Sunday Morning, September 15, 2019 AM

Let's go to the Lord in prayer together. Father, I thank you for gathering us together in this place on this day. Thank you for the songs we've sung together and stirring up one another in love and good deeds, holding fast the confession of our faith, teaching each other, instructing each other in the goodness of Christ in these songs.

Thank you for the scriptures being read and thank you for their timeless truth, the way in which you mold us and shape us, conforming us to the image of your Son through the work you do in our hearts through your word.

I thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit by whom we are in everlasting fellowship with you and have love for one another and by whom we may understand the truths of your word. Lord, help us this day.

Father, you provide for us,.

You promise to give us what we need. And Father, we need this. Father, we're not here because we're good at this, we're here because we need a word from you. We're here as children looking to a heavenly Father to provide, I pray that you would give us understanding of your word and bring it to bear, bring its truth to bear in our lives so that we would, as we listen carefully to you, as we look at Christ from your word, we would look like Christ in this world.

For our good and your glory, we pray these things.

Amen.

The New Covenant Transition in Jeremiah 31

I invite you to open your Bibles now and turn to Jeremiah 31. We will be concluding our time in verses 31 through 40 this morning. Some of you are rejoicing in that. These 10 verses have taken me longer than I thought I would but you think you know what it's about and then you start digging in and then you start saying, hang on, I'm gonna slow down.

So we are talking about a transition from the old covenant to the new covenant. This is good news for those who are living in the old covenant and really are suffering through the failures, their own failures, to be faithful to what God has called them.

Jeremiah is writing to exiles in Babylon. They have been cast out of their own city, cut off from their own temple. They are suffering the promised punishments of God. God told them that if they were unfaithful, he told them if they were idolatrous, he told them that if they were unjust and immoral and they would not repent despite all the various chastisements that he would bring upon them and upon their land, that he would exile them from their land, that they would live in a foreign land surrounded by a people who worshiped false gods, the kinds of gods that they had been leaving and abandoning God for.

So all has come about just as God had promised and they are in exile. Jeremiah, for his part, is living in Jerusalem in the very last year before Jerusalem is destroyed by Babylon. And so he is writing this book in Jeremiah chapter 30.

It begins by God saying to Jeremiah, write a book, write a suffer and send it to the exiles in Babylon that they may know what is going on, what I am about, what they are to be about, what is in store for them.

And so we've been talking about a new covenant in verses 31 through 40. And God is promising days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah. And there'll be certain things that are different.

The ingredients will be the same as they always are when God makes a covenant with a people. He emphasizes that they are his people, that they will live in his place and that they will be blessed to live under his rule.

Those are the three ingredients and all the covenants that God makes. The ingredients are all the same, but the recipe is new. And we thought about God preserving for himself a people. And we've thought about how it is that God rules over this people.

And now we're going to be thinking about the place. A people and the new covenant are ruled, verses 31 through 34. There's a people who indeed remain, verses 35 through 37. But now what about this place?

What about this place promises part of the new covenant, a place rebuilt, verses 38 through 40. And that will be our focus this morning. If you would please stand with me as I read Jeremiah 31, beginning in verse 31 through verse 40.

These are the words of our savior and king, Jesus Christ. Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day 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.

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 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 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 Gerib, and then it will run to Goa and the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes and all the fields as far as the brook 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. And this is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. It's really good news for the exiles living in Babylon. They have been told that Jerusalem is going to be destroyed, but they've also been told there is a new covenant that God will make with Israel, with Judah.

In this new covenant, every single last one of them every single last new covenant member will have the law of God written on their hearts. Every single last one of them will be forgiven of their sins.

They're all going to be saved. This is good news. What was once about location, we've talked about will now be about the incarnation, about Christ. Where once there was a remnant of faithful believers within the old covenant Israel, the remnant becomes the whole in the new covenant.

They were all believed. They will all know God. But what about the place? The place of the old covenant is very obvious. It's Jerusalem and it's Jerusalem because there's a temple there. And there's a temple there because the ark of the covenant is there in the Holy of Holies.

And everything is centered around God who was enthroned above the cherubim as the Psalms say. So everything is centered on that location but that location is about to be destroyed. What about the location in the new covenant?

What's the same ingredient? There's a place for God's people. It's even described in some of the similar terms of the old covenant. But we're going to be thinking about this because this Jerusalem is promised as we see from verse 40.

This Jerusalem is not like the old Jerusalem that is destroyed and rebuilt and then destroyed again. No, this Jerusalem, this city, it says, will never be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever. So God promises a rebuilt, remeasured, redesigned Jerusalem that will never again be destroyed.

And this is cause for rejoicing. Again, I wanna come back to this passage in Joel that I've been alluding to throughout this series. But in Joel chapter two, as he gets started on his new covenant promise and calling everybody to pay attention to it, this is how he starts off in verse 23.

So rejoice, O sons of Zion, Joel 2, 23. Rejoice, O sons of Zion, and be glad in the Lord your God.

Why?

He then begins to describe all these blessings of the new covenant.

That's what we should do.

When we think about the blessings of the new covenant. When we think about the good news of Jesus Christ revealed in full bloom in the new covenant, we ought to rejoice. We ought to be glad. This is very good news.

You know, when you go on in Joel chapter two, past verse 23, you come to verse 28,.

And it says,.

It will come about after this that I will pour out my spirit on all mankind. And your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants, I will pour out my spirit in those days.

I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire, and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it'll come about that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

We know that verse, don't we? For on Mount Zion, listen, this is what Joel says, for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there will be those who escape, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.

I find it very interesting that Peter on Pentecost preaches to the people who have noticed that there's a different spirit about the church. They think it's intoxication and Peter says, no, the reason why you're hearing preaching in your own language, whatever dialect that may be, by all these people from the church is not because they're filled with intoxicating spirits, they're filled with the Holy Spirit.

And this is in fulfillment of Joel 2. And so he quotes Joel 2 and then basically points to them and he says, y 'all need to be saved. I find this curious. Joel says in Joel 2, that the place to go to in order to be saved is Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

Peter's on Mount Zion. He's in Jerusalem, preaching to those who are on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and telling them, y 'all need to be saved. I thought they were in the place to get saved. That's the place to escape.

That's the place to be saved. But he's very clear. In Acts 2, 38 through 40, he tells them how to be saved through repentance and faith in Christ. And he keeps on urging him saying this. Now, listen, he says, be saved from this perverse generation.

There they are in Jerusalem where Joel said that you needed to go to escape and be saved to call upon the name of the Lord. And he's telling the people in Jerusalem, you need to be saved. So what is going on here?

Part of what's going on here will be answered in Jeremiah 31. As we think about the place that is promised in the new covenant. Verses 31 through 34, we consider how a people is ruled. The new covenant people are ruled by God, not from a distance, not the law in the ark of the covenant, in the tabernacle, and that there was a distance between the old covenant member and where the law was given.

No, no longer, in the new covenant, the law is written on the heart. The Holy Spirit, by the Holy Spirit, we're born again. And he teaches us all that Christ commanded in the, and the words of God are inscribed,.

The law of God,.

The rule of God is inscribed right here. And whereas God ruled above the chair, it was enthroned above the chair of them, which was also above the 10 commandments and it was in the ark of the covenant.

Now God rules over us directly in the new covenant. Every one of us ruled. Also in the new covenant, there's people who remains. God is faithful to save a remnant. We talked about last week, the remnant becomes the whole.

And so all Israel is saved in Christ. We talked about the breaking off of Jewish branches so that Gentiles will be grafted into Christ as well. So a people remains, but what about this place? Well, this is the third ingredient of the new covenant.

This is definitely part of the new covenant promises. Notice verse 31 begins this way. Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. The same language, verse 38, behold, days are coming.

It's all part of the same promise of the new covenant. All three ingredients are there of a covenant. God's people ruled by God in God's place. All three ingredients are right here. It's all part of the new covenant.

What we're gonna think about this morning is the joy that this message must have brought to the Jews in exile, that not only will there be a new covenant in which they are all forgiven and all have God's rule written on their hearts, but also they will have a new place.

This is a city that is distinctly designed by God. This is a city that God is the architect of and the builder of. A city that will never be shaken, never plucked up, never overthrown. This is good news.

And so, sons of Zion, rejoice. Be glad in the Lord for a city that will not be overthrown. Well, now it's time to do some geography. I know none of you came here hoping to do some geography, but that's what we're going to have to do.

I thought about maybe putting something up on the screen, but then I would be doing this. I thought about asking you to look in the back of your Bibles, but some of you don't have paper Bibles. But for those of you who have never owned a paper Bible and only been digital all your life, there is a tradition that in the back of paper Bibles, they will include maps, often maps of Jerusalem itself.

And these can be very helpful. I found that my map in the back of my Bible was better than any kind of internet search that I made in the hours of my study. I was very comforted by that. Shout out to Oxford Maps.

So here's what we're going to do. I'm going to help us trace the lines that are listed here in these three verses. And we're going to use our auditorium to help us. So I'm going to read for us and then we'll start tracing.

Verse 38, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city will be rebuilt for the Lord from the tower of Hananel to the corner gate. So this pillar right here, right there, right next to my father-in-law, that pillar right there.

Yes, that will be the tower of Hananel, okay? Now, it will stretch out to the corner gate. Now the corner gate sounds like it ought to be at a corner. And at some points it was, but in the various buildings of the wall, it would probably be as far as the next pillar is concerned,.

Heading west, okay? That's west.

So from the tower of Hananel to the next pillar, that equivalent where the corner gate is at. Now notice, the measuring line will go out.

Farther straight ahead.

So we're still heading west to the Hill Gerab. Nobody knows where the Hill Gerab is. I mean, no one. Nobody knows where it is. We'll talk about that later. And then it will turn to Goa. Nobody knows where Goa is either.

We'll talk about that later. But somehow it's going to turn. This is on the northern part of Jerusalem. The tower of Hananel is on the northern part of Jerusalem. And we're heading west somewhere to Gerab.

And then we're circling around to Goa. But now we find a place that we do know about. Verse 40. And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes. Now, what is that place? In particular, the ashes, if you have ashes in the English, it's because they've cleaned it up because it's actually greasy ashes.

This is a very gross place. This is a valley full of dead bodies and dead bones and sacrificial ashes. This is called the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. This is called Topheth. This is called the Valley of Slaughter by Jeremiah in chapter seven.

Now, I'm so sorry for those of you sitting over here. But if you look over into the aisle, that'll be the Valley of Hinnom. Okay, and it runs the entire section of this, all the south side of Jerusalem is the Valley of Hinnom.

All right, so we've started over here, the Tower of Hananel, gone out to the corner gate. I don't know where Gerab is. I don't know where Goa is. But here's the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. Here's the Valley of Topheth.

And we're coming back around. And now it says, and all the fields as far as the Brook Kidron, which is the eastern boundary of Jerusalem. And that'll be right down here, right at the bottom of the steps to the corner of the horse gate toward the east.

So we're on the east side now. And the horse gate's right about here, right where the aisle is. And all of that shall be holy to the Lord. So we started over there at the Tower of Hananel, went to the corner gate, went to the Hill Gerab, Goa, the Valley of Hinnom, and we came up to the horse gate and stopped.

Everybody with me? This is the oddest set of blueprints in the Bible, I think. I just, I don't know what to do with it when I first studied it. So we have, we could say that we've made a rectangle, maybe a square.

I don't really know how far out the Hill of Gerab was or where Goa was. So I don't really know the actual shape that we're dealing with. But there's also something odd because the measuring line or the wall started at the Tower of Hananel, went that way and stopped right here at the horse gate.

And this whole corner, which would be about 600 yards on a map, no measuring line, no wall. And do you know what was in the northeast corner of the city of Jerusalem? The place that the new covenant Jerusalem has no walls around at all.

Do you know what was there in the old covenant? The temple. From the corner of where the Tower of Hananel is at the corner of where the temple property is, the temple area. And then, so the wall goes out and it comes back and stops, but the area of the temple is not walled at all.

It's like, it's not even there. This is a very odd way to comfort exiles in Babylon. Their wonderful city of Jerusalem is about to be destroyed, is going to be totally destroyed. And here comes the comforting word from the normally sad prophet Jeremiah.

And he's saying, new covenant, new days, good things to come. In fact, Jerusalem's gonna be rebuilt and it's gonna look like this. Okay. And it gets worse. The walls that get rebuilt by Nehemiah. You're thinking, well, what about Nehemiah?

I thought Nehemiah and Ezra are pretty good Bible students and they would have followed Jeremiah's plan and rebuilt Jerusalem according to the prophecy. But they weren't at the new covenant yet. The walls that Nehemiah built trace the lines of David and Solomon.

And we hear about the Tower of Hananel and the horse gate in Nehemiah, but his walls do not include the Western Hill, say nothing of Gerab and Goa, do not include the Valley of Hinnom, and actually close in the temple mount with walls, whereas Jeremiah's plans do not.

So that's not the walls. Later, when the Hasmoneans enclosed the Western Heights, nothing was said about Gerab or Goa, the Valley of Hinnom is still not enclosed. Herod added some things to the temple, and the Romans destroyed everything, but then they rebuilt it in 135, AD 135.

The Persians, the Byzantines, and the Caliphate all had their additions, but none of them ever constructed the walls in agreement with here, Jeremiah 31. And after the Caliphate dismantled much of Jerusalem's walls in AD 1250, they were rebuilt by, wait for it, the Ottoman Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent in the early 1500s.

And these are the ancient Muslim walls still admired today by modern day tourists who go to Jerusalem. But Suleiman's walls do not follow the instructions given here in Jeremiah 31. Now, the difficulty in tracing these lines is only heightened by the importance of tracing these lines.

Has God made a new covenant with his people through Jesus Christ? Did not Jesus Christ sit with his disciples and say, this is the blood of the new covenant? Didn't he make that covenant? Yes, they, are we not members of the new covenant by being born into Christ?

Yes, we are.

Are we forgiven of our sins? Every last one of our sins? Well then, what are we to understand about the new covenant place into which God gathers his new covenant people blessed under God's new covenant rule?

I'm glad you asked. It's an excellent question. We have a lot to think about. One of the things is that we just, we don't even know what the Hill of Gareb is and we don't even know what Goa is and the Valley of the Son of Hinnom has always been, Topheth was an awful, evil, desecrated place that nobody ever really wanted to be a part of unless you were a worshiper of Moab and were into sacrificing children.

Who wants to go down there? And then you don't even wall in the temple area. How is this a comforting thing to the exiles at all? Well, there's two very clear things that we know from the text. First is this, verse 40, all of the city rebuilt shall be holy to the Lord.

We know that. Everything about the city, the new covenant Jerusalem, everything about it will be holy to the Lord. That's for sure. Secondly, we know that the new covenant city will never be plucked up or tossed aside.

Verse 40, never. We know those two things and everything else that is said before it only support those two conclusions. So using the geography and the architecture of ancient Jerusalem as symbols, God draws up plans for the new covenant Jerusalem.

Let's think about the fact that everything there was set apart for the Lord. Everything there was being set apart for the Lord. Part of our interpretive process in reading these three verses is to consider what has been left out as well as been what has been included inside the measuring line.

Why the tower of Hananel and why the corner gate? Why include the horse gate but not include the gate of Ephraim or the tower of the ovens or the valley gate or the east gate? Why are we talking about the hill of Gerobit?

Nobody knows where it is or Goa. Why are we talking about the valley of Hinnom which is awful and desecrated and evil but we're not giving a more clear map and we're not enclosing the city right where the temple is.

The most important part of the city is not enclosed by walls what we are being given here is not a construction project. We are being given a redemption project. These are not construction plans. If we treat them as such, we remain in perpetual confusion.

These are redemption plans. The tower of Hananel is important to this instructions because it begins at the corner of the temple property and then the measuring line moves away from the temple property out to the West.

But what is the name of the tower of Hananel? What does it mean? The name reminds us of the character of the God who makes a new covenant with his people in need of forgiveness. The name of the tower means God is gracious.

That's what it means, God is gracious. And if we're gonna build a new Jerusalem, if God's gonna build a new Jerusalem, a new covenant Jerusalem, I love the fact that he's beginning with the idea that God is gracious.

Those who are gathered into this city by God's grace, they are made holy to him. Everything here is made holy to God. Also, the next thing mentioned is the corner gate. Then the corner gate, and it's the pinna gate in the Hebrew, which means chief gate or the cornerstone gate.

It's the exact same word that is used in Psalm 118 verse 22, the stone which the builders has rejected has become the chief cornerstone. If we're going to say that this is not construction plans, but redemption plans, the measuring line goes out from the God who is gracious according to his chief cornerstone.

Sounds like good news to me. And where does it go? The Hill of Gerib. I apologize to everybody out there in the West, it's probably right around this area. I'm sorry that you sat there today. This may encourage you to move forward next week.

But out there, remember it says the line goes straight on towards the Hill of Gerib, which means the hill of itchy scabs. Gerib is the word for an itch or a scab. So Leviticus 13, one through eight is your area.

It tells about those who have these scabs and they can't get rid of them no matter what they do. They are then declared leprous. They are declared leprous. And what is the fate of a leper in the old covenant?

Well, verse 46 of Leviticus 13, he shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp. What about the new covenant Jerusalem?

Who gets to be inside the walls? Lepers. Lepers get to come in. The unclean are inside the boundaries of the new covenant Jerusalem. They're not gonna be outside the camp, but inside the camp. And then there's the matter of Goa, which is the most curious.

I don't know much about Goa. I just know the word means bellowing. It was used at the Philistine oxen returning the Ark of the Covenant to Beth Shemesh and they were lowing as they went. They were bellowing as they went.

Also used in Job 6, five of a donkey braying. So it's a loud word. And so it's something about encircling with Goa. It says it will turn to Goa. The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament reads as far as the hills of Gareb and it shall be encompassed with a circular wall of choice stones.

So we hear choice stones of bellowing. Now I have absolutely no way of knowing. I'm just guessing, totally guessing. Please don't mark this down as authoritative. I'm just reflecting on this. I'm meditating on this.

But when Peter, led by the Holy Spirit, was meditating on what he was going to write, I can't help but think that in 1 Peter 2, 4 through 10, as he's writing about Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone and him choosing us as his living stones and calling us to proclaim the greatness of God, I think it's possible he's meditating on this passage.

I think there's enough of a connection there. But beyond that, I don't know what Goa means. But I do know that those in the new covenant were once no people and now we are a people. And we were once a people with no mercy, but now we are a people of mercy.

And we've been called to proclaim, perhaps even to bellow, the excellencies of the God who saves us. Now what about the valley of dead bodies and greasy ashes? Well, speaking of darkness and rejection and no mercy, think about the valley of the son of Hinnom.

Now, back in Jeremiah chapter seven, and we'll look back there together, Jeremiah seven and beginning in verse 30. It says, for the sons of Judah have done what is evil in my sight, declares the Lord.

They have set their detestable things in the house which is called by my name to defile it. They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command and it did not come to my mind.

Therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of the slaughter. For they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place that dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth and no one will frighten them away.

In the whole history of Jerusalem, whether we're talking about the days of David when he first walled it in or even the days all the way to Salimon the Magnificent, they never, ever walled in the valley of Hinnom as part of the city, never.

It was a cursed place. It was a place of evil. It was an awful place, the valley of slaughter full of dead men's bones and yet somehow the valley of dead bones is going to be a part of the new covenant Jerusalem.

Could it ever be that a valley of bones would be a part of the new covenant? Ezekiel 37. Listen, it is part of the joy of the new covenant that that which was ruined would be recovered, that which was lost would be found, that which was hopelessly sick would be mercifully healed.

That's the whole idea. And then we have a city that has walls from the tower of Hananel to the horse gate. And why stop at the horse gate? It's the southern gate at the tip of the corner of where the temple ought to be, but there's just no walls around where the temple ought to be.

Why not?

Well, we read later on in the new testament that in the new covenant Jerusalem, the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. Right? Revelation 21, 22 through 22 verse four. There's no temple in the new Jerusalem.

The Lamb and the Almighty are its temple. Zechariah 14, 20 through 21 says everything in the city, the new covenant Jerusalem is holy to the Lord. Just like it says here in Jeremiah 31. I think what we're reading here is not construction plans.

I think it's redemption plans. And I think it's meant to give cause for joy to the sons of Zion. It is set along new lines. These lines had never been drawn before. God draws them is a different design for Jerusalem.

It is set apart for the Lord. Everything in this new Jerusalem is holy to God. And it is set up to eternally last. It will not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever. So the new covenant Jerusalem is holy to the Lord, set apart unto him, rebuilt, redrawn, according to his grace, measured from his chief cornerstone.

This city, this place for God's ruled people will never ever be plucked up or thrown down forever.

That's good news.

This city will never be shaken. The walls that David and Solomon Hezekiah built were uprooted and torn down by the Babylonians. The walls of Nehemiah, the Hasmoneans and Herod were uprooted and torn down by the Romans.

The walls built by Romans, Persians and Byzantines were broken down by the Caliphate. The walls built by Solomon the Magnificent, there's a whole lot of them still there today. They even repelled artillery fire in 1948.

But those walls, like all the other walls, are not the walls of Jeremiah 31, 38 through 40. They, by definition, are not. So where is it? Where is this new covenant, Jerusalem, that begins in God's grace, proceeds by his chief cornerstone, includes lepers, outcasts and sinners, and is utterly holy and will never be shaken?

We've already answered the question. Location has been fulfilled in incarnation. See, in Zechariah 2, there's a vision where a man goes out to measure Jerusalem and he has a measuring line with him. And Zechariah has to, and he encounters this halting of this man.