Jeremiah 31:31-34

Merry Christmas to everyone. Merry Christmas season, that is. I've been thinking about the

Christmas season, I've been thinking about Santa Claus, which you might be surprised about,

but I've actually been thinking about him because, well, partly because my son went to the tree

lighting in the New Haven Green last Thursday, and he stood in line until he got to the door,

and then he said, I don't want to go in, I don't want to go in, I don't want to see him, he's scary,

which I don't get, but because I think most of us think, who is, you know, who is Santa Claus? Santa

Claus is this really nice guy who has a big white beard and a big red suit, and he gives us the

things that we want, right? Like, what a great cultural icon of Santa, you know, what better

could we have than that? But then I was listening this week to the song, Santa Claus is Coming to

Town. Do you remember the words to it? You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout,

I'm telling you why. Santa Claus is coming to town. It's actually a little creepy. He knows when you're

sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness

sake. And in the hearts of many kids, and indeed even maybe in some of our own families, we use this

as a motivation during the Christmas season. Be good, or you'll get a coal, lump of coal in your

stocking this year. So kids go to sleep every night. If they've actually listened to the song

and overcome the cultural picture that we paint of Santa Claus, they go to bed in fear. Have I done

enough? Have I been good enough? Have I been good enough this year to get what I want? Friends, I wonder

if we do the same thing with our God. I wonder if we live wondering whether we've been good enough

this year. Seriously, think back to your year of 2014. Can you think of something that you're pretty

sure puts you on the naughty instead of the nice list? A moment of cowardice when you weren't the person

you want to be. An ungracious word spoken from the ugliness of your heart. Maybe a missed opportunity

to bless or help someone else, missed because of selfish preoccupation.

Maybe a failure to invest your life in this past year in the things you say. We can all start with

our prayer life, and that'll pretty much just bury us, right? Maybe helping others, maybe love

your spouse or your children or your roommates, maybe just daily Bible reading. All of us can think

of the things that put us not on the nice list but on the naughty list. And what do we do with that?

Self-condemnation rises up in our hearts. You're not good enough. It can lead us to despair.

Okay, I'm not good enough. I never will be. And we own that. Leads us to performance. I'm going to try

better. Try harder. Do better. I'm going to overcome this. I can do this. And in the midst of it all, we live

with this insecurity. And it's an insecurity, I think, ultimately rooted in our relationship with God

and if God really accepts us. But it plays itself out in all of our other relationships too. And so we look

at our peers and we think, will you accept me into the cool crowd at school? We look at our professional

peers and we think, will you accept me? Am I good enough to have your respect? We look at our spouse

or our families and we think, will you love me or will you leave me? So we think about our naughty list,

we can be buried in shame. We live a life hiding those failures, afraid to let other people see them,

constantly putting on a face so that others will see, won't see who we really are.

And so we live this life of fear and insecurity like we're on probation.

Probation with God, probation with everyone, wondering whether the next step, misstep, is going to

actually blow it for us. Well friends, this brings us to our passage this morning. We're continuing in

our series about the new things that have come with the advent of Christmas. We're looking at Jeremiah

Jeremiah 31 · chapter mention

chapter 31. I failed to get the page number, but it's in your bulletin if you want to look there.

Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34. And as we're looking at this, this is going to be the second in our

four-week series on the advent of what is new. Last week, Nick talked about Jesus coming as our new

king and the joy and freedom that comes from that. Next week, Greg will talk about having a new heart

from Ezekiel. And finally, the week before Christmas, we will talk about the new creation that Jesus will

bring when he will make all things new. But today, Jeremiah talks about a new covenant,

a new covenant between God and his people. And in it, he proclaimed something that is good news.

Good news to the people in their context, good news to us today. So let's read that together. Jeremiah 31,

Jeremiah 31:31–34

verses 31 through 34.

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel

and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them

by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, though I was their

husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after

those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts,

and I will be their God and they will be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and

each his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me. From the least of them to the

greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquities and I will remember their sin

no more. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you that your word is a book of hope. That, Lord, in the midst of the messiness

of our lives and the ugliness of our hearts, the ravages of sin, both in and out,

God, you speak words of hope. That you have not abandoned this world, but you are at work

redeeming this world for our good and for your glory. God, I pray that we would hear the hope of

the proclamation of Jeremiah this morning. God, speak it to our hearts and, Lord, may it enrich and

deepen our celebration of this Christmas season. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Jeremiah speaks a word of hope that God will secure for his people a certain and eternal relationship

with the coming of Jesus to earth. We're going to look at what Jeremiah predicted. We're going to look

at how Jesus accomplished it and what it means for us. So, let's do that together this morning.

Jeremiah, as he proclaims it, has kind of two points. He has the bad news and the good news of it.

The first thing that he says in verse 31, having announced, I will bring a new covenant,

as he says in verse 32, that the old covenant was insufficient. The old covenant was faulty.

He says, my people were unable to keep it, and that is why it is an old covenant that no longer will work.

And friends, to understand the significance of this, let me tell you a little bit about where

Jeremiah was speaking and to whom he was speaking. If you remember your Old Testament history,

going back to Abraham, God called a man and said, I will make your descendants a great nation.

And then through his descendants over many years, he raised them up to be a large nation. But remember,

they were in slavery in Egypt. So, God came and he rescued them with a mighty hand and doing great

things. And he delivered them out of Egypt and brought them through great trials and overcoming

insurmountable odds into a promised land where they were meant to be blessed and be a blessing to the

world. And God raised up David to be their king. And they were going to be a kingdom which displayed

the greatness of God. And yet they failed over and over and over again. The covenant, the old covenant

that was made with Moses and with the people, through Moses, with the people at Sinai as God delivered

them from Egypt, was the Old Testament law. It's what the book of Deuteronomy is all about and Leviticus

and all those things. And it was God's instructions on this is what it means for you to be my people.

I will be your God and you will be my people if you keep these laws and commandments and statutes that

I give you today. But the flaw in it is that they could not keep it. And nor could we.

And so God begins to bring judgment to his people.

And so if you remember in the nation of Israel, the northern kingdom in 722 was conquered by a pagan

nation. Assyria came in and those tribes no longer held that land.

For another, I got to do math here, about 130 years or so, the southern kingdom held on.

But with kings who over and over again would turn to other things rather than the Lord.

With people who over and over again, rather than worshiping the one true God,

would turn and worship the idols of their neighbors and their friends.

And if you read the first 30 chapters of Jeremiah, you see that it is a message of judgment.

My people have deserted me. They have turned away from me.

They have forsaken me and I will bring judgment on them.

And Jeremiah, if I understand the history right, spoke this word of hope to people between

the dates of 598 and 586.

Now, you may not remember what happens then.

598 is the first incursion of the Babylonian empire into Israel.

They came and they took away many of the people and many of the treasures as tribute.

Babylonians came and said, if you give us all these things, we won't completely wipe you out.

So their nation had already lost most of its glory, had become a vassal state under the Babylonian rule.

But there was still a puppet king in place and he rebelled.

And in 586, the Babylonians would come back and they would tear down the walls of the temple

and they would destroy the walls of the city and they would salt the fields

and they would make it an unlivable place.

The destruction was great.

And in the midst of it, the people must be thinking, God, where are you?

Have we blown it so badly that you have forsaken us forever?

Have we violated our probation in such a way that all we get is judgment?

Friends, I wonder if you ask the same question.

Have I blown it so badly?

There's no hope for me.

God has abandoned me.

There's no way that he can bring me back.

When you look deep at the heart of what drives you, what drives you to be a great student,

what drives you to be a great husband and father, what drives you to succeed in your career,

what drives you to please your friends in your high school,

is it this fear that maybe you're not good enough at all

and you're trying desperately to overcome it?

Friends, this is why what Jeremiah has to say to Israel in 590 B.C.

is also what he has to say to us today.

And he says, the old covenant is faulty,

but the good news is that I'm not done.

The good news is that there is a new covenant that will come.

And a covenant is the words that we don't use today,

but that God uses in his Bible to talk about what is the arrangement or what's the framework,

what are the stipulations on how God and his people relate?

How does that work?

And what God said is,

I know that you can't keep the old covenant.

I knew it when I gave it to you.

Go back and read Deuteronomy carefully.

He knew it.

He knew it when he gave it.

He said, I'm going to tell you how to do it,

and you're not going to be able to do it.

And that's why I've put in provisions for God,

for my gracious work to cover over your sin,

even in the law.

But as Galatians reminds us,

the law was given to point us to something greater than that.

And Jeremiah,

in the place of the deepest darkness and the greatest despair of the people of Israel,

spoke this word of hope.

Behold, the days are coming when I will make a new covenant.

I'm going to rework this relationship.

I'm going to reframe it in a different way.

What does he say that he does?

Let's look at it.

So, the new, he says,

I'm going to bring a new covenant that's better.

I'm going to bring a better plan for my people.

And look with me again,

verses 33 and 34.

Do you see what he says?

There are lots of things that he says here.

One thing he says is,

look, I'm going to change the place of the law.

Rather than it being something that's posted on the wall,

I'm going to write it on your heart.

Rather than being something that's simply held out for you to hold on to,

I'm going to actually put it inside of you so that you can actually do it.

Greg is going to preach on this next week,

so I'm not going to say a lot more about this.

Come back next week for the great heart transformation that God will work

to make his people not only able,

but wanting to please and honor and obey him.

He says it's not going to be an external ritualism anymore.

It's going to be this internal transformation

that produces the kind of people

who reflect the kind of God that he is.

He reminds them of the promise in Exodus 19.

Then I will be their God,

and they will be my people.

It's the exact same words

that he used when he established the Mosaic Covenant.

Here he repeats it again.

He says this new covenant is going to be

not simply overrunning the old one.

It's going to be fulfilling it.

It's going to be finally enabling this relationship to happen

where I will be a God to my people,

and they will be mine.

And it will give them an identity,

and it will give them a purpose in the world.

They will know that beyond anything else,

they are my people,

and that will be the most important thing about them.

And their purpose will be to live for my glory,

and that will be for their good in the world.

And they won't have to have other people speaking to them,

saying,

Know the Lord!

Know the Lord!

There will be no priests.

There will be no temple.

There will be no courtyards.

There will be no curtains.

But as you see in verse 34a,

they will all know the Lord

from the least to the greatest.

God opens up his doors.

That not only will his people be restored,

but he will open up the invitation

wide to the whole world.

And what good news that is for us,

because for most of us,

we aren't descendants of Abraham.

And yet he says to us,

Come, this new covenant is for all people,

for all tribes and tongues and nations.

But the most important thing,

I want you to look with me in verses 32 and 33.

I'm sorry, 33 and 34.

I want you to look at the subject and verb again.

This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after these days.

I will put my law within them.

I will write it on their hearts.

And I will be their God.

And they shall be my people.

And then skipping down to the end of 34,

I will forgive their sins.

And I will remember their sin no more.

Friends, the most amazing and the most wonderful thing about the new covenant

is that God says, I will do this.

In the Mosaic covenant,

there was this amazing mix of conditionality and unconditionality

where God makes great promises,

but then there's always this,

if you keep my commandments,

if you will obey me,

if you will keep my laws.

And constantly throughout the Old Testament,

you see the people wrestling with these two things,

the unconditionalness and the conditionalness of what God has done.

In the new covenant, God says,

I will do this.

I have seen your weakness.

I have seen your sin.

I've seen your failure.

And I know you can't be good enough.

I know you will never be able to measure up

to what is necessary to be my people.

And I will accomplish this.

I will do it.

I will make a new covenant with my people.

This is the word of hope for us.

Isn't it?

Because like Israel,

we know we can't keep it.

We know that if there is a cosmic list of naughty and nice,

we are on the naughty side.

Maybe not in the balance.

Maybe some of you are really good people,

and there's only some over on the naughty side.

There's a lot on the good side.

I know when I look into my heart,

there's as much on the naughty side

as there is in the good.

Probably more.

I look at my life.

I see how little I live out what I hope

and what I want to be.

But like the nation of Israel,

our personal history can hear this word of hope.

Because when we see that all of our trying

and all of our efforts to be good enough,

to try to measure up,

to try to get out of probation,

can't ever do anything

but ultimately bring us to a point of despair.

I can't do it.

I give up.

Only condemnation.

God speaks this word of hope.

I will do this for you.

I will do for you what you can't do for yourself.

Friends, this is what Christmas is all about.

This is about God initiating His plan

of establishing this covenant,

not because people had earned it or deserved it,

but simply because out of God's eternal redemptive plan,

He had determined that He would do this,

that He would show the kind of God that He is

by redeeming a people for Himself,

that He would establish this final covenant

on His own terms

and by His own work.

Friends, this is what Jeremiah predicted,

and this is what we celebrate at Christmastime.

Because Jesus, as He comes,

establishes the new covenant.

Look at verse 34b.

This is at the very core of it, isn't it?

Because it was their sin and their iniquity,

their inability to obey the law

that condemned Israel.

And it is our sin and our inability

to live a life of goodness perfectly

that puts us in this same place

of failure before God.

And God comes and He says,

alright,

my beloved human beings who are unable,

I will send a human being to do for you

what you can't do for yourself.

At Christmas, we celebrate the incarnation,

God become flesh.

Jesus really was a human being,

and it was really, really important

that He was.

Because only a human being,

living out the life that He did,

could solve this conundrum.

Jesus came

to live the perfect life

that Israel was called to live.

Jesus came

to be the perfect good human

that we long to be,

but aren't.

And He couldn't have done this

if He wasn't actually human.

Hebrews reminds us

that the blood of bulls and goats

can't deal with the problem of sin.

Sometimes, I think,

we wonder,

can't God just wave His hand?

I don't know if you know

the movie,

The Prince of Egypt,

but there's this great scene

where Moses comes back

and he sees his brother

and he's like,

hey,

and Moses is feeling like,

I broke the laws.

And Pharaoh says,

I am the Pharaoh,

the morning star,

and the evening sun,

and I say that it is not so.

And it's,

we wish that God would do that.

Just wave His hand

and say,

ah,

don't worry about it.

But in fact,

God had a much better plan.

Because for God,

sin is just a terrible,

terrible thing.

It is evil in the world

and it is evil in our hearts.

And He's not willing to just say,

it's not as bad as you think it is.

He's actually going to say,

it's worse than you think it is.

It is.

But the good news is

that I will take care of it for you.

And so Jesus,

this God man comes

and He lives a life

of perfect obedience

for us.

He is the perfect human.

He is the Israel

that was not,

the Son who actually followed

all of the laws.

He was tempted in every way

as we were

because He was human,

yet without sin.

And so He lives

this perfect life

for us.

And then,

having done that,

He offers Himself up

as a substitute

to pay the penalty

for our

sin.

sin.

So having lived

the perfect life for us

that we could not live,

now He does,

in His flesh,

He receives upon His body

the punishment of sin

that we deserve.

The death that we deserve.

The wrath of God

against cosmic evil

that resides in our hearts

and plays itself out

in our petty

unkindnesses

every day.

Jesus went to the cross

in our place

to remove

that

stain of sin,

to take

the punishment

for that sin,

and He could only do it

as a human.

And friends,

there's one more stage

in this,

isn't there?

because the human

who came

and lived a perfect life,

the human

who then died

the most unjust death

in the world,

is a human

who rose again

from the dead.

He rose

not as a spirit,

but as a man

with a body.

And His disciples

could put their hands

and touch

the nails,

the holes in His hands.

They could feel

the scar in His side

where He was pierced.

Jesus rose

as a man

so that

in His victory

over sin

and death,

He might then

invite us

to join

with Him.

Nick,

Greg,

this is what you guys

get to unpack

for the next two weeks.

A new heart

and a new creation.

The outworking

of the human

who rose

from the dead.

That we get

caught up

in His train.

Caught up in Him

as He establishes

this new kingdom

for us.

By rising from the dead,

He reminds us

that the old covenant

doesn't have

the last word.

But by rising

from the dead,

we now have

this new covenant.

Because do you see

what Jesus has done

through His life

and death

and resurrection?

He has now

become the guarantor

of our relationship

with God.

He comes

and He says,

I have met

all the stipulations.

I have met

all the requirements.

What God requires

of His people,

I have done.

So there's no more

probation.

There's no more

fear of,

if I blow it

this time,

will He just

cast me off?

There's no more

wondering,

can I be good enough?

Because the answer is,

no, you can't.

But He has been

for you.

Friends,

this is the last covenant

that God makes

with His people.

This is the final covenant.

This is what

the writer of the Hebrews

reminds us

is the eternal covenant.

That before the beginning

of time,

God planned

that this would be

the pinnacle

of His work

of relating

to His creation.

And that's what

we celebrate

with Christmas.

Christmas is the

opening movement

of this final work

that accomplishes

this new covenant

with God.

We've sung

this song a lot

in the last

year and a half.

What reason

have I to doubt?

Why would I dwell

in fear?

All I have known

is grace.

My future

in Christ

is clear.

My sins

have been paid

in full.

There's no

condemnation here.

I live in the

good of this.

My Father

has brought me near.

I'm leaving

my fears

behind me now.

The old

is gone.

The new

has come.

What you

complete

is completely

done.

We're heirs

with Christ.

The victory won.

What you complete

is completely

done.

I don't know

what lies

ahead.

What if I

fail

again?

You are

my confidence.

You will

keep me

till the end.

The old

is gone.

The new

has come.

What you

complete

is completely

done.

Friends,

what we

celebrate

in the

coming of

Jesus

is the

establishing

of this

new covenant

between God

and his

people.

God is not

out to get

you.

He's not

watching you

when you

sleep and

when you

wake,

wondering

if you'll

be naughty

or nice

anymore.

God has

come not

to get

you,

but to

make you

his.

He has

come to

rescue you

from your

insecurity,

from your

fear,

from your

performance,

from your

ritual.

He has

come to

make you

his.

And he

has done

everything

necessary for

him to

make you

his in

Christ.

So if

you're here

this morning

and you're

wondering what

is this

Christianity

about,

this is

what God

calls you.

God calls

you to

look at

Jesus and

what he

has done

and consider

that he

alone has

done the

one thing

that you

need to

know God,

the one

thing that

you can't

do.

And he

calls you

to come

and humble

yourself

before him

and throw

yourself on

faith,

on Christ,

what he

has done,

forsaking all

your goodness

and all the

things you're

trying to do

in hopes that

God might

accept you.

He says,

come,

enter into

this new

covenant

relationship

that I

have established

and I

have sealed.

Come and

by faith

enter in.

Friends,

for those

of you

who have

already

entered into

that

relationship,

the new

covenant

reminds us

that we

are called

to live

as his

people now,

to be

freed from

the fear

and insecurity

that consume

us,

from the

performance

that so

easily

drives

our every,

to free

us from

the despair

in the face

of our

failure

that buries

us,

we are now

free to

love,

free to

serve,

free to

worship,

free to

rest,

free to

trust and

obey,

free to

sing of

a great

God who

has done

this great

thing for

me.

Celebrating

Christmas is

celebrating

this new

work.

As the

angel told

Joseph,

you shall

call his

name Jesus

for he will

save his

people from

their sin.

let's pray.

Lord, we

thank you.

We thank

you that you

have done

what we

could not

do.

God, what

a great

Savior we

have in

Jesus.

What a

great hope

and a great

joy we

celebrate

every Christmas

as we

remember your

initiative

that you

will do

this for

us.

God, I

pray, I

pray that in

the midst of

the busyness

of our

cultural

celebration

of this

holiday,

God, that

you would

work in

our hearts,

Lord, that

a deeper,

more rich

appreciation of

what we are

celebrating when

we talk about

comfort and

joy.

Lord, that

what would

spring from

our hearts

would be a

true worship

of knowing

that we are

yours because

of what you

have done

for us.

We pray this

in Jesus'

name.

Amen.

We're going

to stand and

sing,

Hark, the

herald angels

sing, and it

doesn't mean

that the

angel's name

is Harold.

It means

that he is

pronouncing

the good

work of

God, born

to raise

the sons

of earth,

born to

give them

second birth.

Hark, the

herald angels

sing, glory

to the

newborn king.

Hark, the

herald angels

sing, glory

to the

newborn king.

Wraith

to the