Jeremiah 31:31-40 "It's Me, I'm the Problem"

1:06An editor of a paper once asked his readers to submit responses to the question, What's wrong with the world? And Chesterton wrote in reply, Dear sirs, I am. It's a great story, but apparently it's a myth. If Chesterton did ever write that letter, there is no surviving evidence for it. But that's okay. A couple of years ago, a better-known philosopher from our own generation said essentially the same thing. She sang, it's me. Hi, I'm the problem. It's me.

1:54Taylor Swift's song, Anti-Hero, has been played over 1.4 billion times on Spotify, encouraging a generation who will stare at the sun, but never in the mirror, that perhaps the problem is, in fact, not other people. Perhaps the problem is us. I think Jeremiah would agree. For the past few weeks, we've been in the section of the book of Jeremiah known as the Book of Consolation, chapters 30 through 33. And in these chapters, chapter 29, particularly, which precedes this section, in these chapters, God is showing us what this hope and this future look like that he has promised to us in those famous verses. And today we have the privilege of studying one of the most glorious passages in all of the Bible, a passage that is expounded in great detail in the book of Hebrews because of its implications for all of humanity. In this passage, we are told that God is going. To make a new covenant with his people.

3:03An idea that doesn't sound surprising to you if you've been a Christian for many years or if you've been in church for most of your life. But it's an idea that would have astounded Jeremiah's initiative and answered three questions. What's the problem? What's the solution? What's the result? This morning we are going to learn that because God solved our greatest problem, we can know him and enjoy him forever. Let's pick back up here in verse 31, the beginning of our text today.

3:41God says in verse 31, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. So in these verses, God says he's going to make a new covenant. In Hebrew, that's actually he's going to cut a new covenant, which is an allusion probably to the sacrifices that have to be made, the blood that has to be shed in the forming of a covenant.

4:19He's going to make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Now, there's a couple of surprises tucked into these verses. First, the God's going to make a new covenant, and second, that this new covenant was going to include both the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Now, with respect to that second surprise, Jeremiah's readers are from the southern kingdom of Judah, and they would have been amazed and humbled at this idea that God was going to do anything good for the members of the northern kingdom, known as Israel, known as Samaria, known as Ephraim.

4:59After all, those northern tribesmen had sinned grievously against the Lord for hundreds of years. They were an idolatrous and lawless people, and the people of Judah tended to look down on them for these sins. They were like the Pharisee in Jesus' parable who looked at the tax collector and thanked God that he was not like him. So when Assyria conquered Israel in 722 BC and they were carried away for their sins of idolatry and lawlessness and God said he was done with them, the people of Judah seemed to think that they were simply getting what they deserved.

5:37After all, they had sinned grievously for so long. So imagine their surprise when God says that they, the house of Israel, is going to be a part of this new covenant. No doubt they were offended by that very idea. But of course, the people of Judah were conquered and delivered. Or rather, taken into exile by Babylon for those same sins, the very same sins of idolatry and lawlessness. Israel did not deserve grace and mercy from God, but neither did Judah. And so that's the first surprise that Israel is going to be included in this new covenant.

6:21But the second surprise is even bigger, and that's that God was going to make a new covenant to begin with. No doubt, the people of Judah assumed that when God kept his promises and brought them back from exile into the promised land, that the Mosaic law was still going to be in effect when they returned and be in effect forever. So the question is: what's the problem? Why is a new covenant even necessary? So I want to think this through with you in the same ways that the people of Judah would have had to think that question through. What's the problem?

7:02Well, God's not the problem. He says in verse 32 that he has been a completely faithful, loving, and loyal husband to Israel and to Judah. Listen to his lament in Hosea chapter 6 on the screen. What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud. Like the dew that goes early away. Therefore, I have hewn them in by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

7:50But like Adam, they transgressed the covenant. There they dealt faithlessly with me. God's love for his people is an everlasting love. That's what we saw last week at the very beginning of chapter 31. And because of that everlasting love, God has continued his faithfulness. He has kept the covenant that he made. So God is not the problem. But secondly, God's law is not the problem. Again, in verse 32, God refers to the covenant that he made with their fathers on the day when he took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

8:33When he's talking about this covenant, he's referring to what is known as the commandments or the law of Moses or more simply just the law. And what is true about God's law? Look at Psalm 19. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord is the Lord. Of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

9:06The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned. In keeping them, there is great reward. God's law was not given to make our lives difficult, to prevent us from having fun, or to punish us in some way. No, as Psalm 19 says, God's law is perfect. It's given to us to enlighten our eyes, to help us understand the truth, to promote human flourishing for all people, to warn us against decisions and habits and practices that will destroy us and destroy others and tear apart the very fabric of our society. That is the purpose of God's law. God's law is not the problem.

10:13But third, other people are not the problem. A lot of times, when we talk about people that we disagree with or that we don't like, we call them they. As in, it's not my fault. You know how. They are. So when God says in verse 32, my covenant that they broke, who is he referring to? Well, look at Jeremiah 5 again. This is what he said earlier in the book. Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look and take note. Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her. That is the city. Though they say, as the Lord lives, yet they swear falsely. O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth? You have struck them down, but they felt no anguish. You have consumed them, but they refuse to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock. They have refused to repent.

11:26According to Jeremiah, who is they? They is everybody. Every man, woman, and child in Jerusalem, from the greatest to the least, from the poorest to the richest, everybody in Jerusalem broke God's covenant. Other people are not the problem. So if God's not the problem and God's law is not the problem and other people are not the problem, what's the problem? Hi, it's me. I'm the problem. It's me. We are the problem. Every one of us. God's law is perfect, and He gave us His perfect law, and He's also perfectly just. So He said in the last verse before this section begins, verse 30, look again there: But everyone shall die for His own sin.

12:24In other words, God won't hold you responsible for my sins. He doesn't hold you responsible for your parents' sins or your kids' sins, your company's sins or this country's sins. He holds you responsible for your sins. You are the problem. I am the problem. We are the problem. And what that means is that a perfect God giving us another chance to obey his perfect law is not going to help because we are the problem. We need more than a second chance or a third chance or a millionth chance. We need something more than that. So, what is the solution? Look at verse 33.

13:21But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them, and I will. Will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

13:52According to God, the solution to our problem is a new covenant, a covenant that is not the same as the one that his people broke when he brought them out of Egypt. Now, when you first read about this new covenant, you might think that God is making a shift. A shift from external obedience to internal obedience. A shift from focusing on what we do with our hands to what we do in our hearts. In fact, many professing Christians have been taught that under the old covenant, God really only cared about external obedience. What we touched or didn't touch. What we ate or didn't eat, how we sacrificed or whether we sacrificed or what we sacrificed. That those things were of the utmost importance.

14:50And of course, that's not new. That's exactly what the scribes and the Pharisees and other religious leaders in Jesus' day thought and taught. They made the same mistake. Acting as though external obedience was what God was really after in his law. Now, don't get me wrong, God gave his law to his people and commanded us to obey it perfectly and completely down to the very last letter. He did require obedience to it, but that is not the main thing that he was after. Take a look at what God says through Moses when he gives the law to his people. Look at Deuteronomy 6.

15:31Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. Friends, Jesus taught that this was the first and greatest commandment: to love God with all your heart. And loving God certainly includes listening to and obeying his commands. But here's the problem: a command does not create the ability to keep the command.

16:14You can command a deaf person to hear, or a blind person to see, or a lame person to walk, and that does not mean they have the ability to do it. So God commands us to love Him. With all of our hearts, he commands us to write his word on our hearts, but that does not mean that we can do it. And human history, as well as our own personal history, has shown every one of us that this is true, that we cannot do this. We cannot love God with all of our hearts. We cannot write his word on our hearts, and we can't do it because Jeremiah has already told us that something else is written there. Look at Jeremiah 17.

17:02The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron. With a point of diamond, it is engraved on the tablet of their heart. According to Jeremiah, it's not love for God or the word of God that is engraved in our hearts, it's sin. So, what is the solution? Verse 33 again: God says, I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. In other words, in the new covenant, God is going to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He's going to put his law within us, he's going to write it on our hearts. God is saying, Because sin is engraved on the tablet of your heart, you are unable to do what I've commanded you. You can't love me with all your heart, you can't write my word on your heart, so I. I will do it for you. I will do the thing that you cannot do. I will put my law within you and write it on your heart. And I want you to look at how Ezekiel says it. This is what God says through him.

18:14And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

18:42Now, I want you to notice that both in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36, there is absolutely no mention of anything that we must do. There is only mention of God and what God is going to do for us. This is a unilateral covenant. It's like the covenant that he made with Abraham or with David. There is nothing that we can do and nothing that we must do. God simply promises that he is going to perform spiritual surgery on us. He's going to take out that heart of stone. He's going to replace it with a heart of flesh. And he is going to engrave his law on that new heart.

19:27He's going to put a new spirit within us. Us. Indeed, he's going to put his Spirit, His Holy Spirit in us, and cause us to walk in His statutes and obey His rules. God is going to do all of that because He has loved us with an everlasting love. He's going to do all of that because His covenant faithfulness continues toward His people. Friends, this is all wonderful news. But the question is, what about the sins that we've already committed?

20:01I mean, it's great that God's going to give us a new heart and write His law on it. It's great that He's going to put His Spirit within us. That solves the problem of us going forward. But what about all the things that we've already done? What about all the sins that we've already committed? We'll look again at verse 34. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. God says that He will forgive and He will forget.

20:42To forgive means to absorb the cost of someone else's sin or mistake. It's to bear that cost yourself when they deserve to have to pay it. God says here that He chooses to absorb the cost of our sin and He chooses never to remember. Our sin ever again. And friends, in this way, through God giving us a new heart and putting His law and spirit within us, through God choosing to forgive and to forget our sin, He solves our greatest problem, our sin, which stems from the sinful hearts that every one of us was born with.

21:23You see, until you see your own inability to love God with all of your heart, until you see your own inability to write God's law on your heart and to keep it perfectly as He has commanded us, your life will be a series of well-intended resolutions to try harder to do better. As a result, you will never ask God for anything more than another chance. This is just what happened to the people of Israel. Every single time they fell into sin and God disciplined them for it, on the back end of that, when God restored them, they said to God, We promise we will never do that again. Give us another chance, and we'll do better this time. They said it again and again for hundreds of years.

22:24And friends, many of us know in this room what that is like. To fall into the same sin over and over again and to tell God, just give me one more chance. This time I'll do better. This time I will keep your word. But we don't need another chance. What we need is new hearts. What we need is for God to put his spirit within us. Well, friends, ask and you will receive. That's what Jesus said.

23:06Ask God to forgive and to forget your sin. Ask Him to remove that heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ask Him for His Spirit. Ask and you shall receive. Jesus will never turn away anyone who comes to Him. And He wants you to come to Him today. Not so that He can give you another chance, but so that He can transform you from the inside out. So, friends, we've seen that we are the problem. We've seen that the solution is God making a new covenant with us. So, now let's answer that third question: what is the result?

23:50Look one more time at verse 34. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, The Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. Now skip down to verse 38. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city shall be rebuilt for the Lord, from the tower of Hannanel to the corner gate, and the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goa. The whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kedron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be sacred to the Lord. It shall not be uprooted or overthrown anymore forever.

24:52Friends, in these verses, we see that the result of God solving our greatest problem is that we can know him and enjoy him forever. We can know God and enjoy him forever. A consistent lament throughout the book of Jeremiah is that nobody knows God. The religious leaders don't know God. The political leaders don't know God. The poor people don't know God. The rich people don't know God. Nobody knows God. But here, God says that under the new covenant, they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, from the poorest to the richest, from the least powerful to the most powerful, everyone will know him as their God, and he will be their people. They will be his people.

25:50In order to know God, God has to reveal himself to us. He's done that, of course, through his word, which the people have heard through Jeremiah for decades. But, friends, the Apostle John shares far better news. He says that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And I want you to look at what the author of the book of Hebrews says about this. Look at Hebrews 1. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

26:45That's why Jesus can pray this in John 17. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Friends, this is the wonder of the new covenant. That we know God and we know him most clearly through his Son, who is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. To know Jesus is to know God, and to know God is eternal life.

27:25But knowing God is only one result of this new covenant and God solving our greatest problem. We also see in the text that we get to enjoy him forever, which is what we saw in verses 38 through 40. In these verses, God promises that when the exiles return, the city of Jerusalem would be completely rebuilt. The city would be rebuilt for the Lord. The city shall be sacred to the Lord. And the city shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.

28:04But if you know Jerusalem's history, you know that the city definitely does get plucked up and overthrown, just as Jesus said that it would in AD 70. So God must have something else in mind when he speaks these words. Something that we see in Isaiah's revelation and in John's. Look at Isaiah 65. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people. No more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days. For the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.

29:17Look at what John said. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God.

29:53So when God says through Jeremiah that Jerusalem will never be plucked up or overthrown forever, He does not have the earthly Jerusalem in mind. He has the heavenly Jerusalem in mind. You may have noticed that in Jeremiah 31 and in Ezekiel 36, it's not just that there's no mention of anything that we have to do, there's no mention of the most significant thing in the life of Israel, the temple. And that's because in the New Jerusalem, there is no need for a temple. Because God dwells with us forever. He sits on his throne. We dwell with him for all eternity. No one needs to be forgiven anymore. No one needs to be taught anymore because we all know God through Christ, from the least to the greatest.

30:54And friends, all of that is going to happen because God forgives and forgets our sin. That is why at the end of this passage, in 31 through 34, verse 34 begins with the word for. This part of the verse is the foundation for everything else. Look at the last line of verse 34. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Isn't the new covenant glorious? Because God forgives and forgets our sin. We will know God in ways. That were impossible to know him prior to that time, as long as the power and the penalty of sin hung over us.

31:42But there's a question that remains. And that question is: how will this happen? You see, God couldn't just throw the old covenant away as though he had never made a binding bilateral agreement with his people. In Exodus chapter 24, both God and his people entered into that solemn covenant and they sealed it with blood. God couldn't just pretend like the old covenant had never happened, that he'd never made that covenant with his people. And he doesn't.

32:27At the beginning of his earthly ministry, when multitudes of people gathered to hear Jesus preach the Sermon on the Mount, He said, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them. I have come to fulfill them. Jesus did exactly that in his life and his ministry. He was dedicated in the temple and circumcised on the eighth day. Submitted to and obeyed his earthly parents in every way. He was tempted, tempted in all the ways that you and I are, and many more. He was tempted in every way, and yet was without sin.

33:15At the end of his ministry, he gathered his disciples together for a last supper. And I want you to look what happens during that time. Matthew 26. And Jesus took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I don't know if you ever noticed the words that he uses here in these verses, but they tie in all of the prophecies about the covenant together.

33:54He uses that language of the new covenant, which is recorded in Luke but not in Matthew. Jesus saying, This is the blood of my covenant. He is inaugurating this new covenant that Jeremiah foretold, that Ezekiel prophesied about. As in Exodus chapter 24, blood would be shed, but not the blood of an animal, the blood of Jesus. This is my blood. And as in Isaiah 53, his blood would intercede for the transgressors because he would bear the sin of man.

34:30And because of him, many would be accounted righteous. Friends, the author of Hebrews reminds us that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. Without Jesus shedding his blood in our place, the old covenant would still be in effect. We would have to submit to every word of it. But because Jesus shed his blood in our place, died, was buried, and rose again on the third day, the new covenant has been inaugurated, where every one of us has the joy and privilege of knowing God and enjoying him forever through him.

35:10Christians, God has forgiven and forgotten our sin forever. Not because it wasn't a big deal, but because Jesus paid the full price. Through Christ, we have all of the privileges that this passage talks about. What wonderful news that is. If you're here today and you've come to see that you are the problem, that your sin is the problem, I have wonderful news for you. God solved that problem through Jesus Christ, and you can know and enjoy God forever through faith in Him. And so we implore you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to Him today through repentance, turning away from your sin. And through faith, trusting in Jesus Christ alone for forgiveness and reconciliation with God.

36:07Let's pray. Father, we are so thankful for the new covenant. The new covenant in the blood of Jesus. You did not drop your perfect standard. You didn't throw up your hands and say, I guess these people will just never be able to meet it, so we'll just try something else. You sent Jesus to live perfectly, to shed his blood, and to rise from the dead. God, I pray that every Christian here would have new appreciation today for the fact that we know you, that we are called your children and your friends, your people who bear your name.

37:28I pray that we would be cast. By that vision of the new Jerusalem, that we'd be reminded in the midst of so many trials and difficulties in this life that this world is not our home, that you are remaking it, and that there is going to be a new and better world free of sin, free of pain, free of all brokenness, where we will be face to face with Jesus for all of eternity. God, we do pray for those among us who have not yet come to faith in Christ. We pray that today would be the day that you draw them to yourself and that they get to participate in the benefits of the new covenant through faith. Please do it, God.

38:17We pray that we'd be able to celebrate conversions and baptisms, the joy of people coming to know you in the near future. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.