September 8, 2002

Service Theme – "Our God is Powerful"

Jeremiah 31:33-34

God’s Promise: To Know Him

  1. Introduction
    1. Illustration – Following the September 11th attacks, British Prime Minister Tony Blair (as cited on eSermons.com) said, "There have been the most terrible, shocking events taking place in the United States of America within the last couple of hours. We can only imagine the terror and carnage there and the many, many innocent people who have lost their lives. This mass terrorism is the new evil in our world today. It is perpetrated by fanatics who are utterly indifferent to the sanctity of human life. And we the democracies of this world are going to have to come together, to fight it together and eradicate this evil completely from our world."
    2. Context – Blair was right about the kind of people who perpetrated those acts of terrorism – they were fanatics. They were fanatics because they had made a covenant with their god, not to be confused with the one true and living God whom we serve. Therein lies the rub. It’s so easy for us to covenant ourselves with a false god rather than the God we know to be true and real. But the real God steps in and bails us out. He binds Himself to us in a covenant, a covenant that will change our lives!
  1. Scripture Passage
    1. Jeremiah 31:33-34 – "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. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, 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. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
  1. Three Aspects of Covenant
    1. Before we can even begin to understand this wonderful promise, there are three aspects of this covenant we have to take a look at. First, what a covenant is. Second, who the parties are that are involved in the covenant. Third, what the purpose of the covenant is. After that we’ll take a look at the specifics of this covenant.
    2. Covenant is a word we often have a hard time relating to. We see it as being a mere agreement, kind of like a contract. A covenant is a contract, but also much more than a contract. In biblical terms, a covenant is an agreement requiring the shedding of blood that both parties agree they will die rather than break. That’s what Abraham and God went through when God promised His blessing on Abraham’s children. An animal, usually a heifer, was killed and split in two lengthwise. The halves were set opposite each other, and the parties agreeing to the covenant walked between the pieces through the blood. What the people involved were saying was "I would rather become like one of these animals than break this covenant." Covenants are based on shed blood.
    3. Keep that mental picture going while we read verse thirty-three again: "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. The phrase "the time is coming" used in verse thirty-one tells us that the time God is referring to is the time after the coming of His Son, the Messiah. So God is telling His people that the shed blood of His own Son is what will fulfill the blood requirement of making this covenant. The only way we can gain access to the powerful promises in this passage is by walking through the shed blood of Jesus Christ by receiving Him into our hearts and lives as our Savior and Lord. But doesn’t God say that these promises apply to the "house of Israel"? Yes, it does, but in the time after the coming of Messiah, those promises are opened up to all who believe by faith in Jesus. Paul, in Romans 10:12-13, writes, For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." God has graciously made His covenant with the people of Israel available to all of us by faith. This covenant is for everyone who will believe and call on the name of the Lord.
    4. Okay, we can understand a little bit of what a covenant is and we can go along with who this covenant is for, but one big question remains. Why would God make this covenant in the first place? What’s He got to gain? How would it benefit Him? Well, to be honest, He gets no benefit at all other than the fact that those who participate in the covenant will bring glory to His name. But that seems like a pretty lame excuse when you consider all the other stuff He could do, all the miracles He could perform to glorify Himself. So why should He do this? One word: love. Love is as much a part of who He is as holiness is. God’s holiness will not allow Him to leave sin unpunished, but God’s love gives Him the mercy to be able to make this covenant so that the punishment we deserve could be paid for by Jesus’ blood. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul writes, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Now we’re getting to the real reason why God made this covenant: so that we could be changed to become like Him. We were created to be like God – that’s what Genesis 1:27 means when it talks about man being created in God’s image. When sin entered the world, our relationship with God was so corrupted that we could no longer become like Him without a new covenant. God loves us so much that He Himself wrote this new covenant and sealed it with the blood of His own Son. God made this covenant so that we can be changed in His likeness.
    5. Illustration – Steven Grant (as cited on Sermoncentral.com) wrote, A few weeks ago I rented the movie AI. It is set in the future, where a company has created a human robot child with the ability to love unconditionally. In many ways it was a disturbing movie, posing a number of difficult questions about what it means to be human and what the limits of our dependence on technology should be. But probably the most poignant question that came to mind watching the movie is, to what extent will we go to find love?¨ I won’t give away the plot of the movie, but the thread that runs through it from start to finish is capsulated by a question this robot-boy asks repeatedly: "Then will mommy love me?"
      It is perhaps the deepest longing of our hearts to be loved. And it is the first thing I find in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. "This how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him." (1 Jn 4:9).       That’s why God entered into this covenant with us. Because He loved us enough to sent His Son to die for us so that we could be transformed into His likeness. That is a powerful promise! But how does this covenant enable us to be transformed? There are four ways God announces through Jeremiah that we’re going to look at.
  1. What the Covenant Does for Us
    1. First, the covenant enables God’s word to be written on our hearts and minds. Verse thirty-three: "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts." An interesting fact is that we tend to act out and become what we think about. For example, if we think about sex all the time, we’ll begin to fantasize about it and eventually most of what we do will focus on it. It becomes an obsession. People who are obsessed about something are those who think about it constantly and act on those thoughts. That’s why football fans paint themselves and go shirtless in freezing weather – they are obsessed with their favorite football team. That’s also why this promise is so critical to us. We can become so in love with Jesus that we think about Him and act on those thoughts all the time. Some people will call us obsessed fanatics, but I would submit to you that we will become obsessed about one thing or another in our lives. Wouldn’t you rather be obsessed with Jesus than anything or anyone else? Isn’t that the kind of obsession that enables us to be free from the bondage of sin and free to serve one another out of love for Christ? Transformed minds will focus on God and His Word. Paul, in Philippians 4:8, states this principle very clearly: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. That’s only possible if we allow God to fulfill His end of the covenant by transforming our minds. The covenant enables God’s word to be written on our hearts and minds.
    2. Second, the covenant enables us to be totally, 100% devoted to God. Again, in verse thirty-three: "I will be their God, and they will be my people." Exodus 20:2-3 says, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 "You shall have no other gods before me." I believe that statement to be prophetic as well as historical. Let me explain. God did miraculously work to bring the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt into their own land, where they could be free to settle and make their living and worship their God. God isn’t telling them to worship Him alone only for His sake; He’s trying to tell them that He is the only real God. We talked earlier about the acts of terrorism that are caused by fanatics following false gods. What do those demons, which is what false gods are, demand of those fanatics? Death. Why? Because a dead man who hasn’t followed Christ during his life on earth is lost to God forever. God has no choice but to sentence such a man to eternal punishment. When we serve false gods, we serve demons. And our service to those demons will lead us to eternal punishment. God is telling us that He has freed us from our slavery to sin and our bondage to false gods. God has brought us out of our own personal spiritual deserts and is trying to lead us to the abundant life of the Spirit He has for us. If we want to be free, we can have no other gods but the one true and living God, the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus died to free us from our bondage, enabling us to follow and serve God wholeheartedly. The covenant enables us to be totally, 100% devoted to God.
    3. Third, the covenant enables us to know God experientially in our daily lives, instead of just hearing about Him. Verse thirty-four: "No longer will a man teach his neighbor, 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. Some people take this verse to mean that they don’t need any instruction from any person at all, that they are free to use the filter of their own experiences to decide who God is and how to follow Him. That isn’t what it is saying at all. Such people who will make themselves accountable to no one will eventually fall away from God and follow false gods and lose their souls for all eternity. What this verse is saying is that the covenant allows us to move from knowing about God to knowing Him personally. There’s a big difference. I know a fair amount about John Wesley, but does that mean I know Him personally? Of course not – he’s been dead a couple of hundred years. Imagine the difference in my marriage relationship if I only knew about Kim rather than knowing her personally. If I only knew facts instead of thoughts, feelings, and temperament. God is telling us that it’s okay to learn about Him, but His covenant enables us to know Him personally through love relationship with His Son Jesus Christ. There’s a banner over the doors outside the sanctuary that expresses how we all can feel if we allow this covenant to transform our hearts and our lives. Philippians 3:10-11: I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ gives us the knowledge that transforms – knowing God instead of knowing about Him. We still need to learn about Him, but we’ve got to go farther than that. The covenant enables us to know God experientially in our daily lives, instead of just hearing about Him.
    4. Fourth, the covenant enables God to forgive and forget our sins. Verse thirty-four: "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." Forgiving and forgetting are often the two hardest things in the world for us to do. And even if we somehow manage to forgive, we still don’t forget. Why do we have such a hard time with forgiving and forgetting? Because we try to use our own standards for forgiveness and forgetting, standards that we ourselves can’t even live up to! Why? We like revenge! We want people to pay for the pain and misery and inconvenience they’ve caused us! If you don’t believe me, think about your reaction when someone tailgates you for ten miles and then blows past you. What are you thinking? "Where are the cops? Isn’t tailgating illegal? And look at the speed they’re going? That isn’t safe!" And all the while if we looked down at our own speedometer we’d find we’re going either well over or well under the speed limit. We’re breaking the law by speeding or impeding, but our own sin doesn’t count! That’s how we think. But hearts and minds that are transformed by the covenant God has made with us are freed to forgive and forget, because God’s forgiveness and forgetting has made such a powerful impact on them. I was listening to a tape with Bruce Wilkinson on it. Before he wrote The Prayer of Jabez, he wrote Personal Holiness in Time of Temptation. Wilkinson describes the three stages of holiness: when God separates us in His mind to Himself; when the believer decides to give himself away to God; and when the behavior undergoes a transformation. Wilkinson said that 80% of all Christian adults have not given themselves totally and 100% away to God. That means most of us are still stuck on the first stage. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to forgive and forget as God forgives and forgets until we reach the second stage of holiness. Jesus, in Luke 6:37-38, says, "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Only as we allow the power of the blood of Jesus Christ to transform our hearts and minds will we be enabled to forgive and forget and God has promised in this covenant. The covenant enables God to forgive and forget our sins.
    5. The covenant God makes in this passage in Jeremiah is powerful beyond all measure to transform our hearts and our minds. It enables God’s word to be written on our hearts and minds. It enables us to be totally, 100% devoted to God. It enables us to know God experientially in our daily lives, instead of just hearing about Him. It enables God to forgive and forget our sins. This covenant enables our hearts and minds and, ultimately, our lives to be transformed so that we become like Jesus. God has promised to enter into this covenant with us. The only choice left is whether or not we will choose to enter into this covenant with Him. Will we promise to keep this covenant and allow our hearts and lives to be transformed?
    6. Illustration – (From PreachingToday.com) Writer and speaker Lewis Smedes says: Yes, somewhere people still make and keep promises. They choose not to quit when the going gets rough because they promised once to see it through. They stick to lost causes. They hold on to a love grown cold. They stay with people who have become pains in the neck. They still dare to make promises and care enough to keep the promises they make. I want to say to you that if you have a ship you will not desert, if you have people you will not forsake, if you have causes you will not abandon, then you are like God. What a marvelous thing a promise is! When a person makes a promise, she reaches out into an unpredictable future and makes one thing predictable: she will be there even when being there costs her more than she wants to pay. When a person makes a promise, he stretches himself out into circumstances that no one can control and controls at least one thing: he will be there no matter what the circumstances turn out to be. With one simple word of promise, a person creates an island of certainty in a sea of uncertainty. When a person makes a promise, she stakes a claim on her personal freedom and power. When you make a promise, you take a hand in creating your own future. What will your promise to God be this morning?
  1. Communion
    1. Today we’re celebrating communion. In our church, any one who has a personal love relationship with Jesus Christ is able to participate with us in communion. As I said earlier, God sealed His end of the covenant with the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we are symbolically partaking of His body and blood and celebrating His sacrifice for us.
    2. Today, we’re going to celebrate a covenant communion. That’s appropriate because the closing act of making a covenant was the covenant meal. So if you are committing yourself to entering into this covenant God has made with us, in which you are promising God that you are His and that He has the freedom He needs to transform you into His likeness, then you are welcome to participate in this covenant meal. If you are committing yourself wholeheartedly to entering into God’s covenant, please come forward, kneel at the altars if you are physically able to, receive the bread and the juice and partake of them as a sign of your commitment to the covenant. And allow God to begin the transformation He has for you as you celebrate communion. Come forward now.
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