Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Jeremiah 31:31-34 | Date: December 11, 2016 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Introduction

To Jeremiah chapter 31. But before we begin, I’d like to make a few remarks about our guest next week. Tom Castor will be with us to speak, as Pastor Greg has said. I’ve known Tom and Lee for more than 40 years, I suppose, something like that. Well, Lee longer than Tom, but they are two of the most talented, gifted people I know. When he left college, when they graduated, they went off into missionary work. They worked in northern Canada at the time among the Indians. By the way, Pastor Greg, he’s an American citizen, but he spent a lot of time in Canada. He’s been up there now for some time. But they spent a good many years working among the Indians in northern Canada, working with them.

We wondered at the time, people so talented in a kind of a rough situation where they’re not able really to use some of those talents. But they were effective in that work there, and eventually the Lord brought them back into the States where he pastored for a while. Now more recently, they were involved in mission work again, and then more recently for a number of years was pastor of a church in Edmonton, Canada, where it is actually the largest church in their denomination. Just wonderfully gifted people.

Along the way, Tom got a master’s degree in linguistics, and one of the things that got in his craw through that study was that we need to reduce Christian theology and Christian teaching to its simplest statement, particularly for third world countries, so that we can take those who read English, those who can read it as a second language, can read it simply and get it, and then also for translation into other languages as well. And so he has worked at translating, making Bible catechisms and various biblical studies, reducing them to two and three syllables, words no bigger than that, simple language.

And he really hit a nerve. And mission organizations around the world have just gobbled this up and have published this by the tens of thousands. And that’s why I said last week that he has made more of an impact for the gospel, I think, than just about anybody I’ve ever known. It’s just a wonderful ministry that he has.

Last year, I think it was—no, it’s been two or three years ago now—he called one night and said, “I’m thinking of leaving the church.” And he said, “I’m thinking of going to mission work full-time again, what do you think?” And so we talked it all over and one of the conclusions we came to was that as wonderful a ministry and important a ministry as it was where he had been there pastoring, his impact for the gospel was going to be just multiplied exponentially if he pursues this. And it was something he was not able to pursue and remain where he was.

So they launched out and trusted the Lord for the income. They have made it now, whatever it is, two years or something like that. Pursuing this, he lived in Saigon, Vietnam for a couple of years. He has spent much time in Southeast Asia, in Africa, and working with mission organizations, missionaries themselves, making this literature available. I told him at the time he needs to charge a royalty on it. He’d be a wealthy man if he had, but he didn’t. And it’s all published free of charge around the world, and it’s being used just wonderfully.

I’m excited about his work. They are in need of support, particularly now that they’ve moved back to North America for the time being. The support has dropped off somewhat. People are more willing to support when you’re living out in the third world somewhere than they are when you’re here. So they are in need of the support, and I’m just excited to be a part of such a strategic ministry. So please be here next Sunday for that—Sunday school as well, if the youth want to meet in here for that, that’s perfectly well and good. I think we’ve done that before for missionaries. But Sunday school hour, Sunday morning, Sunday evening with Tom and Lee Castor.

Today we come to the subject of the New Covenant and God’s saving purpose. You have heard all of your Christian life that the Bible is a book about Jesus, a gospel-shaped book about Jesus. And what we’ve been trying to do in these initial series of messages where we’re ultimately heading toward the doctrine of salvation is see how the Bible is a gospel-shaped book about Jesus, that this really is a book of redemption that centers on the person of Jesus Christ.

And so we began by telling the whole Bible story, trying to do that in one quick overview, and then we’ve backed up and tried to show how that story is carried primarily by the Bible’s covenants that it presents for us historically through the scriptures. And we’ve looked at the Noahic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, we looked at the Mosaic Covenant, the Davidic Covenant last time, and tonight—or this morning—we look at the New Covenant.

I have tended to go a little bit long in some of these messages. I don’t like to do that. I’m trying actually to reduce so much that we could do in actually weeks on end, but I want to see the big picture as we go along. And today we’ll look at the New Covenant for that purpose. And of course, the passage for that—not the only, but the most explicit passage for that—is Jeremiah chapter 31, verses 31 to 34. I would like to read through a larger section here of Jeremiah 31 and then actually following as well, but for the sake of time, let’s take it in the focus verses of verses 31 to 34.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them. I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, what a wonderful subject this is that we have to take up. We ask that you will open our minds to see it, our hearts to receive it. We ask that you will give us through this a greater appreciation for the Lord Jesus and the salvation that you’ve accomplished for us through him. We ask in his name.

The Context Of Jeremiah’s Prophecy

The long history of Israel is one of grace on the one hand and rebellion on the other. God had made Israel his people. He promised Abraham that he would make of him a great nation. God then with a mighty arm brought Israel out of Egypt through the Exodus and made them his people. At Mount Sinai, God established them as a nation, gave them their constitution, their laws to be obeyed. And as he gave it to them, he threatened them saying, “If you do not keep these laws, I will chastise you with the rod of the nations. But if you obey these laws, I will bless you above all of the nations of the earth in every conceivable way.” And the people responded, “All that the Lord has spoken, we will do.”

God had created with the intent to bless. Humanity rebelled against God. They were expelled from his presence. They were exiled and put in alienation from God, and now with Israel that alienation was being removed. Here was a people whom God would bless. Here was a people who would be faithful to the Lord. Here’s a people among whom God would dwell.

But like Adam, the people of Israel continued in their rebellion, in their disobedience against God, and that is the story of the Old Testament history of Israel. The prophet Isaiah captures it in a famous passage, captures it so well. This is Isaiah chapter 1: “I have reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know. My people do not understand. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly. They have forsaken the Lord. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel?” Then he answers, “The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness to it but bruises and sores and raw wounds. They are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil. Your country lies desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. In your very presence, foreigners devour your land. It is desolate and overthrown by foreigners.”

And so as I say, the history of Israel in the Old Testament throughout the centuries is marked by grace on the one hand—God making them his people, God patient with them over and again throughout their disobedience—and yet, on the other hand, there is Israel persisting in her rebellion and disobedience against God and violating the covenant that God has established with them at Mount Sinai. The prophets then in succession come, announcing to the people that God will judge them for their sin, proclaiming to kings that they must come back to God and obey the terms of the covenant. And in succession, the prophets announce judgment that will come, but also they announce a note of hope.

The prophet Jeremiah, in his prophecy, is a wonderful example of that. His ministry is marked by this twofold message: judgment and hope, or judgment and grace. In fact, in Jeremiah chapter one, Jeremiah’s calling was marked by these two functions. He is on the one hand to pluck up, to break down, to destroy, and to overthrow. And on the other hand, the prophet is told that he will build up and he will plant. And throughout his written prophecy, the prophecy of Jeremiah here that we have this morning, we have this note of Judah’s sin, her violation of the covenant responsibilities to the Lord. She has not learned from her sister to the North, Israel, who has now been carried away into captivity and obliterated. And she persists in her rebellion until finally now, because of her spiritual adultery, she would be judged also. And that’s the dominant note of the earlier chapters of Jeremiah.

Throughout the earlier portion of Jeremiah, there’s this note of Israel’s sin, Judah’s sin, and God’s judgment because of it. That will come. It will come because of her disobedience. But even in those early chapters of Jeremiah, there’s a note of hope as well. And I’ll give you just a sample of it before we get here to chapter 31. If you’ll go back to chapter three, Jeremiah chapter three, verses 12 and following: “Go and proclaim these words up toward the north and say, ‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will not be angry forever, only acknowledge your guilt that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice,’ declares the Lord. ‘Return, O faithless children,’ declares the Lord, ‘for I am your master. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion, and I will give you shepherds after my own heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding,'” and so on.

So you have these notes earlier in Jeremiah’s prophecy as well, these notes of hope and expectation that God just may, coming on their repentance, God will still bless. Because of God’s faithfulness, not because of Israel’s, but despite Israel’s disobedience, God would redeem his people, and in fact, he would bless the nations as well. And in fact, Israel and Judah would be blessed again under King David.

Well, then we come to Jeremiah chapters 30 to 33. And these chapters are often referred to as Jeremiah’s “Book of Consolation,” or the “Book of Comfort.” In Jeremiah 30 and 31, Jeremiah gathers up and reemphasizes all of these notes of hope that he has expressed earlier in the prophecy, and he tells them that distress and judgment will come, but they will be saved from it and serve God under David, her king. The emphasis is that because God has loved them—and in fact the wonderful statement is in Jeremiah chapter 31 in verse 3—because God has loved them with an everlasting love, his faithfulness to his promise will continue. Marvelous expression of God’s determination to bless. Jeremiah 31 verse 3: “I’ve loved you with an everlasting love. And so I will continue my purpose to bless.”

Well, then we come to later in Jeremiah 31, and we have this famous New Covenant prophecy, which is cited many times, perhaps a dozen times in the New Testament. And it develops this theme of mercy and hope and restoration. He promises a new covenant. This will not be simply a renewal of the old covenant. That covenant had been broken, it had failed, but God would enact a new covenant in place of that old covenant, and he will effect a deep change within the hearts of Israel, and he will bring blessing. And unlike that old covenant made at Sinai, this covenant, he says, will not fail.

Jeremiah 32 and 33, the second half of this Book of Comfort, or Book of Consolation, is filled with notes of hope and salvation: that God will unite his people in the fear of the Lord so that he may do them good forever. He’ll bring health, he’ll bring healing and prosperity, he’ll establish a faithful king, a righteous branch of David who will rule over his people in righteousness. Despite their rebellion, God remains determined to bless his people Israel. And in fact, as I say, he’ll bless the nations also, and he’ll establish David as king over all the world, and he will reign in peace and in righteousness, and all the hopes of the Davidic promise and of the Abrahamic promise will, in fact, be fulfilled.

And so we have here throughout this Book of Consolation a reaffirmation that Israel’s sad history of rebellion will not continue forever, but that God will bless and they will be restored and transformed and forgiven and they will not rebel. All right, that’s the larger context of this prophecy. Clearly the whole need for a new covenant was simply that the old covenant didn’t work. There wasn’t anything wrong with the old covenant, it just didn’t make enough provision for it to secure the blessings that were promised. It gave promise of blessing conditioned upon obedience, but Israel did not obey, and so those blessings were not secured. And so God promises a new covenant, which the writer of the book of Hebrews in the New Testament calls a better covenant, with better promises. And it is better because in this new covenant, God will guarantee and he will secure the blessings that are promised for Israel.

Now let’s see how that is so. Notice again verses 31 to 34 where God promises what he will give to Israel. Let’s begin with verse 33: “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them, I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more.”

Now notice you have a lot of “I will” statements in this covenant. I will do this, I will do that, I will do the other. I think we can reduce that to three basic promises that God makes in this covenant.

Moral Transformation

Number one, let’s call it moral transformation. Moral transformation. Notice verse 33 again. In the middle of the verse he says, “I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts.” Now how does that contrast with the Old Covenant? The old covenant was written and engraven in stone. This one, he says, “I will write my law within them. I’ll put it on their inside. I’ll write it on their hearts.”

Keep your hand here. We’ll come back to it very quickly. But look over to Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 11, a passage that we memorized recently here together. We’ll see how this promise is stated again by the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel 11 verses 19 and 20: “I will give them one heart and a new spirit I will put within them, and I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.” And then the purpose of it: “That they may walk in my statutes, and keep my rules, and obey them, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”

And then once again, look over to Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel 36, verse 26: “And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

So we have here a promise that Israel will again walk in obedience to God. But it’s not just a promise that they will obey. The promise is that Israel herself will be transformed from the inside out. Now the old covenant failed precisely because it was merely external. God wrote it on stone. “Thou shalt, thou shalt, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not.” And there it was. But there was nothing in that tablet of stones that enabled Israel to do what was commanded. And because it was merely external, it failed.

Now the New Testament makes something of this. For instance, in 2 Corinthians 3, that the problem here is that the law in the old covenant was merely external. There was a moral hardness of heart, a moral corruption on the part of the people that a mere external command couldn’t change. And so giving a law on stones and writing it objectively for them to see could make them see what is right and what is wrong. It could objectify sin clearly, but it couldn’t do anything to the people to enable them to obey.

Laws are like that. I’m sure many of you guys have noticed that when you drive down the freeway and you see the sign, “Speed Limit 55,” it doesn’t work. Not always. I remember riding with Jimmy one time, he was driving. We turned a corner, 20, 30 yards up, there’s a stop sign. He didn’t see it. Went right through the stop sign. I said, “You just ran a stop sign.” “I did?” I said, “Yeah.” And he looked back and he says, “They need to get a new sign.” No, it doesn’t work very well. If somehow the speed limit sign could be written on the inside—”I want to keep it under 55″—it’d make a difference, wouldn’t it? But in fact, the law, given in only an objective way like that, does nothing to transform the person.

Paul talks about this in Romans chapter 7. He says, “The law is holy and just and good.” No problem with the law. And it sounds like such a good solution. Here are rebellious people. Give them law. Doesn’t work. And in fact, Paul makes that fascinating statement in Romans chapter 7, that the passions of sin were aroused by the law. A fascinating statement. The passions of sin aroused by the law. That is, the law, so far from quelling sin, actually stimulates sin. And you all know what that’s like. “Keep off the grass.” I can walk on the grass if I want to. “Speed limit 55,” I can do 60 if I want to. And there’s something about us that when we see a restriction placed on us, makes us want to do the opposite.

Now that doesn’t say that the law is bad. And Paul answers that in Romans 7. The law is holy and just and good, but it does point out something very bad about us. And so when God gives his law objectively—”thou shalt, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not”—that by itself is not enough to make fallen sinners comply. The long centuries of Israel’s history in the Old Testament were given in large part to demonstrate the rebelliousness of the human heart. And the point of their extended centuries of rebellion is not to say that Israel is a particularly sorry sample of humanity. That’s not the point at all. But the point is that the law was given to Israel as a microcosm of the world to demonstrate that all are under sin. And the law given and Israel’s failure to comply demonstrates something of the sinfulness of the human heart.

And the new covenant that God gives differs with the old covenant then on exactly this score. In this covenant, God says, “I’ll still give a law, but I’ll write it on their hearts. I’ll put it in them.” Or to change the figure, “I’ll take out that hard, stony heart and I’ll replace it with a heart of flesh that’s pliable. I’ll put my spirit within them.” This is our doctrines of regeneration, sanctification, perseverance, and even glorification. God transforms us from the inside out. He says, “I’ll make such a change in my people that they will loathe their former sins. They will turn to God. They will love him. They’ll serve him. They’ll follow him with all of their hearts and they will obey him.” And I’ll make the change from the inside out.

Now this is something that is evident in the experience of every believer. To be sure, it’s not done yet. We still struggle on exactly this score. But every one of us in Christ can testify to a real change that has come about. A change in appetites, a change in ideals, a change in ambitions, a real delight in keeping the law of the Lord. That deep down our desire really is to please Him. A fundamental change has come about. It will be brought to perfection in time to come. But even now we can see that this change has come about and this is the new covenant promise. God says, “I’ll change them from the inside out. I’ll write my laws on their heart and make them willing to obey.”

Presence And Knowledge Of God

The second promise God makes here in the New Covenant, we might call or summarize as the presence and the knowledge of God. The presence and knowledge of God. Ever since the garden, humanity has been exiled from God, alienated, estranged from God. With Israel now, there’s to be a new start. But Israel didn’t live up to it. She failed, she disobeyed. There’s certainly a sense in which God was present with his people Israel in the old covenant. That was the real significance of the tabernacle. But the people had access to God only representatively. Their knowledge of God was mediated through the priest. They were a redeemed people, but redeemed only corporately. Individually is another story. And as a redeemed people corporately, they had the presence of God mediated to them through the priests.

But Jeremiah tells us here that God promises in this new covenant that verse 33: “I will be their God and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord.’ For they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.”

If you’d like to jot down Ezekiel chapter 37 verses 26 and 27, the Prophet Ezekiel says it this way. And all of this is to say that fellowship with God will be restored. There will be reconciliation realized in the personal experience of all of God’s people. Community-wide, in all of his covenant people, there will be fellowship with God, acceptance with God. The New Testament pushes this even to the doctrine of adoption, that we are sons of God brought in the most intimate relationship with him. And through God’s spirit given to us, we are given this sense of peace with God and a realization of his sonship and his love. The presence and the knowledge of God restored.

Forgiveness Of Sins

And then thirdly, the last promise we may say simply as the forgiveness of sins. Verse 34: “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more.”

In Ezekiel chapter 36, this is described in terms of the Old Testament ritual cleansings. “I will sprinkle clean water on you that you may be clean.” The idea is that of pardon, release from condemnation, release from responsibility for sins. The penalty of sin is remitted. The debt of sin is canceled. Or as he says it here, the figure he uses at the end of verse 34, divine forgetfulness. “I’ll not remember your sins anymore.” Clearly the point is I won’t remember them against you anymore. They will be forgiven.

Now what is not explained here in any detail at all is how. How will God forgive Israel’s sins? On what ground? Can God simply say, “Never mind”? And what about this question of justice? That is not addressed here. But we do have explanation of it, hints of it in the Old Testament, and then it comes, of course, to full bloom in the New Testament as well. In Isaiah, for example, chapter 49, in verse 8, the prophet said—or God says—”I will give you,” the servant of the Lord, “I will give you as a covenant to the people. I’ll give you as a covenant for the people.” That is the servant, God’s righteous servant, will be himself the covenant. Somehow in him, this covenant will be accomplished. That’s Isaiah 49. Isaiah 53, of course, we find the servant suffering on behalf of his people, being made a sin offering for his people and suffering in their place and bearing the penalty of their sin.

And then, of course, we come to the gospel accounts of the Last Supper, where Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper, which we commemorate here twice monthly here at our church, and Christians everywhere commemorate, where Jesus takes the supper and transforms it into a commemoration of his own death and resurrection, and says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for the remission of sins.” And so Jesus himself then claims that he is the one who has come to secure the promises of the new covenant, that here in his death he stands on behalf of his people, bearing their sin, taking the curse due them and paying the penalty in their place. Christ then becoming the covenant for the people and securing the covenant promises. And this is why then the book of Hebrews picks it up and describes the new covenant as a better covenant with better promises and a better sacrifice and a better priest.

And notice the end of verse 34 again. He said, “No longer will I teach everyone his neighbor saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ they’ll all know me from the least to the greatest.” And then notice the explanatory conjunction, “for”: “For I will forgive their iniquity and I’ll remember their sins no more.” That is, this promise of moral transformation, this promise of divine presence and the knowledge of God is secured on the basis of the fact that he has forgiven their people their sins in the sacrifice of their substitute. Because Christ has died bearing their iniquity, he secures all of these promises for them.

You might remember in the first message in this series we pointed out that when Adam sinned, Adam and Eve were exiled from the presence of God, taken out of the garden, and we saw that for their sin essentially, three consequences had come to humanity, and that was moral corruption, alienation, and guilt. Moral corruption, alienation from God, and guilt deserving condemnation. We find all of that taken up now in the New Covenant promise where the blessing secured by the death of Christ is that he will forgive our sins, and he will establish fellowship with God, and he will in fact make us a different kind of people. And in all of this we have the New Testament expands in terms of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the doctrine of regeneration, the doctrine of sanctification, the doctrine of perseverance, the doctrine of justification and glorification, and all of this is secured in the death of Christ who is the covenant for his people. This is what we commemorate each time we observe the Lord’s Supper. The new covenant promises have been secured for us through Christ.

Now another question comes up at this point and I don’t have time and really this morning I don’t have the desire even to chase it at length. The question comes up here: This was a promise made for Israel. How is it us non-Israelites, us Gentiles, have come to enjoy these promises? Well, it’s clear enough that we do. The New Testament cites it plenty of times in that connection—2 Corinthians 3, for example—and this is what we commemorate every time we observe the Lord’s Supper. But how are the Gentiles then brought to share in these covenant promises, in the covenant promise to Israel?

Well, one answer, and this is a traditional reformed answer, is that the church is Israel. You can see why that connection would be made, because we’ve been brought into these promises in every way. I think that’s a little oversimplistic. It’s a connection I don’t think the New Testament makes. On the other hand, there is one version of dispensational approach that says, well, there must have been two new covenants that were made, one new covenant for Israel and then another new covenant for the church, which becomes pretty complicated as well.

And I think the easier answer, and I think the answer the scripture gives, is to say that Christ himself is the ideal true Israelite who stands in Israel’s place as her representative and secures those blessings. And all of those in Christ are brought to share in the blessings that he has secured for Israel. And he becomes the pivot through whom Israel and the Gentiles come to enjoy the blessings that God promised for Israel. I think that’s the way it’s taken up in Romans chapters 9 through 11, where not just Israel, but the nations of the world as well are brought effectually to enjoy the promises that God has made.

And of course, by the time we get to the book of Revelation, we have that as well. We have this redeemed world, men and women from every tribe and nation and tongue. And the last word is that God will dwell with them and they will be his people and he will be their God. And they are given a new heart and we’re given this wonderful prospect finally in the eternal state when we have been transformed thoroughly inside and out. Where never again is there a struggle with sin and never again do we feel so schizophrenic with regard to sin, but we really have been thoroughly and completely transformed and brought into conformity to the law of God.

Now one more verse I’d like you to see, and that is 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. We’ve been saying all along that the Bible is a gospel-shaped book that focuses on Jesus. Now I want you to see how the Apostle Paul says that in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 20: “For all the promises of God find their ‘Yes’ in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our ‘Amen’ to God for his glory.” All the promises of God in him are yes, and our response to God is concerning Jesus, amen. You have fulfilled your promise in Jesus.

Well, you can see then how the New Covenant is the climax of all of those promises. From the outset, God determined to bless his creatures made in his image. They rebelled, they forfeited that right to that blessing, but God determined that he would bless his creation. And to do it, he gave us a new Adam, a faithful and obedient son. He gave us the seed of Abraham in whom all of the families of the world would be blessed. He gave us the true and ideal Israel who would keep all of the rigorous demands of the law. He gave us David’s greater son who would defeat our enemies and reign as king and even subdue our own rebellion. And then finally, in his blood, he secures every new covenant blessing of forgiveness, presence in the knowledge of God, and moral transformation. And all of the Bible focuses on Christ, in whom we have every blessing promised, meeting every—exactly every—need we have because of our sins. Amen.

Let’s pray. Our Father, we’re grateful for your great promises that you’ve made for us. We’re grateful that you have come good on them all in Jesus. We thank you in his name that you have saved us. We praise you for him who is for us all that you have promised, has secured for us the forgiveness that we do not deserve instead of the condemnation that we do. Thank you for the transformation that we have already begun to experience, and we’re grateful for the great privilege of fellowship with God. Lord, you have long promised, you have delivered, and we praise you for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen.