Ron Dunn Podcast - The New Covenant

Episode Date: July 29, 2020

Ron Dunn brings a message from Jeremiah

Well, I want you to open your Bibles tonight to the book of Jeremiah, surprise, chapter 31, Jeremiah chapter 31. And our text tonight verses 27 through 40, verses 27 through 40. And this particular section is one of the greater passages of the Old Testament. It is hard to say that one is greater than the other, but there are some that reach a high watermark that others do not, and it is especially the most important passage in the whole book of Jeremiah, for it is about the new covenant and how God is going to bring that about. Now, a covenant, as you know, an earthly covenant is a legal document, a bargain struck between two parties that if you do this, I'll do this. But God's covenant with people, His people, has always been different. In other words,

it was something that God initiated and did Himself, and out of that bargain, out of that covenant, there came certain responsibilities of the people of Israel. And the Old Testament is basically a story of Israel breaking the covenant with God over and over and over again. They broke the covenant of God. The Old Testament is basically a story of Israel breaking the covenant of God. The New Testament is a story of God creating a new and a different kind of covenant with His people. Now, this passage easily divides itself into three sections, and we're going to take them section by section. And each section begins with the words, Behold, the days come.

And you'll find that in verse 27 and in verse 31 and in verse 38. In verse 27, he says, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord. And in verse 31, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord. In verse 38, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord. In verse 38, behold, the days come, saith the Lord. And so God is talking about something that is yet to come as far as Israel is concerned. They have broken repeatedly that old covenant, but God says the days are going to come. He says better days are coming. And of course, you and I know that that new covenant was fulfilled when Jesus died on the cross. As a matter of fact, that night as He sat in the upper room with His disciples and He passed the cup, He said, drink, for this is my blood of what? Of the new covenant. That's what

he was talking about. He was talking about what Jeremiah was talking about. I think it is necessary for us in order to appreciate the cross and to understand what Christianity is all about, for us to understand what Jeremiah had to say about this new covenant. So we're going to look at it in these three sections. I'm not so much preaching a sermon tonight as I am just doing a Bible study, which frankly I love to do, just to get down to the bolts and nuts of the Word of God. But this is such an important passage of Scripture. First of all, in verses 27 through 30, He gives us the basis of this new covenant. On what basis? Now, the old basis, of course, was the law. But Israel had not been able to keep that law. They never had. They never would. And so God is going to create a new covenant with

these people, but it's going to be based on something else. And it's based on two things, interestingly. Number one, well, let's read first. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass that just as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to throw down and destroy, and to afflict. In that same way, I am watchful and careful to watch over them, to build and to plant, saith the Lord. First of all, the new covenant, our salvation, is based upon God's desire to bless us. God's desire to bless us. Now, again, as I mentioned the other night, I think it is always so important for us to understand

the context in which something is said. And it means more to us, and it will help us to understand what he's saying, if we remember that right now God is in the midst of destroying the cities of Judah and of Israel. It is a time of destruction. And as I mentioned the other night, God was saying, I know my thoughts towards you. They are thoughts, good thoughts, and so that I can give you a future and a hope. And remember, I said, I don't believe a single Israelite believed Him at that time, because it looked as though all God cared about was to destroy, and that's what he was doing at that time. And he says in verse 28, and it shall come to pass that with the same intensity, with the same carefulness that I have used to pluck up and

to break down and to throw down and to destroy and to afflict with that same intensity, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, saith the Lord. Now, that's good news to a people who are in the midst of destruction and devastation, to a people whose present vision of God is only one of judgment, and who when they look on the horizon of their life, they see no sun rising. They only see it setting. They see no border of hope. They see no shadow of a future dawning upon them. But God says, I have been rough on you, and it's not over yet. But sometimes, God says, before I can build up, I have to tear down. I was watching them build a skyscraper down in Dallas a few years ago, tall thing.

Of course, they went down about as high as they went up. Have you ever noticed that? That the foundation, the higher the building, the deeper must be the foundation. And so they dug and dug and dug and blasted away. And if you hadn't known what was going on, you'd walk by there and say, what are they doing? Oh, they're just tearing up and blowing up things. That's all they're doing. But yet what they were doing was tearing down and plucking up so that

they might build a beautiful building, you see. Now, you know, it occurs to me as you go through, especially the prophets. I was going to say the Old Testament, but especially the prophets, both major and minor prophets, they are again and again saying, God's saying, I will pluck up or I will tear down so that I may build up. And I think that's sometimes so in our lives, that God must break us before He can build us, that before we can see the edifice go up in our lives, we have to see God digging the foundation. Hosea uses, and Jeremiah too, as a matter of fact, talks about digging up, you're breaking up your fallow ground. Why? So you can sow and plant and cultivate, you see. You don't just throw the seed on cracked,

parched ground. You have to dig it up and plow it over, which is a painful process, but out of that comes the building of God. And so he says, with the same intensity that I have used in judgment, I'm only doing that so you can be built up, and I will bless you, and I will build and plant, saith the Lord. So the first thing is this. This new covenant that you and I have, sealed by the blood of Jesus Christ, the basis of it isn't any goodness that God finds in us. The basis of it isn't any worthiness that I found in us, that God finds in us.

The basis is simply God's desire to bless man. That's all there is to it. You know, over in Ephesians, and I tried to quote it the other night, and I didn't do a very good job of it. I'm not going to do any better tonight just for your information. But help me out here, Pastor. You've been to school. I'm doing fine, yes, uh-huh. But he talks about, in Ephesians chapter says, according to His good pleasure. I mean the mystery of election and predestination that no person can understand. The mystery of it is lost in the love of God. Why did God choose you? Why did God choose me? Did He see something in me that is better than

in another person? No, I don't have any. The only explanation is it pleased Him to set His love on me. It pleased Him to bless me. And that's what grace is about, folks. God's dealings with us under the new covenant, God's dealings with us under the new covenant is not based on our worthiness. You remember the story of the prodigal son, and he had left home, and there he was in the pig pen in the far country, and one day he came to himself, and he said, my goodness, this is a stupid move. Here I am eating pig slop while my father's servants hire better. They get along better than I do. I will go to my father, and I will say to more, I am no longer worthy to be called his son. You see, what he didn't realize is he had never been worthy to begin with. But he thought he was.

That's why he asked for his inheritance ahead of time. But he had never been worthy of being called his father's name. You see, children don't have a right to brag about their parentage. Why? They didn't choose them. They just had to show up. Most of them show up late. I remember some years ago, my daughter and I were having a little one of these discussions. And she said, well, I didn't ask to be born. I said, well, if you had, the answer would have been no. It is based on God's desire to bless. Isn't that something? According to his good pleasure.

How unfathomable that is. How mysterious that is. Lord, what is it about me that at first attracted you? I mean, what caught your eye? He said, nothing. But he said, I decided just because it pleased me to choose you, to bless you. Isn't that something? Well, not only is it based, and this is peculiar, not only is it based on God's desire to bless us,

but it's also based on our individual responsibility to God for our sin. Now, I want you to notice in verse 29 and 30. In those days they shall say no more, the fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge. But everyone shall die for his own iniquity, and every man that eats the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge. Well, that's a strange statement. Come right here in the middle of this. But you see, that was a common proverb among the people of Israel. Dr. Jordan. Yeah, Anthony Jordan. Or is it Jordan Anthony? Anyway, it was at noon today. He's going to be the new honcho. Ed Honcho. Going to be the new pope of Oklahoma Baptist. I said, you know, there's only one thing you need to learn in order to succeed in a bureaucracy. Learn how to blame it on somebody else. That's all you need. Just learn

how to pin the blame on somebody else. Well, that's what Israel was always doing. That's all you need. Just learn how to pin the blame on somebody else. Well, that's what Israel was always doing. That's what they were always doing. In other words, as a matter of fact, this present devastation that was coming upon them, they blamed it on the sins of their fathers, and they were accusing God, saying, God, this isn't our fault. Why are you punishing us? It is our fathers who have eaten the sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge. But he said, under the new covenant, nobody will ever say that, be able to say that again, for every man shall die for his own. I mean, every person will be personally accountable to God for his own life, and he will never be able to say, my failure, my sin, whatever, is somebody else's fault.

Paul said in Romans 14, so then every one of us shall give an account to God for Himself. Now, to me this is so interesting because, well, let me tell you why it is. You know, when we lost our son, well, before we lost him, and while he was going through all of these terrible problems, you know, I had people, now there were a couple of them that were just about our closest friends, who said, you know, you probably ought to ask your grandfather if there's some sin in his life that's causing God to punish Ronnie. They wanted me to go to my dad and sit down and, all right, dad, fess up, what sin is there in your life? Many times people have a child to die. They'll say, what have we done? What have we done that has caused God to do this? I want you to know something, folks. Every man dies for his own sin. God's

not going to kill your child because of something you did. I have a pastor and his wife, good friends of mine, and for years she suffered migraine headaches. And she went to a meeting where two former associates of mine, boy, this is a dangerous side over here, isn't it? I don't know why. I'm going to stay over here. There's something there. But anyway, and she had migraine, terrible migraines. And so they went out to eat with these two speakers who were Baptist,

actually, sort of. And she began to talk about that. And they said, well, that's because you're under a curse. And so they dealt with her for a long time, and finally the upshot of it all was that her grandmother had played with a Ouija board. And they were saying, that's why you're having these migraine headaches. You know, I tell you folks, I don't know about you, but the Bible says to me that Christ was made a curse for us. And when he died, he took away those curses. And I think, boy, some painful things, some horrible things, some vicious things have been said to Christians when they have lost children or they've had tragedy to come into their life, and they say, well, it's because your

fathers ate sour grapes and your teeth are set on edge. You can't say that. Every person shall bear his own sin, not in the sense that Christ bore it, but it means that I have to give an account to God. I can't blame anybody else. Now Israel under the old covenant, as you read through the Old Testament, they were always blaming what their fathers did. They were always blaming what their fathers did. But on this new covenant, you can't blame what your folks did. Can't blame what your parents did on your present condition. I'm talking spiritually now, you understand. I mean, some of us are handsome because our folks were. And some of us are rich because our folks were. And some of us are tall and short because our folks were. That's not what I'm talking about. Sometimes we have an unusual personality because

our folks had an unusual personality. But we're not talking about that. We're talking about spiritual condition. So, first of all, the basis of this new covenant. Now, I want us to look at the nature of it, the nature of it. And this begins in verse 31. He says, 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, 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, which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord. 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, and write it

in their hearts. And they will be, and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 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 of them, saith the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea, when the waves thereof roar, the Lord of hosts is his name. If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation

before me forever. Thus saith the Lord, if heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done saith the Lord. What is the nature of this new covenant? Well, first of all, it is a covenant that is effected by God. It is strictly a work of God. Now, did you notice, have you noticed as we've read through this? Look at verse 33, I will put, I will write, I will forgive, I will remember their sins against them. Compare that to the old covenant, the basis of which was the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt, thou shalt, thou shalt. But in the New Covenant, He's saying,

I will, I will, I will. In other words, these people never could keep the commandments. They never could keep the covenant. Now don't you think God knew that before he ever established it? Now why in the world would God go and establish a covenant with Israel when he knew from the beginning they would not be able to keep it? Why would he give them commandments which he knew they would not be able to keep to make them ready for the new covenant? I always like to say at least one profound thing in every sermon, and I alert you to it so you'll recognize it. And this is it coming up. If man believes he can keep the law. He will never accept grace. If a person believes that something he does

or something he is can win the favor of God, then he will never, he will never see his need of grace. It is only as we realize, recognizing in the depths of our being that we cannot keep the law of God no matter how desperately we try. It is only then that we are open to grace. I mean, you got to get a man lost before you can get him saved. And that's the trouble with most people today. They don't believe they're lost. But you've got to get a man lost before you can get him saved. Or if a man believes that he can somehow on his own obtain this grace,

or obtain this favor, obtain this salvation, then you see he's going to be deaf and dumb to the message of grace. Remember what Paul said in Romans chapter 7? He talked about the law there, and he said, we did pretty good keeping the law. Matter of fact, in Philippians, he says, as touching the law, I was blameless. Now, he is fudging a little bit there.

Because there is one commandment, you see, that slays us. That's what Paul was saying in Romans 7. He did all right. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. So far, so good. But the tenth one slew him. Thou shalt not covet. That's inward. I may never have murdered anybody, but I've had a hankering to do so.

I've never stolen anything, but sometimes I've had the desire. I've never committed adultery but I've had the desire so James says to keep the whole point and yet offend in one is to break the whole law and so God is saying this the nature of this new covenant is something that I will do and the reason I've had you under the old covenant all these years the nature of this new covenant is something that I will do. And the reason I've had you under the old covenant all these years, because it's taken man that long to be ready to receive grace. Well, there's a second thing.

The nature of this new covenant is an inward apprehension of the law of God. He says in verse 33, But this shall be the covenant that I shall make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts. Notice the old covenant was outward, but the new covenant is inward. And write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people, and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for 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, saith the Lord.

For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin against them no more. The nature of this new covenant is in the first place, it is something that is effected by God, something that is the work of God and God alone. I will do, I will do. No longer thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, as the basis of our relationship to God. Now, you and I still have some thou shalt nots in our life, do we not? But they're not the basis of our salvation. They're not the basis of our relationship with God. The basis of our relationship with God is not what we do, but what God has done. And so he says, I have done this, and the other thing that I will do, another thing I'll do, he says that there is going to be an inward apprehension

of the law of God. He says, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it upon their hearts. Now here, he's not talking about the Mosaic law, but rather he's talking about the law as we would talk about the will of God. That no man will have to say to another and teach his brother and his neighbor, you ought to do this, you ought to do this, you ought to do this. For every man shall know. Why? Because he said, I have put it in their hearts, and I write it in their inward parts. Oh, by the way, something interesting. There is a difference between those two expressions. He says, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts.

Now, those verbs have different tenses. When he says, I will put the law in their inward hearts, that means I'm going to do it. It's going to be done once and for all. But I will continually write it in their hearts. In other words, not only is there that immediate apprehension of the will of God, but there is that growing understanding of the law of God and of the will of God. You see? Growing, growing, growing.

God always writing more and more in our hearts. You certainly know more about God today than you did 10 years ago, don't you? Now, the moment you were saved, God put his law in your inward parts, but you didn't know any more about the Bible doctrine than a jackrabbit does about golfing. But God just doesn't put it there and say, that's it. No, throughout our lifetime, he's writing, he's writing, writing in our hearts

a growing appreciation of his word, a growing apprehension of his will. He says a third thing. The nature of this covenant will be that everybody will have a personal knowledge of God. Now, there are two things I want to say about this. This new covenant is the ultimate in grace. The old covenant was just with Israel. But you'll notice in the latter part of verse 34, he says, For they shall all know me.

From the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord. First of all, this is a personal knowledge that they have of God. He says, everyone shall know me. It reaches out and embraces everybody. But he says, 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. Now, the word translated know means to know immediately or to know from experience. You know, under the old covenant, they would teach line upon line and precept upon precept,

and you'd go to the rabbi and you'd go to the law in order to find out what you ought to do and all of that. But there's something about when Jesus comes into your heart and the Holy Spirit takes up residence. You know him personally. You have a personal relationship with God. I know him. Isn't that amazing? I know God. I know him. Isn't that amazing? I know him.

I know him. Why? Because he has put that knowledge in my heart. Now, the last thing about the nature. What is this number five? Anybody keep in count? It doesn't matter whether it's four or five, you know, it's just numbers. Oh, I do need to mention one other thing. Four, I will forgive their

iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. The word forgive means to forgive and keep on forgiving. And I will remember their sin no more, everlasting forgiveness, everlasting forgetfulness. Now, at this point, I want to do something. I want to reverse this whole process. What Jeremiah has done here in these verses has moved from cause to effect. Let's see. No. He has moved. I never get this right the first time. Bear with me. Cut me a little slack, folks. All right. He has moved from effect to cause. Now, I want us to reverse it and move from cause to effect. It reads backwards. He says, I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

As a result, they'll all have personal knowledge of me. And as a result of that, they will have an inward apprehension of the law of God. You see what I'm getting at? The basis of it all is his great forgiveness. apprehension of the law of God. You see what I'm getting at? The basis of it all is his great forgiveness. But the last thing, which is either four or five, is that the nature of this new covenant is permanent. You know, one of the reasons that I love the prophets, and you've probably known by now

that I love the prophets, is I appreciate picturesque writing. I appreciate graphic images. And there's nobody that does it any better than the prophets. Shakespeare can't hold a candle to the writing of the prophets. Listen to what he says, verse 35. Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar. The Lord of hosts is his name. If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel,

talking about us, the new covenant, all shall cease from being a nation before me forever. In other words, God says, this is how permanent it is, as long as the ordinances of the law, as long as the ordinances of God, the ordinances of nature, the sun rising, and the sea, as long as those things operate, then he said, you'll be saved. But he said, when those ordinances disappear, then I will cast you away. And look at verse 37, thus saith the Lord, if heaven above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord. In other words, God's saying, I'm never going to do that because nobody can ever measure all of these things. You see,

every time the sun comes up each morning, God is saying, you're saved. You're still saved. Still saved. Well, I'd be easier, it'd be easier to keep the sun from rising than it would be to take my salvation from me. It would be easier to overrule the ordinances of God and change all the rules of nature than it would be to take away one man's salvation. It's permanent. Well, we've got to finish with this one word. First of all, we've looked at the basis of the new covenant. We've looked at the nature of it. And now I want us to look just for a moment at the results of it. And this brings us to that third section, verse 38.

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord from the tower of Hananiel unto the gate of the corner. And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill of Gareb, and shall compass about to goeth. Now basically what that means is all this is going to be dedicated to the Lord. This city is going to be built to the Lord. The result of the new covenant is our dedication to the Lord. And something else, look at verse 40, and the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes and all the fields under the brook of Kidron under the corner of the horse gate toward the east shall be holy unto the Lord. It shall not be plucked up nor thrown down anymore forever. Now, the significance there is that the vilest thing

in the Hebrew religion was a dead body. You remember the parable of the good Samaritan? And we've always criticized the Levite, the priest, as he gave that guy in the ditch a wide berth. Because, you see, if a priest, a Levite, touched a body like that, he would be so contaminated he could no longer serve in the temple until he had gone through a long, enduring, ritualistic cleansing. It wasn't so much the Levite's compassion that kept him from ministering to that guy in the ditch. It was his theology that kept him from it, you see.

And notice what God says. He says under the new covenant, he said, all the dead bodies, wherever you find them, from the brook of Kidron, from here to there, all the dead bodies shall be holy unto the Lord. Isn't that amazing? Holiness. Holiness.

The results of this new covenant is my dedication to God. I am a temple now that is built to the Lord. And you see, folks, I don't know. All the time I've been studying this and preaching this, my mind keeps going to New Testament passages. New Testament, New Testament, New Testament, you see. What does Paul say in Corinthians? What, know you not your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. There are two words for temple.

One means the outer court. One means the inner court where the Holy of Hol Holy Spirit. There are two words for temple. One means the outer court. One means the inner court where the Holy of Holies is. And that's the one he uses in the sixth chapter of, is it 1 Corinthians or 2? It's in one of those letters. And he said, what know you not that your body is the Holy of Holies of the Lord? Dedicated.

Sanctified. And then made holy. Dead bodies. Made holy. Unto the Lord. I hope this has done for you what it has done for me in my study of it. It's given me a greater appreciation of our salvation. Of my salvation. And when Jesus died on the cross and that blood was poured out,

he was wiping the old covenant away forever and establishing a new covenant. A new covenant based on God's desire for the restless. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church.

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