WEBVTT 00:00:02.104 --> 00:00:03.686 Turn to the book of Jeremiah. 00:00:03.686 --> 00:00:14.571 The book of Jeremiah is the book we'll be looking at tonight as we carry on this overview series of all the books of the Bible. 00:00:14.571 --> 00:00:18.568 We're in Jeremiah tonight, so you can turn to Jeremiah, chapter 1. 00:00:18.568 --> 00:00:28.649 That's in our Old Testaments, the second of what Pastor Doug had brought out as what are sometimes called the major prophets Isaiah and then Jeremiah. 00:00:28.649 --> 00:00:40.073 I want to read Jeremiah 1, verses 4 and 5, to start out. 00:00:40.073 --> 00:00:45.365 The word of the Lord came to me. 00:00:45.365 --> 00:00:49.954 I chose you before I formed you in the womb. 00:00:49.954 --> 00:00:53.526 I set you apart before you were born. 00:00:53.526 --> 00:00:57.154 I appointed you a prophet to the nations. 00:00:57.154 --> 00:01:00.807 Let me just briefly pray again, lord. 00:01:00.807 --> 00:01:15.126 We're seeking you tonight that you would speak through this prophetic word, that we have this word as a more sure and certain thing than even the Mount of Transfiguration, and we do well to pay attention to it. 00:01:15.126 --> 00:01:18.659 So pray that you would give me attention to it in my heart. 00:01:18.659 --> 00:01:21.545 Give all of us attention to it tonight, in Jesus name, amen. 00:01:21.545 --> 00:01:30.006 God says he's appointed Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations, and particularly to Israel. 00:01:30.006 --> 00:01:32.191 What's his message? 00:01:35.161 --> 00:01:44.594 The book of Jeremiah reminds me of one of those sleazy daytime TV shows. 00:01:44.594 --> 00:01:51.611 Those sleazy daytime TV shows. 00:01:51.611 --> 00:01:52.295 Now why do I say that? 00:01:52.295 --> 00:01:53.058 Don't run me out on the street. 00:01:53.058 --> 00:01:59.500 You can say a few things after 10 years that you wouldn't say the first time you were preaching. 00:01:59.500 --> 00:02:03.271 God's inspired his word. 00:02:03.271 --> 00:02:04.656 It's good and it's pure. 00:02:04.656 --> 00:02:17.419 But here's why I say that A lot of those daytime TV shows it seems like it's always about who is suing who or, in other courtroom dramas, who is sleeping with who. 00:02:19.348 --> 00:02:33.304 Those are always there In the book of Jeremiah. 00:02:33.304 --> 00:02:36.080 Two of the controlling themes and images of the book is the image of a lawsuit and the image of adultery. 00:02:36.080 --> 00:02:49.920 Now there are some key differences In those daytime shows. 00:02:49.920 --> 00:02:51.664 Part of the probably sinful curiosity is you don't know who's telling the truth. 00:02:51.664 --> 00:02:55.013 This person's doing that person and you said you were going to fix the car, but you didn't. 00:02:55.013 --> 00:03:02.650 Who's telling the truth when it comes to God's word and his lawsuits? 00:03:02.650 --> 00:03:05.334 We know that he's always speaking the truth. 00:03:05.334 --> 00:03:07.116 He's always in the right. 00:03:07.116 --> 00:03:16.931 Another difference is some of those talk shows, things like that. 00:03:16.931 --> 00:03:23.110 They're really just trying to entertain you, and that's a sad thing. 00:03:23.110 --> 00:03:29.088 When they bring someone out on stage that was secretly having an affair, they're trying to kind of entertain you. 00:03:29.088 --> 00:03:30.252 What a sad way to do that. 00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:49.097 The Lord, when he uses this metaphor repeatedly in the book of Jeremiah of adultery, he's not Not seeking to entertain but to shock and move us to repent and turn to him. 00:03:49.097 --> 00:03:58.694 So in the book of Jeremiah, god is bringing a covenant case against his adulterous people. 00:03:58.694 --> 00:04:04.430 That's what we're going to see tonight. 00:04:04.430 --> 00:04:09.561 God is bringing a covenant case against his adulterous people. 00:04:09.561 --> 00:04:14.793 Let's look at chapter two, and again we'll be looking at different passages in this book. 00:04:14.793 --> 00:04:28.687 Chapter two, verse number nine and the translation I have tonight, same as your pew Bible there, and the translation I have tonight, same as your pew Bible there, says therefore, I will bring a case against you. 00:04:28.687 --> 00:04:30.271 This is the Lord's declaration. 00:04:30.271 --> 00:04:35.523 I will bring a case against your children's children. 00:04:35.523 --> 00:04:39.708 The ESV says I will contend with you. 00:04:39.708 --> 00:04:43.151 The NIV says I'll bring charges against you. 00:04:43.151 --> 00:04:47.257 We're in this realm of a legal metaphor. 00:04:49.701 --> 00:04:52.711 Look down at verse number 29 of chapter 2. 00:04:52.711 --> 00:04:59.569 Just getting some samples here, some soundings Verse 29, why do you bring a case against me? 00:04:59.569 --> 00:05:02.324 And he goes on. 00:05:02.324 --> 00:05:06.788 There's also the language of the Lord standing as a judge. 00:05:06.788 --> 00:05:10.442 Look at chapter 2, verse 35. 00:05:10.442 --> 00:05:13.288 You claim I am innocent. 00:05:13.288 --> 00:05:22.269 His anger is sure to turn away from me, but I will certainly judge you because you have said I have not sinned, said I have not sinned. 00:05:22.269 --> 00:05:34.281 And then you don't have to turn there, but listen to chapter 25, verse 31. 00:05:34.300 --> 00:05:36.586 The tumult reaches to the ends of the earth because the Lord brings a case against the nations. 00:05:36.586 --> 00:05:39.153 He enters into judgment with all humanity. 00:05:39.153 --> 00:05:43.583 As for the wicked, he gives them over to the sword. 00:05:43.583 --> 00:05:45.024 This is the Lord's declaration. 00:05:45.024 --> 00:05:46.687 As for the wicked, he gives them over to the sword. 00:05:46.687 --> 00:05:47.788 This is the Lord's declaration. 00:05:47.788 --> 00:05:49.771 Now, in that verse I just read, it talks about all humanity. 00:05:49.771 --> 00:05:52.055 So is it his people or all humanity? 00:05:52.055 --> 00:05:59.067 Well, it's primarily his people, but he's going to indict all the nations too. 00:05:59.067 --> 00:06:00.432 So we're not going to span beyond our theme just right now. 00:06:00.432 --> 00:06:01.699 We are going to come back to that at a later point. 00:06:01.699 --> 00:06:07.100 So we've got this contending language bringing a case against them language. 00:06:07.100 --> 00:06:09.425 We've got God as judge coming in here. 00:06:09.425 --> 00:06:15.095 And why does God bring this case against them? 00:06:15.095 --> 00:06:17.182 Well, you're still in chapter two. 00:06:18.706 --> 00:06:19.666 Look at verse 29. 00:06:19.666 --> 00:06:23.653 All of you have rebelled against me. 00:06:23.653 --> 00:06:29.850 There's the general description, but let's get a little more specific. 00:06:29.850 --> 00:06:34.348 Turn over to chapter 11. 00:06:34.348 --> 00:06:44.752 Chapter 11, beginning with the first verse. 00:06:44.752 --> 00:06:50.072 Chapter 11, beginning with the first verse this is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord. 00:06:50.151 --> 00:06:54.935 Listen to the words of this covenant and tell them to the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem. 00:06:54.935 --> 00:06:55.315 Tell them. 00:06:55.315 --> 00:06:57.057 This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. 00:06:57.057 --> 00:07:06.230 Let a curse be on the man who does not obey the words of this covenant which I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace. 00:07:06.230 --> 00:07:14.369 I declared obey me and do everything that I command you, and you will be my people and I will be your God. 00:07:14.369 --> 00:07:20.906 In order to establish the oath I swore to your ancestors to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is today. 00:07:20.906 --> 00:07:23.093 I answered amen, lord. 00:07:23.093 --> 00:07:28.382 As it is today. 00:07:28.382 --> 00:07:29.283 I answered Amen, lord. 00:07:29.283 --> 00:07:32.228 The Lord said to me proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. 00:07:32.228 --> 00:07:56.749 Obey the words of this covenant and carry them out, for I strongly warned your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt until today, warning them time and time again obey me. 00:07:56.749 --> 00:07:59.470 Yet they would not obey or pay attention. 00:07:59.470 --> 00:08:04.673 So he's bringing a case against them because they've rebelled. 00:08:04.673 --> 00:08:13.577 And now he specifies that rebellion is rebellion against the covenant he had with them. 00:08:13.577 --> 00:08:17.350 That's why I said he's bringing a covenant case against Israel. 00:08:18.461 --> 00:08:29.204 So hundreds of years before God came and spoke, through the prophet Jeremiah, he brings the people out of Egypt and, if you remember, he's talking about it right here. 00:08:29.204 --> 00:08:37.231 Through Jeremiah, looking back on what's happened At the base of Mount Sinai, he enters into a covenant with the entire nation. 00:08:37.231 --> 00:08:47.225 He gives them 10 commandments there are many other laws that come along with that and he says here's what I want you to do Obey me in these ways, I'm going to bring you into the promised land. 00:08:47.225 --> 00:08:50.801 And they say, yes, all that Lord has spoken, we will do. 00:08:50.801 --> 00:08:55.327 There's sprinkled blood and they have this covenant. 00:08:55.327 --> 00:09:13.698 But as Jeremiah speaks and the Lord through him reminds the people over and over again, throughout the centuries they failed to obey and a part of that old covenant was bringing you into the land, keep obeying me. 00:09:13.698 --> 00:09:15.042 There's going to be all these blessings. 00:09:15.042 --> 00:09:19.309 If you disobey, there's going to be all of these curses. 00:09:19.309 --> 00:09:29.735 And here these curses are starting to come into effect as Jeremiah speaks of Babylon, who's going to come and take them into exile. 00:09:29.735 --> 00:09:33.309 So he's bringing a covenant case against the people. 00:09:34.461 --> 00:09:43.534 And I mentioned that other significant image, the image of adultery, as really almost a controlling metaphor in this book for the nature of their sin. 00:09:43.534 --> 00:09:47.201 Let's sample a few passages in relation to that. 00:09:47.201 --> 00:09:48.443 Let's go to chapter 3. 00:09:48.443 --> 00:09:50.168 Jeremiah 3. 00:09:50.168 --> 00:09:52.131 I want you to see it yourself. 00:09:52.131 --> 00:09:56.207 Don't just trust me, but make sure we're looking at scripture together. 00:09:57.932 --> 00:09:59.676 Jeremiah 3, verse 1. 00:09:59.676 --> 00:10:05.831 If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? 00:10:05.831 --> 00:10:09.360 Wouldn't such a land become totally defiled? 00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:15.472 But you, you have prostituted yourself with many partners. 00:10:15.472 --> 00:10:17.505 Can you return to me? 00:10:17.505 --> 00:10:20.447 This is the Lord's declaration. 00:10:20.447 --> 00:10:23.643 Chapter 9,. 00:10:23.643 --> 00:10:27.131 Turn over to chapter nine, verses one and two. 00:10:27.131 --> 00:10:43.562 If my head were a flowing spring, my eyes a fountain of tears, I would weep day and night over the slain of my dear people. 00:10:43.562 --> 00:10:51.895 Jeremiah is sometimes called the weeping prophet for a passage like this, verse 2. 00:10:51.895 --> 00:11:15.572 A solemn assembly of treacherous people Jeremiah 23.10. 00:11:15.572 --> 00:11:26.450 Turn over to Jeremiah, chapter 23. 00:11:26.450 --> 00:11:31.635 For the land is full of adulterers. 00:11:31.635 --> 00:11:35.389 The land mourns because of the curse. 00:11:35.389 --> 00:11:38.269 The grazing lands and the wilderness have dried up. 00:11:38.269 --> 00:11:43.085 Their way of life has become evil and their power is not rightly used. 00:11:46.208 --> 00:12:00.681 Adultery, adultery, adultery, prostitution, prostitution, prostitution. 00:12:00.681 --> 00:12:02.203 You say, well, were they committing a lot of physical adultery? 00:12:02.203 --> 00:12:02.985 Yes, that's part of what's going on. 00:12:02.985 --> 00:12:06.793 You can listen to this passage Jeremiah 29, verse 23. 00:12:06.793 --> 00:12:13.653 They've committed an outrage in Israel by committing adultery with their neighbor's wives. 00:12:13.653 --> 00:12:16.729 So there was physical adultery going on. 00:12:17.379 --> 00:12:19.969 Jeremiah will also speak of the high places. 00:12:19.969 --> 00:12:39.729 In the ancient world, often various cultures had shrines to their gods and they would put them up in mountainous regions, part of their kind of worldview, and often at these mountainous shrines there would be temple prostitutes of various sorts. 00:12:39.729 --> 00:12:46.135 Jeremiah mentions the people engaging in worship at the high places, like the surrounding nations. 00:12:46.135 --> 00:12:56.743 There was also likely sexual immorality happening at those places. 00:12:56.743 --> 00:12:58.745 So, yes, there is physical immorality going on here. 00:12:58.825 --> 00:13:02.308 But then why did I say that there's this controlling image of adultery? 00:13:02.308 --> 00:13:04.532 It's like actual adultery adultery. 00:13:04.532 --> 00:13:15.073 Well, I say that because through this prophet, jeremiah, the Lord categorizes all their sin as adultery. 00:13:15.073 --> 00:13:21.529 It's not merely the people that commit the physical act. 00:13:21.529 --> 00:13:23.452 It includes that. 00:13:23.452 --> 00:13:25.035 But it's broader than that. 00:13:25.035 --> 00:13:28.081 Many of the prophets will use this image. 00:13:28.081 --> 00:13:32.653 When we come to Ezekiel, you'll probably hear more of this. 00:13:32.653 --> 00:13:38.681 There's even more graphic language in the book of Ezekiel than there is here in Jeremiah about the horror of that sin. 00:13:38.681 --> 00:13:50.809 I'll give you an example, and you can again listen to this In chapter 2, verse 32, god says a bride doesn't forget her wedding sash, but his people have forgotten him. 00:13:51.431 --> 00:14:04.653 There's the wayward wife imagery, but then in verse 34 of chapter 2, jeremiah goes on to say your skirts are stained with the blood of the innocent poor. 00:14:04.653 --> 00:14:15.264 What does trampling on poor people and taking advantage of them have to do with adultery? 00:14:15.264 --> 00:14:16.187 Because it's a sin. 00:14:16.187 --> 00:14:25.371 It's a sin against God's covenant and God is viewing adultery, all of these sins against his covenant, as a kind of adultery. 00:14:25.371 --> 00:14:33.231 You can see in chapter 7, jeremiah cataloging many of these sins. 00:14:33.231 --> 00:14:36.369 Maybe write that down and look at it later. 00:14:36.369 --> 00:14:48.620 They worship false gods, they steal, they murder, they swear falsely, they receive false prophets, they ignore God, they trust in mere rituals and it's all prostitution, it's all adultery. 00:14:48.620 --> 00:14:50.562 Why? 00:14:50.562 --> 00:14:53.687 It's because it comes. 00:14:53.687 --> 00:14:59.155 Those sins come in the context of a covenant violation. 00:14:59.155 --> 00:15:07.000 They're not just doing wrong things in the abstract, they're doing wrong things against the Lord, who bought them and loved him. 00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:31.019 He pictures that old covenant at Sinai as though he's entering into a kind of marriage with the people so that when they sin against the law they're sitting against him, their husband it's a very personal thing their husband. 00:15:31.019 --> 00:15:39.434 It's a very personal thing If someone's on trial for stealing a motorcycle and have the trial and the judge bangs the gavel and says you're guilty. 00:15:40.880 --> 00:15:46.311 Seven years in prison, you filthy prostitute, kind of like whoa. 00:15:46.311 --> 00:15:48.114 Where did that come from? 00:15:48.114 --> 00:15:49.865 I stole the motorcycle. 00:15:49.865 --> 00:15:52.970 Why do you got to like launch at me like that? 00:15:52.970 --> 00:16:10.403 But if you knew, this person stole the motorcycle in order to go to a seedy part of town and get drugs and let other people abuse them, all while their spouse was waiting at home with the wonderful meal they cooked. 00:16:10.403 --> 00:16:17.961 That starts to reveal the intensifying personal nature of it. 00:16:17.961 --> 00:16:22.025 That's what this kind of sin is against the Lord. 00:16:22.025 --> 00:16:30.774 And it's even more twisted when you have a perfect spouse. 00:16:30.774 --> 00:16:36.529 None of us have perfect spouses, but the Lord is a perfect spouse. 00:16:36.529 --> 00:16:41.331 You couldn't ask for anyone better than the Lord, and yet the people still sin against him. 00:16:43.681 --> 00:16:49.393 So in chapter 23, 14, and go ahead and turn to chapter two, you might still be in chapter two. 00:16:49.393 --> 00:16:50.482 We've gone to a bunch of places. 00:16:50.482 --> 00:16:51.586 Turn back to chapter two. 00:16:51.586 --> 00:16:59.585 But in chapter 23, verse 14, god says that Jerusalem's residents are like Sodom and Gomorrah. 00:16:59.585 --> 00:17:11.605 In chapter three, verse 9, he says it's as if they're committing adultery with stones and trees, like it's so ugly. 00:17:11.605 --> 00:17:19.892 It's not even a satisfying thing, and if you look at chapter 2, I've got to get there myself, sorry. 00:17:19.892 --> 00:17:26.488 Look at verse number five. 00:17:26.488 --> 00:17:31.686 This is what the Lord says. 00:17:31.686 --> 00:17:45.707 What fault did your ancestors find in me that they went so far for me, followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves? 00:17:45.707 --> 00:17:48.611 Look down at verse 11. 00:17:48.611 --> 00:17:51.335 We'll read verses 11 to 13. 00:17:51.335 --> 00:18:01.521 Has a nation ever exchanged its gods? 00:18:01.521 --> 00:18:02.083 But they were not gods. 00:18:02.083 --> 00:18:03.686 Yet my people have exchanged their glory for useless idols. 00:18:03.686 --> 00:18:07.374 Be appalled at this, o heavens, be shocked and utterly desolated. 00:18:07.374 --> 00:18:10.304 This is the Lord's declaration. 00:18:13.489 --> 00:18:14.211 I like to hike. 00:18:14.211 --> 00:18:19.526 I like waterfalls on hikes, but you don't always know what you're going to get. 00:18:19.526 --> 00:18:38.133 Sometimes the rainfall can affect how much waterfall there is and occasionally you'll have people talking up this hike and there's this amazing waterfall and da-da-da-da-da, you do the hike and you get to the waterfall and it's like drip, drip, drip and you're like, well, this was a letdown. 00:18:38.133 --> 00:18:42.926 This is not what I expected, god says. 00:18:42.926 --> 00:18:49.663 You got so excited to go after these foreign nations and worship their gods and disobey my covenant. 00:18:49.663 --> 00:18:51.867 What did you actually get out of it? 00:18:51.867 --> 00:18:54.953 You didn't get what you were hoping for. 00:18:54.953 --> 00:19:05.568 Tim Keller has that image where he would say sometimes you know, our sin is like you wake up in the morning and it's Leah. 00:19:05.568 --> 00:19:15.388 It's not what you expected it would result in. 00:19:15.429 --> 00:19:18.854 Look at chapter 17, verses 5 to 8. 00:19:18.854 --> 00:19:26.633 And this is going to start to really reveal the heart of the issue here. 00:19:26.633 --> 00:19:29.903 And the heart of the issue is the issue of the heart, chapter 17,. 00:19:29.903 --> 00:19:34.391 Look at verse number five. 00:19:34.391 --> 00:19:36.074 This is what the Lord says. 00:19:43.380 --> 00:19:44.365 Cursed is the person who trusts in mankind. 00:19:44.365 --> 00:19:45.772 He makes human flesh his strength and his heart turns from the Lord. 00:19:45.772 --> 00:19:52.461 He will be like a juniper in the Arabah he cannot see when good comes, but dwells in the parched places, in the wilderness, in a salt land where no one lives. 00:19:52.461 --> 00:19:59.921 The person who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed. 00:19:59.921 --> 00:20:02.967 He will be like a tree planted by water. 00:20:02.967 --> 00:20:04.529 Sounds like Psalm 1 there, doesn't it? 00:20:04.529 --> 00:20:06.961 It sends out its root in its stream. 00:20:06.961 --> 00:20:10.268 It doesn't fear when heat comes, its foliage remains green. 00:20:10.268 --> 00:20:15.305 It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit. 00:20:15.305 --> 00:20:25.031 The heart is more deceitful than anything else and incurable who can understand it? 00:20:25.031 --> 00:20:31.640 And incurable who can understand it? 00:20:31.640 --> 00:20:35.942 The Lord is heartbroken over his people. 00:20:35.942 --> 00:20:46.171 And if Chad Driscoll, if you're listening, he's not heartbroken in the exact same way that we are, but he's heartbroken over his people, and you can see, even in some of the language of Jeremiah. 00:20:46.230 --> 00:20:54.217 Here, if you look at your Bibles, you'll notice that our translators have given a different type setting. 00:20:54.217 --> 00:20:58.962 Some of it's very paragraphed. 00:20:58.962 --> 00:21:00.847 In most of your Bibles, no matter what translation you have, it's very paragraphed. 00:21:00.847 --> 00:21:03.776 And then there are large blocks that are not really paragraphed. 00:21:03.776 --> 00:21:13.691 They look almost more poetic, and so the translators are trying to kind of help us distinguish narrative blocks from poetic blocks. 00:21:13.790 --> 00:21:16.520 And there's a lot of poetry in Jeremiah. 00:21:16.520 --> 00:21:34.661 It's not the kind of poetry that we're used to, kind of sing-songy and with rhymes, but it's a focused and artistic way to express this anxiety and heart burden. 00:21:34.661 --> 00:21:44.213 So the Lord is heartbroken, he's angry, but he's not flying off a out of control. 00:21:44.213 --> 00:21:51.825 This is a pointed and fixed grief and Jeremiah shares with the Lord this intense grief. 00:21:51.825 --> 00:21:57.515 That's put into poetry, just so hard to express all of the emotion. 00:21:57.515 --> 00:22:06.621 But they're doing it in a very controlled but pointed way and we'll actually see in the book of Lamentations in two weeks I believe we're off next Sunday night In two weeks. 00:22:06.621 --> 00:22:10.471 Lamentations especially has that poetic thrust to grief. 00:22:10.471 --> 00:22:11.865 So we'll consider more of that here. 00:22:11.940 --> 00:22:22.113 But the Lord is yearning over his people and he recognizes, as he knows, all things, he recognizes the issue of their heart. 00:22:22.113 --> 00:22:32.749 So they're going to go to Babylon and he's going to give them hope we're going to come and help, just a minute here that they're going to be brought out of Babylon. 00:22:32.749 --> 00:22:37.446 But then if the problem is their deceitful heart, is it? 00:22:37.446 --> 00:22:40.133 What's difference is the location going to make? 00:22:40.133 --> 00:22:44.529 They were in Egypt, then they came out, then they were in the promised land. 00:22:44.529 --> 00:22:46.373 Then they're in Babylon, then they'll be back in the promised land. 00:22:46.373 --> 00:22:47.227 Well, I, then they were in the promised land, then they're in Babylon, then they'll be back in the promised land. 00:22:47.227 --> 00:22:50.630 Well, I'd rather be in the promised land than a slave in Egypt. 00:22:50.630 --> 00:22:55.451 I'd rather be in the promised land and have some freedom than kind of be under the thumb of Babylon. 00:22:55.451 --> 00:23:07.128 But if it's that deceptive heart that's going to travel with me no matter where I go, and that's what's happening with the people, so they need something more. 00:23:08.852 --> 00:23:20.961 And towards the last portion of the book, jeremiah indicts not just God's people but other surrounding nations, even Babylon itself. 00:23:20.961 --> 00:23:23.267 So God will use Babylon to judge Israel. 00:23:23.267 --> 00:23:28.803 But then Babylon willingly chose to murder and kill and destroy, and God's going to judge them too. 00:23:28.803 --> 00:23:34.079 So all of us who are here today as people made in God's image. 00:23:34.079 --> 00:23:50.900 We might not be part of this specific covenant in its historic setting that God made with the group of people, the Israelites, but if we're made in his image, there's a sense in which we belong to God and we owe him obedience and loyalty. 00:23:50.900 --> 00:23:54.008 And all the nations are facing judgment. 00:23:54.008 --> 00:23:54.912 We're facing judgment. 00:23:54.912 --> 00:23:58.275 It's not just Israel that has this deceitful and wicked heart. 00:23:58.275 --> 00:24:01.343 All of us have this deceitful and wicked heart. 00:24:02.770 --> 00:24:09.333 So God brings a covenant case against his adulterous people, and they're guilty. 00:24:09.333 --> 00:24:20.675 He speaks of the certificate of divorce that he wrote for Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and threatens it for Judah and Jerusalem, the Southern Kingdom. 00:24:20.675 --> 00:24:22.890 Because they didn't learn they acted just the same way. 00:24:22.890 --> 00:24:30.338 But that's not the end of this inspired courtroom drama. 00:24:30.338 --> 00:24:35.164 The final word is not a word purely of judgment. 00:24:35.164 --> 00:24:36.665 There's a word of hope. 00:24:36.665 --> 00:24:40.000 So turn to chapter 31. 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:57.758 Chapter 31, even after all of this covenant indictment and graphic language of the people's sin, god in his marvelous mercy, gives them hope. 00:24:59.582 --> 00:25:00.483 Chapter 31,. 00:25:00.483 --> 00:25:04.875 I'll pick up the reading in verse number 31. 00:25:04.875 --> 00:25:09.623 Look, the days are coming. 00:25:09.623 --> 00:25:20.730 This is the Lord's declaration when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 00:25:20.730 --> 00:25:23.440 I'm going to pause there. 00:25:23.440 --> 00:25:29.538 It's so fitting that these words would be in Jeremiah, because Jeremiah has outlined God's covenant case against the people. 00:25:29.538 --> 00:25:31.090 They broke the terms of the old covenant. 00:25:31.090 --> 00:25:32.512 They have this deceitful heart. 00:25:32.512 --> 00:25:34.277 They kept breaking the old covenant. 00:25:34.277 --> 00:25:36.580 The curses are rightly being carried out. 00:25:37.383 --> 00:25:38.243 What's the solution? 00:25:38.243 --> 00:25:42.415 Well, jeremiah says good news there's a new covenant coming. 00:25:42.415 --> 00:25:54.424 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. 00:25:54.424 --> 00:25:58.590 My covenant they broke, even though I am their master. 00:25:58.590 --> 00:25:59.752 The Lord's declaration. 00:25:59.752 --> 00:26:12.010 So this is not like the judge saying okay, you stole the motorcycle, seven years in prison and then, once you do the seven years, we'll give you another chance. 00:26:12.010 --> 00:26:13.934 See if you can go without selling a motorcycle. 00:26:13.934 --> 00:26:24.757 God is not just telling the people okay, you're going to take him to Babylon and then you're going to get kind of a fresh start when you come back into the land and let's see if you can carry out the old covenant this next time. 00:26:24.757 --> 00:26:27.883 This is something new. 00:26:27.883 --> 00:26:35.200 It is in some senses unlike that old covenant Verse 33,. 00:26:35.339 --> 00:26:41.414 Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, the Lord's declaration. 00:26:41.414 --> 00:26:47.830 I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. 00:26:47.830 --> 00:26:48.691 What is the whole problem here? 00:26:48.691 --> 00:26:51.073 The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. 00:26:51.073 --> 00:26:52.755 Is the whole problem here? 00:26:52.755 --> 00:26:55.757 The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. 00:26:55.757 --> 00:26:59.720 Moses had even said you've actually got to circumcise your heart. 00:26:59.720 --> 00:27:06.924 Jeremiah brings that up too, and the Lord says I'm going to do it, I'm going to give you the new heart you need. 00:27:06.924 --> 00:27:13.971 He knows they can't circumcise their own heart. 00:27:13.971 --> 00:27:16.521 He knows they can't fulfill this old covenant, but he says I'm going to come and make it happen. 00:27:16.521 --> 00:27:20.759 I will be their God and they will be my people. 00:27:22.289 --> 00:27:22.891 Verse 34,. 00:27:22.891 --> 00:27:31.421 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother saying know the Lord, for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them. 00:27:31.421 --> 00:27:40.433 This is the Lord's declaration, for I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin. 00:27:40.433 --> 00:27:55.542 If you've been coming here at all on Sunday mornings, we're going through the gospel of Matthew and we've come to the crucifixion, the burial of Jesus Christ, which we heard about this morning. 00:27:55.542 --> 00:28:07.811 Jesus himself inaugurates this is the new covenant in my blood. 00:28:07.811 --> 00:28:09.733 Jesus is fulfilling God's plan prophesied through Jeremiah. 00:28:09.733 --> 00:28:22.112 Jesus comes and completes all that Israel, and all that we failed to do so. 00:28:22.733 --> 00:28:34.240 This new covenant is not God saying boy, that old covenant, I was a little harsh with that, let's wind it back and lower the bar a bit. 00:28:34.240 --> 00:28:41.854 I'm a nice guy, let's wind it back and lower the bar a bit, I'm a nice guy. 00:28:41.854 --> 00:28:45.559 It's not that he is saying the old covenant was wrong and he's just going to kind of erase it. 00:28:45.559 --> 00:28:48.625 It's righteous and it will be fulfilled. 00:28:48.625 --> 00:28:54.458 It's just not going to be Israel, the nations that are the fulfillers of it, that are the fulfillers of it. 00:28:54.458 --> 00:28:59.644 They're rebellious children, but his son always had a listening ear. 00:28:59.644 --> 00:29:08.136 His son was never rebellious. 00:29:08.136 --> 00:29:09.664 His son perfectly measures all of the terms of that covenant. 00:29:09.664 --> 00:29:30.333 So when you come to the book of Hebrews, in chapter eight, the writer of Hebrews speaks about that new covenant and says the new covenant is for all who come to Christ, jew or Gentile in Christ, that true fulfillment of all that Israel was intended to be. 00:29:30.333 --> 00:29:35.863 We participate in the new covenant not by our own works. 00:29:35.863 --> 00:29:43.549 We participate in the new covenant not by our own works but by receiving and embracing the work of Christ. 00:29:43.750 --> 00:29:47.309 I'm going to take you last passage for tonight here in Jeremiah. 00:29:47.309 --> 00:29:55.109 Go over to chapter 23 of Jeremiah. 00:29:55.109 --> 00:30:07.546 The prophets move through kind of back and forths of judgment and hope for mercy and different kinds of judgment, and then mercy whispered and sprinkled it in different ways at different sections. 00:30:07.546 --> 00:30:13.750 So he in chapter 31, jeremiah, brings out this hope of the new covenant. 00:30:13.750 --> 00:30:28.761 But he's already before that talked about how something like that could be possible, because chapter 31 doesn't give us all of the details of how the new covenant is affected and how the Lord fulfills it, but chapter 23,. 00:30:28.761 --> 00:30:29.990 We have a little bit more of that. 00:30:34.298 --> 00:30:37.904 Verse one woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pastor. 00:30:37.904 --> 00:30:39.434 This is the Lord's declaration. 00:30:39.434 --> 00:30:45.941 Therefore, this is what the Lord says, the God of Israel says about the shepherds who tend my people. 00:30:45.941 --> 00:30:48.535 You've scattered my flock, you've banished them. 00:30:48.535 --> 00:30:51.819 I'm about to attend to you because of your evil acts. 00:30:51.819 --> 00:30:55.375 Then look at verse five. 00:30:55.375 --> 00:31:14.093 Look, the days are coming this is the Lord's declaration when I will raise up a righteous branch for David. 00:31:14.113 --> 00:31:15.015 David is dead when Jeremiah is prophesying. 00:31:15.015 --> 00:31:21.417 But King David, people had hope in him, but he didn't bring ultimate salvation. 00:31:21.417 --> 00:31:30.161 His son, his branch sometimes lineages and even nations are described as trees or branches or vines. 00:31:30.161 --> 00:31:32.938 His son didn't bring that. 00:31:32.938 --> 00:31:42.903 But God says there's a branch coming and it's going to be a righteous branch, unlike all the unrighteous people. 00:31:42.903 --> 00:31:50.163 He will reign wisely as king and administer justice and righteousness in the land. 00:31:50.163 --> 00:31:58.733 And then, in case you were uncertain, verse number six in his days, judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. 00:31:58.733 --> 00:32:05.851 This is the name he will be called, the Lord Yahweh. 00:32:05.851 --> 00:32:06.811 All caps there. 00:32:06.811 --> 00:32:10.236 The Lord is our righteousness. 00:32:11.718 --> 00:32:18.165 So Jeremiah brings together the coming branch of David with the Lord himself. 00:32:18.165 --> 00:32:24.122 It's not we are the righteousness or David's son. 00:32:24.122 --> 00:32:27.690 Merely from a human vantage point is our righteousness. 00:32:27.690 --> 00:32:38.011 It is David's son, it is true human, but it's God himself, the Lord, who gives the gift of righteousness, and he does this. 00:32:38.011 --> 00:32:43.624 He says even earlier in Jeremiah he's going to act for his namesake. 00:32:43.624 --> 00:32:46.654 That's our final lasting hope. 00:32:47.336 --> 00:32:59.896 If it's just the covenant case against us, we'd have to say yes, I'm an adulterous person, no matter what the specific sin is, that we struggle with the nature of who we are to be unfaithful to the Lord. 00:32:59.896 --> 00:33:01.221 That's me. 00:33:01.221 --> 00:33:14.097 But the case has been closed and our verdict has been secured as not guilty because of the Lord, our righteousness, jesus, the righteous branch. 00:33:14.097 --> 00:33:22.159 So Jeremiah is a book with a lot of weeping, but ultimately hope in God's Messiah. 00:33:22.861 --> 00:33:54.584 Let's pray, lord, give us a staggering horror at the reality of our sin, that we wouldn't talk about it in meager terms and light terms and just mere terms of wrong choices or mistakes, but to see how foolish we are when we turn from a fountain of living waters to try to dig out pitiful, muddy, broken cisterns that don't hold water. 00:33:54.584 --> 00:34:08.739 And yet, for your own namesake, you've acted, you've called us to yourself, you continue to be at work in us, and we want more and more this experience of forgiveness and the credit of righteousness. 00:34:08.739 --> 00:34:15.458 We do want to transform our lives, that your law would be written on our hearts more and more. 00:34:15.458 --> 00:34:24.753 So do that, do that in a way that binds us to you in love. 00:34:24.753 --> 00:34:31.913 That we'd act not out of mere fear or duty, but out of love for our master, love for you, our husband Jesus Christ, our bridegroom, who is soon coming again. 00:34:31.913 --> 00:34:34.639 We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.