5^th Sunday in Lent – March 29, 2009

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen

Jeremiah 31:31-34 – “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. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers 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. “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.”

Dear Christian friends,

Throughout the history of his people, God made several “promises.” We remember the first promise given to Adam and Eve after having fallen into sin – a Savior to crush the serpents head. The repeated promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” And we remember how, by a mighty demonstration of His power, God delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians, and, as they journeyed through the wilderness, they came to Sinai where God made another promise, a covenant, with His people. And that is what a covenant is – a solemn promise, a contract, an agreement.

This covenant at Mt. Sinai set out in minutest detail how life was to be lived. He gave them the Ten Commandments. He gave them elaborate ceremonies and other laws, laws that regulated the entire religious, political, social, and home life of every citizen of Israel. This old covenant promised Christ as its fulfillment and so by its very nature was temporary and passing. So there would have to be a new covenant. It is this new covenant of which the Lord speaks through the pen of the prophet Jeremiah, and he tells us that this will be a covenant of peace established by Jesus Christ.

The old covenant given at Mount Sinai was set up for God’s chosen people. By it, the Lord, full of mercy, provided sinners salvation by repentance and faith in the Messiah to come, whose sacrificial death was illustrated in all the sacrifices required by the old covenant laws. It was the best possible covenant for the people. It was not intended to be a rigorous set of rules and regulations that when kept, earned salvation. No, the old covenant proved that no one could be saved by keeping it. For we read in Galatians 2:15,16, “We who are Jews by birth…know that a man is not justified (that is declared not guilty) by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.” The way to salvation in the old covenant was by faith in the Christ to come.

Unfortunately, the people of Israel didn’t let that covenant work. Before Moses went up on the mountain they said, “all that the Lord has spoken we will do.” Yet, while Moses was receiving the Law, they broke the First Commandment by worshiping a golden calf. Already at the beginning they failed miserably in keeping this covenant, and proved themselves to be unfaithful. That is why God says through the prophet Jeremiah in verse 32, “It (the new covenant) will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers 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.”

When Jeremiah prophesied the words of our text, the northern kingdom of Israel had already been carried into captivity, and conditions were in a sorry state in Judah. Jeremiah warned the people and pleaded in vain with them to give up their idolatrous practices. They were a nation thick with “spiritual adultery,” because they gave their love to false gods. They were guilty of a stubborn self-reliance causing them to think that God was unnecessary. They trusted on foreign alliances and their own wisdom. The priests and prophets lied to the people and led them to disbelieve God’s word. The people to whom he was speaking were no better than the children with whom the old covenant had originally been given. And neither are we.

Too often we look at Old Testament Israel and say to ourselves, what a nation of sinners they were. Bowing down to golden calves and always complaining to God. Yet, can’t we personally see each of their idolatrous practices and their sinful complaining in our own lives? We too are people guilty of “spiritual adultery,” at times giving the love that only God deserves to other people and things here on this earth.

Have you noticed a common thread running through our sermon lessons these past five weeks? Each of them has dealt with the First Commandment? That is because our entire life is a First Commandment issue. Obedience to any and all of the commandments is a First Commandment issue. Take the Third Commandment for example; it reminds us that we are not to despise God’s Word, but to regard it as holy and gladly hear and learn it. However, if God’s Word is near the bottom of our priority list, whether it be Sunday morning or some other day of the week, we are guilty of not putting God above all things. Why is it that we don’t think twice about traveling distances on vacation, making sure that our children get to their sporting events or recitals no matter what, and wouldn’t dare miss that family reunion, but to go to church twice in one week is just too much? We wouldn’t dare miss that TV show, or that store-wide sale, but we can’t seem to find time for personal devotions. We agree with the Bible as long as it agrees with our reason and tells us only what we want to hear.

Or what about the Eighth Commandment? There we are reminded not to speak badly about people, give them a bad name, but instead to defend them and speak well of them and take their words and actions in the kindest possible way. However, if we find ourselves running our mouth in ways that we ought not to, or spreading the juicy gossip because it is just too good to keep to ourselves, we are guilty of not putting God first. Aren’t we saying, “God, I want to do what I want to do?” Think back to a conversation you had this past week. How did you speak about your fellow member here at church? What about your boss or co-worker? How about the elected official in the government? Not too pretty of a sight, is it?

Dear friends, spiritual adultery and idolatry are more than simply bowing down to a golden calf, or worshiping a wooden image. It is loving anything more than our Lord and Savior. It is the willingness to remove from our heart a complete love for God and trust in his Word, in order to make room for an earthly pleasure, no matter what it may be, money, family, friends, or our own desires. And if we decide we can remove some love for God to make room for these, we in fact are saying, God I don’t need all of you. God you aren’t the most important thing in my life. God, I can take care of it on my own. But this is not the case, for when left to our own wisdom and self-reliance we only have one result – failure. Only one place to look forward to – the eternal flames of hell.

But this is what makes the new covenant so outstanding. We aren’t left to ourselves. We aren’t plunged into hell because of our sinfulness. With it there is forgiveness of sins. We read 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.”

In the New Testament, the word that the Holy Spirit uses for this covenant is a word that means testament, like a last will and testament. The reason for this is because a testament is one sided. There is no agreement, there is just the will-maker, making his will known. So you see, the covenant which God promises in our text this morning is a new Testament, established by God, put into effect by God, with the details of the covenant stipulated by God. And the heart and core of this new covenant is this: “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

In the old covenant, burnt offerings shadowed the setting apart of the people in self-surrender. Other sacrifices pictured the removal of the barrier of sins and trespasses between the sinner and their holy God. All the offerings symbolized the need for blood and a sacrifice to pay for their guilt, and the repetition showed the need for something greater. But with the new covenant, this would no longer be the case. Instead, Christ would offer the supreme sacrifice, he would offer the once for all sacrifice that pleases God and removes sin and guilt. He offered himself freely and willingly. He shed his blood and by the shedding of his blood has taken away sin forever. The new covenant proclaims a salvation complete and finished. Just listen to God’s beautiful, comforting, amazing words again. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

This is the heart and core of God’s new covenant. The sacrifices of the old covenant only foreshadowed the true atoning offering of Christ, by which your and my sins of spiritual adultery and idolatry are atoned for and blotted out. The Old Testament people were saved by looking forward to Christ. Had he not come, their faith would have been in vain. Had Christ not arrived, our faith would be useless. But he did come. He came that glorious Christmas Eve, lying humbly in a manger, having appeared as a man among us. He came, wondrously obeying and keeping God’s law, in our place. He came, willing to accept the punishment of sin that you and I deserve, death on the cross, and the forsakenness of God. He came, conquering sin, death, and the devil with his resurrection from the grave.

Hours before his crucifixion Jesus put into effect this New Testament, this One-sided Covenant between God and us natural-born sinners. Luke 22:19-20 tells us, “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.’” Just hours later, Jesus made good on that promise and sealed the deal as he sacrificed himself and shed his blood. Nothing could make the forgiveness of sins it offers to us more certain.

Scripture tells us, “The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so” (Romans 8:7). And so it is that you and I and all people are natural born enemies of God, enemies born in sin, born with sinful hearts that seek to oppose the will of our Creator in heaven.

Over the past few weeks we have been following a Sunday Sermon Series called “Christus Victor” that focuses on Jesus Christ as our victorious champion who goes to battle with Satan for you and for me. But remember that God’s Word describes us as enemies of God, hostile to him because of our sinful nature. So if Jesus came to this earth to do battle, we might expect that he would come not only to do battle with Satan, but also to do battle with you and me. And what a frightening thing that would be. As the writer to the Hebrews reminds us, “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31).

But you and I can take a big, deep sigh of relief because when Jesus came he did not come taking aim at our life and soul to destroy us forever. Rather, he came to establish with us a covenant of peace, a covenant of grace, an everlasting testament of love and forgiveness. Amen.