If you could please turn in your Bibles to the book of Jeremiah, the book of the prophet Jeremiah, and the last chapter of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 52. The book of the prophet Jeremiah, last chapter, just before the book of Lamentations, the last chapter of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 52. We're going to read only four verses. Jeremiah 52, from verses 31 to verse 34. Jeremiah 52. We will start reading in verse 31. The Word of God says, and changed his prison garments, and he did continually eat bread before him all the days of his life. And for his diet, there was a continual diet given him of the king of Babylon, every day a portion, until the day of his death, all the days of his life. And the Lord will add his blessing to the reading of his own precious word. Let us pray. Our God and our Father, we come this evening O Lord, with strong desires for Thy return, we come this evening even with strong desires to see sinners coming to Christ and receiving Him as Savior. O Lord, we thank You for what You did in the life of this man, King Jehoiakim, and we ask, O Lord, that we will learn from this. We will learn from Thy Word. We pray, O Lord, that the Gospel of Christ will be proclaimed even tonight. Father, I acknowledge my insufficiency. I acknowledge my weaknesses and my wickedness, O Lord. I'm nothing. I don't deserve to be here. I'm not worthy of the least of thy mercies. But I pray, O Lord, and I claim the promise that our sufficiency is not of us, but of God. And we cry, O Lord, that you will help us, that you will anoint us with the Holy Ghost, that the Holy Ghost will be the speaker this night, O Father, and that you will speak to the hearts of everybody here in this room. Father, we thank you for thy promises. We stand in thy promises. And we ask, Lord, that you will help us and you will speak and you will have a message to every one of us. Father, open our hearts, open our ears, open our eyes. We ask all these things in Jesus' precious name. Amen. I'm sure many of you have watched some program or some video where a great change or a great transformation takes place. What I'm talking about. Perhaps it is a restaurant which was doing really bad, where there was no proper hygiene and the food was horrible and everything was a mess and then some famous chef comes in. And he trains the people, and then he changes everything, so that now that restaurant is a total success. Perhaps it is a house that is in a very bad condition, it's very dirty, perhaps the house is derelict. And then somebody comes in, and there's a big transformation in that house. They clean, they paint, they decorate, and the transformation in that house is tremendous. Perhaps it is a person with food disorders or other kind of problems, and then after a lot of coaching sessions and training, they are able to be fed and have a healthy lifestyle again. And on all these occasions, of course, we like to see a picture of how everything was before and then how everything was after, after this great transformation, after this radical change, radical transformation in these situations. But the transformation we have read here in this passage The transformation of King Jehoiakim goes totally beyond all this. King Jehoiakim experienced a massive transformation in his life. After 37 years. 37 years being in prison, being exiled from his country. He was now given a high and honorable place in the palace of, actually, the greatest emperor of all his time. That was some chance, some transformation. But perhaps you ask, who was this man, this king, this man called Jehoiakim? Jehoiakim had been a king of Judah, and he became king when he was only 18 years of age. It was a difficult time for Israel and for Judah. Because of the sin of the country, God had permitted their enemies to have victory over them. The Bible tells us that his father, the father of King Jehoiakim, had been actually only a puppet king in the hands of the king of Babylon. And this man, Jehoiakim's father, had been an evil king. The Bible says that he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the Lord would not pardon. And instead of turning away from his father's sins, King Jehoiakim followed his father's footsteps. And we read in 2 Kings 24 and verse 9 that he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father had done. God sent to him, of course, the prophet Jeremiah. As he does to us, he sends his servants to speak to us, and to warn us, and to preach the gospel to us. And God sent his prophet Jeremiah, and in Jeremiah 22 we find a solemn message that God had for King Jehoiakim. A message of judgment of God that would fall upon him if he didn't repent. And he didn't repent. And so the judgment of God did come upon him. And only three months, only three months after he had been proclaimed the King of Judah. The King of Babylon, the King Nebuchadnezzar came and put an end to his reign. The pleasure of riches, the power that he had dreamt all his life that he was going to be the king. All that came to an end very, very soon for him. And by the way, how soon the pleasure of this world ends. We all think that it will last forever. We have our ambitions, our dreams, and we think that when we have them all, that will be a satisfaction for us. And we think that it will end forever. But how soon they end for us. Jehoiakim's great ambition, of course, was to be the king of Judah. And he was only king for three months. Perhaps you have here other great ambitions. Perhaps you have been working all your life for this great dream, for this great ambition. My friend, maybe, perhaps you will never reach that dream, that ambition. And even if you reach it, you're not assured of tomorrow. That dream could end very, very soon and will end. My friend, is Christ your treasure? Or is the world and its offers your treasures? What will you do with Christ and His offer of mercy that will be offered to you tonight? When the time came for Jehoiakim, God brought the judgment to his life. We read in 2 Kings that his wife, his mother, his officers, all the mighty of the land, and he himself were taken captive to Babylon, 900 miles away from Jerusalem. And that is how we find Him here in Jeremiah 52, chapter 52. This passage that we have read, these four verses appear twice in the Bible. Not only once, but twice. And I believe that God has them twice there because He wants to speak to us. He wants to teach something to us from this text. I believe the Lord wants us to see tonight the massive change that He can bring to the life of a sinner. I believe this story to be an imperfect, but a true picture of the salvation that Christ provides to us in the gospel. And why do I say that? Yeah, it is an imperfect picture. And that King Merodach, who granted this deliverance to Jehoiakim, he was an evil king and a sinful king. However, Christ, who is the sovereign King, the perfect and holy King, who left his glory to be a servant and to serve. He is the one who grants redemption to the sinner. He is the one who gave his life. So for that reason it is an imperfect picture. But yet this story is a true picture of our salvation. And that the earthly changes that we see here in the life of Jehoiachin, the changes that he experienced, are a great type, a great picture of the spiritual radical transformation. that a Christian experiences, that you can experience today if you have not seen it. You can experience even today this great transformation. So that will be our subject tonight. The radical transformation of salvation. The radical transformation of salvation. You know 2 Corinthians says, the Apostle Paul says there, that if any man be in Christ, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. There is a great transformation. and the life of any man that comes to Christ. And this passage that we have read here tonight, it's actually the last words of the book of the prophet Jeremiah. And if you think about it, this book of Jeremiah, it's a book in which we read of all the deprived sins of Judah, even in their captivity. A book in which we read of the condemnation of God, the punishment, the judgment of God falling upon them. A book in which we read of the persecution that even the prophet Jeremiah had to suffer. And a book like that ends with a note of happiness, a note of restoration, a note of the grace of God. And perhaps you're here. And the book of your life has been filled with rejection of Christ. The book of your life is filled with sin. Perhaps you are in your latter years and you have rejected Christ again and again. My friend, my friend, there is hope as there was hope for King Jehoiachin. There is hope for you. Your life could end with a note of restoration, a note of redemption, a note of the grace of God. You could also experience that radical transformation that Christ works. when he saves a sinner. First of all, we want to see that this radical transformation of salvation, it is a transformation in our possession, a transformation in our possession. God's salvation changes our possession completely. Why do we say that? Because when we are saved, when Christ saves us, we are in a totally different situation or location, a totally different situation. King Jehoiakim went from the prison to the palace. And so it is in salvation. King Jehoiakim had been 37 years in prison. 37 years! Perhaps he had lost all hope of being set free. All hope of being reunited to his family. But then King Merodach came to the throne. And in the first year of his reign, perhaps one of the first things that he did was to grant deliverance to King Jehoiakim. To set Jehoiakim out of prison. From prison, from that rotten prison, he was brought to the greatest palace of the known world. And the greatest palace. What a totally different location. What a totally different situation. And you and I. We're also born in the presence of Satan. We're also born in the presence of Satan. 2 Timothy 2.26 says that we were and we are in the snare of the devil. We were taken captive by him at his will. If you're not, see if that's where you are. You are... In bondage to sin. In bondage to the devil himself. You can't get out by your own will. Because you are in bondage. Men speak today about freedom. They like to speak about liberty and freedom. They think that they are free to do whatever they want. But that's nothing more than an illusion. After Adam, Zen, and Eden, we are all born with an inclination to Zen. We will always choose Zen after Zen after Zen, because we are in bondage to Zen. And perhaps you say, but wait a moment, preacher, I'm not like that. I'm a good person. I'm not perfect, but I'm a good person. And I do a lot of good deeds. But the Bible says that there's none that do it good. No, not one. Perhaps your deeds or what you do Are good because other people say that are good. Perhaps are good because you compare yourself with other people. But the Word of God gives us a standard. That is the standard of God. And that's perfection. It's the standard of the Lord Jesus Christ. You may do things that others see as good. But your motives in doing those things are your only glory and your pride. Not the glory of God. But there is hope for you as there was for King Jehoiakim. Christ has paid for sinners. Christ has paid for sin. In that cross of Calvary He became guilty. So that you, if you trust in Him, if you repent of your sins, you can be put out of prison. You can be delivered from that prison and brought to the palace of the King. Charles Wesley defined it in a precious way in that hymn that we sang this morning. He spoke of this deliverance, and he said, my chains fell off, my heart was free. And you could experience that this evening if you come to the Lord Jesus Christ. But you may also say, wait a moment, King Jehoiakim was not given total liberty. He had to remain in the palace. And that's right. And you are right if you think like that. Yeah, it's true. We don't read that he had total liberty to do whatever he wants. He didn't have total liberty to go back to Judah or anything like that. He had to remain in the past. And no human being has total and unconditional freedom. We are all servants of one of two masters, or servant of the devil, or servant of God, or servant of sin. or the servant of righteousness. But when King Jesus set us free from the prison of sin, then we become His servants in the palace of the King. And how great it is to be the servant of God. There is where we can enjoy and experience true freedom, true and perfect freedom. It's only being under the service of Christ. The hemrider says, I love, I love my master. I will not go out free for he is my redeemer. He paid the price for me. I would not leave his service. It is so sweet and blessed. And in the weariest moments, he gives the truest rest. What a change, what a transformation it is, in the life and in the location of the center. But not only do we have a totally different situation, but also we have a totally different status. Because we see there, in the life of King Jehoiada, that he went from being a convict to being a king. From a convict to a king. And that could happen also in your life, if you come to Christ tonight. In verse 31, we read there, And it came to pass in the seventh and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiakim king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that even Merodah king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison, and spake kindly unto him, and said his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon. So what a totally different status he had now. We read that the king lifted up his head. What a change in his possession and in his prestige. From being a nobody, forgotten and a rotten person, he was now honored to sit on a throne. And not only on a throne, but his throne was placed above all the other kings that sat before him. this man, the king of Babylon, he was pleased above all the other kings. What a transformation of status he experienced. And it's not true that we as Christians, when we came to Christ, we experienced a far much higher change of status than what King Jehoiakim experienced. We were filthy, rebellious convicts, and now we are part of the royal family. of the true royal family, the family of God. Of course, for the world, our status has no value. They don't value our status. We are despised from them. We are a spectacle unto the world. We are fools. We are weak. We are nothing for the world. But for God, We are precious in His sight. We are His portion. We are His inheritance. And in Psalm 3 and verse 3 we read of the Psalmist saying, But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me, my glory, and then he says, and the lifter up of mine head. That's the same phrase that we have read here in verse 32, or in verse 31, that the king of Babylon lifted up the head of Jehoiakim. And that's what God does to us when we come to Him. He lifts up our head. He's the lifter up of my head. We are in Christ. We are his children. We are the bride of Christ. We are kings. We are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. What a change in our status from being convicts. We are now kings with him and in him. And Christ, the God-man, he is superior to everyone and everything in this universe. And because we are united to him, because he is our bridegroom, then we are in such a privileged possession. As Jehoiachin, our throne is higher than all the greatest kings, all the greatest princes, all the greatest presidents of this world. Our throne is with Christ himself. Christ promised to his people in the book of Revelation that we will one day sit with him in his throne. What a transformation in our possession. Our situation has totally changed and also our status has totally changed. But secondly, it is also a transformation of our portion. It is a transformation of our portion. And why do we say this? Because Christ has changed our spiritual dress. Christ has changed our spiritual dress. King Jehoiakim went from being dressed with rags to being dressed with the greatest and the richer garments that he could have, from rags to riches. Jehoiakim entered prison when he was yet a king, and now he was 55 years old. 37 years had passed, and very possibly, As the condition of those jails and those prisons were. He had been all those years with the same garment. Imagine 37 years dressing the same clothes. 37 years. We are two days with the same clothes. We think that that's bad enough. Imagine 37 years. Those would be filthy rags. And in all those 37 years, there would be no possibility of washing himself. There were no baths, no showers there. Nothing like that. Imagine the filthy state of his garments. But now he was washed. And he was given royal garments. We read there in verse 33. that the king of Babylon changed his present garments. He changed his present garments. What a change in his dress and his garments. We are sinners. We are clothed with something worse than filthy rags. The Bible says that our best works are filthy rags. So then imagine how bad are our bad works, the things that we do that are bad, how bad they are and how rotten those works are. That is just what our first parents tried to do after their sin. They tried to clothe themselves with fake leaves that would perish, fake leaves that would very soon perish. And in order to go to heaven you must enter with the garment of righteousness. There's no other garment that you can use but the garment of righteousness. The garment of your own works will not do. It's only the garment of a perfect righteousness that will give you The entrance to heaven. And you can't do it yourself. Even your best works we have read are only filthy rags. You need a garment that will not perish. That will not be wrinkled or stained. And there's only one in all this world. It is the garment of Christ's perfect righteousness. The garment of Jesus Christ. And today He comes to you, and as King Merodach speaks kindly unto Him, speak kindly to King Jehoiakim, Christ comes to you tonight, and He speaks words of kindness, words of grace, words of mercy. He speaks kindly to your heart. And He invites you to come to Him. And if you come to Him tonight, there will be an exchange in your garments. You will give your garments of sin, your filthy rags to the Lord Jesus Christ. He will kneel them to that cross of Calvary. And then He will give you the garments of His righteousness, His own garments, those righteous and perfect garments. He will give them to you. What a great exchange of garments, of spiritual clothes. Will you come to Christ? Will you exchange your clothes with the Lord Jesus Christ? That is what happens when you believe in Him. And what a radical transformation that is in our dress. But also, He not only changes our spiritual dress, but He also changes our spiritual diet. King Jehoiakim went from starvation to satisfaction. We read there in verse 33 that King Merodach changed his present garments, and he, that is Jehoiakim, did continually eat bread before him all the days of his life. Verse 34, And for his diet, there was a continual diet given him of the king of Babylon, every day a portion, until the day of his death, all the days of his life. What a chance this was for King Jehoiakim! He had now food every day until the day of his death. Does that not remind us part of the Lord's Prayer when we read there, Give us this day our daily bread. As Christians we must eat every day the portion that comes from our King until the day of our death. We learn two important lessons here. First, God gives us the things we need on a daily basis. King Jehoiakim received this bread on a daily basis. He didn't receive all the bread for one year or all the bread that he would need for all his life. No, he received it on a daily basis. We read there that he received every day a portion until the day of his death. It was every day. Give us this day our daily bread. That is the prayer of the Christian. The Christian doesn't need to ask for all the bread for a year. No, we must ask for our daily bread. God gives us the things we need on a daily basis. He doesn't give them to us in one batch for all the year, but He does it on a daily basis, so that we would depend only upon Him. and that daily we would come to God, daily we would ask from Him, and daily we would be satisfied in Him. But we also see here that the Christian must eat every day of the food of the king and of no other master. We can't serve two masters. Imagine if Jehoiachin left that king and went to other places to get his food. That would be a great offense. To the king. The king had given him so much. The king had given him his daily portion. Jehoiachin didn't have to go to get it anywhere else. And it's true also that as Christians, we should be truly satisfied in our life with the true bread that comes from heaven. A verse comes to my mind and that is, I'm sure you have heard of the story of Ruth and Naomi. And when Ruth goes to work in the fields of Boaz, Naomi says to her, make sure that they don't find you in any other field, but in that field of the one that would later be her husband. And we as Christians, we must not be found in any other field. We must not look for any other food, but the food of our master, the food of our king. Sadly, many in our society call themselves Christians, but they get their portion every day from the world and not from God. What's the problem there? Many in the visible church today would say that they are God's children, but yet they despise God's Word. They despise God's holiness for our life, they despise God's commandments, God's holy day, etc. And they eat every day their food from the world. They don't want to be fed with the Word of God, they don't want anything to do with the Word of God, but they eat all their life, they eat all their dreams and ambitions and their desires and pleasures are all in this world. What's the problem there? The Bible says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. But yet, many claim to have made a decision for Christ. But yet, there is no real or radical transformation that has occurred in their life. And that is actually a curse for the Church of Christ. How many people nowadays turn away from spiritual matters? Because of hypocrites in the Church. Because of worldly professing Christians. Because of false professors. But again, that verse that we have read says, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. For King Jehoiakim it was a massive transformation, and for every Christian it must be a massive and a radical transformation in our lives. Let's imagine that when I came here this evening, here to Cumbria, let's imagine that I arrived 20 minutes late. In Spain maybe that wouldn't be too strange, because in Spain our times are a bit different. We're not as punctual as you are here. But I'm sure if I came here 20 minutes late, some of the people here would be... would be looking to me and they wouldn't be too happy with me and they would say what what happened to you and imagine that I would say you know I was coming to the meeting here and as I was driving I had a flat tire and then I went and and I went to change the tire and you know a wheel nut rolled to the middle of the road and just when I went to get that wheel nut a big 40 feet lorry was coming and that big 40 feet lorry it was coming at me at 70 miles an hour and it ran me over and that's the reason I'm late. You would say, perhaps you are totally mad or perhaps you're a liar, but that cannot be true. That cannot be true. Why? Because nobody can have an encounter with a 40 feet lorry and remain the same. Yet, there are many people that say that they have had an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. But yet, they remain the same. There hasn't been any radical transformation in their lives. But the Bible says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. How is it that they can say that they have met Christ, the Holy One, and yet there is no holiness in their life? That's impossible. Of course the Christian falls, but he repents. Of course the Christian sometimes goes astray, but the Good Shepherd will always bring him back. And the Christian will want to eat every day of the portion from the King, and he will be satisfied. And that portion and that food from the King will satisfy the soul of a true Christian. As we close and as we have thought about this man, Jehoiachin, and the radical transformation that was and that happened in his life, and the radical transformation that happens in the life of the ones who come to Christ, we could ask, why this elevation and honor to Jehoiachin? It is a strange and marvelous thing that happened in his life. Historians and commentators, they try to speculate about why these things happened to him. But the truth is that there was no reason in Jehoiachin himself. He was a wretched, rebellious man who was paying the consequence of his deeds. There was nothing lovable in Jehoiachin, nothing in him of any value. It was only by the sovereign decree of the king that he was set free. And then we could also ask, why does Christ save a rebellious sinner? Why does Christ bring a rebellious sinner from prison to his own house, to his own palace? Not because of anything in the sinner. The sinner is helpless and hopeless. Not because Christ knew that the sinner was going to do this or that. Or that the sinner was going to have faith. Because faith is not from man. Faith is a gift of God. Why has Christ loved us? There's only one answer. The Bible only gives us one answer. He has loved us because he has loved us. That's the answer the Bible gives us. It comes from his own purpose, from his sovereign grace. And that love, that love from the grace of God is offered to you tonight. If you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ comes tonight and he offers you that love, that if you come to him, he will in no wise cast you out. If you come to him, if you believe in Christ as the one who has paid for your sins, if you come to him and you repent of your sins, he will save you. He has promised that and he will do it. Your life will experience a transformation similar or actually a lot bigger than the transformation that we have read tonight of King Jehoiakim. My friend, will you repent of your sins and come to the Lord Jesus Christ? He comes tonight to you and He speaks kindly to you as the King spoke to Jehoiakim in verse 16. Christ lived a perfect life. He died on the cross of Calvary so that you could have today perfect deliverance from your awful possession. He died also to give you the best portion that any man can have in this world and in the world to come. And that is Himself. He gives Himself to you. Will you come tonight to the Lord Jesus Christ and be radically, radically and totally transformed by His grace? Don't reject Him any longer. Perhaps you have rejected Him for a very, very long. Don't reject Him any longer, but come to Him tonight. Have you come to Him? He will bring this wonderful transformation. Will you stay in your oppression as a convict with your rags and your starvation? Or will you come to Christ and go from depression to the palace? From being a convict, a rebellious convict, to being a king? From rags to riches and from starvation to satisfaction in Christ? Will you come? Will you come to Him? Perhaps you think you can earn your salvation by anything you do or you give. Perhaps you think if you do good works, if you give to charity, if you give to the church, you will be saved. Nothing can be farther from the truth. That is a great mistake. Imagine that you were invited to a royal banquet in Buckingham Palace by the Queen. You are seated at the table that is filled with the best food in all the world. Every effort is made so that you will have a great evening, a most enjoyable evening. And even at the end of that lovely visit, the Queen herself goes to the door to greet you and to say hello to you and to shake your hand. What do you do then? Imagine that as you go out the door and as you leave and you shake her hand, you shake the hand of the Queen, then you give her a couple of pounds and you say, hey, this is to pay for the food that you gave me today. That would be a great offense. That would be a great offense. That's not the proper response to her kindness. No, that would be rude and ignorant and an insulting gesture. So it is with God's grace. You cannot pay, you cannot do anything to deserve God's grace. It's God's unmerited favor to us. Trying to repay in ourselves what Christ has done is an insult. It's an offense to God, because we can't. You must come and say to Christ, nothing in my hands I bring, only to the cross I cling. Will you come to the Lord Jesus Christ tonight? Will you experience this great and radical transformation in your life? Only Christ can change you. Only Him. Come to Him. Let us pray. Our Father and our God, We thank you for thine amia singrias. Thank you, Father, for that radical transformation and salvation. Thank you, Father, because if anybody is in Christ, We are a new creature. All things are passed away. Everything, everything becomes new. We thank you for the example and the picture we have here in the life of King Jehoiakim. He didn't deserve anything. He had the consequence of what he has done, what he had done. But oh Lord, you were pleased to bring him from the prison to the palace. You were pleased to bring him from starvation to satisfaction. And I ask, O Lord, that you will do the same with a dear sinner tonight. O Father, that they will see the beauty of Christ, they will see the awfulness of their sin. And O Father, that they will come, they will cling to Christ, they will trust in Christ, they will repent from their sins, and they will be saved by thy grace. O Lord, it is not of worthless lest any man should boast. O that they will place their faith only upon Christ, the only Savior. and they would not trust in anything else, only in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, thank you for saving us. Thank you for saving me from my sins. And I ask, O Lord, that you will save sinners here tonight. We ask all these things in Jesus' precious name. Amen.