Looking at our world from a theological perspective, this is the Theology Central Podcast, making theology central. Good evening, everyone. It is Wednesday, August the 30th, 2023. It is currently 710 p.m. Central Time, and I'm coming to you live from the No, not from the pulpit of Victory Baptist Church. I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. I'm not in Ovalo. I'm not behind the pulpit. That was the original plan, but things change. So here I am in the studio, but even though I'm in the studio, we can still go live, we can still stream, we can still talk theology, the Bible, we can still hopefully produce something that will be spiritually edifying and will build you up and be beneficial and challenge you, convict you, make you think, or it just may make you strongly disagree. But hopefully, the one thing I do know, out of all of the criticisms this podcast and my preaching produces, and it produces a lot of negative reactions, I never have been told it's boring. It always produces some kind of reaction, positive, negative. Either it's, wow, it was great, or man, that was horrible, and then all the negative things that come. I guess maybe sometimes people are kind of like, take it or leave it, but typically, It seems to go to extremes. And I don't know if that's a good thing. I don't know if it's a bad thing. It's probably not such a good thing from a standing behind a pulpit, a pastor perspective. It's probably a good thing from a podcasting perspective, because the one thing you are told in podcasting is, get a reaction. good, positive, or negative, just get a strong reaction. So I guess I can accomplish that. It doesn't always work so well for being a preacher and trying to, I don't know, maintain a church where there's actual people. But here we are this evening, and I think you know where we are, right? We're still in the book of Jeremiah. We are fast approaching the dramatic conclusion of our summer of Jeremiah, our summer 2023 study of the book of Jeremiah. It's been a long and winding road. There's been good episodes. There's been bad episodes. There's been good studies. There's been bad studies, but hopefully somehow even the bad ones, I hope they have been beneficial. Now we, if you haven't been paying attention, maybe this is, you know, typically you tune in for our Wednesday night live stream. If you typically tune in, but you don't tune in to everything else, maybe just Wednesdays and just Sundays. Well, if you haven't been, you missed it. We made it all the way to Jeremiah 52. We did kind of an overview. We went really fast. We were utilizing the teaching of Dr. J. Vernon McGee. I think it was really good. I think it was very beneficial. And then after we got to Jeremiah chapter 52, you think, well, that's the end. No, I'm going to still use the time available to do more. So we're kind of just doing a little extra. This is kind of you know, Jeremiah extra. So we went back to Jeremiah 31. Why did I go from 52 to 31? Well, I went backwards because Jeremiah chapter 52 ends in such a bizarre way. The book ends in such a bizarre way. It basically says, these people were deported to Babylon, these people were deported to Babylon, these people were deported to Babylon, and oh, this cursed king, Jehoiachin, who, you know, none of his lineage is going to sit on the throne of David, who somehow he does show up in the lineage of Jesus and Matthew. Okay, it's all confusing, but we've dealt with that controversy. The end of Jeremiah 52 is about him going to Babylon, and then the king of Babylon's kind of like, hey, come on out of prison, and I'm going to put you on a throne, and I'm going to take good care of you. And you're like, wait, what? And then he dies. And then you're kind of like, that's the end. It ends in such a kind of negative way. So I always go back to Jeremiah 31 because that's such a amazing chapter and you have the 15 I wills of what God is going to do for Israel and Judah after all of the judgments and all of the condemnation and all of you guys need to do this and do this and they fell and fell and fell all of a sudden in Jeremiah 31 we have this beautiful chapter of I will do this for you and I will do this for you and I will do this for you and then we have the whole discussion about the new covenant he is going to make And come on class, he's going to make with, no, not the church, with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. And we talked about all of those implications. So on our last broadcast, we went back to Jeremiah 31. I also told you, to read Jeremiah 29. I think I said four or five times today because Jeremiah 29 has the famous verse that everyone rips out of context. So we want to at least make sure you know Jeremiah 29 so you can deal with that verse being ripped out of context. And Jeremiah 31, just because there's so much theological controversy surrounding it, because I think the covenant was made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, and others are like, no, no, no, no. even some who will acknowledge that, immediately focuses on somehow the covenant being with us, and then some immediately try to say, well, no, the covenant was made with the church, and we have lots of issues in the book of Jeremiah where people say, hey, that's not Israel, that's not national Israel, that's spiritual Israel, that's the church. And we've been dealing with that over and over and over again. So here's what I thought I would do tonight. I've been listening to lots of sermons on Jeremiah. So I've got one where they talk a little bit about this whole, hey, it's not the nation of Israel, it's the church concept. They're going to mention it. So I just want you to hear it where you don't think I'm just making it up. And then I stumbled upon a message today called the fuller meaning of Jeremiah 29 11. The fuller meaning of Jeremiah 29 11. And I'm like, the fuller meaning of Jeremiah 29 11. Okay. Are they going to correct the way it's misused? Or do they have, have they discovered the fuller meaning that everyone else has missed? I don't know. I haven't listened to it yet, but I thought we would review some of that and just do a little bit of reminding, reinforcing, and trying to get as much of Jeremiah into your mind before the clock hits midnight on August the 31st. So we're going to try. The goal is to be trying to broadcast at midnight on August the 31st, right when the clock strikes midnight, the right time, Texas time. When the clock strikes midnight here in Texas, then try to bring the study to a conclusion of hopefully that will be somewhat worthy, hopefully, of all your time. I know this. We've spent now, I think, over 60 hours of teaching in the book of Jeremiah. I think that's a lot. I mean, we did that in three months. So in three months, we've done over 60 hours of teaching in the book of Jeremiah. I think that's a lot. I think that's a lot. And I'm hoping that has been beneficial in some way, shape, or form. So let's add to that 60 hours, right? Let's add to it. Let's go even further over that time with more content on the book of Jeremiah for your listening pleasure and hopefully your spiritual edification, hopefully for your growing and knowledge, and hopefully you're being equipped so you'll no longer be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. And hopefully you appreciate all the work that we have done here and trying to produce all of this content for you. I hope so. I, yeah, well, again, it's just funny when you do, even when you do a three month study, even a three month study, it's so funny how When you start the study, you look around, you see all the people at the starting line and you see excitement and you see, yeah. And then you get a month into it and you realize now you lost maybe 10% of the people, 15% of the people. You get two months in, you realize you've lost like 50% of the people and you get almost to the three month mark and you look around and you're like, I think I've lost like 80% of the people. Even the numbers, the streaming numbers, the download numbers will indicate that, will prove that. And I understand we live in a day and age where there's a million things to choose from, but I hope that maybe someday someone will go back and go, wow, that was a lot of good content. And I hope it's been beneficial. So let's see what we can do tonight. So let's do this. Let's go to, this is a sermon. It's called the Gospel in Jeremiah. And I just want to review up to where they make a comment. about this whole situation of, is it Israel? Is it Judah? Or is it somehow not Israel or Judah? It's somehow spiritual Israel and Judah. I just want you to hear it because I say it all the time. Some of you have never said in a church where it's preached. Some of you have never heard it. So, I just want you to hear it for yourself because I don't make this up. Obviously, there's an entire theology that looks at it from this perspective, and I understand it. I went to schools where I was taught this perspective and had to write papers on this perspective. But I just have major... Listen, it's not that I have major issues with it from a perspective of eschatology or theology. I just have problems with it from just a textual, hermeneutical perspective. That's the way I look at it. But let's just listen to this and then we'll go to learning about the fuller meaning of Jeremiah 29 11 and we'll see what happens. So let's have a little bit of fun. Sit back, grab a notebook. Hey, we're just doing extra now. We're just doing extra. You can literally sit on the couch. You don't have to get up and run. There's no marathon now. You can just sit back and relax. and just take in a little bit more of Jeremiah before we get till midnight, August the 31st, and we bring our summer study of Jeremiah to hopefully somewhat of a dramatic and satisfying conclusion. All right, here we go. As I concluded the series on the divided kingdom, and then went right into lamentations, I kept repeating an important theme, that none of the failure of ancient Israel was by accident. Nor did it take God by surprise. Nor did God have to go to a plan B because plan A didn't work. There was no change in plan. There is no plan B. As Reformed Christians especially, we stand on that truth. Now, amen! See, this is where it gets me in trouble. See, this is what gets me in trouble. Because like, this is obviously coming from a Reformed perspective. I will say that I'm Reformed in so many ways, right? My theology very much falls in line with a lot of historical Reformed theology. The problem is, I won't just stay with the team. I won't just go with the team all the way through, right? I'll be like, well, I'm Reformed in this way, and then I'll deviate. Well, then as soon as I deviate, then the Reformed people go, you were never Reformed, you are not Reformed. But because I have enough reform, then the non-reformed people go, you're too reformed. And so I don't have a team. I don't have a home. I have nowhere I fit in. Nowhere. And that's maddening, but I completely agree. issue with Judah and Israel did not take God by surprise. There wasn't a plan B. Just like the fall of mankind, there wasn't a plan B. It did not take God by surprise. Now, how God knows all of this yet allows things to go the way they go, they raise deep philosophical questions that typically make Christians uncomfortable when you bring them up. But I am in agreement with this. But he's going to continue going down a way of thinking that's very reformed, where then now I'm not going to be reformed enough because I'm going to now go against it. But see, I don't, I'm not interested in your team. I'm not interested. I don't care. The only problem is it's hard to be a church that doesn't have a team. It's hard because everyone wants you to know which team are you on. Identify yourself, right? Put on the jersey. Wear our colors because if you don't, we're going to do a theological drive-by and take you out because you're in the wrong block. You don't belong here, right? It's almost like gang warfare, okay, but it's still logical gang warfare. You've got to pick a team, rep the team, represent the team, or the team will turn on you. On this part, I would be very reformed and be like, absolutely, this was all a part of God's plan. Absolutely, God knew it was going to happen. Absolutely, did not take him by surprise. Absolutely, there wasn't a plan B. This was all part of the plan. And when I say reformed, It's kind of difficult to define that word these days. But I simply mean that we are people who believe the Reformation was a significant event in church history coming after centuries of corruption when the teaching of Jesus and the apostles were re-examined and written into the great confessions and catechisms to make the teachings of scripture more accessible to believers and more easily teachable to their children. That's certainly a worthy goal. To many people today these confessions and catechisms are too complicated. That's not a problem with the confessions. I think it's a problem with the modern church which wants to reduce the entire Christian message into basically a little gospel tract with a repeatable prayer at the end. That's not biblical Christianity. But getting back to national Israel. Israel's failure as a nation wasn't something that required a new plan. It simply was a part of the plan. Okay. The failure of Israel did not require a new plan. It was part of the plan. Okay. What was that plan? Was the plan, Israel failed under a covenant that basically required, do this and live, don't do this, do this and live, and if you don't do this, you will die, right? Was the plan simply, here is what happens when you operate under a covenant that says, do this and you will live, don't do this and you will die, because you're always going to do the wrong thing, and you're going to suffer, and you're going to die, and it's going to be judgment. And it demonstrates man's failure to ever obey or keep God's law. was that part of the plan, to demonstrate that, and then God would step in and say, now, because I have loved you with an everlasting love, because I have elected you, I am now, I will step in, and I will restore you, and I will save you, and I will be your righteousness, and I will do it for you, because you cannot obey. I'm gonna have to make a new covenant, a new covenant where I do everything for you, Because in any covenant agreement that required you to do this to live and don't do this or you would die, you're always going to do the things you shouldn't do and you're going to die. So what was the plan? Was the plan for the nation of Israel to be a living example of us living under the law, which is failure, death, judgment, and punishment, and condemnation. And then God steps in and says, now look at Israel. I chose them. I elected them. I'm going to redeem them. I'm going to restore them. I'm going to save them. And I'm going to fulfill all my promises because my election is sure and it is not It doesn't go away. I'm faithful even when you are unfaithful. Or was the plan always, okay, I'm just going to use Israel temporarily, then I'm going to throw national Israel over, in a sense, overboard, and then I'll turn my attention to the church. Well, isn't that a new plan? Or was that always the plan? Let me expand on that just a little bit. As Reformed Christians especially, we understand that the entire history of redemption is one big unfolding plan of God's promises given and promises kept or fulfilled. We also understand that the large overarching promises of God came in the form of covenants. The covenant through Moses, the covenant with Abraham, the covenant with David, and so on. Our theology, our understanding of the Bible is covenant based. We call it covenant theology. Okay, now here's a system, right? So just so that you understand, there's radically different systems. There's covenant theology, and then we can call it dispensationalism. Now what happens when you pick one of these teams, that team now controls the hermeneutic, right? Now they will say, no, no, no, no, the hermeneutic gave us our system. You may argue that Someone at some point in history read the Bible and formulated the system. But I will argue, much as time goes on, you learn the system and you read the system into the Bible. The system becomes your hermeneutic. Because once you formulate your hermeneutic, then you can see it. Like, once you come to the conclusion that babies should be baptized at eight days old to put the sign of the covenant on them, and they become a member of the visible church. Well, then it's a miraculously how you see it in Scripture. I don't know how any reasonable person would ever see that in Scripture because it's not there, okay? It's not there. But once you get the system, it's amazing how now you can see the system in the Scripture. So you've got people out there who are like, nope, covenant theology. That's how I understand these promises to Israel. That's how I see it. You got others who are like, no, from a dispensational standpoint. And there's radically different approaches from those two systems. What I hate is having a system. What I want to do is like, what does the text demand here? I don't care which system gets offended. That's why sometimes I will look at a text and I offend the reform people so they get mad at me. And then sometimes I offend the non-reform people. That's why no one is ever happy with me. because I won't stay true to a team. Everybody wants a team. Hey, what team are we on? Okay, now just give me that team's message. But do you want the team or do you want the text? Do you want the text? He's gonna see the text through the lens of covenant theology. Well, whether, I don't even care about the system, I just know there are texts that I don't think covenant theology, I don't think it handles it correctly. I just don't. I just don't. I don't care who that offends. I just don't. And there may be texts that I don't think, I may not, I may disagree with the dispensationalist. I think we just have to take each text and go, what do we do with this text? This text presents 15,000 different problems. We got to work on it. We got to figure it out. And we got to struggle. And people don't like that. I say it all the time. Most people sitting in the pew prefer simplicity and certainty over truth. They want it simple. They want it certain. They don't want truth because truth is not simple and truth is rare. Rarely is it certain when it deals with the truth of scripture. There's lots of uncertainty connect to it because sometimes we just don't know what to do with it. And in our covenant-based, reformed understanding of the history of redemption, we believe that in the downfall of national Israel, when Israel and Judah broke the covenant that had been given through Moses, and that was the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, that through that God would preserve a physical remnant of the Jewish people that would bring forth the promised Messiah as the seed of Abraham, and the seed of David, just as God had promised. But then, by means of a new covenant, the one promised by Jeremiah, that was sealed by Christ's blood and confirmed by the apostles, and which I would say is most clearly expressed in Hebrews chapter 8, by the way, through that God would preserve a spiritual remnant. See that? The covenant in Jeremiah 31 that is specifically said for the house of Israel and the house of Judah, it literally says that. That becomes spiritual Israel. That becomes a spiritual remnant. It's no longer for the nation. I don't understand that. The whole book has been about the nation, the nation, the nation. It's about nations after nations after nations. This nation, this king, this nation, this nation will be judged. This king, this nation, this place. It's literal nations. It's literal Judah, literal Israel, literal Assyrians, literal Babylonians, literal captivity, and a literal covenant made with a literal nation. I cannot, I will never understand this approach. I just don't get it. Look, I do understand the approach from this way. When you just don't want to deal with eschatology, and you're just like, you know what, I don't want to deal with eschatology. I'll just be amillennial. I'll just be, I'll be one of, you don't really want to deal with eschatology? Well, it all works great until you start reading the text and you read Jeremiah 31, 31. Behold, the days come, sayeth the Lord that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. The people who heard the words at that time would they have thought, oh, he's going to make it with a spiritual remnant, a spiritual Israel. They would have been looking. These were words of comfort to people going into physical captivity to a physical nation who was a part of a physical nation, who had physical, literal kings. So he's like, no, no, no. So see, so now the covenant in Jeremiah in 31, see, that's the new covenant. And it's going to, it's, it ultimately, it's fulfillment is with a, a spiritual remnant, a spiritual Israel. No, no, no, no, no, no. In the church throughout the final age. Finally, as we form Christians, we believe there has always been only one people of God or We might say one church, one congregation. Now some people would say, you reformed people believe in replacement theology. You think the church has replaced Israel. And actually I would say no, we don't believe that at all. We don't believe the church has replaced Israel. We believe that under the new covenant the church is Israel. See, we don't believe the church replaced Israel. We just believe in the covenant. The church is Israel. No, no, no. In Jeremiah 31, that's not the church. That's not the church. Literally, the covenant is made. Look at Jeremiah 31. It drives me. I just want to start. I just want to start heavily drinking when I hear this stuff. I just, I really want to, because listen, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. That's not the church. That's not the church. Hey, we don't believe it replaced it. We just believe in the covenant. The church is Israel. What, the church is Israel? No, the Israel is Israel. Judah is Judah, especially when you're reading Jeremiah. There's no other way to import this idea into the text. Let the text say what the text says, unless the text demands you look for a different meaning. Then I'm all for going, well, wait a minute, I don't know if that makes sense. Wait a minute, I think something's, that doesn't really make, It makes perfect sense in the context. Who's going into captivity? Who went into captivity to the Assyrians? The northern kingdom, Israel. Who's going into captivity? to Babylon, the southern kingdom, Judah. And then God tells them, hey, house of Israel and house of Judah, you failed, you failed, you failed, you failed, you failed, but I will make a covenant. I will redeem you. I will give you the land. I will save you. I will put my law in your heart. I will be your God. It's this beautiful, the promise makes no sense if it has nothing to do with the nation. Why even give them the promise? Just say, hey guys, the nation, you guys are trash. You guys are trash. You're done. The nation's no more. It's going to be about a spiritual remnant. You think it could be a little bit more emphatic, right? Just for example, the same thing happens when you deal with infant baptism. You think it could be maybe, I don't know, a little clearer, but no, it's always, and it's always the reform world that's so arrogant. It'll be like, you're just too dumb. You just don't understand. And someone made a comment in the chat. that amillennialism does have a certain ease and appeal. It does. Typically people who don't really care much about eschatology tend to be amill. They're just like, you know, I don't really want to deal with it. It's almost like you just pick it by default because you don't have to figure everything out. You can just say all that, you know, you don't have to worry about it. I do believe there's an ease and appeal to it. I do. But I just think I just think when you start trying to work it, then it falls apart. But this just drives me crazy. We'll just listen to a little bit more. I just wanted you to hear that I'm not making this up. This is actually being taught. This is in churches all across the United States of America. And I just, this is where I don't fit in. So see, that's where if someone hears that I'm reformed, within a couple of minutes, they're gonna say, no, you're not really reformed. And they'll throw me out of the reform camp. Say, I can't be on team reformed because I'm not reformed enough. Because the true Israel is no longer a political nation, it's a spiritual nation made up of those who believe. The people of God are one olive tree. Take a look in Romans chapter 11. The Jews, and when I say that I mean as Paul is using it here, referring to the physical stock of Abraham, they were the root. God's covenant with them as a nation was the old covenant, which as a nation they broke. So I would say that modern unbelieving Jews are no more God's people than modern unbelieving Gentiles. The Gentiles under the new covenant, which is the church, were grafted into that olive tree and With believing Jews, they became partakers of the root and fatness of that one olive tree. You'll see that in Romans 11 and verse 17. And one day, as I understand Romans 11, the Jews, what remains of them, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted back into that olive tree, as you see in verse 23, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you, meaning you Gentiles, were cut out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and were grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are natural branches, meaning the Jews, be grafted into their own olive tree? He says, For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion. That blindness in part has happened to Israel until, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Exactly! National Israel is blinded until the fullness of the time of the Gentiles come in. And then Israel will be, the point is that Gentiles are grafted in. I got no problem with that. We benefit in part from the covenant. Got no problem with that. Because Israel has been temporarily set aside. But God will keep his promises to them and will do that. If he doesn't keep the promises to them, then how can we trust any promise? The whole thing about Israel, it shows the reality of trying to obey the law. You can't do it. And it shows the absolute sovereignty of God's mercy that he will do this for them and save them. And then he will keep his promises knowing that God's election is sure and trustworthy. Now that sounds to me like an end times awakening among the Jewish people. That is certainly what Spurgeon believed. Many of the Puritans believed that. Yes, a spiritual awakening upon the entire nation. The nation will be saved. They will be brought back into the land and God will fulfill the promises. And it's okay to say, well, wait a minute, are you saying there's two different peoples of God? You can argue there is a people of God, those who are saved by faith, but God has made a promise to a nation and will keep that nation, and that nation will be a part of the people of God as far as salvation is concerned, but the national promises have to be fulfilled to the nation. Just as the promise of judgment and being placed into Babylonian captivity literally was fulfilled, the promises to the nation have to be literally fulfilled. That's just a simple, natural way of reading it. Many modern Reformed people believe that, and I have trouble interpreting Romans 11 any other way. Charles Spurgeon on June 16, 1684, in a sermon entitled The Restoration and Conversion of the Jews. This was over 80 years before the modern Jewish nation even existed. He said, there is to be a political restoration of the Jews. Israel is now blotted out from the map of nations. Her sons are scattered far and wide. Her daughters mourn beside all the rivers of the earth. But she is to be restored as from the dead. Israel is to be restored. Exactly. The nation must be restored because there are promises to the nation. Absolutely. I'm not going to say the nation has to be restored and then magically say, hey guys, don't look, don't look, but that's really the church. No, it's really the nation. It's really the nation that's going to be restored. When her own sons have given up all hope of her then God is to appear for her. There will again be the form of a political body. A state shall be incorporated and a king shall reign. Israel has now become alienated from her own land. But if there is meaning in words, Israel is yet to be restored. Israel will be restored and there will be a king! It hasn't happened! Thank you for reading Spurgeon. Thank you. It hasn't happened. So when are they going to be restored and who is going to be that king that could be reigning? I wonder who that king could be. Does anyone know? Oh, didn't Jeremiah tell us it will be David? Now, J. Vernon McGee had a weird way of saying it's David resurrected, but most believe it's Christ, the rightful heir to the throne of David. He's it. Again, those words of Spurgeon regarding a political rebirth of Israel seem almost prophetic They're prophetic because they're based on scripture. Of course they're prophetic. The Bible says Israel will be restored. Israel will be brought back into the land. A king will rule over them. They will be his people. He will be their God. Their sins will be removed. He will place their law in their heart and they will obey him. And no one will have to be taught because they will know him from the greatest to the least. I don't know the actual words from, oh yeah, the book of Jeremiah. and the book of Ezekiel and Zechariah and all the other books that give these great promises to Israel? But does Israel's restoration go beyond a political one? Well, I think some people have a tendency to muddy the issue. In my opinion, the restoration of Israel has nothing to do with technically who is Jewish by blood or by genealogy or not. That may not be God's concern either. It may simply be that God's purpose for the remaining Jewish people in the end will be to glorify His holy name as the God of Israel by saving them out of their hardness and their unbelief, causing them to look and mourn over Him whom they've pierced. And in that way, God would welcome them back into I don't know why he would say anyone else is muddying up the issue. You're muddying up the issue. Maybe he's going to do that. Let me see. Let me think. Let me think really hard. Oh, because he said he would and he made promises that he would. It's so frightening to me how you can so hold on to a system so hold on to a particular theological team that even when you're trying to explain your system and your team, you almost start explaining it for the other side. But you're like, well, I mean, I don't think it really means that. What do you mean? You just read Spurgeon who made it very much sound like the nation will be reborn and there will be a king. Like, I don't know what more you could do. Like, I don't even need to argue with you. You're proving my point for me while you're trying to argue against my point. Their own tree, like a father rejoicing that his lost son has returned, or like a shepherd rejoicing that the lost sheep has returned. By that means they would be grafted into that great olive tree of God's people, which is the church. representing the entire household of faith. And see now he's like, but, but they're going to be grafted into the church or are we, aren't we the ones grafted in? Aren't we grafted in? But he was just wants to make it the church because then he can get done with the nation of Israel. But if you get done with it, if you throw out the nation of Israel, then you throw out all of the prophecies in the old Testament about national Israel, where God said, I will do this and I will do this and I will do this and I will do this. Then you have to go to those promises and say, well, those promises are not for the nation, they're for the church. The whole thing, it's maddening. But once again, it just demonstrates 2,000 years of church history. 2,000 years. and we still cannot agree on things like, what does Israel mean when it says Israel? What does the Bible mean when it says Judah? What does the Bible mean when it talks about who should be baptized? What does the Bible, isn't it maddening to you? Like, just, it drives you, it almost just drives me to insanity that after 2,000 years, There's still no agreement on basically anything. Nothing. We don't agree on how to interpret Romans chapter 11. We don't agree on how to interpret Jeremiah 31. We don't agree on how to interpret passages about baptism. We don't even agree on how to define the word baptism. We don't agree on how to define the word repentance. Literally, there is no agreement. Now that tells me if there's no agreement, then what's the point of picking a team? What's the point of picking a team? Because every team thinks they're right and they will immediately condemn the other team. And then they'll throw anyone out who's not supposedly in your team. I saw today, there was, again, there's this new debate going on because COVID numbers are going up and there's all these rumors that they're going to reinstitute lockdowns and shutdowns and mask mandates and vaccine mandates. And of course, there's plenty of Christians are just furious. Well, there was this one Christian trying to argue with these other Christians that, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, you know what? You know what? You know, we should love people and we should try to wear the mask. Well, the mask don't work and that's garbage. And then immediately, guess what? The person trying to say, maybe we should wear a mask, guess what that person was told? You are not a believer. So now your salvation is determined not by your faith in Christ, but by what you believe in regards to mask mandates. And so we don't even agree on what, I guess, salvation is anymore. I thought salvation is basically, do you believe in Jesus Christ and you're trusting in him alone for your salvation? No, now it's, what do you believe about mask mandates? And if you support mask mandates, you're not a believer. What, what do you believe about Trump? Oh, you disagree with Trump? You're not a believer. I mean, it's like, it's just insane. Like Christianity is maddening and it's just crazy to hear someone preaching in Jeremiah and I'm sitting here going. Their entire approach to the book is 1000% opposite to the way I've approached the book, that when it says Judah, it means Judah. When it says Israel, it means Israel. When it says Babylon, it means Babylon. When it says the Ammonites, it means the Ammonites. When it talks about whatever the nation may be, Egypt, it means Egypt. When it talks about kings, it talks about actual kings. I take it until there are sections where you're like, I don't know, is that figurative here? Is that kind of perfect? if there's a reason textually to question it. And we should rejoice in that thought even though it requires a cataclysmic end to the age and a cataclysmic end to the enemies of God including the devil and his angels. They all must be defeated and the entire world as we know it must be destroyed in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, the elements will melt with fervent heat, both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Now to get back to the Old Testament period that we've been studying, the divided kingdom period which ended with captivity in Babylon. The fall of Judah was simply an earlier chapter... What? And do you see how he reverts right back? Now Babylon is Babylon and now Judah is Judah. Hey, now, after he spends all of that time, I mean, we've spent 41 minutes listening to it, after he spends all of that time basically saying Israel isn't Israel, Judah isn't really Judah, it's spiritual Israel, after all of that, and then he reads the weird, bizarre thing from Spurgeon, which seems to confirm that there will be a future restoration of the nation and there'll be a king ruling over them, which sounds very much like a millennial kingdom, but I digress. But then he's like, now let's get back. Now he goes back, and guess what? All of a sudden Babylon, that's real Babylon, and that's real Judah, and that's real captivity, and that's a real divided nation. All of a sudden now it becomes very literal. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. No, no, no, no. No, remember, it's always been the church. So it was a divided church. It was the North Church and the South Church. And the North Church went to captivity to the Assyrians, and the North Church went into captivity to the Assyrians, and the South Church went into captivity to the Babylonians. But then God's gonna make a new covenant with the church because he had redeemed the church from Egypt. Oh, whatever. Okay, whatever. It was the nation of Israel. God chose a nation. He made promises to that nation. He made provision to that nation. He did all of these wonderful things for the nation. I don't know why, to focus on the nation, we feel like somehow we're getting shortchanged or we're getting ripped off. We still get grafted in. We still get salvation. That doesn't mean God's finished with the nation. It's just amazing how it just reverts back to a very, very literal thing. We were going to do the Jeremiah 29 11 in this episode. Clearly we're not because we're already at 43 minutes. So I'm just going to review a little bit more of this because I haven't heard any of this part. I've heard the other part that I've just played. I haven't heard any of this. At this point, there's no point switching over to the Jeremiah 29 one. We'll do that. Maybe we'll do it later tonight, maybe. If not tomorrow, we're going to be in Jeremiah all day tomorrow. And so we got plenty of time, but this is just, I just, this is why the book of Jeremiah is so important. And this is why I wanted you to read the whole book this year, because if you read the whole book in its proper context, I think then you, you yourself on your own can go to Jeremiah 31 and go, you can draw your own conclusions. You draw your own conclusions. But if all of a sudden you make a house of Israel and house of Judah something other than the literal nation, then I don't know how you're interpreting all the nations, because there are so many nations and kings and kingdoms mentioned in the book of Jeremiah. I don't know what that does to your hermeneutic throughout the rest of the book. In God's plan to pass, to bring to pass all of the things that Paul lays out in Romans chapter 11. It's a plan that was in the process of being perfectly executed even as the Jews were being carried off in chains to Babylon. That was part of God's perfect plan. So what I'd like to do for a while in my preaching is to continue in this Old Testament period. I'd like to present sort of a survey of the events and God's involvement in them. During the exile, when Jeremiah was actually taken to Egypt and probably died there, We'll talk about that this morning. I wonder, do you think that was a literal Egypt? Do you think that was a literal nation? Do you think they were in literal chains? Do you think they went into literal captivity? Do you think Jeremiah literally died? And in Babylon, where Ezekiel and Daniel were prophets in captivity, was at literal Babylon, with literal Ezekiel, literal Daniel, has literal captives, and literally, like... Talk about them in the next few weeks. Then there was the return from exile in Babylon, that's called the post-exile or post-exilic period. And that would be under the leadership of Zerubbabel, Nehemiah, Ezra, and the late prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. I might preach a message or two on all of that. And then after that I would like to do a message also on the so-called 400 silent years. So, all of that would then bring us right up to the birth of Christ. And of course if we believe in the sovereignty of God in all things, we must acknowledge that All of those centuries leading up to the coming of Christ, and all of the darkness, and all of the sin and disobedience, even during those years, even after the exile in Babylon, all of those were also part of God's plan. So with that partial introduction, let us look to the Lord in prayer, and then I still have some more introductory remarks to make. Let us pray. Heavenly Father once again. That's funny. It's almost like he forgot to pray, and so now he has to pray. That's kind of odd. That's kind of odd. All right. But yeah, that's just my own personal preference. I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan of the prayer before the sermon. I'm not even really a fan of the prayer after the sermon. I know it's what I'm supposed to do, and I still do it just because I feel so many times you're preaching, you're not praying. So many times you're trying to get your points in either at the beginning or you're summarizing at the end, and so then you're not really talking to God, you're still talking to the people. And if I'm going to talk to the people pretending that I'm talking to God, then I believe that's pretty rude to do to God. Hey God, I'm going to pretend I'm talking to you, but I'm still preaching. Because God doesn't need to hear my outline. God doesn't need to hear my sermon. So, what should I be—when I get ready to stand before God to pray for my sermon, what, do I need to do it publicly? Could I already have done that privately? What do I need to say to God publicly right before I preach? Other than am I trying to say something—am I doing something to try to convince the people of something? I don't know. The whole thing doesn't make sense. Well, let's just listen to his prayer, and we'll just see where he goes here, and then we'll do two quick things to wrap this up that may be beneficial, all right? So, let's do this. We commit this time to you as we consider these biblical doctrines. Sometimes it's challenging to put all of the history together because the Bible is not just a book of doctrines, it is a book of history. Now, did God need to know that the Bible is not a book of doctrine, but it's a book of history? Why are you telling God that? See, that's what I'm saying. Sometimes the prayer before sermons and after sermons are always confounding and confusing to me. I understand it's what we're supposed to do. It's on the checklist. I remember one time I didn't do it and we had visitors and they came up to me, you didn't pray much. Okay, so you needed to hear me pray? Look, You needed to come to church so that you could bow your head and listen to me pray? I mean, you can pray on the way to church. You can pray on the way home. You can pray all night. You can pray all day. You need to come to church to hear me pray? Sometimes I don't quite understand what we do. And I know once again I'm not going to fit on any team and I'm going to offend everybody, but that's just a weird thing to say in prayer. I say these weird things in prayer at the end of my sermons all the time. Every time I'm done praying at the end of one of my sermons, I'm like, that was stupid, stupid, stupid. What are you doing? What are you doing? You weren't actually praying, you were still preaching. Just say, thanks everyone, that's the end, the end. Or just say amen, or just be done, right? Our faith is a historical faith. When we receive Christ, we also receive the entire history as it is given to us in scripture. So you're telling God that when we receive Christ, we receive, like, how is this a prayer? He's still preaching. It sounds like he's preaching. And when we find it in scripture, we believe that it is, there's something there for us to understand and to know and to study and to learn. So we ask your blessing as we consider these historical matters and as we join them with Bible doctrines that we'll also be looking at this morning, and we commit this time once again to you in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, he could have just said, hey, guys, we need to pray really quick. Lord, bless this time and help us, you know, commit these things to you. Like you could have just said, it's just been very straight like, God, look, I forgot to pray. I feel like I should. I apologize for not praying at the beginning. Lord, please, we're studying these difficult things. Help us. And however you believe God helps, that gets into a whole theological issue. But here we go. We commit this time to you. This morning, as I've mentioned, as I've laid out, I'd like to talk about the final years of Jeremiah. When Judah was conquered and the captivity came, I just want you to see, after he made all of those discussions about, you know, not national Israel, the church is national, all those things, now it's right back to literal Judah, literal Jeremiah, literal captivity, literal Babylonians. It's maddening. But so, let's do this to wrap this up. We're at 51 minutes. Let's do this, all right? Let's just, I mean, he brought it up. I know this gets us a little bit away from Jeremiah, but it's Jeremiah adjacent. Let's go to Romans chapter 11. He went there. He only read a couple of verses, of course. Let's just go, and then you can consider Romans 11. and light of everything you read in the book of Jeremiah. If you participated this summer, you should know all the contents of Jeremiah, and I've begged, you pleaded almost, to read Jeremiah 31 ten times. I've challenged you to pull out the 15 I wills and create an artistic capture of the 15 I wills in Jeremiah 31. So if you have all of that knowledge, now Romans 11, it may take on a different meaning for you. Who knows? You may decide you're right. You may agree with his perspective. That's okay. But at least you're doing so based on reading everything. But here's Romans chapter 11. All right, let's start in verse one. I say then, hath God cast away his people? Now I wonder what people Paul could be referring to. Who could be his people? I wonder. Is it the church? Has God cast away the church? Paul says, God forbid, for I'm also an Israelite. No, I don't think he's referring to the church. He's referring to Israel. I'm an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. He connects himself literally to the tribe of part of the nation. God hath not cast away his people, which he foreknew. And remember in Jeremiah, we talked about it earlier today. God says, they are a nation before me. As long as there's the sun, the moon, the stars, they are a nation before me. Remember we talked about that? God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. What, ye not? What, the scripture saith of Elias, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and dig down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Beal. Even so then, at this present time, also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. There has been a remnant. There's always been a remnant. of believing, you could say, of believing Israel. Now, sometimes the believing remnant or the remnant, I mean, in Jeremiah, the remnant goes down to Egypt and won't listen to Jeremiah. So we could get into a whole discussion here. And if by grace, then it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. It has to be by grace because if it's by work and what they do, then it's no more grace. All right. So very important law gospel concepts there. Where, what then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. They may not have obtained it, but election obtained it, because God chose them, God elected them. According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes, that they should not see in ears that they should not hear unto this day. And David said, let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense unto them. Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see and bow down their back always. I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid. But rather, though through their fall salvation has come unto the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousy." Now, who are these people who are blinded? It's not the believing remnant. It's the nation has been blinded. They have fallen away. And why? So that salvation can come to the Gentiles. That is me. That is you. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! For I speak to you Gentiles, and so much as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my office. if by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh and might save some of them." Hey, I'm going to preach to the Gentiles. I'm going to bring this gospel to the Gentiles so they'd be saved. Paul's hope is that it will provoke his own kindred, the Jews, Israel, to jealousy. It will provoke them. All right, verse 15, for if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead? Hey, if them being thrown out brings about so much good, what's the good going to be when they are brought back? For if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy, and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree. Boast not against the branches, but if thou boast thou bear not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then the branches were broken off that I may be grafted in. Well, because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear. But if God spare not the natural branches, take heed, lest he also spare not thee. Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God on them which fell severity, but towards thee goodness. If thou continue in his goodness, otherwise thou shalt also be cut off. It's a warning. Hey, God set aside Israel for a time. He sets them aside, so don't be so arrogant and proud as well. For if thou were cut out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more shall these which be the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree? For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own conceit, that blindness in part has happened to Israel, to the nation until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. Blindness has happened to the nation until the fullness of the time of the Gentiles come in." That's an important phrase. Until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so, all Israel shall be saved. As it is written, they shall come out of Zion, the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins. God will bring in the Gentiles when that time is fulfilled, the fullness of the Gentiles are in, then God will save Israel as he had promised. That is, I don't understand why that's so complicated. No, Israel's not really Israel. Israel's the church. No, he separates the Gentiles from Israel. Israel set aside, the Gentiles are saved. He separates them. Then when the Gentiles are fulfilled, then Israel will be saved. Because there is a distinction. They may all make up quote-unquote one body, but there is still a distinct plan for the nation of Israel. Now that phrase, fullness of the Gentiles, the time of the Gentiles, this is very important and I wanna read something from a book called A Dozen Diamonds from Daniel. If I can find it here. All right, I'm gonna read a couple of parts here. Alright, these attacks were made against Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar and the armies of Babylon. The first came in 606 BC, the second in 597 BC, and the third in 586 BC. Let me make it very clear, that's a literal king, literal Babylon, a literal nation that made literal attacks in literal years. In 606 BC, in the third year of Jehoiakim, at the besieging of the city of Jerusalem and its attacks by Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel was taken captive into Babylon. When the second attack came in 597 BC, Ezekiel, who became an outstanding prophet, is taken into captivity. In the year 586 BC, the most devastating of all the attacks, the temple at Jerusalem was destroyed, the walls of the city torn down, and the people taken into captivity, and only a residue remains. That marked the beginning of a period in history known as the times of the Gentiles. All right, now they're going to pick this phrase up here in a minute. Okay, here we go. The time of the Gentiles began with the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. We are now living in that period, which is paralleled by another period similar in name, the fullness of the Gentiles. The fullness of the Gentiles began with the offering of the gospel of the Lord to the Gentiles. This happened when the Jews rejected Christ and the gospel. And now they say it will end in the rapture. I'm not here to get into the ending of that, just saying that there's a time of the Gentiles. But the time of the Gentiles will not end until Jesus comes to establish his kingdom upon the earth. Jesus himself said, Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled. That's Luke 21, 24. This time of the Gentiles has a specific period, a specific plan for the Gentiles. And then when that is fulfilled, then it seems God has to then come back and fulfill his promises to Israel as outlined, not only in Jeremiah, not only outlined in Ezekiel, Zechariah, and maybe some in Daniel. You can read about it, but you've read about it in Jeremiah. And those promises would mean nothing to a nation who's suffering real punishment to be saying, hey, hey, hey, hey, guys, guys, guys, guys, you as a nation, you're finished. But hey, I got some good news. There's gonna be a spiritual Israel. It's gonna be the church. Aren't you happy? No, there was a partial fulfillment of the ultimate promises in coming out of Babylonian captivity, which happened literally. That is a sign that the rest of it must happen literally. I know that doesn't fit everyone's perfect system, but I don't know what else you do. There you have it. I would challenge you. Jeremiah 31. I wanted to get to Jeremiah 29. I wanted to. I wanted to get to Jeremiah 29 because everyone rips verse 11 out of context. So I wanted to. Remember, I told you to read that like four or five times. Please read Jeremiah 31 10 times. Identify the 15 I wills. And then if you want to do extra credit, go find all the promises God made to Israel. Just start looking in the Old Testament for all the promises. I will do this for you. I will do this for you. Not the conditional promises that if you do this, you will live, and if you don't do this, you will die, because they fell. All of those promises, they fell. We know that. But there's land promises. There's these promises of a new heart. Basically, they won't sin anymore. They're all going to obey God. They all know God. None of their enemies are ever going to attack them again. There is promise after promise after promise. You can find them in Ezekiel. You can find them in Jeremiah 31. Just make a list of all of those promises. And then you ask yourself, not literal, and they go to the church. And if you can say that, well then congratulations, that's fine. More power to you. I just can't. That's okay. That's perfectly all right with me. You can believe that. That's fine. I just, I just can't. I believe God can't be done with it. But for when I say you can believe that people are still not satisfied. They still get mad and like, no, no, no, no, no. And I'm like, no, just, it's okay. Go ahead and believe what you want. I don't care anymore. I literally, but it's, it's, it's not good enough, I guess. But there you have it. I, I just think Israel is the best example It's a living example of a nation who could not keep God's law and was condemned, punished, and judged. And how God, in His sovereign election, because He had an everlasting love for them, an everlasting love for them, He will save them by His mercy and grace alone, apart from their works, and He will be their righteousness. In fact, He is called the God of their righteousness. All right, we'll stop. You can email me, newsifatyahoo.com. That's newsifatyahoo.com. That's newsifatyahoo.com. I promise tomorrow we'll start with the audio of Jeremiah 29 11. Well, I promise we'll do that. I promise we'll do that. And then... We'll see what they have to say about Jeremiah 29 11. And then we got all day tomorrow to kind of do what we want. I don't know. What do you want to do? What do you want to do with the rest of Jeremiah? What do you want? What do you want? I got the study guide here. Hang on, where is it? Hang on. The study guide. We could use the study guide and we could go to chapter 35. We could jump to chapter 36 and we could jump to chapter 42 and we could jump to Jeremiah chapter 50 and we just spend a lot of time in the study guide. So, maybe we'll use some of them. And because we mentioned covenant theology, this all comes together because hopefully on Sunday, hopefully, we begin, hopefully, the plan, a series on dispensationalism. That's the plan. Does that sound fun? No? Okay, all right. We'll see. I think it's perfect here. Oh, we still need to do some work on lamentations, I know. So, we got a million other things to do, but all right. NewsifatYahoo.com. NewsifatYahoo.com. That's NewsifatYahoo.com. Love, thoughts, feedback, and hopefully you've enjoyed your summer 2023. And it's all been about the book of Jeremiah. I hope you participated. I hope you know the book now like it's the back of your hand. Hopefully you lived with Jeremiah for three months, every day reading something in Jeremiah, so that now you're so acquainted with the book. So the next time anyone quotes anything or says anything from the book of Jeremiah, you'll be like, no, no, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait. See, this happened, and this happened, and this happened, and this happened. And then there was this king, and then there was this, and then there was this, and there was that. And you now are like the expert. I did what I could. All right, thanks for listening. Everyone have a great night. God bless.