Enduring People of God

David Shult: Welcome to the Watchman Radio Hour, coming to you from Portland, Oregon here in the beautiful Northwest. This is David Shult, your announcer. The Watchman Radio Hour is a production of Watchman Radio Ministries International, an evangelistic ministry reaching out to the peoples of the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And now here's our speaker Alex Dodson to bring you this week's message from God's word.
Alex Dodson: Today we continue a series on Jeremiah chapter 31. We are continuing a series that was started several weeks ago. There was a break and now we're coming to the final part of that chapter. This is the last of our series on Jeremiah 31. The last message on this chapter was about the promised new covenant. We saw that this was fulfilled when Jesus Christ came and through him a new covenant came. This covenant brings salvation to all who put their trust in Christ, not just to the Jews only but to Gentiles as well. No longer would the people of God be only the Jewish people, but people from all over the world would be brought into the people of God through the new covenant. We see in the New Testament that the new covenant had come and the writers of the New Testament refer back to Jeremiah 31 explaining that the new covenant had now come through the gospel. In the final section of Jeremiah 31, we see God continuing his promise of future blessing to his people. This promise goes beyond the first coming of Christ on into the future. This prophecy is a prophecy of an enduring people of God. Our text for today is Jeremiah 31, verses 35 through 40. Let us hear now the word of God. "Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar, the Lord of hosts is his name: If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever." "Thus says the Lord, if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the Lord. Behold the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city shall be rebuilt for the Lord from the tower of Hananel to the corner gate, and the measuring line shall go out farther straight to the hill Gareb and shall then turn to Goah. The whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron to the corner of the horse gate toward the east shall be sacred to the Lord. It shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever." Our father in heaven, we thank you for the Bible that you have given to us. We thank you that it's your infallible word that we can put our full confidence in everything that it says. Now, O father, as we come to study your word, we pray that you will send your Holy Spirit in great convicting power. In Christ's name we pray, amen. God's promise would not cease to be. On the contrary, they would continue and endure and multiply. Israel as a people and a nation would endure as long as the sun and moon. God would never cast them off forever. How can we understand this promise? We know that the Jews returned to Israel and that the city and temple were rebuilt under Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel. It was to this city and temple that Jesus came at his first coming. Yet we also know that the temple and that city were destroyed in 70 AD. The Jews were again scattered to the nations. What then can be the meaning of this prophecy which says in verse 40 the city will never again be uprooted or demolished? Let us now consider the meaning of this prophecy in verses 35 through 40. Let us see then in the first place the promise relating to the decrees in verses 35 and 36. Let's go back and read those verses again, verses 35 and 36, where it says: "Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar, the Lord of hosts is his name: If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring or the descendants of Israel cease from being a nation before me." God has his decrees, his set order for the sun, moon, stars, and the waves of the sea. He has appointed the sun to rule the day. He has appointed the moon and stars to rule the night. He has appointed the waves of the sea to continue daily. None of these ordinances have been taken away since the creation. They all continue and will not change until God withdraws these ordinances. They are everlasting and continuous as long as the world exists. God's promise is concerning these decrees, and he says the descendants or the offspring of Israel will never cease to be a nation before me. The promise was given when the Jewish people were going into captivity and the nation was being scattered. Yet God promises that the descendants or the offspring of Israel will continue to be a nation in the future. He makes his promise firm by connecting it to the decrees. The decrees would not cease and would continue into the future. But so would Israel as a nation, though now it didn't seem that way. We know that Israel did continue as a people and nation when they returned to the land under Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel. The city of Jerusalem and the temple were rebuilt. In this sense, the nation continued. Israel was there when Jesus returned to that very temple, the one that they rebuilt hundreds of years later. Yet we must not think that this exhausts the fulfillment of this prophecy. We know also that that city and that temple were destroyed in 70 AD and the Jewish people were scattered once again to the nations. And so the fulfillment of the prophecy could not be complete at that point. The city and nation did not continue beyond 70 AD, at least not in the flesh. But the descendants of Israel did continue through her spiritual descendants. The New Testament writers make it very clear that the New Testament church was a continuation of the people of God. It was the spiritual Israel that continued. Paul tells the Galatian Christians that they were spiritual descendants of Abraham. In Galatians 3:26 through 29 it says, "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." The New Testament believers were part of that spiritual Israel. They also were descendants of Abraham. Paul again makes it clear that all who have faith in Christ are a part of this spiritual Israel. Galatians 6:15 and 16 Paul says, "Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is a new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God." The New Testament believers were the new creation. They were the new Israel, the Israel of God. They were the children of promise. In Romans 9:6 through 8 Paul says, "It is not as though God's word had failed, for not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring." And so the spiritual descendants of Israel are the children of promise. Paul, in addressing the Galatian Christians, tells them that they are the children of promise. In Galatians 4:28 he says, "Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of the promise." Those who know Christ are a nation of God's people. They are the new Israel and the fulfillment of God's promise. First Peter 2:9 says, "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." "You Gentile Christians are a holy nation." The New Testament writers were not in doubt as to who God's people were. They saw the New Testament believers as the spiritual descendants of Israel. They were now the children of promise. And though Israel in the flesh at that time had largely rejected the gospel, the spiritual Israel, which consisted of all who accepted the gospel, continued on. These were the true descendants of Israel. Matthew Henry writes, "We may be confident of this very thing, that the seed of Israel shall not cease from being a nation. For the spiritual Israel, the gospel church, shall be a holy nation, a peculiar people, as it says in First Peter 2:9. When Israel according to the flesh is no longer a nation, the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Let us see in the second place the promise related to the measurements of heaven and earth in verse 37. There we read: "Thus says the Lord, if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the Lord." The measurements of heaven and earth are referred to here. They cannot be measured, it says. The stars cannot be counted. We do not know the foundations of the earth. This knowledge is not available to us. These measurements cannot be found. God ties the promise to our lack of ability to measure the heavens and the depths of the earth. If we could measure these things, then the descendants of Israel could be rejected. Since we cannot measure them, they cannot be rejected. John Gill, in commenting on this passage, writes, "Nor shall any of the spiritual Israel be cast off by him or cast away from him so as to perish. The Israel whom God foreknew is chosen, redeemed, and whom he calls by his grace. No, not for all the sins and transgressions they have been guilty of, however they may deserve it." The reasons are because of his unchangeable love to them, his unalterable covenant with them, the satisfaction his son has made for them, and the free and full pardon of their sins which he has granted them. God's church will endure forever. It will not be destroyed or forsaken. Satan may attack it again and again, but he will not prevail. For it says in Matthew 16:18, Jesus says, "And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." God had promised Abraham that his descendants would be as countless as the stars in the heavens and the sand on the seashore. They would be so numerous that they could not be counted. In Genesis 22:17 it says, "I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me." Paul, in commenting on this passage, wrote in Galatians 3:16, "The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say and to seeds, meaning many people, but and to your seed, meaning one person who is Christ." This promise given to Abraham is fulfilled in the church as the gospel goes out to all nations and as people from all nations and languages come to know Christ. God's promise to Israel will be fulfilled ultimately through the church, the spiritual Israel. The old Israel with the temple and sacrifices and priesthood would not continue, for God had a greater plan in mind. He would do a new thing. There would be a new Israel made up of people from all over the world who would come to know Christ. In Isaiah 43:19 it says, "See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." When Jesus came, he came to introduce a new thing. He came to bring in the new Israel, a spiritual Israel that encompasses all nations. In Matthew 9:16 and 17, Jesus said, "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out, and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins and both are preserved." The New Testament church, in a sense, was the new wineskin, and the coming of the Holy Spirit and the gospel to all the nations was the new wine. God's people continued on but in a new wineskin and in a new form. It would no longer just be the Jews who would be the people of God, but people from every nation and tongue through Christ would come into the people of God. No longer would one have to go up to Jerusalem to worship God. The worship of God would take place all over the world in many places. Jesus, in talking to the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman, declared, "Woman, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth." "For they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is a spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." That's in John 4:21 through 24. Jesus was pointing out to this Samaritan woman that a time was coming and even then had come that people would no longer have to worship God in Jerusalem or on a mountain in Samaria, but people in every place all over the world would be able to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. This would happen in the gospel age that Jesus was inaugurating. Paul pointed out that circumcision was not just something of the flesh. It is not the circumcision of the flesh that makes one a Jew or a part of God's people, he says. A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the spirit, not by the written code. Such a person's praise is not from other people but from God. It is knowing Jesus Christ from your heart that makes you a child of God. Do you know him? Have you from your heart trusted in him? Only if you know Christ are you a true child of God and a member of Israel. The true descendants of Israel are those who put their trust in Jesus Christ and follow him. God will preserve his people. He will preserve the church which carries on from Israel of old. It is the new Israel of God. In the third place, there is a promise here of future blessing for the Jewish people in verses 38 through 40. Now let me read those verses: "Behold the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city shall be rebuilt, or it shall be built, for the Lord or to the Lord, from the tower of Hananel to the corner gate, and the measuring line shall go out farther straight to the hill Gareb and shall then turn to Goah. The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the Lord. It shall not be plucked up nor thrown down anymore forever." God is not finished with the Jewish people. Future blessing is coming according to the scriptures. Saying that the church is the new Israel is not to say that God has forsaken the Jewish people. The Bible points ahead to a great conversion of the Jews to Christ. We believe these final verses of chapter 31 of Jeremiah teach just that. The prophecy here in verse 38 again says, "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord from the tower of Hananel unto the gate of the corner." The city will be built to the Lord. The indication here is that the whole city of Jerusalem and its vicinity will be dedicated to the Lord, every part of it. And then verses 39 through 40 again says, "And the measuring line shall go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb and shall compass about to Goath, and the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes and all the fields under the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the Lord. It shall not be plucked up nor thrown down anymore forever." Matthew Henry, in commenting on this passage, writes, "Jerusalem shall be entirely built again as large as ever it was. The dimensions are here exactly described by the places through which the circumference passed. And no doubt the wall which Nehemiah built and which the more punctually to fulfill the prophecy began about the tower of Hananel here mentioned, enclosed as much ground as his ear intended. Though we cannot certainly determine the places here called the gates of the corner, the hill of Gareb and so forth." "When built, it shall be consecrated to God and to his service. It shall be built to the Lord, and even the suburbs and fields adjacent shall be holy unto the Lord. It shall not be polluted with idols as formerly, but God shall be praised and honored there. The whole city shall be as it were one temple, one holy place, as the new Jerusalem is, which therefore has no temple because it is all temple. Being thus built by virtue of the promise of God and then devoted to the praise of God, it shall not be plucked up nor thrown down anymore forever." This is a description of Jerusalem and its vicinity being totally dedicated to the Lord in every part. These verses are very similar to the verses in Zechariah which describe a similar scene. In Zechariah 14 and verses 20 and 21 it says, "On that day holy to the Lord will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the Lord's house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them, and on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord Almighty." The key statement here is every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty. There will be universal holiness in Israel. A time will come when all of Israel will turn to the Lord. And if we look more extensively at Zechariah 14, it seems to indicate that there will be a worldwide revival when people from all nations will turn to the Lord. In Zechariah 14:9 makes this statement: "The Lord will be king over the whole earth. And on that day there will be one Lord and his name the only name." Paul speaks of the conversion of the Jews at some point in the future. He tells the Gentiles not to think that they are better than the Jews because he has shown favor on them. He points out a time when God will favor the Jews again with great blessing. In Romans 11:25 through 27 it says, "Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers, a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in." "And in this way, all Israel will be saved as it is written: The deliverer will come from Zion. He will banish ungodliness from Jacob, and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins." This conversion of Israel of the Jewish people is associated with the fullness of the Gentiles being come in. Ian Murray comments on the fullness of the Gentiles in his book The Puritan Hope. He writes, "Fullness in verse 12 means the large numerical increase of converted Jews but not excluding the possibility of others being subsequently added." "And so here in verse 25 it is not necessary to believe that fullness means anything more than a large addition of Gentiles, a multitude of the Gentiles," says Matthew Poole's annotations, "greater by far than was in the apostle's days. The verse says nothing which requires us to expect no further expansion of the kingdom of Christ thereafter. As a recent commentator writes, the fullness of the Gentiles denotes unprecedented blessing for them, but does not exclude even greater blessing to follow." Paul points toward a great revival in the future when the Jews will be converted in large numbers, and this will be associated with a great revival among the nations as well. And we look forward to a day when Jesus Christ will be honored among the Jews as they look to him as their Lord and Savior. And so we need to pray for revival. These verses should spur us on to pray for revival, not only among the Jews but all over the world. Yet we do look for a conversion of the Jews in the future. We do not look for the reestablishment of the old order that has passed away, the temple, the priesthood, the sacrifices, and even Jerusalem as the capital of the world. This is not what this prophecy of Jeremiah points to. Rather, it points to a time when all of Jerusalem will be a holy place, not just the holy place in the temple. All of Jerusalem and Judah will know the Lord and they will serve him. Israel will become a Christian nation, a nation that honors the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what we pray for and look for. But what about you today? Do you honor the Lord Jesus Christ in your life? Do you know him as your Lord? Our prayer is that you and not only you, but people all over the world will honor the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord of their lives. And we invite you to come to Christ today. Repent of your sins and acknowledge him as your Lord. He is the king and he can be your king if you will submit to him today. Come to Christ. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the promises of your word. We thank you for this great promise of a future revival. And we pray that that day will soon come when people all over the world, including all of the people of Israel, the Jewish people, will come to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord. We pray that you will pour out your spirit in a great and mighty way in the days to come. And we pray, O Lord, that if there's anyone listening today who knows not Christ as Lord, that they may submit to him today. In Christ's name we pray, amen.
David Shult: We hope this week's broadcast has been a blessing to you. If you have any questions about Mr. Dodson's message, please write us. You may email us at [email protected]. Our mailing address is Watchman Radio Ministries International, Post Office Box 13251, Portland, Oregon, 97213. That's Watchman Radio Ministries International, Post Office Box 13251, Portland, Oregon, 97213. You may listen to this broadcast at any time on the internet at www.oneplace.com. In the list of ministries, just select the Watchman Radio Hour.