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Exposure of Covenant Hypocrisy (Jeremiah 7:9) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. Glad to be here with you.
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Yeah, it is great to sit down again.
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We have a lot to cover. Today we are taking a very
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detailed deep dive into two theological source texts that
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analyze Jeremiah Chapter 7, verse 9.
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Right. And those documents are titled
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Exposure of Covenant, Hypocrisy and the Illusion of Safe
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Harbors. Yes, and the core mission of our
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analysis today is to really confront one of the most
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dangerous, deceptive spiritual conditions known to humanity.
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It really is. We are talking about the
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illusion of relying on outward formal religion while harboring
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inward unrepentant rebellion. So OK, let's unpack this.
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Sounds good. We are going to look at a
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specific historical moment where a nation genuinely believed
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their religious rituals acted as a well, like a magical shield
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against the justice of God. And for you, the listener, the
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reason you should care about this ancient texts is that human
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nature remains completely unchanged.
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This is a severe warning against treating the grace of God as a
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spiritual indulgence for ongoing sin.
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It is a direct challenge asking you to examine your own life and
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identify your own safe harbors. Yeah, those religious routines
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you might be using to hide from the piercing gaze of a holy God.
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Precisely. Let's set the scene a bit.
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Picture this, You're standing outside a massive gold plated
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temple. The visual is stunning.
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Right. The air is thick with a scent of
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burning frankincense mixed with a metallic heavy smell of blood
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from thousands of animal sacrifices.
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You hear the rhythmic chanting of choirs.
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Very sensory. Everyone around you looks
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incredibly holy, they reciting the right creeds, wearing the
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right garments. But then a man steps up to the
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massive eastern gates. He's not a priest, he's a
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prosecuting attorney sent directly by God, and he points
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his finger at this highly religious crowd and calls them
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thieves, murderers, adulterers and traitors.
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It is a shocking confrontation because the tension we are
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looking at here is incredibly sharp.
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The people of Judah in the days of Jeremiah, they were not
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atheists. Right.
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Not at all. They were not secularists
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walking around mocking the concept of a deity.
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They were highly religious. They maintain the Orthodox
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structures of the Mosaic administration.
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They possessed the temple, the priest to the sacrificial
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system. The whole package.
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Exactly. The tragedy, as our sources
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point out, is that they believe the physical possession of those
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structural advantages liberated them to pursue the base lusts of
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the flesh without consequence. Which is terrifying.
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It is they corrupted religion into a cloak for rebellion.
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They essentially believed they could approach God with their
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lips while their daily lives demonstrated total defiance.
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Yeah, the danger of substituting external compliance for true
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inward obedience. I mean, it is a perpetual snare
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for the human heart. Absolutely, and to truly
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understand the psychology behind this, we need to understand the
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absolute terror these people were living under.
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That of a crucial point. We need to move from the broad
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concept, hypocrisy and ground this theological abstract in its
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literal, physical, historical reality.
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We do so take us back to that historical context, paint the
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picture of what was happening geopolitically and, you know,
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psychologically in Judah when Jeremiah delivered this massive
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indictment. Because this was not a peaceful
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time, was it? Not even close.
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We are looking at the year six O 8 BC.
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To understand the psychology of the people standing at that
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bustling eastern date of Jerusalem, you have to
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understand the trauma they had just experienced.
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For decades, the geopolitical landscape was dominated by the
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brutal Assyrian Empire. But Assyria had just collapsed,
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Nineveh fell and. Whenever a massive superpower
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collapses, it creates A terrifying vacuum.
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Spot on. Now you have the Egyptians
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marching up from the South and the terrifying rising Babylonian
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Empire under Nabal Pulassar and his son Nebuchadnezzar sweeping
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in from the east. Right?
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Judah is just a tiny strip of land caught right in the middle
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of this clash of Titans. But the psychological blow is
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even worse than just the geography.
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Awesome. Well, just one year prior, in
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six or nine BC, their righteous reforming king Jessiah was
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killed in battle at Megiddo by the Egyptians.
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Oh, that is devastating. It really was.
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Josiah was the king who had tried to bring the nation back
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to the covenant. His death was a massive shock.
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Now they have a puppet king on the throne, Jehoiakim.
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Right. And he is heavily taxing the
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people to pay tribute to foreign powers.
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Exactly. The people are terrified.
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The looming threat of a Babylonian siege, which meant
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starvation, slaughter, exiled. It was a dark, heavy cloud on
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the horizon. So you have a society gripped by
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existential dread. And when human beings are
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terrified, they look for safety. They look for a guarantee that
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they're going to survive. And for the people of Judah,
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that safety was not found in a strong military because, well,
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they didn't have one. Their safety blanket was a
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building. Yeah, a physical structure.
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They had the magnificent temple built by Solomon.
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They had the altar of burnt offering.
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These were extraordinary covenant gifts from God, but
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they were entirely abusing these gifts.
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You really were. They assumed that because the
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physical temple stood in their city, judgement could never
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overtake them. Our sources describe how the
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people would chant A superstitious mantra, The Temple
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of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord are
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these. Precisely.
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They treated the building like a religious Talisman.
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They believed God was essentially trapped in
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Jerusalem. Trapped by his own house.
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Right, they thought God would never allow his own house to be
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destroyed by pagans. Therefore, as long as we possess
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the house, we are invincible. It is a complete theological
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short circuit. It is.
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And in the midst of this massive self deception, the Lord
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commands Jeremiah to stand right at the gate of the Lord's house
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and deliver a prophetic lawsuit. A lawsuit.
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Yes, Jeremiah is not acting as a counselor offering friendly
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advice. He is functioning as a
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prosecuting attorney for the Lord of Hosts.
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He is delivering a formal covenantal indictment.
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In the ancient biblical literature, this is known as a
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prophetic rib. A rib.
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RIB. Right.
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He is bringing the Covenant Nation into the courtroom of
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divine justice. OK, I have to push back here on
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how this lawsuit is actually delivered, because when you read
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the text in Jeremiah 7 verse 9, it lists a series of sins, but
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our sources highlight that the original Hebrew grammar used
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here is highly unusual. Very unusual.
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It uses the interrogative particle has followed by 6
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infinitives absolute Haganoff Ratzoch we enough we shava a
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weak water. That is the list, yeah.
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So if Jeremiah is speaking to the average citizen in the
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street, you know, bakers, merchants, farmers fleeing into
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the city for safety, why use this Dizar, highly specific
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infinitive absolute grammar? Wouldn't that kind of academic
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linguistic structure just fly right over their heads?
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It is a fair question. I might not just speak plainly
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and say you stole and you murdered.
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Well, the use of the infinitive absolute here is not high
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academic inaccessible language. It is actually the opposite.
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It is raw, shocking St. level language.
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Oh really? Yeah, standard Hebrew words
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contain markers of time in person they tell you who did the
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action and when it occurred. But the infinitive absolute
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strips all of that away it. Removes the context.
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It removes the specific time frame in the specific person.
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It distills the action down to its purest, rawest essence.
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By using the infinitive absolute, the prophet is
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indicating continuous, habitual, unrestrained action.
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Wow. It is as if Jeremiah is pointing
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his finger at the crowd and just shouting the nouns of their
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crimes. Stealing, murdering,
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adulterating, perjury, idol worshipping.
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That is jarring. Very jarring.
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It portrays an unbroken habit of rebellion.
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This is not a description of someone tripping into sin in a
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momentary lapse of judgement. It describes a lifestyle.
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A completely ingrained habit. Right.
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The continuous nature of the grammar shows that their
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rebellion was the standard operating procedure of their
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lives, and they were doing all this even as they simultaneously
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sought the safety of. The temple.
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That grammatical reality is chilling.
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It means the charges on this rap sheet are not isolated
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incidents. They are the baseline culture of
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the nation. Since the lawsuit establishes a
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pattern of habitual sin, we have to look at the specific charges
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Jeremiah levels against them. He is effectively shattering the
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Decalogue, the 10 commandments, right in front of their eyes.
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He is tearing it down. And looking at this list, the
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sequence feels incredibly deliberate.
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He doesn't start with the ethereal spiritual sins, he
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starts with street level crime. Right at the bottom.
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He begins with theft, which is a direct violation of the 8th
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commandment. Then he moves to murder,
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breaking the 6th commandment, then adultery, violating the 7th
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commandment. He follows this with swearing
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falsely or perjury, which touches on both the 9th
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commandment regarding false witness and the third
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commandment regarding the profanation of God's name.
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And finally he brings it to the climax, burning incense to Baal
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and walking after other gods that obliterates the 1st and 2nd
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commandments. The sequence is indeed
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deliberate. It moves from the sins against
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the neighbor, the visible societal rot, directly up to the
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sins against God, the invisible theological rot.
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It connects them. Yes, He is proving that social
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corruption and theological apostasy are inseparably joined.
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You cannot shatter the first table of the law, your duty to
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God, and expect the second table of the law, your duty to your
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neighbor, to remain intact. They fall together.
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Always were the knowledge and fear of God decay.
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Justice, truth and purity in society also decay.
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The people of Judah had entirely divorced their moral obligations
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from their covenant status. You know, I am thinking about an
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analogy for what Jeremiah is doing with this list of charges.
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It is like a structural engineer who is called in to inspect a
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massive historic skyscraper. OK, I like this.
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From the outside, the facade looks glorious.
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The glass is shining, the lobby is Immaculate, the elevators run
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smoothly. But the engineer ignores the
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cosmetic facade. He goes down into the sub
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basement, takes X-rays of the foundation and finds massive
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irreparable cracks not just in the drywall, but in the central
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load bearing pillars of the building.
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Structure is compromised. Right.
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The people of Judah thought they're external worship.
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The choir, the incense was keeping the building standing.
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But Jeremiah is showing them that they're breaking both
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tables of law. The load bearing pillars of
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their covenant with God are completely pulverized.
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The building is already condemned, it just hasn't
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collapsed yet. That analogy captures the
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reality perfectly. The structural integrity of the
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Covenant is gone, and we need to look much closer at that final
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devastating charge, burning incense to bail.
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Because from a modern Western perspective, burning incense
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sounds like a minor ceremonial infraction.
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Maybe it sounds like a bizarre cultural accommodation, like
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lighting a candle at a different religious shrine just to be
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polite. Right, just a faux pas.
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But the ancient Near Eastern context makes this infinitely
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more severe. In ancient world, burning
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incense to a deity was a legally binding gesture of covenantal
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fealty. Legally binding.
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Yes, it was tied directly to Susan Vassal Treaties.
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Let's define that for the listener.
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A Susan vassal treaty was a political and legal contract
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between a massive conquering king, the suzerain, and a lesser
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conquered king, the vassal. The suzerain promises protection
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and the vassal promises absolute loyalty and tribute.
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God structured his covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai using this
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exact legal format. He was their suzerain king.
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They were his vassal people. Precisely so.
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Within that legal framework, burning incense to Baal was not
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a minor liturgical mistake. It was the the legal equivalent
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of a citizen of 1 nation swearing a Pledge of Allegiance
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to the king of a hostile invading army.
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Oh wow. It represented total spiritual
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madness and high treason against Yahweh, the true Suzerian Lord
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who had delivered them from slavery in Egypt.
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Unbelievable. They were taking the covenant
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benefits of Yahweh, His land, His protection, His temple,
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while legally binding themselves to a demonic foreign power.
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They were committing spiritual treason.
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And doing all of this while standing physically in Yahweh's
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house. Exactly.
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When we analyze this through the Reformed hermeneutic utilizing
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the principle of the analogy of faith, which simply means
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allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture, we see the Law
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functioning here in its first use.
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The pedagogical use. Right for you listening.
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Reformed theology often speaks of the three uses of the moral
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law. The first use is pedagogical.
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It acts as a mirror to expose our sin and drive us to despair
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of our own righteousness. A mirror doesn't clean your
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face, it just shows you the dirt.
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Jeremiah is holding up the mirror of the 10 Commandments to
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a people who are entirely convinced they are morally
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beautiful, and he is forcing them to look at a reflection of
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absolute rot. The law here is stripping away
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all self justification. The first use of the law is
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functioning perfectly in Jeremiah's sermon.
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It demonstrates the complete disconnect between their ethical
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lives and the liturgical lives. It really does.
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And this brings us to the psychological absurdity of their
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reaction. Because they didn't just commit
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these terrible acts of treason in secret and hide and shame.
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No, they didn't. They committed these acts, wiped
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their mouths, and walked straight through the eastern
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gate into the temple of God. Here is where it gets really
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interesting. We are moving from the sins
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themselves to the shocking psychological behavior of the
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people. Let's look at verse 10.
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Let's look at it. After listing these heinous
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crimes, the theft, the murder, the adultery, the perjury, the
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treasonous idolatry, Jeremiah point out that the people come
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and stand before God in his house and say we are delivered.
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It is. Stunning.
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They are looking God in the eye and claiming immunity.
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They are using the temple as a safe harbor for their
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wickedness. How does a human mind actually
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accomplish that level of cognitive dissonance?
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It is hard to fathom. How do you sing a Psalm of
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praise while actively planning an adulterous affair or a shady
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business deal? It requires a massive
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suppression of the truth. It requires a person to view God
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not as a holy personal judge, but as a mechanical system that
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can be manipulated like a machine.
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Exactly. They viewed the temple not as a
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place for humble mediation and repentance, but as a mystical
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shield against the threatenings of God.
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This leads directly to Jeremiah's famous phrase, which
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Jesus later quotes declaring that the House of God has become
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a den of robbers. A den of robbers.
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Our sources clarify the true functional meaning of that
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phrase, and it is vital for understanding the text.
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A den of robbers is not the location where the robbery
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actually occurs. You don't rob the den.
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Right. The den is the hideout, it is
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the safe house, it is The Cave in the hills where the cartel
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retreats after they have committed their crimes down in
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the city. That is a great way to put it.
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They go to the den to feel secure from the authorities, to
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divide the spoils and to rest before they go out and commit
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more crimes. Spot on.
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They were not necessarily committing murder inside the
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temple courts. They were committing murder,
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theft and adultery out in the streets of Jerusalem all week
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long and then on the Sabbath they retreated to the temple,
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right. They believe that stepping
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across that physical threshold granted them divine immunity.
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They were treating the temple like a base in a child's game of
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tag. You can't touch me, God.
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I'm standing in your house. I'm safe.
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It is a total theological short circuit.
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They wanted the benefits of God without the authority of God.
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And this requires us to issue some firm theological
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refutations drawing on our confessional heritage, because
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this ancient delusion did not die in six O 8 BC.
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It definitely did not. This exact mindset is the root
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of the error of sacramentalism. Specifically, we must look at
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the doctrine known as ex apre operato, which translates to
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from the work performed. Yes, that is a critical concept
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to grasp. This is the belief that the
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sacraments confer grace automatically, simply by the
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physical fact being executed, regardless of the spiritual
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state or the faith of the recipient.
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The mechanical view, right? It is the belief that the ritual
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works like a spiritual car wash. You just put your car in
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neutral, roll through the physical machinery of the
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sacraments, the water, the bread, the wine, and you come
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out clean on the other side, completely regardless of whether
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the driver actually wanted to be there or repented of their sins.
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That is the exact error. The men of Judah operated on
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that exact same premise. They believe the physical
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performance of the ritual, the shedding of animal blood, the
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burning of incense automatically confer to status of delivered.
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The Westminster Confession of Faith provides massive clarity
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against this mechanical view of grace.
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If we look at chapter 21 on religious worship and chapter 29
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on the Lord's Supper, the Confession insists that the
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efficacy of religious ordinances depends entirely upon the
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blessing of God. Not the ritual itself.
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Right. The blessing of God and the
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working of His Spirit and those who receive them by faith.
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Physical sacraments without the corresponding spiritual reality
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of faith and repentance do not save you.
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They don't do anything for you. In fact, as our sources argue,
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physical sacraments taken without faith act as a witness
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against the hypocrite. Taking the Lord's Supper while
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actively loving and protecting your sin does not shield you.
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It seals your judgment. You are eating and drinking
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condemnation upon yourself. That is a hard truth, but a
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thoroughly biblical 1. We also have to address the
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other side of this theological coin, antinomianism.
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Antinomianism literally means against the law.
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It is the false belief that because we are delivered by
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grace, the moral law no longer has any bearing on our lives.
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A very common misunderstanding. The people of Judah divorce the
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indicative of God's deliverance from the imperative of His law.
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This is the danger of what we sometimes call easy believism
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today. Right, cheap grace.
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Is the idea that you can walk down an aisle, pray a specific
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prayer, claim the title of a Christian, declare yourself
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delivered while your daily life remains completely
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indistinguishable from the Pagan culture around you?
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It is treating grace as a permission slip for rebellion.
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And that transition from the ancient world to our current
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reality is vital. We have to take this ancient
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prophetic lawsuit and apply it directly to the modern church,
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examining how human nature remains completely identical
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today. It really is identical.
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The technology changes, the clothing changes, the
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geopolitical borders shift, but the human heart's desperate
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desire to find a loophole around God's holiness does not change
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one bit. So I want to ask you, the
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listener directly, what are your safe harbors?
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Where do you retreat to feel immune from God's commands?
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Let's identify some of these modern temples because they are
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rarely made of stone and cedar anymore.
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The modern temples are often quite subtle, and they appeal to
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our pride. People today might not chant the
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temple of the Lord, but they chant modern variations of it.
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Like what? Well, some people find their
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safe harbor and cultural conservatism.
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They believe that holding the correct traditional political
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views, voting for the right candidates and opposing the
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right cultural movements makes them acceptable to.
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God, even if their private lives are a mess.
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Even if their private lives are filled with malice, greed, and a
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total lack of grace, they use their political alignment as a
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Talisman. Others use church membership
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rules as their shield. They think my name is on the
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registry of a historically Orthodox Reformed Church.
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I know the Catechism, therefore I am safe.
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Right, I passed the Membership class.
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Exactly. Still others rely on the sheer
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emotionalism of modern worship. They equate the emotional high
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of a Sunday morning music set, the tears they shed during a
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moving song with genuine spiritual standing, all while
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completely ignoring the habitual, unrepentant sins they
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engage in from Monday to Saturday.
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The authors of these texts draw some sharp, uncomfortable modern
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parallels here, and we are going to look at those arguments
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impartially. Right, we are just reporting
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what the sources argue. Yes, the author's underlying
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point isn't about endorsing a specific political party, but
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showing how any modern ideology or secret habit can become a
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safe harbor that functions just like ancient bill worship.
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For instance, the sources argue that the ancient sin of adultery
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finds a massive, pervasive modern equivalent in the
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epidemic of pornography within the visible church.
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It is a devastating issue. It is a secret, habitual,
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devastating sin that many professing believers engaging
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continually while still showing up on Sunday morning taking the
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elements and saying we are delivered.
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It is the exact cognitive dissonance Jeremiah was
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attacking. The sources also look at
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ideological idolatry. They identify secular humanism
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and critical race theory as modern frameworks that function
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similarly to foreign deities. Interesting.
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How so? The texts argue that these
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frameworks replace the biblical doctrine of sin and individual
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repentance with secular notions of systemic grievance.
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They offer a form of societal salvation, a way to be declared
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righteous or just by the culture that completely bypasses the
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cross of Christ and the necessity of personal
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repentance. I see when a church adopts these
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secular frameworks, they are, in the view of the sources, burning
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incense to modern bales. They are seeking deliverance
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through a foreign legal structure.
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And looking at the other side of the theological spectrum, the
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sources point to liberal theology, that is, a system
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which denies the authority of Scripture, strips away the
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reality of divine judgment, and essentially creates a God of
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pure accommodation. A God made in our own image.
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Right. A God who never demands
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repentance. And they also indict the
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prosperity gospel, which turns God into a cosmic vending
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machine. Yes, the health and wealth
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gospel. The prosperity gospel promises
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financial blessing, physical health, and earthly victory
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while entirely ignoring the call to take up one's cross, suffer
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for righteousness, and crucify the flesh.
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The theological argument here is that all of these, from the
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secret habit of pornography to the public embrace of the
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prosperity gospel, are modern idols.
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They demand our allegiance. They demand our allegiance, they
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promise a false peace, and they allow us to hide from the true
22:11
holy God. The antidote to this
22:13
compartmentalized, idolatrous living is a radical call to
22:18
integrity. We cannot tolerate a division
22:20
where we practice Sunday religion while engaging in
22:23
weekday rebellion. The Christian life is whole.
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It has to be whole. And this brings us to another
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vital concept from the Westminster Confession, the
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third use of the law. We discussed the first use
22:35
earlier, the law as a mirror to expose our sin and drive us to
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Christ, right. The third use, detailed
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extensively in chapter 19 of the Confession, is the law as a rule
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of life for the grateful believer.
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It is the normative use for the Christian.
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How does that work practically? For the one who is truly
22:53
regenerated by the Holy Spirit, the laws no longer a legalistic
22:56
ladder you have to climb to earn your salvation.
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Rather, it is the lamp that illuminates the path of grateful
23:01
obedience. A truly delivered heart
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genuinely desires to obey God's law.
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Because true faith always produces fruit.
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If there is no desire for obedience, if there's no grief
23:12
over sin, there is no genuine faith.
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But this creates a massive tension when we look back the
23:17
text. The Old Covenant, the law given
23:20
at Sinai was brilliant at exposing the hypocrisy of Judah.
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It provided the perfect diagnostic X-ray showing this
23:28
shattered pillars of their morality.
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It diagnosed the disease perfectly.
23:32
But the Old Covenant could not change the human heart.
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The law can tell you that you are a rebel.
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The law can condemn you. But the law cannot grant you a
23:41
new nature. For that, we must look to the
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New Testament. We have to try to redemptive
23:46
arc. The connection between
23:48
Jeremiah's temple sermon and the New Testament is absolutely
23:51
stunning, and it is forged by the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
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I love this connection. During the final week of his
23:57
earthly ministry, Jesus enters the temple courts in Jerusalem.
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We often call this the cleansing of the temple.
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He overturns the tables of the money changers and drives out
24:05
the merchants with a whip of. Cords A dramatic scene.
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Very. But we have to understand he
24:10
does not do this in a random fit of rage.
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He is not just losing his temper, he's quoting scripture.
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Specifically, Jeremiah. Yes, in Matthew chapter 21 verse
24:20
13 Jesus quotes Jeremiah Chapter 7 verse 11.
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He says it is written, My house shall be called House of prayer,
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but you make it a den of robbers.
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That is an incredible detail. Jesus is acting as an
24:34
authoritative exegete of the Old Testament.
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By quoting Jeremiah in that specific moment, Jesus is
24:40
identifying his current generation with the exact same
24:44
hypocrites of Jeremiah's day. He is drawing a direct parallel
24:47
line. He is saying you are doing the
24:49
exact same thing your ancestors did in six O 8 BC.
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You are using the machinery of religion, the commerce of the
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sacrificial system, to mask your inward rebellion.
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You have turned my father's house into a hideout.
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And Jesus goes much further than just repeating the ancient
25:05
accusation. He announces the obsolescence of
25:07
the physical building itself. He replaces it.
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Yes, in the Gospel of John chapter 2, the religious leaders
25:12
demand a sign to prove his authority to cleanse the temple.
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Jesus answers them. Destroy this temple, and in
25:17
three days I will raise it up. Such a powerful statement.
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The text explicitly notes that he was speaking about the temple
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of his body. Jesus is the true temple.
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He is the ultimate meeting place between God and humanity.
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He fulfills the type. The physical structure of stone
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and cedar, the blood of bulls and goats, was always meant to
25:36
be a shadow pointing forward to the reality of the Incarnate Son
25:39
of God. So if the physical temple was
25:41
just a shadow and Jesus is the reality, what does this all mean
25:45
for the listener who is hearing this analysis, feeling the
25:48
crushing weight of the law, looking at their own life and
25:51
realizing they are guilty? That is the big question.
25:54
What if a listener realizes they have been treating their church
25:57
attendance or their theology as a safe harbor for their sin?
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The Old Covenant condemns them. Where is the hope for the
26:05
hypocrite who wants to repent? The hope is found exclusively in
26:08
the doctrine of imputed righteousness.
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The Westminster Confession covers this magnificently in
26:12
chapter 8 on Christ the Mediator and Chapter 11 on Justification.
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Two incredible chapters. When we look at the requirements
26:19
of the law, we see that God demands perfect, uninterrupted
26:22
internal and external obedience. The men of Judah failed that
26:26
standard completely. We have failed that standard
26:29
completely. We all have.
26:30
But Jesus Christ is the only human being who ever stood in
26:33
the House of the Lord with entirely clean hands and a pure
26:36
heart. He lived a life of perfect
26:38
obedience to the law of God. We need to define active
26:41
obedience clearly for the listener because it is the
26:44
bedrock of our assurance. In Reformed theology, we
26:47
distinguish between Christ's passive obedience and His active
26:51
obedience. His passive obedience refers to
26:54
His willingness to suffer the penalty for our sins on the
26:57
cross. He passively endured the wrath
26:59
of God. He took the robber's place at
27:01
the execution stake. He drank the cup of judgement so
27:03
we wouldn't have to. He paid the debt.
27:05
But his active obedience refers to the fact that for 33 years he
27:10
actively, perfectly kept every single commandment of the
27:13
Decalogue. He never harbored hatred, He
27:15
never lusted, He never lied. He worshipped God perfectly in
27:18
spirit and in truth every second of his life.
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And in the doctrine of justification, A glorious legal
27:24
exchange takes place. Our sin, our rebellion, our deep
27:28
seated hypocrisy is imputed or legally credited to Christ on
27:31
the cross, and He pays the penalty for it in full.
27:34
The debt is canceled. Yes, the debt is canceled.
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Conversely, his perfect act of obedience, his flawless record
27:41
of righteousness, is imputed to us.
27:44
It is credited to our account. What a thought.
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When God looks at the believer who is resting in Christ, he
27:49
does not see a hypocrite hiding in a den of robbers.
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He sees the perfect righteousness of his own son.
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And this legal declaration of justification is accompanied by
27:58
a massive internal reality, a reality promised by Jeremiah
28:02
himself later in his book. Yes, Jeremiah, chapter 31.
28:05
It is the breathtaking promise of the New Covenant.
28:08
After all the condemnation of Chapter 7.
28:09
God says I will put my law within them and I will write it
28:12
on their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be my
28:15
people. It is the ultimate solution.
28:16
This is the answer to the hypocrisy of Chapter 7.
28:20
God provides the inward reality, the regeneration by the Holy
28:24
Spirit that outward rituals could never accomplish.
28:27
The law is no longer just written on tablets of stone
28:29
outside of us, acting as a mirror condemning us.
28:32
It is written on our renewed hearts, giving us the desire,
28:35
the affection, and the capacity to walk in new obedience.
28:39
We obey not to be saved, but because we are saved.
28:43
That internal reality changes everything about how a Christian
28:46
lives. It moves us from the finished
28:48
work of Christ in history to the ongoing life of the church today
28:52
and looking forward to our anticipation of his return.
28:55
And this raises A crucial point about how we view the end of the
28:58
story. If the physical temple of
29:00
Jeremiah's day was destroyed by Babylon as a historical
29:04
judgement on their hypocrisy, does that mean the New Testament
29:06
church faces a similar reckoning?
29:09
How do these sources view the end of the timeline?
29:11
That is an important question to address based on the material we
29:14
have. We need to process the
29:16
eschatological perspectives presented in our source
29:19
documents objectively. The second source document we
29:22
are reviewing relies heavily on a specific theological system
29:26
known as dispensationalism. Right.
29:28
And to be thorough with the text we've been given, that document
29:31
specifically mentions an expectation of a pre tribulation
29:35
or rapture. Yes, it does that.
29:37
Is the belief that the church will be physically removed from
29:40
the earth before a period of immense global tribulation.
29:44
It also heavily highlights a pre millennial Kingdom, which is the
29:48
belief that Christ will return to establish a literal 1000 year
29:52
political reign from a restored earthly Jerusalem, complete with
29:57
a rebuilt physical temple. We acknowledge that framework as
30:00
it is presented in the author's argument.
30:02
However, while recognizing the sources, forward-looking hope we
30:05
must anchor our final application in our shared
30:08
reformed confessional framework. We have to stick to our
30:10
confessional roots. Right.
30:12
Whether one holds to a pre millennial, A millennial, or
30:16
post millennial view of the timeline, the unifying Reformed
30:20
consensus looks toward the unavoidable reality of the final
30:24
judgment and the ultimate consummation of all things.
30:27
The physical judgment that fell upon Jerusalem by the hands of
30:30
the Babylonians and 586 BC serves as a historical
30:34
typological warning. It points directly to the final
30:38
eschatological judgment that will fall upon all unrepentant
30:41
hypocrisy when Christ returns in glory to judge the living and
30:46
the dead. And living in the shadow of that
30:48
coming judgment, knowing that God will not be mocked by
30:51
outward religion, we must govern the life of the visible Church
30:54
with the utmost seriousness. This brings us to a vital
30:57
practical application of everything we have discussed
31:00
today, the practice of fencing the Lord's Table.
31:02
A very serious practice. In Reformed worship, the
31:05
preaching of the Word is the primary means of grace, but it
31:08
is confirmed and sealed by the visible word of the sacraments.
31:11
Fencing the table is the solemn pastoral duty of warning the
31:14
congregation before the administration of the Lord's
31:17
Supper. It is a direct pastoral
31:19
application of Jeremiah 7. The minister must stand before
31:22
the congregation and warn those who are living in unrepentant
31:25
habitual rebellion, those who are maintaining A pristine
31:28
facade of religion on Sunday while privately breaking the
31:32
covenant throughout the week, not to partake of the bread and
31:35
the wine. It is a severe warning.
31:37
To eat and drink while cherishing secret sin, refusing
31:39
to repent, is to invite the discipline and judgement of God
31:42
upon yourself. The communion table is not a
31:45
safe harbor for the hypocrite to hide.
31:47
But crucially, fencing the table is not just a warning, it's an
31:51
incredible invitation. It's an invitation to the weary,
31:54
broken, struggling St. If you are listening to this and
31:58
you are acutely aware of your sin, if looking at the law
32:01
breaks your heart because you saw how far short you fall, the
32:05
table is for you. It absolutely is.
32:07
If you hate your remaining corruption, and you are trusting
32:10
entirely in the imputed righteousness of Christ, you are
32:13
invited to come and feast. Your hatred of your sin, your
32:17
grief over your failures is the very proof of the spirits
32:20
regenerating work in your heart. You don't come to the communion
32:23
table because you are perfect and have a flawless week.
32:26
You come because you are desperate for grace.
32:28
You come because you need the true temple, Jesus Christ.
32:31
That is the beautiful, terrifying balance of the
32:34
gospel. It violently strips away all
32:36
pride, all self righteousness, and all false security from the
32:40
hypocrite, but it tenderly binds up the wounds of the penitent.
32:44
Our reliance must shift completely from what we do, from
32:46
our attendance and our rituals, to what Christ has already done
32:49
on our behalf. Which leaves us with a chilling
32:51
yet clarifying concept to ponder long after this audio ends.
32:55
Think about this. What if the very religious
32:57
routines you rely on to soothe your conscience, your perfect
33:00
attendance, your giving, your correct theological vocabulary,
33:03
or the exact evidence God will use on a day of judgement to
33:07
prove you knew the truth but never truly knew Him?
33:10
That is a sobering thought. If you are treating your church
33:13
attendance or your theological knowledge as a shield to protect
33:16
your disobedience, you're standing right in the middle of
33:19
the den of robbers. Ask yourself honestly, is your
33:23
assurance built on a past ritual, an outward affiliation,
33:27
or is it built on a present, living, obedient union with
33:29
Jesus Christ? Thank you for joining us for
33:32
this deep dive. We encourage you to examine your
33:34
own heart, abandoned the illusion of safe harbors, and
33:37
find your true and lasting refuge solely in the finished
33:40
work of Christ.