Now, open your Bibles with me
to the book of Jeremiah chapter 2. Jeremiah chapter 2. Now, tonight I want to get down
into chapter 3, actually. It's my text. As I said, concerning
the subject, the hope of Jerusalem. Jerusalem being the city of peace,
the city of the King. so we want to talk about the
hope of jerusalem the song that i read at the beginning said
pray for the peace of jerusalem and it was a prayer of david
crying out to god to bring peace to that great city of peace where
in the temple of the lord uh... was established or or going to
be established and uh... it's not through david but through
solomon later on but it's where the ark of the covenant was and
he mentioned that and then the psalm that brother bill read
I believe was a picture and a type of the church the people of God
which is the living temple of God his church crying out for
justice and deliverance in and by the Lord Jesus Christ and
so we want to talk about the hope of Jerusalem which is mainly
taken up in the middle of chapter three here but what's happening
here is the prophet jeremiah is bringing the charges that
god has against judah judah is going to be destroyed god is
going to use a heathen nation the babylonian empire as an instrument
of his judgment his justice against his own nation that people to
whom he joined himself in a temporal way at Sinai according to the
promise that he made to Abraham 400 years before and he's going
to bring judgment on them for their sin. I've talked about
this quite a bit how you need to understand that when you read
most of this Old Testament concerning the history of Israel under that
covenant, that old covenant, that that covenant was a conditional
covenant towards that nation and they failed. they failed
in meeting those conditions and they failed and yet the prophets
sin of God always spoke of a brighter future a better hope but that
brighter future and that better hope was not because of a better
class of people that were to come that hope that brighter
future was wrapped up in a better Savior. That's the theme of the
book of Hebrews. Christ is better. There was no
forgiveness of sins brought about by the blood of animals. The
blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. And that's
why we thank God. We have the blood of the Lamb
of God. We have the blood of Christ. To say that his blood is better
is kind of like a classic understatement, isn't it? It's almost like to
me it's not saying enough. Infinitely better. The priesthood,
the high priest and the attending priest of Levi, the priest of
Aaron, tribe of Levi, their service could not cleanse the conscience
from guilt. couldn't do it. Because he said
there, and the apostle wrote this in Hebrews, Hebrews chapter
10, that if they could have cleansed the conscience, if they could
have removed the guilt of sin, then those who offered those
sacrifices, they would have ceased. They wouldn't have to do it year
by year, month by month, week by week. They just couldn't do
that. But we have a high priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. We have one who is an eternal
high priest. And because of his eternal priesthood,
his unchangeable priesthood, Paul wrote, he's able to save
us to the uttermost. He's able to keep that which
we have committed. And it's by his one offering
that he's perfected forever them that are sanctified, set apart
by God. And so that's the better hope.
And essentially that's what we're going to talk about in the hope
of Jerusalem. But I left off, go back to verse 31 of chapter
2. I left off there last time. And
the first few verses of chapter 3 is a continuation of the charges
that God brings against Judah. And my intent in reading through
this for myself and for you is as we see these charges brought
against Judah, that we see here these things, these great sins,
as they apply to all of us by nature. That this is not just
self-righteous. I hope that we're not self-righteous
people just looking down on a bunch of sinners. Because that's not
the way it is. We're all sinners. And I went
through this and I see how it describes me by nature and how
it describes all men by nature. Isaiah said it, you know, I'm
an unclean man. I'm a man of unclean lips. I'm
cut off and I dwell amidst a people of unclean lips. And so he picks
up here in verse 30, he talks about how Judah, he brings this
charge against them. He said they're rebellious children,
rebels. Adam rebelled against God, disobeyed
God. We fell in Adam. What are we
by nature? We're rebellious children. It
says, in vain have I smitten your children, and they receive
no correction. Your own sword hath devoured
your prophets like a destroying lion. In other words, God's punishments
of this nation in a temporal way did not bring them to repentance. Bible tells us that it's the
goodness of God that leads us to repentance and that goodness
is found in Christ. We see a prime example of that
in the Apostle Paul as he describes it in Philippians chapter 3.
What was it that God used to bring Saul of Tarsus to repentance? It was a saving view of Christ
and Him crucified and risen again. It was a saving view of the righteousness
of God in Christ, showing this self-righteous man that by all
your best efforts to keep the law, you cannot be justified,
only in Christ by the grace of God. And instead of bringing
them to repentance, they got angrier and slew the prophets. We'll see how they treated Jeremiah
later on in this book as he records it in the history. Look at verse
31. He says, O generation, see ye the word of the Lord. Have
I been a wilderness unto Israel, a land of darkness? Wherefore
say my people, we are lords. That is, we're the ones who are
in charge. That's what they mean by that.
Man's the captain of his own fate, the ruler of his own destiny. This is man declaring his independence
from God. That's what every unbelieving
sinner actually does. That's where every person who
exalts the free will of man and uses what he calls the grace
of God as a pedestal to stand up and boast of his own free
will does. They're declaring their independence
from God, just like Adam. And that's what we do by nature.
He says, we're lords, we will come no more unto thee. We really
don't need God. That's what they're saying. In
verse 32, he says, can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride,
her attire? Yet my people have forgotten
me days without number. You couldn't imagine a young
maid forgetting her ornaments that she's so proud of and she
boasts of and her attire. And think about the bride. One
of the main things that you young ladies are concerned with when
you get married is the wedding dress. They even got programs
on TV that I have to listen to every now and then about the
bride's dress, you know, because that's so important, you know,
got to have the right dress, not just any dress now. Got to
have the right dress, you know. And so what he's doing, he's
taking that, you know, that's what's important. to that young
maid or to that young bride and that's okay but he's saying he's
saying look This is how unnatural it is as far as their relationship
with God goes. They've forgotten these things.
And when I read that, I thought about the bride of Christ. I
thought about what it says there in Isaiah 61. We read that last
time, you know, talking about how the bride is, she puts on
the ornaments of grace and she's attired in the wedding garment
of salvation, the imputed righteousness of Christ. And we stand before
God dressed in robes of righteousness that are not of our own making,
but of His. And that's the people of God.
But Israel had forgotten these things. These things had no value
to Israel. That's what he's saying to Judah.
They should have had value just like the maid who values her
ornaments or the young bride who values that dress. Verse
33 says, Why trimest thou thy way to seek love? In other words,
what that means is you're very careful to make sure you walk
the way that you think is right in order to gain love and he
says therefore thou hast also taught the wicked ones thy ways
now what he's talking about is idolatry they're very careful
about that to worship the gods of of the heathen to incorporate
them into their own worship And what they've done is they've
actually taught the heathen to be even more sinful than they
are naturally. And it reminds me of what the
Lord said of the Pharisees in Matthew 23, 15. He says, you
encompass sea and land to gain one convert, and you end up making
them twofold more the child of hell than you are. And that's
what happens. In other words, it's a concerted
effort to teach people to dishonor God. Now that's us by nature,
and I think of myself that way when I was in a seminary learning
to preach a false gospel. That's what I was doing. I was
learning to teach people how to dishonor God, thinking the
whole time that I was honoring God. Now that's the natural man,
isn't it? And see, what I want us to see here is the value and
the glory and the power of God's grace to save sinners like we
are. That diamond of grace against
the black background of these charges that could stick to every
one of us in some way or another if God were to mark iniquities.
Who would stand? Isn't that right? What are we? We're sinners saved by the grace
of God. And I hope I never get over that.
How about you? Don't ever get over that. Don't
ever think about that in a common way, because it is something
else to think about. Look at verse 34. He says, Also in thy skirts is
found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents. Now, there's
a little variation among the commentators over who these poor
innocents mean but I'll just tell you what I think it means
what I believe it means is he's talking about God's true people
his his true children saved by the grace of God especially his
prophets they killed the prophets and their innocency is not in
themselves but as they stand in Christ we're innocent of all
charges because Christ has taken our charges and that's the only
way that we can ascribe innocence to ourselves We're not innocent
of committing the crimes. We're sinners by nature, by practice,
throughout. But because God will lay no charge
to our account, then we're pronounced not guilty, innocent in that
way. And so what I believe he's talking about here is that the
blood, he's saying you cannot deny this because your anger
reaches out to God's ministers, his prophets, and you've killed
them. Their blood's on your robes. Their blood's on your hands.
Christ told them on the Sermon on the Mount, He said, they've
killed the prophets before you. In the book of Revelation, the
saints of God cry, the blood of the martyrs cries out for
vengeance, justice against all who stand against Christ and
His church. And so He says in verse 34, He says, I have not
found it by secret search but upon all these. What He's saying
there is that your sin and hatred for Christ and his ministers,
it's not anything I had to really search for with some kind of
a hard, detailed search. It's right there, open, for everyone
to see. Paul, listen, Saul of Tarsus
was not sneaking his way on the road to Damascus. He was openly
going, claiming to do the work of God on the road. His sin was
out there for everyone to see. And God says, I didn't have to
search it by some secret search, by digging, that's what that
literally means, by digging into the facts to find out what you
really were. He said, it's right out there, the blood's on your
robes. What a charge. Verse 35, he says, yet thou sayest,
because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me.
Now this is what they were claiming for themselves. And that's what
we all do by nature. We justify ourselves, don't we? Somebody told me one time, said,
well, I know I'm not perfect, but I'm not as bad as some people.
Well, that's probably true in the human realm, but that doesn't
cut any ice with God, does it? And that's what he's saying there.
He said, well, we're innocent. Surely God's anger will be turned
away from us. We don't deserve what we're getting.
That's what they're saying. And that's the way we all think
by nature. It's like the fellow said, well,
I know, I know I deserve a spanking, but I don't deserve hell. Well,
the Bible teaches us that when God brings us to repentance,
what does He do? He brings us to take sides with
Him against ourselves. And say, O Lord, if you would
mark iniquity, who would stand? Not me. David said against thee
and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that
thou mightest be justified just when thou judgest. God's just. and whatever he does. And then
look at verse 35, he says, Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent,
surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with
thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned. Now when God says,
I'll plead with thee, always remember this. We learned this,
we learned it in the book of Job, and we learned it here already.
It's been brought up in the book of Jeremiah. God's not begging
him. The pleading here is not begging. Pleading here is bringing the
charge. I'm charging you, God said. You know, it's like when
the judge asked a prisoner and said, what's your plea? And they'll
either say guilty or not guilty. God's saying, here's the plea,
you're guilty. You're a sinner. And he said,
I'll plead with thee, I'll charge you because you say I have not
sinned. That's one of the charges. You
justify yourself. How many times did the Lord deal
with that issue? You are they which justify yourselves
before men, despise others, who claim righteousness for yourselves
and hate others when you have no righteousness at all. You
reject the only way of righteousness which is by the grace of God
in Christ. And then look at verse 36. He says, Why gaddest thou
about so much to change thy way? Gadding about means going to
and fro. You're everywhere. And you want to change your way,
and thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed
of Assyria. What he's talking about here
is you jump from Egypt to Assyria to find help from Babylon, when
what you ought to be doing is get on your face before a holy
God and lay yourself open to his mercy. You go here, you go
there, and you're going to be shamed of both. Look at verse
37. He says, Yea, thou shalt go forth
from him and thine hands upon thy head. Here's another image
of the sin and depravity of the natural man. He said you're like
condemned prisoners of war. When he says your hands upon
your head, you know how when they capture the prisoners, they
make them go like this? That's what he's talking about.
You're like condemned prisoners of war. Because you're in bondage
to an enemy. You're in bondage to sin and
to Satan. You have no liberty. You have no freedom. You're captive,
you see. What did Christ say was His mission when He come
into the world? To set the captives free. To
open the jail houses and set them free. To free us from the
bondage of sin and Satan and the law. How? By His blood and
righteousness alone. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ has made you free." Now, what do
you want to be? A condemned prisoner in jail, in bondage, condemned?
Or do you want to be free in Christ? Wherewith Christ hath
made you free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
That's what he's talking about. And he says here, "...for the
Lord hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in
them." Your confidence in Assyria, your confidence in Egypt, your
confidence in self, the Lord has rejected it. What did Paul
say? We are the circumcision which
worship God in spirit and rejoice, have confidence in Christ Jesus
and have no confidence in the flesh, in self. And God says
if your confidence is anywhere but in Christ, And what Christ
alone has accomplished in his obedience unto death to save
us completely from our sins and to justify us before a holy God. If your confidence is anywhere
else, he said, I'll reject it and you will not prosper therein.
Now in chapter three, he continues on and he brings the charge of
being a spiritual adulterer. He says in verse 1, they say,
if a man put away his wife and she go from him, that is according
even to the law, and become another man's, that is if she marries
another man, shall he return unto her again? Shall not that
land be greatly polluted? This is the corruption of divorce
and remarriage and intermarriage and all this that's going on.
He said, but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers now
see this what he's saying here is now you look at the law of
marriage and divorce under the old covenant and how it was set
up and those laws were binding but Israel or Judah had gone
even further than that it's not just divorcing one marrying another
you have played the harlot that's a spiritual harlot with many
lovers spiritual adultery spiritual harlotry Yet return again to
me, saith the Lord. The Lord forgives a multitude
of sins, but we must return to him. As I said this morning,
that's not a condition we meet in order to gain his forgiveness.
but it's an evidence of his forgiveness but he says in verse 2 lift up
thine eyes into the high places and see where thou hast been
lean with what he's saying is these high places are represented
symbolic of places of idolatry and what he's saying is you've
lain there with your lovers in other words you've committed
spiritual adultery in many places just like a prostitute hops from
bed to bed to bed to bed And it's an unproductive love, it's
an unholy love, it's an unfruitful love, it's a diseased love. You see what I'm saying? It's
not that agape love, that divine love that marries a sinner to
Christ and keeps that sinner loyal to Him. You remember Paul
wrote about that. He said, I've espoused you to
the church at Corinth. I've espoused you to one husband.
And I fear lest you be deceived by Satan's subtlety and away
from the singleness, the simplicity, the glory of Christ. Look at
verse 2, he says, In the way hast thou set for them as the
Arabian in the wilderness, that's the Arabian there would be like
marauders and thieves and murderers, raiders. Thou hast polluted the
land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness, Therefore the
showers have been withholden, and there have been no latter
rain." You know, there were two rains in that area, the early
rain and the latter rain. They needed both to have a good
harvest, and God had withheld that from them. This area had
become an area of dry, arid drought, desert. It was a fertile land
when they first came to it. God gave it to them, the land
of milk and honey, they called it. Remember they described how
the fruit of it, they had to carry it on sticks in between
two men. You know, it was so big and ripe
and juicy. But now it's a land that's unfertile.
And that was one of the conditions that the nation had to meet in
order to get a good harvest. They had to be obedient to God.
And they failed. He said, thou hast a whore's
forehead. Now back then, the prostitutes,
they say hung a little jewel on their forehead that kind of
identified them. But what he's talking about here
is you're thinking like a prostitute. You're thinking like a whore.
That's the forehead. It's what it represents. It represents
the mind. Thou refusest to be ashamed. You're not ashamed of
your sin. You're not sorrowful. You're not repentant. Verse 4,
Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou
art the God of my youth? Won't you recognize who your
true Father is? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. Verse 5, Will he reserve his
anger forever? Will he keep it to the end? Behold,
thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest. What
he's saying is you're doing what you're capable of. This is man
on his own. Man by nature. Sin. Sin. And what is his hope? Well, his hope is the grace of
God in Christ. That's his only hope. And that
ends the first message of Jeremiah to Judah. And verse 6 here is
the second message. And he speaks of Judah as being
worse than Israel. The southern kingdom was worse
than the northern kingdom. Now, if you read through those
histories first second kings first second chronicles and all
that you'll find you remember the northern kingdom the ten
tribes what a wicked people and all the kings of the northern
kingdom were evil kings there wasn't one godly king among the
whole lot that's the ones who set up their capital in samaria
And from that came the Samaritans, the intermixing of the Jews and
the Gentiles. That's why the Samaritans were
so hated when you come to the New Testament. They were considered
to be half-breeds or whatever. And that nation had been wiped
out. It was full of idolatry. There were no times in that northern
kingdom that there was a national obedience, even with the majority
of the people. from the king and their unholy
priest all the way down. And God wiped them out by this
time. He wiped them out with the Assyrian army. And Judah
should have looked at that and taken a lesson. and saying, well,
look what happened to those people. Look what happened to them. You
remember Christ, there was a couple of times when he talked about
that issue of repentance where the people of Israel would look
at some group of people or nation where a disaster had fallen upon
them and he asked them this question. He said, suppose you that these
were greater sinners than everybody else and that's why God punished
them the way he did. And he said, oh no, that's not
the issue at all. He said, here's the lesson for
you, except you repent, you, me, except we repent, we will
likewise perish. They got what they deserved.
Oh God, please, please, please don't give me what I deserve.
That's the lesson. And Judah didn't take that to
heart. And so he says, look at verse 6 here. He says, the Lord
said unto me in the days of Josiah. Now remember, Josiah was a godly
king. A sinner saved by the grace of
God. And he led the people in a national reformation. Didn't
last long and it was just surface for the nation. But he said,
in the days of Josiah the king, hast thou seen that which backsliding
Israel hath done? She's gone up on every high mountain
and under every green tree, that's idolatry now, and there hath
played the harlot. And I said after she had done
all these things, turn thou unto me, but she returned not, the
northern kingdom did not repent." Nobody's going to repent on their
own. Man by nature will not repent, will we? And then it says, and
her treacherous sister Judas saw it. Now Judas saw all this.
And most of this took place right during the days of Isaiah, which
was anywhere from 70 to 100 years before Jeremiah. And he says
in verse 8, And I saw when for all the causes whereby backsliding
Israel committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a
bill of divorce. Now we've talked about that.
God divorced himself. And what was it? The conditions
of that marriage covenant, that old covenant, was that they were
put upon the bride, and the bride failed. And again, every time
I say that, I thank God that the conditions of the covenant
of grace is not put upon the bride, but put upon the bridegroom,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And there'll never be a bill
of divorcement for the true people of God. He says, look at verse
8, "...Yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and
played the harlot also." Judah didn't learn, they didn't repent.
They saw what happened to Israel. You see, the judgments of God
will not bring sinners to repent. It's the goodness of God in Christ
that brings a sinner to repentance. Verse 9, "...It came to pass
through the lightness of her whoredom, And that word lightness,
you might see in your corner, means fame. In other words, this
went all out. This wasn't hit. He said that
she defiled the land, committed adultery with stones and with
stocks. That's with rocks and trees.
Stone idols. And yet for all this, her treacherous
sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart,
but faintly. in falsehood, saith the Lord."
Now, what he's saying there is that there was an outward reformation,
but there was no true heart repentance. There was outward circumcision,
but no circumcision of the heart. There was religion, but there
was no grace, no truth, no heart, no Christ. That's what it is. He didn't see the glory of God
in the salvation of sinners by grace in all the types and the
pictures. Remember when Josiah, when his
priest Hilkiah found the law when they were cleaning up the
temple there? And he said, I found the book
of the law and he brought it to Josiah and Josiah rent his
clothes. And he fell in sackcloth and
ashes. Josiah was a man whom God the
Holy Spirit had brought to true heart repentance. And Josiah
sought out to lead the nation in that repentance. He destroyed
the idols outwardly, but he could not because man cannot do it.
He could not destroy the idol that's in here, the mind and
in the heart. He even went up to the northern kingdom and destroyed
some of those leftover idols up there. But he says, you didn't
turn to me with the whole heart. Salvation is a hard work, isn't
it? It takes a sovereign, powerful,
invincible work of the Holy Spirit to bring a sinner to see the
heinousness of his sins and to drive him to Christ for salvation,
to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, to see
his need of a righteousness he cannot produce. And look at verse
11. He says, And the Lord said unto me, The backsliding Israel
hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah. What he's
saying here is that it's going to be worse for Judah in the
Day of Judgment than for Israel. Just like the Lord in Matthew
11 said to the cities of Bethsaida and Chorazin that it'll be worse
for you than for Sodom in the Day of Judgment. Now what all
that means I'm not certain to be honest with you, but it does
mean that sin against more light is worse in God's eyes. I know
that. Well here in verse 12, begins
the proclamation of the hope that God has for his people.
And what you have here is the promises of God's grace to those
whom God brings to repentance. And listen to what he says as
he begins this in verse 12. He says, this is the call to
repentance in light of a glorious future. And he says, Go and proclaim
these words toward the north, and say, Return thou backsliding
Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall
upon you, for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not
keep anger forever. Now the north there, I believe,
is talking about their future captivity in Babylon, and the
call to repentance was going to be issued through his prophets,
Daniel and Ezekiel. And there was going to be a great
return of people back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city. We studied
that in the Minor Prophets. But what that is, that's a picture
of the true salvation of God's true Israel, spiritual Israel
whom He brings to repentance from dead works and idolatry,
brings to Christ. He says in verse 13, Only acknowledge
thine iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the Lord
thy God, I'm a sinner, I'm a sinner and need salvation by grace and
have scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree
and you have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord, admitting of
our sins, confessing our sins. Verse 14, turn, O backsliding
children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you, and I
will take you. Now, I want you to notice this
verse here. First of all, one thing you learn from this verse,
he's not talking about the whole nation, physical nation. Israel,
he's talking about a remnant. Listen, he says, and I will take
you one of a city and two of a family, not the whole family,
and I will bring you design. What does design represent? That's
the church. The fold of God. The sheepfold
of God. In other words, God's gonna have
mercy upon whom he will. He's gonna be gracious to whom
he will. Hasn't he said, didn't he say that to Moses? Didn't
Paul use that to show them that God has a people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation? He said, I'm married to you,
there'll be no Bill of Divorcemen here. He's talking about spiritual
Israel here. And there'll be a remnant out
of that nation, Israel. But hold on, look on. He says
in verse 15, and I will give you pastors according to my heart,
true preachers of the gospel who point sinners to Christ for
all salvation. That's what that is. A true pastor. A guide, an under-shepherd of
Christ, who tells the truth from the Word of God, who preaches
not himself, but preaches Christ. Who's like John the Baptist,
Christ must increase, I must decrease. Preach Christ, point
sinners to Christ, and get out of the way. Tells the truth. Preaches the gospel of God's
free and sovereign grace, the doctrine of Christ, the message
of grace, the message of mercy to sinners, who've been convicted
of their sin. Giving water to the thirsty,
preaching Christ the living family. Giving bread to the hungry, preaching
Christ the bread of life. Giving righteousness to the guilty,
preaching Jehovah Sid Canu, the Lord our righteousness, the righteousness
of God. That's the power of God unto
salvation. Showing that the only hope that
we have as sinners is His righteousness imputed and charged to us which
we receive by God-given faith. Submitting to Him. He says they'll
feed you with knowledge and understanding. All knowledge of salvation and
a right relationship with God is in Christ. It's founded upon
Christ. It's aimed toward His glory.
And it's centered around Him. He's the foundation, the head,
and the heart of the church. and with understanding. God has
given us an understanding, John said, that we may know Him that
is true. You see, this is salvation. And
I want you to look at verse 16. Now this verse here, this verse,
and really you could say from verse 14 all the way down to
verse 18. These verses here, I believe, are some of the most
significant verses in the whole of the Bible. that teach us as
believers today how we are to think about the old covenant
and the new covenant. It's almost like a Rosetta Stone
in that sense, these verses here. And look at it, it says, look
at verse 16. He says, and it shall come to pass. Now he's
talking about the future hope He says, when you be multiplied
and increased in the land, in those days, saith the Lord, they
shall say no more the ark of the covenant of the Lord, neither
shall it, that is the ark of the covenant of the Lord, neither
shall it come to mind Neither shall they remember it, neither
shall they visit it, neither shall that be done anymore, neither
shall it be magnified anymore. The Ark of the Covenant has that
actual physical Ark of the Covenant. That was the very reason the
tabernacle was built. It's centered around that Ark.
That temple was built for that one purpose, you see. And remember
what God said in Exodus 25. He said, that's where I'll meet
with you. That's where I accept you above the ark based on the
blood. And when that day comes that
he's talking about here, he says, they're not going to say it's
not even going to come into their mind. They'll not remember it,
they'll not visit it, it'll not be done anymore. Look at verse
17. At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord. What's Jerusalem? That's the
city of peace. That's what that means. And all
the nations shall be gathered unto it, not just Israel. There'll
be a remnant out of Israel, two of a family, to one of a city,
but all nations, every one of God's elect people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation shall come to it." To where?
To the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem. What is Jerusalem here? It's
the name of the Lord. It's the city of peace. What
is our city of refuge? What is our city of peace? Who
is it? It's Christ. You see, the hope of Jerusalem
is not in a physical city, a physical nation, or a physical temple,
or a physical ark. It's in Christ. That's what he's
saying. It's in the blood of the Lamb.
He said, neither shall they walk anymore after the imagination
of their evil heart. He said, I'm going to give them
a new heart. I'm going to put my spirit within them. And verse
18, in those days the house of Judas shall walk with the house
of Israel. There's a united kingdom there now at spiritual Israel. and they shall come together
out of the land of the north to the land I have given them
for an inheritance unto your fathers there is a physical fulfillment
of this in the return from Babylon but that was only a picture of
the future hope of Jerusalem which is in Christ you know this
right here in verse 16 is The last mention of the Ark of
the Covenant in prophecy. Never mentioned again in prophecy.
It's mentioned as a type in the New Testament. And 2 Chronicles
35 is the last mention of it in history. And there's a lot
of speculation, a lot of legend about what happened to the Ark.
Everybody wonders what happened to the Ark. Well, I can tell
you right now, Indiana Jones found it. Now, you know better than that. It's recorded in, you might be
familiar with the Apocrypha. It's recorded in the Apocrypha
that Jeremiah took it to Egypt with him and then it disappeared.
But that's suspect. It's not recorded anywhere. We
don't know what happened to it, but here's what he says now.
It won't even come into mind. You won't be looking for the
Ark. You won't remember it. You won't visit it. It won't
be done anymore. Christ is our ark. Christ is our mercy seat. Christ is our high priest. Christ
is our sacrificial lamb. Christ is our seat of mercy. Christ is our righteousness.
That's the future hope of Jerusalem. And that Jerusalem is heavenly
Jerusalem and I'll pick up there next time and we'll go over that.