Jeremiah 33:14-18 "The Covenant Certainty of Christmas"

Introduction

It is common to make what you want to of Christmas. Many have adopted the philosophy of Ebeneezer Scrooge where Christmas is kept by everyone in their own way. To which Scrooge’s nephew replied, “keep it, but you don’t keep it at all!”

If Christmas really is about Christ as the Messiah of God coming into the world and that is the divine intent that undergirds what Christmas truly is, then if we circumvent that then are we really keeping Christmas at all? Christmas came into a context of God’s divine intent of displaying His covenant faithfulness.

We speak of things like peace, mercy, grace, joy, hope and love in relationship. But without the righteousness of God being upheld there is no peace, mercy, grace, joy, hope and covenant love in relationship with God to speak of.

God’s covenant faithfulness displayed in Christmas is first and foremost demonstrated by His righteousness being upheld for His glory and and it is the basis of our security even when times are difficult in our lives. Look at verses 14-16 at what I am calling: The Security of Righteousness.

I. The Security of Righteousness (14-16).

Notice that the Lord is speaking of a future time when He will fulfill His promise that He made to Israel and to Judah.

Now we know that the Lord is faithful to keep His promises. But often this not determined by what man perceives it to be but it is determined on what God has decreed it to be. Divine intent is not always discernable in fullness for the people of God.

God always knew that fallen humanity would be unable to the covenant expectations of the law. And this was proven in their obedience again and again throughout the Old Testament.

If fallen man could live up to God’s standard of righteousness do you really think God would have sent His own Son into the world to die? Do you think that the Son would have even volunteered for the glory of the Father to come to lay His life down as a sacrifice?

The prayer of our Lord in the garden was, “Father if there be any other way let this cup pass from me but not my will but your will be done.”

Jesus Christ came into the world to work salvation in order that the absolute standard of the righteousness of God could be upheld for His glory.

Notice that the Lord will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David and He will execute justice and righteousness in the land (15).

Christian you see the upholding of righteousness is critical. Because there is no salvation without it. You can’t have things like: peace, mercy, grace, joy, hope and love in relationship with God if the standard of righteousness is not upheld and met in full compliance.

Such attributes may make the cover of our Christmas cards and we may sing about such things in our songs about Christmas but they do not come to us because God surrenders His standard of righteousness in order to do nice things for us.

We surrender righteousness do in our relationships with one another. And we do it that way because we are all sinners, none of us have the moral high ground. I recently shared a post on my Facebook page that says: “Love Difficult People You Are One of Them.”

But with God there is an absolute standard of righteousness being upheld. If God were to compromise His standard of righteousness He would contradict His own nature. God Himself then would be hypocritical and sinful and incapable of being good.

This is why the Lord initiates a righteous Branch that will come forth from the family tree of King David. This Branch will be contrary to all the others in David’s Line, they were all contrary to the righteousness of God but this one coming will be defined by righteousness.

Remember the words of Isaiah the prophet where he prophesied as well of the Branch from David’s line in Isaiah 11:1: “1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

And Jeremiah describes His work as one where He will execute justice and righteousness in the land. The standard of the justice and righteousness of God will be upheld. This is not to be confused with the moral relativism of our day. Actually it is in stark contradiction to what we see in the culture in our day or in the days of ancient Israel when Christ was actually born.

Again from Isaiah 11:2-6: 2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, 4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. 6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.”

What we see here is a glimpse of the spiritual reality of the coming Messiah and the physical reality to come in the final day at His second coming. This is the spiritual security that the covenant people of God dwell in now. We are relationally at peace with God in Christ as the covenant people of God.

Lions and lambs in the physical sense don’t usually lay down together at the current time. And little children don’t usually put ferocious animals on a leash and lead them around.

But when the physical reality of the Kingdom of God comes to earth everything will change. The original order before the curse of sin and death upon the earth will be restored.

Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely due to the supreme rule of the righteous Branch of David’s line and the very name of that city will be called: The Lord is our righteousness as we see at the end of verse 16.

Jerusalem is the city of God and it is a heavenly city that will one day descend into a new heaven and a new earth. Only the righteous will ever enter that city. Remember Christian it is the very righteousness of God in Christ that we are clothed in and by which we are counted righteous before God. Righteousness is the very breastplate of the believer’s armor that is currently even protecting us in spiritual battle Ephesians 6.

Christian baby Jesus didn’t just come into the world to give us warm fuzzy feelings. He came into this world to establish and uphold once and for all the standard of the justice and righteousness of God. And it will be the measurement by which all people will be weighed in the balance. And His rule and reign will never end.

Look at what I am calling the state of righteousness in verses 17-18:

II. The State of Righteousness (17-18).

Notice that it is a state with perpetual implications in two aspects of identity.

First in verse 17 is the throne of David. David will never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel.

This is ironic because in Jeremiah’s day, Israel in the North has already fallen to the Assyrians. And Judah in the South is in the process of falling to the Babylonians.

And there is this promise of a perpetual reign of David’s line. The only conclusion is that the divine intent behind the fulfillment must be restorative and in the future.

Second in verse 18 is the aspect of the identity of the Levitical priesthood. They shall never lack a man in the presence of the Lord to offer burnt offerings and to make sacrifices forever.

Let me say that the two uses of the term for “offerings” and the term for “sacrifices” all of them are singular in the Hebrew language. And the grammar is structured in such a way as not to put the emphasis on what is being done but on the One who is carrying out the action.

The man on the throne of David and the man in the presence of the Lord ministering as a priest is one in the same.

But imagine hearing this when the kingdom is falling and going into captivity and the temple is being ransacked and destroyed. You see the implication is that the judgement of God that the people are experiencing must temporal and the fulfillment of the covenant promises of Yahweh are future and eternal.

And with the singular use of offering and sacrifice there will not be ongoing exercises of these in the plural but the emphasis is on the perpetual endurance of the work of the one who has fulfilled them for all time.

Jesus Christ came to fulfill the law of Moses and to rule on David’s throne. This is what undergirds the Covenant Certainty of Christmas. Because without Christ coming into the world and upholding the righteousness of God there is no Christmas in the real sense of what it means.

You see it is because of Christ fulfilling a once and for all time sacrifice He satisfied the just and righteous demands of the Law as our great high priest. And it was through Christ the Davidic covenant is fulfilled and the covenant rule of Christ over His Kingdom has been establishes for all eternity.

Conclusion:

The Ebenezer Scrooges of this world are dead wrong. You can’t keep Christmas in your own way and still have all that God intended and decreed Christmas to be. You don’t have peace, mercy, grace, joy, hope and love in relationship as God intends without the righteousness of God being upheld and vindicated.

Illustrate: My mom buying batteries. She was upset that they were new and no energy or power in them. Christian if the fullness of Christ in keeping with God’s design and intent your Christmas is powerless to generate things like: peace, mercy, grace, joy, hope and love in relationship.

It must have Christ from beginning to end for your Christmas to be real. He came to save us from our sin and to uphold the righteousness of God on our behalf.

Unbeliever you need a personal relationship with Christ by grace through faith alone. Believe the gospel.

Believer keep Christ at the core of your life He defines us and identifies us with Him on our behalf. This is the covenant certainty of Christmas. Confess your sin and find your rest in Him for your security and His glory. Let’s Pray!