The New Covenant

The nation of Israel abandoned God, but it was worse than that. Not only did they abandon God, they worshiped idols, idols which were like scarecrows in cucumber fields. They forgot God. In fact, they committed abominations, and Jeremiah reminds us that as a nation they had lost the capacity to blush.

They knew much better. They had no reason at all for turning from God, but they trusted in their religious observances rather than trusting in the true and the living God. It's a very dark day for Israel, a very dark day for Judah, and into that dark nation with these dark spiritual conditions, God in His sovereign purposes calls a young man, a young man called Jeremiah, and gives to this man a tremendous weighty burden. Jeremiah, you're to go to this nation, this nation which has abandoned me, and you are to preach a message of repentance and to say to the nation that unless they repent, judgment will come. Within our study of Jeremiah, as we've continued through these summer months looking at this wonderful Old Testament book, we have seen not just the call of judgment, of certain judgment if they don't repent, we've also realized that this God is a gracious God, is a very patient God, is a God of mercy and of compassion. And over and over again Jeremiah is saying, if you repent, if you return to the Lord, He will forgive you.

He will have mercy on you and you'll escape His judgment if they acknowledge their guilt. He will restore them. They will, as we saw last week, they will have a magnificent future and a hope, but they are to seek me with all of their heart. Now today, we continue the message of hope, a message of a future. And we come to this very important passage of Scripture in Jeremiah chapter 31, and I invite you to open your Bibles there. And we come to this very important and very beautiful subject of the new covenant. In Scripture there are various covenants, and this one is absolutely brilliant and is applicable not only to Israel and Judah, as we will see, but also comes to each one of us. Jeremiah chapter 31, and I will read from verse 31 of Jeremiah 31, Behold, the days are coming.

That's always the announcement of future events. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and teach his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

Wonderful words, aren't they? Let me briefly remind you of the historical context. The context is that this is the — this takes place in the tenth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah. We know that from chapter 32, verse 1. Zedekiah is the last king of Judah before the final Babylonian captivity. Israel and Judah, in spite of Jeremiah's preaching, as over and over again he says, this is the Word of God.

I am declaring the Word of God. In spite of that, they do not repent. And destruction on the city, and in particular on the temple, is about to take place. Jeremiah's message that they should not resist the Babylonians because they are going to come, that also has been rejected.

In fact, because of what he's saying, he's accused of treason. He's seen as a traitor, and he's locked up in the court of the guard, according to the opening verses of Jeremiah 32. That's what happens when people don't like to hear the voice of Nebuchadnezzar, and the mighty Babylonians are at the gate of Jerusalem, as it were. And the third and the final captivity is about to come. At this point, Jerusalem is under siege. There is famine.

This is a very dark, dark hour for Israel and Judah. I have a picture of the Babylonian chronicle for 605 to 594 B.C. You say, well, you can't read it.

Well, this is why you've got me. Look at it. The reason I put it up, these are historical events. Sometimes when we read the Bible, we tend to think, well, these are just nice stories.

These events actually happened. Here is a non-Israel source. Here is a historical source.

I think this original is in the British Museum. The writing is in Akkadian, which was the language of the Babylonians at that time, and it is written by the Babylonians, recording the fact of Nebuchadnezzar's campaign against Jerusalem. And in 597 B.C., there is the exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. So there it stands, a fact that God's judgment is going to come. And before it comes, we have as we recorded this beautiful new covenant. You say, well, our context is very different.

Well, I realize our context here in the West, in the United States in particular, is in many ways very different. We don't have a visible enemy waiting to attack as it were, but don't you agree that the forces of darkness are increasing against the church of Jesus Christ? Who prayed for the persecution in many places throughout the world? That the church of Jesus Christ, that Christians are under attack in many, many places. And the Apostle Paul writes that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty, 2 Timothy 3 verse 1. Would you say for you personally, it's becoming more difficult to be an authentic follower of Jesus Christ? Certainly I hear from parents over and over again, and from grandparents, that it's certainly becoming very difficult to raise our children in this present United States of America, the supposed superpower. There is more and more opposition to this book.

More and more people are rejecting it, are marginalizing it, are ridiculing it. And I don't think it's being too alarmist to anticipate that in the not too distant future, those who believe the Word of God, yes, here in the United States, as it is already happening elsewhere, that we will be censored, that to preach this will be called hate speech, that we will be censored and persecuted. Yet we do not despair. We, the people of God, have a tremendous future and hope. Paul writes of our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

We know the end of the story. We know, as we were saying about the Lord of hosts from Psalm 46, if God is for us, who can be against us? Yes, the night may be dark, the times of difficulty may be coming more and more, but we rejoice. We are not discouraged. We're not people of gloom and despair.

We're not going to retreat, as it were, into our little spiritual cocoons. We're going to stand fast. We're going to declare the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, because we are a people of hope. And our hope, I trust your hope, is going to be strengthened today as we think of this new covenant that we read in Jeremiah 31. Perhaps you're saying, how could God be a God of judgment and also a God of hope?

How can Jeremiah, on the one hand, be saying that judgment is coming, but also say that this God is a God who gives His people hope, who gives them a future that gives us a plan? Now let's think, before we think of the particular provisions of the new covenant, let's think of its design. First of all, to say the obvious, it is a new covenant. Look again, verse 31 of Jeremiah 31, behold the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It's new.

And notice He emphasizes, it's different from the previous one. It's different from the old covenant. The old covenant, it's called the Mosaic covenant, was made, you will recall if you know your Bible, shortly after the Israelites were delivered from the slavery of Egypt. This is called the Mosaic covenant. At the very heart of the Mosaic covenant was the Ten Commandments. God in that covenant as He made with His people, Israel, it was clear that these laws had to be obeyed. These were not suggestions.

They were not for negotiation. God was speaking. God the Creator, God the Redeemer, God who had blessed them. And now He's telling His people how they are to obey. And under the Mosaic covenant, if you obey, blessings will come.

Is that difficult to understand? If you obey the terms of the Mosaic covenant, I will bless you, says the Lord. Your land will prosper. Your crops will do well. Your animals will flourish.

Your families will do well. The nation will be safe if you obey My commandments, but if you don't, curses will come. And so, as we look at the provisions of the Mosaic covenant, we call it a conditional covenant.

Its benefits depended on the obedience of the people. Let's read that from Exodus 19, if you have any doubt about it. Exodus 19, verse 4.

This is Israel at Mount Sinai. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians. What did you do to the Egyptians?

Destroy them. I've delivered you from them. And how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to Myself. How tender of God. Not only does He redeem us, He brings us to Himself.

He wants a relationship with us. Now therefore, here it is. If you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasure, possession among all peoples, for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. Verse 7, so Moses came, called the elders of the people, sat before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do.

Really? Do you understand what you're saying? All that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. What about the nation now at the time of Jeremiah? They are obeying the laws.

They are breaching every single one of them. Starting with the first one, you will have no other gods before me. No, you have disobeyed. In spite of Jeremiah preaching for almost 40 years, you continue your worship of idols. Was the problem with the Mosaic covenant? No, the covenant was good.

It came from God. Problem wasn't with the covenant. The problem was with the hearts of Israel. Their hearts were bad. They did not keep their side of the covenant.

They repeatedly disobeyed. God was patient to them, gave them opportunity after opportunity. He sends prophets to tell them, to speak to them. He has His word read to them, but still they disobey. And we see here in verse 32 of Jeremiah 31, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. There's this intimate relationship between God and His people, like a marriage. He says, I was their husband, yet they have committed spiritual adultery. They have left me the fountain of living waters, and if you doubt for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns which can hold no water.

Remember Jeremiah saying that to Jeremiah too? You obey God's law. You obey the commandments. Many people today, I would suggest the majority of people today, at least in the West, think they can build a relationship with God through keeping His commandments. You speak to people, I'm not so bad.

I do this. I'm certainly not perfect, but I'm pretty good. A lot of churches, when you analyze what they're saying, when they forsake the Scriptures, what are they really saying to the congregation? Be good people, be nice people, be helpful people.

Be good. Be good and you'll get to heaven. And people look then as the law, commandments, as a kind of ladder by which they can progress to God. Yes, they stumble, they fall down a rung or two, but they get up determined that they will do better, and so they think by what they do they can have a relationship with God.

They can know God. Point is, if a true relationship with God had been possible through the old covenant, the Mosaic covenant, there would be no occasion for a new covenant. The reality is, and we've seen this in our study of Jeremiah, there was not one person who could keep the commandments. And I can say authority today is to look at you, there is not one person here who's kept the commandments.

If you have, you're utterly deluded. There is a commandment of bearing false witness. The very fact that you say you're different reveals and strengthens your own guilt. No, all of us have come short. That is the verdict of Scripture.

We saw that in Jeremiah, the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. The problem isn't so much out there, it's in here in my heart. Yes, society is broken. Yes, there are many problems with the United States, but that's not the main problem. Yes, you didn't come from a perfect home.

You can blame your father and your mother or your grandfather of all of your problems, but the basic problem is not out there, it is in here, isn't it? And here is the wonder of this new covenant that God brings in, in His grace, in His mercy. He brings in a new and a better covenant.

This is one, verse 31, which the Lord God will make with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. So it's a new covenant. Secondly, it is a unilateral covenant. That is, it is a one-party covenant.

In that way, it's different from the Mosaic covenant. Did you notice as I read, and I'm going to point them out to you, seven times God says I will. Verse 31, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant. Verse 33, for this is a covenant that I will make. I will put my law within them. I will write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. At the end of verse 34, for I will forgive their iniquity. I will remember their sins no more. That's the beauty of the new covenant, that it is a unilateral covenant. That is that God is saying, God is promising, I will fulfill all of the conditions of the new covenant. The new covenant is not based on what Israel and Judah will do. It's not based on what you will do. It's based on the very promises of God which are unassailable, and God always, always keeps His promises. I will, I will, I will. Seven times.

Let me illustrate it this way. Here's a man, we'll call him Richard, and his wife dies. He's a multi-millionaire. He has three sons, and he decides after the death of his wife very, very wisely to make a new, what we call it, will and testament. Now, is this man, if he's smart, he gets legal advice.

I like lawyers. Got to keep them in business. He goes to his attorney, and he tells the attorney what he wants to do. He does not enter into negotiations with his three sons or anyone else. Now, his sons are not perfect. In fact, one of them got offended and didn't speak to his father for a couple of years. Each of them in their own way has shown a bit of disrespect for their father. They certainly didn't always obey him, but he loved them. After all, they are his sons. And despite of their waywardness and disobedience, he still wants to make a will, and he says to his attorney, this is what I want to do. I want to give all of my many millions to these three sons. The attorney said, well, I met some of them. Are you sure you want to do that? He said, yeah, I know.

They don't deserve it, and certainly not so and so, but I love them. And what does he do? What do we say? He draws up a will. Why is it called a will?

You ever thought of it? Because in a will, the testator, many of you have wills. Don't forget your pastor and your will. But you say, I will bequeath a million dollars to James, my son. I will bequeath my farm in South Carolina to my daughter, so and so. It's a will.

You are promises. You don't negotiate with the beneficiaries. It's a will.

It's entirely up to you. And on your death, the beneficiaries either accept it or reject it. It is unilateral. It's unconditional.

It's called a will and testament. God does not negotiate with you. He's God. This New Covenant is unconditional. Seven times in Jeremiah 31, God is saying, I will, I will.

Now, you can say, I will, and don't follow through. God always, always fulfills His promises. Now, turn with me to Hebrews chapter 8 because this passage that we read in Jeremiah 31 is quoted in Hebrews chapter 8. And so I want us to see it in the context of Hebrews chapter 8 to establish some things. And here in Hebrews chapter 8 from verse 8 through 12, we have the quotation of the New Covenant by the writer of Hebrews. In fact, this is the longest Old Testament quote in the New Testament.

And you know this again, seven times God is saying, I will. Verse 8, for He finds fault with them. Some manuscripts, as I have in the footnote of my Bible say, finding fault with it. He says to them, we won't go into that, but here's the terms, of all the days are coming because of the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. He's quoting Jeremiah 31. Verse 10, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days. I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. Now, in the New American Standard Bible, which I used for many years, the translation there says also I will write them.

Here, the will is implied, but it's a first person future tense and it is, as well, you could write in accurately, I will put my laws into their minds and I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God. Verse 12, I will be merciful towards their iniquities.

I will remember their sins no more. Why is the writer quoting Jeremiah chapter 31? Well, he knew his Bible and in the book of Hebrews, what he's doing is establishing the superiority and the preeminence of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he's showing that the priesthood of Jesus, for example, the Melchizedek priesthood is superior to the Aaronic and so on, and now he is establishing very, very important as he's writing to Jews, some may be true believers, others may not be, but he's writing to people who knew about the old covenant and he's saying to them, there is a new covenant come with Jesus Christ and it is a far better covenant. You know this, verse 6, Hebrews 6, as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. His powerful argument is now that with the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, there is a new covenant. One commentator says He's a God who not only comes down to us, but in the process lifts us up toward Him.

Do you get the difference? Old covenant and you? Old covenant came from God, that's true. But here is the new covenant, a unilateral covenant, that God in the person of His blessed Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, not only comes down to us, but He lifts us up to God. Peter writes that He died just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. This, in other words, is a covenant of grace.

Do you get that? The new covenant from beginning to end is a covenant of grace promised by our gracious God to sinful people like Israel, like Judah, like people who come to the Calvary church on a Sunday. It comes to us. Now let's think of the fulfillment of the new covenant. First of all, the present fulfillment, there are three promises at least in this new covenant first.

And I'm still in Hebrews chapter 8, but you have the same provisions in Jeremiah 31, but I'll read here from verse 10. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord, I will put my laws into their minds and will write them on their hearts. Provision under the new covenant, God's laws are written on our minds and our hearts. What about the Ten Commandments? Oh no, they were engraven on tablets of stone. But the law, but God's law now, says Paul in 2 Corinthians 3, are written on tablets of human hearts. It's not words on stone, it's words written by God in our minds and our hearts.

See, the old covenant focused on the external compliance. The new covenant focuses on the internal condition of our hearts. See, Israel, the temple, they were going through the rituals, but their heart was far away. How's your heart? What's the condition of your heart? Not talking physically, but spiritually. If I were able to put a spiritual stethoscope on your heart today, what would I hear?

Where is it? You say, well I'm here in church, I've got my Bible, I went to Bible study during the week, I've just sung in the choir, and I'm doing pretty well, and in fact I'm getting baptized on Sunday. Praise God for all of these things, but that's not the question.

The question is not on the external compliance, but on the internal condition of our heart. You see, under the miracle of conversion through our Lord Jesus Christ, we're born again, we become new creations, and our Lord Jesus Christ in His grace gives us the Spirit of Christ, the indwelling Spirit within us under the new covenant. We have a new heart and a new mind. That's promised also by Ezekiel in Ezekiel 36, that God will give you a new heart.

Isn't that wonderful? Think of the pollution of your mind. God in His grace, when He saves us, He gives us a new mind, a mind which is renewed by the Word of God. He gives us a heart, a heart which seeks God, a heart which seeks to please this God. That's the first provision that God's laws are written on our hearts and our minds. Second provision is an intimate knowledge of God in our personal experience. An intimate knowledge of God in our personal experience. Look at the end of verse 10, still in Hebrews 8 now, quoting from Jeremiah 31, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. They shall not teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother saying, no the Lord, for they shall all know me from the latest of them to the greatest. Through the Gospel, think of this, I can know God. Most of you know what's called the Lord's Prayer.

How does it begin? Our Father? That's true. But can you say, my Father? King David, when he wrote Psalm 23, didn't say the Lord is our shepherd. He said the Lord is my shepherd. Can you truthfully say of our Lord Jesus Christ that He is my Savior? He is my Lord.

This is my God. See, under the old covenant, people approached God indirectly through the priests and the sacrifices. Now, under the new covenant, we come to God directly and personally through our Lord Jesus Christ, not through some human priest, not through some pastor, not through some ritual. We come directly to God, to the very throne room of God through our Lord Jesus Christ who says, I'm the way. No one comes to the Father apart from me. And so at the very heart of the Christian faith, please grasp this, at the very heart of the Christian faith are not religious rituals. We have ordinances.

We're going to celebrate one today. But at the heart of the Christian faith is a personal knowledge, is a direct relationship with God through Jesus Christ. See, I think some of you are still operating with the mentality of the old covenant. And so I'm asking you, what's your relationship with God?

Not just talking about information in your mind. Is your relationship with God formal? Is it ritualistic? Is it we're keeping God at arm's length? It's nice to know He's there.

It's like having a rich uncle that you don't really like, but you may call him when you need some money. No, God isn't to be taken for granted. Under the new covenant, He is my God, my Savior. Remember Thomas seeing the resurrected Christ after his doubts, he says, my Lord and my God. That's it.

That's it. Do you know Jesus Christ? Do you say, well I've heard this expression about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, but I'm not sure what it means. What it means is that you have repented of your sin and embraced Christ. You've sought the Lord, and you've been found. But your life is surrendered to Jesus Christ. Here's the third provision.

This is wonderful. The merciful forgiveness of our sins. Verse 12, for I will be merciful toward their iniquities.

I need mercy. And I will remember their sins no more. Under the old covenant, the animal sacrifices were repeated over and over again, but as the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 10, they could never take away sins. Sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice. That's the old covenant. So in many religions, there's sacrifices out there of animals, giving of fruits and so on in Islam, Hinduism, animism, people bringing their sacrifices, sometimes killing an animal, bringing some fruit, something to this God, to some kind of appease this God.

No, all of that has ended. Through one sacrifice, one perfect sacrifice, one unrepeatable sacrifice, one sacrifice which ended all of the sacrifices, we can have our sins forgiven. Because our Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The sins of Israel, the sins of Judah, the sins of Americans, the sins of Europeans and South Americans and Africans and Australians. That this, under the new covenant He's saying, I will be merciful to you. I will remember your sins no more. Think of Israel's sins.

We've thought of some of them. Think of the way they turned their back on God. You think, how could they have done that when they were delivered through the Red Sea and God gave them manna in the wilderness and this magnificent history.

Now they're turning from God and they're worshiping idols which are like scarecrows in a cucumber patch. How ridiculous, how utterly stupid. OK, what about you? What about your sins?

Think of all of the privileges that you've had. Some of you, like me, have been brought up in a Christian home. Some of you have come to churches like this all of your life.

Some of you are new. I understand that, but this message comes to us all. That in Christ and in Christ alone, there is this provision that He will remember our sins no more. It's not because God has a bad memory, it's because He chooses because they're covered by the blood of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. You've difficulty forgetting some of the wrongs that people did to you, haven't you? You've said you've forgiven them, but you occasionally bring it back.

Your husband did something wrong five years ago and he asked for your forgiveness and you said you forgive them, but when you're angry, you throw it in his face, don't you? Isn't it wonderful that God never does that? I will remember your sins no more. So the writer says in verse 13, the old covenant is now obsolete. In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one, the Mosaic covenant, obsolete. Get that, obsolete. It's gone. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

The used date, as it were, has passed. Why are you under the old covenant? Why are you trying to live under the old covenant mentality?

Why are you trying, as it were, to have a religion that checks the box, that goes through some religious hoops, and in that way, you think you will get right with God? Check, check, check. New covenant is saying, stop. Stop that.

That mentality, which was never right in the first place, is certainly not right now. I want you to receive. Receive.

It's a gift. Do you get it? Not based on what you do, not fulfilling some requirement that you've thought up, but receiving freely in God's grace the glorious freedom of the forgiveness of sins and the grace of God, and to enjoy the fulfillment, the personal fulfillment of the new covenant in my heart and my mind through receiving Christ.

Do you get it? That's the present fulfillment of the new covenant. But very quickly, there's a future fulfillment of the new covenant. Did you notice verse 38, and also verse 31 of Jeremiah 31, that this new covenant is given to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. And it looks beyond the return from the Babylonian captivity to the time when the Lord is going to restore the fortunes of Israel and raise up David.

Oh, you say David died. Oh, he's going to raise up a greater David as their king. Look back to Jeremiah 30. This is important.

We'll think of this more in two weeks. Think of a little bit about our belief in the millennial kingdom. But Jeremiah 30, verse 9, what he says in verse 3, "'Behold, days are coming when I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel and Judah,' says the Lord, "'I'll bring them back to the land I gave to their fathers and they shall take possession of it,' verse 9, "'but they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king.'" It was one of the descriptions of our Lord when He came, Son of Abraham, Son of David.

And He will reign presently in this dispensation of grace of the church. The new covenant, the terms of the new covenant is extended to all Jew and Gentile who trust in Jesus Christ and so participate in the many blessings of the new covenant. But we must be careful that the church has not replaced Israel. There are those who say that. It's called replacement theology.

We strongly take a stand against that. The new covenant given to Israel and Judah will in the future have a full and glorious fulfillment in the millennial kingdom. Yes, there are present benefits that we as Gentiles obtain through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ who is the mediator of the new covenant. But these promises and these provisions which we presently enjoy do not abrogate the promise of the return of Israel to His land where their King, our King, the King of Kings, the Son of David, our Lord Jesus Christ will reign for a period of a thousand years. Paul says in Romans 11, he says then all Israel will be saved. There's a day coming when all of Israel is going to be restored to the promised land. Since 1948, Israel has become a nation, but it is not yet a nation in belief.

They're largely in unbelief. Yes, they're in some of the promised land, but they are certainly not there in all of the land bowing to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But Scripture is teaching that ethnic Israel will return in belief to a land which was promised under the Abrahamic covenant. Remember the provision of the Abrahamic covenant of the land and the seed and the blessing. And that, these promises under the Abrahamic covenant are now being reiterated in the new covenant. And isn't it remarkable that in spite of all of the persecution against Israel and the Jews, for over 3,000 years, Israel still exists today as a nation. The Jews have retained their identity as Jews, and Israel as a nation will never, ever be wiped out. I understand the opposition.

I understand the countries around them. I understand the very tenuous position of their existence, but Jeremiah 31, I stopped at verse 34, but let me read from verse 35. If you've got your Bible, look there.

This is so important. Jeremiah 31, verse 35, I'm saying that Israel's survival as a nation is supernatural. God will never, ever cast off Israel. His promises are unassailable.

Remember what he's saying here. Thus says the Lord. Jeremiah 31, new covenant. Thus says the Lord who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar.

The Lord of hosts is His name. If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel from being a nation before me forever. Thus says the Lord, if the heaven above can be measured and the foundation of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all of the offspring of Israel for all that they've done.

The graphic way of saying, I will never, ever forsake my people. And Jerusalem, the capital, yes it's going to be destroyed by the Babylonians. That was rebuilt. Yes, it's been destroyed by the Romans and partially rebuilt, but there's going to come a day when the rebuilt Jerusalem will be invincible. Read from verse 38, Jeremiah 31. Do you understand that Jerusalem is going to be renewed? A new covenant requires a renewed Israel, a new Jerusalem built to the glory of God. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city, as Jerusalem, shall be rebuilt for the Lord. From the tower of Hananel to the corner gate and the measuring line shall go out further straight to the hill of Gareb and shall then turn to Goa, the whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron to the corner of the house gate toward the east shall be, notice it, sacred to the Lord.

Notice the final statement. It shall not be flocked up or overthrown anymore forever. One glorious day, visualize this. But Israel, ethnic Israel, they will recognize the one that they pierced. They will bow in repentance. They will be restored to their land. This Jerusalem will be renewed, rebuilt, and with the details given by Jeremiah at the end of Jeremiah 31, indicate that this is an actual and a literal Jerusalem, which will be the capital when Israel returns to the land. I think it's wonderful.

I think it's wonderful what's happened. If you don't believe in God, think of Israel, of how God has preserved Israel. Think of the Jewish nation. In spite of their unbelief, God's promises still stand that He will not cast off His ancient people.

We're about to break bread. You know, the very basis of the new covenant, its inauguration, is the perfect finished work of Jesus Christ, the mediator of the new covenant. You say, John, how can I receive the benefits of the new covenant? In particular, how can my sins be forgiven? Listen to what Jeremiah is saying, repent, repent. Acknowledge your guilt. Stop your excuses.

Stop blaming everyone else for your problems in life. Acknowledge your guilt before a holy God. That's called repentance. And believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. You've broken the law of God.

You can't save yourself. Christ comes to save you, to rescue you. And this Lord's Supper, the communion, is a reminder of our deliverance from the bondage of our sin through the blood of the Lamb of God. And now, right now, we're going to have, I believe, the greatest joy and blessing that we can have this side of eternity by taking bread and taking wine and thanking God and saying that all that we owe, all of our salvation, all of our hope, all of our future is entirely through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to the Lord Jesus in Luke chapter 22 as He talks about the communion. Luke 22 verse 19, He took bread. When He had given thanks, He broke it, gave it to them saying, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise, the cup after they had eaten saying, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

You get that? How is the new covenant inaugurated? Who mediates the benefits of the new covenant? Our Lord Jesus Christ. And again, Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 giving his account of the Lord's Supper, he says in verse 25, in the same way also He took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. We, the people of God, marvel that once we were far off and now we're brought nigh to God as people of the new covenant. If you love Christ, if you're following Him, we invite you to participate in the moment of communion. Our Father and our God, we thank You. For our Lord Jesus Christ, the mediator of the new covenant, and thank You in Your grace that You did not leave us in our sin trying to keep the terms of the old Mosaic covenant, but You have given us a new, a better covenant. We thank You for our perfect Savior, for His perfect sacrifice. Help us now that our love for You will be renewed, that that law will be written on our hearts and minds, that we will be an obedient people, a loving people, and we thank You that our sins are totally gone in Christ's name. Amen.