A Strange Real Estate Deal

Can you imagine buying a piece of ground in a war zone?

In fact, can you imagine buying a field in a land which your enemy now occupies? You live just outside Jerusalem in a place called Anathoth. I'm referring to Jeremiah as we during the summer months have been thinking of this wonderful prophecy in Jeremiah, this Old Testament prophet. And his hometown is Anathoth, just a few miles from Jerusalem, and Jeremiah has been prophesying as we have heard that unless the people of God repent, God will come in judgment. And indeed, the Babylonians are at the gate, they're at the walls of Jerusalem as we come into our passage today. And what a strange time then to buy a piece of ground.

You think that's not a very good real estate deal, is it? And you also know that your place of worship at the temple that you love to go to is going to be utterly destroyed. And that for many years, this wonderful land, the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey is going to be occupied by the Babylonians, and yet you go ahead and buy this field. It is, as we will learn, this purchase of a field by Jeremiah in this very strange real estate deal is an act of faith. Yes, he believed that God would bring His people from Babylonian exile back to the land. He had talked that God had a plan, God had a future, God is a God of hope.

And while judgment is coming to the people of God, that in the providence of God, after 70 years of exile, the people will come back to the land. What incredible faith. As I read this passage, I was really convicted about my own small faith. And I thought to myself, would I have exercised such faith in God and the promises of God?

A faith which is living, a faith which is active, a faith which takes God at His Word. Now before we think of Jeremiah's strange land purchase, I thought it would be helpful to us. Some of you are going to find it confusing.

I'm going to try and make it as simple as I can. It might be good to zoom the camera back and to think of a broad view of this land, this land of Israel. And in particular, how do we interpret the land promises by God to His ancient people? Why is the land so important? Why couldn't they go into exile and settle and live all their life in Babylon?

Many of us, myself included, have left our hometowns and have settled in a new country. Why couldn't the Jews do that? What was special about the land?

Well, open your Bibles, first of all, to Genesis, Genesis chapter 17. And the question I want to answer very quickly to give us some context before we look at the particulars of this purchase by Jeremiah is to look at the land promises by God to His ancient people. Have the promises of land given an Abrahamic covenant, which I will read in a minute, have they been fulfilled in the church in such a way that there is no longer a future for ethnic Israel in the promised land?

Have the promises of God, in some sense, been revoked? Jeremiah, sorry, Genesis 17, chapter 17, verse 6. Here is the, what we call the Abrahamic covenant. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I'll make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. Amazing prophecies to Abraham. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant.

Notice that. It is an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you, and I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. Pretty clear, isn't it? God is saying that the land that He's going to give to Abraham, the promised land, Israel, Canaan, whatever you call it, that that land is not just going to be to Abraham and his descendants, but it is going to be a never-lasting possession to his descendants. Has that promise been revoked? Has that covenant been fulfilled?

Is it still in place today? A couple of weeks ago, as we thought of the new covenant in Jeremiah chapter 31, I mentioned in that covenant of Israel returning to the land, and David's greater son, the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ, yes, the son of David, He is going to reign from Jerusalem. That was stated, as we saw, in the new covenant in Jeremiah chapter 31. And in the progress of Revelation, when we come to the last book of the Bible, I've read from the first book, when we come to the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, one gets this vision in Revelation 20 of a period of a thousand years.

That's a millennium. A period of a thousand years when Jesus Christ, the Christ, will reign prior to the eternal state. So this is a somewhat controversial subject, and I don't want to confuse you or to be too esoteric in dealing with this, but I thought it might be helpful to paint a big picture and to look at three ways of interpreting the land promises and the return of Jesus Christ.

That's what I want to do. There are three basic ways of interpreting the land promises and how it relates to the return of Jesus Christ. First of all, there is a position called post-millennialism. You say, that's a mouthful.

It is a mouthful. What does a post-millennial believe? Well, look at the words. He believes that the second coming of Jesus Christ will require, will occur after the millennial, that is, post-after. So first you have the return of Jesus, first you have the millennium, and then Christ will return. So they believe that the millennium occurs during the last a thousand years of the present age, or some of them think that the reference to a thousand years in Revelation 20 is merely symbolic. Proponents of post-millennialism believe then that our world is getting better and better, and that we, the church, can Christianize the world. You've heard about people, sometimes with some political ideology, believing that they can Christianize America, that they can take over the power centers of this nation, and that we can have a Christian America, and so become a Christian world.

And in this way, we, the church, the people of God, will usher in the kingdom of God, and then Jesus Christ will return. So in that view, a view that I don't accept, we're presently in the millennium. Are we in the millennium? It seems to be a denial of world history, doesn't it, over the last 200 years. This certainly doesn't feel like we're in the millennium. I asked you the question, do you think this world is getting better?

Do you think so? Do you think the United States of America is getting more and more spiritual? Do you think we are more godly than our grandparents or our great-grandparents? No, the fact is that evil will flourish in the world until Jesus Christ returns. And the one who will overthrow the kingdoms of this world and institute the kingdom of God is not the church, but our Lord Jesus Christ.

When He comes, Revelation 19, He comes as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. No, we are not presently in the millennium. Post-millennialism requires a spiritualization, a spiritualizing of many prophetic passages.

Then there is amillennialism, am meaning not. These are people, really, who deny a literal millennium. There is no millennium. They don't believe in the future reign of Christ on earth. They believe that the kingdom of God has already come in a spiritual form, that the millennium is an undetermined period of time between the first and second advance of Jesus Christ, that a thousand years is just taken as a symbol of a long time. And so, they do not believe that there will be a literal reign of Christ on earth for a period of a thousand years.

They are amillennialists. Let's turn to the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 20. You say, I thought we came to deal with a real estate deal.

Well, we'll get there. Revelation 20, last book in the Bible. Don't lose the context. We're dealing with the land. Why did Jeremiah purchase a piece of land in enemy territory?

What's so important about the land? Revelation 20 verse 1, John says, I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he sees the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. Six times in Revelation 20 verses 1 through 7, we have reference to a thousand years. It seems strange that if we're going to say that's just a symbol, why it would be mentioned six times. So Satan is bound during the millennium, he's bound for a thousand years, verse 3, and threw him into a pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended.

After that, he must be released for a little while. So John is saying there's going to be this period when Satan is going to be bound, no longer is he able to deceive the nations. So let me ask you the questions. Are the nations of the world today presently deceived? Are they influenced by our enemy?

Rob was praying for our world. Think of our world today. Think of our own country where it's difficult to find out what actually is true with all of these allegations of corruption and injustice. Think of what's happening in Russia, Ukraine. Think of what's happening today in Pakistan, Niger, Ethiopia.

Choose the country. Throughout the world, there is tremendous deception, isn't there? Is the devil presently imprisoned? John is saying during the millennium he's going to be imprisoned. John says, 1 John 5, verse 19, the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Peter says, our enemy goes around like a lion seeking whom he may devour. No, the devil's imprisonment is not in the present, it is in the future.

It has not yet occurred. So Amillennialism to me presents some real problems and certainly requires not accepting that the thousand years is a literal thousand years. So again, if you're an Amillennialist, you've got to spiritualize some of these passages rather than reading them in their natural sense.

To interpret in Scripture, there's a basic principle of interpretation, which is if the plain sense, if the plain sense makes sense, don't look for another sense. So in a plain reading of Scripture, as you read Revelation 20, does it not appear that this is a future reign of Christ on earth for a period of a thousand years? And many Amillennialists don't believe in a future for the nation of Israel, and many of them believe that the Old Testament promises to Israel are fulfilled in the church, and in that way the church has replaced Israel, so-called replacement theology.

No, we don't believe that. We believe that the present promises of salvation to Jew and Gentile in the Messiah, Jesus Christ, that there's only one way of salvation, whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, whoever you are, and that is found in Jesus Christ, but that present reality does not revoke the future promises which God made in the Abrahamic Covenant, reinforced in the Davidic Covenant, reinforced in the New Covenant, they do not revoke the promises to Israel. So the third view, I'm saying the correct view, for you to decide the view we adopt at Calvary Church, is premillennialism. We believe that the Lord Jesus will return prior to a literal millennial kingdom on earth. We believe that the Lord Jesus is coming soon, and Revelation 19 describes Him coming in power and glory. He will set up His millennial kingdom. He will reign visibly on earth for a thousand years as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Look at Revelation 20, verse 6, if you have there, your Bible's still open there. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with Him for a thousand years. And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and go out to deceive the nations and so on. And then we're going to have Satan cast into the lake of fire, the great white throne judgment, and then the eternal state described so beautifully in Revelation 21 and 22.

The Lord Jesus Christ will return. Israel then will recognize that He is the Messiah. The Scripture says they will look on Him whom they have pierced. They will acknowledge that He is the Lord Messiah.

And as Paul says in Romans 11, verse 26, in this way all Israel shall be saved. Prior to the return of Jesus Christ in power and glory, the church, we the bride of Christ, will be raptured. That will be followed by a tribulation period on earth for seven years or so, described in Revelation 6 through 18. So the chronology of Revelation to me argues very strongly for a premillennial position. In the opening chapters of Revelation, you have the church on earth, the letters to the seven churches. In Revelation 4 and 5, you have this great scene in heaven.

The church is now in heaven. From Revelation 6 through 18, you have the devastating events of the tribulation. You have the enemies of God arrayed against them. And then our magnificent Lord Jesus Christ will come with a rod of iron, with a sword out of His mouth, will defeat His enemies. The Satan will be thrown into the pit for a thousand years, and our wonderful Lord Jesus Christ will reign on this earth with perfect righteousness and justice and peace for a thousand years.

Wouldn't that be wonderful? You think of all of the unrest, all of the deception today, all of the lies, and think from Jerusalem, our Lord Jesus Christ will reign. So Scripture, I'm saying, supports that there is a future for ethnic Israel. Now I've put up on the screen some Scriptures in Jeremiah, which are helpful, and you can jot them down. But for the sake of time, turn to Jeremiah. Yes, we're finally in Jeremiah now. Jeremiah chapter 16, and we'll read a couple from there. Jeremiah 16. And we're saying that in Jeremiah, Jeremiah, yes, is prophesying that after the 70 years in exile in Babylon, the people of God will return to Israel, but there is a greater return, which is prophesied here.

I hope I haven't lost too many of you. Jeremiah 16, verse 14. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, prophecy declares the Lord, when it shall no longer be said as the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but as the Lord who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all of the countries where He had driven them. What happened on the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 when the temple was destroyed, Herod's temple? The Jewish nation was scattered to the four winds. Notice this, for I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.

In 1948, something amazing happened. Israel was declared as a state, and Jews from all over the world began to return to Israel as they continue to do. No, the Scripture is not finally fulfilled. Israel doesn't occupy all of the land, and certainly they are not there in belief, but this is the prophecy. Jeremiah 23, Jeremiah 23, verse 3, then I will gather the remnant of my flock — this is Israel — out of all of the countries where I have driven them. Jews are all over the world, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord. Behold, the days are coming — listen to this — declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In his days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. Is Israel dwelling securely today? No. Some of us were there just a few weeks ago, went up the temple mountain and you can feel the tension. We went to the border of Lebanon and Syria.

No. There is no security for Israel at the moment, but there will be, and this is the name by which he will be called. Who is this one? Who is this righteous branch? The Lord is our righteousness.

Jehovah said Kenya. The Lord is our righteousness. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say as the Lord lives, who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but as the Lord lives, who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all of the countries where He had driven them, then they shall dwell in their own land. You know, God's ancient prophecies are indissoluble. We read it, we read a couple of weeks ago in Jeremiah 31 that Jeremiah is saying, as long as the sun and the moon are shining, so God's faithfulness continues.

But when God promises something, yes, it may in our calculation take hundreds or even thousands of years, but what God says will come to place. What He said to Abraham, that I'm giving you this land to you and your descendants as a possession, as an everlasting covenant still stands. And because Jeremiah believed that Israel and Judah had a future in the land, he enters into this very strange real estate deal.

Are you with me? Some of you say you've lost me. Well, turn to Jeremiah chapter 32. Let's look at the particulars of this real estate deal, but I think it's very important that we understand it in a wider context. Jeremiah 32, and I want to read from verse 6 through 15. Jeremiah said, the word of the Lord came to me, behold, Hanamael the son of Shalom your uncle will come to you and say, buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours. Then Hanamael my cousin came to me in a court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord and said to me, buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours.

Buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord, and I bought the field at Anathoth from Hanamael my cousin, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. Then I took the sealed deal of purchase containing the terms and conditions and the open copy, and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Nariah, son of Messiah, in the presence of Hanamael my cousin, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard.

This was done publicly as the point. And I charged Baruch in their presence saying, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel that they may last for a long time. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land. The Babylonians have come, have devastated the land, have occupied the land, but here is the prophecy given to Jeremiah that although that is the case, in the future there will be the buying and selling of land in this place. What's the big lesson I want you to learn today as we think of Jeremiah buying this? Buying on the promises of God. It's a lesson that we need to learn every day of our lives. Without faith, it's impossible to please God.

Do you understand? Without faith, it's impossible to please God. Think of Jeremiah's situation. The events occur in the tenth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah. We know that from Jeremiah 32, verse 1.

The year is 587 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, the superpower of the day, are besieging Jerusalem. Jeremiah is presently in custody. He has prophesied that Babylon will successfully conquer Israel, that Babylon will destroy their temple built by Solomon, that king, and King Zedekiah and his officials don't accept what Jeremiah is saying.

In fact, they regard it as treasonous. He's saying to them, you should surrender to the Babylonians because they're going to be victorious anyhow, and they don't believe it, and they accuse him of treason, and they put him in custody, and we find him in chapter 32 that we read. He is in custody.

He's in imprisonment. But think of the obedience of faith. This is what impressed me this week as I thought of this. The obedience of Jeremiah. At the time of national crisis, when everything seemed lost, when the enemy is at the door, Jeremiah enters into this very strange real estate deal. The Lord speaks to him, tells him what's going to happen, and then it happens. Your cousin is going to come to you and say, buy this land. He hears this from the Lord, then the cousin comes. And Jeremiah says, then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

He's had reassurance of that. And this cousin comes to him and asks him to buy the field at Anathoth. Hanomel is following a provision under the Mosaic law whereby property is kept in the family. And this man, Hanomel, presumably had no family. Perhaps he was in debt. Perhaps he was a kind of con guy.

We don't really know. But he's asking Jeremiah to be his king's man redeemer, his goel. Remember in the book of Ruth you had this? He wants him to redeem the estate in the family. And Jeremiah then proceeds. He specifies that the legal procedures are followed. The transaction is signed, it's sealed, it's witnessed. The closing is made, the money is paid, and the deed of the transaction is put in this earthenware vessel for safe keeping, a kind of ancient safe deposit box. And from a human perspective, this is a ridiculous deal.

Why would you do that? But Jeremiah was a man of faith. And Jeremiah had prophesied that God had plans for a future, that God had a hope for the people, and that one day the people would come back to the land, that after the captivity, Israel will be restored. This faith of Jeremiah is not just theoretical, it's active and it's dynamic, and that is a faith which pleases God. Do you have that kind of faith, a living faith, a saving faith, a faith which results in action?

Paul describes it in Romans 1 as the obedience of faith. Do you have that kind of faith? Oh, there is another kind of faith. James talks about it. It's a faith without works.

It's theoretical. It's a faith of the mouth, a faith merely of profession, of saying something but not acting of it. It's a faith which sounds very good, but in fact is hollow. Jeremiah is faith is not like that. His faith is real. He takes God at His Word. And without that kind of faith, it is impossible to please God. Hebrews 11, verse 6, without faith, it is impossible to please God. For those who come to God must believe that He exists and that He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. This is a man who diligently seeks the Lord, and he takes God at His Word and he acts.

Again, I ask you, do you have that kind of faith? This is a faith which trusts completely in the personal work of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a faith which results in us repenting of our sin and turning to Christ, and as we come to Christ, we come with empty hands, offering God nothing other than our sin.

This is the very opposite of trying to achieve your own salvation. This is the faith by which we enter the kingdom of God. We enter the kingdom of God not through a baptism, not through joining a church, for it is by grace that we're saved through faith, and that not of yourself.

It's the gift of God, not a result of your own doing, so that you're boasting. No, it's all of grace. And the response to what God has done, the response to what Christ tells us to do is faith. And so the gospel as Christ comes is repent and believe in the gospel.

What are we to do? We are to repent. We're to take God at His Word. We are to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and so be saved. And this is a faith then, if it's real, continues by following Jesus Christ. It's amazing when people say that when they were seven years old, they said a little prayer, perhaps at Sunday school at their mother's knee, and now they're 37, and while they made that prayer, for the last 30 years there has been nothing of God in their life. And if you ask them, do you know Jesus Christ, they will say, yes, oh I am saved and I remember it and they can give a little story of their salvation, but it is not saving faith. True faith results in action.

It's a matter of trust. So again, I ask you day by day, those of you who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ, do you live by that kind of faith? Here you are at your work and you're asked to do something which you know is wrong. It may be illegal, sinful, but you do it because you think if you don't, you may get fired, you may not get that promotion, you may not get that sale, and so in your employment situation, you're not living by faith at all. I'm asking you to take a step of faith. You say, well I don't know what will happen to me. I may lose my job.

Yes, you may lose your job, that might be true, but do the right thing. Here is a young woman, Christian woman, she wants to get married, and she would love to marry a strong Christian man, but to date she hasn't met him, and what does she do? Rather than waiting on God, she starts dating an unbeliever.

Not only she starts dating an unbeliever, may get involved in some real immorality. Are you prepared to wait on God? You prepared to have such faith in God that God will lead you? Doesn't the Psalmist says that He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake?

Here is a couple who during the missions conferences that we've had over the years have come forward and said that God is calling them to oversee His missions. But it was five years ago, it was ten years ago, and they're still thinking about, well the time is never quite right. Listen, the time will never be quite right.

What are you waiting for? When God calls you, take action, believe Him, step out in faith. You say, well there are difficulties.

There will always be difficulties. There's always a thousand reasons for not doing the right thing and following God. I know that in my own case when God called me, people said you did this very fast.

I thought, well God called me from my legal profession, and I would have been very happy to have stayed in my legal profession all of my life. I loved, I loved the law, but when God called me, I took action. That's what God requires us to do, isn't it? You hear from God. God wants you to serve Him in a certain way.

He wants you to stop doing something because you know it's wrong. Take God at His Word. Step out in faith. This is the obedience of faith. And God very graciously, as He did with Jeremiah, has His ways of reassuring us because when we step out in faith, there are still some doubts, aren't there? And I think it's wonderful that after Jeremiah gets the Word from the Lord that this is going to happen, it does actually happen, and Jeremiah then knows, yes, this is the Word of God. God is His ways of reassuring us, doesn't it? Through His Word, through His Spirit, through the counsel of others as we step out in faith.

You see, Jeremiah buying the field is a symbol of his faith that Israel one day will return to the land after the Babylonian captivity. And what an impact his faith must have had in others. That's why he did it publicly. He was not ashamed. The man is imprisoned.

The man is ridiculed, but he stands. Such is his strong faith in God. Wish we had such faith, such radical faith. Why is the church so weak?

Why are we not making so much impact as we should in this dark world? Because we're not often acting by faith and living by faith. And as you exercise your faith, that faith strengthens the faith of others. Not only did Israel return to Babylon after 70 years, there's the glorious promises as we've seen in the Abrahamic Covenant and the Davidic Covenant and the New Covenant that days are coming when the promised land will be in the possession of Israel. Look down at verse 37 of Jeremiah 32 where we are. Jeremiah 32 verse 37.

Yes. Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them a never-lasting covenant that I will not turn away doing good to them, and I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness with all of my heart and with all of my soul."

What a great God we have. Now, I want, as I bring this to an end, I want us to mention four ways in which our faith can be strengthened. Because as you're listening, you're thinking, you know, you're like me, our faith is rather weak sometimes, isn't it? So you can have wonderful doctrine, and you can give an intellectual assent to a confession of faith or articles of faith. That doesn't mean to say that you're living by faith. This is faith which impacts how we live day by day. Now, we read, Tim had us read these wonderful verses from Jeremiah 32, but I want to think of four ways in which your faith in God is deepened.

First of all, trust the all-powerful Creator God. Notice what Jeremiah says in verse 17. You know, he goes, I love this passage because Jeremiah gets the Word from God.

It's, it gets the reassurance from his cousin. He then takes action, and he buys the field, but it's almost as if he's thinking, whoa, did I, did I do the right thing? Have you ever felt that?

I certainly have. You step forward, and you still think, oh, your faith kind of wavers a little bit. I remember when I arrived in Dallas to go to Dallas Seminary, you know, we bought this tiny little car, and I'm driving to Dallas Seminary, and I remember parking the car, and I had, I had some theology class realizing that the Americans love to get up early, unlike us.

We stay up late, and we get up late, and so here I am at some unearthly hour parking my car and walking over to some class, and I thought, what on earth am I doing here? Have you ever had that experience? You know, in one sense, you're doing the right thing, and you need that reassurance. You need your faith to be strengthened.

Here's a great way to do it. Notice what Jeremiah says, verse 17, Ah Lord God, it is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. What am I to do when my faith is weak? I'm to remind myself that God is all-powerful. I'm to trust the all-powerful God. Yes, it begins with God. Without faith, it is impossible to please God, for those who come to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

I'm to get my focus, not on my circumstances, not on my feelings which can go up and down, not on the opinions of others, but above all, my focus must be on my great God, who is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Jeremiah is saying here, He has great power. Nothing is too hard for God.

Do you believe that? His argument is, listen, if God made the heavens and the earth, do you not think He can deal with your problem? How did He make the heavens and the earth? He spoke, God said, God said, and God said.

That's it. The power of His Word. He speaks and is done.

He commands and it stands fast. You find yourself in a situation where you say, I just can't continue. I just can't get through this. I want to remind you however deep the problem, however high the obstacle, however hot the fire, however dark the night, however raging the storm, God is greater, God is unstoppable. Nothing, please hear me, nothing is too hard for God. Nothing is too, the word is hard, difficult, marvelous, extraordinary.

Therefore, I'm to trust the all-powerful Creator God. Did you get that? Good now, just back from a cruise. Please don't judge us. Back from a cruise with our granddaughter. I always said to my three grandchildren when they were eleven years old, I would take them to Scotland. And I did that with the two boys, Kara will be eleven on Tuesday, and so when we discussed this with her in the ways of little girls, which I never understood, she said she didn't know if she liked flying. I thought, oh, come on, you know, but there we are. And she wasn't sure if she wanted to go.

So, you know, come on, dear, please. And they were born here in Pineville. They've lived all their life in Fort Mill with all due respect. Their world is very, very small.

I want to try and tell them there's a big, big world out there. But anyhow, in discussions, finally decided that rather than to go to Scotland, and it's true, I was really wanting to go myself. Part of it was very selfish, I admit. Not that I don't like being on a cruise, but we went on a cruise for six nights. It was absolutely wonderful.

One of these wonderful blessings that God gives you. It was almost perfect, absolutely incredible. And we go into the Bahamas, and as the ship's coming to the Bahamas, I'm on our balcony, I'm looking out, and I said to Goodney, I've never seen the water so blue.

It was perfect calm. It was almost like glass, the cliché. It was incredible. And that night, the cruise director said he had never seen the sea so blue.

It was absolutely marvelous. So we went to this little bay. I'm swimming with Kara, and I said to her, look at the sky. Look at the clouds.

Look at the sea. Isn't this amazing that God made it all? What does that do to you when you stop and saying as we did, how great thou art?

It gets us out from our own little world, doesn't it? And to get my eyes on the greatness of God, and that however great my problem, and however difficult it is, and when I feel perhaps that I can't get through another day to remind myself of this, that God is the all-powerful Creator, therefore I am to trust Him. Nothing, nothing is too hard for Him. So whatever your situation, and some of you have terrible situations, trust the all-powerful Creator God. Secondly, trust your faithful God. Verse 18, you show steadfast love to thousands, and you repay the guilt of fathers to the children after them, O great and mighty God, whose name is the Lord, great in counsel and mighty indeed. I'm to trust His faithfulness, His steadfast love. Not only is this God all-powerful, this God is merciful, this God is gracious.

I don't deserve it. I'm a sinful man, and yet God in His grace has reached down and saved me. Once I was on that road, the broad road which goes to destruction, but God in His grace has come, and through His Son has transformed my life, and He is utterly reliable.

He's utterly wise. His promises are always true. Great is His faithfulness, therefore trust your faithful God. When you have difficulties, you want someone around you to be faithful, don't you? Some of you have a few loyal friends. It's wonderful to have a loyal friend.

It's wonderful to have someone who's faithful, someone who's steadfast, someone who doesn't leave you soon, someone who isn't just someone who says they're your friend but actually is with you. That's a wonderful thing, but how much greater to have a faithful God who is utterly faithful, who is utterly perfect, who is utterly wise. Therefore, I'm to trust this God. Not only is He all-powerful, He is that.

He is always faithful. Third, trust your loving Savior God. Verse 20, You've shown signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and to this day in Israel and among all mankind, and have made a name for yourself this day. You brought your people of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and outstretched arm, and with great terror, and you gave them this land which you swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey.

This is what Jeremiah is saying. He's saying, you're the God that redeemed us. You're the God that delivered us from the bondage of Egypt.

How is my faith to be different? To remind myself not only is my God my Creator, not only is my God always faithful, this God is my Savior. Yes, my Savior. He has redeemed me from bondage much deeper than Egyptian bondage. He's delivered me from the bondage of my own sin, my own self-absorption, my own self-will. He's redeemed me from that. He's forgiven my sins.

He's blotted them all out and He has placed me in the body of Christ, and I am blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus, all through the work and person of our Lord Jesus Christ who loves us, who gave Himself for us on the cross, and He will never leave me. My faith then is to be grounded in the gospel, that I am a child of God, that I'm saved by His grace. This one who I put my trust in is my Creator.

He's a faithful God, but He's my Savior. Finally, I'm to trust the promises of God in the midst of problems and crises. Verse 24, all the siege mounds have come up to the city to take it, think of Jeremiah. Because of sword and famine and pestilence, the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. That's the Babylonians who are fighting against it. What you spoke has come to pass, and behold you see it. Yet you, O Lord, have said to me, buy the field from money and get witnesses, though the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans. In the midst of this terrible crisis, here is Jeremiah trusting in the Word of God. We don't always understand His purposes. We don't always understand His plans, but He's saying here, verse 27, behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh.

Is anything too hard for me? Rhetorical question. Of course, nothing is too hard for Him. He's the Creator God. He's the Deliverer. He's a faithful God. What He says always comes to pass.

Therefore, not only be grounded in the gospel, but be grounded in the Word of God. This is the one who said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. A few months after the passing of our son, one of you very graciously gave us a little plaque with the words of the footprints. Have you seen it?

I mean, I'd heard about it, and I must say I never really looked at it very much until this point. The story of the man who dies, and he's talking with the Lord, and he looks back on his life, and he says, yes, when they were walking with the Lord, there's the footprints of both of them walking in the sand. But he said, I don't understand it. I went through a very difficult time. I went through a very dark time, Lord, and there's only one set of footprints.

And the Lord says, when you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you. Do you ever experience that? There are situations you would think, if that happens to me, I couldn't bear it.

If that happens to me, I couldn't get through it. I want to tell you as a child of God, yes, you can get through it. Because His promise from the Word of God, He will never leave you nor forsake you. And when you feel so weak that you can't put one step in front of another, our God is so gracious that He comes and He carries us, and we look back and we say, I can't believe I got through that. And we didn't. It was all of the Lord. You know, I said we had an almost perfect vacation.

There was one slight, slight negative. I shared this with the grandparents yesterday. We were in the Bahamas. I signed up to take my granddaughter, 10 years old, on a kayak. And we went and kayaked for two. We signed up, got our jackets on, and as we were getting ready, the guy said, now, he said, I have to tell you, he said, it's a bit rougher than we expected in this particular area, in the currents. And he said, if any of you want to stop and get your money back, you can go ahead. And I said to Kara, what do you think? She says, well, let's go ahead.

I said, yeah, I mean, how difficult can it be? And so, the providence of God, there's a number of people there. We were the first to get in this little kayak. You know what a kayak is. And it was built, I think, for someone of my wife's size, not my size. And Goody very wisely said, I have nothing to do with it. But so we went, and you got in a row, and the guy says, now, just grasp the rope till everyone is ready to go.

So you've got a guy to the front, and you've got a guy at the back who we were going to get to know very well. And so as we went to grasp the rope, I don't know whether it was Kara's fault or mine, but anyhow, we both reached over to grasp the rope, and you can guess what happened. This thing flipped right over on us, and I was out of my depth. I mean, have you tried riding a kayak when you can't stand?

And not only that, once you get it to climb into the thing, as Goody said to me afterwards, you still think you're 45, don't you? Wonderful to have an encouraging wife, but my point is there is my granddaughter, and she's in a crisis, a mini-crisis. It would be unthinkable that I would leave her and say, too bad. I think you were the problem all along. I think you were the one that tipped this thing over. I'm going my own way.

I'll jump in the kayak and leave you on your own. Unthinkable, isn't it? Why? Because she's my granddaughter. I love her.

I'd give my life for her. Remember what Paul says in that wonderful argument in Romans 8. If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

In other words, the argument is this. God in a sense has done the difficult thing. He sends His Son to die for you. Now if He does that for you, do you not think He's going to take care of you?

Do you not think He's going to carry you? Do you not think He's going to give you all of the help, all of the wisdom you have? Therefore, trust the God who's the Creator, the God who's always faithful, the God who's your Savior, and claim the promises of God. And remember this, that nothing is too hard for God. We thank You, our Father and our God, for Your grace, for the wonder of Your promises.

Think of these ancient promises regarding land. We think of the promises that You give to us that You'll never leave us nor forsake us, that You give us eternal life and we shall never perish, the promise that soon our Lord Jesus will come. We claim these promises, Father. Help us that our faith will be strengthened. There are some here who have never yet placed their faith in Christ.

In a sense, they don't know what I'm talking about. They've never experienced the joy of their sins forgiven. I pray that Your Spirit will open their eyes, that they'll understand their sin, that they'll turn and see the beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ, the One who came as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. For those of us who are followers of Christ, Father, may our faith be strengthened each day as we live for Your glory. In Christ's name, amen.