Turning your Bibles to the book
of Jeremiah in the Old Testament, chapter 31. Jeremiah 31. And what Robert was saying there
about India, that proves that if I don't write it down, I don't
remember to say it. And I meant to mention that this
morning and ask for your prayers. I've been in contact with a young
man from India for several weeks now, and he has asked me to preach
to a group of Bible students by what they call a Zoom meeting.
Now, if you're not familiar with Zoom, it's one of those computer
things that I can be on my computer sitting in my living room, and
they'll each have their computers in wherever they are. And we
can see each other and talk with each other just like right now.
And that's amazing, isn't it? But anyway, next Saturday, I'll
be preaching to a group of those Bible students, Saturday night. In fact, it'll be 11.30 at night,
our time. So y'all pray for me. I don't drag in here on Sunday
morning. I'm gonna take a nap. But it'll
be Sunday morning for them. And I'm going to just preach
the gospel to them. So you keep us in your prayers
in that issue. Okay. Robert, you may have said
Hebrews 8 to start off with up here, but I didn't hear it, so
that, you know. Oh boy, this old body. Okay,
let's look at Jeremiah 31. The portion of scripture that
Robert read in Hebrews 8, Part of that is a quotation for what
I'm gonna read to you from Jeremiah 31. Look at verse 31, Jeremiah
31, 31. Now, you understand Jeremiah
prophesied the word of God to the people of Judah and Jerusalem
just prior to them going into captivity, being destroyed and
going into captivity in Babylon. And Jeremiah is telling them
that the hope of salvation The hope of redemption and eternal
life does not lie in that nation or in their works under the law,
but it lies in the promised Messiah who is to come. And he's telling
them to look to the future. Believers in the Old Testament
look to the future of the promised Christ. And salvation conditioned
on Him that He would come in time and fulfill those conditions,
put away their sins, and fulfill all righteousness on their behalf.
That's what true believers in the Old Covenant, the Old Testament,
they look to. Christ said that. He talked about
Abraham even before the Old Covenant. He said, Abraham rejoiced to
see my day and he saw it and he was glad. And then he spoke
of Moses. We'll look at that in just a
moment. He told them, Moses wrote of me. So understand that. And how many quotations from
the Old Testament, especially the book of Isaiah, but also
Jeremiah, do you find in the New Testament that Christ and
the disciples and the apostles, they applied it to him. Genesis
to Malachi, Matthew to Revelation, this is a book of Christ. And
salvation. by God's grace based upon his
blood alone, his righteousness alone. And so Jeremiah speaks
in prophecy here, verse 31, behold, the days come, saith the Lord,
that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah. Now the idea here, you see, at
this time, the kingdom had been divided ever since the death
of Solomon. The northern kingdom, which was
known as Israel, had already been destroyed and scattered
by this time. Isaiah spoke of that. The southern
kingdom was held together by the providence of God, not based
upon the obedience and goodness of the people, but in spite of
their sins. And the reason that that southern
kingdom of Judah had to be kept intact, even during their captivity
when they went 70 years into Babylon, they were still kept
intact because, and you know why? It's because the scepter,
the king, would not depart from Judah until somebody came. Shiloh, which I believe means
peace. That's talking about Christ.
The human nature of Christ came through the tribe of Judah. And
God kept them together until that time. And then even they
were destroyed in AD 70. But here he says he's gonna make
a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
The name Israel means those who have prevailed with God. Prevailed with God? This was
a name given to Jacob when he wrestled with the angel, which
I believe was a pre-incarnate visitation of Christ. And Jacob prevailed. Not because
he was so strong, or good, or anything like that. But it was
determined beforehand that he would prevail. And how does any
sinner prevail with God? How can I, who am a sinner, who
deserve nothing but death and hell, Prevail with a holy God,
not but one way, and that's through Christ. By his power, his goodness,
his mercy, his grace, his blood, his righteousness. You plead
Christ, the true Christ of this book, and you'll prevail with
God. Judah means praise. How do you praise God? How does
He accept our praises? We're accepted in the beloved.
We're acceptable to God in Jesus Christ. And what He's saying
in this new covenant, there will not be a divided kingdom. There
will be a united kingdom and it's really known in the Bible
as spiritual Israel. It's not just made up of the
physical descendants of Abraham. There's a remnant of them, the
Bible tells us. It's made up of God's chosen
people, whose names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life before
the world began, given to Christ, whom he redeemed on the cross,
and who will be brought under the preaching of the gospel.
and they'll come to know God. Listen to it. Verse 32, now this
new covenant, it won't be 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. Won't be like that covenant.
That was a conditional covenant. Conditioned on sinners. And it
failed. How do you know it failed? Well,
look at it. Which my covenant they break. They broke it. Although I wasn't husband unto
them, saith the Lord. Now God did join himself to that
physical nation for a while. It was about 1500 years. But
Jeremiah speaks later on of him writing a bill of divorcement
because of their unfaithfulness. But verse 33, now look at this.
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my
law in their inward parts. God's word will be written on
their heart. I'll write it in their hearts.
In other words, it won't be just a law imposed upon them outwardly,
it'll be written on their hearts, and I will be their God, and
they shall be my people. That language there is the language
of a marriage union that cannot be broken. There'll be no bill
of divorcement here. You wanna know why? Because this
new covenant's not conditioned on the sinner, it's conditioned
on Christ. And he kept those conditions.
He fulfilled them. It's finished, he said. Suffer
it to be done for us to fulfill all righteousness. Did he do
it? He did it. Now look at verse 34. Now this is the part that
I really want to focus in on for today's message. They shall
teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
know the Lord. Now we all need teaching. We
need continual teaching. They did too. But what he's talking
about is that Israel, because the law was an imposition on
them outwardly, ceremonially and physically, and not written
on their hearts, they continued to forget it. They forgot God. They didn't know who God was.
God revealed Himself in special ways to them, but they would
forget. Think about it! Even in their
beginnings, God brought them out of Egypt. Think about the
10 plagues of Egypt. God brought them across the Red
Sea. Think about the dividing of the Red Sea. And Moses went
up into the mount to get the law and he came back down and
what happened? What did he find? Oh, those people were just so
faint. No, they were worshiping a golden calf. And it's like
Moses, the prophet, would come down and say, don't you all know
the Lord? He's not in a golden calf. But under the new covenant,
that's not gonna happen. Not to God's people, whom he
reveals himself, saying, know the Lord. Look at verse 34. Now,
underscore this, for they shall all know me. You wanna know God. They shall all know me. That's
the title of this message. Not just the most intellectual,
the smartest of them, from the least of them unto the greatest
of them, they'll all know me. If you're a part of this new
covenant, evidenced by the work of the spirit in writing the
law and writing the gospel, writing the word of God on your heart,
you know God. Now you'll learn more. You'll
learn more of his word. You'll grow in grace and knowledge.
That's a great thing. But you're not gonna be out here
worshiping golden calves. You're not going to be where
they preach a false god. The least of them under the grave,
saith the Lord, I will forgive their iniquity, I will remember
their sin no more. And when it says God will remember
their sin no more, it means he won't hold them against us. He
won't keep a record of them. Paul said it this way in Romans
8 and verse 33 or 34, I can't remember. He says, 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. Well,
they shall all know me. One of the things that I despise
worse than anything is when I hear a man or a woman who professes
to be a believer, who knows the right language and the right
doctrine to put down or to diminish or deny the necessity, the importance,
the glory of knowledge of God. Right now, I despise that. I read an article, and when I get
on this subject, I don't wanna scare you, but I could preach
for hours on this. I'm not gonna do that today.
You know me, if time runs out, I'll just stop and pick up next
week. But I read an article that says
this, it says, your knowledge won't save you. That was the
title of the article. Now technically speaking, that's
right. I preached a message a few weeks
ago and entitled this, Christ, not faith, is our savior. And what I was trying to show
there is it's not our faith in Him that makes the difference
between saved and lost, it's Him alone and what He accomplished
on Calvary that makes the difference. Salvation is not conditioned
on our faith, it's conditioned on Christ and He fulfilled the
conditions. But in saying that Christ, not
faith, is our Savior, that doesn't deny the necessity of faith,
the wonder of faith, Faith is the fruit of Christ's death on
the cross. He said, if I be lifted up, I'll
draw all unto me. Now how's he going to draw them?
By the revelation of knowledge that brings sinners to faith.
That's how he's going to do it. Faith is the means by which we
lay hold of Christ. We put him on, as the scripture
says. So I'm not, when I said that,
I'm not talking, I'm not denying the necessity of faith or the
importance of it. It's a great gift from God. By
grace are you saved through faith. That not of yourselves. Now,
it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
We're his creation. But what about this knowledge?
Turn to John chapter five. John chapter five. In this article,
here's what the man used to make his point. And this is really,
I mean, you know, if I heard, well, your knowledge won't save
you, Christ saves you, I understand that. I understand it. And listen, I understand that
there are people who can gain a lot of knowledge and not know
Christ. I mean they can, they can study
theology books, commentaries. I know guys who can quote Bible
scripture and they don't know the gospel. Now that's true. I was a second year seminary
student and I didn't know the gospel, thought I did, but I
didn't. So think about that, I'm studying
Greek and Hebrew all kinds of biblical criticism, but I didn't
know the gospel. And that's sad, isn't it? Most of what is called Christendom
today is a false gospel because it does believe salvation is
in some way, at some stage, to some degree, conditioned on sinners
and not on Christ alone. But this fellow in the article,
he said this, and he turned to John 5.39. Look at this. Now this is Christ speaking to
the Pharisees. And Christ says here, search
the scriptures. Now, in the original language,
the idea here is that he's telling them, he's looking at these guys
and he says, you do search the scriptures. I realize you read
your Bibles. You do that. And he says, for
in them you think you have eternal life. That's why they read their
Bibles. That's why they searched the Scriptures. They thought
in those Scriptures they had eternal life. And he said, and
they are they which testify of me. You do read your Bibles. You search the Scripture. You
know Moses and the Law and David and the Psalms and Isaiah and
Jeremiah. You read these things. You memorize
these things. You make commentaries on these
things. And you think you have eternal life. But what you don't
realize is they testify of me. They speak of Christ. I've been
doing a series in our 10 o'clock Bible study. Christ in the Old
Testament. You mean Christ is in Genesis?
You bet he is. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,
every bit of it. And if you read those books and
miss Christ, you're no better off than these Pharisees. You
understand that? You know what the Pharisees were,
they were religious people. Dedicated, zealous. And here's
what the article said that I read that got me on this. Fellow said
this in John 5, 39, he said, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees
here who thought they had eternal life because they had knowledge
of the scriptures. Well, that's true. But here's what the Pharisees
got out of their knowledge of the scriptures. The Pharisees, like all the Jews,
basically had three points that they would boast in. to them
that proved that they were saved, that they had eternal life, that
God was pleased with them. Their first point of doctrine
as they read the scriptures is their physical connection with
Abraham. Okay, you got that? We're not
Gentile dogs, we're Abraham's seed. And of course Christ told him,
you can read about this in John chapter eight, just because you're
Abraham's physical seed, just because you've got papers of
pedigree, doesn't mean that you're a child of God. The second thing they boasted
in is they kept the law of Moses. Look on here. Verse 40 of John
five. You will not come to me that
you might have life. You don't come to Christ. You
read your Bibles. I receive not honor from men,
but I know you that you have not the love of God in you. How
did he know that? Well, he's God. He knows the hearts. He knows what's in man. But I
can tell you how we know they didn't love God. They didn't
know Christ. They had no knowledge of Christ
and what he accomplished, what he was promised to accomplish
for the salvation of sinners. It's by grace, folks. That's
what Moses wrote, look at it, verse 43. I'm come in my Father's
name and you receive me not. If another shall come in his
own name, him you will receive. How can you believe which receive
honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh from
God only? You see, my salvation is assured not because of what
you say of me. It's what does God say of me
in his word. And he says in verse 45, do not
think that I will accuse you to the Father, there's one that
accuseth you, even Moses, in whom you trust. Now they weren't trusting in
Moses the man, they were trusting in their works of the law that
Moses wrote. Whenever they said Moses, that
meant the law. Look at verse 46, for had you believed Moses,
if you really believe what Moses wrote in those first five books
of the Bible, You would have believed me, for he wrote of
me. You see that? But if you believe not his writings,
how shall you believe my words? Now, this fellow went on to say
in his article, he said, today there are some people who think
that just because they have a knowledge of God and how God sovereignly
saves his people or how they know the scriptures inside out
and can articulate the gospel, they think they have eternal
life. I'm always wary of people when they want to talk about
knowledge, to use the Pharisees as an example. I heard a preacher
say this on tape one time. He was dead by the time I was
listening to it. And he was talking about the Pharisees and how religious
they were. And he made this statement, he
said, the Pharisees' doctrine, and you know what the word doctrine
is, that's teaching, okay? He said the Pharisees doctrine,
it was straight as a gun barrel and just as empty. Well, I got news for him. The
doctrine of the Pharisees was not straight. It was crooked
as the day is long. Didn't Christ say they were a
crooked and perverse generation? Their doctrine was a lie. Just because you've got Your
physical heritage is connected with the man Abraham. That doesn't
mean you're saved. That's a lie. That's not straight
doctrine. That's not good doctrine. That
knowledge is ignorance. Just because you think you keep
the law of Moses, which they did not, they had perverted the
law of Moses, and they missed Moses' message, which was sinners
who need Christ, who need a righteousness we can't produce, Their knowledge of Moses was
a lie. And the third thing they would
boast in was their circumcision, their physical circumcision.
We're circumcised. That means we're saved. You remember
what Paul said in Galatians 6, 14 and 15? He said, God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.
And he said, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision
availeth anything. But what does avail Paul? A new
creation. And who brings that about? God
does. My friends, it's true that Christ
saves us. He's the Savior. Not some obscure
notion of knowledge. But again, this does not deny
the necessity of knowledge. Over in the book of Hosea, The
prophet Hosea brought an indictment from God against the people of
the northern kingdom. You know what he said in Hosea
chapter four, verse six? He said, my people are destroyed
for lack of knowledge. Because thou hast rejected knowledge,
I will also reject thee. that thou shalt be no priest
to me, seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also
forget thy children." Christ told his disciples that when
they would go out and preach the gospel, And when they go
into the synagogues, into their religious services, their church
services, and preach Christ, salvation by the sovereign grace
of God in Christ, based upon His righteousness alone and not
by your works. He said, they'll throw you out.
They'll kick you out of there. And the reason they'll do it
is they neither know me nor my Father. They don't know God. Consider this, the cause or source
of salvation. What is that? What is the cause
and source of salvation? The Bible says it's God's sovereign
will and purpose. He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I will have mercy. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. Therefore, it's not of him that
runneth, nor of him that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy. What is the ground or basis of
salvation? Upon what ground does God save
sinners? It's the glorious person and
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. What's the effect or result of
salvation? It's faith in Christ, which is
knowledge revealed by God to a sinner that brings him to faith
and repentance. That's what it is. And therefore
there's no reason to put knowledge down or indicate that it's not
necessary. If a person knows right things,
but doesn't truly believe in Christ, the problem is not with
the knowledge, the problem is with the heart. That's right. How many times
did Christ say, he that hath eyes to see, let him see. He
that hath ears to hear, let him hear. What am I talking about? I'm talking about a saving knowledge.
That's what Jeremiah was talking about. They shall all know me,
he said, from the least of them unto the greatest. And then when I read that out
of the John 17, the Lord's Prayer, think about that. This is life
eternal, he said. They might know thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. The Bible teaches
that knowledge is salvation. Christ is the Savior, but He
saves His people. He brings His people to Himself
by teaching them, revealing to them, showing them. Ignorance
is idolatry. And the first thing we need to
see about this, this is a specific knowledge. Turn to Romans chapter
1. It's not just any knowledge.
You can have knowledge that God created the world. But that's not the knowledge
that brings you unto salvation, not in and of itself. God did
create the world. And anybody who has knowledge
unto salvation, they believe that, that God created the world. You can't believe the gospel
and believe in evolution, I don't care what you say. Evolution
says that man started low and worked his way up. The Bible
teaches that man started in the image of God and fell into sin
and death. Those are opposites. Why do I
need salvation? Because I'm a sinner. And what's
happened to me? Well, God has revealed to me
the knowledge of what kind of sinner I am. I'm a sinner who cannot save
myself? And this is what Romans 1 is
talking about. Look at verse 1 of chapter 1.
He says, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,
separated under the gospel of God. Now the gospel is good news. And it's the gospel of God. It's
not the gospel of man. We didn't create it. We're not
the authors of it. God is. And it says in verse
two, which he had promised to for by his prophets in the holy
scriptures, such as Jeremiah 31, for example. Verse three,
here's what the gospel concerns. Let me give you some knowledge. What is the first major point
of the gospel, the good news? It has to do with a person who
is appointed of God and who's able to save us from our sins.
Verse three, concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, which
was made of the seed of David according to flesh. That's his
humanity. Verse four, and declared to be
the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by
the resurrection from the dead. That's his deity. The gospel is the good news of
salvation. by the grace of God, for sinners
who know they're sinners, who know that if left to themselves,
they wouldn't do right and wouldn't choose right. I need someone to save me who's
able to do it. Well, here he is. Do you know
him? He's God man. His name shall
be called Emmanuel, God with us. The word made flesh dwelling
among us. God manifest in the flesh. His
name shall be called Jesus, Jehovah says, for he shall save his people
from their sins. That's the person, the glorious
person of Christ. We'll look over in verse 16 of chapter one.
Verse 16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, For it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek or the Gentile. For therein, in that gospel,
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith. Now that first faith
is the doctrine, the body of truth preached out in the gospel
from faith. Two faith, that second faith
is the faith that God gives his people to believe it, to believe
Christ. As it is written, the just, the
justified shall live by faith. You see that? That's knowledge.
What is the righteousness of God there? Well, the Bible tells
us that it's the merit, the worthiness, the value, you might say, of
the work of Christ as the surety, the substitute and the redeemer
of his people. It's a righteousness that we
don't have. See what he says there, the righteousness of God
is revealed in the gospel. That's knowledge. And he begins
in verse 18 and it goes all the way through and turn over to
chapter three. It begins at verse 18, to show us why we need the
righteousness of God. You see, we don't need the righteousness
of men, or man, or woman. You wanna know why? Because man
or woman doesn't have a righteousness. We lost it. We fell in Adam. We fell into sin and death. And
here's the conclusion. Look at verse 10 of chapter three.
Now here's some knowledge now. As it is written, there's none
righteous, no not one. Does that include me and you? You bet it does. That's what
we are by nature as we are naturally born. We don't have the righteousness
that God requires. I don't need the righteousness
of man. Man doesn't have it and he can't work it. Look at verse
11. There's none that understand it. There's none that seeketh
after God, the true God. They are all gone out of the
way. What is the way? Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. They are together become unprofitable. There's
none that doeth good, no not one. Now I guarantee you, you
all know a lot of people who in your eyes do a lot of good
in this world. But that's not what Paul's talking
about here. Let me fill you in with some
knowledge here. What Paul's talking about is how we stand in God's
sight. And you remember what Christ
told the rich young man? When he said, good master, what
good thing must I do to inherit eternity? He said, why you call
me good? There's none good but God. See,
that man did not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was God. And
Christ essentially is saying, if you don't believe I'm God,
don't call me good. in these matters of eternal life. There's
none good, no not one, in the eyes of God. What he's saying
here? Well, he's saying what people quote all the time and
don't know the meaning of it. Romans 3.23, all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. That means no matter how
good we try to be on this earth, we're always going to miss the
mark. We're going to fall short of the perfection of righteousness
and deserve nothing but death and hell. The best of us. Man in his best state is altogether
what? Vanity. I'm telling you. And therefore
he concludes in verse 20, therefore by deeds of the law there shall
no flesh be justified. So how are we gonna be justified?
Look at verse 21 and I'll conclude with this. But now the righteousness
of God without the law was manifested. Here's the righteousness of God
now. being witnessed by the law and the prophets. What did he
say in chapter one there? It was aforementioned by the
law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God,
now listen to this verse, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. And it says unto all, you know
that unto all is not even in, or that unto all and upon all
is not even in the original, but it's preached unto everybody.
Anybody who'll listen to it will preach to them. But it's upon
all them that believe. That righteousness of God is
upon those who believe. Are you a believer? Then you
have the righteousness of God, the righteousness of Christ,
charged, accounted to you. For there's no difference. For
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. It's not
by your faith in Jesus Christ. Listen, if you're saved, if you're
a disciple of Christ, you do, by the grace of God, according
to His gift, you do have faith in Jesus Christ. But that's not
the ground of your salvation. That's not what made the difference
between heaven and hell for you. What did? The faith of Jesus
Christ. That's His faithfulness to do
what He came into this world to do. And what did He come into
this world to do? Matthew 121, His name shall be
called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. He brought forth the righteousness
that we need to be justified and saved and to have life before
God. Romans 10 verse 4 says, For Christ
is the end, finishing, perfection, fulfillment, completion of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. You see that? That's the knowledge. It's a
specific knowledge that we must have and it comes by revelation
from God. God's the teacher. He may use
an old clay pot like me to deliver the message, but it's His message.
I can't save you. I'll tell you who can. The Lord
can. He's the only savior of sinners.