8/12/2019 1988 Issue 11 - Jeremiah: Judgment and Restoration, Part XI - Counsel of Chalcedon

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ible tudy

I 11:1-17) The Preaching of

a

Broken Covenant

A. (11:1-5) TH BREAKING OF

TH

MOSAIC COVENANT

1.

The

charge Jehovah brings

against the church and sutte ofJudah is

that they have transgress,ed the Cove

nant He made with Moses, Exodus 19-

24. Therefore

God

will,' pour out on

Judah the curses of the covenant des

cribed in Leviticus 26 and Oeuteronomy

28.

2. See my study on Jeremiah

and the Covenants

o

Promise in a

previous issue.

3. The purpose of this Mosaic

Covenant

of

redemption by atonement,

reconstruction by law and reconciliation

by the Temple was

to

make Israel fully

aware that she is God's property, of

whom

he is creating a kingdom of

priests and a holy nation, Exod. 19:5-6;

I Pet. 2:5, 9.

4. This covenant has a central

emphasis in Jeremiah's preaching: 3:16;

11:2-10; 14:21; 22:9; 31:31-33; 32:40;

33:20-25; 34:8-18; 50:5. Jehovah will

judge Judah because she has disbelieved

the promises and disobeyed the Jaws of

this covenant.

B. (11:6-8) TH COMMAND TO

PREACH A BROKEN COVENANT

1. Jehovah commissions Jere

miah to preach to Judah that Judah's

basic sin

is

that she has transgressed

God's covenant; that God will judge her

unless she repents; and that God

through Jeremiah calls Judah back tore

newed faithfulness to that covenant. In

like manner America has broken her

covenant with Jehovah; and we must re

pent or suffer the covenant curses.

2. The thrust of biblical preach

ing is: Listen to and obey the voice

of

Jehovah or suffer the consequences. Pro

phetic preaching has two central empha

ses: judgment and mercy (hope), both

in a covenant context

3. Notice that although Judah

has transgressed the covenant, it re

mains in effect, in that the curses are

operative on disobedience, whereas

blessings would be operative on

obedience.

C. (11:9-13)

TH

CONSPIRACY

OF COVENANT BREAKING

1.

God considers covenant-break

ing as a revolt or mutiny against him -

the formal, self-conscious, and insidi

ous uniting

of

the people of a nation

against the God of the Bible. Psalm 2

brings out the international and politi

cal nature of this conspiracy against

Jehovah and his Christ. By means of a

carefully organized plot, apostate Judah

renounced Jehovah's lordship over the

church and state of that nation.

2. Judah followed its more re

cent anti-christian heritage, rather than

its more distant Christian heritage,

which lay right at the foundation of that

nation. National covenant breaking is

not only a change of gods, it is a re-

pudiation of a godly history and founda

tion. t is an all-out attempt to banish

God from a culture.

3. The inescapable consequence

of refusing to hear God's words (in

his

Spirit-inspired prophets and apostles,

and through faithful preaching) is

disaster and the abandonment

of

that

nation by God.

4. Notice the powerlessness and

emptiness of

all

other religions and

idols, vs. 12f. Power, truth, life and

salvation are to

be found in Christianity

alone.

5. See Gary North's

Conspiracy:

Biblical View Dominion Press,

1986, Ft. Worth, Texas.

D. (11:14-17) THE ABANDON

M NT OF COVENANT-BREAKERS

BY JEHOVAH

1. The stress here is on the emp

tiness of meaningless rituals and sacri

fices carried out day by day but divorced

from obedience to Jehovah. "The mere

offering of a sacrifice in the belief that

Yahweh thereby satisfied reduced

religion

to

little more than supersti

tion."--Thompson. Apply this

to

the

use of rosaries and the misuse of the

Lord's Supper.

2. Judah was once a beautiful

tree, but now its foliage is set on frre

and its branches burned up. Jehovah

himself, who planted this little tree,

ignites the fire because

of

her evil.

t is

a terrible thing to fall into the hands

of

an angry God.

II. 11:18-23) The Response of

Apostles

to

Prophetic Preach

ing

A.

(11:18-20)

TH

DISCOVERY

OF THE PLOT AGAINST JERE

MIAH'SLIFE

1. A plot

to

murder Jeremiah

was instigated by his own family at

Anathoth. This shocked Jeremiah. and

led him to some deep soul searching

about his own mission and the meaning

of

life in general.

2. For any man to be rejected by

his society like this, brings much grief.

And yet, often, this is the price we are

called upon to pay for being true to our

pivine calling.

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The Counsel of Chalcedon, November, 1988

8/12/2019 1988 Issue 11 - Jeremiah: Judgment and Restoration, Part XI - Counsel of Chalcedon

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B. (11:21-23) THE RESPONSE OF

GOD TO

THE

RESPONSE OF

APOSTATES TO PROPHETIC

PREACIDNG

1.

(11:21) The powerful denun

ciation of Israel's past and present fail

ure to please God was quite incompre

hensible to the men of Anathoth; and

Jeremiah,

who

denounced the nation's

sin, had brought serious disgrace upon

the village which gave him birth and

shelter. Such a man was worthy of

death. -- Thompson. Such people

are

threats to the humanists today and are

viewed by them as the real terrorists of

the modem world. A book

has

been

written about us, the religious Right,

called

HOLY

TERROR.

2. God

vindicates his people.

His reaction

to

the plot

of

Anathoth

was decisive. He visited them with

terrible judgment. The town did not sur

vive. To this day the cite of Anathoth

has not been excavated.

i l l

(12:1-6) The Humble Com

plaint ,of Jeremiah

A (12:1-2) THE AGE-OLD

PROBLEM: WHY DO THE WICKED

PROSPER, WHILE THE RIGH

TEOUS ARE OPPRESSED? SEE

PSALM37.

1.

The context

of

the complaint:

Jehovah is righteous, i.e., he is always

just and he never acts out of accord with

his holy

character revealed in his law.

2.

The complication of the

situation: In verse 2, Jeremiah says

that God himself causes the wicked

to

prosper.

3.

Those whom God prospers

speak of God with great familiarity, yet

their knowledge of God goes no farther

than their mouths.

It

has not penetrated

their inner

life.

B. (12:3-4) THE SOURCE OF

JEREMIAH'S COMFORT: THE

SEARCHER OF ALL HEARTS

KNOWS

JEREMIAH'S HEART

(Jeremiah's question remained

unanswered; but where he does not

understand God he trusts him to act

justly.)

(Continued on page 24)

The Counsel of Chalcedon, November,

1988

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8/12/2019 1988 Issue 11 - Jeremiah: Judgment and Restoration, Part XI - Counsel of Chalcedon

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War on Drugs

Continued from page

11

tions. What were those commands

which they were setting aside? Jesus

explains in the next verse: For Moses

said, 'Honor your father and mother,'

and, 'Anyone who curses

his

father

or

mother must be put

to

death.' Jesus

must have considered this penalty to be

valid still, otherwise, why would he

have rebUked the Pharisees for setting it

aside?

The child who curses his parents is

also referred to as a stubborn and rebel

lious son

....

[who] will not obey in

Deuteronomy 21:18, 20 (cf. Exodus

21:.17). Our founding fathers applied

this principle to any criminal who, be

ing stubborn and rebellious, consistent

ly refused to obey the laws of the land

(cf. Deut. 17:8-12). A similar applica

tion could be made to drug pushers who

refuse correction and continue pumping

their dope into the hands of both

children and adults.

n conclusion, America is in a crisis.

Drugs, violence and high recitivism

rates are plaguing our society. But until

we are willing to return to God's laws,

we

will continue facing the s ~ m

problems over and over again. Our

founding fathers affirmed in the

Declaration of Independence that our

American society was built upon the

Laws of Nature and of Nature's God.

As a result, they did not face the monu

mental problems we do today. By return

ing to God's wise principles, such as

citizen involvement and just civil penal

ties, we can help turn the tide

.in

the

War on Drugs.'' ]

Jeremiah

Continued from page

13

C. (12:5-6) THE ANSWER TO

JEHOVAH .TO JEREMIAH'S COM

PLAINT

L 1 2 : 5 ~ 6 ) Although Jeremiah's

and Judah's plight is a hard one, the

worst is yet to come. Jeremiah must

stay on guard, keep faith anc.l courage in

his present sufferings, and r p ~ him

self for far more severe trials to come.

2. (12:7-13) The reason for this

worsening calamity is the worsening de-

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ADDRESS CORRECTION

Choose one

The Westminster Confession ofFaith

(The Original Standards)

n Exposition of

the Confession

of

Faith

by Robert Shaw

The Confession ofFaith

by A A Hodge

The Westminster Confession ofFaith

generation of the church and state of

thatday.

D

What

is

Calvinism?

Continued from page

16

at a small part of it. But from what has

been said, you can perceive the puerile

ignorance manifested by those who al

lege atat Presbyterianism was invented

by Calvin.

Con.--Were the Reformers Presbyter

ian in their sentiments and practice?

Min. All the ReformerS, of any

note, agreed upon all the essential

principles

of

Presbyterianism. But

as

Clbteck Yom

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(above)

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our conversation

has

been sufficiently

protracted at this time, we will on some

future occasion examine what history

says on that point.

*See a. very interesting History of the

Waldenses, . illustrated with beautiful. en

grav.ings, published by the Board

of

Pub

lication.

[To be continued)

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The Counsel

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Chalcedon, November, 1988