in this book of Jeremiah. And I say this probably every
time we go through a passage, a book of the Bible, that I've
never taught through verse by verse as we're doing, as I'm
doing. It is still, it's just amazing
to me how much, how much the Lord has blessed us to see Christ
on every page. And sometimes you may think,
well, you know, it's kind of like looking for a needle in
a haystack. I don't really liken it that
way because I know that what we see and view is by sovereign
power and revelation from God and not by just meticulous looking. But sometimes you come to passages
like we're studying here in this Book of Consolation runs from
Jeremiah chapter 30 to Jeremiah chapter 33 and there's such a
glaring bright light that it almost just bounces off the page
to you. But we know that it wouldn't
even be that way if God hadn't given us eyes to see. Isn't that
right? The glory of God in Christ. This
is a prophecy, what we're going to look at tonight, beginning
at verse 31. Behold the days come. That's
a future, that's a way of stating that this is the future. He's
talking about the future. And really the future was the
reason for Israel and Judah to be a nation to begin with. But
this is a prophecy of the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit. in the regeneration and conversion
of many Jews, God's elect remnant, and then that power going out
to many Gentiles, God's elect too, showing the salvation of
spiritual Israel under what is called the New Covenant. The
New Covenant. Verse 31, Behold the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant. And this new
covenant is that covenant established in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the embodiment of the new
covenant, if you will. When you speak of the new covenant,
what we're speaking about is the establishment in time. God's
appointed time. The fullness of the time, Paul
called it in Galatians chapter four and verse four. When God
sent his son into the world, made of a woman, that's his incarnation,
that's his person, that's, one old writer puts it this way,
that's the constitution of Christ's person. The makeup of his person. And what is that? One man with
two natures, God and man, in one person. The nature of deity,
the nature of perfect sinless humanity, coming together to
form a perfect union without any mixture of the two. Mind
boggling, isn't it? It ought to be. Aren't you glad
it is? That's the kind of savior we
need. And then we're talking about he was made of a woman,
but made under the law. Now that means that all of the
salvation of God's elect was put upon him, conditioned on
him. Those who were by nature in Adam
and by nature under the law, Christ had to be made under the
law to fulfill the law, to redeem them that were under the law.
By his having been made sin, and them made the righteousness
of God in him. So this is the gospel as the
power of God unto salvation, as Paul wrote in Romans 1, to
the Jew first, but also to the Greek, the Gentile. It speaks
of the day of power. It speaks of the day of regeneration
and conversion of the true people of God. Now it's not that this
great work of the Spirit had not taken place at all in the
Old Testament, because every true believer, every true child
of God in the Old Testament, whom God chose before the foundation
of the world, whom Christ would come and redeem in time, Every
one of them were born again by the Holy Spirit. Believe it or
not, there's a lot of people who claim that Old Testament
believers weren't born again. But my friend, if they believed
at all, if they had any heart at all for God, that heart had
to be put there by God the Holy Spirit in regeneration and conversion
just like it is for us in the New Testament. So don't ever
let that fool you. Do you remember when Christ came
to Nicodemus and he said, you must be born again? And Nicodemus
said, well, how can that happen? Can a man enter into his mother's
womb again? And he made it clear that he
didn't have any idea what the Lord was talking about. Remember
how the Lord responded to him? He said, Nicodemus, you're a
master, a teacher, a theologian in Israel, and you don't know
that? In other words, you ought to know that. It was taught in
the New Testament. Right here is one of the passages
where the new birth is taught. The necessity of it. The circumcision
of the heart. But in the Old Testament, the
difference is, up until this time that Jeremiah is speaking
of here in the future, the time of the new covenant, that power
of the Holy Spirit of the new birth was only found in a very,
very small remnant of the nation. Most of that nation perished
in unbelief in every generation. But you think about when the
fulfillment in time of this comes and you could talk about Pentecost.
It came when Christ came and did his work and he ascended
unto the Father. Remember Peter preached at Pentecost
and there were 3,000 converted at Pentecost. And then right
after that, in another message, when the apostle Peter again
preached, there were 5,000 converted. That's 8,000 people. That's 1,000
more than occupied the whole country of Israel in Elijah's
time. Remember he said, I have 7,000
who have not bowed the knee to bear. And remember this, all
of this, this power, Conversion here is the fruit and the result
of the work of Christ for his people in redeeming us from our
sins He says God sent forth his son made of a woman made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive
the adoption of sons and because we are sons God sent forth the
Holy Spirit To do what to do this very thing right here Our
justification before God, our being declared and legally not
guilty and being declared righteous in God's sight is based on a
righteousness imputed to us. The imputed righteousness of
Christ. Our regeneration by the Holy Spirit is based on spiritual
life imparted. That's right. Spiritual life. Chapter 31, look at verse 22.
This speaks of the coming of Christ to establish the ground
of salvation. When He says, How long wilt thou
go about, O thou backsliding daughter? Well, that's the sinfulness
of man. For the Lord hath created a new
thing in the earth. A woman shall compass a man.
That's the incarnation of Christ. That's the seed of woman. That's
His conception. unto his birth. Thus saith the
Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, as yet they shall use
this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when
I shall bring again their captivity. The Lord bless thee, O habitation
of justice and mountain of holiness." This one, this man who would
be encompassed by this woman, that's Mary, the mother of Jesus,
and his humanity in the womb of that virgin, united to his
deity, what a mind-boggling thought. He would establish the mountain
of the Lord in justice. Now what does that mean? He'd
pay the debt. He'd pay the sin debt. He would establish the
righteousness required. He would fulfill all righteousness
for His people and that's what they would talk about. A habitation
of justice. You see, that's what the true
church is. A habitation of justice. Righteousness
in Christ. God was just to justify us in
Him. And then over here in verse 31
through verse 34, that speaks of the fruit of salvation. This
is the heart work of the power of God by the Holy Spirit in
bringing those people for whom God chose and for whom Christ
died to spiritual life and knowledge and grace. And that's the fruit,
that's the heart work, that's the fruit and the result. of
what Christ accomplished on the cross. The first thing he brings
out is the new covenant replacing the old. The new covenant replacing
the old. Now there's a lot of information
here and I'll just tell you right now, we're not going to get through
all of it. And I almost, when I was going over this man, I
thought, well, you know, maybe I'll leave this out, leave that
out. And I thought, no, we're here to study the word of God.
We're here to worship God tonight in the study of his word. And
I want you to see these things and how they fit in scripture.
So let's just start through and look at verse 31. Now here is
what theologians call the gospel economy. You know what an economy
is. Ours isn't doing too well these
days, is it? Our government economy. But here's
the gospel economy. And it always does well. Look,
behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a
new covenant. And a new covenant with the house
of Israel and with the house of Judah. Times of the new covenant.
The days after exile in Babylon, as recorded in the book of Malachi,
show us that this is not speaking of that time. No sir, read Malachi. No, this is the New Testament
times. That refers, that time that begins
with the first coming of Christ and the finishing of his great
work of redemption in time and then his ascension unto the Father.
And it was ushered in at Pentecost as we said. The new covenant
is the fulfillment in time of the terms and conditions and
requirements of the everlasting covenant of grace made before
time. Christ himself in Matthew 26 and 28 as he was instituting
the Lord's Supper, what did he say about his blood? He says,
for this is my blood of the new covenant, the new testament,
same word. You could just as say here in
Jeremiah 31, I will make a new testament. Because it's like
a will and testament. You know most covenants are bilateral. That means you have two parties
and both parties have to agree to the terms of the covenant.
But that's the difference between God's covenant with His people
and His spiritual people, His elect. It's a unilateral covenant. All it requires is that God does
His will. I will, I will, I will. You see
that? And that's why it's sometimes
called a testament because it's like a last will and testament.
The book of Hebrews chapter 9 speaks of that. The testator has to
die and then the will is put into effect. Well, this testament
was always conditioned on one person to do one thing. the Lord
Jesus Christ to shed his blood as the complete payment for all
the sins of his people, thus establishing the righteousness
required. That's the condition. And every
blessing of that testament that's willed to us is the product and
the result and the fruit of what Christ accomplished as the testator
of the testament, the last willed testament. So he said, this is
my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the
remission of sins. In the book of Hebrews chapter
13 and verse 20, it speaks of Christ who was brought again,
the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep Remember the good
shepherd gives his life for the sheep through the blood of the
everlasting covenant. So his blood is called the blood
of the new covenant and it's the blood of the everlasting
covenant because in essence they're one and the same. The only difference
in the everlasting covenant of grace and the new covenant as
stated here is time. That's it. And I'll tell you
what, don't get confused about time and eternity. I really don't
have to tell you not to get confused about time and eternity, because
I know one thing about you. You're already confused about
time and eternity. So am I. You don't have to worry
about that. We just look at things as they
come and go, and we look at our watches. We're creatures of time,
you see. But I know that salvation has
an eternal realm. before the foundation of the
world, Christ the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
It has a legal realm, that's our justification based on the
righteousness of God in Christ imputed to us. It has a spiritual
realm, that's our new birth and regeneration and the continual
indwelling of the Holy Spirit to keep us and bring us to glory.
And then lastly it has a glorified realm. We're going to be with
Christ in glory forever and ever and ever. And that's the way
the Bible presents it. Think about it. In Isaiah chapter
55 and verse 3, God commands his people to listen. And he
says it this way. He says, incline your ear. Let
me bend your ear. Listen to what God is saying,
and come unto me. Here and your soul shall live,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David. The sure mercies of David. What
are the sure mercies of David? It's all the mercies that God
has for his people in Christ, the Messiah, the son of David.
And notice here in verse 31, he talks about the house of Israel
and the house of Judas. So again, we have that covenant
language that describes a united kingdom under the headship of
Christ. Now that's what he's talking
about. And this is only fulfilled spiritually in spiritual Israel. Now look at verse 32. Now the
next thing he tells us, he's talking about the new covenant
is replacing the old. And here's how he says it. He
says this new covenant is in no way like that old covenant. It's not like the old covenant.
You see that old covenant was bilateral. It was conditioned
on the nation Israel, and they failed to meet the conditions.
Well, what was the lesson learned there? Well, the lesson learned
there for us is this, that any sinner who's put under any conditional
covenant, when the conditions are on that sinner, it'll be
a failure. In other words, it's just another
way of saying by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified in
God's sight. The wages of sin is death. So
he says in verse 32, not according to the covenant that I made with
their fathers. Now, can you get any plainer
than that? Not like that covenant, you see. That conditional covenant
that Israel failed. He said, the fathers in the day
that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land
of Egypt, there's the Exodus and God brought them to Sinai,
took Moses up into Mount Sinai and gave him that covenant. And
then he says, which my covenant they break. I want to tell you
something about the new covenant. All who are participants in that
covenant by the grace and mercy of God cannot and will not break
that covenant. You can't do it. You say, well,
I'm a sinner. That's right. You're a sinner
and you'll sin. But you can't break that new covenant. Because
that new covenant is squarely upon the shoulders of Christ.
It's a kept covenant. But here he says, which my covenant
they break. Israel failed to meet the conditions.
And again, that's not only an indictment against Israel, but
it's a testimony of the state of all of us by nature. Sin and
depravity and unbelief. None righteous, no not one. Remember
he says, before he said that in verse 9 of Romans 3, he says
the scripture has concluded all under sin, Jew and Gentile. We
are no better than these Jews, these Israelites who broke the
covenant. By nature and by practice, we
are no better. If God's purpose was to bring
that old covenant back, as some preachers try to do, and some
denominations try. If God's purpose were to bring
this old covenant back and put us as Gentile believers under
that old covenant, you know what would happen? The same thing
that happened to Israel and Judah. Under that old covenant. We'd
break it. And so think about that, you
see. God puts it there for our learning. What do we learn from it? That
there is no salvation for any of us under a conditional covenant
if those conditions are placed on us. We need a mediator. We
need a savior. We need a redeemer. We need a
righteousness we can't produce. But notice what he says here
in the last of verse 32. He says, although I wasn't husband unto
them, saith the Lord. Now that's covenant language,
but what it's talking about here is God joined Himself to that
nation in a providential, temporal, ceremonial way for certain purposes. The main purpose being to bring
salvation to His people all over the world by sending Christ,
His Son, into the world through them. made of the seed of David
according to the flesh. That was the main purpose. But
God joined himself to that nation, and this is a covenant way of
speaking, but it's according to the terms of the old covenant.
Although I was, past tense, not am, but although I was and husband
to them, So God is talking about a temporal, ceremonial, national
marriage between himself and that nation based on the terms
of the old covenant. And what happened? They broke
it. So what did God say? Well, we won't turn to all these
scriptures, but back in Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse 8, he talked
about the northern kingdom and how he had written them a bill
of what? Divorcement. God divorced him. Why did he divorce him? They
broke the marriage covenant. It was conditioned on them. It
was a bilateral covenant. What were the terms of divorce
between a man and a woman under that old covenant? Well, adultery
and abandonment. Those were the two. Those who
committed adultery or those who abandon, one partner abandoning
the other. Well, what had Israel done to
the Lord? They committed adultery, spiritual
adultery, and they forsook the Lord. They abandoned Him. And
He gave them a bill of divorcement. In the book of Isaiah, chapter
50 and verse 1, He asked this question, where is the bill of
your mother's divorcement? You go over there and read that,
some commentators say, well, what God is telling them there,
that He hadn't divorced them. That's not what He's telling
them at all. What he's telling them is to get that bill of divorcement
out, which is God's indictment against them written in the scripture,
and find out why God divorced them. It was because of their
sin. It was because of their adultery.
It was because of their abandonment. They forsook the Lord. But you
see, under the new covenant that won't happen. But I want to show
you something. I want you to turn over to Matthew. Matthew chapter 21 I want to show you the New Testament In a parable a fulfillment of
that prophecy Now what's going to happen here
you're going to see now They broke that covenant that covenants
going to be abolished and God establishes a new covenant. That's
in time with his spiritual people And that's his bride. That's
the bride of Christ. And we've seen marriage covenant
language all through this, haven't we? But look here, this is the
parable of the wicked husbandman. The wicked husbandman. And you
remember, look over, this begins in Matthew 21 verse 33. I want
to read this parable to you. But before I do, you remember
back in Jeremiah 31 there in verse 24, he talked about how
they're going to be husbandmen and they that go about forth
with flocks. He's talking about gospel preachers
there under the new covenant. They're husbandmen. They sow
the seed. Well, here's wicked husbandmen.
Listen to verse 33. He says, hear another parable.
There was a certain householder which planted a vineyard hedged
it around about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and
led it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. And
when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to
the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And
the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another,
and stoned another." Now you know what that is? That's talking
about Israel, and their leaders, and the way they treated the
prophets. Here's Israel under the whole covenant. And their
leaders and the way they treated old Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and
Ezekiel, and all these other prophets. They beat one, they
killed another, and they stoned another. And verse 36, again,
He sent other servants more than the first, and they did unto
them likewise. But last of all, He sent them,
who? His son. The owner of the vineyard
sent his son, saying, they will reverence my son. Now this is
a parable now. You don't get your theology of
the nature and character of God here, but it does teach a lesson. And he said, they will reverence
my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among
themselves, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and let
us seize on his inheritance. Now who's that talking about?
That's talking about the scribes, and the Pharisees, and the leaders,
the Sanhedrin, and the nation. I read a fellow who talked about
how the regular people in Israel, they didn't reject Jesus, it
was just the leaders. Now hold on. You better read
the New Testament again, buddy. They didn't start out rejecting
him, they followed him for the loaves and the fishes. But they
did reject him. All of us did, by nature, didn't
we? Well look at verse 39. And they
caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.
Now when the Lord thereof of the vineyard cometh, what will
he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, he will miserably
destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto
other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their
seasons. That's his people. That's his
preachers. Preaching the gospel of the kingdom.
And Jesus saith unto them, did you never read in the scriptures
the stone which the builders rejected? The same has become
the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and
it is marvelous in our eyes. Isn't that something? Therefore
say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you.
Now, the kingdom of God And within certain contexts, it's a reference
to God's sovereign work and control over all things, his government
of everything. Israel under the old government
could be called the kingdom of God because God was working his
will providentially through that nation. Doesn't mean they were
saved or that they lost salvation. They weren't. All right? But
the kingdom of God here refers to the gospel. Because it's the
gospel of the kingdom, it's the revelation of the kingdom. You
want me to tell you about the kingdom? All I've got to do is
preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, the king and his subjects, the
kingdom of grace. And he says, the kingdom of God
shall be taken from you, that's Israel under the old covenant,
and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. Now
the fruits thereof has to do with the conversion of his people
by the power of God that Jeremiah's talking about in Jeremiah 31.
Look at verse 44 here in Matthew 21. He says, and whosoever shall
fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall,
it will grind him to powder. Those who fall on Christ, in
essence, what he's talking about is bow to Christ, they'll be
broken. That's the contrite heart. That's
the new heart. Jeremiah's going to be talking
about that. I'll give you a new heart. And those on whom he falls,
that's vengeance, he'll grind to powder. And when the chief
priests and Pharisees had heard his parable, they perceived that
he spake of them, but when they sought to lay hands on him, they
feared the multitude because they took him for a prophet. That's exactly, go back to Jeremiah
31. That's exactly what Jeremiah's
saying here. This is not like the old covenant,
this new covenant. That old covenant is going to
be abolished by way of fulfillment. So look on here. Now, in verse
33, here's what he does. Here's the new covenant and the
power of life. And here he begins to speak of the conversion of
his people. Their regeneration and conversion.
And this language is used all over the Bible. Jeremiah 32,
Ezekiel 11, Ezekiel 36. We don't have time to go to all
of those. But listen to what he says, but this shall be the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. And he says,
after those days, that's the new covenant days, saith the
Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts. So what is this? This is a heart work you see.
It's not just outward reformation. It's not simply going through
motions here. It's not ceremonial here. It's
not even fleshly. This has to do with the inner
man. Now what is the inner man? Well,
that's the heart. That's spiritual life within. That's who you are and who I
am spiritually. We were born dead in trespasses
and sins, you see. And even that inner man, if you
can talk about it that way, was dead in trespasses and sin. But
here's resurrection life, coming from Christ who died and was
buried and resurrected. This is the life that comes from
His righteousness. Remember Paul wrote in Romans
8 and verse 10, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit
is life because of righteousness. Now the spirit is not life because
of your righteousness or mine, it's because of Christ. And these
inward parts, what is he saying? And write it in their hearts,
their minds, their affections, their will. This is the new heart. This is the circumcised heart,
you see. This is the heart that God gives
his people in regeneration and conversion. And it's the inner
man. Paul wrote in Philippians chapter
3 and verse 3, we are the circumcision which worship God in spirit.
And that is we have spirit now. We have life. That's what he's
talking about. Spiritual life to worship God.
And we rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the
flesh. John the Baptist stated it too. Matthew 3 and verse 11. John was baptizing with water.
He took a physical body. into physical water and actually
brought that body down into the water and brought it up. A human
being. And he said this, he said, I
indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. What he's talking
about is that was a confession that I'm a sinner and I need
salvation by grace. Listen to what he says, but he
that cometh after me, Christ, is mightier than I, whose shoes
I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire, the with fire there being with power.
This is what he's talking about right here. I'll write my law
in their inward parts. And what does He do when He writes
the law in our inward parts? He convicts us of sin. He shows
us the reality of the law and shows us the impossibility of
salvation or any part of it based upon our works of the law. He
shows us that we are sinners who by nature and by practice
deserve nothing but damnation based on our works under the
law. That if God were to judge us
according to our best efforts, we'd be damned forever. You read
it. Man at his best state. Altogether vanity. And write
it in their hearts. Being born again is a complete
restoration of spiritual life. You see, all of humanity was
separated from God in Eden, ruined by the fall. And through the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, that separation was bridged for
the true people of God by Christ. That's redemption by the blood.
You see, in Adam, we have the imputation of sin and death.
Through Christ, we have the imputation of righteousness called the gift
of righteousness, and as a result, the gift of spiritual life. That's
regeneration by the spirit. And in the end, men and women
are either found guilty and dead in Adam or justified and alive
in Christ. So what Jeremiah describes here
is the evidence of being one of God's elect, the remnant of
grace, of being redeemed by the blood of Christ. The psalmist
wrote in Psalm 65, for blessed is the man whom thou choosest
and causes to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. These inward parts, their hearts,
an inward work of the Spirit in the new birth, the new heart,
the circumcised heart, the honest heart. It's that unction that
John spoke of in 1 John 2.20. You have an unction from the
Holy One. It's a heart of faith. It's the
inward man. It's the heart sprinkled by the
blood of Christ. And then lastly, I'll quit here
and then we'll pick up with this as we go on. But look, he says,
and will be their God and they shall be my people. Now there's
that covenant marriage union again. God joining himself to
his people and the point that he's making here is this, that
under the new covenant, under Christ, there'll be no divorce. There'll be no bill of divorce,
It's impossible. Because Christ is our husband.
And he fulfilled all the conditions. He paid all the debts. And he
provided all the dowry. And he is our salvation. Isn't that something? That's
the new covenant. We'll pick up there next time.