means if we want to make a confession for why God saved a sinner like me, it's because I was foolish, I had a hard heart, I was dead in sin, I was without hope in the world, and He stooped in His grace to make me something I was not, to give me something I did not deserve for the glory of His name. If that can drive you to pride or to theological arrogance, you're missing the point. Grace tells us, you were nothing. You deserved destruction and judgment. But God, in His love and His mercy and in His grace, put on somebody else what we deserved. Salvation is all by grace. This is the theme in Ephesians 2, verse 8 and 9. It's so that no flesh may boast before God. You understand that even when we stand at the judgment seat of Christ, there is nothing that that holy fire is going to fall on that we're going to say, look what we did for you. We're going to look at what's left from that fire and we're going to praise Him for what He did with sinful, weak creatures like us. I think we're going to be amazed. None of us is going to stand there and say, wow, I did a good job. We're going to see what an amazing job He did for the glory of His name through us at times when we weren't even aware He was doing it. As we see this doctrine of sovereignty, Romans 3 reminds us when we ask the question, did he do this because they were good? No, there is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. We need to believe the Bible. This impacts our evangelism. It impacts our apologetics. It impacts our discipleship. It involves our own relationships within the church. There is none who does good, there is not even one. Their throat is an open tomb, with the tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are in the law, so that every mouth may be shut and all the world may become accountable to God. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. If we think we can keep the law of God in order to please Him, we have missed the point. The law of God proves that we can't please Him. It's impossible. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith for a demonstration of His righteousness. because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration of his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where then is the boasting? It's excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not the God of the Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that faith, is one. Do we then abolish the law through faith? May it never be. On the contrary, we establish the law. We prove that the law proves there's none good, no not one. And it proves then that we need goodness to be right with God. If that's something we don't have and can't create and can't come up with on our own, where do we go? We have to go to the only one who is good, and that is God. You understand, when Jesus was asked the question, and they called Him good teacher, and He says, why do you call me good? Only God is good. Jesus was not denying that He was the good teacher. He was fishing for a confession. If you're good, the only way you can be good is if you're God, because only God is good. Here, this good God says, I'm going to recognize these people in this first deportation as good. to recognize them as good. We go on in Romans 4, For the promise to Abraham, or to his seed, that he would be heir of the world, was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith has been made empty, and the promise has been abolished. For the law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there is also no trespass. For this reason, it is by faith in order that it may be according to grace. Say that again. It is by faith in order that it may be according to grace so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, the father of many nations, have I made you in the presence of him whom he believed, even God who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. If faith is present, it's because grace got there first. We can't believe without grace. We can't understand without grace. We can't even want to come. We sang it this morning. What is required? All that's required is to feel your need of Him. We can't even do that without grace. The gospel is the gospel of grace. Romans 5 goes on, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand and we boast in hope of the glory of God. These who are taken into captivity are being preserved and they're going to be preserved as a remnant of grace because in their return, we get ready for the coming of the Messiah. If they had never returned, if they had gone into exile and like the north had just gone and been assimilated into the nations, there would have been no Mary and Joseph to go to Bethlehem for Jesus to be born. God is preserving the line of Jesus by His grace, by taking a sinful people who did not deserve any of this and saying, I'm going to recognize you as good I'm going to set my eyes on them for good. I will return them to this land and I will build them up and not pull them down. I will plant them and not uproot them. When he says that I will set my eyes on them for good, in Romans 11 we read, I say then, has God rejected his people? May it never be. Paul writes, I, too, am an Israelite, the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life. There's Elijah. His Hebrew name was Eor. There it was. Oh, I'm the only one. Nobody else is left. But what does the divine response say to him? I have left for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal in this way then at the present time. A remnant according to God's gracious choice has also come to be. Wherever there is a remnant, it is by God's gracious choice. not a remnant that's deserving, not a remnant that has done anything to earn this favor, not a remnant that through prayers to Mary and sacraments, not from worshiping false gods or entertaining the cults, not through pluralism, not through pragmatism, but it's always a remnant according to God's gracious choice. Wherever we find a church of faithful followers of Jesus Christ gathered, that is because of God's gracious choice. Anytime we see a sinner saved, that is because of God's gracious choice. Anytime we're able to fellowship with other believers, to enjoy the Lord's table, to see a baptism, to participate in worship, that is because of God's gracious choice. There was no difference between these two groups of people, but God chose. one and passed over the other. In Romans 11 verses 25 through 27, Paul says, I do not want you brothers to be uninformed of this mystery, so that you will not be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be saved. Just as it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion, he will remove ungodliness from Jacob, and this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. This is pointing of course to the new covenant. to the promise of a return to the land. And listen to the way he describes it. He says there in verse 6, I'm going to set my eyes on them for good, and I will return them to this land, and I will build them up and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not uproot them. Does that sound familiar? It should all the way back at the start. Jeremiah 1 verse 10, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms to uproot and to tear down, to cause to perish and to pull down, to build and to plant. You notice one difference here though. Now the order is reversed. At the beginning of his ministry, Jeremiah is going to uproot, to tear down, to cause to perish and to pull down. It's a ministry of a message of condemnation with a promise that later there's going to be a promise to build and to plant. Well, what is God saying now to him? I will build them up and not pull them down. I will plant them and not uproot them. You see, the uprooting and the tearing down was to send them to a place in exile where then he would give them a new heart and they would come back and be replanted and be rebuilt. We go on in Jeremiah chapter 12, 15, it will come about that after I have uprooted them, I will return and have compassion on them. That's all grace. God's judging them because they deserve it. And in the midst of that judgment, He says, I'm going to give them grace. and I will cause them to return, each one to his inheritance and each one to his land." Jeremiah 30, verse 10, Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, declares Yahweh, and do not be dismayed, O Israel, for behold, I will save you from afar and your seed from the land of their captivity. And Jacob will return and will be quiet and at ease, and no one will make him tremble. Jeremiah 32, 37, Behold, I will gather them out of all the lands, to which I have banished them in my anger, in my wrath, and in great indignation. And I will cause them to return to this place, and make them inhabit it in safety." As we look at what God is doing, and as I said, through this judgment, we have actually a presentation of gracious redemption. Again, this picture to us, and by us I mean Americans, the way we view the world, Would it really be the end of the world if our nation fell? And we were taken into captivity? And we were carried off to another land? Well, we deserve that and worse. The fact that our nation is still standing is boggling to my mind. God's judgment is already being poured out on us. There are still drops of mercy and drops of grace throughout. Each time we receive a reprieve and a drop of grace, we ought to double our prayers for revival, for awakening, because there's going to come a time when this nation, like every other nation on the earth, is going to fall. Now, the question for us as Americans is, could we stand to be taken off like that? I mean, what would we do? Well, we would understand that even if we're taken off, we're still the people of God. If we're taken off, we have to look and see His gracious purposes in the midst of those hard circumstances. Because you understand, there is not a hard, dark providence that you will ever encounter that doesn't have behind it the grace of God. Because He has made atonement for your sin and adopted you as His child. And whatever He puts you in or through, He is in it with you. He will walk through it with you. He will glorify His name in the midst of it. And we need to learn something. Comfort and peace breeds apathy and complacency. It's a church that's persecuted that a church that is praising, praying, and working. We have to beware this thought like those left behind. Oh, those people got taken to exile. They were wicked people. They deserve that judgment. But ooh, we got left. Ha, lucky us. God chose them to send them, to bless them, to give them grace, to give them justification, to provide for a return of the remnant. To those who were left, it was going to be horrible destruction and judgment. They were going to be scattered through the nations of the earth. The best news of all of this is verse 7. The result of God's gracious, sovereign choice is He says, I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am Yahweh, and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart. That verse is the definition of revival. I'm going to give them a heart to seek me. Literally, that means I'm going to give them the will to want me, to return to me. I'm going to bring them back. That's revival. That's reformation. That's salvation. This is God moving in His grace to give us a new heart. Jeremiah 9, verse 23 and 24, thus says, Yahweh, let not a wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not a rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am Yahweh, who shows loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for I delight in these things, declares Yahweh. This is what matters, and this is all that matters. We could. You go home and you watch interviews on the news today of people who have lost every material possession that they had with the loss of their homes in these fires. And one of the news commentators in one of these interviews was baffled because the expression coming from the people they were interviewing who had just lost everything was a sense of relief, peace, joy, and gratitude. Because everything that they thought was precious was stripped away from them, and they have learned now what really matters. And it's not stuff. It's the people in your life. These people should be devastated. It might be that they are in shock, and there is devastation, and there is grief, and there are tears. But look at the fires. Look at the neighborhoods that no longer are. Listen to what the people are saying and then realize of destruction by fire many times worse than that is going to overtake the entire earth when Jesus comes back. If we can see that change in people's hearts out there already who have lost everything and realize they have what matters. Peter says, when all of this is burned up, how are you going to live then? How should you live knowing one day all the stuff is going to be gone? There are times I want to say, Jesus, take the stuff. We don't need the stuff. The stuff gets in the way. Get rid of the stuff. It's all going to be burned up anyway. What matters? It's not that you're wise. It's not that you're mighty. It's not that you're rich, but him who boasts, boasts in this, that he understands and knows me. to know God. And he tells them in Jeremiah 29, 13, you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. That's why he promises to give us new hearts. And in Jeremiah 31, in the new covenant, but this is the covenant which I will cut with the house of Israel after those days, declares Yahweh, I will put my law within them and on their heart, I will write it and I will be their God and they will be my people. We're going to get a new heart. We get that at salvation. Here, he's going to give this remnant a new heart, a new will. to want God, to miss Him in that exile. Now, there are glimpses of Him. Can you imagine the crowd that bowed that day and watched Ananias, Elisha, Lazarus, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? They didn't bow. Everybody else bowed. They didn't. How many others in that crowd were taken from Judah and put into that captivity? And what did they all see, including Nebuchadnezzar, when those three didn't bow? They saw them being thrown into the execution chamber to be burned alive. And as they're thrown in, they see a fourth man in the fire. the Son of Man. There He is. God shows up to protect and to preserve His people. We have to love their faith, though. Nebuchadnezzar, even if He doesn't spare us, we're not going to bow to your idol. We're going to stand firm in faith, and that is all of grace, sovereign grace. Romans 9 reminds us, it's not as though the Word of God has failed. They are not all Israel who are descended from Israel, nor are they all children, because they are Abraham's seed. But through Isaac your seed will be named. That is, the children of the flesh are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are considered as seed. For this is the word of promise, at this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac. For though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, so that the purpose of God according to His choice would stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, the older shall serve the younger." You understand there, it says before they had an opportunity to do good or bad. And here's what the miracle of grace is. Had this been after they were born, they both would have done bad. That's what they did because they were born as children of Adam. But before they were born, before they could do any good or evil, not of works, but because of him who calls. It was said, the older shall serve the younger, just as it is written, Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated." Spurgeon's response to that, when asked how could God hate Esau, Spurgeon's question was, that's not what bothers me about the statement. What I don't understand is how did God love Jacob. What shall we say then? Is there any unrighteousness with God? May it never be. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it does not depend on the one who wills or the one who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose, I raised you up in order to demonstrate my power in you and in order that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth. So then he has mercy on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires. These rotten figs then, but the rotten figs which cannot be eaten due to rottenness indeed, thus says Yahweh. So I will give over to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his officials, and the remnants of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and the ones who inhabit the land of Egypt. I will give them over to be a terror and an evil for all the kingdoms of the earth. as a reproach and a proverb, a byword and a curse in all places where I will banish them. I will send the sword, the famine and the pestilence upon them until they come to an end from being upon the land which I gave them and their fathers." Zedekiah and the remaining remnant. In the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came, he and all his military force. This was in 587 BC. So the city came under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. On the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine was so strong in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. Then the city was broken into, and all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls beside the king's garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city. and they went by way of the Arabah. But the military force of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his military force was scattered from him. Then they seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they spoke their judgment on him, and they slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes." They literally then just wiped out the entire Davidic line. If they had gotten their way, there would be no future kings, no future descendants of David. Then he blinded the eyes of Zedekiah, bound him with bronze fetters, and brought him to Babylon. On the seventh day of the fifth month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He burned the house of Yahweh. the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house he burned with fire. So all the military force of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guards, tore down the walls around Jerusalem. Then the rest of the people who were left in the city, and the defectors who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude, Nebuchadnezzar and the captain of the guard took away into exile." As for the people who were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had left, he appointed Gedaliah, the son of Ahacham. See, any preacher who tells you you can say all these words, he can't say all these words. The son of Shaphan. Then all the commanders of the military forces, they and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah governor. So they came to Gedaliah and Mizpah. Everybody thinks, oh, we've got a new regime. We've got peace. Finally, it's over. Peace, peace, peace. live in the land and serve the King of Babylon and it will be well with you. It happened in the seventh month that Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishamah, of the royal seed, came with 10 men and struck Gadaliah down so that he died along with the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. Then all the people, both small and great, and the commanders of the military forces arose and went to Egypt for they were afraid of the Chaldeans. They still couldn't get away. God tells us here, wherever they've been dispersed, wherever they've gone, even the ones who inhabit the land of Egypt, they've been given over. That's what it says in verse 9, I will give them over to be a terror and an evil for all the kingdoms. He says, you think you're escaping? You think you're finding peace? You think you're avoiding the judgment of God? Wherever you go, not only is that judgment going to track you down, but while you are there, you're going to trouble the people who are there around you. Things are going to fall apart in your world. Everywhere you've been banished, I'll find you, and I'm going to send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence until you come to an end from being upon the land which I gave to them and to their fathers." The giving over there is the frightening part. Romans 1 reminds us, therefore, God gave them over in the lust of their heart to impurity so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. The warning from as far back as Deuteronomy, If you break this covenant, you shall become an object of horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the people where Yahweh drives you." Jeremiah quotes Deuteronomy 28 verse 37. Here and in chapter 29. Amos describes what happened. I saw the Lord standing beside the altar. He said, Strike the capitals so that the thresholds will quake and break them on the heads of them all. Then I will kill the rest of them with the sword. Not one of them who can flee will flee, and not one of them who can survive will escape. Though they dig into Sheol, from there my hand will take them. And though they ascend to heaven, from there I will bring them down. Though they hide on the top of Carmel, from there I will search them out and take them. And though they conceal themselves from my eyes on the floor of the sea, from there I will command the serpent and it will bite them. And though they go into captivity before their enemies, from there I will command the sword that it kill them, and I will set my eyes against them for evil and not for good. We end this with a prediction, there is nowhere you can hide. Here's the question though. Is that true? Is it true that there is nowhere you can hide from God? Oh, there is a place you can hide when your life is hidden with God in Christ. The only place to hide from the wrath of God is in Jesus. And the only way that's possible is because of God's sovereign grace. If you've received that grace this morning, thank God because you didn't deserve it. You couldn't have earned it. Couldn't have paid for it. There's nothing you could have done to be noticed by God, to be worthy of salvation outside of His sovereign choice, His grace. the secret to this Christian life. It's all grace. Let's pray together. Father, we do thank You for Your Word this morning. We thank You for Your sovereign grace, for Your providential control of all of the universe. We thank You that Jesus is even now ruling and reigning. We thank You that He was sent to come and to seek and to save that which was lost, knowing that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Father, I pray that you would remind those of us who do know you that this is a blood-bought privilege, that this is all by your grace and not by anything you saw in us, accomplished as you've given us new hearts, new minds, new wills, as you've made us a new creation in Christ Jesus and hidden our life in Him, where we are forever safe from any condemnation. Remind us what a glorious salvation this is, Remind us also that even in the trials, in the hardship, in the dark providence, even in the chastening of the Lord, we find your love and your grace. Opportunities for redemption, for the preservation of a remnant, for the glory of your name. We thank you this morning for the reminder that you are the God of grace and the God of glory. We thank you for these things in Jesus name. Amen. As we meditate on the grace of God, we come.