Jeremiah 31:31-36 (Reading Jeremiah 31:23ff) Responding to the promises of a trustworthy God There was a man who owned a vineyard. He had two sons. He asked the first son to help him work in the vineyard. The son flatly refused, no way, I m not doing that! Later, that son regretted rejecting his father and went and did the work his father had asked him to do. In the meantime, the father asked his other son to help him in the vineyard. Sure he said. But then he never showed up to help. Matthew 21:28-32 records this story that Jesus tells to the chief priests and elders who claimed to know something of God and his ways. He then asks them; which son obeyed the father? They say; the first son, of course Jesus then tells these elders and chief priests, the first son is like those you consider sinners, such as tax collectors and wayward people who, although initially rejecting God, heard John the Baptist s call to turn around from their sinful ways to live God s way. Jesus says, these ones will get into God s kingdom before you elders and chief priests who think you know God, but you reject John the Baptist and you don t turn away from your sinful ways. Lip service to God isn t enough. Let s face it, there s a lot of lip service to God at this time of year. Jesus, God and other Bible stuff comes into conversations and gets mentioned more often, by more people, during the Christmas season than any other time in the year. Think of all the carols people sing at this time, cram packed full of prayers and praise to God. But Jesus says it s not enough to just know the Bible stuff, maybe even be able speak it, parrot fashion, if asked. Or sing bits of it in a song once or twice a year. That s more like the second son, sure, I believe in God, fa la la la la la la la la. but then forget about him as soon as the Christmas lights come down. 1 P a g e
Jesus is saying you ve got to live by what s in the Bible. Now the Bible is a book full of God s promises. Giving promises, that s the way God communicates with us. And today we re going to focus on the promises God gave through the prophet Jeremiah. To see what God wants from us to properly respond to his promises. Covenant God is trustworthy The passage in the Bible we are looking at today is Jeremiah 31, verses 31 to 36. It starts by speaking of a new covenant with God s ancient people. We can see it there in verse 31, The time is coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Now what is a covenant? Basically, a covenant is like an agreement. If you live in a house or a unit, you will have a covenant with a landlord, a lease, or a mortgage with the bank. Marriage is a really good example of a covenant. We ve all seen it - promises are made at the wedding between two people, people who trust each other to keep those promises. There is a big difference with God s covenants though, he does not consult people about his promises, they are unilateral and at God s initiative. But his promises are to the benefit of his people. His promises are intended to restore people to him, if they will respond to him by receiving, believing and living out those promises. And he s given plenty of evidence to trust him about this. Time and again, God has demonstrated that he can be relied on to be faithful to his promises. The single greatest example being his willingness to send His only precious Son. To allow him to suffer and die for people and shed his blood, to seal the deal on his covenant promises that restores people to him. 2 P a g e
And why wouldn t we trust him? After all, look at all the things we already do put our trust in. We don t think twice about getting in our car, hurtling around in a big hunk of metal, while others are also hurtling about in big hunks of metal all around us. And as we come to a set of traffic lights, we don t think twice about driving on through when that little light is showing green! We have complete trust that other drivers, heading in a different direction, are going to obey a little red light and bring their cars to a halt, instead of ploughing on through and smashing their great hunk of metal into ours! Sends shivers when we really think about it doesn t it?? Maybe we ve been caught out by someone not paying attention and had a near miss, or maybe it was us, and perhaps more than our trust has been shattered. Well it is never like that with God. He is totally trustworthy. It is more like this (Illustration drop a ball). We are absolutely sure that the ball, once it leaves my hand, is going to drop to the ground. There is no doubt about it. Because that s how gravity works on earth, all the time. If I let go of the ball one hundred times, you would expect it to fall one hundred times. In fact it s a sure bet. As sure as the sun shines in the day, as sure as the stars shine at night, as sure the waves of the ocean roar, says Jeremiah in verses 35 and 36, you can be absolutely sure God will keep his promises. Indeed, these things, gravity, the sun, the stars, the ocean waves, God s put them there to reassure us - to say to us, as sure as these things are, you can depend on me. Only if they vanish can you justifiably lose trust. You know something is terribly wrong if you get up for your early morning swim at the beach, only to get there to find the sea has totally vanished! But that s just not going to happen is it? So, when God says in verse 31, that the days are coming that he is going to make a new covenant, then he will, 100% guaranteed. And with the benefit of hindsight, we know he did and still is - through Jesus. God is trustworthy. His promises are true and sure. 3 P a g e
But where God is trustworthy - we simply are not. We ve all failed to keep our end of the agreement with God, our part in the covenant of the life he gave us. From the first people, Adam and Eve - right up to us - we ve all chosen to distrust God and instead to do things our own way. And this was no exception for the Israelites. Although they had God s law written down in black and white in the Bible, although they knew what God wanted, they failed to do it. And so the new covenant can t be like the old one, because that s been broken. Verse 32 Jer 31:32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, declares the LORD. Israel broke God s covenant. But it s more than just their disobedience that s the problem. God s described here as being the faithful husband to them; Israel's behaviour then can only be likened to that of an unfaithful bride. They ve betrayed God, and exposed their wayward heart. illustration: You may recognise this guy. He is known as Australia s most notorious Con Man, Peter Foster. Recently he s been charged with obtaining an Irish Passport under a false name so he could get out of the country and stealing the identity and signature of a Justice of the Peace to supply court documents. He has taken in the likes of Cherie Blair, wife to the then British Prime Minister, in a property scam. He used high profile people to promote an ancient Chinese herbal tea for weight loss, all the while selling just plain black tea. He s been deported from a number of countries for fraud and the list of his adventures just goes on and on. Having being caught out a number of times, including by interviews on live tv programs, he finally declared shame about his con-man title, and then just continued on his scamming ways. 4 P a g e
When released from prison just last October, he said "I'll just go home to my mum and make a cup of tea, hold her hand and tell her I'm sorry. And since then, he has been caught with this latest passport and court papers scam. Is he really sorry? Despite numerous chances to change his ways, it seems he simply can t be trusted. Saying sorry and I won t do it again hasn t come with a change in attitude, these are no accidental slip ups. His wayward heart takes over time, and time, again. And like Peter Foster, the Israelites sorrys are cheap and only show their wayward hearts - at the core they re fundamentally untrustworthy. That s the thing with sin. Not just for Israel but for us all, It shows up our wayward heart, It shows that unlike God, we re unfaithful, Unlike God, we re not trustworthy. And there s nothing we can do to change it. We can t save ourselves. We ve got an unfaithful heart that can t help but keep on breaking God s covenant. If there s any hope for anyone to be saved, there needs to be a new covenant that deals with our sin and heart problem. (Receiving and believing God s promises is sensible.) Which is precisely what God offers here, through the prophet Jeremiah, in this new covenant. See verse 33 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the LORD. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying, Know the LORD, because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. 5 P a g e
For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. God promises to not only deal with Israel s sin by forgiving them, he promises to put his law in their minds and in their hearts so they want to obey him. And what do his people have to do to get this? Well nothing, it seems, except receive it with thanks when it comes. And when did this promise come? It came with the cross of Jesus, as Jesus suffers and dies for the sins of God s people once and for all, so that God can forgive his people their wickedness, their sins are dealt with. And the Bible says this is for anyone, not just the Israelites, but anyone who accepts Jesus sacrifice on the cross for their sins, he promises to send them the Holy Spirit who comes and lives in them, in their minds and in their hearts, to move them to love and obey God. And that to believe this, to believe in these promises, It s not a matter of muddle-headed thinking. It s not a matter of leaping into the dark. It s actually very sensible and safe to believe in God s promises as verses 35-36 tell us. Because God is in total control, verse 36. If the Sun, the moon and the stars stop shining, the sea and the waves stop, that would signal he was no longer in control. But that will not happen. He is the creator; he has total control, sustaining his creation and the things we can trust, like the sun coming up every day, the moon and the stars at night. Astronomers having been searching since 1959, with no success so far, for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. Now known as SETI. Most government funding has long since gone, finding it harder and harder to justify public spending. But, there are still over 130 scientists, privately funded, employed full-time, trying to find a trace of something resembling life out there. Why? A quote from the Guardian newspaper says, The search for 6 P a g e
extraterrestrial life grips the human imagination because it tells us about ourselves. Really? It is ironic that people today look to explore the stars searching for answers to life, when the answer is staring them in the face in the very presence of those stars. Vs 35&36 serve to underscore God s creative work. They give us an assurance of God s salvation promises. The reality of a total forgiveness of sins, knowing God and how we can live to please him are as sure as the creation we can see around us. We might go as far as to say that the creation was made to assure us, that it is God s handiwork as much his promises that he has given to us through Jeremiah. God is trustworthy. He has given enough evidence in the creation all around us to make it reasonable to believe him. Not to mention the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It is more than a safe bet to believe and trust in God s promises to us. (Living out the promises to us) But if we believe in God s promises, our gratitude and thanks to God - it s got to show in the way we live. Jeremiah s first audience, after receiving the first part of God s promise - restored to their homes after exile - they were to live lives that looked toward the goals of these new covenant promises - Knowing God - having his law on their hearts. For us, because God s promises are fulfilled in Jesus, we can live a life knowing God and what pleases him as Jeremiah anticipates in verse 33. From the perspective of God s mercy to us through Jesus, we can read the Bible and find out what God wants. And because the Holy Spirit lives within us, we ll want to find out what God wants and to work hard at doing it. This was the purpose of Jesus coming to earth to live and die and rise again. So we could be forgiven and live for God! Wonderfully, in Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, we can not only truly know our heavenly Father, we can please him. And who doesn t want that? 7 P a g e
Have you ever watched a little boy or a little girl seeking to please a parent, just wanting their approval and trying so hard to do something that will make their parent happy with them? You may even remember doing something yourself as a child where you craved praise and affirmation from a parent, often failing miserably. Getting in trouble and really not being sure why? My older brother, when very young, thought he d come up with the perfect solution of pleasing my father. He and a friend who was with him, set about their plan and, fortunately, they were caught right in the middle of their act of kindness of filling Dad s car for him. Rather than Dad having to drive to one of those places to stick a hose in the car, as he had seen done numerous times, why not just use the garden hose at home? He was confused why Dad was so mad when all he was trying to do was help?? He was trying so hard to please him. Well, unlike this, in Jesus and by the Holy Spirit living in us, we don t have to worry whether our heavenly Father is pleased with us, we can know that he is, even while we struggle with the stubborn residues of our sinful nature here and now. In Jesus we can still bring our heavenly Father great pleasure, as we accept that in Jesus he s remembering our sins no more, as we accept that in Jesus he is our God and we are his people, as we accept that there s nothing and no-one that can stop God keeping his promises in Jesus, as we believe in Jesus, we re free to live for him. We re free to choose what pleases him. We re free to bring him pleasure in the way we live, not so we can get into his good-books but because we already are and because there is nothing in all creation that can take us away from him. God is totally trustworthy - we can believe and trust in his promises to us. His creation affirms his power to keep his promises - it s reasonable and safe to believe them - to receive his grace with gratitude and thankfulness. And God s promises: of forgiveness of sins, that God ll never bring our sins 8 P a g e
up against us, that we ll know God and are able to please him, they re all yes! yes! and yes! in Jesus. But receiving these promises, actually believing them, looks like more than just lip service. Just claiming to know God, to believe in Jesus, but not trying to live a life to please him, brings into question our claims to believe, as the Bible says, 1 John 1:5. God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. Now you might be thinking, yeah but I ve been walking in the dark for too long now, it s too late to start living out the truth. But remember the story Jesus told at the beginning about the two sons. It wasn't the second son who said all the right things that pleased his Father, but the first son, who having stuffed up, then chose to turn around and do what his Father asked. It could be that today is your day to be like the first son, because you know in Jesus you re not only forgiven, it s precisely because of Jesus that you CAN please your heavenly Father in trying to live for him, if you want to. 9 P a g e