TRUTH ABOUT FALSEHOOD
V21: How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. False religion is apostasy from the gospel of Christ. The sad state of Jerusalem was the result of a departure from the true and living God pedaled by those who claimed to be God's messengers. Every crime in the land--murder, theft, bribery, and injustice of every kind--fell first and foremost, not on the shoulders of civil leaders, but religious. The same is true in our day. (2 Thessalonians 2: 3, 4.)

V22: Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: False religion appears as true religion. In Jerusalem, the people brought the very sacrifices to the Lord which he commanded be brought. Not the torn and the lame, but fed beasts and the fat thereof, yes, they brought the best of the best. (v11.) They did not perform their religious services with those awful idolaters in the groves of the high places, but the Lord said that they tread my courts. (v12.) They did not omit a single observance of God's appointed feasts contained in the law but observed them all with precise exactness accompanied by much prayer (v13-15.) At first glance the silver and the wine appeared like real silver and real wine. But it was counterfeit silver. It was watered-down wine.

The people were taught that their acts of obedience, such as our coming to church, attendance at prayer-meetings, denial of self, along with all the daily sacrifice, would be their justification as well as sanctification by which they would be accepted of God. Flattered by the lips of liars into thinking their religious obedience made God smile upon them, they really had no understanding or need for his mercy and grace. They did not look into the word of the Lord to behold the Lord's Way of salvation but went to the word to learn what they could do. Thus they trampled the Lord's courts not to see the promised Messiah; not to behold the Lord our Righteousness, not to acknowledge their total inability to make themselves holy, not to behold him that sanctifieth. Instead, they came so that God and their fellow whores could take notice of them. (v12-to appear before me, to be seen before me.) Thy silver is become dross, they wine mixed water.

V23: Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. The Lord declares why the religious leaders would not declare the truth of God. They were afraid of suffering the loss of personal gain. A doctorate or a pulpit does not change what a man is in his heart. If God has not revealed Christ in him he will rebel against God by refusing to set forth Christ the Lord in whom sinners are complete, perfected, purged, righteous, and holy. He may say with his lips that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to all believers but he will disannul grace with the works he adds. Improperly using the law, he will oppress sinners into his religious servitude with threats of church discipline and promises of special rewards in heaven for time well-served. He will secretly pamper those in the congregation who have the means to pad his pockets with gifts and rewards. At the same time, he will deal harshly with those orphans and widows who are too monetarily poor to appease his belly-god, too spiritually bankrupt to satisfy what he esteems a righteous conformity to Mt. Sinai. Because he knows not Christ who is the believers only Reward, he himself expects praise from God because of the cities he and his taskmasters made the people build for him (Gal 6: 13; Jer 6: 13-14; Phi 3: 18, 19; Exo 1: 8-11.) V24: Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies (v28-31; Mat 7: 22, 23.)

TRUTH ABOUT SALVATION
Yet, even in a day when the whole world was consumed in religious immorality and therefore moral degradation in the streets, the Lord of hosts had a very small remnant (v9.) For the sake of that very small remnant, the Lord spared the whole land. Blessed be God the same holds true in our day--It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. How will the Lord save his people?

V25: And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: The Lord turns his hand of grace upon each of his children because he turned his hand of justice upon the Son of his love (Zec 13: 7.) His remnant was in the same condition as the rest of the rebels. They had broken God's law. Each one considered him enemies in their minds by wicked works. Therefore their dross of sin and guilt must be purged, as well as their tin of counterfeit righteousness. It is only by Christ's blood in God's court and Christ's blood in the conscience that his people are made righteous and holy to be accepted of him (Heb 1: 3; 9: 14.)

V26: And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. When the sovereign of heaven and earth says, "I will" and "I shall" then you can be sure he will and he shall. Before King Jesus comes he always sends an ambassador to announce his arrival (I Sam 12: 6-11; Jer 23: 4; Isa 52: 8; Jer 3: 15.) The Prophet is the Truth therefore he who rules from Zion has the power to teach his people through his true prophets. The Lord's pastors are called judges because they declare the Judge of the whole earth who redeems his people in truth. They are called counselors because they speak only of Christ our Counselor who converts his people in righteousness. The triune God is the Judge and Counselor which was at the first, in the beginning, whose communion he promised to restore to his people. Heavenly Jerusalem shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city because it shall be populated by a righteous and faithful people made so by him that is called Faithful and True. Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified (Isaiah 60:21)

REMEMBER THIS
V27: Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. God saves in holiness. Christ shall convert his people from darkness to his marvelous light the same way that he paid the wages they owed to God's law, with judgment and with righteousness. He did not make God's law honorable by using deceit. Neither shall he call out his elect through a word of compromise or a way of guile. Mark this down! Lock it away in your heart and meditate upon it! From the election of his remnant, to their redemption, to their conversion, to their deliverance into glory, even to the destruction of the transgressors and sinners, on that great day of the Lord all praise shall be to him who alone is Righteous to redeem Zion with judgment and convert her with righteousness.

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SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH Of Princeton, New Jersey

LOCATION & TELEPHONE
Rocky Hill Firehouse, 2nd floor
150 Washington Street, Rocky Hill, NJ, 08553
Pastor's Telephone: 615-513-4464

SCHEDULE OF SERVICES
Sunday 10 AM Bible Class
11 AM Morning Worship
Thursday 7:00 PM Mid-week Service
(The first Sunday of each month, morning worship begins at 10am followed by observing the Lord's Table. Afterwards we have lunch together.)