Jeremiah 25:1-7 “The Sovereign Grace of God”

1:10We are very familiar with grace as a word and as a concept. Perhaps too familiar. In Scripture, the word grace is used to mean God's unmerited favor toward people who. Deserve only punishment. Take a look at Ephesians chapter 2, which captures the concept well. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

2:12God's grace is his unmerited favor, his undeserved kindness to people who only deserve eternal punishment. That is what grace is. We are the guilty who do not deserve to be cleared. We are those who are dead in trespasses, who do not deserve to be made alive or seated in the heavenly places with Christ. That is what the Bible says about grace. And if you have been a Christian for any length of time, or if you have grown up in the church or have been in the church for any length of time, you are familiar with the concept of grace.

2:56But I wonder if we have not grown overly familiar. With grace. I wonder if there's a sense in which grace has ceased to be amazing to us. Whether it's become more of a theological concept to be debated and discussed, more than a daily reality that is to be experienced and enjoyed and celebrated and shared. Ask yourself: when is the last time that I remember being amazed by God's grace? When is the last time I stop to meditate on the fact that I have sinned against the God who created me and sustains me and provides for me and cares for me, and I deserve only death and punishment?

3:53And yet, God has graciously forgiven me and made me alive and seated me with Christ in the heavenly places. When is the last time that you were amazed, consciously amazed by the grace of God? This morning in Jeremiah 24 and 25, we're going to meditate on the grace of God. And my hope is that every Christian here today would be freshly encouraged, freshly amazed by the grace of God, leading us to greater depths of gratitude and wonder and worship.

4:32And my hope is that if you are here today and you are not yet a Christian, that this extended meditation on the grace of God would leave you so amazed by it that you would long to experience it for yourself. So what we'll see today in these chapters is that by his grace, God pursues us, disciplines us, and saves us. So let's begin by thinking about how God pursues us by his grace here in chapter 25 of Jeremiah. Now, as you recall, the book of Jeremiah is organized thematically. It's not organized chronologically. And so chapter 25 actually happens chronologically before chapter 24, which is why we're starting there today.

5:24Now, at the outset of chapter 25, the year is 605 BC, and King Jehoiakim is in the fourth year of his reign over the southern kingdom known as Judah. And this is the year that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon takes the throne. In this section, Jeremiah reminds the people that God has spoken to them persistently through himself and through many other prophets, but they have not listened. Instead, they have persisted in their evil ways and in their idolatry.

5:57And this is not just one group of people. Over the first 23 chapters of Jeremiah, we have seen that this is everybody in Judah, from the least to the greatest, from the poorest to the richest, from the kings and those who are in authority to the prophets and the priests, no one has listened to Jeremiah's calls to repent. And it is truly shocking because of all that God has done to get their attention. About a hundred years earlier, the northern kingdom, known as Israel, was conquered by the nation of Assyria because of their sin and idolatry. And you'd have think that this would have been a clear warning sign to the southern kingdom of Judah. If you continue to persist in sin and idolatry, the very same thing is going to happen to you. You would think they would have turned away from those things, but they didn't.

6:55And so God sent them famine and drought and pestilence to get their attention. But instead of turning away from their sin and idolatry, they just cried out to God for relief. They begged God not to leave them or forsake them, but they were unwilling to change. Just like an adulterous spouse who doesn't want to get divorced, but is also unwilling to leave their lovers. Did all those things to get their attention in the entire time he is speaking to them. I want you to look again at verse 3 of chapter 25.

7:38This is Jeremiah speaking, for 23 years from the 13th year of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened. You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the Lord persistently sent to you all his servants, the prophets, saying, Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeds, and dwell upon the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever.

8:14Friends, what I want you to see is how relentlessly God pursues his people. Jeremiah has been speaking the word of God to them for 23 years, nearly a quarter of a century. And before that, for hundreds and hundreds of years, God spoke to his people through many other prophets, through Moses himself, calling them to turn back, to leave their sin and leave their idolatry and come back to him. And in the same way, God relentlessly pursues you and me.

8:52You know, when I think about my own story, I see how God was always chasing after me. Even though for a large portion of my life, I wanted nothing to do with him. All the time that I was pushing him away, all the time that I was running from him and his word and his calling on my life, God was pursuing me. He put people into my life, teammates and classmates and coaches, put people in the church in my life.

9:27He put his word in front of me and in my ears, and he pursued and pursued me until he brought me to repentance and faith in college. And I think for many of you, when you think about your own story, the story of how God pursued you, you can see the same grace in your life. Were you born in America or in another country where there are many Christians and churches? Were you born into a Christian family?

10:02Did God place in your life classmates or teachers or coaches or teammates or neighbors who knew Jesus and shared Jesus with you? Did you have access to read and to hear his word? In all of these ways, friends, God is pursuing you by his grace. And I think in hindsight, all of us can see that relentless pursuit of the Lord calling us to repentance and faith until he saved us. This is what Jesus said that he came to do in Luke 19. He said, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

10:40To seek and to save the lost, not merely to save, not merely offering himself on the cross in hopes that one day you would go looking for him. But he came to seek you. He came to find you wherever you were, whatever stage of your running away you are at. He came to seek you and to find you. Why would God do that? Why would God relentlessly pursue people like you and me, people who are just like those in Jeremiah's day who ignored his word and mocked his word and didn't want anything to do with him?

11:19Or even if we weren't like that and didn't sin in those ways, we still sinned against him in countless other ways. Why would God pursue people like us? Only because of his grace. Listen to how God describes himself to Moses. Take a look on the screen. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and Transgression and sin.

12:04Friends, when God describes himself, the first words that he uses are a God merciful and gracious. God is many things besides merciful and gracious. And in the rest of that passage in Exodus 34, all of those things are going to come out. His justice and his righteousness, all of those things will come out. But you must understand the very first thing that he says about himself when he describes himself is merciful and gracious. That is what he emphasizes. He does not treat us as our sins deserve. And more than that, he pours out his grace. He pours out his favor on us.

12:47Christian, God pursued you because he is gracious. He sent Jesus to seek you and to save you because he is gracious. And he keeps his steadfast love toward you at all times. Listen to me. No matter how you have performed on any given day, his steadfast love is for you because of his grace. And if you are not yet a Christian, I believe that you are here this morning because God is pursuing you. Think of all that you could have done this morning. You could have slept in. You could have gone to brunch.

13:35You could have meditated on the fact that maybe the Aggies will be good next year. You could have done anything. But you are here. You are not somewhere else. And I believe that you are here because God is pursuing you. That he is seeking you to save you, as Jesus said. God pursues us to pour out his grace upon us, friends. But he also disciplines us by his grace, and that is what the bulk of these chapters are about. So let's pick up now in chapter 25, verse 8.

14:19Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, because you have not obeyed my words, behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste. And these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years. Then, after 70 years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste. I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. For many nations and great kings shall make slaves, even of them. And I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.

15:36Since the people refused to listen to God or obey his voice, the Lord said once again he's going to send for the tribes of the north. But for the very first time, the person and the kingdom is named. It is Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and the armies that are at his command. There is a real irony here because remember, earlier, the Lord said that he had persistently sent to them all of his servants, the prophets, but the people refused to listen. So in verse 9, God says that he's going to send another servant, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who's going to pursue them for a very different reason. And that reason is to discipline them for their lack of repentance.

16:24It is a very ugly scene. Through Babylon, God is going to devote the entire land. To destruction. He's going to lay it to waste. He's going to banish all joy and gladness from the land. And then Judah and all of those nations are going to serve the king of Babylon for 70 years. That's three generations of people. So eight years after this, in 597 BC, Nebuchadnezzar shows up in Jerusalem with his army, and he is in a very bad mood. Because King Jehoiakim has rebelled against him. So he puts him to death, and then he carries off Jehoiachin, his son, along with many of the officials, to Babylon. So, right now, let's flip back to chapter 24, verse 1, and pick up there chronologically.

17:22After Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had taken into exile from Jerusalem Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, also known as Jehoiachin, together with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me this vision. Behold, two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. One basket had very good figs, like first ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. And the Lord said to me, What do you see, Jeremiah? I said, Figs. The good figs, very good, and the bad figs, very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.

18:10In this latest vision of the Lord, Jeremiah sees two baskets of figs, something that I, if I were a prophet, could never see, because the fig tree in our yard never produces anything. The boys always ask me, Dad, why do we have to mow around this stump? And all I can say is, because your mother has great faith. So we will honor the stump of duty and pray for figs. He sees two baskets of figs in this vision, so I want to start with the bad figs first. Let's skip down to verse 8 of chapter 24.

18:52But thus says the Lord: like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat Zedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnants of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave them and their fathers.

19:27God says that the bad figs in this vision represent the family. Present Zedekiah, who is the final king of Judah, his officials, and all of the people who fled to Egypt in hopes that Egypt would keep them safe. They are the ones who were left in 597 BC after Nebuchadnezzar marched Jehoiachin and his officials and many of the members of the workforce off to Babylon. What we saw back in verses 1 through 3. Now, one might be tempted to think that those people who were left in Jerusalem and everybody who ran off to Egypt for protection, that they got the better end of the bargain.

20:08I mean, surely things were not good for them, but they had to have a brighter future than their countrymen who were carried off to Babylon, right? But God says, no, that's not the case. Friends, this is yet another reminder in Scripture that the way things appear to us, the way things look on the outside, the way things seem according to human wisdom, that is often not the way that God looks at things. He does not judge by appearances, he judges by what is true.

20:43So these people, the bad figs, are certainly breathing a sigh of relief as they watch or hear about Nebuchadnezzar marching somebody else's family members off into exile. But their relief was mistaken. Because 10 years later, Nebuchadnezzar would come back. And in 587 BC, there would be no mercy. He would end up killing almost every single person in the city, and then burning Jerusalem and the temple to the ground. That makes sense, because, of course, these people refused to listen to God. They refused to repent, and they continued to worship false gods. So, of course, they deserved his judgment.

21:34But wait a minute. Didn't Jeremiah just say in chapter 25 that the entire nation was like this? That none of them had listened? That all of them had refused to repent? That all of them worshipped false gods? So who in the world are these good figs? Who is he talking about? Now, before we answer that question, I want to go back to the definition of grace. Grace is God's unmerited favor toward people who deserve only punishment. God's unmerited favor to people who deserve only punishment. So after hundreds of years of unrepentant sin, of idolatry, of refusing to listen to God's prophets and putting them to death, all of the people of Judah only deserved judgment.

22:31That is not debatable. But look at how God treats them in verses 4 through 7. Go back up to chapter 24, verse 7. Then the word of the Lord came to me. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down. I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

23:24Let's be very clear. King Jehoiachin and his officials and all the people who were carried off to Babylon in 597 BC, these were not godly people. They deserved all of the same judgment that fell on the people who were left behind. They committed all of the same sins. But God was not going to judge them. Instead, he was going to discipline them as an act of grace. I want you to look at verse 4 again. Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah. Listen to that phrase: I will regard as good.

24:17He does not say that he's going to recognize their goodness. He does not say that he's going to acknowledge that there was something inherently better in them than in the rest of the people, something worth saving. Certainly not. They were just as wicked, just as deserving of punishment, but God was not going to judge them. As an act of grace, he would regard them as good. He would set his eyes on them for good. And then he would bring them back to the land after 70 years.

24:50And most importantly, look again at verse 7. God says, I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. You see, for these people, being carried off to Babylon was a loving act of discipline. And as we learn all throughout the Bible, the purpose of God's discipline is restoration. Look at Proverbs chapter 3.

25:26My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline. Or be weary of his reproof? For the Lord reproves him whom he loves as a father, the son in whom he delights. Look at Hebrews 12. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Discipline never feels gracious. I'm certain that it did not feel like grace when Nebuchadnezzar marched the people off to Babylon for 70 years. I'm sure it didn't feel like grace when they sat there for 70 years in a land that they did not know, with a language they did not speak, with a culture they did not share or care about. I'm sure it did not feel like grace as they raised their kids in a foreign country that was hostile to them, and they watched their children raise their children in a foreign country that was hostile to them. I'm sure none of that felt like grace.

26:40But friends, here's the truth. 70 years of exile did what 400 years of patience and prophets did not do. It turned the hearts of the people back to God. Make no mistake, that repentance. That turning was the work of the Lord. I mean, think about the situation for hundreds of years. The people are telling God, I won't listen, I won't change, I won't repent. And then just consider what we see in verses 4 through 7. God says, I will regard as good. I will set my eyes on them for good. I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up. I will plant them. I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord. I will be their God.

27:42When we say, I won't, God says, I will. That is the kind of God that we serve. God is the one who turned the hearts of the people back to Him. And He turned the hearts of the people back to Him through His gracious discipline. Friends, we've already seen today that God pursues us by grace. And that is a message that we can feel good about. It feels good to be pursued in life. But it's a lot harder to get excited about the idea that God disciplines us by grace.

28:26And that's because we almost always equate discipline. With punishment. And when it comes to human beings, people may punish others and call it discipline. But God does not do that. His discipline is always an act of love for the purpose of restoration. So, friends, I want you to learn to see God's discipline as an act of grace and really as part of the way that He pursues us as people. When we experience His loving discipline, we need to experience it as God saying to us, My beloved child, you have wandered off the path of blessing.

29:21And I am bringing this trial, this hardship, this setback into your life to bring you back to the path of blessing. Because the purpose of God's discipline is always restoration. It's always blessing. So, God is going to judge some of the people, giving them exactly what they deserve, but he's also going to show undeserved favor through his gracious discipline. The question then is: what about the rest of these nations? What about Babylon and all of these nations? Nations who don't worship God, who do the same things, what's going to happen to them? Let's skip ahead all the way to chapter 25, verse 30.

30:20Chapter 25, verse 30. You, therefore, shall prophesy against these nations all of these words, and say to them, The Lord will roar from on high, and from his holy habitation utter his voice. He will roar mightily against his fold, and shout, like those who tread grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. The clamor will resound to the ends of the earth, for the Lord has an indictment against the nations. He is entering into judgment with all flesh, and the wicked he will put to the sword, declares the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, disaster is going forth from nation to nation, and a great tempest is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth. And those pierced by the Lord on that day shall extend from one end of the earth to the other. They shall not be lamented, or gathered, or buried. They shall be dung on the surface of the ground.

31:30In the verses that precede this section that we just read, God reveals that he's going to make all of the nations drink the cup of his wrath. The first nation to drink is Judah, because as we read in 1 Peter chapter 4, judgment begins with the household of God. And then after Judah drinks, their ancient nemesis, Egypt, drinks. And then all of these other nations around them drink. And then lastly, Babylon, God's agent of judgment and discipline, is going to drink the cup as well.

32:08As God says in verse 31, he is entering into judgment with all flesh. All of the rulers of these nations would be judged by Babylon, and then Babylon would be judged through Persia. Nobody, ultimately, would be able to stand in God's judgment. Look again at verse 33. And those pierced by the Lord on that day shall extend from one end of the earth to the other. They shall not be lamented or gathered or buried. They shall be like dung on the surface of the ground.

32:43Friends, what we see here at the end of Jeremiah chapter 25 is a picture of that great day when every person, both living and dead, will be judged by God. Take a look at Revelation 20. John says, Then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it. From his presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the Lord, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.

33:39See, in Jeremiah's vision, there is nobody left standing. Those pierced by the Lord extend from one end of the earth to the other. Who could stand before a holy God when he judges us for every thought, every word that we have spoken, everything that we have ever done? Look at Psalm 14. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside. Together they have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one.

34:21You see, if we are to be judged based on what we have done, there is no hope for any one of us. Because from birth, no one seeks God. We have all turned aside. Every one of us has become corrupt. No one does good, not even one. Just like the people of the nations that Jeremiah refers to here in chapter 25, those who are pierced by the Lord on that day are going to extend from one end of the earth to the other.

34:54But, friends, thanks be to God. That is not the end of the story. More than a hundred years before these words were spoken, the prophet Isaiah spoke of one with no form or majesty that we should look at him, no physical beauty that we should desire him, one who would be despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He would do no violence, no deceit would be found in his mouth, and unlike us, he would be perfectly righteous.

35:37Look at what Isaiah says of him. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah says that this perfectly righteous servant, the only one who sought God and was perfectly good in every way from his birth, would be pierced for our transgressions, pierced for us, so we would not be pierced by the Lord on that great day of judgment.

36:34This righteous servant was Jesus of Nazareth, who was literally pierced for us on the cross for our transgressions in fulfillment of Isaiah 53. And when the Apostle John wrote about the crucifixion, he quoted Zachariah 12 and he said, they will look on him whom they have pierced. Through his word, the grace of God pursues us. Through circumstances and trials, many of which we bring upon ourselves, the grace of God disciplines us. And friends, through Jesus Christ, the grace of God saves us.

37:17What did we do to deserve any of that? Absolutely nothing. God did not have to pursue us by speaking to us, but he did. He didn't have to pay us to pursue us. Have to discipline us for our good like a loving father, but he did. And he certainly did not have to save us from the consequences of our sins by allowing his only begotten son to be pierced for our transgressions. But he did. Brothers and sisters, we must remember that each one of us is like the so-called good figs of Jeremiah 24.

37:58God said of them, like these good figs, I will regard as good the exiles from Judah. They were not good, but God in his mercy chose to regard them as good. Not because we deserved it, but because God is gracious. Look at Romans chapter 3. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness. Because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

39:17Friends, all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We will be judged, and we deserve to be found guilty and punished accordingly. But we are all justified by his grace as a gift through faith in the one who is pierced for our transgressions, Jesus Christ. Through faith in him alone, we are justified, we are counted righteous by an infinitely holy God who does not owe us anything. So, this morning, if you are a Christian and it has been some time since you have found yourself amazed by the grace of God, I pray that this text and this sermon would be used to rekindle that fire in your heart, that sense of awe and amazement, that the God who created us and sustains us and who has only been good to us and who has saved us has pursued us and disciplined us and called us to himself simply because he is more gracious than we could ever imagine.

40:24Every person who experiences the grace of God and meditates on the grace of God cannot help. But be moved and transformed by the grace of God. And if you are not yet a Christian, we want you to experience the life-changing, eternity-altering grace of God, which comes through Jesus Christ. As we just saw in Romans 3, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but all who trust in Christ, His life, death, and resurrection, are counted righteous as a gift.

41:09Your whole life, God has pursued you and disciplined you because He desires to save you from the power and the penalty of your sin. Today can be the day of salvation. And so we urge you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Turn from your sin this morning and receive the grace of the one who pursues you and disciplines you so that he can save you. Let's pray. Father, we are so thankful to have the opportunity to meditate afresh on your boundless grace.

42:16For many of us, we admit this morning that we have become familiar with grace. And it's more of a theological concept to us. It's more of a cold fact, a piece of information, something that we know in our heads, but that hasn't truly affected our hearts in some time. God, we pray that you would restore to us the joy of your salvation, that we would stand in wonder again, that you would pursue and discipline in order to save us.

43:05God, I pray that for any here who have not come to know you through Jesus Christ, would you reveal yourself to them this morning? Would you call them out of darkness and into light? Would you give them that hope that we have that cannot be taken away by circumstances or trials or suffering or anything else? Because it is grounded in your eternal love for us that you displayed in Jesus Christ. Thank you, God, for your relentless pursuit of people like us.

43:49In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.