We turn in God's Word tonight to Jeremiah chapter 1. Jeremiah 1. Our text is verses 11 and 12, but we'll read the entire chapter. Jeremiah 1. The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the 13th year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, unto the end of the 11th year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month. Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child. For thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces for I am with thee to deliver thee saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the Lord unto me, thou hast well seen, for I will hasten my word to perform it. And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying, what seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot, and the face thereof is toward the north. Then the Lord said unto me, out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. For lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord, and they shall come, and they shall set everyone his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah. And I will utter my judgments against them, touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worship the works of their own hands. Thou therefore gird up thy loins and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee. Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. For behold, I have made thee this day a defensed city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee. This is God's holy and divine word. May he bless it to our hearts this evening. Our text is verses 11 and 12. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the Lord unto me, thou hast well seen, for I will hasten my word to perform it. Beloved congregation and our Lord Jesus Christ. We stand at the end of the year 2019. And as we look back, as we look back over the year that is now finished, it seems that things are going very, very fast. There's a sense of haste and a sense of urgency that we observe as we look back over the one year that is finished. Just consider our own congregation. It was last December that we were talking as a congregation together to each other about expanding the sanctuary into the new land that had been purchased in order to accommodate the numbers that God had given this congregation. And now a short 12 months later, the Daughter Church unity has been formed. We weren't talking about a daughter even a year ago. It seems that things are hastening along, even in that formation of a daughter. That's not to say it was hasty, but it seems to us that things are hastening along. Or consider what's going on in the world around us. Think of the lawlessness that is advancing by leaps and bounds, so that in our day and age, there are all kinds of conversations going on about whether someone who's born a male is still a male if he decides to be a female, and vice versa. Those things would have been unthinkable in most of our lifetimes. and even a few years ago. But those are the kinds of conversations that are being held in the culture today. It seems like lawlessness, even lawlessness against the laws that God has embedded in nature. The laws of gender, for example, are being hastily overthrown and fought against. And then consider all of the wars and rumors of wars that there are constantly being threatened throughout the world. This nation against that nation, and often our own nation right in the middle of all of those discussions and all of those rumors of wars. And it seems that things are hastening, hastening along. This was a fast year, 2019 was. There's an explanation for that, and the explanation for things moving quickly is found in our text before us tonight, that the Lord is hastening His Word to perform it. The Lord is behind all of these things, all of these good things. like the formation of a daughter congregation so that the Protestant Reformed churches have another congregation in our midst. The Lord is behind the hastening of those good things and the Lord is behind, without being guilty of, the hastening of wickedness and the increase of lawlessness for God in his sovereign providence controls all of these things perfectly. The Lord is hastening his word to perform it. And that truth is a great consolation to the church, because if we step back and look beyond just the last year, 2019, and see that 2019 years have gone by since the incarnation of our Lord, so that this is the end of the year of our Lord, 2019, then it seems like things are going slow. To us puny humans, 2,000 plus years since the Lord first came, and all of the world saying, where is the promise of His coming again? Can't you see by now, after 2,019 years, Church of Jesus Christ, that He's not coming again? That all things continue as they were from the beginning? Can't you see that the great project of the men and women on this earth is to build a kingdom of man instead of worrying your heads about a kingdom in the sky? From the perspective of puny man, it seems that things are coming slow. Where is the Lord and when shall he return? Well, there the words of our text are a great consolation to us. The Lord is hastening His Word to perform it. He's hastening it, bringing it along as fast as is possible. That is, as fast as He has determined and as He has decreed. Things are not moving slowly. Things are rushing towards the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the Church of Jesus Christ does recognize that too. As we consider that all of these things that look to us so fast in this past year are signs of the return of the Lord. The Gospel going forth to the nations. Wars and rumors of wars. The increase of lawlessness and apostasy. Those are signs of the Lord's own return. He's on His way and He is coming quickly. And so at the end of the year, the Church of Jesus Christ turns to that Word of the Lord and His hastening to perform it. And we use that as our theme this evening as well. Jehovah's Word hastened. In the first place, consider the meaning. In the second place, consider the outcome. And in the third place, consider the consolation to the church. Jehovah's Word hastened the meaning, the outcome, and the consolation. In Jeremiah 1, verses 11 and 12, God comes to Jeremiah with a vision. And a vision is God's coming to a man while he's awake and interacting with that man, either showing him something or speaking to him in that vision, so that the man who receives that vision, as Jeremiah did here, can see something, can hear the word of the Lord, can speak to God and have God speak to him and interact with God about this thing he has seen. And by that vision, God reveals something of his will and his counsel to that man. Here in Jeremiah 1, 11 and 12, God showed Jeremiah a vision of a rod of an almond tree. God said to Jeremiah, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the Lord unto me, thou hast well seen. This rod of an almond tree would have been familiar to Jeremiah because Anathoth, the city from which Jeremiah came and in which he did his prophetic work at the beginning of his earthly prophetic ministry, that town of Anathoth was famous for its almond trees. In fact, it still is famous for almond trees today. That region that's not called Anathoth anymore, some name that I can't pronounce in an Arabic language, But that region where Anathoth was is still known today for its beautiful almond trees. These almond trees in Anathoth bore a beautiful white blossom so that the orchards of Anathoth were laden with blossoms in the early spring. The significance of the almond tree here is that the almond tree was the first plant to bud and to flower at the end of the winter. It was the first sign that spring was coming and even now was here. So the almond tree would have been for Jeremiah and for the people of Israel something like what the robin is for us today. At the end of the winter, we keep an eye out for the robins that we might see hopping around on the ground looking for worms in the earth that is still cold. A robin is a sign of spring. So it was with the almond tree for the people of Israel. When the almond sent forth its buds and when it blossomed forth, then people knew spring is here and the warmth and the planting season will soon begin again. In fact, the almond tree was so famous for being a sign of spring that the word for almond in Hebrew is the word watch or watcher. Jeremiah literally says here, I see a rod of a watcher tree. a watcher tree being understood by everybody to be an almond tree. And it was called a watcher tree because you would watch that tree for signs of its budding and its blooming in order to know that spring was here. Especially as the winter grew long, especially as the people longed to plant again and bring forth a harvest out of the earth again, they would watch with eager, earnest intensity the twigs and branches of an almond tree. God shows Jeremiah that vision of an almond tree and says to him, what do you see? Jeremiah says, the rod of an almond. And then God explains the meaning of the watcher tree or the almond tree and that meaning is twofold. In the first place, the meaning of that almond tree is that Jehovah God also is watching. That's what he says in verse 12, And the word that's translated here, hasten, is literally the word watch. I will watch my word to perform it. In fact, it's the same Hebrew word, this word hasen, as the word for almond in the verse just before, or the identical Hebrew root of the word. God said to Jeremiah, what do you see? Jeremiah said, I see a watcher tree. And God says, I also am watching. I will watch. And what God will watch is his word to perform it or accomplish it or see that that word comes to pass. Just as the people of Israel would watch intently as the months of winter grew long, the branches of the almond tree for signs of spring, so Jehovah God watches his own word to perform it. The idea of Jehovah watching his word is not this, that God is waiting for someone else to bring his word to pass. That would have been the significance of people watching an almond tree. They were watching the almond tree to watch God bring to pass the spring. But the significance of Jehovah watching His Word is that He's watching it that He may perform it and that He may bring it to pass. God is intent upon that Word. God is vigilant unto that Word. God is watching His Word to perform it. The idea here then is the same as that is expressed in Isaiah 55 verses 10 and 11. For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void. But it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it." Jehovah God here, by saying, I am watching my word to perform it, is saying, I do not forget my word. My word does not leave my mind and fall out of my mind. I keep my word in my mind. I'm looking upon it. It never leaves my attention. I am watching my word to perform it. What was that word that God was watching to perform? In Jeremiah's day, that would have been the word that we read in verses 9 and 10 of Jeremiah 1. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant. God said to Jeremiah, I have put my word in your mouth and that word will destroy the wicked. And I have put my word in your mouth and that word will save my people. It will throw down and tear down and destroy and uproot all who are against me. And it will build up and plant and establish and edify and grow those who belong unto me. That was the word of Jehovah. But now if we put ourselves in Jeremiah's shoes, during his ministry it did not seem like that word was coming to pass. Jeremiah prophesied during the last 40 or so years of Judah's existence in Canaan before the Babylonian captivity. He began his prophecy when Josiah was king, and then the four kings after him were all wicked kings. For 40 years or so in the land of Canaan, the wicked were not thrown down. They were the ones planted at sea. And for 40 years in the time of Judah, the righteous were not established, but they were overthrown and torn down, so it seemed. It didn't seem that Jehovah remembered his word and was accomplishing his word the way he said he would to Jeremiah when God commissioned Jeremiah as a prophet. And so to encourage the prophet, God says to Jeremiah, Jeremiah, remember that almond branch. Remember how everyone watches that almond branch. That's the way I watch my word. I haven't forgotten it. It has not fallen to the ground. It will not return unto me void. It will accomplish everything that I have declared. And that's always the truth regarding Jehovah and his word. He watches his word to perform it. Go back to the days of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Hear the word that God spoke to them. I will make your seed as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable and as many as the stars of heaven. And I will give to you all the land of Canaan to possess it, you and your seed after you." And yet Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob never owned any of that land of Canaan. It did not come to them. And there were 400 years in which the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived in slavery in Egypt. The land of Canaan did not belong to them then. And yet God all through those 400 years was watching his word to perform it. He hadn't forgotten. He was not unfaithful to that declaration, but was faithful. So that at the end of those 400 years of captivity, he raised Moses and brought them out of the land of Egypt by Moses and raised Joshua and brought them into the land of Canaan through Joshua. gave to them the cities and the possessions of the inhabitants of the land. He watched his word to perform it. And so Jehovah does today. He watches that word. It is not an empty word, but a powerful word that is being accomplished by the sovereign might of God. 2,019 years have passed since our Lord was born into this world. That many years since He told His disciples, I will come again. That many years since He declared, behold, I come quickly. Not 40 years of Jeremiah, not 400 years Israel and Egypt but 2019 years since those promises were made so that the whole world says you're fools for what you're waiting for turn your eyes away from that pie in the sky get busy with us to build the kingdom of man but Jehovah is watching that word to perform it that word cannot fail will not fail, for Jehovah God, when he sends out that word, does not let that word return to him void, empty, powerless, without having accomplished his purpose. The word of God is mighty, and Jehovah himself remembers what he has said. That's the first significance and meaning of that vision of the almond branch, just as all of Israel would have been watching the buds of the almond tree. So Jehovah God watches his word to perform it. The second meaning of the almond tree is that God hastens his word to perform it. And here the translation of the King James Version is a good translation, even though the word most basically and most literally means watch, to translate it hasten is good. because the almond tree was the first to bud in the land of Canaan. It's as if the almond tree couldn't wait to bud and couldn't wait to bring forth its flowers. It was as if the almond tree was rushing ahead and running ahead to spring so that the moment there was any warmth in the air and in the ground, that almond tree sent forth its flowers. There's a hastening. That goes on with the almond tree hastening to the spring and hastening to the bearing of its fruit. And that's the meaning of what God says here as well. I will hasten my word to perform it. It's not just this, that God is watching that word, but is inexplicably waiting to accomplish it. That God is watching it. but isn't quite sure when he's going to bring it all to pass. Nothing like that. Jehovah God is hastening to bring that word to pass. He's not tarrying, he's not delaying, but he is hastening in accomplishing that word. He's hastening exactly according to his own perfect counsel and decree. The whole council is not brought to pass in a year, or in 40 years, or 400, or 2019. The purpose is accomplished exactly according to the timetable and timeline of Jehovah. When we gathered for worship tonight, our call was A thousand years are in thy sight as a day, and a day as a thousand years, which means that on God's calendar, two days have passed since He made these promises. Two thousand years, two days on God's calendar since He made the promise of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Himself expresses this same truth And he says in Revelation 22, verse 20, behold, I come quickly. There is no delay, not on God's part, though it may appear so to men. The Lord hastens to return, bringing all things exactly to the purpose that he has decreed and bending all things to the accomplishing of that purpose. And when we open our eyes and look at the fast events of the year 2019 and hear by faith this word of the Lord, I'm hastening my word to perform it, we see the Lord comes quickly, quickly indeed. What's the outcome of this watching and this hastening of the word of the Lord to perform it. To understand that outcome, we have to look more closely at what God is watching, at what he is hastening. He is watching and hastening his word, his word. And what is the Word of Jehovah God? That Word of God is not merely the sounds that came out of Jehovah's mouth. Although there are sounds, wonderful, mighty sounds that come out of Jehovah's mouth, there's the sound, let there be light, that comes out of His mouth. That's His Word. There's the Word of the Gospel. That word comes out of his mouth, that's his word, but that word proceeds forth from his thought. That's the way words work. That's the way God has made words work among us. Our words come forth from thought so that as we think, as we put together a thought, we send it forth out of our mouths in a word, and that's the way words work in Jehovah God as well. The word of God is an eternal word. The word of God is that eternal thought that is his counsel, his good pleasure, his eternal decree, his everlasting word. So that regarding the decree of election, for example, God says he chose us from before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1 verse 4. That word of your salvation and mine that proceeded from the mouth of God was a word that was his decree from all eternity before the foundation of the world. That's the word of Jehovah God. He's watching that counsel and watching that plan. And that in itself points us to the outcome. Because if this word of God is the eternal decree of God, given voice, the eternal good pleasure of God, then there's nothing that can prevent that word from taking place. Not the wicked strategies of men. Not the opposition of men to the word of God. Not even the unbelief of men concerning that word of God. Men who say, we don't believe it, we will not acknowledge that it is true or that it shall come to pass. Nothing can stand against that word of God. It's his eternal counsel and decree that must stand and must come to pass for he is God, the unchangeable, the great I am that I am. But take a closer look at that word. that proceeds from his eternal counsel. And we shall find that at the center of that counsel, right at the heart, there is one word. And that one word is the Lord Jesus Christ. That one word is the only begotten Son of God come in our flesh in the fullness of time. In the passage that even the young children here know, from John 1 verse 1, God declares, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. When God says in Jeremiah 1 verse 12, I will hasten my word to perform it, he's referring to that center of his own counsel. which is the Lord Jesus Christ. Every decree has its meaning and its birth in the Lord Jesus Christ. All things are hastening on to the purpose he has in redeeming his church. through the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we see that as the Word of God and see the Lord Jesus Christ at the center of the counsel of God, then we know the outcome of all these things. The outcome of the hastening and the watching of that Word. The outcome is this. The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is saved. is saved without fail, is saved without a single member lost, is saved in spite of all her sin, in spite of all her unbelief, in spite of all her depravity by nature, the Church of Jesus Christ is saved by that work of Jesus Christ declared by God and decreed from all eternity as His good pleasure and as His word. That salvation comes from the Lord Jesus Christ as the center of the counsel of God. What did we confess in the Nicene Creed tonight? That that Jesus Christ, who is of the same essence of the Father, came into our flesh for us men and our salvation. That's the Word. Jesus Christ, the Savior, And that's the word that God spoke to Jeremiah. That's the meaning of that word, the salvation of the church. It looked upside down in Jeremiah's day, 40 years at the end of the kingdom of Judah of misery for the church and the ascent of the wicked in the land. Yet God watched his word. the salvation of his people through Jesus Christ and brought it to pass so that although the people went into captivity for 70 years, God brought the remnant back. God did all of that as his good pleasure according to his perfect counsel in the Lord Jesus Christ. All of it served the salvation of the remnant. And so it does today. Why are there wars and rumors of wars? Why is there such wickedness and apostasy? Why are things going the way they are today? It's all to accomplish God's purpose of salvation, your salvation and mine, in Jesus Christ. The salvation of the church through Christ is an outcome, but even that outcome serves a higher and greater outcome with the Word of God and that higher, greater, ultimate outcome is the glory of Jehovah God. God has decreed Jesus Christ. God has spoken Jesus Christ as the Word made flesh. God has given salvation to the church that all might see the power of God who has come into our flesh and taken us wretches that we are in ourselves, given us life and glory and salvation. He's come to us in all our weakness and poverty and sin and given us an inheritance that fadeth not away through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the wonder of the mercy of God that is on display coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don't forget that the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation is also the coming of Jesus Christ for judgment against all who stand against God, against his word and against his anointed. God's word shall come to pass. He watches thus and hastens it so. which means all who stand against him and stand against that word shall be swept away in judgment. The only salvation from that judgment is in the blood, the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the word that God watches and hastens. That's the outcome. The salvation of the church, the destruction of her foes, glory of our God. The consolation for the church then is that she does not live her life looking only at appearances. She does not judge her course by what the wicked men or powerful men of this earth are saying. She does not pin her hopes on whether she can figure out how all of these things shall work together for our good. But rather the church in the midst of this present evil generation with wickedness increasing and things moving so quickly, the promise of the Lord ringing in her ears that the Lord Jesus Christ comes again, the church looks to that promise by faith takes hold of that promise, believes that God's word shall indeed be accomplished. As we stand at the end of the year then, it looks to us from one point of view like things are going so fast. This year was so fast already. We're at the end of 2019. From another point of view, it looks like things are going so long, 2019 years since our Lord was incarnate upon this earth, but hear the word of God regarding the almond tree. I watch my word, says God, to perform it, and I hasten my word to perform it. Take hope, church of our Lord, and believe in him. Amen. Our Father, which art in heaven, we thank thee for thy word to us this evening. Bless it to our hearts, and encourage us that thou dost watch thy word to perform it, so that there is no force in all of the world that can stand to thwart it and prevail. For thou art God, and thine arm is strong, and thou art hastening to perform what thou hast promised. Come, Lord Jesus. Yea, come quickly. In his name we pray. Amen. Psalter number 247, 247. We'll sing the second tune of Psalm, this versification of Psalm 90. Let's sing all six, all six of the second tune of 247. O God, our God! Before the hills in order set forth, Earth, we seek her grave. Of everlasting power, Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all his sons away. Late life, forgotten as a dream, We thou art our God. Joy to sound Jehovah's praises! The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Amen.