Grace Stronger Than Memory

Transcript

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[0:00] reading. Our sermon text now is Jeremiah 31, verses 31 through 34. Just a little bit of recap here. Actually, we're in week five of six weeks of our sermon series on Jeremiah. Jeremiah is one of the longest books in the Bible, so we can't do the whole thing. That's just impossible, but we're going to try to do it justice. I'm going to recap real quick where we were. The first week was from Jeremiah 7. It was the temple sermon about how we can lie to ourselves and we can believe falsehoods. And there was this understanding that God could actually remove his protection from the people because of their idolatry. The second week was about the call of Jeremiah, how he was called to both tear down and build up so that he had sort of this job of both condemning the sins of the people, but also offering them a word of hope. And then it was really also about what the prophetic voices were. What was the prophetic voice? What was the prophetic voice? What was the prophetic voice for? There's this call on Christians, of all Christians, to speak prophetically, to speak God's truth into the world, to speak and to speak against falsehood, lies, injustice, and all sorts of things like that. Victoria preached in week three that the covenant was broken. And so there

[1:13] was a long list of all the covenant laws that God had expected his people to follow, but most of them was that I am the Lord your God and you shouldn't have other gods beside me. And so it was about idolatry. Week four last week was about the geopolitical situation. And so it was about the covenant law. And so it was about the covenant law. And so it was about the covenant law. And so Jeremiah is navigating between superpowers and he has to finally condemn sort of this idolatry of nationalism as practiced in Babylon. Even though Babylon was God's chosen instrument to bring his judgment to Israel, yet Babylon is also being condemned. And there's a hint that redemption was coming in the future. And that's what this week is. We're going to, as Victoria said, we're going to talk about the new covenant. Very exciting. And then next week, Victoria is going to preach again about how we as people are going to be condemned. And so that's what this week is. And then next week, Victoria is going to preach again about how we as people are going to be condemned. And this anticipation and live in this hope that something is yet to come. What does it look like to live as a people in captivity, as a people under occupation? We have to put ourselves into

[2:08] the shoes of the people who are reading these things the first time. So we got a hint last week of what the new covenant is like, and I'm not going to give any more hints about it. I'm just going to read it. And this may be familiar to you. It's one of the most quoted parts of Jeremiah. And it goes like this, verse 31. So again, I'm here in this room. And every now and then I'm going to look straight at you at home straight end of the camera. And every now and then I'm going to be sort of looking at all of you. And it feels a little strange. But we'll get there. So I'm glad to be here with people in person. I'm glad to be with you at home as well. So first off, what we want to look about look at is to think about who this new covenant is for. And I asked maybe asked Nathan to hide the last overlap. overlap for the people here, you could theoretically open up your YouTube app and like put a chat in there if you wanted to, and you're welcome to. Or you could like, when the time comes, you could kind of raise your hand and give your opinion, because I'm going to ask your opinion on a few things. At home, you put them in the chat log, and then here, you know, and when they go in the chat log, I'll see it and I'll read it for people out there. So, first off, we want to think about who

[4:52] this new covenant is for. Clearly, this is good news, right? God says there's a new covenant. It's not like the old covenant. It's something new. It's something great. But the question is, who do you think it's for? And maybe that's, we're going to start that way. Who is this covenant for? Put that in the chat log. Anyone here in the room, I mean it. Who is this new covenant for?

[5:11] Who is it for? For us. Good. Yeah. Who else? Or, so Adele says for us. That's good. We've got a nine-second lag here, so I'll see if anything is coming in on the chat. For Israel, very good, Brian. Right. Because who was this originally written to?

[5:30] Israel. Right. So, it's an interesting promise. Now, we have it all. So, those are really the only two choices. The rest of you are off the hook, you know. Those kids in the classroom who always answer questions, they're here today. Thank you. But yeah, I mean, this is a very interesting thing. We're going to get into this a little bit later in this sermon, is that we have looked at this passage through exclusively Christian, eyes for a very long time. And we have forgotten that while it is for us, and it definitely is, because it's definitely pointing to the future, and the book of Hebrews really talks about this as saying this is really our promise, but that it was also a promise for the people of that time. And that means something. It really means something. And so, that we're kind of grafted into it in a way. So, it really is a promise for both, and that's the interesting things. But we have a history of Christians reading this just for themselves. And actually, it turns out that, one of the reasons why we call the New Covenant the New Covenant is because of this passage here. And also why, this is almost how the New Testament and the Old Testament got its name. So, this, the words Old Testament and New Testament, which you might be like, why are they called that? We

[6:44] don't even think about that. A testament is actually a will. It's an agreement of what you inherit after you die. But it's a similar word to the word covenant. And it was kind of, kind of got goofed up with the Greek translation. It was kind of, how the Greek word was translated first from Hebrew to Greek and then Greek to Latin. And so, actually, people thought for a while the Old Testament was the Old Covenant of God and God's people in the time before Jesus. And the New Testament is like the New Covenant. And so, we've kind of divided this whole thing up. And so, actually, if you want to take your Bible out, you could actually change New Testament, Old Testament, New Testament, you could change it to Old Covenant, New Covenant. And so, actually, if you want to take your Bible out, you could change it to Old Covenant. And so, actually, if you want to take your Bible out, you could be far off. People kind of have been confused about this. And so, Christians have kind of said, this is ours. And they've kind of forgotten about who this was originally written to. As Brian said, it was written to Israel. It was written to Judah. It was written to the people of Jerusalem.

[7:41] And it does, it points to the New Testament. This is the interesting thing. It points forward. It absolutely points forward. And we're going to see how. But yet, there's this, like I said, there's a school. If you want to know the name of the school, there's a school. There's a school. There's a school of thinking Christianity called supersessionism. You're going to write that down. We'll quiz on this later. Supersessionism, the view that Christians take over or supersede for the people of Israel, so that all the promises are now exclusively for Christians and not for anybody else. Okay. And it has support in scripture and theology, but I like to think that it's more complex than that. See, nobody put anything in the chat about, oh, the Israelites. Very good, Daniel. Wow. Daniel at home. Somebody put something in the chat. Like I said, the Israelites. All right, good. I have to acknowledge that. There is the promise of the new covenant, but these are first, they're promises to the people of Judah and to the people of Israel. And in a way, we're kind of like their stepchildren. The apostle Paul says that we're grafted into their tree.

[8:46] There is, there's not like an immediate light switch that gets switched and thrown on in the New Testament or the new covenant suddenly appears. This was for God's people. And they carried it forward. And it was part of the culture and the religious background that Jesus grew up in. Okay. So we can't sort of differentiate. So, so easily. Right. It's, it is a very con continuous type of process. And so you would almost not want to have an Old Testament and a New Testament. You might want to just call the revealed scriptures that reveal in a very uniform and continuous way God's revelation. Now, God does change how he works. God does look at the old covenant and says, that wasn't working. Time for a new covenant. But it wasn't just for one group of people. It was in a continuous.

[9:38] So, and I think this makes the news better because it really is for everybody. And nobody is left out of it. Now, let's look at the text from the beginning. I'm going to invite you to look in your bulletin or in the Bible that you have in front of you or the Bible that you brought with you. Let's go back to Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 31. And we're going to look at this sort of verse by verse. First off, we say the days are coming when I'm going to make a new covenant. And it's not going to be like the old covenant that I made with them. So there's a comparison of covenants. And the old one is from their time after Egypt. And so we understand from that, that's a very big clue that he's talking about the old covenant. He's talking there about Mount Sinai. He's talking about the covenant of the law. He's talking about the covenant of the 10 commandments and the other written instructions that came through Moses. That was the covenant. Victoria talked about this. You got to keep this. If you're faithful to it, I'll be faithful to you. There's this sort of two-way contract. It's almost very somewhat mutual between them. You do your part. I'll do my part. This will all work out. Of course, they broke it. Now, the interesting thing,

[10:45] I think the crazy thing is that the people broke this covenant as the covenant was walking down the hill to them. Like it didn't, like you could say, that didn't take long. Well, it didn't take long because it started happening before they even got it. Like as he was coming down the hill, they were having sort of a bacchanalia of craziness. And there was a golden calf being worshiped. And Moses was like, he got there and he smashed the things. Like, this is terrible. I just got here with the thing that says, don't do this. And you're doing this. Like it did not take long for the old covenant to be broken. Well, God gave Moses another set, you know, and he walked down.

[11:25] So you'd think that God would have been like, obviously this is not working. Like this is not working. But it did at times work. You can look at Israel's history and there are sort of these, it's almost like a sine wave, if you like math, you know. There's times when there was just great fidelity to God. And there were blessings that came from that. And it wasn't just that God blessed them in the way that, the ancient gods were thought to bless people. Like you do good, I'll give you good. Although God says that. But it's a blessing in itself. Like not being in idolatry and not being in lawlessness has its own blessings for a society. But then there's other times. And it often has to do with the leaders, right? If the leaders lead the people astray, the whole nation goes astray. And so there was idolatry to other gods. There was wickedness. There was injustice. And the prophets are always coming back and saying, you have to take care of the widow and the orphan and the stranger in the land. You have to stop being so unjust. You have to stop pressing your advantage if you have wealth. And so, and sometimes that would kind of pull the ship back up. And there's this sort of up and down, up and down.

[12:33] But after enough of these sort of peaks and troughs, God does finally say, I can't do this. God says, I can't do this anymore. In fact, if you read from chapter seven, whether that's how we started the whole thing, God says, well, this is how young people talk nowadays. And raise your hand if you ever say this, but you say this, I just can't even. I just can't even. Does anyone say that in your household? Yes, okay, we got it. Renee says yes. Anyone else? It's more of a young, does anyone say I can't even? Anyone? I'm looking at one of the younger people here. Do you ever just say that? Okay, nobody else. You don't really, George doesn't really say it. But that's how, and you're like, well, I can't even what? But it doesn't matter. You don't finish the sentence. I just can't even. And there's like a blank at the end, but it means anything. I can't do anything right now. I'm just so frustrated. That's what God says to Jeremiah. He says, don't even pray for these people to me on their behalf. Don't even pray for them because I just can't even. Basically, I will not hear it. I don't wanna hear it right now. I am fed up with these people, the way they're acting. So God finally says, I'm gonna take my protection away from these people.

[13:44] I'm gonna take my presence out of the temple. And this foreign army is gonna come. And in 587 BC, the Babylonian army came. It encircled the city of Jerusalem. It destroyed it. It destroyed the temple. It took his people off as captives to a foreign land. And a lot of them didn't make the whole trip, obviously.

[14:07] So God stopped doing things the old way. And it's not because God wasn't faithful. Paul makes this clear. It's because the people weren't keeping their end of it. And God was actually merciful enough to say, let's stop doing this, because it's not working. Let's find something else that will work. And so he sends them off to captivity for 70 years, but he makes them a promise. And the new covenant is different, right? Victoria talked about this just a few minutes ago. The new covenant's radically different, right?

[14:40] Up and down, up and down. We're gonna stop that, okay? And actually God says, if you read our text from today, verse 31, 32, when they broke the covenant with God, it was like an unfaithful spouse. That's what God says. Like, I loved you as a husband loves his wife, but you have gone off to other gods. And it's this betrayal, right? So God makes it incredibly personal. God says, this is a real pain. This is a real wound for me. So what's the solution, right?

[15:15] The old law, the old covenant was written on tablets of stone, which are dead and hard and cold. And as great as the 10 commandments are or the 10 words are. They're inanimate in a sense. They're stuck in time. They're stuck in place. And they are good. Paul says this. The law is good and excellent. And it guides us. But yet it does not enable us to act in a right way. In fact. And you can look at this. in the New Testament, Paul says, the law sometimes causes us to sin because it gives us new ideas about ways we hadn't even thought of sinning before, right? He said, I wouldn't have coveted if I didn't, if the law hadn't said, thou shalt not covet. So the law has its limitations and it doesn't mean that God was wrong or bad or limited. It's just, it didn't work with the people that he created and the people who had fallen. So God says, we're going to do it differently. We're not going to write it on blocks or tablets or stone or anything like that. We're going to write it on your heart. We're going to write it on your heart. And this is going to be a new way. Now, this is poetic language, clearly, right? Because you can imagine God with like a, what would he use, a scalpel or something like that would really hurt. He does not write it

[16:34] literally on your heart. My children use the word literally all the time for literally everything. And often they're using it literally wrong. But in this case, literally God does not write the law on your heart. It's poetic language to be sure, but it's about a change of heart, right? It's about the inclination of the heart. It's about where you're headed, where you're pointed. And really you should listen to your heart. You know what he talked about? You listen to your heart, like you go with your gut. And when your heart is in tune with God, the right thing is written there and you go with that and you move in that direction. And so, when we're in tune with God, when we sense God's presence, you should follow those heart moments. And that's just advice really right now. That's just advice. If you're in tune with God and what God is doing and your heart or your gut tells you to do something, do it. Do it. God is guiding, leading, and pushing you. The spirit is guiding, leading, and befriending you in that moment. You are acting out of the impulses of the law as a normative way of being, you. I mean, that's kind of a crazy way of putting it, but that's how it is. You're acting out of the impulses of the law as a normative way of being for you because God has written

[17:52] the law on your heart. It's a new covenant. It's a new way of doing things. Now, after Pentecost, we as Christians, oh God, remember God is still speaking to Israel. We're going to kind of get to that. He's still speaking to them. He is speaking to us. And in the New Testament, new covenant, even newer covenant, after Pentecost, we have something similar. We follow the leading of the spirit. And it's very similar. It's not exactly the same thing though, because Pentecost didn't happen in 587 BC. It happened much later, but it's similar, but it's not the same thing. Paul is able to put them together when he talks about the fruits of the spirit in Galatians, right? Think about that. When Paul says this, he says, love, these are the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. And now the kicker. Remember what he says after that? Against such things, there is no law. Yeah, Adele has it. Do you see the connection there? These are the fruits of the spirit, but when acting in the fruits of the spirit, you cannot violate the law. It's impossible to violate the law if the spirit is guiding you. The spirit will always guide you in what we would call a lawful way, in a way that

[19:06] honors the law that God has written on your hearts. And so I think this is how we should be doing this. How we bring together everything as Christians who believe that this covenant, this new covenant that God declares long ago for a different people is for us and yet also for them. Because the spirit is this thing that guides us in such a way. That's what it looks like for Christians. The law is written on our hearts because the spirit guides us to do the right things at the right time.

[19:38] Self-control. I mean, that's an amazing one. Think about that just for a second. Self-control is a fruit of the spirit. Self-control is when the law is written on your heart. And I, you know, we've seen people who lose control and I'll be honest and say sometimes I lose control. Honestly, I do. I get upset. I get frustrated. I say things I wish I didn't say. Usually to my children, I'm talking about my children a lot today. I love them so much.

[20:06] But, and I think sometimes I get angry at my children because I see them doing the things I did when I was a kid. And I'm like, why is this happening? God has this kind of funny sense of humor, right? I can tell when I'm not in harmony with the spirit. I can tell when I lose control, when my speech is not loving or gentle or kind or self-controlled. The law is not in my heart in that moment. But here's the rest of the story, okay? God says, yet I will put that in your heart. And there's more. He says, I will forgive them. It doesn't talk about sacrifice. Anymore. Forgiveness was often dependent on sacrifice in the old covenant. You have to bring me something of value, like an animal, especially a good animal, a young animal, one without blemish, a really good one. And you give me that and I will, you know, I will give you these other things. I'll forgive you. And so this isn't like a new number of animals. Like it's not from five to 10 or it's not even a reduction in the number of animals. It's not a sacrifice system anymore. It's just, it's a trust that God will forgive. And there doesn't seem to be as much required. God says, I will forgive them and I will forgive their wickedness and I will never again remember their sins.

[21:28] The old covenant was supposed to be mutual. Like you guys got to do your part and I'm going to do my part. And this is like, I'm shaking hands, but I don't have the correct, you know, orientation to shake my own hands. But God is saying this, like even, even 50, 50, you guys, you know, follow all my laws and I'll bring you all this protection and blessing. The new covenant is very slanted in, in our favor. I mean, you should be happy about this. Like if you could say, God left a lot of, God walked away from a lot of cash on the table or something like that. Like this is a bad deal for God. God's doing all the work, right? And we get all the benefit. And that's the new covenant though. The new covenant is grace. Grace, unmerited favor. Like God just gives out of abundance. He gives and he gives and he gives. I will forgive. And there's not as much required from us. Now we, we do require something. We require simply that you receive it. Simply that you take this beautiful gift and you say, I receive it. I take it. I thank you for it. I live in it. I love it. You know, now you can reject it too. And that has its own consequences. But for God, this is now the new covenant is heavy on God's side. God is doing all the heavy work, all the heavy lifting.

[22:49] Now get ready for another chat log. Danielle get in there. Whoever else, the Eklins are at home. I want you to put something in the chat log in just a second, because I want you to think about something. For this final phrase, and it's in your text here, it says, I will never again remember their sins. I will never again remember their sins. Okay.

[23:10] So, I'm going to ask you a question. And I want to ask a question because it sort of came to me too, that how does this square, how does this align with our view of God? And maybe I'd put it in a different way. How can an all-knowing God forget something?

[23:29] I'm so glad you just smiled. Because it's like, right? It's like a, it's like a puzzle. Think about it. I'm serious. I'm really serious. How can an all-knowing God forget something? Okay. How can he never again remember it? Right? Okay.

[23:46] It's a kind of a contradiction, right? Because you would, if you were omniscient, and this is the word we use for God, means he knows everything. Omnipotent means he's all powerful. God is also omnivorous. He'll eat anything at the buffet. No, I'm kidding. God's omniscient. He's omnipotent. We think, right? We believe.

[24:07] Um, if you're omniscient. Wouldn't you want to be omnipotent? Wouldn't you be able to know what you forgot? Thus, you could never forget. So thus, God has a limitation, which is he can't forget. But God is God. So maybe God can do what he wants. And so he can forget. Have we all gotten totally confused now? Right?

[24:29] What's that? God is a God who can choose. There you go. He can limit himself. He can't remember. He doesn't remember. Yeah, okay. Right. Yeah, he doesn't access them. Yeah. Good. So Pam said it could be that he does, they're in his memory. Yeah, he does, he has the memory of them. So he hasn't forgotten them, but he doesn't put it together by remembering it. He dismembers it.

[25:41] That's my son. It'll be okay. It'll be okay. Victoria's super in control. So we're going to skip ahead here. So the question is, is God so powerful? I think Brian was on to this, and George too. Are you so powerful you could limit your own ability to know something permanently, and thus you could forget? So you're so powerful that you could limit your own ability to remember things. Or is this more a poetic language? In essence, I will never. George, you don't need to get involved. Thanks. I appreciate it.

[26:15] Is this more a poetic language. In essence, I will never again remember. It means I will not hold it against you. Right. I remember. But I'm not gonna trot it out and make you feel bad about it. Okay. We can look at the word. In the original the Hebrew word is Zachar. And almost always it means to remember. It means to access some part of your memory. About the past. In a majority of the cases. But in a minority of the cases. It would mean to remind somebody of something. So we don't know. I mean, the answer is we don't know. But I'm curious about your feelings about this, and I want the chat log.

[26:52] Let's see. Daniel said forgetting might mean forgiving. Good. Yes. Okay. So I'm going to give it to you two ways. God actually forgets, and his grace in this way is so powerful that it overcomes his omniscience. Right? So his grace is so powerful that he sets his omniscience aside and says, it's gone. That's how powerful my grace is. Or it's more symbolic. He does remember your sins, but he doesn't remind you of them or hold them against you. So in the chat log, I want you to put the letter A, for God's grace is greater than his omniscience, or B, that this is more symbolic and that he just doesn't remind you of it, or C, for I don't know or it could be something else. I'm going to watch the chat log here. Who here? Who has an opinion? A, God's grace is stronger than his omniscience. Anyone? Raise your hand. I think it's the mercy of God. The mercy of God. Okay. The mercy of God is more powerful than his... His merciful knowledge. He knows everything. Okay. But his mercy is stronger. His merciful. His mercy is stronger than his memory. His anger doesn't last forever. His anger doesn't last forever. Okay. Who else? Good. Thank you, Joy. All of the above. All of the above. I know. Okay. That was also a choice. Yes. Who else?

[28:06] C is I don't know. Like, I don't know. It sounds interesting. Anyone else? Yeah. B. He remembers. He can't forget, but he doesn't make you feel rotten by trotting it out again. He doesn't act on it. That's what Adele says. Okay.

[28:27] Yeah. Yeah. Good. Anyone else? Fun. Nobody's doing the chat log here. Okay. Well, thank you. That's why you should be here at church, and we don't have to do this hybrid thing. Okay. So come on. Come on back to church.

[28:40] What do I think? I like all of the above. I love the idea that God is powerful enough to actually limit himself in some ways, in some important ways, and that he actually does forget. I also think that he's pretty smart, and he probably can't forget of anything, but he could choose not to remind you of it and make you feel rotten. But any way you put it, this is the new covenant. Your sins are so far away from God that they're out of his memory, or they're out of his... He's not going to bring them back up to you and make you feel bad. He has forgiven you. And a forgiven sin... A forgiven sin is way in the past. It's way behind you. And if you have some personal sin that you have been forgiven of, it doesn't need to haunt you anymore. You know, there may be human consequences of that sin that keep playing out, but between you and God, it's past. It's over. That's a lot of what this covenant and promise is about. But whatever it is, it's good news. For us and for the people of 587 BC, when Jerusalem was overrun by the Babylonian army, this was the word of hope. Like, there's going to be 70 bad years, but it's going to get better. And while you're there, you're going to have this new promise, this new covenant.

[29:48] And we need to keep thinking about what it means to live in occupation and captivity. We need to think about what it looks like as people who are not in control of this world. The world will never love us. It'll never love what we proclaim because we proclaim the truth of God's law and the truth of his grace. And this is... This is what makes us a little bit unpopular, but we are yet to love people in this world and love this world. So Victoria's going to talk about that next week.

[30:17] Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, thank you again for your word. Thank you for this new covenant that is a great promise to us. And we pray this day that we would live in the sure knowledge of the forgiveness that you grant to us. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.