“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. (Jeremiah 33:14)”
God need not have promised anything, but, as He has done so, we have got His bond; now, so to speak, we hold Him fast; I speak it with reverence. Here is Thy bond, with Thy hand and seal. God has promised many “good things” to His people, and none of these things have ever failed. His people have tried Him in many ways, but they always have found the promise sure. But this promise in my text is the great promise, “I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” This is the greatest thing of all.
Hundreds of good things God has promised, and is fulfilling them every day, but this is the promise of all promises; in this promise all other things were promised, and all flow out of it. You can see they all flow out of this, “It has pleased the Father that in Him (that is, Christ) should all fullness dwell” (Col. 1:19). This “good thing” God promised is no other than the gift of His Son. Whatever God might have given, if He had not given us His dear Son we had been miserable creatures. Let God shower down upon you all the blessings and comforts of this life, let Him give you health and life for a hundred years to enjoy them, with all blessings of a temporal nature that heaven and earth can bestow, yet what a miserable wretch you would be without Jesus Christ, because they must come to an end. But if God gives us His Christ, then we have everything in Him; we have the Father’s love, we have everything that can make us happy in this life, and we have heaven at last. Christ is the true philosopher’s stone, that can, and does at times, turn everything into gold. He can make a man that has not a shilling in his pocket contented and sing; He can make him stand in the flames of martyrdom, and feel it is a bed of roses; He can make him play with lions. You can see what a “good thing” that is.