Now, in Jeremiah chapter 31,
I've taken the title of this message and the next one that
I'm going to do from verse 34, where it says here, They shall
teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of
them unto the greatest of them. The title is for they where they
shall all know me. They shall all know me. Now, I want to talk to you ultimately
about salvation knowledge. And, you know, people like to
argue about that. What must we know? How much must
we know? What is it that people have to
know in order to claim salvation? Many people ask that question,
not really to understand what we must know, but how much can
we get away with not knowing? And that's a bad thing. And I
know people will concoct systems of theology and doctrine and
step one, step two, step three, and that's not scriptural. People
will boast of knowledge. In the past year or so, you may
have run across a term this term Gnostic or Gnosticism. You may have heard that term.
I don't know. I've read it quite a bit. I've been accused of being one.
And what it is, Gnostic is not somebody with an allergy problem.
You've heard the term agnostic. You know what that is. That's
someone who claims, well, they're not an atheist. They don't deny
the existence of God, but they would just say, well, I don't
know. And it comes from that Greek word gnostic. A in front
of it means without, without knowledge. They just say, well,
I don't know if there's a God or not. And they call them agnostic.
Well, you take that A away and you've got gnostic. It's spelled
G-N-O-S-T-I-C. And back in the early church,
there was a group of men and women who claimed to be Christian,
but their claim was not scriptural. And they boasted of a knowledge.
A knowledge that went beyond the scripture. A Gnostic would
say something like this, that God has revealed a special knowledge
to me that he hasn't revealed to you. And if you get it, it's
got to come from me. Now that's basically what Gnosticism
is. And that's why in the scripture
all through, you know, think about Isaiah chapter 8 and verse
20 where it says, to the law and to the testimony, if they
speak not according to this word, there's no light in them. So
this thing about knowledge, this is what it is. Gnosticism means
knowing one. It means somebody who knows.
Well, do we know anything? You know there's a scripture
that says you know all things. 1 John chapter 3 verse 20. It says you have an unction from
the Holy One and you know all things. We know some things.
It's not a knowledge of intellectualism. It's not a knowledge that people
cannot attain salvation by intellectualism. You can't do that. If that were
true, then the philosophers and the theologians wouldn't have
any problem. Knowledge must be revealed by
God. And it must be taught by God. And that's what this is
talking about here in Jeremiah 31. They shall all know me. They'll
know the Lord. They'll know Christ. That's what
he's talking about. But when I got into studying about this
message, I wanted to give you a little background here from
Jeremiah 31 about the New Covenant, what this is all about. Now as
I said, this is a prophecy of the New Covenant. Now what is
the New Covenant? One old theologian put it this
way, and I like this. He said the New Covenant, now
you know we're living in the New Covenant times. When did
this all begin, the new covenant? Well, it began at the first coming
and the work, the accomplished work, the death, burial, and
resurrection and ascension of Christ. When that was accomplished,
when He said it's finished on the cross, John 19, 30, Christ
hanging on that cross, doing the great work of redemption,
accomplishing, He said it's finished. And you remember what happened
in the temple? The veil was rent in two from
top to bottom. That was a physical sign from
God of the end, the abolishing, the completion of the old covenant,
the law of Moses, that economy, and the beginning of the new
covenant. Christ came and he finished his work. And so we've
been living in the new covenant times, the New Testament ever
since. Those times. And those times,
that new covenant time, will only conclude when Christ comes
back the second time. and completes all of it when
he gathers his people unto himself and judges this world. So we're
living in the New Testament, or another word for it is the
New Covenant. So one old theologian put it this way, he says, the
New Covenant is the fulfillment in time of the everlasting covenant
of grace made before time. And both are ratified by the
blood of Christ. The blood of Christ is one and
the same, the blood of the New Covenant, as well as the blood
of the everlasting covenant. Because in essence, they're the
same covenant. Now, there is a difference. There
is a difference in time, though. But in essence, they're the same
covenant. Let me read this to you. This is Luke chapter 22,
verse 19. This is where the Lord was instituting the Lord's Supper.
And he says, he took bread and he gave thanks and he break it
and gave unto them, saying, this is my body which is given for
you. this do in remembrance of me," and then he said, likewise
also, the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the New Testament,
the New Covenant, in my blood which is shed for you. The blood
of Christ is the ratification of the New Covenant. He fulfilled
in his death all the conditions of the New Covenant, all the
requirements, all the stipulations of the New Covenant. But it's
also, his blood is called the blood of the everlasting covenant.
Listen to this in Hebrews chapter 13. This is Hebrews 13 verse
20. At the end of that letter it
says, Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our
Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, he's the great
shepherd, the good shepherd, the chief shepherd, the good
shepherd gives his life for the sheep, that great shepherd of
the sheep, he says through the blood of the everlasting covenant. So, His blood is the fulfillment
of the everlasting covenant of grace. So, in essence, they are
the same. Now, Jeremiah prophesies here in verse 31 of Jeremiah
31. He says, Behold, the days come. This is future. Not in
Jeremiah's time, but future. And this is the Word of God.
He says, Sayeth the Lord that I will make a new covenant, and
then he says, with the house of Israel and with the house
of Judah. Now, turn with me to Hebrews chapter 8. Look at Hebrews
chapter 8. And I'll tell you what, you really
cannot understand the Bible, really can't, without understanding
this issue of how the Old Covenant is abolished by way of fulfillment,
and the New Covenant is instituted. And we're living in the New Covenant
times. You can't really understand the Bible, Old Testament or New
Testament, really. But look here in Hebrews chapter
8. Now, this passage in Jeremiah 31 is quoted here in Hebrews
chapter 8. It's also part of it is quoted in Hebrews chapter
10. And it's all in connection with the finished work of Christ. That's what he's talking about.
In other words, what it tells us here in the New Testament
commentary on Jeremiah 31 is that all that Jeremiah speaks
there, prophesies of there, is fulfilled by the death of the
Messiah, the blood of the Messiah. And this is what he says, look
at verse 6 of Hebrews chapter 8, he says, but now hath he,
that is Christ, obtained a more excellent ministry. Now that's
a more excellent ministry than the ministry under the old covenant.
Christ's ministry is more excellent than the ministry of the priest
in the old covenant, the priest of the tabernacle and the temple.
Christ's ministry, his service, is more excellent than theirs.
And I'll tell you why in just a moment. You know why, but I'll
spell it out for you. He says, by how much he also,
he is the mediator of a better covenant. Better, better, better.
Somebody said that's the theme of the book of Hebrews. Christ
is better in every way. A better covenant, a better testament. This new covenant is a better
covenant than the old covenant. All right. And he says, which
was established upon better promises. There were promises to the nation
Israel under the old covenant. But we've got better promises
under the new covenant. And then he says in verse 7,
for if that first covenant had been faultless, now what does
that tell you about the old covenant? It wasn't faultless, was it?
It wasn't, there was something wrong there, there was something
that it had fault. So he says, if that first covenant
had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for
the second. Now that's the new covenant, second in time. It came after the Old Covenant
in time. So he says in verse 8, "...for finding fault with
them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I
will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with
the house of Judah." And then he quotes Jeremiah 31, 31-34. Quotes it all the way through. Look down at verse 13. He says, "...in that he saith,
a new covenant he hath made the first old, Now that which decayeth
and waxeth, that means groweth old, is ready to what? Vanish
away. That means it's not in the force
anymore, the old covenant. A lot of people can't understand
that, you know. They think about the Ten Commandments, they think
about the Law of Ceremony, the Law of Days and all of that.
They want to keep bringing that stuff back up, see. Now there's
a moral code that's universal and eternal. But that old covenant
as a system is gone. It groweth old and ready to vanish
away. Now look over at Hebrews chapter
10. Part of Jeremiah 31 is quoted right here. And incidentally,
this is talking about the death of Christ too. Look at verse
10 of Hebrews chapter 10. It says, By the witch will we
are sanctified, set apart through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once. That for all was added by the
translators, talking about all his sheep, all his church, all
God's elect. Verse 14, Hebrews 10, for by
one offering he hath perfected, that means completed, forever
them that are sanctified. He completed the work of our
redemption. And so he says in verse 15, whereof
the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us, for after that he had
said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after
those days, said the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts
and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Quoted from Jeremiah 31, in connection
with the death of Christ. So here's what Hebrews teaches
us. Here's what the New Testament
teaches us about this prophecy. in Jeremiah 31. It teaches us,
number one, that it was all fulfilled by the coming, by the obedience,
and death, and burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. All
fulfilled. All completed. It is finished. That's the finishing of everything
that God required of His people for salvation. He made an end
of sin. He brought in everlasting righteousness. That's how we stand before God.
Complete, justified, holy, and righteous in Christ. And then
secondly, the old covenant was abolished by His coming and completing
His work. Now go back to Jeremiah 31. Verse 31. Did you notice here?
He says that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel.
and with the house of Judah. The tribe of Judah and part of
the tribe of Benjamin was taking the forefront and leading David
back, and they had drug their feet before. And so the seeds
of that division were sown then, but yet it stayed together, and
stayed together even through Solomon. Then after Solomon's
reign, then the kingdom was split for good. The ten tribes to the
north called Israel, and then the tribe of Judah in the southern
kingdom where Jerusalem was. And so you had that split. So
you had a divided kingdom. So under the old covet, there's
a divided kingdom. That shouldn't have been. The
reason the kingdom was divided was because of jealousy, because
of envy. It was because of sin and disobedience. And it should not have been.
But by this time, when Jeremiah makes this prophecy, the northern
kingdom, which was called Israel, had already been destroyed and
dispersed by the Assyrian Empire. They weren't even in existence
now. And yet he reads in this prophecy, he says, the house
of Israel and the house of Judah. Well, what's he talking about?
Well, first of all, he's telling that this new covenant, now listen
to me, this new covenant is not with a physical nation. It is
not with an ethnic people called the Jews. It's with a spiritual
nation. And it's a spiritual nation that's
not divided in spirit and in essence. Now let me show you
that. Let's go through this. Turn over
to Romans chapter 2 and look at verse 28. I'm going to show
you the progression here of the New Testament commentary on the
subjects of this new covenant. The Apostle Paul had been talking
about the necessity of salvation by grace. If you're going to
be saved, you're going to be saved by grace and mercy, not
by works. And that includes Jew and Gentile,
it doesn't matter who you are. We're all sinners, you see, the
scripture says. God has no respect for a person,
and his law judges condemned every sin. It must be punished. And therefore, no person, Jew
or Gentile, will be saved without grace. It must be totally sovereign
grace in Christ. Now that's it. No other way of
salvation, Jew or Gentile. So now, who is saved? Well, every sinner who is brought
by God-given faith to Christ. And what is that indicative of?
If you've been brought to faith in Christ by the Holy Spirit,
that's what the Bible calls circumcision of the heart. Now, you know,
the Jews, the national Jews, they gloried in three things.
They gloried in, number one, they boasted, this is why, if
you would ask them, are you saved or are you a child of God, they
would raise three issues. Number one, they're physical
children of Abraham. We be Abraham's seed. Number
two, their circumcision. The circumcision of the Jewish
male, which he was sort of like the representative of the family.
And so they had the physical connection with Abraham, and
then their physical circumcision. And then thirdly, the law of
Moses. We have Moses. We keep the law.
Now they didn't keep it, but they boasted that day. It's like
people today. You know, people today think they keep the law,
but they don't. The law reaches to the heart, remember? The law
convicts us of sin. That's why by deeds of law shall
no flesh be justified, declared righteous and not guilty in God's
sight. That's why we need Christ who kept the law, who fulfilled
every jot and tittle of the law. You see, that's why Christ is
my righteousness. Jeremiah spoke of that. In Jeremiah
23 and Jeremiah 33, he talked about his name being Jehovah
Sid Canu, the Lord my righteousness. But the Jews would boast in those
three things. And all those refuges, all three refuges, had been shot
down by Christ and his preachers. Even John the Baptist told him,
he said, don't think to say Abraham's our father. That won't do you
any good. Doesn't matter whether you're, you listen, you could
trace your pedigree back to Abraham and that means nothing in the
kingdom of God. To save you, to recommend you
to God or to do anything. And you say, well, now we've
been circumcised. Paul wrote in Galatians 6 and
verse 14, God forbid that I should glory, boast, save, except in
the cross the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in
Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth anything
but a new creature. That's one born again by the
Spirit of God. So physical circumcision means nothing as far as salvation. It will not save you. It will
not make you righteous before God. It will not recommend you
unto God. It will not get you into heaven.
Being a physical descendant of Abraham or being physically circumcised.
And as far as keeping the law, you remember what Christ told
the Pharisees in John chapter 5? He said, you boast in Moses.
He said, Moses will be your judge. You claim to keep the law of
Moses? Well, let me tell you something. The reason the law
was brought in was to expose our sinfulness. Remember, he
said, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. All things. That means not only in action
and prohibition. It means also in heart and mind,
attitude, spirit. That's why he taught him in the
Sermon on the Mount that it's not just wrong to commit adultery.
It's not just sin to commit the act of adultery. It's a sin to
lust after a woman. That's adultery, he said. That
condemns us as far as keeping the law. It's not just a sin
to commit the act of murder, it's a sin to be angry enough
to murder. You see, by deeds of law, no
flesh be justified. So the only hope for any sinner,
Jew or Gentile, is what? Run to Christ. Plead His blood,
His righteousness. Now, who's going to do that?
only those who are born again by the Spirit. And that's what
circumcision of the heart is. Now look at Romans 2 and verse
28. Listen to this. He says, He is not a Jew, which
is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one
inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart. in the Spirit, not in the letter,
not because it was written in a law and you went and did it.
No, whose praise is not of men, but of God. What's he talking
about? Circumcision of the heart. That's
the new birth. That's a sinner being brought
by the Holy Spirit under the preaching of the gospel to faith
in Christ and repentance of dead works. Coming to submission to
Christ. He's my all in all. That's what
it is. And then look at Romans chapter
9, turn over there. Let me show you, keep on this
progression now. What I'm telling you, you see,
if you know Christ, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ, if you've been born again by the Spirit, circumcised in
the heart, you are a spiritual Jew, even though you physically
have no physical connection with Abraham. You're a spiritual Jew. That's what he's saying. Look
at Romans chapter 9. He says in verse 7, he says,
neither because they are the seed of Abraham, that's the physical
seed, are they all children, that is, children of God. What
he's saying, just because you're a physical descendant of Abraham
doesn't make you a child of God. But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. Now, what's the significance
of Isaac? Well, he was the child of promise through whom Christ
would come. And that's the ultimate promise.
So he says, look at it, verse 8, that is, they which are the
children of the flesh, physical descendants of Abraham, these
are not the children of God. Do you read that? They're not. That doesn't mean that no Jew
will be saved. Paul was a Jew and he was saved,
but he wasn't saved because he was a child of the flesh. That's
not the reason he was saved. He says, but the children of
the promise are counted for the seed. Who are the children of
the promise? Believers. Those who have been
circumcised in heart and in ear. Who have come to faith in Christ.
Look over at Galatians. Turn to Galatians chapter 3.
Galatians chapter 3. Here he is talking about the purpose
of the Old Covenant. Its ultimate purpose was to be
a schoolmaster, a tutor, to point sinners to Christ, even back
then. The Ten Commandments was the moral law given to convict
them of sin. And then the ceremonial law,
the law of the tabernacle, the priesthood, the altar, the sacrifices,
the feast days, all of those were pictures and types of Christ
and salvation by God's grace in Him to show them that they
were to look not to their works, not to Moses, not to Abraham,
not to their circumcision, but to the promise of the coming
Messiah for salvation. That's why the Lord said even
back before the Old Covenant was given, He talked about Abraham.
He said, Abraham, rejoice to see my day. And he saw it, and
he was glad. And that's why when he was telling
them that Moses would be their judge in John chapter 5, he said,
Moses wrote of me. He said, if you'd believe Moses,
you'd believe me. For he wrote of me. But look
here at Galatians chapter 3, verse 26. He says, for you are
all, now that includes Jew and Gentile. This is churches in
Galatia made up of Jewish believers and Gentile believers. And he
says, for you are all the children of God. Now how? Look at it.
By faith in Christ Jesus. That's the children of promise.
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ. Now that's
not talking about water baptism there. That's talking about being
placed into Christ. United to Christ. Baptized into
Christ. When were we baptized into Christ?
Well, the Bible says we were baptized into Christ before the
foundation of the world. God chose us and gave us to Christ.
We were baptized into Christ at His death, planted together
with Him when He died for my sins, for the sins of His sheep.
They were laid upon Him, charged to Him, and He gave us His righteousness
in return. And then we're baptized into
Christ at the new birth when we come by faith to Him and unite
with Him. So as many as have been baptized
into Christ have put on Christ. To put on Christ means to believe
in Him. There's neither Jew nor Greek. That means Gentile. That
was a common way of referring to Gentile. That distinction's
gone now. It was valid under the Old Covenant
for a purpose and for a time. But now it's not. And he says
there's neither bond nor free. There's neither male nor female.
You see, those distinctions mean nothing as to your salvation.
For you are all one in Christ Jesus, and if you be Christ,
that's a possessive. If you belong to Christ, Then
are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Let
me show you one more. Turn to Philippians chapter three. Philippians chapter three, look
at verse three. Well, look at verse two. He starts
off in Philippians three and verse two, he says, beware of
dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. Now
that word concision means mutilation. What's he talking about? He's
talking about Jews who claim to believe in Christ, but who
tried to bring circumcision into the mix, physical circumcision,
as making a sinner more holy, more righteous, more saved. They
would say something like this, now we know salvation is by grace,
it's all of Christ, but you have to be circumcised to be really
saved. And Paul is saying here, all
they're doing is seeking to mutilate you. They're not doing anything
holy or godly or good to you when they do that. They're just
denying Christ. And then he says, well, beware
of them. He says in verse 3, look at this,
for we are the circumcision. Now, you know, the circumcision
was a general way back then of referring to the Jews. And because
of that physical covenant. Reach back to Abraham. Paul says
we're the true circumcision. He's talking about spiritual
circumcision. How do you know? Well, look how he defines it.
Look at, which worship God in spirit, in the spirit. Two things. We worship God as God reveals
himself in his word, not as we think him to be. And secondly,
we worship him from the heart. It's not just outward ceremony
and practice. And then he says, and rejoice
in Christ Jesus. That word rejoice there is sometimes
in the New Testament translated glory, which means to boast.
It's translated that way in Galatians 6.14, God forbid that I should
glory. We glory in Christ Jesus. We
don't glory in our physical connection with Abraham. We don't glory
in our physical circumcision. We don't glory in keeping the
law of Moses. We glory in Christ Jesus. We brag on Christ. We boast in
Him. And look, and have no confidence
in the flesh, in anything of the flesh. That's what he's talking
about. Now, back here in Jeremiah 31,
when he talks about the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
you know what he's talking about? He's talking about the united
spiritual nation of Israel, the church. Those who have been redeemed
by the blood of Christ, called out, united, not divided. united by the grace of God in
Christ. And then in verse 32, he says,
now this covenant is not according to the covenant that I made with
their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring
them out of the land of Egypt. It's not going to be like that
covenant, which covenant they break. Although I was in the
husband under them, sayeth the Lord, not like the old covenant,
the old covenant, the law of Moses was good for its time.
It was good mainly as a manifestation of Christ. Remember I told you
that, what it was. Galatians 3 and verse 24 says
it was a schoolmaster to lead sinners unto Christ. The old
covenant, the law of Moses, ten commandments, the ceremonial
law, was never given by God through Moses to the nation Israel as
a way of salvation in and of itself. Never was. It was always known the blood
of bulls and animals and goats could never take away sin. It
was always given as a temporary covenant, as a temporal covenant,
as a physical covenant to that nation. There was no salvation
in Moses himself. There was no salvation in that
earthly priesthood. There was no salvation in the
blood of animals. You see what I'm saying? It was
never given for that reason. The Law of Moses had two main
purposes. Number one, to show Israel their
sinfulness and their utter inability to be saved by their works. That's
number one. It's impossible. You see, if
you could be saved by, for example, keeping the Ten Commandments,
you wouldn't need the blood of animals. You wouldn't need a
priesthood. You wouldn't need the tabernacle
or the altar. You wouldn't need any of that. You don't need salvation. If you could keep the Ten Commandments
or keep any law, you wouldn't need to be saved. You see, salvation
is for what? Sinners. Christ Jesus came into
the world to save who? Sinners. He shall save his people
from their what? Sins. So if anybody in this,
any son or daughter of Adam could have kept the law, they don't
need salvation. But you see, that law was given, number one,
to show them their need of salvation because they could not be saved
by their works. But secondly, and more importantly,
that law was given to communicate and reveal and teach them of
God's way of salvation by His grace in Christ. Everything about
that ceremonial law was a picture and a type of Christ. The blood
of animals. typified the blood of Christ,
the Lamb of God. The tabernacle, that whole tabernacle,
had something to do with the person, the offices, and the
finished work of Christ. Every little element in it symbolized,
typified Christ and Him crucified and risen again. That's why in
John 1.14 it says, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,
literally tabernacled among us. You want to go to the tabernacle
today? Don't go to Jerusalem here on earth. And don't build
a replica. I saw on TV they built a replica
and everybody's going down there, you know, and praying. I think
somewhere up here in Ohio. No, I'm sorry. You want to go
to the tabernacle? Go to Christ. by faith in Him. He's the dwelling
place of God. For in Him, Colossians 2 and
verse 9, for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, and you're complete in Him. You want to commune with
God, worship God, serve God? You want to pray to God, be accepted
with God? Run to Christ and plead the merits
of His blood and His righteousness alone. And everything in that
old covenant typified that and taught that. But you know what? The majority of that nation down
through the ages missed it totally. And that's why he said here,
which my covenant they break. They broke that covenant. You know, the old covenant was
defective. That's what we read back there
in Hebrews chapter eight. Why? How was it defective? Well,
as I said, it was defective in the sense that there was no eternal
salvation in it. There was no power in that covenant
to turn or to work upon the heart of any sinner. In itself, you
see. It wasn't designed and given
for that purpose as an ending of itself. Again, it was a schoolmaster.
Well, where were its faults? Well, first of all, it was only
typical. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. It was only typical. In the book of Hebrews chapter
10, listen to this, verse 1. It says, for the law, that's
the old covenant, having a shadow of good things to come. Now,
it was a shadow. And not the very image of the
things. Now, that's the fault of it.
That was the defect of it. It was a shadow, but not the
very image of the good things to come. And that law can never,
with those animal sacrifices which they offered year by year,
continually make the comers thereunto perfect, complete, finished.
It couldn't do it. It'd be like this. You've heard
this illustration before. I think about some of these young
wives in our country whose husbands, or even husbands whose wives,
are off in Iraq or Afghanistan. Sons and daughters who are off
in Iraq and Afghanistan some of you grandsons and granddaughters
And every now and then you might get out a picture of that person
And it gives you a warm feeling doesn't it? But let me ask you
would you rather have the picture and keep the picture and never
see that person in the flesh again? Or would you rather have
the person there? And if that person would come
in, if that husband or that wife or that son, daughter, grandson
or granddaughter would show up at the door, and you're standing
there looking at their picture, you're going to just hold on
to the picture and not have anything to do with that? No, you're going
to put that picture down and forget it, and you're going to
embrace that loved one. That's the difference here. The
Old Covenant was types and shadows and pictures, but you see, Christ
has come. We have Christ. You don't need
those things anymore. It's good to study them and to
look at them because it's glorious how God put all that together
and points us to Christ even more. But He's come. He's the
very image. You see, He's the express image
of the Father. Hebrews 1 tells us. These things
were shadows, but not the very image. We have Christ. Would you rather see their shadow
or see the person? You'd rather see the person,
wouldn't you? You see, the people with whom the Old Covenant was
typical of the true Israel, they were typical of the true Israel
of God, the church of God's elect, but they were not themselves
the true Israel of God. The blessings promised in the
Old Covenant were shadows and types and pictures of good things
to come, better things to come. The sacrifices of the Old Covenant
were pictures of Christ and His one great sacrifice for sin. The priests, the mediators of
that covenant were typical of Christ, our great high priest.
It was deficient in itself for eternal salvation and blessings.
Look here at Hebrews 10 again. It says, For the law, verse 1,
having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image
of the things, can never, with those sacrifices which they offered
year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect.
For then would they not have ceased to be offered? In other
words, if they could accomplish eternal salvation and justification
before God, make a sinner righteous, then they would have ceased to
be offered. They didn't have to be offered more. See, Christ,
when he came and died, how many times did he die? Once. For by one offering, he hath
perfected them that are sanctified forever. That's all it took.
One offering. He didn't have to die twice,
three times, four times. Because he got the job done.
He satisfied law and justice. He paid the debt in full. He
brought in everlasting righteousness. It only took one time, his obedience
unto death. But these things could never
do that. They couldn't accomplish that. So they had to be offered
over and over again. And so he says, because the worshipers,
once purged, should have had no more conscience. That's guilt
of sin. You see, we're still sinners.
We who are saved. But we're not condemned, for
there is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. Yea, rather it's risen again. But he says in verse 3,
but in those sacrifices there's a remembrance again made of sins
every year. In other words, they keep bringing
them back up, bringing them back up, bringing them back up. Now
why is that? Verse 4, for it's not possible
that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world."
Bulls and goats couldn't do that. That's why it was deficient.
And it was deficient for this reason too. Because the people,
under that old covenant, that nation, sinners, that physical
covenant blessings, were conditioned on Israel's obedience and devotion. And remember what he said back
here in verse 32 of Jeremiah 31. He says, which covenant they
break. My covenant they break. You see,
they broke that covenant. They didn't keep that covenant.
Now, don't get puffed up. Neither would we have kept it.
Because we're sinners. Do you know any covenant that
God makes that's conditioned on man is a broken covenant? Did you know that? Any covenant
that God makes with a sinful nation or a sinful human being
is a broken covenant. That's right. But now under the
new covenant, now we're still sinners under the new covenant,
but none of its spiritual and eternal blessings are conditioned
on us. That's the difference. Look over
at Hebrews 10 and verse 19. Look at this. You see, their
temporal blessings, their physical blessings as a nation under that
old covenant was conditioned on them. And whenever they disobeyed
from the leaders, the majority of the leaders and the majority
of the nations, what did God do? He sent plagues. He sent
armies down to destroy them. He sent them into captivity.
In fact, during the time of Jeremiah's making this prophecy, they're
getting ready to go into captivity in Babylon because of their disobedience. Sometimes the crops didn't grow,
the land didn't yield because of their disobedience. There
were times of temporal obedience, but they were very few. And there
were temporal blessings given. It was conditioned on those people.
But on the whole, they broke it. And so would we. But the New Covenant is not like
that. Now let me show you this. Hebrews chapter 10, look at verse
19. It says, "...having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter the
holiest." That is, to come into the holy presence of God. How?
by the blood of Jesus, not by our works or our goodness, not
because we've had a good day, but by his blood. And he says
in verse 20, by a new and living way, that's the new covenant,
which he, Christ, hath consecrated. Look in your concordance if you've
got one in your Bible. What does it say? Which he consecrated,
which he hath newly made. He made it, not you, not me.
He met the conditions of it. He fulfilled it. For us, for
His sheep, His church, through the veil, that is to say His
flesh, that's the offering of His body on the tree for us,
and having an high priest over the house of God, let us draw
near with a true, honest heart and full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, that's a
legal conscience, a guilty conscience, and our bodies washed with pure
water. Christ met the conditions. Look
back at Romans chapter 10. You see, this new covenant is
not conditioned on me or on you. It's conditioned on Christ. And
you know what? He fulfilled the conditions.
Look at verse 4 of Romans 10. For Christ is the end. Now that
word, end there, is the same word that Christ spoke on the
cross in John 19.30. It is finished. For Christ is the finishing,
the completing, the fulfilling of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth." He fulfilled the conditions.
You see, in essence, this is the same covenant by which David
was saved. Ordered in all things and sure.
David just looked forward to the promise that was to come.
It's a covenant of pure, free, sovereign grace and mercy in
Christ. In Isaiah 55, it's called the sure mercies of David. It's
called new because it was newly established by Christ in time.
In the fullness of the time, God sent forth his son, made
of a woman, made under the law, to do what? To redeem them that
were under the law. It's called new because it's
newly revealed in the gospel age. It's called new because
it's always new and fresh. It's the gospel. Do you ever
tire of hearing? Tell me the old, old story. I love to tell
the story. It's called new because it gives
us a new record in our conscience. I know that I have no hope of
salvation, of righteousness, of glory, but in Christ. Somebody asked me, are you saved?
Well, I've got no hope but Him. Is He a Savior? Is He efficient? Is He willing? Is He able? Did
God appoint Him? You see, I'm going to talk about
His qualifications to prove my own salvation. That's what this
new covenant is all about. When you want to prove your salvation,
talk about the qualifications of your Savior, not your qualifications. Because the moment you start
talking about your qualifications to prove your salvation, I'm
going to tell you right now, you, me, and the best of us are
unqualified. You say, well, I try to love
everybody. Not good enough. The Bible says do and live. Disobey
and die. You say, well, I try to show
for church every time the door is up. Not good enough. You ought
to be here and you ought to study and love and feed upon God's
Word. You ought to worship God. But that won't make you righteous.
You say, well, I try to treat everybody well. Not good enough. You see, when you want to prove
your salvation, don't talk about your qualifications. Talk about
His. Because I'm going to tell you
something. His qualifications are above and beyond the call
of duty. That's what this new covenant
is all about. He gives us a new heart, scripture says, a new
spirit. This new everlasting covenant
is immutable and sure, its blessings are all infallibly secured to
God's elect, to Christ's sheep, because this is a one-way covenant. Did you notice back here in Jeremiah
31, look at verse 33, he says, but this shall be the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days saith
the Lord, I will, he saith, put my law in their inward parts,
and write it in their hearts, and I will be their God, and
they shall. It's a unilateral covenant. It's
from God. Straight from God. He never says,
I will, if they will. He says, I will, I will, I will,
they shall. That's a good covenant. That's
a great covenant. And these new covenant blessings
are spiritual and eternal. Now, this is what I'm going to
get to next time on this thing about they shall all know me.
But let me just read them to you. He said, I will make it
with them. This is the cover, verse 33.
After those days saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inner
parts and write it in their hearts. That's the new birth. He's going
to have a spiritual people. Born of the Spirit to come to
Christ. He said, I'll be their God and
they'll be my people. That's the spirit of adoption.
In other words, God's going to be more than just a stern, just
lawgiver. He's going to be our Heavenly
Father. He is our Heavenly Father. Always has been. He's going to
let us in on it. He says in verse 34, And they
shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his
brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from
the least of them unto the greatest. In other words, He's going to
give us a saving knowledge of Himself, a saving knowledge of
Christ. And then lastly, he says, I will
forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. The
forgiveness of sins. That's our justification before
a holy God and by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the covenant. And you know what? The Lord is
going to teach us something about it when he brings us to Christ.
And we're going to know some things that he teaches us through
his word.