Yes, I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul.Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.”Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.
3 sermons cite this verse
now I'm turning to this text I'm choosing this text for you in part because a couple weeks ago Noel and I celebrated our 57th wedding anniversary and as we stepped back which we do, we go away for a couple of days and we step back and think about the year I wrote a poem for her called It Was a Hard and Happy Year it was it was it was a year of broken bones and heart attacks and family strife and it was a hard and happy year and we reflected on how in that year God sustained us as he has for 57 years of marriage. We love sustaining grace. We live on God's sustaining grace. We can't live without it. At our wedding on December 21, 1968, my father, I asked my father to read Habakkuk 3. goes like this though the fig tree should not blossom now picture yourself you're just beginning your marriage I mean this is the happiest day of your life and you choose a text like this are you weird Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit beyond the vines, the produce of the olive fail, the field yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold, there be no herd in the stall, yet will we rejoice in the Lord. …
… so your God will rejoice over you. Or Jeremiah 32.41, and I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this land with all my heart and with all my soul." God is fully involved in joy and rejoicing over the salvation of a sinner. That's His enterprise in the world. Once God is seeking a sinner, the sinner will respond. And that's why there are verses like Proverbs 8, 17, those who diligently seek Me will find Me. When God begins to seek you, you respond by seeking Him. Or Isaiah 55, 6, seek the Lord while He may be found. As He begins to seek for you and awaken the heart of the sinner, the sinner responds by seeking Him in return. And the promise of Matthew 7, 7 is, seek and you shall find. If God comes seeking for you, you will also seek and you will find, but not left to yourself. And as far as religion goes, the assumption in religion is you take yourself to God by your religious deeds, moral deeds, some level of righteousness or quality of life or goodness. …
24. But one considerable difficulty still remains: There are very many heathen nations in the world that have no intercourse, either by trade or any other means, with Christians of any kind. Such are the inhabitants of the numerous islands in the South Sea, and probably in all large branches of the ocean. Now, what shall be done for these poor outcasts of men? “How shall they believe,” saith the Apostle, “in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” You may add, “And how shall they preach, unless they be sent?” Yea, but is not God able to send them? Cannot he raise them up, as it were, out of the stones? And can he ever want means of sending them? No: Were there no other means, he can “take them by his Spirit,” as he did Ezekiel. (Ezek. 3:12, ) or by his angel, as he did Philip, (Acts 8, ) and set them down wheresoever it pleaseth him. Yea, he can find out a thousand ways to foolish man unknown. And he surely will: For heaven and earth may pass away; but his word shall not pass away: He will give his Son “the uttermost part of the earth for his possession.” 25. And so all Israel too shall be saved. For “blindness has happened to Israel,” as the great Apostle observes, (Rom. 11:25.) till the fullness of the “Gentiles be come in.” Then “the Deliverer that cometh out of Sion shall turn away iniquity from Jacob.” “God hath now concluded them all in unbelief, that he may have mercy upon all.” Yea, and he will so have mercy upon all Israel, as to give them all temporal with all spiritual blessings. For this is the promise: “For the Lord thy God will gather thee from all nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.” (Deut. 30:3.) Again: “I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them: And I will bring them again to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely: And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever. I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. And I will plant them in this land assuredly, with my whole heart and with my whole soul.” (Jer. 32:37.) Yet again: “I will take you from among the Heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: From all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.” (Ezek. 36:24.) …