Sunday Morning, September 8, 2019 AM

The New Covenant and the Hope of Jeremiah 31

Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for gathering us together on this day, in this place. Thank you for the encouragement that I received and I know that others receive from the singing today as we are teaching and admonishing one another with hymns and psalms and spiritual songs.

As we are holding up and holding forth.

The word of Christ, Lord, we pray that you would.

Bless our time now as we've read from your word and as we've sung the truths of it together, prayed in agreement with what you have given to us in your word and I pray now that as we pay close attention to this passage from Jeremiah, Lord, I pray that you would nourish our souls.

That you would strengthen our faith. That you would increase our love for you, for Christ, for one another. Lord, I just pray that you would have your way in us today through your word and we really would be the amen on earth of your will that is done in heaven.

We pray all these things for the sake of Christ, the one with whom you are well pleased.

Amen.

I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31 and be reading verses 31 through 40.

In a moment.

Jeremiah 31, verses 31 through 40. We've been looking in this area of Jeremiah for quite some time. We've slowed our pace a great deal. There are some very important passages here, very important scriptures that are relied on heavily and quoted extensively in the New Testament as the followers of Christ are making sense of what it means that the Messiah has come.

What does it mean that he has died upon the cross and been raised from the dead? What does it mean that he points to this passage and that passage all over the Old Testament and declares thus it has been fulfilled in his own person and work?

And this is one of those passages that is very important for us to pay close attention to. And we've been talking about the transition between Old Covenant and New Covenant, that what was emphasized in terms of location in the Old Covenant is emphasized in terms of incarnation in the New Testament, where once you would go to a place to see the sacrificial act of giving up an atonement to God and being strengthened in your faith in God that he would forgive you, you would go to a location, the tabernacle or the temple.

Now it's about coming to Christ, God incarnate, where once there was a temple, now there is Christ as one example. But there's three ingredients of covenants that God makes with man that we find being talked about again in the New Covenant.

The three ingredients are God's people, living in God's place, blessed under God's rule. And when God makes an agreement with mankind, when he makes a special relationship with mankind, that's what he does.

He says, you are my people and I am your God. And then he puts them into his chosen place and then he wants them to live a blessed life under his rule. And we find that throughout the Old Testament whenever God makes a covenant with people.

And it's the same three ingredients in the New Covenant as being expressed here in Jeremiah 31. And so the differences that we've been noticing so far between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant is that while in the Old Covenant, talked about this last week, while in the Old Covenant, by simply the reason of being born into Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, simply being born into that family made you a part of the Old Covenant.

They were just born into Israel. And so some of them really did come to faith in God. Some of them really did hold fast to the shadows of Christ in the Old Testament. Some of them really were forgiven, but there was a whole lot of them who weren't.

There was a whole lot of them who did not know God, did not care for his law. They walked about unforgiven and yet they were part of the Old Covenant. And yet we always read about a remnant, don't we?

A faithful remnant of God's people who did not bow the knee to Baal and were faithful in following after God. In the New Covenant, the remnant becomes the whole. In the New Covenant, the remnant becomes the whole.

And everyone in the New Covenant knows God, is loved by God, is forgiven by God because of Jesus Christ. That's a significant difference that we're gonna be paying attention to this morning. So we have the same ingredients.

The same ingredients are God's people in God's place, blessed under his rule, but there's a new recipe. It's everything that we're thinking about in terms of covenant is understood through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

So I'm gonna go ahead and read for us. If you would please stand, I'm going to read Jeremiah 31, verses 31 through 40. May God bless this reading of his word. Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord.

But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and on their heart I will write it and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

They will not teach again each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more.

Thus says the Lord who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar. The Lord of hosts is his name. If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before me forever.

Thus says the Lord, if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the Lord.

Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city will be rebuilt for the Lord from the tower of Hananel to the corner gate. The measuring line will go out farther, straight ahead to the hill Gerab, then it will turn to Goa and the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes and of all the fields as far as the brook of Kidron to the corner of the horse gate toward the east shall be holy to the Lord.

It will not be plucked up or overthrown anymore, forever. This is the word of the Lord, you may be seated. Jeremiah is writing these words to a people in exile. They have lost their homeland, they have been taken away.

They are on the verge of losing their city. Jerusalem is about to be destroyed. He's writing to exile soon to mourn the loss of their temple, the loss of their city, the loss of their national identity and he's writing them a word full of hope.

A word that they can hold on to because of which they can rejoice. This is very good news, this is excellent news. There's cause for rejoicing. Even as early as the prophet Joel, when he began writing about the new covenant, he begins his passage this way in Joel 2 .23,.

"'Rejoice, O sons of Zion. "'Be glad in the Lord your God.'". And he gives them many, many reasons to rejoice and be glad, including the fact that God will restore their fortunes, restore the years that the locusts have eaten.

Indeed, he would pour out his spirit upon his people and men and women would prophesy and they would speak the truth of God. And indeed, whosoever would call upon the name of the Lord would be saved.

Good news.

The very passage that Peter preached on Pentecost.

Good news.

So when we think about the new covenant, it's something concerning which we are called to rejoice. Something about which we are to be glad. This is good news that we are to hold on to. Well, the first part of this new recipe that we looked at was a people ruled.

As in the old covenant, they were ruled by the law. The law was central among them. The law was deposited in the Ark of the Covenant inside the Holy of Holies and was disseminated outward by the Levites.

In the new covenant, the law is written on the very hearts of the people. And this was not to say that there were those in the old covenant, there were none in the old covenant who didn't have the law of God written on their hearts.

There were some, but in the new covenant, it's every single last one of them will have the law of God written upon their hearts. And there'll be no one in the new covenant who lives far and distant away from the rule of God, for every single one of them will be directly ruled by Christ.

For the law of God written upon their heart, the testimony of Christ inscribed upon their heart, new recipe, not ruled from afar, but ruled directly by Christ through his spirit according to his word.

The Faithfulness of God in Preserving His People

And now the second part of the, another ingredient, a people remaining. Remember, it's God's people in God's place blessed under his rule. So we're looking at God's people, and then we see that there's a people remaining in verses 35 through 37.

Again, Jerusalem is about to fall. Exiles are scattered abroad. God is declaring he's gonna make a new covenant that is not like, specifically, not like the covenant that he made with his people at Sinai.

And with all this being said, here comes the most well-timed assurance. God promises that all these changes will not result in Israel's elimination. He's saying to the exiles, Jeremiah is saying to the exiles, good news, you will not be absorbed into the culture in which you now live.

You're not going to go fading away into the pages of history never to be heard from again. Good news, you're not gonna be annihilated by your enemies, totally wiped out, as was the plans of Haman. You are going to be persevered.

You are going to be preserved. You are going to remain. You are not gonna be annihilated or absorbed. God promises this, and then he backs it by his power. I think we have two considerations this morning if you look at verses 35 to 37.

First of all, it's God's faithfulness, and this is the emphasis of these verses. It's God's faithfulness. I think we most often use this term faithful. If we're not talking about God, most often we talk about a husband or a wife being faithful.

We talk about faithfulness most commonly outside of the context of God. We talk about faithfulness in terms of marriage. When we say that a man is faithful to his wife, we certainly mean that he has loved her and been committed to her over a period of time, and this is well understood and testified to not only by his wife, but many people, that he's been faithful to his wife, but even more particularly, he's not being faithful in her ups and downs, to her ups and downs, but he's being faithful to what?

Precisely his marital vows. When we say a man is faithful, he is acting in accordance with the vows that he took, with the word that he spoke, that he would not leave or forsake, that he would be committed and love and cherish and uphold and lead.

He made that promise and he has been faithful to that promise, and that's why we say he's been faithful to his wife. But precisely what we mean is, not that he was always committed to a woman, but when he got married, which is different than simply being committed to a woman, when he got married before witnesses and before God, he spoke a word, and he's been faithful to that word.

That's what we mean. And so when we think about God's faithfulness, yes, he was faithful to his people, but it's not simply the matter of the fact that he was committed to a people, but that he was faithful to his word, that what he has spoken, he will perform.

What he has said is exactly what he does. He backs his word with his power. And that's what it really means for God to be faithful. God is faithful. When we think of God's faithfulness, simply do this.

You take his word, and you multiply that by his power, and you have his faithfulness. How faithful is God to his word, to the degree of his power to perform it? How exactly does he use his power? Always in accordance with his word.

This is what it means for God to be faithful. Now, there's two elements of faithfulness, God's word and his power. So let's look at God's word. God's word is central to this passage of the new covenant.

He has promised to make a new covenant in which his word will be written on the hearts of his new covenant people. Not only did he forge the people of Israel at Sinai precisely by his word as he gave them the 10 commandments, but he will reforge his people by his word.

His word will be written on their hearts. And in verses 35 to 37, we read over and over again, God emphasizing his word. Thus says the Lord, thus says the Lord, declares the Lord, declares the Lord. Why is this being emphasized for these exiles living in Babylon that what he is saying is being said by this one, this God, this Lord?

This is about assurance. What assurances does Israel have that despite the destruction of Jerusalem, despite being scattered in exile, despite some new covenant replacing the one that they've known from Sinai, what assurances do they have that they're not gonna go out of existence?

God said so.

That's the assurance.

God said so.

And that kind of assurance doesn't, sometimes does not hold much weight between parent and teenager. You know, I don't want to. It will be good for you and you will do it.

Why?

Because I say so. Now the effectiveness of that answer, it really doesn't depend on the teenager. It depends on the character, ability, power of the parent. What groundwork has the parent laid in the earlier years in terms of respect and character and follow through?

The believability of because I say so depends on the character and the ability and the power of the person saying it. When God says, because I say so, this is a lock. This is the strongest kind of assurance.

I mean, notice the emphasis on God's power and his ability in our text. He gives the sun for light by day. He has established the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night. God is the one who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar.

He's Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts. He's God of all the armies of creation.

I mean, that's power.

So can any power other than God halt the rotation of the earth or the cycle of the seas? Then how can any power other than God erase Israel? There is no such power and God says he's not gonna do it. So there you are, there's your assurance.

Because God said so. Can any other power than God measure the full extent of the universe or drill down to the center of the earth to see what's actually there? No, there is no such other power. Isaiah 40, 12, who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens by the span and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales?

Only God, only God. So if God is determined to save a remnant of Israel and not cut them all off, who can ward off his hand and say to him, what have you done? Daniel 4, 35, in contrast to God, all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing.

He, however, does according to his will in the host of the heavens and among the inhabitants of the earth. This is why God is faithful because of his power and his word. So God has determined, we see from our text, God has determined to preserve Israel as a people before him forever.

He will not, it says, cast off all the offspring of Israel, verse 37, for all that they have done. He promises to preserve and forgive. And he has promised to make a new covenant with the house of Judah, with the house of Israel, one in which he will forgive them of their sins and thus preserve them and not cut them off.

And in this one, in this covenant, the remnant that used to be now becomes the whole because everyone in the new covenant, all of them born again, all of them children, all of them forgiven. This is really good news.

His power being absolute, his character being flawless, his ability being perfect, nobody's going to thwart God's word. When God says he is for his people, who can be against them? We know this answer.

It's important for us to recognize that God's faithfulness is the basis of our joy. The comfort, the sorrowing people under siege and exile need is this kind of assurance. What Jeremiah is writing here, what the spirit is saying through Jeremiah here, these are not words being easily breathed, easily believed in a peace and prosperity filled time.

This isn't being said when times are good. This isn't being said when the economy is great. This is not being said when national power is at its height, its zenith. These are gritty faith grounding words for those in peril.

This is restraining harness, crash helmet, airbag doctrine for those wrecked in history, spun out, rolling over, impacting the concrete barrier of God's judgment.

They're hitting the wall.

What are they holding on to? God's assurance, God's word, God's faithfulness. We got to lean into that. You see the intersection of God's word and God's power and God's people is Jesus Christ. The word became flesh and dwelt among us to save for God a people from every tribe, tongue and nation.

When we behold Christ, we behold the word of God, the power of God in Christ who saves the people of God. And that's why all the praise is to him. That's why his people's joy is in him. God is faithful to what he has said and he has said it all in Christ the word.

And this is why we have passages like John 10. And Romans 8 and 1 John 5. So I'm gonna read just a little bit from John 10. Verse 27, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give eternal life to them and they will never perish.

And no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand. I and the father are one. There's our assurance because God says so.

In Romans chapter eight and verse 31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own son but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him free to give us all things?

Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies, who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died, yes rather who was raised, who was at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

First John 5, nine through 12. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, right? God has said so. For the testimony of God is this, that he has testified concerning his son, the one who believes in the son of God has the testimony in himself.

The one who does not believe God has made them a liar because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning his son. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son.

He who has the son has the life. He who does not have the son of God does not have the life. The assurance that Jeremiah gives the exiles in Babylon, that God would forgive, that God would preserve, it's all based on God being faithful to his word.

And folks, this is the very same reason why we would have assurance that God would never give up on us. Those who have the son, who have life, who have it abundantly in him, those who have trusted in Christ, why is it that we will never ever be cast off or cut off from God?

Because he has said so. And he has said it in his son. He said it on the cross. He said it in the resurrection. He's still saying it at the right hand of God. So what I just read in John 10, Romans eight and first John five is true for either Jews or Gentiles, whoever it is that holds fast to Christ in faith, who comes to Christ by faith alone.

Israel, the Gentiles, and the Mystery of the New Covenant

Now, what about Israel's future? Because that's what this passage is pointing to. This is something a little bit more specific than talking about God's faithfulness to his word. But this is one, this is a promise in which God's mystery becomes cause for eternal worldwide rejoicing.

Let's look at the text again, 35 through 37. Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the seas so that its waves roar, the Lord of hosts is his name.

If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then the offspring of Israel will also cease from being a nation before me forever. Thus says the Lord, if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the Lord.

So what does this say? Well, in context, we look from verse 31 and following, it's clear God says, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Well, who does that?

Who says, here's the new covenant? Jesus Christ says that. He says it to his disciples at the last supper as he is sharing the Passover meal with them. He says, this is my blood of the new covenant. So it's Christ who forges the new covenant.

We hear about that in other passages in the New Testament as well, not least of which all through the book of Hebrews. And so in this new covenant that God makes with Israel, the promise is, although he might have cast off all of them forever for all that they have done, after all he cites, it was them who broke the covenant.

It was them that broke the covenant with him. He ensures that the offspring of Israel, the offspring of Jacob will never cease from being a nation before him forever. They will be a nation before him forever.

What does this word mean? It means a people group. The word is goy in the Hebrew, goyim in the plural in Hebrew means Gentiles. Wherever you find the Hebrew goyim in the Old Testament, it means the nations, often rendered the Gentiles.

The Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, translates this word as ethnos, meaning a people group. What I'm stressing is that this word, this promise that God made, that they will remain a nation before him forever.

This word does not mean government. This word does not mean government. There's a word in the Hebrew for government, mamlachai, and it is not the one used here. A people group is the word used here. There's a New Testament word for government, baselaya, kingdom, but that is not what is used here in the translations.

What he's saying is that there's going to be a people group. There are many, many times throughout history that the offspring of Israel had no government, had no capital city, had no land with borders.

They just didn't. They were either, maybe they were wandering, maybe they were in exile, but there are many times that they didn't have a government. God is not promising an everlasting state to Israel.

What is he saying? He's saying that as a people group, they would not entirely disappear before him. And hasn't that been the case? That's been the case. And it's especially important to trace that from this promise forward as we come to the birth of Jesus Christ, right?

One of the reasons why, as you read in the book of Esther, the Jews are not exterminated by Haman and his cohorts was precisely because God had promised that that would not occur, and he's going to preserve Israel as a people group so that the Messiah would come.

Now, the preserving of the people of Israel is not, this promise is not primarily concerned about a socio-ethnic preservation. It's not just about DNA and genetics. That's not really the point of the promise.

God's new covenant with the house of Judah, with the house of Israel, he says, is not like the covenant he made with them at Sinai. He says, it's not like the covenant he made with them at Sinai. In that old covenant, you became a part of it by being born into Israel.

In the new covenant, you became part of it by being born into Christ. That's the difference. In the old covenant, you were born into Israel. In the new covenant, you can only be a part if you're born into Christ.

Nicodemus was surprised to find he was not in the covenant, the new covenant, unless he was born again. He had to be born again, born into Christ. And so when we're looking at this promise that the offspring of Israel will never cease from being a people group or a nation before me forever, he is saying this in the context of the new covenant.

It is precisely through this new covenant and because of this new covenant that Israel will be a people forever before the face of God along with other people groups and other nations forever praising the Lord for his salvation.

God will not cast off all of them. Notice that in verse 37. He's saying only if somebody can actually measure all of the heavens and the foundations of the earth, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all they have done, declares the Lord.

He did not cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done. That some of them were cast off is undeniable. As God judged the first generation out of Egypt, he also judged Jeremiah's generation.

He also judged Christ's generation. Most were cut off, but not all. Many were saved. God did not cast off all of them. Tens of thousands of Jews came to faith in Jesus as the Messiah. When the apostles were preaching in the apostles generation alone, tens of thousands of Jews came to faith in Jesus Christ.

They were the bulk and the core of the New Testament church. Even some of the priests came to know Christ. Some of the Pharisees like Saul of Tarsus, some of the scribes believed upon Christ. Jews from all over the Roman empire turned and believed upon Christ as the mediator of the new covenant.

Now a million Jews died in and around Jerusalem when God's wrath fell in AD 70, but he did not cast off all the offspring of Israel for all they had done, including the murder of the Messiah. He saved a remnant and it was an abundant remnant and an abundant remnant which still remains.

And these are the inheritors of this promise fulfilled by Christ. Those who are in the new covenant. When God says the nation of Israel will not disappear from before me, he says it in the context of the new covenant and the New Testament confirms that.

The remnant becomes the whole. Now we don't have time to do a full sermon on Romans 9, 10, and 11, but I will read briefly from the flow of it. Paul's having to answer some tough questions in the book of Romans, especially concerning what's going on with Israel.

Why, if it's true that the Messiah has come, why isn't all of Israel agreeing with you? Why is it that you've left being a Pharisee? Why are you the minority opinion? He's got a lot to answer. And in Romans 9 and in verse six, he says, "'But it is not as though the word of God has failed.'".

Why would that be the question? Because he's talking about, he said, he has verse two, he has great sorrow and unceasing grief in his heart. If it would mean that all of his kinsmen, according to the flesh Israelites, if it would mean that they would all come to Christ, Paul said, I'd gladly go to hell if it meant that all of them would come to Christ.

And he talks about how blessed they are, their history, their culture, how God has been faithful to them all this time. And yet so many of them are rejecting Christ. And so verse six, "'But it is not as though the word of God has failed.'".

Note, "'For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel, nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants.'". Well, who are? "'But through Isaac, your descendants will be named.

That is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.'". So what does it mean? Well, when it says that, God says, I'm going to preserve Israel as a nation before me forever, he means those who are of the promise, those who are a part of the new covenant, trusting in Christ, born again in Christ for salvation, the true seed of Abraham.

A lot to say, Romans 9, 27, says, "'Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, though the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved.'".

Right?

I mean, in Isaiah's time, he says, yeah, as numerous as the sands of the sea, the stars of the sky, but who is it who's gonna be saved? Those who are of the promise, those who are truly saved in Christ.

Now they need to be saved, that's the whole point. And Paul says in Romans 10, 1, "'Brother, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.'". Oh, he wants to see his fellow Jews saved.

He wants to see them to come to Christ and know the true Messiah. He desires this passionately and they need the righteousness of Christ. He goes on to say in Romans 10, "'Whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.'".

Quotes Joel's new covenant promise. They need to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. And then Romans 11, he says in verse one, "'I say then God has not rejected his people, has he?'. Right, that's the concern back in Jeremiah 31.

Is God gonna reject us forever? No, the promise comes back.

No, not at all.

All of creation would have to fall apart for that to happen. God has committed himself. You are not going to be totally wiped out. So I say then God has not rejected his people, has he? May it never be.

Paul says, "'For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.'". He said, I'm a prime example that God has not turned his back on Israelites because I'm an Israelite and I'm saved.

He says, so here's proof positive. So how then does God save? How then does God save a remnant? Well, in verse five, "'In the same way then there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice.

But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise grace is no longer grace.'". You see, in the old covenant, you were a part of Israel and had to get along by works. Otherwise you would be kicked out and cut off from the people.

It had nothing to do with your salvation, had to do with whether or not you were helping Israel be an effective mediator on the earth for everybody who wanted to know who God was. You're only saved by the grace of God.

And then the new covenant, it is not by works, whether you're in the new covenant or not, it's entirely by grace because the remnant has become the whole. In Romans 11, verses 17 and following, well, we hear that there's been a hardening, there's been a partial hardening.

And verse seven, well, verse seven, it says, "'What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it. And the rest were hardened.'". Okay, what does it mean that they were hardened?

Well, another example is verse 17. "'But if some of the branches were broken off,'' so this is the idea, God says, "'I will not reject all, cast off all of Israel.'".

He didn't.

Now, some were broken off, some were hardened. That's what it says. There were judgments that occurred. Now it says, "'But if the branches were broken off and you being a wild olive,'' Paul writing to Gentiles, "'were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches.