The Prophet Jeremiah Part 29

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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The Prophet Jeremiah Part 30

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Let's pray, and then we will get started. Lord Jesus, again, as we open up your word, we ask you,

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Holy Spirit, to help us to rightly understand what you have revealed there, so that we might rightly believe, confess, and walk according to your will.

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We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, last week, we were working our way through Jeremiah chapter 32, and kind of an odd place to stop.

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I'll kind of back up into the context so we can kind of figure out what's going on in this passage, because if I just jump right into it, it seems like a little odd of a place to jump in.

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But if you remember, Jeremiah bought a field at Anathoth from Hanumel, his cousin, and talks about him weighing out the 17 shekels of silver, signing the deed, and the whole point of that was that despite the imminent destruction that they faced, that God was going to, once again, make it so that people could buy fields and vineyards and be able to, you know, things like that.

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The housing market had crashed as a result of the impending doom that Nebuchadnezzar and the armies of Babylon had basically brought upon the people of Judah.

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So after I had received the deed of purchase, I'd given the deed of purchase to Baruch, the son of Neriah, I prayed to Yahweh, saying, ah,

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Lord God, it is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm.

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Nothing is too hard for you. You show steadfast love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them.

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Oh, great and mighty God, whose name is Yahweh of hosts, again,

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Yahweh of armies. Great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds.

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You have shown signs and wonders in the land of Egypt and to this day in Israel among all mankind and have made a name for yourself as at this day.

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You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and outstretched arm and with great terror.

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And you gave them this land, which you swore to your fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey.

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And they entered and took possession of it, but they did not obey your voice or walk in your law.

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They did nothing of all that you commanded them to do. Therefore, you have made all this disaster come upon them.

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Behold, the siege mounds have come up to the city to take it. And because of sword and famine and pestilence, the city is given into the hands of the

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Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What you spoke has come to pass and behold, you see it.

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Yet you, O Lord God, have said to me, buy the field for money and get witnesses, though the city is given into the hands of the

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Chaldeans. So you'll note that Jeremiah is pointing out that the thing that God asked him to do doesn't quite seem to fit as far as the circumstances are concerned.

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Is this a time to buy a field while the siege mounds are laid up against Jerusalem? It doesn't seem like a fitting thing, but God knows what he's doing.

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And so in reality, Jeremiah here is praying for understanding because his actions really don't make any sense given the context of what's happening around him.

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So the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah. Behold, I am Yahweh, the God of all flesh.

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Is anything too hard for me? I would go, no, probably not.

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Okay, therefore thus says Yahweh. Behold, I am giving this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and in the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.

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He shall capture it. The Chaldeans who are fighting against the city shall come and set this city on fire and they will burn it with the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to Baal and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods to provoke me to anger.

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And here's where we have to talk about something that just is so politically incorrect today. The idea that God punishes sin, that God punishes impenitent sinners.

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If you ever heard of something called gospel reductionism, okay, what is gospel reductionism?

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Gospel reductionism is kind of poorly summarized but still accurate, is basically the belief that the only thing that matters is the love of God, okay?

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The late Walter Martin talked about liberals who are basically nefariously known for being gospel reductionists, that they had taken the scripture that says that God is love.

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You know, 1 John, right? God is love and they flipped it. They flipped it to love is

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God. And so in the gospel reductionist way of looking at things, passages like this in Jeremiah 32 where God is acting in judgment and punishing sinners who persistently, despite all of his pleas for them to repent and promises and assurances that he would forgive them, that he would restore them, who continue to persist in their sin and their unbelief and here rank idolatry, that at some point

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God goes, all right, fine, have it your way. I always call this God goes full Burger King on somebody, right, hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, right?

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And so he goes full Burger King, gives them what they want. They don't want to be forgiven. They want to be reconciled to God. They want to persist in sin.

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Well, there's consequences to that. And so you know, God is acting in judgment. But you listen to today's liberals, the postmodern liberals, the gospel reductionists, they think it is somehow unbecoming of God to punish sin.

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It is somehow wrong of God to act in judgment against those who are breaking his commands.

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They somehow think that this is contrary to the gospel. And the reality is, is that the law and the gospel do contradict each other and they are both given for very different reasons.

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This is why you must preach law and gospel, why we must hear God's law and the gospel.

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Apart from the law, the gospel makes no sense. And so today's gospel reductionists, in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, they worship female deities.

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In the name of Jesus, they bless same -sex marriages. More than that now,

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I mean, they've even pushed beyond that. They're now blessing polyamorous relationships and things like this.

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And you'll note that, you know, in the gospel reductionist way of thinking, there is no sin that needs to be confronted, nothing that needs to be repented of.

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God is just kind of like an old, senile grandpa. Does your grandpa have butterscotch that he gives out to his grandkids?

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Maybe that was just my grandpa, that was an old -school way of doing things. But they kind of picture God as kind of like an old, senile grandpa who likes to hand out butterscotch to his ornery and poorly -behaved grandchildren and great -grandchildren.

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And it doesn't matter what evil they do, he just pats them on the head and says, I love you so much, love you so much.

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I know you just killed the neighbor's cat, but you're so cute. You know, this is how they kind of picture

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God. But God isn't that way. So you'll note in this text, we are hearing about God acting in legitimate judgment.

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And this is described in the prophet Micah, by the way. When you read the prophet

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Micah, one of the minor prophets, he prophesied while the Northern Kingdom was still in existence.

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And during his time of his prophetic ministry, the Northern Kingdom was scraped out of the

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North and dispersed into the nations. And in describing the idolatry and the sickness that was in the

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Northern Kingdom, God, through the prophet Micah, said that their illness is incurable and the illness is now manifested in Judah.

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It's incurable. And so the only way that God can purge all of this, and by the way, it's necessary that he do so.

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And here's the reason being, God has yet to bring the Messiah, has yet to bring

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Christ on the scene. And he's promised that through the children of Israel, that the Messiah would come, through the tribe of Judah specifically, that the

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Messiah would come. But Judah at this point is in rank idolatry. And I've said it before, that 90 to 95 % of all the people living in Judah will die, will die at the hands of the army of Babylon, will die at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.

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And basically, the best way to think about it, in order to save true faith, God at this point has to remove and cut out the cancer.

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And he's acting in judgment, but you're gonna note then, by also doing this, he's acted in mercy, because today we trust in Christ, right?

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And so it was necessary to preserve true faith on the earth in order for God to act in judgment, because evil had gotten the upper hand.

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And you'll note that that's generally how this all works. When you look at human history, when you look at biblical history, there are times when evil just gets the upper hand.

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And statistically, percentage -wise, those who hold the true faith dwindle down to a small amount, and it looks like they're about to be overwhelmed, and then

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God does something unexpected, right? And sometimes he acts in judgment, sometimes he acts in a way where lies that have been suppressed all of a sudden come to light, and people can see what's going on.

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And so the Reformation is a good example of that. The heresy and apostasy had gotten the upper hand in the

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Middle Ages. That doesn't mean that there were not true believers in Christ at that time. And Martin Luther didn't try to start the

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Reformation. He simply challenged the false doctrine that he saw that had come to Wittenberg and wanted to debate it based upon biblical texts, especially the fact that God had opened his eyes to the gospel itself by a proper understanding of Romans chapter three.

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And in an unexpected turn of events, there was a breakout of the true gospel.

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In our days, have you noticed the number of churches that are faithful? They're dwindling.

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It's like watching the lights go out, right? Darkness is on the move. What's gonna happen next?

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I don't know. I just work in marketing. I'm not in management. So I couldn't tell you if God's gonna somehow turn everything around, or if what we should expect to have happen in the days ahead is that we're going to head into the end days and Christ is gonna return and glory to Judge Living Dead.

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I don't know when Jesus is coming back. I don't know if he's coming back next Thursday or if he's coming back 2 ,000 years from now. It's none of my business.

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In fact, I would be blunt, it's none of yours either. He's gonna come back when he's good and ready. So in the meantime, we persist and we carry on with the orders that Christ has given, proclaiming repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Christ's name to all nations, baptizing people in the name of the

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Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them all that Christ has commanded. So now we can see, though, in this text that at some point, the mercy runs out.

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The time of grace, the time for repentance, the time to be forgiven passes.

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And those who want to persist in their sin, God says, okie dokie, let's fire up the army.

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And so the Chaldeans and the Babylonians and Nebuchadnezzar are all sent by God as a judgment.

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And then God gives a theological interpretation for what happens or what will happen next, that the

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Chaldeans will come, they will set fire, they will burn the city, and with the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to Baal, drink offerings that have been poured out to other gods to provoke me to anger.

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And so you'll note that generally when cities are set afire during war, there's no real theological significance here, but God has made it clear that when you see

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Jerusalem burning, right, and you see people's homes afire, right, that note that that is a picture, if you would, of God's wrath and judgment against those who provoked him to anger within the holy city itself, offering drink offerings to Baal and other gods in order to provoke

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God to anger. And you'll note God is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, but slow to anger also implies that at some point

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God says, enough. You'll note that God's normal default mode is patient, kind, merciful, gracious, and continued to be provoked, eventually you're gonna rouse his anger, but his anger isn't his default mode, that's the one that only comes when provoked.

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For the children of Israel and the children of Judah, they've done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth.

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The children of Israel have done nothing but provoke me to anger by the work of their hands, declares

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Yahweh. This city has aroused my anger and wrath from the day it was built to this day so that I will remove it from my sight because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger.

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Their kings and their officials and their priests, yeah, that's right, even the ecclesiastical machine can get involved and participate in evil, and their prophets, priest, prophet, king, lay person, everybody, and the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, they have turned to me their back, not their face, and though I have taught them persistently, they have not listened to receive instruction.

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They set up their abominations in the house that is called by my name in order to defile it.

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They built the high places of Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom and to offer up their sons and their daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter my mind that they should do this abomination to cause

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Judah to sin. Now, a little bit of a note, I've said this before, I always like pointing this out. The Hebrew word

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Molech, all right, Molech, that's not the word that the people who worship that deity would have used.

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In Hebrew, let's see if I can kind of point this out, in, so here we got

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La, that's gonna be a, you know, an article, like a two, but the word itself,

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Molech, mem lam, lamed kaf, right? Most, of all

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Hebrew words, technically, in their origin, have only three consonants, all right, and then they'll have different vowels, and so you'll note that when you look at the word

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Molech, you got the holum and, you know, so you got the O and the E and the K, all this, you know, so the dots, the dot above the mem, and the, you know, and then the,

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I forget what that's called, but the three dots below and then the three dots above, those are your, these are like your vowel points, okay?

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And what was, what's really interesting is that the Masoretes here, they repointed this word because the

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Hebrew word Molech means shame. That's what the word means.

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It means shame. Who on earth would worship a deity called shame, okay?

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No one would, but it's also important to note that those three consonants, if you point it differently, that's the same, those are the same consonants that are used for the

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Hebrew word king, Molech, king, and so the worshipers of this false god, they would have worshiped him as Melech, the king of the gods, the one that they are to offer their children in sacrifice to, but you'll note that with the

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Masoretic text, each and every time that deity is invoked, they change his name by changing the vowel points, and rather than calling him

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Melech, which would have been what his name was, they always refer to him as Melech, shame.

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So I always like pointing this out, that God doesn't seem to show any kind of mercy, any kind of tolerance, or any kind of, like any kind of respect at all to false gods.

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He never shows any respect to them ever. God always is tearing them down.

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God is always basically humiliating them. But by the way, these deities don't exist, all right?

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The thing that was behind Molech was a demon. The thing that was behind Baal was a demon.

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The thing that was behind Asherah was a demon. And so God shows no respect for these false deities.

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And the world that we live in today, this type of intolerance is viewed as somehow a threat to society, as insulting, as politically incorrect.

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You are not allowed to speak in any kind of way that would make it sound like somebody who's a neighbor of yours, or who lives in the same town as you, who worships a different deity, that somehow that they are worshiping a deity that's a demon, or that is a false deity, and it cannot save.

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The world that we live in has become extremely universalistic. This idea that all paths, all religions, all faiths, all beliefs, ultimately have no bearing as to whether or not somebody is lost or saved in eternity.

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If you wanna worship Baal, you wanna worship Shiva, you wanna worship Vishnu, you wanna worship the devil.

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It doesn't matter, that's your right. And nobody has the right or prerogative to say that you're wrong.

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That's the world we live in. But that is not a biblical worldview. That is a satanic, pagan, worldly view.

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There is only one true God. Everything else isn't. Molech isn't a deity.

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And so you're gonna know that God is going to act in judgment, and who's going to be powerless to protect

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Jerusalem, and the high places that have been set up to Baal and Asherah. All these false deities, they're gonna be completely powerless when

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God acts in judgment, because they're powerless anyway. They don't exist.

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Somebody has turned the lights on as if to pretend that somebody's home, but they were never home in the first place.

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So God now is making it clear that they offered up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I didn't command them, nor did

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I enter my mind, that they should do this abomination to cause Judah to sin. Now therefore, thus says

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Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning the city of which you say, it is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence.

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Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger, and my wrath, and in great indignation, and I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety.

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So God has promised that those who go into captivity and by the way, we've already talked about this, if you wanna survive the sack of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, it's really super simple.

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You take out a white handkerchief, and you show up and say, I surrender. Turn yourself in to the army of Babylon, and you will live.

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That's all you gotta do, all right? So God is promising those who are going into captivity that he will again bring them back from Babylon, even though he acted in anger, he will bring them back, and they will eventually dwell in safety.

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They shall be my people, I will be their God. I will give them one heart, one way that they may fear me forever for their own good, and for the good of their children after them.

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I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them, and I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn from me, and I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness with all my heart and with all my soul.

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Now here's the important bit. The return of the exiles at the end of the 70 years.

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You read Nehemiah, you read Ezra, right? When you read those books, note then, that's a type and shadow of God calling us, the church, out of this world to the new earth.

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That's the type and shadow, and so you'll note that the way God is speaking here, the return of the exiles, he's making promises that historically don't jive.

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They don't actually work out. When the children of Israel came back from their captivity in Babylon, did they have an everlasting covenant?

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Are they there to this day? Are they dwelling in safety without any danger?

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You know, okay? Not after they came back from Babylon, and even after now they have reestablished the nation of Israel in 1948, they persist to be in danger constantly.

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So these ultimately have eschatological fulfillments, and God is talking then and making it clear that the return of the exiles is pointing to the ultimate return, because each and every one of us, we are now currently in captivity in Babylon, Babylon being kind of the world's system, and there's a day when we will finally see our homeland.

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Have you seen the homeland yet? I've never been there. I don't even know the name of a single street.

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Couldn't tell you how the blocks are organized or anything like that. You haven't seen it either, and so this here then ultimately has eschatological notes that are kind of floating around, using my wine -tasting example from the sermon this morning.

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You can see that what God is up to, the ultimate fulfillment has got to point to something other than when the exiles came back, because they didn't dwell in safety.

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In the 400 years that followed their coming out of captivity in Babylon, that was just marked with wars and constant threats.

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The Maccabean War, just read the Apocrypha, you can read the War of the Maccabees there. The conquering of Judea by Alexander the

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Great, and then subsequently by the Roman Empire. Living in peace and safety, far from it, right?

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So you'll note, this is pointing to a fulfillment that is to be looked at when

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Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, and he calls all the exiles, that's you and I, home.

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Finally, right? I will rejoice in doing them good. I will plant them in this land in faithfulness with all my heart and soul,

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God says. For thus says Yahweh, just as I have brought all this great disaster upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good that I promised them.

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Fields shall be bought in this land of which you are saying it is a desolation without man or beast. It is given into the hand of the

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Chaldeans. Fields shall be bought for money, and deeds shall be signed and sealed and witnessed in the land of Benjamin, in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of Shephalah, in the cities of the

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Negev. And I will restore their fortunes, declares Yahweh. So the word of Yahweh came to me, came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the guard.

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Again, being a prophet in the Old Testament is a sketchy, sketchy career.

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You're constantly in danger and threat, and so poor Jeremiah, he's locked up because he's preaching the truth.

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Surrender to the king of Babylon and you'll live, and of course, Zedekiah is not keen on his words.

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So thus Yahweh, says Yahweh who made the earth, Yahweh who formed it to establish it,

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Yahweh is his name, call to me. I will answer you, and I will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.

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For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of the city, and the houses of the kings of Judah that were torn down to make a defense against the siege mounds and against the sword.

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They are coming in to fight against the Chaldeans, and to fill them with the dead bodies of men whom

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I shall strike down in my anger and my wrath. There it is again, God has anger and wrath.

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I have hidden my face from this city because of all of their evil. Now, let's talk about the implications of this.

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So, when I give the Aaronic blessing, the benediction, may the

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Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine on you and be gracious to you.

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May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace, right? You're gonna note that the idea of having

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God's blessing is that it is described in Hebrew terms as God's face facing you.

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In fact, it is an ultimate blessing when you see God face to face.

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But when you sin against God, and you transgress his commands, and you become

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God's enemies, what happens to God's face? It's hidden. Why is it that we do not see the face of our

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God right now? Our sin. God has hidden his face from our plan because of our sin.

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I have hidden my face from the city because of all their evil. This then works to why we do not see the face of God now.

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And you'll note that one of the big themes when you read about the new earth is that we will always see the face of God.

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Always, into eternity. Jesus says of the angels, they always see the face of their

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God. Have you seen God's face? No.

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So there's a reason why God's face is hidden. We're the reason.

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Our evil is the reason. God has hidden his face from us as a planet because of our evil.

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And here, you can see this playing out then kind of in a microcosm. Judah has rebelled egregiously against God in rank, impenitent idolatry.

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And God hiding his face here is basically saying, I'm turning away all of my good graces and you're just gonna get my wrath.

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But this has bigger implications. People say, well, if there really is a God, why does he never show up?

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Why do I never see him? Well, because you're wicked and you're evil. You need to read your

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Bible. And you find out how this all works. So this idea of God's face shining on us, that is by his grace.

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And in the world to come, there isn't a day that's gonna go by when you don't see the face of God. Kind of cool, right?

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But in the meantime, he's hidden it. He kind of covers it up in masks, if you would.

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Jesus is God in human flesh. It's kind of interesting how that all works. So behold, I will bring to it health and healing.

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I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security. I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel.

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Now, that's kind of a fascinating statement. So again, using the wine metaphor that I used today,

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I think I might use that a lot. As we read a prophecy, an utterance like this, again, we gotta kind of take a taste on the notes here.

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What are the different flavors? So God has talked about the fact that while Jeremiah was shut up, concerning the houses of the city that were torn down to make a defense, they are coming in to fight against the

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Chaldeans. I will fill them with dead bodies of men. I shall strike down in my anger and my wrath.

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I've hidden my face from the city because of all their evils. This is God acting in judgment. But then without even a real good transition, different flavor.

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Behold, I will bring to it health and healing. So after striking everyone down, I'll bring to it health and healing. I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security, which is not what really happened in the intertestamental period.

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In fact, when the New Testament opens up, the children of Israel, those of Judah and Benjamin and the

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Levites that are really left, they're in subjugation to Rome. They're not experiencing an abundance of prosperity and security.

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They are living on a knife's edge and basically subsisting under oppressive

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Roman rule and taxation. So the idea then here is that when you hear something like this, note that God is weaving in promises that are yet to come.

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This abundance, this prosperity, this security, this restoring of fortunes, this again is eschatological, right?

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I'll restore the fortunes of Judah, the fortunes of Israel, rebuild them as they were at first. I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me.

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Who's doing the cleansing? God. I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me.

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How much of it? All, okay? Not some, all. And this city shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth who shall hear of all the good that I do for them.

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They shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the prosperity I provided for it.

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Thus says Yahweh, in this place of which you say it is a waste without man or beast, in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without a man or inhabitant or beast, there shall be heard again the voice of mirth, the voice of gladness, the voice of bridegroom, the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing as they bring thank offerings to the house of Yahweh.

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Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, for Yahweh is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

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For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first says Yahweh. Thus says

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Yahweh of armies, in this place that is waste without man or beast, in all of its cities, there shall again be habitations of shepherds resting their flocks.

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In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of Shephelah, in the cities of the Negev, in the land of Benjamin, in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, flocks shall again pass into the hands of the one who counts them, says

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Yahweh. Behold, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when

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I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time,

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I will cause a righteous branch to spring up for David. I'll give you three guesses who that is and the first two don't count.

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This is Jesus, right? He's always referred to as that righteous branch, the branch of the shoot of Jesse, right?

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The branch, spring up for David. He shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

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In those days, Judah will be saved. Jerusalem will dwell securely.

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And this is the name by which it will be called. Yahweh is our righteousness.

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Now, consider the implications of this here. Talking about Jesus, and this is obviously a prophecy regarding the new covenant, this is the chapter that relates to that topic, is that God is promising that Jerusalem will dwell securely.

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Has it dwelt securely in all of human history? Yeah, no, okay? Again, note the eschatological notes as we sip on this prophecy.

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And then the name by which it will be called is Yahweh is our righteousness.

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This is an actual prophecy talking about the imputed righteousness of Christ.

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Christians are not saved by their good works or saved by their righteousness.

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They are saved by the fact that God imputes his righteousness and gives it to us as a gift.

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And it's always good to kind of remind you what is said in this regard in the book of, a second here,

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Philippians chapter three. It's so clearly taught here. Philippians chapter three,

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Paul warning again about the Judaizers, Judaizers who say that we're saved by our good works.

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We have to obey the Mosaic covenant commands regarding circumcision and the feast days and all these kind of things, right?

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So Paul, you'll note he's not very politically correct. He calls the

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Judaizers dogs. Yes, he does. By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he does.

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So look out for the dogs. Look out for the evil doers and look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

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We, we Christians, we are the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God and we glory in Christ Jesus and we put no confidence in the flesh.

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By the way, if you have confidence in your law keeping, you, wow, we need to have a chat, okay?

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Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reasons for confidence in the flesh,

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I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a

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Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the

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Torah, blameless, right? You remember those MasterCard commercials?

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You know, it always ends with the word priceless, right? You know, when it comes to being a

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Jew of Jews, Paul was blameless, right? And then he says this, whatever gain

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I had, I count it as a loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing

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Christ Jesus my Lord. So for his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and I count them, what's them?

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All of his good works under the Torah. I count them as rubbish. Again, skubalon, it means a lot more than rubbish.

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In order that I might gain Christ and be found in him, watch this, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes from faith, a righteousness that comes through faith in Christ and it's the righteousness that is from God and it depends on faith.

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So when we see here in our Old Testament text, hang on a second here,

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I have way too many tabs open. Can't remember which one it was.

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Yeah, I think I'm gonna have to close some of these. Yeah, I get the feeling

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I should do that. Let's see, here we go.

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So here we see in Jeremiah, in those days Judah will be saved, Jerusalem will be called

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Sikili and this is the name by which it will be called, Yahweh is our righteousness. It's that same thing that Paul was talking about, not having a righteousness of our own.

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So all who are saved, they are covered with Christ's righteousness, the righteousness of God.

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You need to be perfectly righteous in order to be saved. How's that working out for you? Okay, well the good news is

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Yahweh is our righteousness. So here in Jeremiah chapter 32, sorry, chapter 33 verse 16, there's a prophecy here of the imputed righteousness that we receive by the gospel, the righteousness of Christ, the righteousness of God that is given to us.

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So Yahweh is my righteousness, Yahweh is your righteousness and Yahweh's righteousness is totally righteous.

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Mine, not even close, it's not even worth talking about. For thus says

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Yahweh, David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel. Now wait a second, who's the king of Israel right now, presently?

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Do they have a king? No, they don't, right? So you look at this and go, there hasn't been a king in Israel for how many millennia, right?

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Okay, but what's the promise? Thus says Yahweh, David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel.

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Oh wait a second, hold on, wait. I know a guy,

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I know a guy who's a descendant of David, okay, his name is Jesus.

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And has he been sitting on the throne for the last 2 ,000 years? Yeah, right?

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So when you see a text like this, the problem doesn't, there's no problem with it with Christians.

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Christians go, oh yeah, God's kept his promise. You ask an Orthodox Jew who are the descendants of the

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Pharisees, well, where's this guy, where's this king right now, right?

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You don't have a king sitting on the throne of David. But you do, but you don't recognize it, right?

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So note, God here promises something that can only be fulfilled in Christ. David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, and Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, or to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever.

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So the word that came to Jeremiah, thus says Yahweh, if you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that the day and night will not come at their appointed time, then also my covenant with David, my servant, may be broken, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with the

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Levitical priests, my ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the offspring of David, my servant, and the

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Levitical priests who minister to me. The word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah. I have you not observed that these people are saying,

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Yahweh has rejected the two clans that he chose, thus they have despised my people, so that they are no longer a nation in their sight.

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Thus says Yahweh, if I had not established my covenant with the day and night, and fixed the order of the heaven and the earth, then

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I will reject the offspring of Jacob and David, my servant will not choose one of his offspring to rule over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for I will restore their fortunes, and I will have mercy on them.

40:46

All right, chapter 34, but let me check questions at this point, because I see the chat's been rolling, so I've got to kind of work back here.

40:56

All right, so there was a conversation here about people who had to, who've talked to their friends and family members saying they attend a

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Lutheran church in the United States, and that sounds weird. Yeah, I guess that would sound weird, especially in like Oslo, Minnesota.

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What's Oslo, what's so important about that? Okay, let's see here. All right.

41:35

Okay, so Marlena asks a question. I'm wondering, there are a lot of churches, for example, Roman Catholic Church, where in the midst of all flawed doctrines, they still pray the

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Lord's Prayer. So here we ask for forgiveness of all of our sins. That's right, we do when we pray the

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Lord's Prayer. Does that include the false doctrine we're listening to? Does that save the people then?

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So here's the issue, all right? And I'll have to give you an example. And it takes a little bit more knowledge of what goes on in Rome, and I don't really claim to have that big of a knowledge of it.

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But Rome itself, although they pray the Lord's Prayer, they usually kind of add to it something else.

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So I remember when my grandmother was being buried, and if you haven't heard the story of my grandmother's funeral,

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I'm not gonna tell it now. But that is an ordeal. We're gonna make it into a short film because it needs to be documented for posterity's sake.

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But when it came time for her internment service, an

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Irish Catholic priest showed up, and he was a little bit in a hurry, and so he really wanted to get to it.

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And so when it came time to pray the Lord's Prayer, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

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Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.

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Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation.

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Hail Mary full of grace. It goes straight into a Hail Mary. Okay. So they don't say for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.

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It's right after, they just transition straight into the Hail Mary full of grace.

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And it'd been a while since I'd been in the Catholic Church, and when

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I heard that, I went, what just happened? And so I would note then that Rome, even when they pray the

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Lord's Prayer, they somehow drag Mary into it. It's a strange practice.

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And so the best way I can put it is the truth is in Rome, but it's papered over by a lot of other stuff.

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And it's as if the stuff that is papering over the gospel and true doctrine is designed to kind of mute it and to kind of push it to the background.

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And a lot of people will focus on the other bits and kind of leave Jesus alone. And so that doesn't mean that there aren't people who are saved in Rome.

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There are, but being saved, they need to get out because they're not being taught the truth.

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It's really kind of a mess. So the idea then is that Rome dilutes the truth heavily, heavily diluted with false doctrine.

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And those false doctrines are all established for the purpose of snaring people and getting their faith not on Christ, but on something different.

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So that's the best way I can put it. And I would note that it is a common thing.

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I see it not only in Rome, I see it in the NAR, I see it in other aberrant false doctrinal churches that where there is heresy, there's always gonna be heresy as it relates to prayer.

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The devil, once he really has people believing falsely, cuts them off from communicating with God.

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So you'll note that in Rome, they pray to saints. They pray to Mary, they pray to Saint Teresa, they pray to now the newly sainted

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Pope John Paul II, and they're praying to all these other people, but they're not praying primarily to Christ.

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In the NAR, they don't even pray at all, they just command and decree and declare. And think Ken Copeland and him commanding

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COVID -19 that the wind of God would be blown on it back in March of 2020, how did that work out?

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That wasn't even a prayer. And that's how people are taught nowadays in charismatic circles, they're not taught to humbly ask

45:47

God for things and to pray that his will be done. They act like they're little deities and they're out there commanding and controlling.

45:54

I just note, hurricane season is now upon us. The first named hurricane of the season was just named a few days ago, which means the armies of Kat Kerr have been summoned to battle.

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And it is just a matter of days, and I do mean this, before we see fresh video of Kat Kerr with her

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Gandalf stick off the shores of the Atlantic, commanding hurricanes to go back out to sea and for millibars to be decreased.

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It's coming, okay? This is like Christmas every year at this point, and it's just abysmal.

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Is the woman praying? There isn't a single word that that woman prays. She's a complete loon and a dingbat.

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And there are a lot of people out there who really believe that her and Jesus are tight, and they're gonna be really, really shocked on the day of judgment when

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Jesus says, I don't know you. Did we not command hurricanes to go back out to sea? In your name,

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Jesus? In your name. Yeah, right? That's kind of the idea. So, yes,

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Jeremiah 33, verse 15. Yes, so in those days, at that time,

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I will cause a righteous branch to spring up for David. He shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. I'm gonna say that the way this is written, it's gonna be both first and second coming.

47:37

And that's really part of the trick of working through some of these Old Testament texts.

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Again, a good way, use the wine analogy, because it helps. Because you'll note that oftentimes, what an

47:50

Old Testament prophet will do is they're going to mix first coming and second coming together.

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And this is part of the reason why some Jews struggled to believe that Christ, that Jesus is the

48:05

Christ. Because they see prophecies like this, and they say, well, Jesus didn't fulfill this.

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Oh, but yeah, you need to recognize that Christ does fulfill it in the second coming.

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So the theological term for these types of prophecies, they're called proleptic prophecies.

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A proleptic prophecy will have kind of different elements blended together.

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And often in a proleptic prophecy, there'll be an immediate fulfillment and a far off total fulfillment.

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Part of it will be fulfilled, and then in the long off future, the rest of it will be fulfilled. So God did already cause a righteous branch to spring up for David, and that is

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Christ. And Jesus hasn't come to execute justice and righteousness in the land.

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That's coming on the day of judgment. So you kind of see the two are just smooshed together, which then you sit there and go, how do

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I untangle these things, right? And you'll note that if you listen to the prophets, because they do not engage in really good segues, they just don't.

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It's as if God took certain things, he took eschatological promises, he took messianic promises, he took other kinds of promises, put them in the blender and hit the frappy button, right?

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And so this is all blended together, and so it creates these complex flavors and stuff like this, but then you'll note that knowing this about how the prophets work, are you gonna be quick to just rattle through a passage?

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You shouldn't be. And that's really kind of, if you wanna say, one of the big keys to rightly understanding

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Isaiah and Jeremiah is that this isn't put together in some kind of a

50:00

Roman numeral outline. Today we're gonna be talking about the doctrine of original sin. Today we're gonna be talking about the gospel, and here's the five things about the gospel that you need to know, and the implications as it relates to sanctification and things like this.

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No, what the Old Testament prophets do is they pour into the same vessel all of those doctrines, blend them together, and this requires you to sit there and go, how am

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I supposed to tease all this out? Which requires you to slow down and meditate on these passages.

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That's the whole point. Meditating on the word of God. And by the way, the Hebrew word for meditate is a weird word.

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And the best way I can describe it is it's basically a word picture of a cow chewing cud.

50:51

So you take in a biblical text and you just sit there and keep chewing on it, right?

51:00

That's what it means to meditate. So you take an Old Testament prophecy like this, and note here, you got first and second coming in one sentence.

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And you immediately had a question. Wait a second, which is it? And the answer is it's both, okay?

51:20

But how do you know that? Because you slow down and you just kind of work it out. And when you work in the

51:25

Old Testament prophets, this is oftentimes how they work. And so you gotta tease out the different flavors in the notes in here.

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Ah, that tasted like first coming. This tastes just like second coming. That's the point, okay?

51:38

It's a well -blended wine. So, and by the way, all that free advice about how to work out what wines are doing,

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I won't charge you guys for that. So that's just a bonus from today's sermon. So, all right, let's see here.

51:57

Okay, Dan. So isn't there a sense where these Old Testament prophecies are partially fulfilled now spiritually with an ultimate fulfillment in the new earth?

52:06

Yes, Dan, we just talked about that. That's the proleptic aspects of these prophecies. There's part of them that's already fulfilled, parts that's still coming.

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For example, Hebrews 12 says, we have come to the new Jerusalem and we dwell securely in him.

52:19

Oh, that is a spiritual truth that will be a physical eschatological truth at the return of Christ.

52:24

Right, Dan, you're actually kind of making my point. These are, there are proleptic aspects to these prophecies.

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Jeremiah 33, 11, to understand, literally a figure to you, bride and bridegroom. Hold on a second, 33, 11.

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This is Daniel asking the question, I will restore the fortunes. All right, let me see here.

52:44

The big voice. Okay, long verse. The voice of Myrrh, the voice of gladness, the voice of bridegroom, the voice of bride, the voice of those who sing as they bring thank offerings to the house of Yahweh, give thanks to Yahweh of armies for Yahweh is good, his steadfast love endures forever.

52:59

I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first says Yahweh. So, is this to be understood literally or figuratively?

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Example, bride and bridegroom. I would note that this is figurative language that is probably pointing toward an eschatological reality and is probably pointing to like the wedding feast of the lamb, the day of judgment.

53:19

That's where I would find it's terminus. And then when you understand how proleptic prophecy works, you'll note that the immediate fulfillment when people were brought back from Babylon to the land of Israel and they were able to kind of reestablish things and get the temple back up and running, that that immediate fulfillment is actually a fulfillment that points to the ultimate fulfillment when

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Christ returns. So, you wanna know a little bit about what the new earth is gonna be like.

53:49

Bridegroom, voice of the bride, singing, offering, giving thanks to God, myrrh and dancing.

53:55

Yeah, the dancing bit is a little bit troubling for the Norwegians, but that's a whole other bit. But yeah, okay, but yeah, you get the idea.

54:04

All right, here. So, I remember the Catholic church I attended, Louis says, as a kid, ending the

54:11

Lord's prayer, deliver us from evil, neither add nor subtract. Yeah, the problem is is that you have good examples of the

54:19

Lord's prayer having the end, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory. That goes way back to the writings of the church fathers.

54:26

So, it's not some Protestant innovation that that's something that was happening long, long ago.

54:32

And they took a basically, a different biblical text and kind of tacked it on there. So, as a way of kind of giving a benediction at the end of the

54:40

Lord's prayer. I think the ending is on the first chronicles. Yeah, I think so, yeah. It's biblical.

54:47

Yeah, when I do my catechism class, I actually, if you go through the archives of the catechism class, when we get to that part of the

54:54

Lord's prayer, I have the cross reference set up. I don't remember it off the top of my head, and the older I get, the less

55:00

I remember anything. What's my name again? So. Marilyn's hunting, okay.

55:10

So, Melina says, I once asked why they don't say, for thine is the kingdom, and I was told it's not in the

55:17

Bible. It actually is in the Bible, it's just not part of that prayer. So, people have added it as a benedictory thought at the end.

55:26

Random question, Aislinn says, I've thought about hanging a decorative version of the Ten Commandments in my home.

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I'm not exactly sure where, and still, I just, just a thought. I hesitate because I'm not sure of how it might be perceived.

55:40

Thoughts, interested to hear what others think. All right, so, yeah, we have, let's see here.

55:48

We have Ten Commandments post. It's a good catechetical aid, but if I could, what is the name of that Lutheran group that puts out really good artistic stuff?

56:02

Oh, what is their name? What was that?

56:09

Ad Crucem, yes. If you were looking for good artwork along those lines, look at Ad Crucem, Ad Crucem.

56:15

They really put out some really good artistic stuff. The ladies that run that are just, like, theologically sharp, good ladies.

56:22

But, you know, so here's the idea, is that putting up something like that is good catechetical stuff.

56:28

It's a good conversation starter, but if I were to put the Ten Commandments up in my house as a piece of artwork,

56:35

I'd put a crucifix next to it. You know, so that we've got law and gospel. I don't want to preach half a message with my art.

56:43

I gotta preach the whole thing, so. All right. All right, hold on a second here.

56:49

We're gonna do some fact checking. Marilyn has gone into her Bible. First Chronicles, one chron, 20 what?

57:00

29, 11. All right, hold on a second here. Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, and the victory, and the majesty for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours.

57:12

Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. This is part of David's praise in the assembly.

57:20

This is a Davidic prayer in First Chronicles 29, 11, and you can see that what they've done for the

57:27

Lord's Prayer is they've abbreviated this a little bit, but that's where it comes from.

57:32

So the long ending of the Lord's Prayer is technically not something that Jesus taught, but it's something that the church historically went and added to it as a benedictory thought from King David, First Chronicles 29, 11.

57:46

There you go. So there's where it comes from. Thank you, Marilyn, that helped. Okay, Naya says, a pastor

57:56

I knew once said we should be careful when praying out loud because Satan is listening. So?

58:09

I like to think when I'm praying out loud that Satan is not only listening, that he may be wetting himself, you know?

58:17

Good night. Good night. Okay, so Don has brought up a historically pernicious point, and I'll leave it at this, is that the claim is there are churches, and this is true, that refuse to pray the

58:37

Lord's Prayer because they say that it's vain repetition. But in one of the Gospels, I don't know off the top of my head, and I've run out of time, in one of the

58:44

Gospels, the Lord's Prayer is literally given as the antidote to vain repetition. So, I would note, in something like that,

58:57

I would be polite and point out, and just basically say something, well, if it's vain repetition to pray this way, then why did

59:04

Christ give us an example to pray these words every day as an example of not being vain repetition?

59:13

You know, so I think it's maybe in Matthew's version of it in the Lord's, in the

59:19

Sermon on the Mount, but literally, in the context, the Lord's Prayer is offered up as the antidote to vain repetition.

59:27

So, yeah, so, all right, I've got to go, because I've got to head over to Emmanuel, so great to see you all.

59:33

Lord willing, we will see you next time. Peace, and remember, no Sunday school next week, because it's rally day for us here, so.